Papua New Guinea: loggers & guns

Logging ships smuggling guns in

A former senior Customs officer yesterday told a public meeting in West New Britain he saw high-powered guns smuggled into the province from a logging ship which berthed near Kimbe.
Henry Buku, the former assistant commissioner for Customs at the Internal Revenue Commission, told a meeting of the National Guns Control Committee at the Hoskins Secondary School that the guns where discharged from the logging ship at Buluma near Kimbe at the time that Mt Pago erupted.
Mr Buku said the guns were high-powered firearms taken from the ship and given to Papua New Guineans. He said it was one of many instances witnessed throughout West New Britain over the years where logging ships came in to pick up logs for export.
Mr Buku said this was happening because Customs officers were no longer boarding the ships to provide clearance and watch over the loading of logs to ensure no illegal transactions took place.
Mr Buku said a major restructure of IRC undertaken during the term of the Chan/Haiveta government had resulted in this failure.
He said a focus of the restructure was now on collecting revenue and not providing the critical Customs checks to ensure that illegal imports like guns and other illicit goods were not smuggled into Papua New Guinea.
Mr Buku told the meeting the high number of illegal firearms now found in West New Britain were the result of Customs failing to check the logging vessels.
He said the guns were being smuggled into PNG from the Indonesian province of Papua by OPM rebels who sold the guns to buy food for themselves.
Meanwhile, students at Hoskins Secondary School expressed fear that illegal guns could one day be used in a major ethnic conflict in the province involving oil palm settlers from other provinces and traditional land owners of West New Britain.
Councillors from the Hoskins Rural Local Level Government expressed similar sentiments to the committee on Tuesday, saying that tension over land was increasing that was now being occupied by settlers involved in the oil palm industry.
Traditional West New Britain land owners are putting pressure on the government to give them back the land which is now used for the oil palm industry.
At a separate meeting of the committee at the Kapore Local Level Government, young people said the size of the families where increasing and there was a shortage of land.
The youth are children of the oil palm settlers who come from various areas of PNG.
Speakers at the Kapore meeting told the committee guns were already in the oil palm estate and people where keeping guns for their protection.
Meanwhile, teachers and students of Hoskins Secondary School have called for the death penalty for gun related deaths, raids and armed robbery.
They also called for life jail terms for people in possession of illegal firearms or ammunition, smuggling of firearms or ammunition, threats to use firearms in all situations, manufacturing of homemade guns and use of firearms for political purposes.
They also called for severe penalties for law enforcement officers who used state supplied firearms for illegal purposes.

[Go to the top] © Copyright, 2004, Post-Courier Online. Use of this site is governed by our Legal Notice.

PNG Post Courier 26th May 05