Papua New Guinea's Police Commissioner Gary Baki has defended the police operation to remove criminal elements in Enga Province's Porgera area despite claims it has destroyed the homes of innocent landowners.
Folllowing a national government order, around 200 mobile police were deployed to Porgera last month to counter the recent upsurge in crime, particularly illegal mining.
The police say they burnt down 50 huts illegally established within the Special Mining Lease area inside the vicinity of the giant Porgera gold mine.
However a group of local landowners say 300 legitimate homes were destroyed in the operation and are taking legal action against the state.
But Gary Baki says he's satisfied police did what they had to in their operation, which includes forging a truce between two local tribes, the Nomali and Aikena tribes, after five years of fighting which left over 70 people killed in guerilla warfare.
He says the police have gone a long way towards restoring law and order in Porgera.
"There are a couple of people who've been already arrested. We're successful in the negotiation of the two warring tribes that have been fighting in Porgera. They came to a peace on Friday last week, they handed in a couple of firearms. And the control on the illegal miners - we removed all those shanty-looking huts that are built inside the mining lease area, liquor is controlled and the drunkeness and everything that is normally going on in the street is controlled. So I'm happy with the way things are going at the moment."
Gary Baki
