B’ville police, officers will be called to help with referendum

A CALL-OUT will be made for police from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville serving in other provinces and 100 police officers from the New Guinea Islands to be part of the police operations for the upcoming referendum.
Police Commissioner Gari Baki said this was being done to cut costs.
“The operation will be for only three months so we will be making a call-out for all police officers from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville serving in other provinces and who want to be a part of the operations to come forward and assist us,” he said.
“Also, it will be much easier and cheaper to bring in police constables from the New Guinea Islands as it is much closer.
“So I’ve instructed Manus provincial police commander, East New Britain police commander, West New Britain commander and New Island commander to send us 100 police officers for the referendum operations.”
Baki said they had already planned and prepared for the referendum and would soon be submitting a budget to Cabinet for approval.
He said New Zealand would be sending in a Taskforce team of 20 men to support police during the referendum.
However, Baki said that the manpower of 20 was not sufficient and called on them to consider sending in 100 officers for the operation.
The referendum will take place on Oct 12 and will give the people of Bougainville the opportunity to express their opinion on the future political status of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville as guaranteed in the 2001 Peace Agreement.