Scenic highland shots | MARSHALL: Even Papua New Guineans from the coast find life in the Highlands pretty wild. | 00:00 |
Tribal dancing/ singing | Singing | 00:11 |
| MARSHALL: Up here, tribal rivalry is still played out in traditional fashion. Tribes continue to fight over land and women. And each killing provokes another. | 00:18 |
Moses | MOSES: When we fight in the battlefield we kill them and when they die we cut them into pieces at the same time. When our men die in the battlefield they get knives and axes and cut them into pieces until they're dead. | 00:31 |
Villagers washing | MARSHALL: This small village in the Nebilyer Valley in Western Highlands looks down right peaceful. However, this gentle atmosphere is not what it seems. Preparations for war are being made. | 00:55 |
Moses with young men and gun | Tribal warrior Moses Kauga bought this weapon to fight a neighbouring tribe. | 01:11 |
| He's training these men to use the gun in case he's killed. | 01:20 |
Moses | MOSES: They kill our men and we get up and get our guns and we fight with guns. We shoot plenty of their men. We fight like that. | 01:27 |
Villages | MARSHALL: The Ulka Ukupa Kuwar and the Kulga tribes have been fighting for more than 30 years. | 01:46 |
Tembon puts on paint | Tembon Win is one of the few remaining elders who took part in the early conflict. He tells me the fight started over a woman. About 600 people have died in the battles since. | 01:56 |
Tembon | TEMBON: I killed many men using bows and arrows - but I can't use the devil's bow and arrow (gun). | 02:09 |
Archive footage. Tribal warfare | Music | 02:16 |
| MARSHALL: Bows and arrows were the most feared weapons on the battlefield. Spears and clubs were also used. Back then injury was more common that death. The introduction of home made guns and modern day weapons has changed that. | 02:23 |
Tembon | TEMBON: I buy the guns for the young men who use them to kill our enemy. | 02:45 |
Driving through long grass | MARSHALL: To find Tembon Win's enemy you only have take a short drive. Just a kilometre of rolling valley separates the two tribes. | 03:00 |
Walking with opposition tribe to hide out | These men lead me to their hiding place in the scrub. Many of them of them have lost relatives on the battlefield. Revenge drives them on as young tribal leader Emmanuel Las explains. | 03:11 |
Emmanuel. Super: | EMMANUEL: You ask me why we can't stop the fight? Well I am one man and if I didn't lose one of my brothers then I am free, but this fellow and this fellow, they can't make a decision. When they sleep, there are heaps of feelings and emotions, like... my brother I must exact his payback. And the enemies they have the same kind of understanding, the same feelings, the same experience. | 03:24 |
Gang sit in scrub | MARSHALL: Exacting revenge varies from rape and murder to razing villages and killing pigs. Sometimes it's all out war on selected battlefield known as a fighting zone. | 04:05 |
Battlefield | In keeping with tradition, every few months the tribes agree to have a major fight day. Lately, it's been happening here along side this main highway and right opposite the local police station! On the agreed day, hundred of warriors will use this valley to stalk and shoot at each other in a battle that could last several hours. | 04:18 |
Police station | You might ask why the police don't act? Well, they're outgunned. So much so, the police shut the Nebilyer Valley station down last year. | 04:38 |
Maria with village women | Maria Kuk is one of many locals feeling the full impact of the fight. She's one of four women recently widowed in this small village. Her husband was struck down by a bullet on the battlefield. | 04:51 |
Maria with widows | MARIA: He was a caring father. He looked after my three kids. When he was killed I was left with three kids to look after and it's hard for me. | 05:11 |
Armed gang walking down road | Music | 05:18 |
| MARSHALL: Violence is not restricted to the battlefield. Young men, heavily armed, high on marijuana or betel nut and beer, harass passing motorists. | 05:22 |
Armed gang stop truck | With our cameras there, this bus was let go, but travellers on the road are frequently robbed to buy more ammunition. | 05:38 |
Moses in scrub with gun | Music | 05:52 |
| MARSHALL: On other occasions, these men work as mercenaries, hiring themselves out to other warring tribes. And they are keen to show off their fighting skills. | 05:56 |
Moses | MOSES: Some go and fight when they've been hired with money or when they've been given a lady or wife as payment. After they finish the fight they go back home with the money and women as payment. | 06:07 |
Men with guns in long grass | MARSHALL: The PNG Highlands are awash with illegal guns. M16's and the Australian made self loading rifle are the weapons of choice. | 06:26 |
