A brutal killing of three Papuan civilians in Puncak Jaya reveals that occupied West Papua is a ticking time bomb under Indonesian President-elect Prabowo Subianto, claims the leader of an advocacy group.
And United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) Benny Wenda says the Melanesian region risks becoming “another East Timor”.
The victims have been named as Tonda Wanimbo, 33; Dominus Enumbi, and Murib Government.
Their killings were followed by riots in Puncak Jaya as angry indigenous residents protested in front of the local police station and set fire to police cars, said Wenda in a statement.
“This incident is merely the most recent example of Indonesia’s military and business strategy in West Papua,” he said.
“Indonesia deliberately creates escalations to justify deploying more troops, particularly in mineral-rich areas, causing our people to scatter and allowing international corporations to exploit the empty land – starting the cycle of bloodshed all over again.”
According to the ULMWP, 4500 Indonesian troops have recently been deployed to Paniai, one of the centres of West Papuan resistance.
An estimated 100,000 West Papuans have been displaced since 2018, while recent figures show more than 76,000 Papuans remain internally displaced — “living as refugees in the bush”.
Indonesia ‘wants our land’
“Indonesia wants our land and our resources, not our people,” Wenda said.
The Indonesian military claimed that the three men were members of the resistance movement TPNPB (West Papua National Liberation Army), but this has been denied.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Candra Kurniawan claimed one of the men had been sought by security forces for six years for alleged shootings of civilians and security personnel.
“This is the same lie they told about Enius Tabuni and the five Papuan teenagers murdered in Yahukimo in September 2023,” Wenda said.
“The military line was quickly refuted by a community leader in Puncak Jaya, who clarified that the three men were all civilians.”
Concern over Warinussy
Wenda said he was also “profoundly concerned” over the shooting of lawyer and human rights defender Christian Warinussy.
Warinussy has spent his career defending indigenous Papuans who have expelled from their ancestral land to make way for oil palm plantations and industrial mines.
“Although we don’t know who shot him, his shooting acts as a clear warning to any Papuans who stand up for their customary land rights or investigates Indonesia’s crimes,” Wenda said.
Indonesia’s latest violence is taking place “in the shadow of Prabowo Subianto”, who is due to take office as President on October 20.
Prabowo has been widely accused over human rights abuses during his period in Timor-Leste.
“Will he form militias to crush the West Papua liberation movement, as he previously did in East Timor?” asked Wenda.
Local cops seized 394 packages of marijuana from the suspects, identified as NJDM, IT, and TT, Chief of the Papua Police's Narcotics Directorate, Senior Commissioner Alfian, stated here on Saturday.
The marijuana packages were smuggled from PNG into the eastern Indonesian province of Papua, he remarked, adding that the police officers could apprehend the suspects owing to a tip-off from residents.
Alfian remarked that two of the suspected smugglers arrested in Toladan Village are citizens of PNG, while the other individual apprehended at Pojok Bridge in Sentani Sub-district is an Indonesian.
NJDM admitted to having obtained the marijuana package from three PNG citizens, identified as IT, TT, and M, Alfian stated, adding that M, however, could escape the police raid.
The Indonesia-PNG border remains vulnerable to cross-border criminal activities, including the trafficking of marijuana.
In the early morning of Thursday, March 21, 2024, Papua police officers arrested two PNG citizens for allegedly smuggling 51 packages of marijuana from their country into Papua.
They were apprehended at around 2:15 a.m. local time in the Hamadi Hanurata neighborhood of Jaya Selatan Sub-district, Jayapura City.
The suspects, identified as Junior Lenga and Rindox, carried 51 packages of marijuana that they had concealed in four sacks of rice.
Police investigators found that Junior Lenga was on the Jayapura city police's priority watch list, as he had escaped from the Abepura Penitentiary when jailed in connection with a drug smuggling case.
On March 22, 2021, police officers in Papua also arrested a citizen of PNG for allegedly being involved in a cross-border drug trafficking network.
The police personnel confiscated five sacks of marijuana from the detainee, named Gadafi Kuentaw Waropo, 18.
He was apprehended in Many Island of Jayapura Selatan Sub-district, Jayapura City, following the arrest of Beny Toway Waropo, 28.
To fight cross-border drug trafficking operations, the PNG Police in West Sepik Province have sought collaboration with the Indonesian police in Papua.
A total of 110 PNG citizens are being sentenced in connection with drug cases in the Doyo Penitentiary in Jayapura District.
Domestic and transnational drug dealers perceive Indonesia as a potential market due to its huge population and extensive drug use.
The value of drug trade in the country is projected to have reached nearly Rp66 trillion (around US$4.2 billion), with the number of drug trafficking cases continuing to surge.
A joint survey conducted by BNN and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) in 2019 pegged the number of drug users in Indonesia at over 3.4 million.
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Translator: Evarukdijati, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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