News

Call to 'lay down arms' after PNG mutiny arrest

Sun January 29, 2012 9:03pm

PAPUA New Guinea's police called for soldiers to "lay down their arms" and let a leadership tussle be decided lawfully today after arresting an ex-colonel over an attempted uprising.

Yaura Sasa was arrested in Port Moresby overnight after leading a rebellion which saw the nation's military chief, Francis Agwi, taken captive and Sasa declaring himself new commander of the PNG defence force.

Sasa demanded the reinstatement of veteran leader Michael Somare, who was replaced as prime minister during a lengthy overseas trip for surgery, laying down a seven-day deadline and warning that "necessary actions" would follow.

But the uprising was quashed before the day was out, with Agwi freed and 15 of Sasa's 30 men placed under arrest.

Police spokesman Dominic Kakas said Sasa was captured at a lodge in suburban Boroko last night and charged with inciting mutiny, a crime which carries a maximum term of life imprisonment.

Kakas said Sasa willingly submitted to an interview and police asked him to instruct his fellow soldiers to stay out of the country's leadership tussle after Somare called for the military to take up his cause.

"We can't rule out that possibility," Kakas said of further mutinies.

"We have actually taken the opportunity to appeal to them through the retired colonel to lay down their arms and allow the courts to decide these issues," he said.

Somare issued a strident statement earlier today urging the police and military to support him.

"I appeal to the leaders of our disciplinary forces to look beyond the current circumstances and come to terms with why you (are) a member of a law enforcing agency," Somare said, according to Australian Associated Press.

"You are here first and foremost to uphold and enforce the law of the land and the orders of the Supreme Court."

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