South Fly villagers alarmed at ‘strange’ chopper landing

By JAYNE SAFIHAO
VILLAGERS  in the South Fly district are mystified and now living in fear after the appearance of a yellow chopper and the erection of several cement pegs, 6km from their village.
Bigo Yhebark, an ex soldier and a local from one of the four surrounding villages close to the cleared landing site said yesterday in a phone interview that on Monday the yellow chopper, which had been sighted several times circling their area, landed 6km from Ahebean village.
The other three villagers which are an hour and a half walk from each other are Wim, Kapal and Yuebikang villages.
A group of villagers decided to check out the chopper.
While they were on their way the chopper took off.
They found cement pegs erected in a clearing.
Yhebark said the villagers immediately became fearful and raised the alarm.
Word sent to the four villagers as to who had done the clearing or markings received no feed back.
Yhebark said the villagers want answers from the Wipim government station.
The government station has been deserted with all workers moving to Daru due to bad road conditions.
Yhebark said a camp by volunteers from the four village would be set up.
He said the people were unsure if was a border incursion by Indonesians or developers of the LNG project where a proposed pipeline is to take place.
“Tonight my people will be camping out in the bushes for fear of their lives and most of the villages will be empty,” he said.
Yhebark, who had to climb a laulau tree to get a mobile phone reception said they were calling on authorities’ to look into this matter.