| Since the 1970's Papua New Guinea Security forces have received 7500 rifles from the Australian Government. A gun report commissioned two years ago found just over a third of the weapons were still in stock. Some had been stolen and others sold by soldiers and police officers. | 06:37 |
Kimisopa. Super: Bire Kimisopa | KIMISOPA: I can say this on record that in terms of armoury management it is so pathetic. So over the last couple of years both disciplinary organisations have lost a fair number of their firearms. And some of their firearms are popping up in the hands of our citizens, and most of them you will find them in the highlands and used extensively in tribal conflicts. | 007:01 |
Armed men stalking in long grass | MARSHALL: The Government's gun report claims five and a half thousand guns are in the hands of tribal warriors and criminals. This appears to be a gross underestimate. | 07:31 |
Armed men stop truck | With a price tag of around four thousand US dollars, high powered rifles should be out of reach for most Papua New Guineans. So where do they get the money? Well, the answer | 07:42 |
Marijuana crop | could be right here -- marijuana. It's blatantly grown out in the open here and there's plenty of it. And according to locals the guns for drugs trade is alive and well, especially between PNG and the top end of Australia. | 07:53 |
| It's widely known that the border with Indonesia is porous, and the Torres Strait is wide open for drug runners who return to PNG with guns. | 08:10 |
Emmanuel | EMMANUEL: The marijuana trade is a big issue in Papua New Guinea, like going through Irian Jaya border, Indonesia. The other one is from this Western Province to Thursday Island to Cairns and, you know, this is where the guns normally comes from. | 08:20 |
Moses with Marshall | MARSHALL: Warriors from both sides of this conflict told me the same thing. Illegal weapons are still being brought into PNG from Australia. | 08:42 |
Moses | MOSES: We buy some guns from Australia. Some of our businessman in Australia buy the guns and send them up to us here. Some we buy from Daru and people secretly bring them with them and some they buy from Australia and that's how we get them. | 08:51 |
Men in battle | MARSHALL: The Papua New Guinea Government says it hasn't investigated the drugs for guns trade between PNG and Australia. As a Highlander himself, Justice Minister Bire Kimisopa admits PNG has a gun crisis. KIMISOPA: The question that most often pops up | 09:19 |
Kimisopa. Super: Bire Kimisopa | is that how come we are getting high-powered firearms, which are not in government procurement as a standard government issue. How come all over sudden we are having those most sophisticated weapons in the hands of Papua New Guineans to be used extensively in tribal fights. | 09:39 |
Marshall walks with Emmanuel and armed men | MARSHALL: Emmanuel Las might have the answer. He claims some politicians are in fact in on the illegal guns trade. EMMANUEL: Well, the good people from government they sell guns to us, you see. | 10:00 |
Emmanuel | This is Papua New Guinea, it's not Australia. You people are smart enough but Papua New Guineans, politicians and big shot businessman, they get those guns in the cheapest way and they sell them to us for big money and make a profit out of it... MARSHALL: Emmanuel Las says | 10:13 |
CU Gun | MARSHALL: Emmanuel Las says politicians sell guns for two reasons. To make money and win re-election by intimidating voters. | 10:36 |
Emmanuel | EMMANUEL: Don't give your vote to this fellow, if you give your vote to this fellow I'm going to fucking blow your head off. Something like this. These are some of the threats -- not on the coast areas but at least five highlands provinces. | 10:44 |
Highlands | Music | 11:01 |
Mt Hagen township | MARSHALL: Tribal fighting is viewed by the Government as a cultural issue, not one of law and order. | 11:11 |
Emmanuel and men with Marshall | Yet the men from both tribes tell me they'll only stop fighting if the Government intervenes. | 11:20 |
Tembon puts on battledress | One of the valley's oldest warriors, Tembon Win, agrees. TEMBON: We can't create peace and stop the fight because our enemy does not | 11:26 |
Highlands scenery | want to stop, and neither do we. There's an up and down situation when we want to start peace talks, | 11:37 |
Tembon | where the enemy says one thing and we say another. There's no government intervention. No one from the government shows up to tell us to stop the fight. So we keep on fighting and it looks like it will go on and on. | 11:43 |
Tembon with wife | MARSHALL: Tembon Win doubts if he'll live to see the end of a conflict which has spanned three generations. He prays it won't be the same for his sons and grandsons. Memories of how tribal fighting used to take place are fading fast. | 11:57 |
Credits: | Reporter: Steve Marshall Camera: Andrew Johnston Editor : Garth Thomas | 12:13 |