Wabag town rocked

By Daniel Kumbon

I WILL never forget Monday, August 4, for the rest my life. The loud bangs of the two gun shots fired a few metres away drove fear down my spine.
Beads of hot sweat formed freely on my face. The murderous gun shot noise reverberated into the surrounding hills as I rushed back into the Ipatas Centre office complex for safety.
This was the first time in my 20 years of living in Wabag town to experience such fear.
Just a few minutes earlier, somebody burst into the office saying �Kevin Yange is murdered at a road block, Kevin Yange is dead�. I could not believe it.
My immediate thought was that Peter Yange, the acting Wabag District Administrator was killed. Last year, his young wife from Wapenamanda was shot dead at midnight at her home during the 2002 elections.
I had gone over to the hospital morgue to cry over her dead body and that sad experience was still embedded fresh in my mind.
No, it was not Peter Yange but Kevin Yange, a recognised local businessmen who had been gunned down about an hour earlier at a rock block at Aipanda, on the border of Laiagam and Wabag. It is the scene of an on-going tribal feud between the Italae and Magen tribes that has claimed 27 lives.
The very office in which I work is on land belonging to the late Mr Yange�s Kala tribesmen. And there are several public servants from Laiagam who work in the office.
I feared for a blood bath and warned two of the workers of the impending situation. That instant, I heard the shots being fired. I saw a rush of people fleeing in every direction. Those of us in the office were in a state of confusion.
About 10 minutes later, I walked out into the street. By then the Ipatas Centre office complex was empty, the two banks, post office and all the shops were closed. And the streets were nearly empty. There was an eerie quietness all over town.
I learned from witnesses that the two fatal shots I�d heard had been fired into the body of Dorothy Kutas Emboo, 22, from Kiumanda village in Wapenamanda. She had been shot dead at the main bus stop as she was pleading for her life, crying �don�t kill me, don�t kill me, I am a Itiokon girl�.
But still she was killed in revenge for Kevin Yange�s killing.
As innocent as Miss Emboo is, Kevin Yange � aged about 40 � is just as innocent and his killing just as shocking.
Two women on their way to Porgera, who had been passengers in Mr Yange�s Toyota Coaster PMV bus said they were stopped at a road block by armed thugs. They ordered the �off siders� to hand over the day�s takings. Then the thugs ordered the passengers to come out of the bus one by one and searched them.
�After they had collected all our money, they ordered us back into the bus. We thought they had released us to go on our way but one of them went straight to the driver and shot him at point black range,� the two women, still visibly shocked, said.
Placing the lifeless body of Mr Yange on one seat, one of the passengers took control of the bus and drove it back to Wabag. Upon arrival at the provincial hospital, Mr Yange was pronounced dead.
The relatives of Mr Yange went berserk. They searched everywhere in Wabag town for possible payback targets.
There was much speculation that if the Kala tribesmen had withheld the announcement of the death of Mr Yange and had come into town to seek revenge, many people from Laiagam could have been killed.
At the funeral, the Kala tribesmen publicly claimed responsibility for the death of Miss Emboo but doubted if any of their men had killed her. They said the girl was killed at the Wabag town main PMV bus stop, which is close to the Wabag police station. But they had gone beyond that point seeking revenge in other parts of Wabag town like the public market and NBC areas.
They said they will still pay compensation while accepting that the young girl was killed in the chaos caused by Mr Yange�s killing, maintaining that they and the Itiokone people will together establish who may have actually pulled the trigger.
Natural forces of traditional means of solving this complex issue will be played out for both deaths. Revenge killings will be planned and possibly executed, claims and counter claims will be made. But the climax of the whole scenario will be compensation payments that will end everything.
A direct consequence of these two deaths is the delay of the annual Enga Cultural Show planned for this weekend, the closure of essential services in town for the last two days and the constant fear public servants and others from Laiagam could be experiencing. These will be short-lived.
But the deaths of Mr Yange and Miss Emboo will have far reaching implications on the future of Enga.
