November 17, 2022The NationalMain Stories
By Natasha Kelly
DWU Communication Arts
(Journalism) Student

MOROBE’s Huon Gulf administration refused a K400,000 compensation demanded by the families of the three youths murdered during the recent dispute over land boundaries.
District Administrator (DA), Moses Wanga, said there were two options given to the victims’ families, for the police to continue carrying out the investigation or they could come up with another option.
“The villagers chose to solve the dispute in a Melanesian way where they demanded a K400,000 compensation fee,” Wanga said.
He said the newly established district’s special taskforce committee did not accept the compensation demand from the victims’ family, but they will be visiting the two villages over the weekend to explain the government’s position.

“After getting their feedback, we will have a discussion basing on the villagers’ replies about the reconciliation process,” Wanga said.
“Because of the demand, we seek advice from the provincial peace and good order committee about the policy in terms of compensation and all that.

“We’ll have to look at the laws and apply it to the district, especially for the Labu case because the amount demanded is too much,” he said.

The land dispute occurred between Labu-Miti and Labu-Tale villages in Wampar local level government (LLG) over land boundaries in relation to the Special Economic Zone project at Labu-Tale.

Wanga said the district, through the district development authority, had allocated K100,000 to address the issue of bringing back peace to the communities.

Meanwhile, education manager, Sam Geseng, said schools operating within the villages had been suspended for the term due to the dispute