Church appeals for peace in Lae

By PISAI GUMAR
THE Lutheran church has sent out appeals from the pulpits for all Morobeans to refrain from harming anyone or destroying properties.
In church services from Chinatown to Bumayong, pastors from Morobe extolled the virtues of the Bible to their parishioners.
They urged the people not
to take the law into their own hands and said the harm and destruction they had done to highlanders and their properties
were uncalled for.
The pastors also urged Morobeans to treat their highlands neighbours as “their brothers and sisters”.
They said the subjects of their anger – the street sellers and pick-pockets – were not highlanders living at settlements from Chinatown to Bumayong.
They stopped short of pin-pointing the settlements.
It is widely known in Lae that the street sellers and pick-pockets are mainly those living in Kamkumung, Boundary and Buimo roads, West Taraka and the Miles areas.
The church on Friday suffered damage to a property it owned at Hunter.
The door to the trade store, let to Chinese operators, was opened and all goods taken.
The looting by the rioting Morobe youths followed calls to the church elders of highlands origin to explain the circumstances surrounding the engagement of the Chinese.