Transcript
The deputy governor of Hela, Thomas Potabe says that since the callout, fighting has cooled off.
"Now the province is quiet and we have almost 300 police and soldiers on the ground, so I don't think we will get big fighting like before we did."
However there's scepticism from NGO worker James Komengi, who worked with the successful Young Ambassadors for Peace programme facilitating mediation between warring tribes since 2008.
He says merely taking some guns out of the equation would not help in the long term, because tribal fighting is entrenched in Hela, the result of a lack of public services and development, and because warlords would seek more weapons if they felt exposed.
"We are giving a holiday to the warlords. And it looks like it's only a callout for the arms, and they don't have any programmes that will be left behind to help us transform the communities. And that's something I think the politicians will seriously have to get into to transform the province. Otherwise it's more like a temporary break for the warlords."
For others, it's a question of leadership.
A Hela community leader, George Tagobe, says local police had the resources to deal with fighting before a callout was needed, but that direction was lacking.
The police operations commander, Assistant Commissioner David Manning, says Hela people have lost confidence in the region's governance, and that needs to be restored in order to end lawlessness.
"Over the years the thinking of the people of Hela has been that the national government has abandoned them, has really not given much focus on addressing some of the socio-economic challenges that the people face up here, and as such there was a building resentment towards the government [at] the national, provincial and district level."
He says ending fighting is a huge task and won't be finished quickly.
"The success of this operation hangs all over the shoulders of the people of Hela and how we - the operations - can engage in effective and productive partnerships with them in resolving the future of the province."
Hela provincial government officials say the security forces callout has sparked constructive peace talks between warring tribes, and they are hopeful of a lasting settlement.
