The Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, John Feakes, has become the first foreign diplomat to visit the “valley of tears” in Wapenamanda, Enga, province.

Feakes braved fears of tribal warfare when he visited Australian government-funded projects at a tribal fighting zone on Wednesday.

The battlefields of Middle Lai, where more than 60 men lost their lives, fell silent after the signing of the landmark Hilton Peace Agreement last month in Port Moresby between the warring alliances.

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A ceasefire is expected on the battlefields of Wapenamanda in Papua New Guinea’s Enga Province that has claimed hundreds of lives and caused massive destruction to properties in three constituencies.

According to lead peace negotiator and Enga Provincial Administrator Sandis Tsaka, a ceasefire agreement is anticipated to be signed this week among three parties to solve the crisis.

These parties are the state and two warring tribal leaders to make way for the peace process to start.

The leaders of both warring factions are currently involved in intense negotiations with the State Conflict Resolution team led by key negotiator and Chief Magistrate Mark Pupaka in Port Moresby.

The state negotiating team comprises Deputy Police Commissioner (Operations) Dr Philip Mitna; Assistant Commissioner of Police Julius Tasion; newly appointed Enga provincial police commander Chief Superintendent Fred Yakasa; Enga Provincial Administrator Sandis Tsaka and Chief Magistrate Pupaka.

The government negotiators are meeting and having discussions separately with each faction.

According to the state team, the roundtable conference was brought to Port Moresby because a ceasefire agreement and subsequently a Preventive Order issued in September last year failed.

Guerrilla-style warfare
The preventive order did not work when the tribal factions took up arms in guerrilla-style warfare.

The conference will ensure that both parties, including the allies of 25 tribes from Tsaka valley, Aiyale valley and Middle Lai constituencies, agree to an amicable resolution in consultations with neighbouring tribes.

The Yopo tribe’s leader Roy Opone Andoi of Tsaka valley apologised in a public statement to the state for damaging government properties and for the lives lost in the three-year tribal conflict.

Andoi said it was regrettable to see a “trivial” tribal conflict that started with his Yopo tribe and neighbouring Palinau tribe in Tsaka valley escalate to “unimaginable proportions”, displacing more than 40,000 people.

“I want to apologise to the state, rival tribes and neighbouring communities and the country for all the damage, including negative images portrayed through the media during the course of the conflict,” he said.

Andoi said he would like to take the opportunity to thank the government for appointing the state team, comprising Police Commissioner David Manning, Tsaka and Pupaka, to conduct roundtable discussions towards restoring peace and normalcy.

He said the government’s intervention came in following the latest casualties, including a massacre of more than 50 men from the Palinau allies by Yopo allies during an intensified battle on February 28 near Birip and Hela Opone Technical College on the border of Wapenamanda and Wabag districts.

Andoi said that with the help of the state team, he was hoping for a better outcome to bring back normalcy in the district and the province.

Republished from the PNG Post-Courier with permission.

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Women’s rights advocates in Papua New Guinea are calling for peace and for the men in Parliament to act against the violence in the country.

The call comes following tribal fighting in Enga Province ended in a mass massacre at the weekend, which has so far claimed more than 60 lives.

Dorothy Tekwie, founder of Papua New Guinea Women in Politics, said she was heartbroken for the women who’ve have lost their children in the brutal killings.

“Any woman would be emotional…and I am also calling on women throughout Papua New Guinea to stand up. Enough is enough of violence of all forms.

“We are asking for accountability from our members of Parliament. It doesn’t matter whether they are in government or in opposition. This is a national crisis.”

Tekwie said the government needed to return the peace in the Highlands so infrastructure, housing, health and education development could begin.

On Wednesday, the government addressed a motion to take action on tribal conflicts and violence, specifically in Enga province.

Mothers mourning
Another advocate Esmie Sinapa said as gunmen planned their next attack in the Highlands, mothers were mourning the deaths of their children.

Sinapa said violence had been escalating across the nation for some years.

“Imagine 60 mothers, wailing, weeping for their sons. As mothers of this country, women of this country, we are very concerned,” she said.

Cathy Alex, who was kidnapped last year in the Bosavi region and held for ransom, said PNG was on the verge of being a “failed state”.

As a woman who herself had experienced similar violence, Alex said the government must act.

“I don’t know what kind of country we call ourselves,” she said.

“This is a country . . . that if we look at indicators that shows a failed state. We are already it.

‘Individuals stand up’
“What’s holding this country together is individuals like these individuals who stand up for their communities and hold peace.

“What happened [in Enga] is completely unprecendented,” she added.

Tekwie said PNG women want affirmative action taken by government to deal with some of these issues.

“Starting with early education for one. We are mothers and are finding it so hard to get our kids into school,” she said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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Namah, the Vanimo Green MP, said he was dissatisfied with the response Marape presented in Parliament yesterday as the death toll from the Wapenamanda killings rose to about 70.

“He never answered any one of my questions,” he said angrily.

“I would have expected him to say, yes, we are putting together a special force from the police and the military to go in there and go after the warlords, go after the murderers.”

