An angry tirade on Papua New Guinea and Indonesia border issues in the PNG Parliament yesterday is likely to ignite an international uproar over the alleged behaviour of government officials.

During yesterday’s session, Vanimo-Green MP and former soldier Belden Namah, asked why border liaison meetings were always held in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.

He also called on the government to allow for this Indonesia-PNG Border Treaty — which PNG has not ratified — to be withheld so serious issues pertaining to the border arrangements between the two countries would be addressed.

Namah, who is the parliamentary chair for Defence, Foreign Affairs and International Trade, claimed that Indonesian government officials were “getting our officers drunk, giving them women and then come the meeting — they are just sitting there saying, ‘Yes sir, yes sir’!”

“Every time a border liaison meeting is held we are taking our people to Jakarta.

“When they go to Jakarta, they go and drink Bintang beer and get into illegal activities and they don’t attend border liaison meetings representing our country,” Namah claimed.

He said PNG soldiers were no longer patrolling the PNG border and that Indonesians were constantly breaching the border and crossing into PNG.

‘Serious security issue’
“This is a serious national issue, serious security issue that we need to address. We need to carefully look at these issues.”

Namah’s angry outburst followed a move by the Foreign Affairs Minister Justin Tkatchenko to introduce the ratification of the Border Treaty agreement between PNG and Indonesia.

“We must make hard decisions, we are a sovereign nation. We cannot go on border liaison all the time in Jakarta,” Namah said.

“There are a lot of issues yet to be addressed and we must not rush the ratification of these border arrangements.

“We as a country have not been seriously looking at the border demarcation, whether it is the responsibility of the Foreign Affairs or Provincial Affairs.

“When you go to the border, Indonesians have already crossed into our side and they are already engaged in activities on our side of the border — we have turned a blind eye.

‘Do we know what’s happening?’
“Do we know what is happening on the border?”

More than 12,000 citizens from West Sepik — especially people from Namah’s electorate — had crossed over to Indonesia because “on our side, we, as a national government” were not providing basic services to Papua New Guineans.

“I want to have a look at this treaty before Parliament can pass it and I am arguing now as the chairman for Defence, Foreign Affairs and International Trade, I want to have a look at it before it is signed,” Namah said.

“I want to raise the issues of our land, why has Indonesia crossed into the side of our border?”

Namah said that perhaps PNG needed needed to close the Batas [trade] centre in Wutung and the Indonesians moved back to their side.

“Maybe we should build a naval base at the mouth of River Torassi in Western Province and ask the Indonesians to dismantle their naval base on their side,” he said.

“I am proposing now that every border liaison be held outside of Indonesia and PNG, somewhere neutral so we can raise these issues.

Important sovereignty issues
“These are important sovereignty issues.

“I propose that this particular treaty be withheld to allow my committee, the parliamentary committee on Defence and Foreign Affairs and Trade to review it before we actually sign it.”

According to Prime Minister James Marape, the border treaty agreement was signed in 2013 and ratified by NEC in 2015.

Since then, there had been no border talks.

Gorethy Kenneth is a PNG Post-Courier senior journalist. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Indonesia has lodged a diplomatic protest with Papua New Guinea after the alleged shooting of an Indonesian fishing boat captain within the PNG-Indonesia border last week.

PNG Prime Minister James Marape yesterday confirmed an investigation is being conducted into the shooting.

“PNG will be conducting a full investigation into this matter and will inform the nation and Indonesia government too as to what happened,” Marape said.

The fishing vessel was allegedly shot at by a PNG Defence Force Guardian-class patrol boat within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of PNG.

The fishing vessel escaped back to Merauke in Papua with the body of its captain while two other boats were rounded up and escorted to Port Moresby.

The Australian government has denied any involvement in the incident and in any recent joint fishing patrols with PNG.

The vessel that was shot at has been identified as KMN Calvin 02 with the captain of the vessel also identified by the Indonesian authorities.

