wfn.org | Tribal Conflict Forces Closure of Adventist Hospital in Papua New

[BeckettJ@gc.adventist.org]

Guinea

ANN Bulletin
Adventist News Network
Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters
December 5, 2000
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Tribal Conflict Forces Closure of Adventist Hospital in Papua New Guinea
Wabag, Papua New Guinea ... [ANN]

Sopas Adventist Hospital, located in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, has
closed its doors following two years of tribal warfare around the hospital
and a  murder attempt on the director of nursing last month.  An escalation
in the violence forced the closure of the facility which, for 40 years, has
provided  medical care for the 250,000 people living in villages of the Enga
mountains and valleys.  

Dr. Percy Harrold, health director for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in
the South Pacific, says the closure decision was made late last month when
it  became apparent that staff members at the 100-bed hospital and nursing
college were increasingly at risk.  "After two years of operating under
duress,  repeated threats from armed individuals and groups, the recent
destruction of a hospital ambulance and bus, and the attempt to murder the
director of  nursing, Francis Makop, the hospital administration closed the
hospital," says Harrold.

Makop was attacked in the hospital on November 21.  He received a knife
wound to his right hand and was saved from axing by the intervention of a
bystander,  who wrested the axe away from the attacker, according to local
news reports.

The violence stems from inter-tribal warfare, which broke out in 1998
following a murder on the hospital's perimeter.  Harrold was visiting Sopas
Hospital  for an annual inspection when he heard the first shotgun blast of
the conflict. "Within a short time, warring tribes demanded compensation and
retaliation  for the loss of this one life," he says. "Eventually the
fighting escalated from bows and arrows and homemade shotguns to
semi-automatic rifles, and some  local hospital staff were killed."  

Harrold says that more than 200 villagers took refuge on the hospital
compound while police with high powered rifles acted to protect hospital
property and  staff.  "On occasions since then, the hospital has been closed
for days at a time because of active fighting outside the compound," he
adds.

Dr. Isaac Ogendi Menge, the hospital's chief medical officer, has expressed
great sadness at having to be involved in the decision.
   
"At the time of the closure, Dr. Menge and the surgeon, Dr. Elmer Ribeyro,
had a hospital full of patients who needed to be transferred to other
hospitals in  Mt. Hagen and Wabag," says Harrold.  He reports that all the
staff have left and police are protecting the deserted hospital compound
from looting. The  hospital's College of Nursing has been relocated to
Pacific Adventist University near Port Moresby, and the students have left
the Sopas campus and dispersed  to their homes around the country.

"The witness of Sopas Adventist Hospital has been amazing, with its health
care providing an edge for evangelism in the province of Enga," says
Harrold.  "It  began in the 1960s, and grew to a 100-bed facility providing
medical, surgical, pediatric, and obstetric care of a high standard."  For
some time, Sopas also  operated a "flying doctor service" to isolated
villages of the rugged mountain region.

Hospital administrators say they expect the hospital will be reopened as a
mission clinic as soon as it is a secure place in which to live and work.
"The  reopening depends on a return to law and order and the realization
that power from the barrel of a gun is not power at all," says Harrold.
[Percy Harrold/Ray  Coombe/ANN Staff]
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