Gun threat highlighted

By DYLAN MURRAY
THE heads of two national security agencies have pointed to a growing arms situation in certain parts of the country.
Papua New Guinea Defence Force commander Major-Gen Mark Goina highlighted a growing issue with locals in the Highlands amassing firearms.
Goina said an intelligence report had outlined that most of these arms were being brought in across the land border with Indonesia.
“The guns that are being brought in are mostly factory-made firearms.
“It’s an ongoing concern and the lack of collaboration between police, defence and intelligence organisations has kept us from profiling and tracking where the weapons are coming from,” he said.
Police Commissioner David Manning also raised concern on the same issue, pointing last year’s election where many of these arms were used to threaten and intimidate voters.
Goina said the reason that little had been done about the increase of guns in districts was due in part to lack of information sharing and coordination between agencies like the police and army.
He added that while it was the defence force’s responsibility to secure the borders, this was very difficult given the force’s lack of capacity.
“We need to do more.
“We can do more as security agencies but we need to plan everything properly,” he said.
He also highlighted that the PNGDF did a regular inventory of their weapons and ammunition at all their bases to make sure that their weapons and munitions were intact and not missing.