Israel arms PNG for war on Bougainville

An Israeli company has unloaded arms and military surveillance equipment on Bougainville for the Papua New Guinea Defence Force, the Bougainville Interim Government reports.

On October 29, the BIG said bombs and other armaments were shipped on the MV Lae Chief to Loloho, the main wharf for the island's closed Panguna mine and where a military camp is stationed just 7 km north of the capital, Arawa. An eyewitness said the ship was closely guarded by PNG security forces.

Israeli company ELBIT Ltd. submitted a project "for the surveillance of fishing vessels" to the PNG Fisheries Department, the BIG said. Such surveillance had been carried out in the past by Australian defence force aircraft, it said.

A company director, Arie Tal, was reported as saying that PNG had chosen his company's proposal for the contract worth $US13 million. The Bougainville Revolutionary Army intelligence had network claimed that Israel was selling new military equipment to PNG for Operation High Speed 2 in June. However, this was denied by the Israeli embassy in Canberra.

The BIG statement said: "The Israeli military is clearly trying to help the PNGDF win this war on Bougainville which they have lost so many times from the BRA. PNG also has a military technical agreement with the government of Israel and has brought military equipment from them such as military aircraft before."

From GLW issue 254