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| Brimob forces in Mile 61 Freeport – Doc Jubi. |
Jakarta Indonesia — A
member of an the National Liberation Army of West Papua (TPNPB) in
Indonesia’s Papua region has disputed police claims that it’s holding villagers
hostage during a standoff with security forces.
The remote region’s long-simmering insurgency has flared in the
past month, with one paramilitary police officer killed and six others wounded
in attacks by the National Liberation Army of West Papua. The two sides are
also waging a PR war, with police calling the group an armed criminal gang and
accusing it of attacks on civilians.
Hendrik Wanmang, who described himself as a commander of the armed
group that goes by the Indonesian acronym TPNPB, said in an interview Friday
that Banti and Kimbeli villagers can’t go to an area the the National
Liberation Army of West Papua define as a battlefield with security
forces because it’s unsafe. But otherwise villagers are free to go to their farms
and move about as they please, he said.
Police on Thursday said a group of about 100 including 25 gunmen
were occupying the two villages and preventing 1,300 people from leaving.
Several hundred of the people are migrant workers from the Indonesian island of
Sulawesi.
“It’s not true, it’s only the provocation of Indonesian military
and police with the aim of damaging our image,” Wanmang told The Associated
Press. “People there are safe, both natives and non-natives are free to do
activities as usual.”
Wanmang was one of two commanders who signed an Oct. 21 statement
warning of unspecified retribution against security forces for alleged
brutality against indigenous Papuans.
The letter declared an area near the U.S.-owned Grasberg gold and
copper mine as a battlefield.
The mine owned by Phoenix, Arizona-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper
& Gold Inc. is a source of tension in the region due to environmental
damage and indigenous Papuans’ resentment at profits from local resources being
sent abroad.
A low-level insurgency for independence has simmered in Papua
since it was transferred from Dutch to Indonesian rule in 1963. The region,
which makes up the western half of the island of New Guinea, was incorporated
into Indonesia in 1969 following a U.N.-sponsored ballot of tribal leaders that
has since been dismissed as a sham.
Indonesia maintains a heavy security presence in the region and
restricts foreign journalists from freely reporting there.
Wanmang said police descriptions of TNP as an armed criminal group
and accusations of crimes against civilians were a tactic to discredit the
Papuan independence movement.
“We are not a new group, we are not a criminal group,” he said.
“We are separatist group who fought for Papua from generation to generation demanding
the sovereignty of the people of Papua, demanding Papuan independence, separate
from Indonesia.”
Security minister Wiranto, who goes by one name, has asked
security officials to peacefully persuade the separatists to leave.
Military commander Gatot Nurmantyo said in a statement Friday that
the villagers are “hostages” and the military is conducting surveillance of
their villages. With police, it hopes to negotiate a solution but is readying
other measures.
“We are also preparing ways that are hard and must be done very
thoroughly,” he said. “Currently we are working closely with police and setting
up a joint team in handling the problem.”
Source : www.washingtonpost.com
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