Tribal fights expose weaknesses By

The National Weekender

By KEVIN PAMBA
MANY studies have been done about conflict and violence in Papua New Guinea over the years.
Tribal fighting in certain parts of the Highlands region is one source of violence that has been studied quite extensively. The findings and recommendations of these studies are informative for the Government and anyone concerned with tribal fighting and its impacts in the Highlands.
A study by Sinclair Dinnen in 1997 observed that: “Tribal fighting was effectively suppressed throughout much of the colonial period. The success of the colonial peace—PaxAustraliana— was as much a consequence of the material and other positive inducements offered local communities under the colonial administration, as it was a result of the repressive impact of colonial controls. The revival of this practice in parts of the Highlands since the early 1970s broadly parallels the decline in government services, including official procedures of conflict resolution, during the post- Independence period. In this sense, the re-emergence of tribal fighting represents a growing withdrawal from state and reversion to older strategies of conflict resolution in the areas concerned.”
In 2004 Philip Alpers in the ‘Gunrunning in Papua New Guinea’ report for the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies made the following observation about tribal fights:
“When hearing Highlanders speak, close behind their warriors’ bravado follows the distress of parents. They see another generation swapping education for killing skills, as the rise of the youthful gunman weakens customary systems of encouragement, control, and learning. As is common in such shifts, women and children are also hard hit by the wide variety of effects that follow.”
A 2007 study by Laurence Goldman stated that traditionally tribal fights, especially in the Highlands, were fought over “land, pigs and women. But this was now changing as Highlands men (especially those in positions of leadership and influence) were using the “tradition” to fight for other reasons such as modern politics.
“The current dynamics of conflict, crime and violence in PNG, are multiple and more complex than the issues that, traditionally, were central to conflict,” the World Bank reported in a 2012 study.
The World Bank pointed out “that fragility (of PNG communities), conflict and different forms of violence stem from a combination of economic, political, or security stresses, amongst others, and weak institutional capacity to manage those stresses.”
Below is a list of the economic, political, justice, social and cultural and security weaknesses that another World Bank report in 2011 identifies as being the basis of conflict and violence such as tribal
warfare in PNG.

Economic weaknesses:

  • High levels of unemployment, especially among youth,
  • High rates of poverty and growing inequality,
  • Rapid increase in rural-urban migration,
  • Domination of the economy by foreign-owned resource-projects,
  • Potential for illegal land acquisition by foreign investors/ companies, and
  • Perception of unequal benefits of resource projects accrued to communities.

Political weaknesses:

  • Strong patronage politics within decentralised and central state structures,
  • Incitement of violence by local politicians,
  • Strong economic incentives and opportunities for elected representatives; and
  • Weak accountability mechanisms between citizens and the formal state.

Justice weaknesses:

  • Lack of relevance of and confidence in the formal justice institutions,
  • Under-resourcing of the justice sector; and
  • Inability of customary forms of conflict-management to handle modern-day violent conflict and crime.

Social and cultural weaknesses:

  • Central role of conflict in the life of clans,
  • Communal land tenure system under stress,
  • Gender inequalities in power and constructions of masculinity that emphasise ‘aggression’,
  • Rapidly transforming social norms,
  • Large youth population,
  • Distrust and lack of relevancy of modern state institutions; and
  • Substance misuse (alcohol, marijuana).

Security weaknesses:

  • Inaccessibility/remoteness of many rural areas; lack of presence of formal state institutions,
  • porous borders that allow illegal import of firearms and increased availability and use of firearms; and
  • Growing private security sector that is largely unregulated by the State.

Having any of the above combination of weaknesses to play out, for instance, in a government servicestarved rural Highlands setting is a Molotov cocktail of disaster in the making.
The recent spate of tribal fights in certain rural parts of the Highlands can be judged from any of the above combination of weaknesses playing out under the watch of or rather neglect by the Independent State of Papua New Guinea and its agents in the districts, namely the public servants and elected leaders at the council ward, local level government, open electorate/district development authority and provincial government levels.
The tribal fights lay bare the effort (or lack of it) of the State agents in the districts have put in to make those communities law-abiding, viable and economically thriving places for people to live.
The Highlands tribal fights, especially those incited by political leaders and political aspirants as reported by the World Bank in 2012 cited above also question the ability of the State intelligence system (in Police, Defence, National Intelligence Organisation and the National Security Advisory Council) to detect such threats early and prevent them from erupting into deadly and destructive violent clashes. The World Bank reports and other studies point to tribal fights as being surrogated for reasons other than the traditional ones of fighting over “land, women and pigs”.
“Traditional disputes are, however increasingly manipulated for political purposes (e.g. election campaigning), raising the potential for these conflicts to spread beyond localised areas,” wrote Nicole Haley and Ron May from the Australian National University in their 2007 book “Conflict and Resource Development in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea”.
It ought to also concern the State that public servants, especially certain police officers, could hold a perplexing view that a tribal fight is a ‘traditional’ activity and not a crime that warrants appropriate State response from its agencies on the ground such as police units.
“The police no longer believe they have responsibility for tribal warfare.
“It is regarded as a ‘traditional’ activity rather than a crime, even when someone is killed or when a related payback takes place,” wrote a former kiap (Australian colonial patrol officer) Laurie Bragge in the 2007 book by Haley and May quoted above. The observation of Bragge is an unsettling proposition.
The question that needs to address is: when is a tribal fight in a modern-day Highlands community a “traditional” activity and when does it become a crime of murder, grievous bodily harm, wanton destruction to property and a threat to internal security of the nation?
Such a question needs addressing when this so-called “traditional” activity increasingly surrogates for reasons other than the traditional fighting over “land, women and pigs” and wreaks havoc on communities.
Especially unsettling is what John Vail (a former Tari resident researcher for PNG Institute of Medical Research between 1985 and 2000) observed about tribal fighting “in its social context”as a “participatory, inclusive activity” with readily available fighters in the form of unengaged idle men and boys.
“In a rural development vacuum, where men and youths have no organised, productive outlet for their energies, fighting brings an element of excitement in an environment in which there seems relatively little to lose,” Vail observed about tribal fights inthe Hela region of the former SHP (then inclusive of the three Hela districts) in the 2007 book cited above.

  • Next week: An exemplary part of the Highlands region that discarded tribal fighting after pioneer kiaps and missionaries arrived over 60 years ago.