The dead civilians were identified as Patianus Kogoya, head of Niporolome Village; Petena Murib, Patianus Kogoya's wife; and Nelius Kogoya, Papua Police Chief Insp. Gen. Mathius Fakhiri stated in Jayapura on Friday evening.
The police investigators received reports that they had died of gunshot wounds, but the investigation into their deaths could not be continued after the mourning families took their bodies for burial, he remarked.
Apart from finding three bodies in Niporolome Village, the security personnel also observed that three other villagers had sustained injuries in the aftermath of the gunfight that broke out around the airport area, Fakhiri remarked.
The wounded residents, identified as Mandis Murib, Lesminus Murib, and Jelemina Wanimbo, had received medical treatment at a local public health center, he noted.
Several armed Papuan terrorists torched various facilities of the Aminggaru Airport, including the air traffic control tower, a broken aircraft, an excavator, and houses of the airport's employees, on Thursday evening (June 3).
The airport is scheduled to resume operations on Saturday after being shut down on Friday.
Over the last few years, armed Papuan groups have used hit-and-run tactics against Indonesian security personnel and unleashed acts of terror against civilians in the districts of Intan Jaya, Nduga, and Puncak to make people fearful of them.
The recent targets of such acts have included construction workers, motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers, teachers, students, street food vendors, and also civilian aircraft.
On December 2, 2018, a group of armed Papuan rebels brutally killed 31 workers from PT Istaka Karya that were engaged in the construction of the Trans Papua project in Kali Yigi and Kali Aurak in Yigi sub-district, Nduga District.
On the same day, the armed attackers also killed a soldier, identified as Handoko, and injured two other security personnel, Sugeng and Wahyu.
Such acts of violence have continued this year. On January 6, 2021, at least 10 armed separatist terrorists vandalized and torched a Quest Kodiak aircraft belonging to the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) on the Pagamba village airstrip.
On February 8, 2021, a 32-year-old man was shot at close range in Bilogai Village, Sugapa Sub-district.
The victim, identified by his initials as RNR, sustained gunshot wounds on the face and right shoulder and was shifted to the Timika Public Hospital in Mimika District on February 9.
In a separate incident on February 9, six armed Papuans fatally stabbed a motorcycle taxi (ojek) driver.
On April 8, 2021, several armed Papuan rebels opened fire at a kiosk in Julukoma Village, Beoga Sub-district, Puncak District.
The shooting resulted in the death of a Beoga public elementary school teacher, identified as Oktovianus Rayo.
After killing Rayo, the armed attackers torched three classrooms at the Beoga public senior high school.
On April 9, 2021, armed separatists reportedly fatally shot another teacher, Yonatan Randen, on the chest.
Two days later, nine classrooms at the Beoga public junior high school were set ablaze by an armed group.
Barely four days later, Ali Mom, a student of the Ilaga public senior high school in Beoga Sub-district, was brutally killed by armed attackers.
On April 25, 2021, Papuan separatists operating in Beoga ambushed State Intelligence Agency (Papua) chief, Maj. Gen. I Gusti Putu Danny Karya Nugraha, and several security personnel during their visit to Dambet Village.
Following Nugraha's fatal shooting, President Joko Widodo instructed the TNI and National Police to track down and arrest all members of armed separatist and terrorist groups operating in Papua, stressing there is no place for them within the Indonesian territory.
In response to these armed terrorists' ongoing acts of terror, People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Bambang Soesatyo said that the state must not allow them to continue to terrorize communities in Papua.
It must ensure that Papuans' rights to enjoy the outcomes of development programs in the country's easternmost province are not disrupted and hijacked by continued acts of terror, he emphasized.
Related news: Armed Papuan criminals torch civilian helicopter at Ilaga Airport
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Related news: Papua: Armed group member killed in gunfight near airport runway
Singapore: Indonesian troops on a manhunt for rebels in the strife-torn region of West Papua have been given carte blanche to shoot anyone, a local priest warns, after the government labelled armed separatists “terrorists”.