Two other boats detained
It is reported that two other vessels have been detained by the PNGDF — the KMN Arsila 77 with a crew of seven and KMN Baraka Paris with a crew of six.

Indonesian Ambassador to PNG Andriana Supandy has already communicated with various PNG government officials.

The Indonesian Embassy in Port Moresby has also submitted an official diplomatic note to convey Indonesia’s various concerns.

The boats arrived in Port Moresby at midday yesterday and are being processed at the PNGDF Basilisk base.

On board these two vessels are 13 Indonesian fishermen who have also been detained.

In an interview with the Post-Courier, Ambassador Supandy said he had been advised that the boat crews would be prosecuted.

But the Indonesian government was still demanding an official explanation and a report which has not been received since their request for an investigation.

Indonesia summons officials
Ambassador Supandy said the Indonesian government had summoned PNG officials in Jakarta for an immediate investigation into this fatal shooting.

“Considering the strong and excellent bilateral relations between Indonesia and PNG, the Government of the Republic of Indonesia stands ready to proactively cooperate in the due process of law with the Government of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea,” Supandy said.

Last Thursday, Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry summoned the PNG interim charge d’Affairs in Jakarta to convey a demand for comprehensively investigating the shooting incident by PNG security forces that had killed an Indonesian fisherman.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs seeks an explanation from the Papua New Guinea government regarding the shooting incident and presses for a thorough investigation and strict punishment to be applied if procedural violations are found, including the possibility of excessive use of force,” said Judha Nugraha, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Director of Protection for Indonesian Citizens.

The last such shooting incident happened in 2006 with then Deputy PM Don Polye saying at the time that there would be an inquiry into the incident.

An Indonesian fisherman was shot with further three wounded in the incident.

Miriam Zarriga and Gorethy Kenneth are PNG Post-Courier reporters. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The alleged shooting of Indonesian fishermen by Papua New Guinean soldiers last week where one Indonesian was reportedly killed is a very serious matter and must be attended to immediately.

Prime Minister James Marape has given word that an investigation will be carried out to ascertain the facts behind the shooting.

Mr Marape said: “PNG will be conducting a full investigation into this matter and will inform the nation and Indonesia government too as to what happened.”

We hope the investigation that the PNG Defence Force Commander starts should include him urging his senior officers to quickly identify who among the soldiers had to use such extreme force in such a situation and the correct penalty should be placed on all who were responsible.

A few months back, a report came from the PNG-Solomons border where members of Solomon Islands police force forced a PNG fisherman to jump off his canoe and swim to shore.

Such bad tactics of border police officers or soldiers must be stopped by all governments, the PNG government or its neighbours.

The police and Defence Force hierarchies must monitor those officers who are patrolling the borders, whether at the western end or eastern end, are at all times aware of the rules and regulations that they should follow in policing the waters.

At no time, and under no circumstance, should an officer point a gun at a civilian, a fisherman or border crosser from either side of the border as part of conducting a routine check.

There is no need to threaten anyone with a gun, much less discharge a firearm.

Those fishermen or travellers are not terrorists or robbers.

They are not pirates, they are working people who may have got to the wrong side of the border.

The top hierarchies of the forces engaged in border patrols must also ensure that the soldiers or police officers engaged in such duties as policing a border must be the most intelligent of the lot, not some new graduate or someone with a bad history.

In these pandemic days where stress levels are high and opportunities for simple people to make ends meet are scarce, extreme care too much be taken by military or police personnel when conducting a check on a vessel.

Refrain from always using a firearm to make a point. Refrain from unnecessarily discharging a firearm.

Use your head and heart to do your job and do it properly.

We all hope that the investigation into the matter regarding the PNG soldiers and Indonesian fishermen is commenced quickly to hold people responsible with appropriate penalties to be effected forthwith.

The PNG Post-Courier editorial published today, 29 August 2022. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz