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Showing posts with the label HIGHLANDS

From arrows to M16s: PNG tribal fights get ever deadlier

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by ANDREW BEATTY -AFP Tribes in Papua New Guinea's rough and rugged highlands have fought each other for centuries, but a recent influx of automatic weapons risks turning minor beefs into all-out war. Israel Laki misses the old days -- just a few years ago -- when clansmen would settle fights in what he deems the proper way: with bows, arrows, axes and spears. It was honourable, he insists, even if an arrow once thumped within millimetres of his heart as he tried to axe a rival tribal fighter to death. The wiry 69-year-old still carries the scars and spirit of the old ways from this picturesque part of central Papua New Guinea, which westerners only reached in the 1930s. Even today, the modern state is little more than an abstract concept in the isolated region, where few respect the government. Old rivalries persist, as do fights over rape, theft and tribal boundaries. But tradition is increasingly melding with modernity, to devastating effect. Locals now speak d

PLANNED MOVE BY BAKANI TO PROP PNC WITH UNTRACEABLE WAR CHEST OF K124 MILLION

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  by MICHAEL PASSINGAN Its not Rocket Science, Papua New Guineans should know that the country is crumbling. Bank of PNG Governor Loi Bakani’s explanation of the theft of K124 million in demonetised banknotes, and their illegal distribution across the country and on EBay, is pathetic. The theft is clearly an inside job and Bakani’s statement is an attempt to cover that fact up. It could only have been carried out with detailed knowledge of the bank’s practices for the destruction of notes that have been taken out of circulation. Even more alarming is that the scandal – yes, another one in the O’Neill Regime, one of the most corrupt governments in the world – comes at election time. It won’t be long before the money starts appearing in the Highlands as election bribes by PNC candidates and coalition cronies Some stories circulating in Highlands centres indicate that that is already happening. It’s an easy thing to do, as PNC’s crooked strategists surely know. Villagers in remot

GUNS LIKELY TO CAUSE HAVOC IN 2012 NATIONAL ELECTIONS

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OP/ED A meeting of senior police officers is underway in Mt Hagen to discuss the security aspect of the 2012 national elections. One of the topics that came up, again and again in that meeting, is the prevalence of firearms and the threat they pose on the elections. To show the police bosses the seriousness of the matter, Mt Hagen Police showed the police chiefs two M16 rifles, five other factory-made guns, and eight military issued grenades confiscated from raids into villages around this highlands city. The demonstration was to send a clear message to the top brass of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary that the accumulation of illegal firearms in the Highlands is a real threat to the coming national elections. Guns have left thousands traumatised and have the seriously grave potential to bring Papua New Guinea down to its knees. Statistics compiled by the police force, show that there is overwhelming evidence that the majority of serious crimes like robbery, break and enter and

GUNS LIKELY TO CAUSE HAVOC IN 2012 NATIONAL ELECTIONS

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OP/ED A meeting of senior police officers is underway in Mt Hagen to discuss the security aspect of the 2012 national elections. One of the topics that came up, again and again in that meeting, is the prevalence of firearms and the threat they pose on the elections. To show the police bosses the seriousness of the matter, Mt Hagen Police showed the police chiefs two M16 rifles, five other factory-made guns, and eight military issued grenades confiscated from raids into villages around this highlands city. The demonstration was to send a clear message to the top brass of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary that the accumulation of illegal firearms in the Highlands is a real threat to the coming national elections. Guns have left thousands traumatised and have the seriously grave potential to bring Papua New Guinea down to its knees. Statistics compiled by the police force, show that there is overwhelming evidence that the majority of serious crimes like robbery, break and enter