Transcript
MICHAEL WELLY: She was not a local woman, she was somewhere from coast.
SALLY ROUND: In PNG?
MW: In PNG, yes.
SR: So she was an environmental scientist?
MW: Yes, she was.
SR: And the hostage-takers, what happened to them?
MW: What happened was that the suspect who had the firearm in his possession was arreseted by police and was taken into Tari for detention when the hostage-takers went into the camp, got this female employee, held her hostage and demanded that police release the suspect so my men had to give in to their demand and release the suspect who initially had the home-made firearm on him. We know those suspects involved in this hostage situation. We know their identity, we will have them arrested soon.
SR: Have they gone back to their village?
MW: They have.
SR: So security around the airport, how is that now?
MW: Our police are monitoring the airport. Security is maintained. Police are patrolling the area and the situation is just normal like before.
SR: Have you increased security?
MW: Security, yes we've got our men to be there full-time now so security is tight at the aiport at the moment.
SR: And how would you describe the situation in general in the province, with the elections coming up?
MW: (With) the elections coming up, yes we are anticipating some problems during elections and perhaps after the elections however we have also strategies in place and I am hoping that the response unit that is going to be deployed into Hela province are done soon enough so that I will then strategically locate them to the hotspot areas that I think we need to maintain for the smooth running of the elections. I'm hoping that they'll be coming today, tomorrow at the latest because what I gathered was that they were flown into Hagen on Saturday, Sunday and they're gearing up in Hagen at the moment to drive down to Tari.
SR: And how many are there in this response unit?
MW: I'm hoping to get two mobile squads and two platoons of defence force personnel.
SR: And the hostage-taking, was that election-related at all?
MW: No it was not election-related. It was an isolated incident. It happened that this suspect was walking around with the home-made firearm and was intercepted by the police and then they arrested him and then his relatives retaliated and took the female employee hostage.
