X does not mark any gold spot

2003-10-15 16:23

Papua New Guinea - Wild rumours sweeping this near bankrupt Pacific nation of a multibillion dollar stash of World War II gold bullion are wrong, the government said on Wednesday.

"There are no gold bullion," said a spokesperson for the Papua New Guinea government on usual condition of anonymity.

For weeks, speculation has soared that an estimated $1.5bn stash of gold had been found hidden - supposedly by the country's wartime Japanese occupiers - in a cave in remote New Ireland province.

The rumours reached fever pitch earlier this month when the government flew troops and police to the remote island province to search for the rumoured gold.

For decades, tales of a massive stash of gold bullion left behind by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, the commander in chief of the Japanese navy, have been handed down from generation to generation.

But the government spokesperson said its latest investigations had found "that there were no such war surplus materials as gold bullion left behind after World War II."

Local landowners reportedly recently told the government there were 1 000 gold bars weighing 12.5kg each in vaults inside a secret mountain cave.

They said villagers had attempted to keep the cache a secret, but word leaked out when an elder on his death bed passed the secret to a child who allegedly broke the oath.

Last week, journalists chasing the story had tapes confiscated and were ordered to leave the province by police.

- AP