Speaking to The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age from Jayapura, Catholic priest Father John Djonga said community leaders had told military and police at a meeting in the provincial capital that the new label would only intensify conflict.
“The church and the people strongly opposed the decision and asked the government to revoke the decision on classifying KKB as a terrorist group,” Djonga said using the Indonesian forces’ name for the armed groups.
“By treating them as terrorists, the military will be free to shoot anyone who is suspected as KKB.”
Joko Widodo’s government is deploying hundreds of troops to its contested easternmost territory to search for armed insurgents after Indonesia’s intelligence chief was killed in an ambush on April 25.
The latest conflict has come with West Papua’s special autonomy status due to expire this year, sparking fresh calls for independence.
Indonesian forces are chasing 170 members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement. The crackdown has reportedly displaced several thousand people.
Tensions have been high since the separatists’ shooting in April of two teachers suspected of being Indonesian spies and the burning of three schools in Beoga, Puncak.
The meeting came in a climate of continuing suspicion over weeks of internet blackouts which Indonesia said were the result of a damaged underwater cable.
Indonesia’s crackdown in its resource-rich outpost has also included the detention of pro-independence leader Victor Yeimo, who was arrested last month, accused of organising the biggest mass demonstrations in years in 2019.
There has been low-level insurgency there since it was absorbed into Indonesia in 1969 by the so-called Act of Free Choice, a process disputed as a sham by independence advocates because the 1025 people selected to vote were chosen by then president Suharto’s military.
In 2001, special autonomy was granted to Papua and later West Papua province - the two are often referred to simply as West Papua. It allowed a local administration to “regulate and manage the interests of the local people” - excluding matters relating to foreign affairs, safety and defence, monetary and fiscal policy, religion and justice - and for Indonesia to support development with funding, which has totalled $9.5 billion since 2002.
However, it was opposed by independence leader Theys Eluay, who was soon after assassinated by members of Indonesia’s special forces, and with the 20-year special autonomy term running out in November pro-independence Papuans have protested against its extension, arguing it restricts political freedoms in its existing form and offers no prospect of a future breakaway from Indonesia.
Indonesian authorities, meanwhile, have given themselves six months to pursue the 170 targeted rebels in Puncak, Intan Jaya and Nduga.
Arief Fajar Satria, the spokesman for security forces sent to Papua last month, said the joint police and military operation consisted of 1128 personnel and their strategy was “to wait for them to come out from their hiding” in the mountains.
“We have mapped out these fugitives based on their vital roles,” he said from Jakarta, to where he has returned along with many of the reinforcements. “They often do a bit of a hit and run strategy, just like when they put schools on fire.
“We chased them up to the verge of the forests but unfortunately the equipment is not able to detect them due to the very thick forests. So we waited right on the verge of the forests.”
Victor Mambor, a senior editor at media outlet Jubi Tabloid, said the number of people displaced had increased significantly since the declaration of the TPNPB as terrorists. Nudga and Intan Jaya, he said, were “like dead cities”, with no government activities or schools open and security forces using them as posts.
He cast doubt on whether security forces would be able to identify and capture the rebels on their wanted list.
Even if they are successful, however, it will do nothing to end a perennial crisis of trust.
“Until today, Papuans still see the Act of Free Choice as an act of annexation,” Mambor said.
“As long as we don’t settle this historical issue, nothing can be solved.”
The only way to achieve that is dialogue, according to Adriana Elisabeth, an expert on Papuan issues at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences who bemoans the fact there has been precious little of it over the years.
Having herself gathered representatives from different parties from 2011 to 2016 for informal discussions, she has suggested Jakarta should conduct talks with individual Papuan tribes as well as with the TPNPB.
Formal talks have, however, never materialised.
“Jakarta is worried that Papuans will demand independence while Papuans do want to demand independence,” she said.
“To me, that is not the kind of dialogue they should have. I think they should first come together to discuss each of their problems.”
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