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TWENTY-FOUR PEOPLE have died – including two pregnant women with their unborn children – in tribal fighting in Papua New Guinea’s lawless highlands.
The deaths happened in the Hela province, a rugged region in the west of the country, in a three-day spasm of violence between rival tribes.
Highland clans have fought each other in Papua New Guinea for centuries, but an influx of automatic weapons has made clashes more deadly and escalated the cycle of violence.
“Twenty-four people are confirmed dead, killed in three days, but could be more today,” the Hela provincial administrator William Bando told AFP. “We are still waiting for today’s brief from our officials on the ground.”
Bando has called for at least 100 police to be deployed to reinforce some 40 local officers.
The attack
In the Karida attack, fighters are said to have hacked and shot six women and eight children – as well as two pregnant women and their unborn children – in a 30-minute rampage.
A local health worker said it was hard to recognise some of the body parts and posted images of remains bundled together using mosquito nets as makeshift body bags.
Images provided by local police showed the corpses of two children of school age, one with severe head injuries.
Local media has reported the attack appeared to be in retaliation for the ambush and murder for six people the day before.
However, is not clear what prompted the attack, but many fights are fuelled by old rivalries prompted by rape or theft, or disputes over tribal boundaries.
In light of the incident, Prime Minister James Marape, whose constituency includes the district where the killings occurred, has vowed more security deployments.
“Today is one of the saddest day of my life,” he said in a statement. “Many children and mothers innocently murdered in Munima and Karida villages of my electorate.”
“Gun-toting criminals, your time is up,” Marape said.
Learn from what I will do to criminals who killed innocent people, I am not afraid to use strongest measures in law on you.
He noted that the death penalty was “already a law”.
Marape has not yet provided details of the security deployments but he has appeared exasperated by the current resources available.
“How can a province of 400,000 people function with policing law and order with under 60 policemen, and occasional operational military and police that does no more than band-aid maintenance,” he said.
Includes reporting by - © AFP 2019
Killing innocent women and children is not an act of revenge, it’s and act of cowardice.
@Peter Cavey: I’ve never been there but have spoken to those who have & whereas they visited relatively safe tourist areas vast places are lawless and tribal. No rule of law whatsoever with crazies knocking about with no concept of right or wrong as they’re almost always off they’re heads
@Peter Cavey:
What about killing innocent men?
@Noel Doherty: we still talking about the city centre?
@Karl Doyle: Comment of the Day;)
@The Great Unwashed: True. Of the 24 killed, 6 were women, 8 were children, 10 were men who didn’t get a mention.
@Henry Gaynor: probably because the men started the rivalry.
Not at all surprised by this still very much a primitive country where violence , cannibalism , witch burning is still very much the norm up in the highlands . Lived in Port Moresby and worked on the Exxon Mobil has refinery . It can be quite a brutal place . But also very beautiful .
Very sad… now roll out the Facebook profile updates. Oh how silly of me I forgot only some people count!! Sad world we live in.
@Henry Gaynor: No, so on that basis you believe the consensus is always correct? There are millions across the golobe that would disagree with You. That’s a typical bias opinion. 24 people killed and you take offence to a part of the story that doesn’t fit your narrative. I have included a link for you. It’s an article written by a pro choice advocate. And although I strongly disagree with her right to choose, I appreciate her honesty. Her argument makes much more sense that it’s not a life! Have a read and let me know what you think.. would be interested to See if you might change your mind. Abortion ends the life of the unborn. We don’t assign value to persons based on their geographical location.. https://www.salon.com/2013/01/23/so_what_if_abortion_ends_life/
@Alan: If the author in the link was writing about this news article, she would probably title it ‘So what if 24 people were killed?’. Are we to say the
people who did the killings in New Guinea shouldn’t be condemned for doing what was best for them? If we believe it doesn’t matter if the foetus in the womb lives or dies, why should it matter if other unwanted people live or die. It becomes ‘my killing people is good, your killing people is bad’. Having a floating morality is not much different from having no moral values. Letting each individual decide their own moral values leads to disorder and anarchy, as we are witnessing in the world today.
@Henry Gaynor:
And one person thinking they have the right to impose their own moral code on another person is going to lead to everyone living together in peace and harmony?
@The Great Unwashed: It wouldn’t be perfect but much better. Were countries like Iraq, Syria, and Libya not more harmonious under single autocratic leaders like Hussein, Assad, and Gadaffhi than the many disparate groups that are fighting each other today. Many countries around the world suffered the same fate: when a strong leader died or was deposed, the countries descended into anarchy.
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