Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

PNG police clash with warriors near LNG site

Posted at 04:19 on 09 February, 2010 UTC

Heavily armed police in Papua New Guinea have clashed with hundreds of villagers near a proposed site for the multi-billion dollar LNG project.

Preparations for the project in the Southern Highlands Province were once again disrupted by a tribal fight over the weekend.

On Saturday, police were called to the Nogoli area, 100 metres from ExxonMobil’s proposed Kobalu forward base camp, as villagers had been holding up vehicles on a road in the area.

The newspaper, The National, reports 300 heavily armed warriors fought with police in an hour-long gun battle.

No-one was injured in the shootout and more police are being deployed to the area.

Last week, ExxonMobil stopped construction of a road for the LNG project near Port Moresby after five clansmen were shot dead in tribal fighting.