Warring tribes make peace

LEADERS of two warring tribes in Western Highlands have recently agreed to lay down their arms and allow a peace process and negotiations to take place.
This followed the signing of a truce agreement between the Kimka and Rolgake tribes from the Dei, Western Highlands, in Port Moresby recently.
The fight began last March and resulted in more than 50 deaths and the destruction of properties worth millions of kina.
Rolgake leader and former Dei MP Puri Ruing said leaders from both sides wanted an end to the conflict over the Gumanch coffee plantation.
Leaders of both Rolgake and Kimka, including their allied tribes, agreed to lay down their arms and allow the peace process to take place.
Ruing said the tribal fight started after a dispute between the Kimka and Rolgake tribes over the expiry of a 50-year state lease of portion 35 on which the Gumanch plantation was located.
Ruing described the agreement signing as the first step towards a ceasefire.
Some of the terms of the agreement include both tribes agreeing for Monga River to be the common boundary or border in the dispute.
Both parties are also expected to refrain from all criminal activities on the highways and in any town in the country.
Leaders will be held responsible for any breach.
Furthermore, no one, including the leaders, should deal with the Gumanch coffee plantation pending the outcome of a court proceeding. The Gumanch coffee plantation has an area 450 hectares and is the third largest biggest in the southern hemisphere.
Leaders from the Kimka and Rolgoka tribes signed an agreement in Port Moresby last Wednesday witnessed by their tribal
and the province’s political leaders.
Governor Paias Wingti, Hagen MP William Duma, Dei MP Westley Nukundj, Mul-Baiyer MP Koi Trappe and Tambul-Nebilyer MP Win Bakri Daki signed the agreement.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Eastern end Joseph Tondop said the signing would help him roll out his action plan for the peace process in different stages in Dei.
ACP Tondop thanked both parties and the people for putting in the time and effort to end the fighting.
Nukundj said the district development authority would help fund security operations to instil peace in the local communities.