Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Papua New Guinea government orders urgent military deployment to Indonesian border

Posted at 03:22 on 18 February, 2013 UTC

Papua New Guinea’s cabinet has approved 2.5 million US dollars to deploy defence force soldiers to patrol and protect the border with Indonesia.

The newspaper, The National, reports that the national executive council has moved with urgency to address problems between PNG citizens living in the border area and the Indonesian military.

PNG’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill says the situation requires immediate national government intervention and for appropriate strategies to be adopted to ease the tension at the border.

Mr O’Neill ordered the Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato to issue a protest note to Jakarta expressing the government’s concern about the construction of Indonesian military posts in the border area.

He says Mr Pato is also to inform Indonesia’s government about continuous harassment of PNG people by the military and other illegal activities as reported by the National Security Advisory Committee’s investigation team.