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Southern Highlands (Papua New Guinea)

 

 
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Southern Highlands (Papua New Guinea)
 
 
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Southern Highlands is a province in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands ....
. Its provincial capital is the town of Mendi
Mendi

Mendi, Papua New Guinea, is the provincial capital of the Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea, and is also the name of one of the seven districts of that province....
. According to Papua New Guinea's national 2000 census, the total population of Southern Highlands is 546,265 spread across 23,800 square kilometers (9,189 square miles), which makes it the most highly populated province in the country.

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Declaration of state of emergency in Southern Highlands region
On August 1 2006 the government of Papua New Guinea declared a state of emergency in the country's Southern Highlands region.






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Southern Highlands is a province in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands ....
. Its provincial capital is the town of Mendi
Mendi

Mendi, Papua New Guinea, is the provincial capital of the Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea, and is also the name of one of the seven districts of that province....
. According to Papua New Guinea's national 2000 census, the total population of Southern Highlands is 546,265 spread across 23,800 square kilometers (9,189 square miles), which makes it the most highly populated province in the country.

Description


The province is divided into roughly four distinct Geographic regions

  1. The West: Which includes the districts of Tari, Koroba, Kopiago and Komo - the home of the Huli, Duna, and Hewa peoples.
  2. The Centre: Which includes the districts of Margarima, Nipa, Mendi and the Lai Valley, and is the home of the speakers of dialects of the Anggal Heneng language.
  3. The East: Which includes the districts of Kagua, Ialibu
    Ialibu

    Ialibu is a district in the Southern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea....
    , Pangia and Erave, and is the home of the speakers of the Imbongu, Kewa, and Wiru languages, and home to the second highest mountain in Papua New Guinea, Mount Giluwe
    Mount Giluwe

    Mount Giluwe is the second highest mountain in Papua New Guinea at 4,368 metres . It is located in the Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea province and is an old shield volcano with vast Alpine meadow grasslands....
    .
  4. The Lowlands: which stretch across the southern part of the Southern Highlands province from the volcanic peaks of Mount Bosavi
    Mount Bosavi

    Mount Bosavi is a mountain in the Southern Highlands province, Papua New Guinea. It is the collapsed cone of an extinct volcano on the Great Papuan Plateau, and part of the Kikori River basin....
     to include the oilfields of Lake Kutubu
    Lake Kutubu

    Lake Kutubu is a lake in the Southern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea. It lies to the east of the Kikori River, into which it eventually drains....
    , and includes the language groups of Biami (shared with Western Province) Foe, and Fasu.


Declaration of state of emergency in Southern Highlands region


On August 1 2006 the government of Papua New Guinea declared a state of emergency in the country's Southern Highlands region. According to Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare
Michael Somare

Sir Michael Thomas Somare, Order of Logohu, Order of St Michael and St George, Order of the Companions of Honour, Fijian honours system, Parliament of Papua New Guinea has been List of Prime Ministers of Papua New Guinea since 2002; he was previously Prime Minister from independence in 1975 until 1980 and again from 1982 until 1985....
, troops were deployed to restore 'law, order and good governance' in the region, following accusations of corruption, theft and misuse of government buildings at the hands of the regional government.

As a region rich in energy resources, the Southern Highlands was at the centre of plans to construct a gas pipeline to pump natural gas to Queensland
Queensland

Queensland is a States and territories of Australia of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south....
 in north Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
. The project would have resulted in much needed revenue for Papua New Guinea, and as it was believed that the instability in the region could jeopardise the project, the national government decided to intervene by declaring a state of emergency. The move was supported by Parliament, although some criticism was leveled at the government for restricting press access to the region while the state of emergency was in force. The companies involved in the project have re-designed the project to now have a pipeline which will carry liquified gas by pipeline initially to the coast, and then underwater to a site near Port Moresby where the gas will be loaded onto ships for transfer to predominantly Asian customers.

Mendi Central/ Lai Vally The capital of Southern High Lands is Mendi. The current Mendi open member of parliament (MP) is Pr. Isacc Joseph.