War tribes make peace

By PETER WARI
A TRIBAL fight in Nipa-Kutubu, Southern Highlands, a few months ago has been settled with a compensation, comprising K50,000, 135 pigs and a cow, paid to the family and relatives of a grade 10 schoolboy who was shot dead.
The tribal fight between the Kemb and Komea clans was over failed peace negotiations for the death of a man in Port Moresby.
During the fight, an innocent Nipa Secondary School student was slashed which led to the burning down of eight houses in the same evening.
Fighting erupted the following morning and Clement Piu was gunned down by the Kemb clan of Suma village.
The Komea clan retaliated by killing a boy of the same age from the Suma tribe, dozens of house were torched and food gardens destroyed.
Prior to the compensation ceremony last weekend, 27-man team from Komea’s Soi and Ingin villages united to form a peace and reconciliation committee.
Councillors Donald Piu, Willie Aiyol and Wesley Warop said people wanted peace and normalcy so that the provincial government, district development authority and local level government could deliver basic services as the 2022 general election was a few months away.
The Southern Highlands executive council headed by chairman Governor William Powi recently bought a mobile (Lucas) sawmill for the communities to rebuild their houses and start a new life.
Powi said the Government was doing so much to support the work of the law and justice sector for peace in the province.
“The madness of resorting to violence and social issues by youths must be stopped permanently through collective efforts from councillors, local level government presidents, peace and good order committees and the police,” he said.
Powi thanked the warring tribes that negotiated for peace and accepted compensation as a sign of peace and said tribal fights had heavy human, economic and social costs that results in poverty and underdevelopment.
District affairs officer Felix Kindup, who headed the committee, said: “Our aim is to pave way for long lasting peace to allow for development and services.”