Fight over mobile phone porn ends

National, Normal
Source:

Report and picture by ANDREW ALPHONSE in TARI

THE fiery tribal fight in Tari, Southern Highlands province that started on Saturday over pornographic pictures being displayed on a mobile phone has stopped.
The warring Pipi and Tapo clans of Waralo and Haro villages in Tari agreed to a ceasefire yesterday after Tari policemen including the Mobile Squad (MS) 09 unit and the local peace and good order committee led by community leader Buka Minape pleaded with both sides to lay down their arms.
The fight claimed two lives while warriors from both sides are nursing spear and gun pellet wounds.
Police said more than 15 homes have also been burnt down while stores, food gardens and other properties situated between Waralo and Halimbu villages on the Tari to Koroba, Komo and Hides gas field section of the Highlands Highway have been destroyed.
Tari police led by Snr Const Samson Kamia worked hard to get the clan leaders to sign a preventive order and statutory declarations stating they would not attack each other again.
Tapo clan leader Waralo Wena Pokaiya said tribal fights in Hela erupt over women, land and pigs but he was confused and found it hard to fathom a fight over viewing of pornographic pictures on the mobile phone.
Yesterday morning, angry tribesmen of another clan from Pureni in South Koroba, who are related to the young man brutally murdered by the Pipis during a road block at Waralo on Tuesday morning, come to join forces with the Tapos to attack the Pipis.
However, Mr Pokaiya told them that he did not want to fight and asked them to return to their village in Pureni. He promised to pay compensation for the killing of Andalu Bola.
Bola was returning from Mt Hagen when he was dragged out of a vehicle at a road block at Waralo and axed to death.
MS09 commander Chief Sgt Peter Buka told the warriors that the world and PNG’s attention was now focussed on Tari for the multi-billion PNG LNG Project and the fighting would send the wrong signal to the Government, other potential investors and developers.