Police encounter tribal war

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33653, 1 October 1974, Page 18

Police encounter tribal war

Tribal warfare reached a peak in Papua New Guinea last year, the Senior Superintendent of Police in Papua New Guinea (Mr R. Robertson) said in Christchurch yesterday.

Six New Zealand policemen, possibly including two from Christchurch, will leave in about two months to help train policemen in Papua New Guinea. Mr Robertson said tribal violence appeared to be cyclic, and had been particularly bad last year.

“There were several clashes between tribes, the most common causes being land, animals, and women,” he said. “The general pattern is for an argument to break out, and then for the two tribes to arrange a time and place for battle. FEW KILLED “Thankfully, few are killed, because the tribesmen cannot shoot straight. Their arrows do not have feathers, and flutter to the ground rather; than go in a straight line.”

Policing the primitive areas of the country was a problem, said Mr Robertson. Occasionally, the police sent out rural patrols to meet tribesmen.

“They are very primitive and traditional. The causes of some of the wars go back hundreds of years'. The police cannot arbitrate, because one side would always lose, and they would begin fighting again. “Only time and education

can really end this pattern of living.”

The Assistant Commissioner in Papua New Guinea (Mr B. B. Kerepia) said the

police were taking precautions against an outbreak of violence during the independence celebrations later this year or early next year, but no big problems were expected. MEETING APPLICANTS Mr Kerepia and Mr Robertson are in New Zealand to talk to the men who will go to Papua New Guinea. They met the two Christchurch applicants, a sergeant and a senior-sergeant, and their wives, yesterday. “We are interested to learn from your police, because they are young, and use methods we would like to copy in our country,” said Mr Kerepia. “One of the biggest problems we face is the lack of experienced policemen; we have few men of calibre.”

Mr Kerepia said policemen of the rank of inspector and above were issued with pistols, but they did not carry them all the time.