This item from
www.news.com.au
PAPUA New Guinea police are questioning an Australian pilot who landed a light aircraft at a disused airport near a rebel no-go zone and the huge and abandoned Panguna mine on Bougainville.
The PNG government today described the pilot's unauthorised actions on the troubled island as "stupid and risky" and said it raised safety and security concerns.
A spokeswomen for Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) today said a privately owned Australian aircraft landed at a decommissioned airport at the central Bougainville town of Aropa near the copper and gold mine.
She said the small plane was piloted by an Australian, with another Australian on board as well as a British national.
The Australian pilot is now in Port Moresby and is being interviewed by police, she said.
PNG's Inter-Government Relations Minister Sir Peter Barter said the landing raised serious safety and security concerns.
"As Aropa airport is currently not open for use, we are concerned at the safety implications," he said.
"We are also concerned to know why anyone would do something so stupid and risky as landing an aircraft at an airport which has been decommissioned for some time."
Sir Peter said the three foreigners had been seen heading towards the island's no-go zone around the former Panguna mine.
The huge open cut mine, once among the largest in the world, has been closed since the late 1980s when rebel leader Francis Ona declared a secessionist war against its operators and the PNG government.
Ona still occupies the area and has refused to allow people in without his authorisation.
Sir Peter said PNG authorities want to know why the foreigners "have chosen to arrive in such a strange and potentially dangerous way."
"What is it that causes them to risk an illegal landing and then travel secretly into the no-go zone?" Sir Peter asked.
Australian law enforcement officials in PNG were today discussing the illegal landing with their PNG counterparts, the DFAT spokeswoman said.
The Australian-registered aircraft had been grounded in the northern PNG city of Rabaul and would stay there until further investigations have been completed, she said.
Eight Australian Federal Police officers arrived in Bougainville last month as part of the A$900 million Enhanced Co-operation Program to restore law and order to PNG.
About 210 Australian police and 64 public officials are expected to be in place at crime centres around the country by March 2005.
DJ737
The Roo Rooter
