Suspected rebels in restive Papua attack 2 COVID-19 medical workers

Breaking News from Kyodo News

JAKARTA – Gunmen believed to be separatist rebels on Saturday attacked two medical workers fighting the new coronavirus pandemic in Indonesia’s restive province of Papua, killing one of them, police and military said.

Col. Eko Daryanto, spokesman for Papua’s Cendrawasih Military Regional Command, said the attack occurred around 1 p.m. when the workers, part of the province’s task force for COVID-19 mitigation, were transporting medicine for infected patients in a remote village in Intan Jaya Regency.

Security personnel evacuates a medical worker, who was critically injured after having been attacked by gunmen believed to be rebels of the separatist Free Papua Movement, from a remote village in Intan Jaya Regency easternmost, restive Papua Province on May 23, 2020.(Photo courtesy of the Papuan Police)(Kyodo)

Benny Wenda says West Papua Liberation Army not criminals

Benny Wenda statement is a hard evidence of his support to Free West Papua violent action by killing civilians. He can hide in Oxford like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, but his true identity began to appear gradually.

Source: Radio New Zealand RNZ  Link artikel : WPLA claims

12:53 pm on 7 December 2018

The bodies of 16 people have been recovered from the Papua highlands, where a massacre of at least 24 Indonesian construction workers is believed to have taken place on Sunday.

West Papua Liberation Army claims responsibility for Papua killings

Source: Radio New Zealand RNZ  Link artikel : WPLA claims

4:37 pm on 5 December 2018

Separatist Free West Papua military wing,  The West Papua Liberation Army is claiming responsibility for the killings of at least 24 Indonesian construction workers in Papua.

The West Papua Liberation Army

The claims confirmed initial blame placed on the separatist group by Indonesian authorities, and marked a deadly escalation of conflict in the restive region unseen in recent years.

Michael Gillard Special Investigation: Provoking Conflict by Supporting Separatist Propaganda

The “special investigation” BP in West Papua – Slow Motion Genocide, High Speed Profit, by Michael Gilllar is unreliable. The report discusses irrelevant matters insinuating ugly thing about Indonesia and neglects so many improvements in the last 20 years of Indonesia’s social and political reform.

In this article, I will discuss only one important matter that Gillard highlighted in his report.

The so called slow motion genocide is a term coined in 2013 by Jim Elmslie and Camellia Webb-Gannon, both Phd in their article A Slow Motion Genocide: Indonesian Rule in West Papua published in Griffith Journal of Law & Human Dignity. They argued that genocide is taking place in Indonesian-controlled West Papua only by a perception of a tight control against separatist movement. They said: “Explicit and implicit government policy has been consistently directed towards countering and eliminating Papuan attempts to create an independent state for their nation or enjoy political freedom on a par with other Indonesians. In this tightly controlled situation genocidal acts have been undertaken as government policy, effectively thwarting the Papuan nationalists in the era when information emerging from the province(s) could be tightly controlled”.

PNG’s joint forces border operation could be extended

Updated February 11, 2011 17:38:40 Radio Australia

Authorities in Papua New Guinea have recently rounded up more than 100 people at the border with the Indonesian province of Papua and took them to a refugee camp in PNG’s Western province.

They join other West Papuans at the East Awin refugee camp which is protected by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

They were rounded up by a joint PNG security forces operation to locate, search and destroy alleged West Papua training camps and settlements at the PNG-Indonesia border.

The Joint Forces Commander, Jerry Frank says the operation has also resulted in the collection a lot of revenue for the government.

He says the operation could be extended by another three months to June when it expires next month.

Presenter: Firmin Nanol

Speaker: Jerry Frank, PNG’s Joint Forces Commander

PNG border crackdown detains 14 suspected of OPM links

(RNZI) The head of Papua New Guinea’s join security forces operation in Sandaun province around the border with Indonesia says 14 detainees are suspected of being members of the militant separatist group, OPM Free West Papua.

Operation Sunset Merona has been underway for three weeks with more than 100 people arrested and detained for alleged illegal movement across the border from Indonesia.

Papua Torture Trials Show ‘Progress’: US Military

Washington. The US military is concerned over the light jail sentences given to Indonesian troops caught on video torturing men in the restive eastern region of Papua but see the trial as a sign of “progress,” a senior official said Tuesday.

Testimony of US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense

Testimony
of
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Robert Scher
Asian and Pacific Security Affairs
Office of the Secretary of Defense
before the
Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the Global Environment
Committee on Foreign Affairs
United States House of Representatives
September 22, 2010

“Crimes Against Humanity: When Will Indonesia’s Military Be Held Accountable for Deliberate and Systematic Abuses in West Papua?”

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the Indonesian military’s activities in Papua and West Papua. This issue is important to our relationship with Indonesia, and one that we in the Department of Defense are paying very close attention to. I look forward to sustaining an on-going dialogue with you as these dynamics evolve.

Indonesia is a strategically important country to the United States for several reasons. It is the fourth most populous country on the planet, is home to more Muslims than any other country in the world, and stretches more than 3,000 miles across a key maritime transit route that connects the Middle East to East Asia. These have been facts for a long time. However, now we can add another reason that makes Indonesia important to the United States, and that is that Indonesia is a democracy. In fact, since the fall of Suharto more than ten years ago, Indonesia has taken its place as the world’s third largest democracy. In that short time, Indonesia has made great advancements in consolidating its democracy, an important piece of which is progress on both defense reform and military professionalization.

US Promises Normalisation of Military Cooperation

Jakarta (Papua Story) – The US government promises to shortly normalize military cooperation, notably with the Indonesian army special troops.

This was stated by the commander of the US special troops in the Pacific, Rear Admiral Sean A. Pybus, when he paid a visit to TNI (Indonesian Armed Forces) Commander-in-Chief General Djoko Santoso, as quoted by the chief of the TNI Information Center, Maj-Gen. Aslizar Tanjung, in a written statement received here Tuesday (18/5).

600 Army Officers Deployed to Guard Papua Freeport Mine

At least 600 army officers will help secure the working areas of the PT Freeport Indonesia mine in Timika, Papua, starting on September 2, following a number of armed attacks on the site.