Soldiers to man borders

A TOTAL of 2,118 PNG Defence Force soldiers are to be deployed to the PNG-Indonesia and Australian borders to prevent illegal crossings, State of Emergency Controller David Manning says.
“These soldiers will be deployed to Western and West Sepik,” he said.
“Some more soldiers will be deployed to the Gulf province as a second (line of) defence.
“Two PNGDF patrol boats and police patrol boats will be deployed also to police the maritime borders along Australia and Indonesia.
“These PNGDF and police patrol boats will be deployed to Western to police the maritime border along Australia and Indonesia and to West Sepik to police the PNG-Indonesian maritime border.”
Manning said yesterday that the 780km PNG-Indonesian land border remained a biggest threat to the country and 147 soldiers had already been deployed to Vanimo in West Sepik.
These soldiers will be deployed along the border at Wutung, Bewani, Skotchio and Green River in West Sepik.
He said 149 soldiers would be deployed to Kiunga and Weam in Western while 20 would be deployed to Gulf.