One dead, 12 homes torched in fight

TWELVE homes were burnt to the ground along Boram Beach, Wewak, in East Sepik, after a youth was killed in a fight last month.
Walter Munjin, the owner of one of the burnt houses, told The National last Friday that he had been in Port Moresby since last year and could not understand why his house was burnt.
On Oct 2, 2010, a youth from Perigo settlement about 5km east of Boram was slashed on the arm by a youth from Boram compound using a bush knife.
The Perigo youth returned the next day, which was a Sunday, with friends and relatives and confronted the compound youths and others, including churchgoers, and demanded compensation.
They were in the process of settling the issue when a Perigo elder urged his youths “to fight back as men” and in the fight that followed, a Perigo youth was killed.
Following the death the 12 homes were burnt.
Police have arrested 10 people in relation to the death while others have voluntarily surrendered and are in police custody.
Munjin, a former Boram ward councillor, has appealed to police to also investigate and arrest the suspected arsonists.