Displaced settlers seek help to return home

By JUNIOR UKAHA
MORE than 200 displaced settlers from Lae’s Sialum Compound camping at the Governor’s Residence in Top Town have stated their intention to return to their old settlement.
They are calling on the Morobe provincial administration to help them resettle.
Spokesperson Tusi Mupangke said it had been almost a year since they fled their homes and sought refuge at the state residence following an ethnic clash on Sept 4 last year.
Mupangke said two of their men were killed and 89 houses, including other properties, were torched during the clash.
“Initially, 429 of us came here but 200 left for their villages,” he said.
“Currently, there are 229 of us residing here. But we are tenancy holders of Sialum Compound.
“We are like parasites living here.
“We are not migrants that we should be living like this.
“We are native Morobeans who have been residing at the compound for more than 60 years and we want to go back and rebuild our homes.”
Mupangke said they had 85 students and a number of women, children and the elderly, living at the refuge.
“We lost properties worth more than K4 million,” he said.
“We lost 48 high-covenant houses and 41 semi-permanent buildings.
“We want to move back.”
Mupangke said the displaced groups consisted of Sialums, Pindius and Kabwums.
He said they were living in tents and using a communal water tap and pit toilets.
Mupangke said among the group were government and private sector employees and students.
Morobe Governor Ginson Saonu said his  government would look into assisting the  settlers.
“Sialum people are Morobeans. They are my people and I am their governor,” Saonu said.
“But I don’t know what the situation is like on the ground but I will look into it after I am briefed by the officers responsible.
“We don’t want to keep them here (refuge). It’s the wrong place.”
Saonu said he would not give a timeframe as to when he would attend to the settlers.