By AUGUSTINE KINNA
THE four Fijians who left Bougainville last week after being freed by the court believe the Bougainville police force is very undisciplined and ill-equipped, and they are willing to come back and train them for a fee.
They were held in jail for almost two years for entering the country illegally and for allegedly being involved in trying to form an illegal army for conman Noah Musingku.
They were released after the public prosecutor failed to find enough evidence to convict them, even though they had themselves admitted to coming to work for Musingku for a promised fee of US$1 million (K2.9 million) each.
They said upon their release from custody, they were no longer interested in Musingku or his money, if he had any.
They called upon the fifth Fijian still with Musingku to give himself up to Bougainville authorities.
Seeing the performance of the island police during their time in custody, their spokesman Jolame Gukirewa said they are prepared to come back and provide professional training to the Bougainville police with emphasis on discipline.
He told The National in an interview after the release from the police cells that during their two yearsin Bougainville,they observed lack of discipline and commitment to duties from the police service personnel throughout the region.
Mr Gukirewa said the police service needed professional disciplinary training to be instilled into their programme for them to improve.
“My company in Fiji is more than prepared to come and provide such training to the police in Bougainville,” he said.
He said this depended on the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) if it was interested in building a police service that would be appreciated by Bougainvilleans.
Mr Gukirewa urged Bougainville police personnel to perform their duties with honour as they are the flag-bearers of the region.
“Law and order in the region is getting out of hand and the police service cannot adequately control it ... that is one of the weaknesses the police must work on to improve,” he said.
T hey had noticed a lot of problems on policing, youths and law and order issues in the region that they could address if the ABG gave them a contract to provide the service, Mr Gukirewa said.
“Bougainville had been my home for the last two years and therefore, I feel obliged to come back and contribute to its improvement,” he said.