Aerial view of the Porgera gold mine. Photo: Zijin Mining
The tribal violence emanating from resource projects won't end until the government steps in and resolves long standing legacy issues, a Papua New Guinea academic says.
Political scientist Michael Kabuni was commenting in the wake of the latest deadly violence occurring at the Porgera Mine site in Enga Province.
Kabuni, who is completing his PhD at the Australian National University and is on the staff at the University of Papua New Guinea, said governments can no longer leave the identification of genuine landowners to the resource companies.
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"The resource company commissions the study for landowner identification, not a government," he said.
"The resource company is involved in paying consultants to conduct this land identification process, and the resource company vet this report, and once the resource company is satisfied, then they give it to the government."
He said resource companies' interest is to make profits and getting the project off the ground as soon as possible.
"Identifying the correct landowners would take a very long time and probably very expensive exercise," he said.
"So, my reading is that they don't do a good job, and that's evidenced by the number of violence that erupts around resource area."
He said there is no logic in delegating such a critical task - governments must handle it.
He said right now in Porgera, while there is tribal fighting, "the government and the companies are still trying to identify the correct landowners".
"And that gives you an idea that the landowner identification process in the 1990s when Porgera started operation, was probably not correctly identified."
Kabuni pointed to those who are not direct beneficiaries of the mine royalties but are still affected. For instance, by having contaminated water, and so would become interested.
When it comes to whether the government will react and do what is needed Kabuni said "if the government is serious, they would take actions, pre-emptive actions.
"At the moment, it's not and my fear is that so long as these issues exist, there will be potential for violence, because it's self-evident.
"We've seen these issues lead to violence [when] they are not resolved, then you would expect potential violence in the future. That's my concern," he added.
