THE Papua New Guinea Police Force Contingents will now operate on its own under the commoner of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force.
This was confirmed by the Papua New Guinea High Commissioner to the Solomon Islands, His Excellency (H.E) Moses Kaul.
He said: “When the proposal came from the Solomon Islands (SI) Government, for Papua New Guinea (PNG) Police Force to submit to Australia, when the operation orders are given for the deployment on the ground, basically we rejected the idea.
“I’m not going to speak for Australia, I’m not going to speak for Fiji and course New Zealand but this is PNG perspective.
“We come at the invitation of Solomon Islands Government, we want to operate under the commoner of Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) and that’s the position of PNG Government.
“This has already agreed upon the agreement between the SI Government Ministry of Foreign Affairs and PNG on Friday and its official. PNG will now operate on its own under the commoner of RSIPF and that’s it,” he said.
“It is clear, it’s not only between PNG and Solomon Islands Cooperation in terms of Security.
“It is not a bilateral affair or matters anymore. This time as you can see, it’s a multilateral call for security forces to come under one arrangement to try to counter the recent civil unrest in this country and to ensure that, there is stability with Government. And the properties and lives here are being safeguarded and protected. Those are basic things, taken into consideration.
PNG High Commissioner Kaul said people would have come up with different perceptions and ideas, on the deployment of Australia, Fiji, and New Zealand, and PNG security forces on the ground.
“Indulgent those forces are here actually, essentially on the basis to help restore peace and normalcy that arises from the civil unrest itself and that we are only responding to the request by your government, (SI Government).
“From PNG perspective, we want to keep the purpose of contingent coming here, straight to focus on the security aspect of it, at the end of the day, we are going back this is all.
“We don’t want to create any other situation or any other influence of taking advantage of the security situations. We have to respect the integrity and independence of this country.
“Lets’ not forget this, it is fundamental, we have to respect that. We are not seen to be unfreezing, we are not seen to be under minding the integrity and capability of this country to be able to look after itself. So we will uphold that.
“In the courses of executing the peace mission here, at the same time we must respect and upload that, this is the PNG perception, we have no other interest for coming here.
His Excellency Moses Kaul added that PNG is not going to operate under any presence command and it’s clear for both countries.
“Also to mention the cost of operation for them (The PNG Police Forces) will be looked after by the PNG Government for four weeks tentatively, unless if any further extension granted by the Solomon Islands government for that matter.”
