CRIMINALS IN PNG ARMS TRADE

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 premium marijuana.

The weapons - which include M16s, AK47s, SLRs and automatic shotguns -
are being used extensively in murderous tribal fights in and around the
PNG 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 Agethat
increasingly large quantities of high-quality marijuana, known as "PNG
Gold", are being shipped out of PNG 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 local arms dealers
sell them for up to $5000 each or trade them for more marijuana.

Some guns are flown directly into the highlands, sources said.

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

Australians are suspected of involvement 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," one 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 told The Age the
smuggled firearms were quickly replacing traditional weapons such as
bows and arrows in tribal fights in the highlands.

Asked where the weapons were coming from, Chief Superintendent Bonot
said: "Criminals are bringing them in from Australia and from
Indonesia, from West Irian (West Papua)."

Mount Hagen magistrate Willie Bruno said most tribes in the PNG
highlands now kept a large number of weapons while criminal gangs -
which oversee large-scale production of marijuana and bank robberies -
also held hundreds of weapons.

He estimated that "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.

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