TIMOTHY'S QUEST FOR THE TRUTH

 

Timothy pointing to his home.

WHOSE BOMB IS THIS . . ANYWAY?

This is something dangerous. Something quite old, a relic from taim bipo (history). A killer from 'taim bilong pait' (time of war).

A deadly World War II bomb. In fact our bush friends in Wau have not only found one but dug out more than enough of this World War II ordnance to blow your mind apart.

Mind you. These are very old and rusty. That's what makes them extremely dangerous. 

You will be stunned by the pictures shot by our adventure reporter  cameraman Jerry Sefe.

Now when we show you these pictures, you might think this family is playing with fire. Yes, they are toying with injury or even death for the second time.

Bomb blast victims Elizabeth (left) and Timothy (right) after the deadly blast in 2010, image supplied.

This is the Yamingtio family of Masama, a small hamlet outside Wau town in Morobe Province in Papua New Guinea. 

You may think they are foolish. You could be right, but the family has a reason, a life and death reason.

Back in 2010, a similar bomb exploded in their faces. The whole family was almost wiped out. 

They just managed to survive, one of them, a young boy of 8, lost both his legs. 

Timothy Yamingtio was to start school that very day when the bomb blew up in his face.

For the past decade, he has been on a mission, to find out who owns the bomb that almost killed him and his entire family.

In-fact, after recovering from Lae's ANGAU Memorial Hospital, Tim and his family's requests for assistance from the PNG Government to help rebuild their lives has fallen on deaf ears. 

Even the PNG Defence Force's bomb disposal unit based out of Igam Barracks in Lae has offered little comfort to the family on their quest for information on the ordnance around their humble bush material home.

In 2020, Timmy took a long ride by Public Motor Vehicle from Wau to Bulolo - both towns made famous by the 1930s gold rush - and wound up in Lae. 

Elizabeth Timothy and her daughter. She is scarred for life from a WWII bomb that blew up in her face in 2010 in the village of Masama, Wau Bulolo, Papua New Guinea. Picture by Jerry Sefe.

The 18-year-old had no wheelchair. He simply crawled on his hands to the Post-Courier newspaper office in Third St of Lae City. And that's how Jerry has been on this 'whose bomb is it' quest with Timmy.

Wau and Bulolo were colonial Australian outposts when Japan invaded New Guinea in 1943. 

Japanese forces reached Wau overland from Salamaua. But an aerial re-supply of troops saw the Australians starve off the Japanese advance on Wau.

World War II archives report a short pitched battle from January 29 to February 4, 1943 in which the re-supplied Australians in Wau held off the Japanese invaders.

So around Wau and Bulolo are many scattered entombment sites, of wrecks and bombs. 

Indeed in many other parts of our country where the war was fought, live ammunition, guns and unexploded ordnance lie in abundance in wreckage dumps.

Establishing who owns these ordnance is important. We need the owners to return and remove their deadly left over cargo from 80 years ago!

And help the Yamingtio family establish whose owns the bomb that nearly killed them all.

High explosives found by the Yamingtio family near their home in Wau.
Picture by JERRY SEVE