Timika Gateway For Arms Dealing

Timika, Papua, May 30 (ANTARA) - The district military commander, Infantry, of Indonesia`s National Defence Force (TNI), Lieutenant Colonel Christian Tehuteru, suspects that Timika is used as a gateway for the distribution and arms trade of fire weapons as well as ammunition by several different groups. "Seeing the mode of operation developing lately, it is clear that Timika is a gateway for several specific groups who have been smuggling illegal goods, such as fire weapons and ammunition, because they have been caught several times during fire arms raids," remarked Tehuteru in Timika on Wednesday. With three different cases of weapons ownership and hundreds of ammunition rounds found in Timika in the span of the last five months, Tehuteru hopes that the community will remain vigilant and prepared. This is especially important because Timika is spread over such a wide region, with many gateways to several isolated villages in the coastal and inland areas that have not been found by TNI and the police so far. According to Tehuteru, the Timika police are still investigating the case wherein two people smuggled in several ammunition rounds into Timika through the Gorong- gorong terminal on Sunday, May 20. The police hope to find the place from where the suspects acquired the ammunition and to which group they were trying to sell it. "Until now, we have no knowledge about whether the goods were obtained outside of Timika or from an insider, involving army and police personnel. We`re still investigating. But there are so many different gateways into Timika, and most of them are still uncovered," he explained. The numerous instances of arms and ammunition dealings discovered in Timika in the last few months have become the chief topic of conversation among the regional intelligence community (Kominda) as well as several regional leaders and officials. The latest such incident occurred in Gorong-gorong on Sunday, May 20, when the police stopped an ammunition smuggling operation and seized more than 100 active rounds that were being taken to Banti village in Tembagapura district. They found hundreds of ammunition rounds inside a bag that was being carried by a 12-year-old child, identified by the initials MW. The ammunition carried by MW consisted of 88 rounds of bullets for 5.56 millimetre calibre rifles and 37 rounds of bullets for 4.5 millimeter caliber rifles. As soon as the police made this seizure, they immediately notified the security guard on duty at PT Freeport. Not long after that, the security guard and Timika`s police team arrived at Gorong-gorong terminal. During interrogation, MW admitted that he was involved in this act by his father, SW (50). Following this confession, the police succeeded in capturing SW inside a public transport vehicle on the T junction of A. Yani Road, heading towards the Gorong- gorong terminal. In addition to SW, the police caught two more individuals, identified by the initials SM and NM, who were in possession of sharp weapons. These three were taken straight to the resort police office of Timika for further interrogation.