It will be interesting to see what a combined force of Mobile squads and a platoon of Defence Force will achieve. Former Defence Force Chief Singarok is correct in that Defence personnel are trained to use lethal force. This should be a police problem when the perpetrators of illegal actions in a civilian environment should be pursued and apprehended by the police who are supposed to use non lethal means wherever possible.

There is one problem is this situation. This has become a declared war zone. This is therefore not a usual situation when police are freely able to operate in an otherwise peaceful civilian environment.

Police claim they will be hunting those lawbreakers directly and not responding to any resistance with a show of force. With an armed and trained combined DF and Police unit, what happens when they are confronted by an equally determined and well armed war party who has obviously 'declared war'?

What are the rules of engagement one hesitates to ask? Mipla ino lukim em yet ya!

Hi Peter,

I suggest that the situation in the SHP and elsewhere like Enga and the WHP is but an indication of a greater problem for PNG. Local MP's have taken over the role of 'bikmen' and have clearly assumed the role of 'gavaman'. It's great to have large lumps of taxpayer's money in your pocket and to hand it out as if it was your own money to whoever you like. Responsibility? What's that?

But then what happens when the very people who have been sidelined, i.e. the local police and authorities, are now no longer resourced or supported and therefore aren't able to maintain control and the rule of law?

And all those wonderful District Improvement funds that have been spent in the local trade stores only end up being channeled into buying overseas material goods and food stuffs.

Local farmers can't compete and are then likely to give up especially when their gardens are flattened, their coffee trees are cut down and they are terrorised by rival clans.

Eh ya! Tasol nogut bai me belhevi lo displa samting. Olgeta noken wori tumas. Yupla savi. Em mauswara blo ol lapun tasol.

A logical response would be to send the army in there. O'Neill did that during the elections.

The only problem, as was demonstrated in Bougainville, is that the army can be extremely brutal and will engage in the same tactics as the warring clansmen.

Maybe mercenaries?

What's Julius Chan up to these days?

Sorry Keith but I do agree with Phil on this question.

Church leaders are in danger of crossing the line between the ethics of their message and the reality of the situation. Unless someone is prepared to meet force with force, turning the other cheek with only get you a six by two plot if you're lucky.

The laws are there but not being followed. Why not? Because those whose responsibility it is to enforce the law are either not resourced to do so or cannot or will not take the necessary action.

Certainly church leadership is very important in supporting any government leadership however this is the Highlands, 'as ples bilo PM' Olsem wanem emi nogat tingting gut lo ol pipol bilo en?

What ever happened to the recommendations of the Investigations into Firearm ownership? Left to moulder on the shelf like all the other well intentioned, expensive but useless and subsequently moribund reports?

The involvement of the church in issues like this might be a cleft stick because it runs the danger of upsetting the separation of the church and state. Ipso fact: 'Hela leaders' are invariably politicians or aspiring politicians.

We've seen what happens when this separation of powers is not adhered to in the idiotic actions of the Parliamentary Speaker and the destruction of national cultural assets.

The churches have role, to proselytise belief in their god and care for one's fellow human beings, but it shouldn't get involved in law and order issues.

The ball for this one is fairly in the government's court.
_________

Government useless. People's court must prevail. Get on with it Fr Nicholas - KJ

At the moment, it seems that a certain level of anarchy prevails in Hela Province.

I spent an all too short time at Koroba in 1971 (as a kiap) and was able to see Hela society in pretty much its traditional form. What a wonderful place it was for any young kiap.

The administration had imposed the rule of law (sometimes by force majeure) and the previous endemic level of tribal fighting had subsided to the odd sporadic outbreak.

When it came to fighting, the use of arrows (some dipped in dog faeces) and the Koroba Pick resulted in some nasty wounds for a small number but, generally speaking, things were pretty peaceful.

As tradition demanded, the warriors were still able to carry their weapons when outside of the precincts of Koroba station, but had to leave them at home for things like market day or other events where crowds gathered.

Everyone knew that this system was aimed at preserving the peace and compliance was virtually total.

Now, with modern warriors armed with M16s and no longer respecting the traditional rules of combat, I wonder how long it will be before some enterprising warrior leader realises that it may be possible to actually displace the government's tenuous grip and assume effective control over parts of the Province by a combination of force and carefully cultivating the population?

This is not unprecedented in PNG: just think about Bougainville, a topic upon which Leonard Fong Roka has been exceedingly eloquent.

To use an historic analogy, in medieval Europe, allowing anarchy to go unchecked in any part of a Kingdom or Duchy or Barony was inviting disaster. An emboldened warrior would soon come to see himself as the next logical choice as King or Duke or Baron.

In Europe, only the crushing of this sort of behaviour and the emergence of powerful nation states ensured the eventual imposition of the rule of law and allowed nations to prosper, mostly in peace.

We seem to now have a situation developing across the world where the incipient ethnic and sectarian tensions long buried within many nation states are now reasserting themselves. Think of the Scottish, Catalonian and Ukrainian separatist movements in Europe, as well as recent events in Africa and the Middle East.

It is no longer inconceivable (to me at least) that, as a result of the apparent neglect of its Provinces, the PNG government could find itself confronted by one or more well armed and well led separatist movements, bent on securing their share of the national wealth, if necessary by force.

There is also the potential for covert funding, training and arms supply for an incipient separatist movement by interested foreign parties, for whom exclusive and guaranteed future access to resources or development opportunities might be an attractive inducement.

This is no flight of fancy on my part: there have been many examples of this across the world.

Hopefully, I will be proved wrong but by neglecting to deal comprehensively with tribal fighting where ever it occurs, the PNG government is creating fertile ground for exactly the scenario I have described.