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Bloody vengeance in Madang’s Transgogol!

News that matters in Papua New Guinea
In the Highlands of New Guinea, rival clans have often fought wars lasting decades, in which each killing provokes another.
Illustration by Lorenzo Mattotti (Image for illustration only. For image text, go to https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/04/21/vengeance-is-ours)

Bloody vengeance in Madang’s Transgogol!

PORT MORESBY: ‘Tis more noble to forgive, and more manly to despise, than to revenge an Injury. - Benjamin Franklin.

Seeking vengeance is no solution to any problem. Everyone ends up as losers.

And the ongoing violence in Madang’s Transgogol is a horrifying case of vengeance that is gripping villagers.

And, it all began with the beheading of a Southern Highlands Bau Primary School teacher in April last year!

The beheading led to an unrest in which two youth were shot dead in a police shooting. One of the youths’ elder brother then slashed and seriously injured a policeman to avenge his sibling’s death.

A villager then gave police information on the cop-slasher who was arrested and charged. However, he was released by the court due to lack of evidence.

This cop-slasher is today leading a band of killers to terrorise Transgogol villagers. (Read this for details of earlier posting: https://pngcybermonitor.blogspot.com/2019/03/baby-found-feeding-on-dead-mums-blood.html (Baby found feeding on dead mum’s blood)

On March 25, they slashed to death three members of the Kori family because the cop-slasher turned murderer suspected that a Kori relative had spilled the beans on him.

What a sad tale of endless vengeance, violence and deaths!

PNG Cyber Monitor reproduces two related news published by The National for the convenient reading of our readers and followers:




Killing spree

Main Stories
By DOROTHY MARKA COP-SLASHER is leading a gang of killers on a revenge-seeking rampage that is terrorising Transgogol villagers.
The suspect, who slashed and injured a policeman on the Transgogol Highway last year, was released by the court due to lack of evidence.
A police officer who did not want to be named told The National that the three members of the Kori family (father, wife and eldest son) who were murdered on March 25 was due to revenge.
The cop-slasher gang leader suspected that one of Kori’s relative reported him to the police after he slashed a policeman on the highway in April last year.
The leader is believed to have slashed the police officer to revenge the death of his brother who was shot dead by police in a shooting at 4-Mile.
The shooting was linked to an unrest caused by the beheading of a Southern Highlands Bau Primary School teacher by the gang leader and his henchmen who kept the head in their possession for a week.
Two youths were killed in the shooting and one of them was the cop-slasher’s brother. The policeman was taken to the Modilon Hospital in a critical condition but he recovered.
The gang leader, who slashed the policeman, was arrested but was later released by the court due to lack of evidence.
On March 25, the gang leader and his assailants attacked the Kori family.
Ten days after the cop-slasher and his knife-wielding assailants slashed to death three members of the Kori family in Transgogol, police are yet to capture any suspect.
Police say they need more information and support from communities to help hunt down the killers.
However, community leaders say the government and police need to treat the killings with the same urgency as they did with gangster robber cum murderer Tommy Baker’s case in Alotau.
Madang provincial police commander chief inspector Ben Neneo said: “We are working closely with communities but we need more support from them.
“People are scared to give us information for fear of reprisals from the killers. They should extend full cooperation to us to stop such vicious and fatal attacks.”
Community leaders said they needed urgent government intervention to have a strong police presence in Transgogol.
Transgogol community leader Morris Bann said the government must treat the murders in the same manner as it did with notorious criminal Tommy Baker in Alotau.
“Such senseless attacks and killings have been occurring for far too long. Yet, we don’t see the urgency to track down the killers like they did to the Tommy Baker gang members,” Bann said.
“Such barbaric slayings and beheadings in South Ambenob and Transgogol started after a disable girl in Dalam village was raped and her family murdered.
“We suspect revenge attacks that also coincided with land disputes. Several people were killed week after week, month after month.”
A father and his son from Berin village were beheaded and left on the Mawan Highway, and in retaliation, a village court magistrate in Bau was beheaded.
Bann said villagers were all living in fear with many abandoning their houses, seeking refuge in jungles or towns with relatives.
Bann also claimed that many people killed in remote villages and jungle fringes had gone unreported.




Killed at home

Main Stories
By DOROTHY MARKA TEENAGER whose family was attacked by men armed with knives has told of how he saw his four-month-old brother lying on top of their dead mother inside the home.
Kenimai Kori, 16, who was hiding in nearby bush while her mother Melib and elder brother Greg were being attacked, said he could hear their screams but could not do anything to save them.
When the attackers left after being disturbed by his uncle Awakum, Kori said he rushed into the home to find his toddler brother covered in blood and lying on their dead mother’s chest. Greg’s body was lying nearby.
Kori did not know that his dad Kawas had been killed earlier near the village.
The incident happened at around 6pm on Monday at Sihan village in Ward Six of the Transgogol local level government of Madang. Madang police commander Ben Neneo confirmed the incident but is waiting to be briefed by the investigating officers.
He said there was serious law and order problem in the area.
Uncle Awakun said he and Kawas who worked as drivers with Ramu Nico at the Kurumbukari mine had just arrived home from work.
Their homes were far apart.
He said Kawas told him he was going to visit their father whose home was about 200 metres away.
He was killed while on his way there.
He later saw Kawas’ body in a sitting position in the middle of the Transgogol highway.
Awakun said he had earlier seen a group of men carrying bush knives walking past his house and heading to his brother’s home.
“Not long, I heard screams. But what can I do? I shouted and beat the drum in my house to scare the men,” he said.
Awakun said his two sons Russel Kori and Duban Kori who were with Kawas’ family at their home that evening were also attacked but managed to escape.
They are admitted at Madang’s Modion Hospital.
Awakun said the bodies of his brother Kawas, his wife Melib and their son Greg, were taken to the village around midnight.
He said Madang MP Bryan Kramer brought police into the village and took the three bodies to the Modilon Hospital morgue on Tuesday morning.
He said the family did not know the motive behind the attack.

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