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Exiled again!!!!
9:50 AM, Friday, 18 August, 2006
I am out of the university, again. For security reasons, again. But different ones this time:
Apparently there have been some tribal disputes between two provincial groups in Port Moresby lately, the ones from the Western Highlands and the ones from the Southern Highlands. Apparently most of the taxi drivers and PMV (Public Motor Vehicle - bus) drivers are all from these regions, and they just can't seem to get along.
Occasionally they kill or beat up one another, and it doesn't mean much to the rest of us. But on Wednesday night a Western Highlander (I think) was killed quite brutally - hand chopped off, shot in the head, stabbed in the side - by a Southern Highlander (I think, but maybe the other way around) and that started some big fighting.
The fighting yesterday started some time in the morning, in a suburb called Badili. The fighting then moved (how does fighting move? I don't know!) to Waigani, the suburb where the university is. Apparently the police might have used tear gas. ALL of the PMVs and taxis went on strike which caused total traffic chaos, and most of them congregated around a sports oval in Waigani, on the main arterial road to get in and out of that suburb.
When I found out about all of this I was still at the university. Stuck. My transport couldn't get me out. So I had to call the security company, who told me to get out asap - very difficult when nobody can get in. They sent a car for me and I was escorted out, through the chaos that was happening on Waigani Drive. For a riotous crowd they were incredibly boring and we got through just fine - the only sign of trouble was the hundreds of angry-looking men loitering all over the sports oval, and the many taxis and PMVs parked around it, many with freshly broken windows.
Suffice to say I'm not allowed to go out to Waigani today, because the situation is very unpredictable and they might not be able to get me out if something goes wrong. Just when they start to get the stalker situation sorted, something else happens and I've got security restrictions happening again!!!!
For more info on craziness, take a look here.
I am ok, so don't worry! I promise to stay away from the fights!
Filed under EEEEeeekk!!!
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