REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The Indonesian police will send a team to Darfur, Sudan, to investigate the arms smuggling case allegedly involving members of the Indonesian peacekeeping force in Darfur, a police official said. "We will send a team there to investigate the matter," Secretary of National Central Bureau, Interpol Indonesia, Brigadier General Naufal Yahya, said when contacted over the report here on Monday.

It was earlier reported that the government in North Darfur had said that Indonesian police members in the peacekeeping force had been arrested at the Al Fashir airport in Sudan on Friday (Jan 20) for allegedly attempting to smuggle arms and ammunition camouflaged as rare minerals. 

According to the Sudanese Media Centre, the arms included 29 Kalashnikovs, four rifles, six GM3 and 61 pistols of various types and a large number of various kinds of ammunition. Naufal stated he could not as yet confirm the arms ownership. "We are still checking to see who they belong to. They come (together) with those of the Indonesian police contingent. That is why we will send a team to check it," he added.