By PATRICK GOWER
A battle-torn South Auckland street is trying to resolve its problems out of fear that fighting between neighbours will lead to death.
The warring factions of Cook Islanders and Samoans on Chadwick St in Mangere have come together after the latest outbreak of violence 10 days ago ended
with police breaking up two full-scale riots within 12 hours.
Adult members of the four families at the centre of the five-year feud met late last week to try to bring an end to it.
Social workers from the Mangere Family Services centre hope to bring them together again over the next two weeks, and the police, Housing Corporation and Manukau City Council are also involved.
"There is a way to go [but] there is going to be an end to it," said James Papali'i, a Manukau City Councillor who set up the meeting.
"They know it is a possibility that someone could die if it keeps on like this."
Hundreds of people were involved in the riots in which machetes were drawn and hundreds of bottles and bricks thrown.
The riots left one man bashed unconscious and another run over by a car.
Mr Papali'i said the families - two from the Cook Islands and two from Samoa - were all given an opportunity at the meeting to speak uninterrupted.
He did not believe the problems were linked to racial tensions.
"I don't see this as a Cook Islander versus Samoan thing. It is just two warring sets of families."
