Sepik settlers leave Bulolo

ABOUT 250 men, women and children, displaced by the Bulolo ethnic clash last month, left in tears yesterday bound for their home province of East Sepik.
They boarded12 buses, waved goodbye to the town they had called home for most of their lives and other families, and left for Lae, then Madang before heading to their various villages and districts.
The mostly fourth-generation Sepiks, who had planned on making Bulolo their permanent home, were displaced after villagers from the area ransacked their settlement, burnt their homes to the ground, killed their livestock and destroyed their food gardens.
The local villagers took the action after blaming settlers for criminal activities in the town and surrounding areas, including murders.
Although authorities still could not officially say how many people were affected, it is believed that more than 1,000 people were left homeless in the May 17 confrontation.
The convoy of 12 buses and two trucks were escorted by eight police vehicles as well as the Bulolo district administrator and LLG presidents.
Most of those who left yesterday were unemployed and left on their own volition.
The exercise of transporting the settlers to Madang by road and then onto Wewak by boat cost the Bulolo district administration K100,000.
The group was due to arrived in Madang last night and travel to Wewak today.