More than 45,000 Indonesian soldiers have been moved to Wamena, West Papua Province of Indonesia who share the common border with Papua New Guinea.
The movment of soldiers have raise concerns from the Members of Parliament in PNG as to why soldiers have been moved there.
Governor for Oro Garry Juffa raised this in Parliament today asking the Defence Minister Fabian Pok whether he was aware of the movement.
“The continuous build-up of military presence in that province should concern Papua New Guinea. “Yet we don’t seem to have any knowledge of what is going on there,” says Juffa.
However, Pok in response told Parliament that Indonesia has been a good friend of PNG and those movements must not be seen as a threat to our people.
He said PNG must be considered a lucky country in a sense that we (PNG) share common borders with two most powerful countries which are Indonesia and Australia.
Pok said he has had meetings frequently with both Defence ministers from both countries and have never seen them as enemies but as friends.
He said it is Indonesia’s internal problems that move the military personals closer to the border.
“We really don’t have issues with Indonesia regarding security at the border.”
Caption: lfongroka.blogspot.com