12 arrested

TWELVE suspects have been arrested with one identified as being responsible for discharging live ammunitions in a shooting accident that saw two soldiers killed at Kupiano on Tuesday.
Acting police commander for the National Capital District and Central, acting Chief Superintendent Laimo Asi, confirmed this yesterday. He is acting in the position while assistant commissioner of police Anthony Wagambie Jr is attending a course overseas.
A Papua New Guinea Defence Force training exercise went terribly wrong when live ammunition, instead of blanks, was used, resulting in the fatalities and wounding. A third soldier and a civilian are in critical condition over the same accident.
Asi called the incident unprecedented.
“This is a first (incident) where PNGDF soldiers are killed in training, in a blue-on-blue situation,” he said.
A blue-on-blue situation is when soldiers are killed by friendly fire from their comrades.
He said investigators from the constabulary and military police had begun investigations into Tuesday’s incident.
He said the investigation team had cordoned off the crime scene to work out the circumstances leading to the shootings.
“I expect the investigators to take blood and urine samples from the main suspect as part of their investigation,” he added.
“They will have to ascertain whether the prime suspect was intoxicated or drugged when the shootings happened. “The findings of the investigation team will bring some closure to the families and relatives of the deceased and the injured victims.”
Details of the suspect implicated in the shootings will be released once he is charged.
“This is an unfortunate incident involving our soldiers, and I am expecting the investigators to probe it thoroughly,” he said.
Asi said the situation had been under control since Tuesday because the incident happened between the soldiers themselves.
Asi addressed the soldiers at the Kupiano field, expressing remorse and thanking them for cooperating with their officers and the police.
Chief of Defence Force Mark Goina said the two deceased were leading seaman Eric Gwale, from Morobe and New Ireland, employed on board HMPNGS Tarangau in Manus, and Corporal Watata Kutegen, from Enga, employed at the Goldie River Training Depot.
Their families were informed.
Goina said the 45 participants were attending a corporal qualifier course held near Kupiano Secondary School on June 24.
They were into the final activity – a dawn raid which involved assault and manoeuvre techniques.
The assault started at 5.45am and at some point had to stop when they noticed something was wrong.