McDiyan Robert Yapari

McDiyan Robert Yapari is the Public & Executive Officer of Akali Tange Association, a local grassroots human rights organisation based in Porgera, Papua New Guinea. Before becoming a human rights defender, McDiyan was working as Operations Manager of a cleaning and janitorial company contracted by the Porgera Gold Mine. McDiyan became an anti-mining activist when his younger brother, Jerry Yapari, was killed by Barrick Gold Corp’s security guards at the PJV Open Pit mine. While he was panning for gold ores, the guards threw rocks at him and crushed him to death.

Since then, McDiyan Robert Yapari has been speaking out against human rights violations committed by security guards who work for the mine, including forced evictions. On 25 March 2017, security guards and police squads contracted by the mine torched down 150 houses near the mine, raped 8 women and phisically assaulted 6 men. After McDiyan published articles reporting on this forced eviction, he was arrested and detained for around 30 hours. He was charged under Section 21 (2), of the 2016 Cybercrimes Acts of PNG, but he was then released on bail.