COUNCIL DISPUTE Police Reinforced As Villagers Gather

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32166, 9 December 1969, Page 17

COUNCIL DISPUTE Police Reinforced As Villagers Gather

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) RABAUL, December 8. Riot squad police gave a show of strength in Rabaul this morning as more than 100 villagers marched on the town.

Men, women and children from Matupit village, supporters of the Mataungan Association, assembled in a park near the administration headquarters in Rabaul to protest against the arrests of nine villagers at dawn this morning. The arrests came after outbreaks of violence yesterday in the Gazelle Peninsula, of which Rabaul is the hub. Police reinforcements flew to Rabaul from Port Moresby. The Mataungan Association opposes the multi-racial Gazelle Peninsula Local Government Council. It also wants the Minister for External Territories (M» C. Barnes) and several administration heads to resign. < The supporters of the association plan to stay in Queen Elizabeth Park, Rabaul, until the arrested men are released.

swelled to more than 400, and more were expected from the Kokopo area. A spokesman for the association said the people , would sit in the park during the night if necessary. It would be. up to the people whether there would be more trouble if the men were not released. The nine men appeared in the Rabaul District Court early this afternoon, charged with having acted in a riotous manner. They were remanded in custody until December 22. A strong cordon of police was thrown around the court house before the hearing. Several policemen armed with rifles stood on the roof. The arrests came after a rampage by young men in trucks around rural villages outside Rabaul yesterday. Native leaders and village councillors were attacked and four men are in hospital. At the park, squads of helmeted police formed themselves in lines sometimes eight abreast before the Matupit villagers. The police were armed with batons and shields. Some carried rifles, tear gas guns and masks.

and the district commissioner (Mr Harry West) to leave the village. Just as the Administrator was about to step in his car. a man ran forward and swung a punch. A council adviser, Mr Jim Fenton, stepped between Mr Hay and the villager and was struck a blow on the back of the head and was punched on the nose and in the eye.

Mataungan men later claimed: “We have hit your Mr Hay—go and see the blood on the car.” Community Split An Australian Associated Press special correspondent. Donald Woolford, reported from Port Moresby today that the apparently systematic attack on Gazelle Peninsula leaders yesterday was the most serious violence yet in a controversy which has split New Guinea's most prosperous native community. The violence was a serious setback to the administration’s attempts to settle the dispute by peaceful discussion.

Members of the association began massing in Rabaul early this morning. By this afternoon the number had

The Gazelle Peninsula is the home of about 70,000 members of the Tolal tribe. They are a proud and insular people, comparatively sophisticated and well educated, enriched by the cocoa and copra which thrives in the peninsula's fertile, volcanic fields.

Mataungan leaders said this morning they had decided to fight councillors and members of the House of Assembly because it was they who were holding up the settlement of the Gazelle Peninsula dispute. They said they had hunted Epinefi Titimur, M.H.A., but they could not find him. They had also sought Mathias Tollman. the Ministerial Member for Education. They claimed Mr Tollman had spoken with “a double tongue.” . Talks Wanted An association spokesman said his group wanted talks on the problems to be held in Rabaul. The talks in Port

Post-war local government in the Territory began near Rabaul, but always with groups dissenting, sometimes violently. In the past five years the Territory’s local government councils, at first all-native bodies with limited resources and responsibilities, have been made multi-racial.

Moresby had proved that meetings outside Rabaul were futile, he said. Meanwhile, further reports of attacks by groups of men have been received in Rabaul. These include attacks on! Stephen Tobunbun. the brother of the council’s vice-1 president, Thomas Tobunbun. I who was kicked and punched in the face, and Likus Lomo, a school-teacher at Matupit, who was also kicked and punched. Police in Rabaul have refused to disclose how many police are now in the town, but the figure is believed to be more than 700, and more police are expected during the Week to boost the total to more- than 1000.

The Papua-New Guinea Administrator (Mr David Hay), who was to have left for Kieta, Bougainville, this mbrning, has cancelled his trip and is expected to stay in Rabaul for a few more days. At Malaguna village yesterday Mr Hay was jeered and a Mataungan leader told him