Tari needs more police personnel
BY JOSHUA ARLO
TARI police station in the Southern Highlands desperately need manpower to curb escalating lawlessness, Hela community leader and former Tari-Pori MP, Sir Matiabe Yuwi has said.
Sir Matiabe said the Tari police station has only nine policemen on ground, without the necessary equipment and arms needed to combat criminal elements.
He said with over 30,000 people in the Hela region alone, nine policemen cannot do much to control the rise of criminal activities in the region.
Sir Matiabe was referring to a newspaper article on April 29, about how criminals stormed Tari police cells and freed remandees while the nine policemen stood helpless and armless.
“With a region like Hela, surely the Government and the police commissioner should step up police manpower to over 50 to 100 policemen ,” he said.
“This is for the interest of more than 30,000 Hela population, public servants and employees of the major oil and gas producing companies in the region. Hence the law enforcers are our main concern,” Sir Matiabe said.
He said if the criminals run amok knowing the police are short on manpower and necessary arms, they will start targeting bigger prospects instead.
He said the break-in at the Tari police station cells was the third incident so far and was setting a bad name for Tari.
The police station is in Tari town which is the central town for the Hela region and caters for more than six districts, including major oil and gas project fields.
Sir Matiabe called on the governor Anderson Agiru, Tari-Pori MP, James Marabe, Komo-Margarima MP Francis Potape and Koroba-Lake Kopiago MP John Kekono to address the issue immediately.
He urged them to work together to boost the police personnel on ground to a hundred, with fully equipped logistic support from the National and provincial governments.
He said the community would benefit greatly if run down police stations in Koroba , Kopiago, Pori, Komo, Magarima and Wabia were funded and fielded with more than ten police personnel and boosted by auxillary police men and women.
“Such criminal activities will go from bad to worse and will hinder the multi million kina LNG project and other government development plans which is supported by the Somare Government if not addressed as soon as possible,” Sir Mitiape said.

Volunteers help to pull out mud-ridden vehicles
By ZACHERY PER
More than 30 young men are permanently based at the Emai section of the Dumun-Koge-Wara-Simbu access road to pull out vehicles stuck in thick mud-ridden portion of the road.
A convoy of six Toyota Landcruisers led by Simbu provincial police commander Supt Joseph Tondop, Simbu provincial administrator Joe Bal and Defence Joint Force contingent commander Lt Col Wenzel Esekia were pulled up by the boys.
They conducted awareness for the arrival of Defence Force soldiers following the recent call out by the Government.
The call out of the Defence Force was due to the Gera landslide that cut off the Okuk Highway.
The convoy spent a good two hours at the section waiting for the vehicles to be pulled up before heading to Konoma and Wara-Simbu and into Kundiawa in the night.
Dickson Kale, spokesman for the boys at Emai, said there were no developments coming to their area, so when vehicles passed through their village, they were happy.
“We volunteer to pull out vehicles that get stuck in the mud, it is up to the owners of the vehicles if they want to pay, we are just assisting them with willing hearts,” he said.
However, a group of women said vehicle owners pay between K50 and K100 before the boys pull them out of the mud.

Kuk Primary gets permanent classroom
PEOPLE who take the initiative to help themselves will receive assistance from the Government, Western Highlands Governor Tom Olga said.
Mr Olga said this during the opening of a double classroom at the Kuk Primary School in the presence of Dei MP Puri Ruing.
The classroom was built by the local community at the cost of K32,000.
The school is five years old now and this was a first permanent building in the school, which would be used by the two Grade Five classes.
Mr Olga commended the Kuk people living at the border of Hagen central and Dei district for taking an initiative to develop human resource in the province.
He said they have shown a good example to the people in the province to help provide quality education and develop their area instead of expecting free handouts.
Mr Olga committed K100,000 as seed funding to develop Kuk heritage centre, which is located within the Kuk heritage site.
He also allocated K10,000 for the locals to upgrade their 6km road from the main road junction at the foot of Mt Ambra to Kuk.

Tribes make peace after Holy Communion
By JAMES APA GUMUNO
The two warring groups in the Dei district, Western Highlands province made peace last Sunday in the church by receiving Holy Communion together.
The ceremony was a first of its kind in the province, where all the leaders and people from the warring tribes came together to attend the church service and received the Holy Communion.
The people in two council wards of Kar Kil and Jerry Anis from Kents village fought against Councillor Robert Kerua and his tribesmen in the Kitipi village after the national general election on July 7 and 8 last year.
They raided Kitipi village and seriously injured men, burnt down 35 bush material and permanent houses, chopped down coffee and banana trees and caused destruction to other properties as well.
Mr Kerua said after the fight Kil and Anis tribesmen compensated Kitipi villages with K45,000 cash, 24 pigs, a cassowary and a goat on April 6, this year.
He said in return his people gave back K11,000 cash and a pig during the peace reconciliation, which was witnessed by church leaders and villages
He said this was done through the customary way of compensation but the leaders from both sides said they must also make peace in the church.
Mr Kerua said all the former warring groups came together and held a big church service at Ambuga Lutheran Church and received the Holy Communion together to show that they are one body in Christ.

EPG urged to address unrest
THE Enga provincial government has been urged to address escalating law and order issues that are prevalent in the province.
Kamas village councillor in Wabag, Simon Kingi made this call in light of illicit activities like production and consumption of home-brew, and smoking marijuana among others .
Mr Kingi said yesterday that the authorities must contain these problems in the best interest of the people because they lead to tribal fights.
“We want law enforcing agencies to tackle the issues with assistance from local village leaders, and severely punish those law breakers,” Mr Kingi said.
Mr Kingi said EPG must allocate sufficient funds to law enforcers so that they can effectively carry out major awareness campaign to address possible ways to eradicate law and order to prevail justice in the communities.

Weekly News
Mud-ridden...
Young boys pulling one of the Land cruisers up from the debris last Sunday night.