Villagers raid settlement in Bulolo

MORE than 200 villagers yesterday morning raided a sprawling settlement in Bulolo township and lay waste more than 100 houses leaving one dead in a festering ethnic violence.
The magnitude of the attack has caused major companies including Morobe Mining and PNG Forest Products to worry over the safety of their workers and property.
Fearing an escalation in violence that could adversely affect the operations of the Hidden Valley gold mine in Wau, Bulolo Member  Sam Basil called it a national issue and urged Police Minister Sani Rambi to immediately intervene and send more police from Lae to quell the still-tense situation.
The villagers from Patep in Mumeng LLG, in an act of reprisal over the killing of one of their men last Wednesday, attacked Sepiks who they blamed for the death, at Karanas compound at the edge of Bulolo township at around 5am.
Many locals in Bulolo district said yesterday that the Pateps were “acting on behalf of all other local villagers” who were fed up with criminal activities they believed were created by the Sepiks.
They said the Watuts and the Warias had suffered at the hands of Sepik criminals.
A secondary school teacher was severely wounded last November in an attack that police had blamed on Sepik settlers.
A month later, a Watut elder was killed on New Year’s Eve allegedly by drunk Sepiks who had accused him of denying them job opportunities in Morobe Mining.
Last month, another local, a man from Waria was also killed under similar circumstances, police said.
Police said the Patep villagers burnt homes, slashed trees and other plants, destroyed all properties, and killed a man.
The homes belong to many third-generation Sepiks of Marianberg, Aitape and Sangrawa.
The villagers were about to attack the Biwat compound when police intervened.
Motorists travelling from Bulolo to Lae said the Patep villagers were aided by  men from Timini and Gurakor villages, who blocked the road at Timini, and the Kumalus and Mumengtengs who had stationed at the Kumalu River.
Other villagers along the highway from Sambio to Leklu near Bulolo township stood guard, they said.
In all, the number of men who had been called to arms by the Pateps could have been about 2,000.
As of last night, more than 1,000 men, women and children of Sepik origin were taken into the Bulolo Forestry Compound, under heavy police guard, Morobe provincial police commander Peter Guinness, said
Police said there were people who sustained serious injuries from both sides but could not give further details.
In the meantime, Basil is calling on people from Waria, Mumeng and Watut “to refrain from any more destruction and to let police manage the situation” and not let the violence spiral out of control.