Kokoda Track confusion

THERE is a very serious issue with Kokoda Track. The Central side of the track is quiet and peaceful because many people there have access to Port Moresby.
They have also accepted the fact there is a review underway.
For the Northern section, people are fighting among themselves over simple issues which they themselves have made complicated.
Certain individuals from the Kokoda Initiative (KI) and Conservation Environment Protection Authority (Cepa) have muddled up the relationship between the local people and Kokoda Tract Authroity (KTA).
Local people are very much aware that the Ward Development Funds are no longer a function of the KTA.
When people living along the track were being made aware of the KTA review, the project was made to sound complicated and confusing by people from outside the region who preached false information and untruths.
Now we see local people along the track blocking roads and forcing trekkers to pay before they are allowed to walk through.
It is, the local people say, their legal right to do that.
Local people are fighting among themselves over this issue.
This issue needs to be solved before lives and properties are lost or destroyed.
Overseas tourists who wish to trek the Kokoda Track are being made to believe that this is a local issue.
It is not. The influence is coming from outside. Sort it out.

Eki Vasabe
Kokoda