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Alpers, Philip. 2005 ‘Cross-border Smuggling: Myth or Reality? - West Papua.’ Gun-running in Papua New Guinea: From arrows to assault weapons in the Southern Highlands; Special Report No. 5, pp. 63-64. Geneva: Small Arms Survey, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. 1 July

Relevant contents

The PNG National Intelligence Organization believes that the PNG-Indonesian border is the main point of entry into the country for illegal arms (Bonsella, 2002).

In Jayapura, the coastal capital of Irian Jaya, the going rate for a pistol can be as low as PGK 300 (USD 100). The town of Vanimo, the capital of PNG's Sandaun Province, is just an hour's drive away (Chin, 2002).

On the other hand, there is evidence that high powered firearms have also been brought into West Papua from PNG to supply the OPM independence movement (Keelty, 2000, p. 82).

Any such activity has involved small numbers of weapons (McFarlane, 1998, p. 5; Capie, 2003, p. 81).

The PNG-West Papua border region generates an abundance of unsubstantiated assertions about small arms smuggling. Yet in the absence of research from the area - let alone any evidence of the weapons in question - the most credible conclusion is that low-level gun-running occurs in both directions. Sgt. Hosiah Perea, intelligence officer at Southern Highlands police HQ in Mendi, says the West Papua gun-smuggling route is 'not a big source'.

ID: Q696

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