Indonesian cop nabbed for carrying a pistol

 By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
AN armed Indonesian police officer arrested in West Sepik last Sunday was allowed to return home, police border division commander Assistant Commissioner Donald Yamasombi said yesterday.
He said in the interest of the cordial bilateral relations between the governments of Indonesia and PNG, the 34-year-old senior sergeant stationed at Yawokimo sub-district in Papua province, was only reprimanded and set free.
He would have been charged with being illegally in possession of a firearm in PNG territory.
“We only cautioned him and allowed him to return because we did not want to spoil our cordial bilateral relation with the Indonesian government.”
Yamasombi said the officer was arrested by PNG Defence Force soldiers and police at the Wutung border post after being tipped off by villagers.
“The villagers noticed the pistol under his shirt while he was taking photos of the Wutung coastline scenario with his family on Sunday.
“He had failed to declare his service weapon, a fully loaded .38 revolver, to the Indonesian border officials at Skouw and to the PNG border officials at Wutung.
“He was carrying the pistol and brought it into PNG territory while sightseeing with his family.”
Yamasombi said the policeman was brought to Vanimo and was taken into custody of the Vanimo-based Indonesian consulate for a night.
He was reprimanded and released on Monday.
Yamasombi said such border security breaches by Indonesian police and military officers were a concern as this was the second of such incident.
“In February last year, an Indonesian military officer was arrested for carrying a military-issued firearm at Wutung but was later released.”