K94,000 and 30 pigs paid to Kopis

 By YVONNE HAIP

A CLAN in the Western Highlands has paid a neighbouring tribe K94,000 and 30 live pigs as compensation in a moving ceremony at Wela, outside Mt Hagen.

The Moge clan in Western Highlands has pledged to uphold peace, no matter what they must sacrifice.

The compensation payment was made to the Kopi tribe last Sunday at Wela.

Moge Nambka Melimp (Palimp One) tribesmen compensated the Kopi tribe for properties destroyed during a fight related to the council elections in 2007.

In the local culture, such payments are made only when there are deaths. 

But this special compensation marks the start of a new trend set by the Nambka Melimp where a large sum of money was given in compensation for properties burnt.

It was a reconciliation ceremony between the two neighbouring tribes who got involved in a fierce gun battle which had left them poles apart since the incident.

Nambka Melimp councillor Jacob Kop, while presenting the payment, apologised on behalf of his tribe for taking part in a fight that tainted the good name of the peace-loving Moges.

He said they had breached a rule set by their forefathers in which the Moges, as customary landowners of the city, would never take part in tribal fighting but uphold peace and promote development.

Various speakers called for peace and unity so that nothing, including politics, would ever break them apart again.

Many families were left homeless as their homes were razed, while women and children fled to live with relatives, as the men remained to defend their tribes in the fight.

Being close neighbours, the warring tribes realised that living with grudges was not the way forward, and they had to establish peace among themselves.

Peace was also sealed with the planting of a cross at the two tribes’ land boundary.

Another payment of K20, 000 and 18 pigs were also paid three weeks ago to another Moge Nambka sub-clan who had assisted in the same fight, resulting in the death of a youth.