Tribe apologises over city killing

 THE Kopen Kopi tribe in Dei district in Western Highlands apologised to Mt Hagen city manager and police for killing a fellow tribesman in the city.

Local leaders, including their council president for Muglamp local level government William Noki, called city manager Pious Pim and Hagen police station commander Inspector Jacob Kamiyak into Tiki village bordering Baiyer district last Wednesday and said sorry to them prior to paying compensation for the death of Joseph Kip, who was killed in 2011 in Hagen city.

Ward councillor Joseph Nema said that his tribesmen made a mistake by taking their tribal conflict back home into the city and killed one of their fellowmen.

Nema said that city was a neutral place where people all over the province and even the Highlands region came for services and to do business.

“We get services from the city and we later realised that what we did in 2011 was not correct or good in the eyes of the public, city manager and police,” Nema said.

He said that his people were “very sorry” for what they had done.

Noki expressed similar concern and urged other tribes in the province not to take their tribal conflict into the city. “This must be a lesson not to do it again,” he said.