LETTER FROM OCEANIA
In a video that went viral on social media in late August, tribal warriors could be seen dragging three naked bodies, their feet bound with vines, into the back of a pick-up truck. The bodies were identified as mercenaries who were killed as they were preparing to carry out an attack in the province of Enga, in the northern Highlands region of Papua New Guinea. Since the beginning of the summer, violent clashes in these remote areas have left around 70 people dead.
"We call this unrest domestic terrorism," condemned Prime Minister James Marape on Tuesday, August 22, promising to deploy a new special unit combining police and military forces on the ground.
Long plagued by tribal conflicts, the Melanesian country is concerned about its recent evolution. Ignoring standard rules of combat, fighters have been clashing in various locations using unprecedented means. This new situation is an additional challenge for the archipelago, whose development is already hampered by endemic violence, insufficient infrastructure and governance problems.
The latest operational tool to appear in the jungle is the drone. According to Enga province police chief George Kakas, "wealthy individuals" are using these technological systems to "track the movements of tribal warriors and prepare ambushes." A revolution in these misty mountains where the local population's arsenal was essentially made up of bows and arrows until the last few decades. "There were a few homemade rifles, but we'd never seen so many modern and sophisticated weapons," said Mary Kini, a human rights activist from the Highlands, where tribes have long been resolving territorial disputes by force and resorting to vendettas.
In a 2005 report entitled "Gun-Running in Papua New Guinea," Philip Alpers reported the presence of several hundred assault rifles and semi-automatics in the south of the region. "Although Southern Highlanders own 30–50 times fewer factory-made firearms per capita than nearby Australians or New Zealanders, their high-powered weapons are obtained almost exclusively for use against humans," warned the founder of GunPolicy.org. "Despite this, neither ongoing tribal conflict nor criminal activity has generated sufficient demand to prompt an influx of arms from countries outside the region."
Since then, however, the situation has changed. According to Kakas, who was interviewed in August by The Australian newspaper, weapons are now being shipped from Indonesia and Australia, where they are exchanged for drugs, money and women. He also told journalist Ben Packham that "businessmen and politicians," anxious to "protect their territory and tribal lands," were involved in this trafficking. "We all know the tribesmen going out with guns and bush knives are being manipulated by politicians at all levels," also condemned Police Commissioner David Manning, accusing these officials of being "puppet masters" for "their personal gain."
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