Two dead as 100 clash in ethnic conflict in the capital

By JACKLYN SIRIAS
TWO people died, three homes were burnt and a gun confiscated after police rounded up two warring parties involved in a tribal fight at the Morata settlement in Port Moresby on Saturday.
National Capital District Metropolitan Superintendent Perou N’dranou told The National that more than 100 men, originally from Goroka in Eastern Highlands and Wabag in Enga and now living in the Morata,
were fighting over a piece of land.
Police escorted them along the new Gerehu-9-Mile road to the Gerehu police station.
He said the fight had been going on for almost two weeks. It started from a fight between two men over a piece of land used for gardening.
Others joined and took sides. Two people died.
On Saturday morning, “three houses were burnt and police confiscated one of the six guns used in the fighting”, N’dranou said.
He has urged the leaders of the two groups to surrender those involved in the killing.
“Such tribal fighting should be left in the village and not brought into the city,” he said.
He warned them that police would not entertain compensation mediation and that they should let the law take its course.