Ethnic fight rages on at Boundary Rd

ONE of the worst fights in Lae city is raging in a settlement at Boundary Road without police intervention.
More than 19 homes have been burnt to the ground, since Friday, and two people are in intensive care at the Angau Memorial Hospital.
The fighting is between Eastern Highlanders and the Kabwums of Morobe.
Several people said yesterday that law and order had broken down in the area.
They said despite pleas by the ward councillors, the ward committees and magistrates, the people had not stopped fighting.
They said they had begged the police to intervene but had not received any response yet.
Metropolitan Supt Nema Mondia, who attended a lunchtime meeting at the University of Technology to assure students safety for the remaining five weeks of classes, was not available when contacted to clarify the situation at Boundary Road.
Settlers say the fighting began last week when a Kabwum youth held up an Eastern Highlander’s vehicle as it was driving out of the settlement with a sick child to go to Angau Memorial Hospital.
The youth was stopped and attacked.
He later rallied his relatives to attack the Eastern Highlanders.
They also said the initial fighting was between the Kabwums and the Chimbus two streets further along Boundary Road at Kapiak Street last month when the son of Lae Lord Mayor James Khay was killed.
They say the fighting raged on and has involved the Eastern Highlanders.
Settlers said the two people in hospital are from Kabwum, while all the homes belong to the Eastern Highlanders.
They said many workers were not going because they feared leaving their families and homes unprotected.