A quite different type of conflict both within the province and within individual districts can be attributed to ethnic tensions. Electoral boundaries within SHP do not coincide with ethnic ones. Huli speakers, for instance, are found not only in Tari district, but also in the Koroba-Lake Kopiago, Komo-Magarima and Nipu-Kutubu districts. Likewise, Mendi speakers are found not only in the Mendi district but also in the Nipa-Kutubu and Imbonggu districts. Even smaller groups such as the Duna, who number about 30,000, are split between districts, with three quarters of their population in the Koroba-Lake Kopiago district and the remaining quarter in the Tari district.

There are at least 16 languages spoken within SHP. Of these, the big three — Huli (140,000), Mendi (115,000) and Kewa (100,000) — account for more than 70 per cent of the province’s population. This in itself has created much political tension over the years as elected representatives from the various groups have jostled to establish themselves at the top of the province’s pecking order. It has also seen the province divide politically, with the Huli-speaking areas of Koroba-Tari-Komo-Magarima in the west, the Mendi-speaking Mendi and Nipa areas in the centre, and Imbonggu and Kewa-speaking Ialibu-Kagua area in the east. These divisions are reflected in current administration policy such that there are assistant provincial administrators for the western end, eastern end and Mendi central area respectively.

Conflict between the west, the centre, and east of the province has raged for many years, resulting in fighting and road closures in and around Nipa and Magarima. Much of the fighting in recent years has revolved around allegations concerning the death of the former governor, Dick Mune. It was alleged that Mune (from Nipa), who died in a car accident, had in fact been killed by Anderson Agiru, the Huli man who succeeded him as governor in 1997. Specifically, it was rumoured that Anderson Agiru had employed sorcery techniques obtained in the east to bring about Mune’s death. Following Mune’s death the Nipa people blocked the highway, thereby denying Hulis access to Mendi, the provincial headquarters, and interrupting service provision to the western end of the province.

Such rumour, innuendo and conflict are not entirely new. In July 1980 when the then provincial premier Andrew Andaija died in a plane crash, less than a month after being re-elected, the Huli refused to accept that his death was an unfortunate accident. Instead they blamed the people of Ialibu, Pangia, Kagua and Erave, alleging that some form of sorcery or poison had been used to bring the plane down. Andrew Andaija’s death, like Dick Mune’s, fuelled east-west animosity and resulted in ongoing conflict. In the months following Andaija’s death, Hulis attempted to kill the then member for Imbonggu, Glaimi Warena, and were also allegedly responsible for an incident in which Wiwa Korowi was stoned in Port Moresby. At the time, the Post-Courier reported that ‘east-west animosity between the people of the Southern Highlands is emerging as a serious threat to harmony in the province’ (Post-Courier 21 August 1980:19).

Ethnic conflicts across the province such as this between the Hulis and Mendis, as well as smaller-scale conflicts at the district level, have proved a significant impediment to effective administration. The result is that the province’s ethnic minorities have continually been denied services by their political representatives, who have until now almost always been members of the dominant ethnic groups.^[6]

Governance in the Southern Highlands is severely compromised. The past two decades have seen the effectiveness of the courts, police and law enforcement agencies stripped away (see Bragge, Goldman and Warrilow, this volume). The administration has lost the capacity to deal with the province’s problems, due in part to ongoing political interference and a lack of administrative accountability.

At the provincial level, jockeying for control of the province between the Huli speakers in the west, the Mendi speakers in the central area and the Kewa-speaking peoples of the east has led to the formation of competing administrations; this has proved an impediment to effective administration and good governance. All too often administrative appointments in the Southern Highlands have been made on the basis of ethnicity and this has resulted in tit-for-tat sackings and reappointments over many years. At present, there are not only new administrative appointees but also people appointed by the two previous governors (Dick Mune and Anderson Agiru) and the various interim administrations of SHP, all of whom claim to hold the same positions. Indeed, at one point not long ago, four different men were being paid as administrator of the SHP. Many people politically aligned with and employed under Dick Mune’s administration remain on the government payroll, as do those loyal to and appointed by Anderson Agiru. Under Anderson Agiru’s administration many public servants from the western end of the province were transferred into the Ialibu-Pangia area, thereby aggravating tensions between the eastern and central areas. And during the period of the interim administration, people from the eastern end of the province were appointed to positions in the west.

As well as the inevitable tensions this creates, government expenditure is in consequence far greater than it need be, especially when, as is often the case, none of the public servants appointed to a position is actually doing the job he or she is paid for. For example, the Assistant District Administrator (ADA) officially appointed to Lake Kopiago has never taken up his posting there, although he continues to draw his salary as if he were the ADA. He refused to take up his posting to Kopiago, after being threatened by Anderson Agiru’s supporters.^[7] The man who has for the past six years paraded himself as ADA is a former community school teacher with no administrative training appointed by Anderson Agiru. Most government appointments throughout the province appear to be duplicated in this way, and most are political appointments. During the period 1997-2002 there were two competing administrations in Koroba-Lake Kopiago District — one established by the national MP, Herowa Agiwa, and another by former governor, Anderson Agiru. All the public servants politically appointed during this period appear to continue to draw government salaries.

Added to this is the problem of village-based appointments. This, too, creates local-level tensions. In the absence of the public servants appointed to various positions, local communities have often appointed community leaders to undertake responsibilities. In the Kopiago sub-district, for example, peace and good order committees, village magistrates and lands mediators have been appointed by villagers. None of these people get paid for the work they do. Yet their appointed counterparts sit in Mendi and Mount Hagen and get paid for doing nothing. This creates resentment in the village.

Good governance in the Southern Highlands is also impeded by entrenched corruption at all levels of government, and the presence of high-powered weapons throughout the province. For the most part it is the elected representatives and their fellow candidates who have added the weapons to the mix of ethnic tensions and brewing resentments. In the lead-up to both the 1997 and 2002 national elections, prominent candidates stockpiled weapons and distributed them amongst their supporters. In one case, a prominent candidate flew in cartons of semi-automatic weapons purchased in China while on an official government visit, so that his supporters might usurp control of the elections on polling day. And in the lead-up to polling in the failed 2002 elections, Stanley Kotange, the district administrator for Koroba-Lake Kopiago, wrote to the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), Hevilift and various other air charter companies, warning that local candidates and their supporters were in possession of AK47s, M16s, M202s, SLRs and 303 rifles as well as hand-held rocket launchers and that they intended to shoot down any planes or helicopters attempting to move ballot boxes. Very few of these weapons have been recovered or handed in during the much publicised gun surrenders. Cutting off the flows of money from elected politicians and politically appointed public servants to local militants is crucial to the task of restoring law and order.