AUSTRALIANS IN P.N.G. GUNS-FOR-DRUGS DEALS

An elaborate network of Australian and Asian criminals is smuggling
thousands of automatic and semi-automatic weapons, some of which were
hidden during Australia's 1996 gun amnesty, into the Papua New Guinea
highlands in exchange for top quality marijuana.

The weapons - which include M16s, AK47s, SLRs and automatic shotguns - are
being used extensively in murderous tribal fights in and around the Western
Highlands town of Mount Hagen, where police are fighting a losing battle
against heavily armed criminal gangs and drug growers.

PNG law enforcement bodies, Australian intelligence and defence sources,
and regional diplomats have expressed concern to the Herald that
increasingly large quantities of high quality marijuana, known as "PNG
Gold", are being shipped out of ports - including Daru and possibly Lae -
for northern Australia in return for guns.

The guns are then taken by road to the highlands' rural centres - including
Mount Hagen, Goroka and Kundiawa - where arms dealers sell them for up to
$5,000 each or trade them for more marijuana.

Some guns were flown directly into the highlands on un-charted flights,
sources said.

Thousands of weapons were also being smuggled directly across the PNG
border from the Indonesian province of West Papua, sources said.

Australians are thought to be involved in these operations, too.

"This whole process has been observed for more than a year now, and there
is mounting evidence that many of these weapons are coming from Australia
and that Australians could also be involved in moving guns in from West
Papua," a source said.

"There are strong suggestions in Australia's [intelligence] agencies that
some of the guns coming in are those which were not - but should have been
- - handed in during the gun amnesty and buy-back."

Mount Hagen Provincial Police Commander John Bonot said the smuggled
firearms were replacing traditional weapons, such as bows and arrows, in
tribal fights in the highlands.

"Criminals are bringing them in from Australia and from Indonesia, from
West Irian [West Papua]," he said.

"The criminal networks involved are we believe very, very complicated and
confiscating the weapons, getting inside the networks, is very, very
dangerous for us. When the weapons are smuggled in they are very hard to
detect."

Mount Hagen magistrate Willie Bruno said most tribes in the highlands now
kept a large number of weapons while criminal gangs also held hundreds of
weapons.

He estimated thousands of high-powered firearms had been smuggled into the
highlands from a variety of countries, including Australia, and that the
illegal trade had increased dramatically in recent years.

"We believe that weapons come to to Daru and other places from Darwin and
elsewhere in Australia, while marijuana goes back to Darwin and to parts of
far North Queensland," he said.

The PNG Prime Minister, Sir Mekere Morauta, said he was planning to
legislate to eradicate the increasing number of illegal weapons from his
country.

"I'm afraid that if we don't do anything, the 2002 elections in Papua New
Guinea will become very violent," he said.