Tears flow as villagers sign peace agreement

PEOPLE wept openly and some shed tears quietly but they showed respect for each other during a peace ceremony on Wednesday at Kela village, Salamaua, in Morobe.
People from warring villages of Laugui, Kamiatum and Bopdubi gathered at Kela village in numbers to witness the reconciliation and signing of a memorandum of understanding.
It came after a fight on Aug 4 last year that resulted in 226 people being made homeless and 57 houses burnt at Kela village, ward 12 in Salamua LLG.
During the fight, Bopdubi and Kamiatum in ward five and Laugui in ward 11 went on a rampage and burnt down houses and destroy other properties at Kela village in ward 12.
This follows a dispute over a World War II dump site which the villagers suspected of having guns and ammunitions in it.
The villagers were stopped by the PNG Defence Force at Igam but villagers from Laugui, Bopdubi and Kamiatum went ahead and were chased away by Kela villagers which resulted in the retaliation by three villages.
On Wednesday, representatives from the provincial government, Huon Gulf district development authority, Salamaua local level government, PNG Defence Force, police and surrounding communities witnessed the peace reconciliation ceremony.
Before signing of the MOA, men, women and children from Laugui, Kamiatum and Bopdubi villages showed how sorry they were and brought three pigs, bags of kaukau and other garden food to exchange with the Kela people.
Kela village representative Phillip Gubab said man-made disasters were too much for his people.
“After this signing of MOA, we ask that such incident do not happened again. We must uphold peace and harmony within our communities,” he said.