Call to combat drug issues

AN Indonesian community along the Papua New Guinea-Indonesian border is calling on the PNG and Indonesian governments to seriously combat drug smuggling along the border, West Sepik-based Indonesian consular-general Abraham Abelauw says.
Abelauw said the Indonesian border village of Waris was caught up between last week’s disputed reports of drug smuggling with the Papua New Guinea border community in Imonda, Bewani district, West Sepik.
“Since it is against the Indonesian laws and regulations, the Indonesian community that lives in the particular border where the incident took place, hopes that cooperation between the governments in combating drug trafficking is essential to be increased in the future,” he said.
Abelauw, who had visited Waris to investigate reports of Indonesian soldiers uprooting marrijuana plants in Imonda, has now confirmed that Indonesian soldiers did not cross the border.
“We have already visited the location where the incident took place,” he said.
The visit continued with meetings with the witnesses, head of the district, Indonesian soldiers who were on duty in the particular border, including the chief of the Indonesian military border post in Senggi, to collect more information regarding the incident.
Abelauw said in a statement that from the fact-finding trip he found that members of the Indonesian authority, including soldiers, did not cross the border when trying to arrest the smuggler.
“Since the smuggler has escaped, we don’t know the nationality and there is no evidence. Also, the incident took place in the Indonesian territory so it is beyond reasonable doubt that Indonesian soldiers never crossed the border,” he said in a statement
Abelauw also said that the amount of marijuana was not 50kg as reported first but 9kg.
It was earlier reported that a suspected Papua New Guinean drug-smuggler escaped from Indonesian soldiers and left 50kg of marijuana long the PNG Indonesian border.