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Peace returns to Southern Highlands
Peace and
normalcy is slowly being restored in Southern Highlands province
following the declaration of State of Emergency in August last
year. KEVIN PAMBA reports.
As the vehicle crosses the Kaugel River into the Southern
Highlands province from Nebilyer Valley in the Western Highlands,
the animosity of the Highlands Highway ceases.
A feeling of safety and security sets in. You know that you are
entering the 'SoE Country', as some people in SHP now call the
province following the declaration of State of Emergency (SoE) in
August last year.
You see and feel the heavy presence of security forces in the
province and realise that all roads are free from any tribal
thuggery or criminal activity as in the past.
The presence of the security forces has somewhat liberated the
people to use the SHP section of the Highlands Highway and other
roads in the province freely.
Unlike in the past, people appear not to think twice about where
they are going in the province as they did prior to the SoE.
In those days, many people refrained from going to certain places
because they knew they had 'enemies' along the roads. Southern
Highlanders were concerned about 'enemies' in the next district or
tribal territory.
Animosities, real and imagined, controlled the minds and movements
of people.
The SoE appears to have liberated them from all these fears, as I
witnessed during a visit there over the Christmas holidays.
People can now travel anywhere in the province without fear.
People of Tari and Hela region in the western end of the province,
for example, can travel to the eastern end with ease, passing
through the central region.
In the past the Hela people were cautious especially along the
Nipa section of the Highlands Highway due to politically induced
differences and related criminal activities. That is no longer the
case under the SoE.
The same applies to people from other districts that harboured
similar fears.
I drove from Kendagl village in Imbonggu district to Mendi with
the road virtually free from any incident apart from the
occasional vehicle passing and villagers at roadside hamlets. It
brought back childhood memories of what it used be like traveling
on SHP roads in the early 1980s.
As I pulled over at the SoE forces road check at the Kiburu
Junction outside Mendi town, a pleasant mannered police officer
approached me with the assuring words that they were checking
vehicles to maintain law and order during the festive period.
He asked where we were coming from, carried out the usual checks
on our vehicle and allowed us through to Mendi town with a
cheerful, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year".
Driving into Mendi, there was noticeable difference in the town
from what I saw in June.
Despite the fact that some streets still need repair the town was
clean, orderly and free of loiterers, street sellers and dart
board gamblers.
Even the airport was spared from trespassers. People who were out
and about in town were either engaged in some activity like sports
and church ceremonies or going somewhere purposefully.
After spending some 30 minutes in the center of Mendi town, I
drove up to Tente Newtown - the section of Mendi that visitors
feared going because of the tribal-based lawlessness prior to the
SoE.
Carjacking by the tribesmen was common in Tente so visiting
drivers hardly drove there. But the SoE has pacified Tente making
and anyone can drive there. On the road to Tente, the SoE troops
had set a road check since this is where another road leads out of
Mendi to outer districts of Karinj, Wara Lai, Upper Mendi and
connects with Tambul on the Western Highlands.
I left Mendi town late in the afternoon around 5.30 pm, returning
to the village at 7.30 pm that night, along the way enjoying the
cool and quiet scenery.
The free movement of people on the roads in SHP under the SoE is
returning the province to its peaceful days prior to July 1995 -
the time when the provincial reforms took effect and is considered
the beginning of the problems in the province.
 
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