PNG: Oldest Kokoda angel seeks pension

AAP General News (Australia)
08-25-2000
PNG: Oldest Kokoda angel seeks pension

PORT MORESBY, Aug 25 AAP - Akauma Moava, the oldest known survivor of the thousands
of Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels who supplied and evacuated Australians soldiers on the Kokoda Track,
has come to town to seek a pension before he dies.

At age 108, all his mates from the 1942-43 campaign are dead, although a few hundred
survivors unknown to him are still scattered along the villages of the Japanese invasion
trail.

In Port Moresby yesterday, Akauma sat on a woven mat to air his grievances to The National
newspaper, saying he had never been paid for his years of service - apart from food dropped
from allied planes - and he wanted compensation.

Born in 1892, about the time Hitler and Tojo were born, Akauma has 26 grandchildren,
55 great-grandchildren and five great-great grandchildren.

Akauma said he was recruited by the Australians as a carrier on the Kokoda Track from
Kivori Kui village in the Bereina district of Central Province in 1941.

When The National visited him yesterday, Akauma was puffing on a cigarette and hardly
needed any support from grandson George Kivori and son-in-law James Ume.

"All I want is for the authorities to give whatever I am entitled to so that I can
buy my food and my sugar," he said.

He said he had been given some documents years ago which allegedly entitled him to
collect some benefits, but his claim had never been acknowledged.

Now he has come to Port Moresby to pursue his case, with his claim lodged with the
PNG Defence Force (PNGDF).

Akauma said his team of carriers mainly supplied bullets and mortar bombs to Australian
Army forward units and then carried out wounded soldiers or corpses.

AAP kr/rs/bwl ,

KEYWORD: PNG FUZZY

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