SUMMARY
The reasons behind the conflict between the Unjamap and the Wogia-Tunjup tribes of Tugup can be traced to two separate incidents. First, the 1997 general elections in Papua New Guinea led to a series of tensions escalating to violence leading to at least one election-related death. Second, in 1999, as tensions were still high, reports speak of a driving accident where one young man was killed after falling off a truck, after leaving a local club. This death was blamed on the club-owner, leading to a revenge attack where his property was destroyed, sparking a conflict that lasted for more than two years. After the beginning of hostilities, violence was further fanned by a highly complex system of retribution and compensation involving significant sums of money, land access and livestock, especially pigs, employed by both tribes.
Fighting between the Unjamap and the Wogia-Tunjup was relatively violent, involving heavy, military-grade weaponry, such as the M60 heavy machine gun, M16 and AK47 assault rifles as well as grenade launchers. Beyond the estimated 550-600 such weapons available to the combatants, they also used home-made arms, such as pump-action shotguns, improvised pistols and even traditional knives and bows and arrows. The amount of weaponry available to the two groups is impressive, more-so as firearms were a very unusual sight in the area prior to 1990. The total number of fighters involved was estimated to 6000, more than the population of both tribes, as both the Unjamap and the Wogia-Tunjup relied on their allies into battle.
A cease-fire followed by a peace agreement was reached in the spring of 2002, when the two tribes met and agreed on a scheme of mutual compensation. A disarmament campaign was soon launched, however, proved unsuccessful, due to little compensation being offered to the former belligerents. Typical tactics used in the fighting were raids on each-others villages, involving large-scale arson (in one event, over 50 houses and one school were burnt to the ground, in another, four villages were reportedly destroyed). Further gun-battles and assaults were reported, both in the streets (in various villages and even in Mendi town) as well as in rural areas, as well as rapes.
Violence was localized to areas located in the vicinity of Mendi town in the Southern Highlands province. There are reports of fighting in villages surrounding the town, in the town itself as well as in uninhabited areas (such as the forests and mountains located nearby). Violence did not spread, as the two tribes are concentrated in a rather limited area.
The non-state conflict between the Unjamap and the Wogia-Tunjup tribes of Tugup is first included in UCDP data in 2001. In December of that year clashes had resulted in over 25 battle-related deaths.
