At least 26 combatants and an unconfirmed number of bystanders were killed in a gunbattle between warring tribes in Papua New Guinea (PNG), police said yesterday.
A tribe, their allies and mercenaries were on their way to attack a neighboring tribe when they were ambushed on Sunday in Enga province in the South Pacific nation’s remote highlands, Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary Acting Superintendent George Kakas said.
PNG Police Commissioner David Manning later described the clash as a “gunbattle between warring tribes.”
Photo: AFP
An unconfirmed number of villagers were also killed.
Police reinforcements were sent to the scene of the battle, he said.
“At this point, it’s not clear exactly how far we have moved into the conflict there,” Manning told Australian Broadcasting Corp. “But the intent is to regain control or have a significant presence in that conflict area and then work ... our way through our procedures in dealing with this type of incident.”
Kakas initially said 53 combatants had died, but security forces later revised the death toll down to 26.
Bodies were collected from the battlefield, roads and the riverside, then loaded onto police trucks and taken to the hospital.
Authorities were still counting “those who were shot, injured and ran off into the bushes,” Kakas said.
PNG Prime Minister James Marape said he had “great concern” about the violence in Enga and urged the warring tribes to lay down their weapons.
“If there are community disputes, there are ways to deal with the community disputes,” Marape said.
“Lay down your arms. A lot of disputes will be resolved. One killing or two killings doesn’t solve the problem. It contributes towards more problems,” he added.
John Luther, a leader of Akom village whose warriors were among those ambushed, talked down the prospect of an escalation of the violence in retaliation for the deaths.
“We’ve lost a lot of lives. I don’t feel we should be able be to retaliate. We’re already weak in numbers,” Luther said. “I don’t think I would allow my people to go fighting again.”
The villagers were ambushed from a school building while on a mission to avenge the death of a woman killed in a neighboring allied village, he said.
Luther also accused the military of aiding and arming his enemies in the ambush. He had been told the death toll was 44.
However, PNG government lawyer Oliver Nobetau said he expects more lives would be lost in retaliatory violence.
“There’s a big concern that this will continue on. Revenge killings tend to be a normal thing that happens,” said Nobetau, who is on temporary assignment to the Sydney-based international policy think tank Lowy Institute.
He said that although tribal violence is common, it has never happened on this scale and that police have limited resources to cope.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2