Mr Yange was one of the few Engan businessmen who had elected to remain in his province to develop it through business activities. He owned a service station, workshop, a food bar and a PMV bus service. Most other Engan businessmen have fled to Mt Hagen, Lae and Port Moresby to engage in economic activities � where it�s safe and secure.
And Miss Emboo, had graduated from the Madang School of Nursing last year. She had elected to come to Enga to serve her people at Porgera Hospital. In her first year of work, she was on field break and was returning to work when her life was cut short at Wabag.
Monday�s senseless murders add to a frightening list of Engan businessmen, public servants and professionals � both men and women � who have either been murdered, killed in road accidents or died of natural causes over the year. This is a big drain on Enga�s scarce manpower resources and most probably Enga has lost many more educated elites through murders than any other province in Papua New Guinea.
At about 7pm, at Kaipale market on January 16, 1996, the head of a young typist � Liya Aimbi � was cut off by one swing of a bush-knife by a Aiyakane tribesmen of Sirunki in a case of mistaken identity. The killer thought Mrs Aimbi was his wife who has previously run away from him. She was wearing similar clothes to that of the wife of the man who killed her. Mrs Aimbi was from Kasap in the Mulitaka area of Laiagam and she left two young children.
UPNG education graduate Aimi Liu, a mother of three children, was knifed at Porgera on allegations that she was running around with the husband of the woman who murdered her.
Young businessman Seth Timano was murdered by rascals on the Enga/WHP border for no apparent reason. Also killed at a roadblock was Leo Kende, his son and his Pacific Island wife. The family was massacred, allegedly in revenge for the murder of two University of Technology students in a drunken brawl in Lae.
Several policeman have also been targets of murderer. Inspector Peter Pyaso, was murdered in the remote Lapalama area of Kompiam, allegedly by Lakin tribesmen when he went to stop a tribal fight.
UPNG economic graduate Lundutta Betoma, of Yaibos in Wapenamanda, was killed on the verandah of his home in Wabag town over allegations that he was running around with another woman.
While Ms Liu and Betoma died at the hands of two love-sick women, Philip Kipakali, another UPNG economics graduate from Teremanda in Wabag, died at the hands of relatives after an argument in his own home in Port Moresby.
Also killed in Port Moresby was Peter Tum, also a UPNG Commerce graduate from Kepelam in Laiagam. Rascals at Kaugere knifed him when he went to buy buai at a roadside.
At Nine-Mile, another suburb of Port Moresby, yet another budding young Engan businessman was killed. He was Rocky Neokuli, about 30, from Birip village in Kompiam. He was an only child whose father had earlier been killed in a tribal fight.
To top off all these murders of young educated Engan elite and businessman was the then national Communications Minister Malipu Balakau, a UPNG law graduate. He was gunned down in front of his Mt Hagen home by criminals.
As if these murders are not enough, the death from car accidents and due to natural circumstances is also frightening.
Among the deaths are eight lawyers. They are Susan Balon, her husband Roy Kisau, Jerry Maeokali, Simili Alonk, Reme Rea, Joseph Pakau and diplomat Denie Kepore.
Most of the lawyers died of heart attacks. Roman Catholic priests Fr Lawrence Kambao and Fr Paul Langor died also of heart attacks. People can avoid heart attacks by looking after their bodies said Dr Kulunga, a private surgeon in Mt Hagen.
�We are thinking about other people and not looking after ourselves,� Dr Kulunga said. �We are eating anything. People should avoid eating greasy foods but must eat a lot of fresh market produce.�
Yes, people have a choice to look after their bodies to avoid illnesses. But how can they avoid being the victims of cold-blooded killings? How could Kevin Yange and Dorothy Kutas Emboo have avoided being killed?
All right-thinking Engans, in fact the people of PNG have yet to see the effective capture and prosecution of the murderers of Kevin Yange, Dorothy Kutas Emboo or all the murdered list above and all the other victims of such cold-blooded killings all over the country.
The cry on the streets of Wabag and every corner in Enga now is for the government to do something urgently.