Murders in Papua New Guniea

War is a terrible thing, and people will go at great length to end it. Having said that, I haven't before heard about such desperate measures as those reported from Papua New Guniea.

Papua New Guinea women kill males babies to end tribal war

WOMEN in Papua New Guinea's Highland region are killing their male babies to end a tribal war that has gone on for more than 20 years.

Two women from the Eastern Highlands spoke of the slaughter to PNG's National newspaper during a three-day peace and reconciliation course in the region's capital of Goroka.

Rona Luke and Kipiyona Belas, from two warring tribes, said male infanticide reduced the cyclical payback violence infamous in Highlands tribal fights.

When I first read about this, in a Danish newspaper, I was skeptical. It sounds too grim to be true. Searching on more information on the internet, I came across more reports on the story, and I began to fear that it might be true.

Fortunately, it appears that the story is based upon a misunderstanding.

Salvos deny PNG 'baby killing' reports

Salvation Army workers in Papua New Guinea have dismissed reports that women in the remote Highlands region are killing male babies to end a tribal war that has spanned more than 20 years.

Newspapers have reported that women in the Eastern Highlands are murdering their own baby boys to avoid the pain of losing them as men in a long running tribal fight.

The Salvation Army is working in the region to bring peace to warring tribes and said the women were speaking hypothetically at a peace and reconciliation workshop.

A spokeswoman said the Highlands women are making the point that there are so many murders they might as well kill their newborn boys themselves, rather than go through the pain of losing them in tribal fights.

This sounds much more realistic.

Boris Yeltsin 1931-2007

Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin has died, 76 years old. He was the first president of the Russian Federation from 1991 to 1999, and was prime minister of Russia as well from november 1991 to june 1992.

What he is mostly remembered for by many people was his drunkness while in office. There are countless examples of his eratic behaviour while drunk, often causing diplomatic incidents.

His finest hour was in defying the military coup in 1991, which was a last effort by the hard-line Communists to regain power. Here he defined the military leadership, and got the lower ranks of the military to join his side, this leading the way for th defeat of the coup. Ironically Yeltsin used the military to bomb the Russian parliament just two years later, nearly creating a civil war.

Living in a small country fairly close to the border of then-Soviet Union, both incidents were rather frightening, and something we paid close attention to in Europe.

Overall, it can be said that Yeltsin was one of the major players in the collapse of the Soviet Union, and as such should be honored. Unfortunately he, his family and his friends, were also the cause of many of the problems that Russia now have, especially on the economical front (the wholesale guttering of public companies for personal profit being a major cause).

Maybe Gorbachev sums up Yeltsin the best when he said that he "had major deeds for the good of the country as well as serious mistakes behind him", though he and I probably have different reasons to believe so (Gorbachev is still a Communist, who wanted to save the Soviet Union till the end).

A noteworthy, and some times great, person has died. May history be kind to him.