Border markers missing: PNG Official


Monuments along the country’s international land border with Indonesia are deteriorating, Department of Western national agency coordinator Richard Aria says.

He said the national government had ignored the international border monuments by not funding for their maintenances.

“We have more than 50 monuments, some still remain as cement markers and it is hard to locate them without the use of GPS devices,” he said.

Aria said the border posts run from Wutung in West Sepik on the meridian 141 and alter at the Fly River bulge then across the remote mountains and down the swamplands to the mouth of Torasi River in Western.

“The monuments on the border are deteriorating, nobody knows the divide,” he said.

“It’s very confusing because we have the local villagers on the border, and the monuments will signal to them to be officially recognised as Papua New Guineans.

“When the monuments deteriorated at Torasi area, the Indonesians built a new sign board and put their flags 30m east into the PNG side.”

Aria said the monuments are the national icons of the country, and they played a vital role in identifying the two countries’ border.

“We have a couple of concerns, in the Fly Bulge, high flooding and sedimentation have covered the two monuments – MM10 and MM11,” he said.

He praised the Western government for its support in maintaining the monuments.

The National questioned the acting secretary of Foreign Affairs Lucy Bogari during a media briefing on Tuesday in Daru about the government’s ignorance in maintaining the monuments. Bogari responded: “We’ve got plans in place to be approved by the NEC.”

“I want to reaffirm that we have officials from the provincial affairs here to ensure that the monuments are visible.”

She added that the government would replace the monuments that had disappeared or were barely visible.

“You can be assured, the monuments will be developed with PNG flags flying high on them,” Bogari said.

Island Business

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