Church offers to help solve conflict

 By TAUNA GEORGE
The Catholic Church has offered to mediate for peaceful solutions between the university students and conflicting parties using the Melanesian way.
General secretary of the Catholic Bishops Conference Fr Victor Roche called on parties to use the Melanesian culture to solve problems.
“We appeal to those various parties to come together so we can sit and talk in a true Melanesian way,” he said.
“We also appeal for political will to prevail in this event (mediation) in order to avoid any kind of political tension so we can resolve this issue amicably.
“The Catholic Church is ready to mediate as a neutral third party because we see that the underlying issue to this latest mayhem is corruption.”
Roche said that Parliament wasthe appropriate forum to address the growing curse of corruption and any political disputes.
He said it was obvious that politics had infiltrated the whole situation.
Roche also called on the disciplinary forces not to use arms against unarmed civilians.
Police shot and injured several students during a protest in Port Moresby on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Roche appealed to the government to strengthen the work of the Ombudsman Commission and to fast-track the Independent Commission Against Corruption Bill to address corruption issues.