1 Feb 2011

PNG cabinet minister wants perpetrators of ethnic violence sent home

2:58 pm on 1 February 2011

A Papua New Guinea cabinet minister is to push for unemployed people from Hela province living in Port Moresby to be sent home following ethnic violence at the weekend which claimed five lives.

The fighting involved groups from Tari and Enga.

A rally is planned for today ahead of a public forum on Thursday to discuss how to stop the frequent ethnic clashes in the capital.

The NBC reports the education minister, James Marape, who's also the MP for Tari-Pori, saying the objective of the rally is to identify the perpetrators and allow the law to deal with them.

He's appealed to the two groups to respect the rule of law, and refrain from further trouble.

And Mr Marape says he will push for the repatriation of all unemployed people from Hela and Tari, who are living in Port Moresby.

He says the sickening violence was caused by a few animalistic minded people who were mostly intoxicated.

Mr Marape wants a similar repatriation exercise in other urban areas to avoid possible ethnic feuds.