tradition decrees

Rioters settle as tradition decrees

The time-honored system of compensation has once again settled a Highlands dispute in Papua New Guinea this time following the most serious riot anyone can remember.

Trouble erupted in the West ern Highlands provincial capital of Mount Hagen - the par liamentary seat of Prime Minis ter, Paias Wingti, - when a funeral procession of some 3000 tribesmen in traditional dress and smeared with clay broke up and began throwing rocks through the windows of town businesses and vehicles.

Shoppers fled in panic as spears and arrows flew through the air and glass smashed all around them.

All five banks, the post office, shops, offices and Mount Hagen High School had their windows smashed to smithe reens. Vehicles along the road were damaged and a concerted attack' on lorries at the Hagen Hauliers depot, run by a businessman who intends to

stand against Mr Wingti in the 1987 general elections, caused thousands of kina worth of damage.

Altogether 79 people were arrested as police broke up the riot using tear gas. Among those arrested was the former Western Highlands premier, Kagul Koroka and a member of parliament, Thomas Negints, who had been leading the march of Tambul-Nebilyer tribesmen.

Several people were injured and four were kept in hospital, including a policeman who took an arrow through his body.

All marches in Mount Hagen were promptly banned for ever and schools were closed down in the Tambul-Nebilyer area.

Angry businessmen called a meeting of tribal elders and demanded compensation for the damage. There followed a public war of words between the aggrieved haulage boss, Paul Fora, and Mr Koroka, who was reported to have said Mr

Fora could “jump in the lake” over a K 60,000 claim for dam age to his depot and 30 lorries.

Fears grew that Mr Fora’s Yamuga tribesmen would stage a retaliatory riot, but at a compensation meeting five days after the rampage Mr Koroka climbed down and said compensation would be paid.

Mr Fora also agreed to com pensate Mr Koroka for damage to his house and coffee planta tion by Yamuga tribesmen. A series of meetings were held to determine the final amounts all of which is very much in the tradition of the Highlands of

Png.

Mr Koroka blamed the police for the disturbance, claiming they were indirectly the cause of bad feeling among the mour ners who were marching to collect the body of their dead kinsman - another Highlands tradition. Mr Koroka claimed the police had been “heavy handed” in dealing with the marchers.

The procession was on its way to collect the body of a Tambul-Nebilyer tribesman, Kiap Moro, who had been killed in a road accident the previous week. There has been considerable confusion over exactly how Mr Moror died and emotions ran high when it was rumored that the

police were to blame.

Mr Koroka said Mr Fora’s business had been singled out because he was the wealthiest person in the area; it was not because of his political affilia tions and ambitions. The dam age was the result of a crowd “gone wild due to anger and frustration,” he said.

A spokesman for Mr Wingti’s office agreed. “It was pure tribalism,” he said. (One of the early unfounded rumors around Port Moresby was that the mob was made up of the Jiga tribe of which Mr Wingti is a member, and was taking it out on Mr Fora for having opposed the prime minister).

The compensation payout is expected to be the largest ever in the Highlands topping by far the K 13,000 plus a large number of livestock paid out in neighboring Enga, where five people died in tribal fighting at the end of last year.

Tribal trouble flares fairly fre quently in the Highlands, but it is usually only village homes and food gardens which are destroyed. The Highlanders see fighting as a way of solving problems - not causing them.

The Mount Hagen affair was the first riot that has caused large-scale damage to a town.

FOOTNOTE: But, it is an ill wind which doesn’t blow some one some good and the dam age brought a smile to the faces of at least one group -- the glass merchants.TGA Pty of Lae had to put 12 workers on to over time for three nights to fill a K 10,000 order for the town.

Estimates of the damage vary widely - from K 30,000 to K 500,000.

A funeral procession gone wrong ... the awesome rage of rioting tribesmen in Mount Hagen.