Tribe leaders forgive attackers

By ELIAS LARI
LEADERS of two tribes in Jiwaka are willing to forgive and forget the armed men who killed two of their tribesmen last Friday while travelling in a bus.
The leaders of the Nemi and the Mananga tribes in the Anglimp-South Waghi electorate said 23 years of fighting with  the Dena tribe over a piece of land had taken its toll on the people, with many lives lost and properties destroyed.
Councillor of the Nemi and Mananga tribes Andrew Rumba, businessman John Mur and Chief Casper Ulg have decided to forgive the people who killed David Kewa from the Nemi tribe and Mathew Ponning from the Mananga Aldeng tribe.
Nakson Paul from the Roni Putumb clan also died.
Rumba said he and leaders from Kuna, Kaip and Wurup had been encouraging the two tribes to stop fighting.
“We have talked about peace and wasted a lot of our resources and money to help in the process but they would not listen,” he said.
“My tribes in the past 23 years had been helping to bury the dead and transport the wounded ones to the hospital,” Rumba said.
“In return they attacked my people. An innocent man killed.
We will not retaliate but forgive them for what they have done.”
The late Kewa was the owner of the bus attacked by armed men while travelling from Mt Hagen to Wurup-Kaip.
Rumba, Mur and Chief Ulg have told the people to raise funds to keep Kewa’s bus running to help and financially support his widow and two children.