Semri told to give K50,000 and pigs

By ANGELINE KARIUS
THE family and friends of Housing Minister Ken Fairweather are demanding a K50,000 compensation from Middle-Ramu MP Ben Semri for injuring him in a fight outside parliament.
Apart from the cash, they also want Semri to give them 20 pigs and then publicly apologise to his parliamentary colleague.
Spokesman Ben Kaupa said the incident outside parliament house in Waigani, which had developed from a heated debate in the chambers earlier, had caught the attention of thousands of Papua New Guineans.
Sumkar MP Fairweather was seen leaving the scene with blood on his face.
Kaupa said Fairweather had been living in the country and working since the colonial days and was a respected member of parliament, contributing to the development of this country in many ways.
“He worked in the 1970s in various government departments and later began running his own trucking company called Pagini Transport which to this day still operates especially along the highlands highway,” he said.
He said Fairweather had helped many Papua New Guineans and employed locals in Lae, Mt Hagen and Enga in his two trucking companies Pagini and Kutubu.
Kaupa also demanded that Semri apologise formally to the people of the Sumkar district of Madang.
He said whatever transpired in parliament should have been left there and not brought outside.
“For someone like Fairweather who has contributed a lot to the development of this country to be punched and discriminated against is unacceptable,” he said.
Kaupa said this type of behavior was typical of disrespectful leaders and that something must be done about it. 
“My family and I have also been affected by the incident. I feel for the leader at this time and I speak on behalf of the people of Chimbu, Mt Hagen and Goroka including those from Sumkar and the people of Madang,” he added.
Semri could not be reached for comment.