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Komnas HAM criticizes government handling of tensions in Papua
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Soldiers board a transport ship for Papua as part of a routine deployment of 450 troops, at the port in Krueng Geukueh, Aceh, on July 29, 2021. (AFP/Azwar Ipank)
T
he National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has called on the government to adopt a better approach in its handling of rising tensions in Papua, where a string of skirmishes between security forces and separatists has killed at least eight people.
According to Komnas HAM data, there have been at least 12 violent confrontations in Papua throughout March and April that have killed five personnel from the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police and three civilians, with a further nine injured.
The incidents in March include a shootout between members of armed groups and a joint team of the TNI and the police in Intan Jaya, Central Papua province, which killed a 16-year-old, as well as three separate shootings of TNI and police personnel elsewhere in the province, allegedly committed by armed groups.
Komnas HAM also took note of two attacks in April allegedly staged by armed groups that killed a village head in Pegunungan Bintang, Papua Highlands province, and two civilians in Puncak, Central Papua.
Another child was killed in a shootout between personnel of the joint police-military Cartenz Peace Operation and armed groups last week in Intan Jaya, Central Papua.
More recently, Second Lt. Oktovianus Sogalrey, a commander of Aradide district’s military command in Paniai regency in Central Papua, was found dead with gunshot wounds on Thursday on the trans-Papua road between Aradide and Enarotali, the capital of Paniai.
