The towering Hegigio Gorge bridge in the Southern Highlands. It supports both gas and oil pipelines. Photo: Southbros

Pacific Scoop:
By James Apa Gumuno in Tari

Papua New Guinea police have deployed more mobile squads to Tari in the Southern Highlands province to contain an ongoing tribal war which has troubled the gas pipeline project for more than a week.

“Enga’s mobile squad 11 was rushed to Tari last Monday. More men have deployed to beef up security to bring back normalcy,” provincial police commander Superintendent Jimmy Onopia said.

He said the operations of ExxonMobil, the developer of the PNG LNG project, Oil Search Limited and Curtain Brothers were badly affected by the fights which started last month.

“All construction work has stopped and it is still not known how many people were killed or injured,” he said.

Supt Onopia said apart from tribal fights in  Nongoli, there were also other tribal fights in Tari.

“We are not even sure how many tribes are fighting there.”

Despite a shortage of manpower, logistical supplies and the communication breakdown, Supt Onopia said: “We are doing all we can to contain the problem.

Full report
“If we need to call for more men from other provinces, then we will do so. But at the moment, we can manage,” he said.

He added that he was yet to receive a full report from his men on the situation.

Supt Onopia said Mendi’s mobile squad 8 was deployed to Semberigi  to contain tribal fighting in the area over a land ownership dispute which resulted in one death and not 11 as reported by the Post-Courier.

“Some suspects involved in the killing are expected to be arrested soon,” he said.

“We are doing our best to contain lawlessness in the province.”

Source: The National

11 gunned down in tribal feud over huge PNG gas project