12 Aug 2005

PNG police can't report progress in tracking tribal killers

12:37 pm on 12 August 2005

Police in three regions of the Papua New Guinea Highlands say there is no progress to report in tracking the killers involved in recent tribal fighting.

Officers in Chimbu province say no-one has been arrested in connection with the clashes and burning of properties in the Digine local government area in April, which left one person dead.

Police in Enga province won't say if any progress has been made in their probe into the deaths of 12 people during a confrontation at a coffee plantation in Kimil in May.

And the commander of the Goroka police station in the Eastern Highlands isn't prepared to say whether officers have made any breakthrough in finding the killers of 15 people near Kainantu a month ago.

The commander suggests organising security for next week's meeting of the Melanesian Spearhead Group is a more pressing police matter.