Debbie Kaore: The attack that highlighted an epidemic of abuse

Debbie Kaore: The attack that highlighted an epidemic of abuse

Before last week, Debbie Kaore was best known in Papua New Guinea as a champion boxer who won gold at the Pacific Games in 2015 and had recently made a career-changing move to rugby. Then last Friday, a video was widely shared on social media that showed Ms Kaore being violently attacked with a hot iron in her home. The video was posted on TikTok and Instagram by her friend, with permission, and went viral. Ms Kaore's partner Murray Oa, a lieutenant in the Papua New Guinean army, was arrested and charged with grievous bodily harm. Graphic pictures showed terrible injuries on the rugby player's face and body. "I realised if I didn't get out of our room, he would burn me alive," she said in an interview with the News. The footage of her Ms Kaore's assault has shone a light on the extent of domestic abuse in Papua New Guinea, and led to statements of support for her from the UN and the nation's Prime Minister James Marape, who urged Papua New Guinea's men to "leave that lady alone". But too many of the nation's women would have been able to empathise with what they saw in the video. As many as two-thirds have experienced domestic violence, according to one study by the UN. Ms Kaore started seeing Mr Oa just over a year ago. The first attack happened when she was about two months pregnant, she told the News. "And from then on he continued to verbally, mentally and emotionally abuse me," she said. "I was psychologically breaking down." On 4 June, she posted a video on the app TikTok. It was a response to a video posted by her sister's ex-boyfriend, creating a duet which showed the two in split-screen - a feature of the app. Happy with the result, she shared it via her Whatsapp status. She told the News that Mr Oa saw it while out having drinks, and returned home shortly after. "I saw him parking the car across the road, and noticed that he looked uneasy," Ms Kaore recalled. "He came in, walked up to me and asked for my phone so he could send an email. So I gave it to him, and he went into our room and viewed my WhatsApp video again." She said he called her into the room and started questioning her about the video. "But as I started showing him my phone, he punched me down and picked up the iron," she said. Mr Oa burned her across the face and stomach with the iron, she said, and headbutted her, while demanding to see her Facebook account. Her two sons from a previous relationship, both younger than 10, saw the attack. She managed to escape through a back door and call her father, who picked her up and took her to hospital. "I got burned by an iron and then hit by it while our children watched," she wrote on social media afterwards. "A victim to Lt. Murry Oa … I am putting this out here cause this has gone too far. I can only hope that there won't be another victim after me." With Mr Kaore's permission, one of her friends posted footage of the attack online the following day. It went viral, forcing to the surface conversations about the country's widespread domestic violence problem. Mr Oa was arrested and charged with grievous bodily harm. He has yet to comment on the incident. The prime minister, among other high profile figures, released statements condemning not just Debbie's attacker but domestic abuse in general. Papua New Guinea's Olympic Committee and Rugby Association both spoke out in support of Debbie too. But what happened to her was not a one off. In 2016, the charity Human Rights Watch called Papua New Guinea one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women and girls. The violence is so systemic that many women don't seek help until it's too late, said Kate Schuetze, Pacific researcher at Amnesty International. "It becomes so normalised in society and in culture that people don't think to get help when they experience abuse," she told the News. "The day-to-day levels of violence are extremely high. Often only once a woman needs serious medical help will they seek help or try to escape that relationship." For people outside Papua New Guinea's cities, there barriers to seeking help are particularly high. About 80% of the country's population lives in rural areas with little access to emergency or other supportive services. One woman was forced to walk for five days from a rural part of the country's Highlands to reach hospital, after a severe assault, Ms Schuetze said. "There are a lot of rural areas around there that don't have g...
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