PORT MORESBY - A rocket launcher and nine grenades have been found in the luggage of a Papua New Guinean man travelling on an internal flight.
The unnamed man was being questioned at the Mt Hagen police station, PNG's National newspaper reported today.
Police seized the weapon andammunition after discovering them at the Mt Hagen airport in PNG's Highlands region last Wednesday.
They also discovered a scope that is believed to be part of the rocket launcher.
Police arrested the Southern Highlands man when he arrived on a flight from PNG's south coast Gulf Province.
PNG's Police Minister Sani Rambi has called for greater security by airlines, including the state-owned Air Niugini.
"Airline companies operating in the country should resort to more competent security practices and install modernised security systems," he said.
"The ineffective and slack security divisions of airlines are solely blamed for the transport of illegal firearms from one place to another," he said.
PNG's Highlands region is infamous for sometimes decades-long tribal fights that traditionally relied on spears, bows and arrows.
Nowadays sophisticated weaponry like army-issue machine guns are commonly used.
Most illegal weapons in PNG are stolen from police or army armouries while weapons smuggled into PNG often come from Australia via the Torres Strait or from Bougainville, a PNG province still simmering in tensions after a decade-long civil war.
