Team of govt officials dismantle illegal communications tower

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
A TEAM of government officers dismantled a communications tower in a remote part of West Sepik believed to have been used to facilitate gun and drug smuggling along the border.
Defence Force Lieutenant-Colonel Nelson Rapola said a man who had been operating the radio fled before they arrived at the tower near Biake village in the Green River district.
“All the villagers fled with the suspect,” he said. “The team dismantled the tower and removed the radio. They also impounded a dinghy and brought it to the Vanimo Defence Force base.”
Rapola, the commanding officer of the Second Pacific Island Regiment, said the suspect was from Biake village.
“He is also the local level government president in an area across the border in Papua of Indonesia,” he said. “We confiscated Indonesians citizen cards in the communication building. The cards were used by Biake villagers to pass through the Indonesian military check point at the border to enter Indonesia and access Government services like health, education and also to do business.”
He said the team also went to Kempriak village and confiscated 19 Indonesian-made rifles.
“The villagers surrendered these rifles after the team conducted an awareness on the danger of owning such guns,” he said.
Rapola said the government team was made of officers from Immigrations, Customs, National Agriculture Quarantine Inspection Authority, Labour, Police, West Sepik Provincial Health Authority and the Defence Force.