Tribal clashes must be addressed

PAPUA NEW GUINEA – Papua New Guinea’s Housing Minister has called on provincial leaders to come up with a decision to stop ongoing ethnic clashes in Lae city, the capital of Morobe Province.

Paul Isikiel said the issue was not new and had been going on for many years with many innocent people being affected, as well as properties destroyed and lives lost.

“It is time now Governor Kelly Naru and Lae MP Luojaya Kouza stand their ground and come up with a decision that will help address this issue once and for all,” Isikiel said.

He said the provincial and city leaders should come up with decisions such as having those involved repatriated to their home provinces.

“The Morobes have been victimised and are not being respected in their own city and such mentality should end.”

Isikiel said Lae city plays a significant role as the industrial hub of the nation, generating huge income revenues.

“We have investors operating in Lae who are paying taxes to the government, so we must be careful of such fighting posing a huge risk for developers and investors coming to operate in Lae and Papua New Guinea.”

He said such ethnic clashes have already affected the flow of services such as health and education, where schools have suspended classes, cancelled graduations and closed the academic year early.

Health services are also affected with staff fearful of being attacked.

Meanwhile, a community leader Peter Jones, is also appealing to Morobe Governor Naru and other Morobe MPs to step in and address the situation.

Jones said the ethnic clashes are an ongoing issue and leaders should come up with solutions to end the fighting.

Former Papua New Guinea MP, Tukape Masani, says there is no law and order in the settlements surrounding Lae.

His comments were supported by leaders representing the Okapa people from the Eastern Highlands, and the local Sialum and Kabwum tribes residing at the Sialum compound who are now caught in the middle of an ongoing conflict.

Masani blamed youths for causing the unrest. “These are young people controlled by drugs and home brew and we are being controlled by these youths.”

Kabwum Welfare Organisation chairman Steven Boipe says that there has been too much misinformation being circulated about the unrest.

Boipe said the Kabwums had become victims of the clash this week when their houses were burnt for providing assistance to the displaced Sialum community.

- PNC sources