Army op ending next month

By REBECCA KUKU
CALL-out operations in Hela, Southern Highlands and Enga will end next month and all Papua New Guinea Defence Force platoons will withdraw.
Commander Gilbert Toropo told The National they will withdraw services at the end of June.
The call-out started in Dec 2016 that cost tax payers K11 million to quell tribal fighting in Hela and was later extended to Southern Highlands and Enga to address law and order issues in the 2017 for the national elections.
The call-out was then extended again when the 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck near Mt Bosavi at the borders of Southern Highlands and Hela.
“Troops are still maintaining presence in Hela, Southern Highlands and Enga provinces in support of the police to enforce law and order till June 31,” he said.
Toropo also clarified that the decision was made well before the current political situation.
“The decision was based on the stable security situation in the three highlands provinces and to allow the police to deal with it.
“The Defence Force was deployed to fill the security gap temporarily to assist the police and people must understand our responsibility,” Toropo said.
He also said the Papua New Guinea Defence Force Engineering Platoon working on the roads in Madang had completed the pilot tracks from Madang and had now reached Ramu River.
“We have already deployed the PNG Defence Force Engineers into Ramu Valley so, they are now working on the 89km between Ramu River and Jimi River.
“They will now be working on the Ramu River and Baiyer River to Jimi River from the Western Highlands side,” he said.