Fighting sides finally make peace

By JIMMY KALEBE
A PEACE ceremony was held last Sunday between communities at Boundary Road in Lae marking the end to a fight that had occurred from 2010 and 2015.
The ceremony involved various ethnic groups that reside at Boundary Road area who came together and made commitments for lasting peace and to apologise to each other.
The ceremony was an initiative of the Wesley Ray Kanape Foundation (WRK Foundation) and supported by Boundary Road community leaders, elders, women and youths.
The foundation under the chairmanship of Kanape provided five cows to the different ethnic groups as part of the peace process.
The peace process followed a fight which broke out in 2010 between settlers from Kabwum in Morobe and settlers from Okapa in Eastern Highlands.
“Between 2010 and 2014, the clash between these groups of people was never resolved until 2015, another fresh clash happened again between Sialum people of Morobe and settlers from Chimbu,” community youth representative Maya Sovi said.
He said the issue was never settled and in 2021, another clash happened again causing settlers from Kabwum and Sialum to leave Boundary Road.
During those clashes, lives were lost, houses burned down and property destroyed displacing families.
Kanape said the peace gathering was to maintain peace and mend broken relationships between the different groups residing at the Boundary Road area.
He noted that during the clashes livelihoods were affected and with no-one stepping in to bring peace to the people so he had decided to do something under his charity.
Kanape urged the communities residing at Boundary Road to work together to ensure peace is maintained for the good of everyone.