2) Two suspected armed group members killed in Papua clash: TNI
Investigators in Indonesia want to reach whoever controls, facilitates, and profits from merbau allegedly passed off as legal timber, with 23 containers of the tropical hardwood now seized in Surabaya. That is according to Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry (Kemenhut), which on Friday defined timber laundering as the use of documents to make illegally sourced wood appear legal.
“Forest product documents must be an instrument to ensure the traceability and legality of timber, not used to disguise the origin of illegal timber,” said Dwi Januanto Nugroho, the ministry’s director general of forestry law enforcement. He said illegal timber entering the trade on manipulated documents would damage the credibility of Indonesia’s forest governance and trust in its timber legality system.
Ministry officers and the Indonesian Navy seized the containers on Tuesday night at Tanjung Perak, Surabaya’s main port, after the ship Tanto Permai brought them from Nabire. Officers learned of the shipment when they raided CV Palu Perdana, a timber mill in Nabire on Central Papua’s Cenderawasih Bay, on Wednesday last week.
They found stacks of merbau there with no legal documents, and also suspected that the papers used to move the timber had been scanned. The ministry suspects wood entering the mill was issued legality certificates that travel with processed timber, to make it look legal.
It comes as the Navy said the merbau was cut by chainsaw rather than at a sawmill, even though it was shipped on documents for processed timber. A joint team checked 37 containers from the ship and found sawn timber in 23, which the Navy estimated was worth 5.5 billion rupiah.
Indonesia’s timber legality system, known as SVLK, follows wood from the harvest permit through to the export licence, according to the World Resources Institute. The global research organisation says authorities seized 384 shipping containers of Papuan merbau in late 2018, and that illegal wood often enters legal trade on forged permits.
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) warned in 2010 that demand from China, India, Australia, Europe, and the US had left merbau heavily targeted by smugglers. Three East Java merbau exporters lost their FSC certification or had it suspended in April and June, whilst the register gave no reason.
Meanwhile, INTERPOL said this month that officers in its Operation Madre Tierra VIII uncovered suspected permit fraud and shell companies behind forest crime in Latin America. Russian authorities have also accused exporters of smuggling timber into Asia on fake papers that named false suppliers.
As it stands, the ministry has cleared the Nabire case for a formal criminal investigation into where the timber came from and who sent and received it. Its experts are still counting the volume of wood across all 23 containers, as they match each load with its documents.
“Handling of the case does not stop at the containers we secured at the port,” said Aswin Bangun, who heads the ministry’s forestry law enforcement office for Java, Bali, and Nusa Tenggara. He said investigators would follow the evidence to find out how the timber entered the trade and who could be held responsible.
2) Two suspected armed group members killed in Papua clash: TNI
- October 25, 2026 16:12 GMT+700
Habema Operations Command Chief Brig. Gen. Riyanto said in Jayapura on Saturday that the October 23 clash involved members of the Ndugama-Nderakma group, identified by the military as KKB Kodap III.
“The patrol team followed up on information about an armed group near a residential area. The group reportedly fired at troops, triggering an exchange of gunfire,” Riyanto said.
Two suspected fighters died at the scene, while the others fled, he said.
Authorities were still identifying the two men. Troops seized two air rifles, a bow and arrows, bladed weapons, 18 mobile phones, handheld radios, documents, group insignia, and Rp88 million (about US$4,900).
“Our troops act selectively, proportionately, and professionally, in accordance with operational rules, with public safety as their top priority,” Riyanto said.
The Habema command urged all parties to abandon violence and avoid further clashes with security forces.
“To those still in the forests and mountains, the path back to your families and communities remains open. Stop the violence and help build a better future for Papua’s next generation,” Riyanto said.
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Translator: Evarukdijati, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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