“We have funding allocated separately for that. We have the capacity, the policemen and women have enough uniforms, three sets of uniforms, they have allowance, these are the sort of preparedness I was looking for the PM to tell me when I was talking about combat readiness.

“We are sending the same old people, the soldiers and the police and they are fraternising with the tribal fighters, with the lot of people on the ground and not effecting any arrests.

“In fact, they are standing around with the warriors carrying their guns, soldiers and police carrying their guns, where are we heading?” he asked.

‘I wanted PM to go hard’
“I wanted the Prime Minister to come to the floor of Parliament and say my government is going to do this and do that, and go hard on these people.

“The death toll has gone up to 70, it’s not a small number, it’s hit news media everywhere in the world.

“It is not about this 70 only, it started in his electorate, in his province and I would have expected that he would put in place counter measures for this.

“He has not. Police have their own intelligence officers, military have their own intelligence, [and] the government has its own.

“They should be out there penetrating the tribal villages collecting information and then send in special forces — that’s what I mean by having the government ready to counter these kinds of activities.

“And if the force was in readiness, they would have put [it] forward.”

Namah said Marape’s response yesterday demonstrated that the government was not interested in sorting out the security issues in the Highlands-affected areas.

Police chief on notice
Prime Minister Marape told Parliament that Police Commissioner Davd Manning had been put on notice to ensure the country was secured.

Marape addressed the pressing issues of lawlessness raised during a parliamentary session this week, singling out that a plan to incorporate all suggestions by MPs –– including the Enga massacre and others.

Gorethy Kenneth is a senior Post-Courier journalist. Republished with permission.

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Some people are literally making a killing in Enga.

Yes, they really are.

Hired gunmen are getting rich by the day and picking up women and girls as payments as well, leaving deaths and destruction in their wake in what is apparently becoming a booming industry.

The news is disturbing, to say the least, for a province that has got so much going at the moment.

As the illegal industry takes root by the day, we do not see this deadly business which is already stretching the limits of tolerance and the resources of the law and justice sector, ending soon.

Police Commissioner David Manning promised more manpower will be deployed into the province to assist those on the ground to curb the tribal fighting.

At the same time, he is asking for help from the provincial leaders to get down to their communities to stop the fighting and killing.

Grabbed world attention
The recent massacre in Wapenamanda has grabbed world attention again and this time the Australian government, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese describing the event as “very disturbing”, promising more technical aid to PNG to address this madness.

Tribal fighting has always been a curse in Enga for years. What started as bow and arrow affairs in the past have now gone high-tech with the deployment of drones, Google maps and high-powered guns, resulting in the high number of deaths

Genocide is the word to describe what is happening.

Powerful tribes are eliminating the weak, and leaving the disciplinary forces helplessly watching by the roadsides as the massacre continues to go.

There is no concern for the lives killed, the injuries or the plight of the hundreds of mothers and children caught up in this mayhem.

In the words of Provincial Police Commander, Superintendent George Kakas, businessmen, educated elites and well-to-do people fund these activities, hire gunmen and purchase firearms and ammunitions.

We would like to add politicians to the list because we suspect that they procured the weapons and left them with their supporters during the elections and these guns are now coming out.

How could they sleep peacefully?
How could these people find the peace to sleep peacefully in the night when their money, the technology, the guns and bullets they supplied are killing in big numbers and the murderers are uploading images of the dead bodies online for the world to see?

Prime Minister James Marape recently promised new legislation to curb domestic terrorism and we wait to see whether this law will ever get passed by Parliament.

This law is needed now to make the facilitators and the killers account for their actions.

In the interim, the government must declare a State of Emergency in Enga to deploy the full force of the law into the fighting zones to deal with the perpetrators.

They are known to the police, the leaders and even the Prime Minister.

What is stopping the police from arresting these culprits? Are they above the law? Are they protected species, vested with the power to end lives of other people in this manner?

Entire tribes wiped out
What are we waiting for?

To see entire tribes wiped out from the face of Enga before we move in to collect the bodies, take the women and children to care centres and keep watching from the roadsides.

Enough is enough. Declare the SOE in Enga. Enact the domestic terrorism legislation. Arrest those that facilitate and kill.

So much is going for Enga today and if nothing is done to end this ugly disease, Enga is doomed.

This PNG Post-Courier editorial was originally published under the title “Genocide in Enga” on 21 February 2014. Republished with permission.

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A man housing people who fled a massacre in Papua New Guinea’s Enga province yesterday says pregnant mothers and children are displaced.

More than 50 bodies have been retrieved, with police still searching as intertribal tension continues.

Prime Minister James Marape said he was “deeply moved” and “very, very angry” and will give arrest powers to the military to contain the violence.

Aquila Kunza, who lives in Wapenamanda, told RNZ Pacific the situation was “disheartening.

“They are below 10-years-old [the people staying with him],” Kunza said.

“Some of them are pregnant mothers, they fled for their lives. [Those who are] 10-years above, they fight.”

