Papua New Guinea, 2012 — military coup attempt

Event Summary

On 26 January 2012 a military mutiny erupted in Papua New Guinea when about twenty soldiers led by the retired colonel Yaura Sasa seized the defence force commander, Brigadier General Francis Agwi, and placed him under house arrest, in an armed intervention arising from a bitter constitutional crisis over who was the country's legitimate prime minister. The dispute had begun in August 2011 when Peter O'Neill took the prime ministership while the veteran leader Sir Michael Somare was abroad receiving medical treatment; in December 2011 the Supreme Court ruled Somare's removal unlawful and ordered him reinstated, but O'Neill, backed by parliament, the public service, the police, and the military command, refused to yield, producing rival claimants to power. Somare and his cabinet then purported to appoint Sasa to take over the defence force.

In the pre dawn raid on Taurama Barracks near Port Moresby, Sasa's men overpowered the guards, seized Agwi, and called on the governor general to reinstate Somare, threatening further action. But the mutiny won little support, and O'Neill's government swiftly contained it: Agwi was freed the same day, the soldiers withdrew and surrendered their weapons, and Sasa was arrested. O'Neill remained in power.