Kunza said boys as young as 10 have been left traumatised from fighting on the battlefield.

Veteran PNG journalist and RNZ Pacific correspondent, Scott Waide, said it “is one of the worst instances of killings” that he has seen in the past decade.

In 2022, there was a massacre on Kiriwina Island, northeast of capital Port Moresby with a death toll of more than 20 — violence that was triggered by a feud after a death at a football match a few weeks earlier.

The incident in Enga province highlands this week has been fuelled by a long standing feud between different clans — Sikin and Kaikin tribes and the Ambulin tribe, according to national public broadcaster NBC.

The clans were aided by guns from the black market, Waide explained.

According to his sources on the ground, the weapons used were not homemade, but rather military grade, including “Israeli-made Galil, US-made M16s”.

“There’s a huge black market attached to this tribal fighting that’s happening,” he said.

“One assault rifle costs upwards of K30,000 [about NZ$13,000]. So it’s a very complex web of people who benefit from this tribal fighting as well.”

‘Businessmen and educated elites supplying guns’
Acting Enga provincial police commander Inspector Patrick Peka has condemned the actions of leaders and “educated elites” from both warring factions for supplying guns and ammunition, and hiring “tribal warlords” and “gunmen” from other districts to come and fight as their incentives are lucrative.

An MP in an electoral district within Enga province, Wapenamanda Open, has called for a state of emergency (in Enga) in an effort to curb lawlessness.

In a statement, Miki Kaeok, who is a Pangu Pati member of Marape’s government, appealed to Enga governor Sir Peter Ipatas and all MPs from the province to rally behind his call.

Kaeok said the tribal fighting had turned into a “guerilla type of warfare” with parties from all parts of the province directly involved.

“Businessmen leaders and educated elites are supplying guns, bullets and financing the engagement of gunmen,” he said.

“They must be identified and their business accounts thoroughly checked to substantiate their direct involvement.”

‘People have given up’
There are 18 or so tribes scattered around mountains and rivers fighting in the highlands.

In a nearby town, Wapenamanda it is almost business as usual, Kunza said.

He said elders had stopped at nothing to try and ease tensions.

“We have tried every means [to stop this]. Churches have taken a collective stand to try stop them. Elders sat the men with guns down and told them to stop and listen. They were told they will be supported and relocated,” he said.

However, their attempts to convince the men did not work, who defied all advice “to our surprise and disappointment”, Kunza said, before violence escalated again.

“People have given up, people are exhausted” from the ongoing tribal fighting.

“Please all men and put down your guns” for the sake of the women and children, he is pleading with the fighters.

Tribal politics
Peka said a lot of the people killed in this violent incident were hired from other parts of the province to kill.

“Most dead bodies identified are men believed to be from Laiagam, Kandep and Wabag plus other parts of the province,” Peka said.

Waide said it was not a secret that people have offered their services as “mercenaries” in tribal fighting.

“It’s a sad situation and unfortunate turn of events and it’s escalating by the year,” Waide said.

He said it was always difficult to understand the reasons behind the ongoing violence without understanding the cultural context and tribal politics.

Meanwhile, the Pacific Islands Forum said it stood ready to support PNG after some of the worst tribal fighting the country has ever seen.

In a statement, Forum Secretary-General Henry Puna expressed his sincerest sympathies to the government and people of the country.

Puna urged all parties involved to seek peaceful resolutions to this conflict.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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Under the banana leaves on a roadside in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands lies the dismembered and bullet-riddled bodies of eight men.

All have been pulled out from the hillside along the highway from Wapenamanda to Wabag in Enga province.

They were among at least 64 people killed in the worst outbreak of tribal fighting in the country’s recent history.

These were not locals but hired guns from neighbouring districts and provinces who had been brought in to fight in a tribal fight.

Assistant Commissioner of Police-Western End Samson Kua has condemned the killings.

The call from security personnel is now for all leaders of Enga to put aside political differences and assist security personnel to promptly address the tribal fighting.

Information received is that security personnel were nearly shot as well as they tried to stop the fight.

The recovery of bodies continues.

A ghastly sight
In another report, the Post-Courier described it as a ghastly sight as a picture of bodies piled high on top each other on a police vehicle was shared on online platforms.

The bodies belonged to men who fought in a fight between two tribes in Wapenamanda.

The grassland of Wapenamanda was their battlefield as they fought with guns, knives, and other homemade weapons.

Police called for more support.

The dead bodies were of the Sikin and Kaekin tribesmen and were retrieved by policemen supported by the PNG Defence Force.

The men were killed yesterday at Akom/7 mile during heavy gun fire.

The situation is said to be still tense, but the highway was clear for the travelling public.

Police told the Post-Courier they had retrieved some 64 bodies from the roadside, grasslands and hills of Wapenamanda by Monday morning.

Rival factions used “high-powered guns”, such as AK47 and M4 rifles in the battles, the newspaper reported.

The death toll was expected to rise.

Republished with permission from the PNG Post-Courier.

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