A series of events unraveled in Papua over the past month, ranging from a peaceful rally to a flag-raising and a series of small bombings, all linked to what Jakarta perceives as acts of separatism.

Because Jakarta sees all these events as related to separatism, its response is all too expected: harsh and uncompromising. Just look at what happened in Wamena a month ago, and in Mimika in the past week or so.

What happened in Wamena on August 9 began as a peaceful rally to commemorate the United Nations' Indigenous Peoples Day. During the rally, a small number of people raised the Papuan Bintang Kejora (Morning Star) flag, but security personnel reacted quickly, shot and shot, killing one person, Opinus Tabuni.

Opinus Tabuni has now become a symbol of Jakarta's oppression of Papuans. People are regularly staging demonstrations in Jayapura and elsewhere demanding the authorities investigate and resolve the shooting case.

But why is there no response yet? Isn't it all too clear that one person has already become a victim of shooting -- why haven't the police launched an investigation? Do they really care?

While this shooting case remained unresolved, incidents played out in other parts of Papua, which security officials easily blamed on Papuan separatists.

In the past two weeks, a series of small bombings hit three different locations at the site of PT Freeport Indonesia, a copper and gold mining giant -- one near the Timika airport and two at the highway leading to Freeport's mining concessions. The bombings caused only minor damage.

The police said the explosions were from two small bombs and a mortar, made in the 1941-1943 period. They blamed rebels from the Free Papua Movement (OPM) for the bombings.

After these small bombings, as if to confirm the police's statements, a group of people raised the Morning Star flag at Kwamki Lama village, Mimika Baru subdistrict in Mimika, early last Wednesday.

A large number of policemen were deployed to the village to search for the unknown people who hoisted the flag. But the perpetrators left the scene before the police arrived. Mimika Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Godhelp Mansnembra described the flag raising as an act of "sedition, organized by a separatist group working in Mimika regency".

From such a series of incidents, we can see that the police seem to care more about catching people hoisting the Morning Star flag, rather than securing the rally in Wamena, for instance, or providing security for people in Mimika regency. As if flag raising is more dangerous than murder or bombings.

From these incidents, the big questions arise: Do Papuans feel like a part of Indonesia, and does Indonesia care about Papuans? The answers to both questions, we are afraid, are "NO". And this needs serious attention, especially from politicians in Jakarta.

One of the problems actually stems from Jakarta's own decision in 2007 to outlaw the raising of the Bintang Kejora flag, with those doing so facing imprisonment. This decision originates from Jakarta's perception that the Morning Star flag is a symbol of separatism in Papua.

This decision only creates problems on the ground, with people tempted to raise the forbidden flag, and the police trying their best to arrest and imprison them. And often, acts on the ground swerve to different directions, as happened in Wamena when one man was killed.

In reality, not all Papuans consider the Morning Star flag a symbol of separatism. They simply consider it a local symbol, just like any other provincial flag adopted by other provinces in Indonesia.

Thus the ban on the flag being raised creates more problems, and will not resolve the issue of separatism in Papua. Therefore, we welcome last week's statement from Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono that the raising of the Morning Star flag by Papuans should not be considered an act of separatism, but rather an attempt to seek attention from Jakarta.

Although Juwono was accompanied by Australian Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon when he made the statement, we believe Juwono was genuine in his statement and suggestions on how to resolve the problems affecting Papua, which we also share, saying "We should seek dialogue with them (Papuans) instead of punishing them."

We must stop punishing Papuans. The government must follow up on Juwono's statement and abolish the ban on the hoisting of the Morning Star flag. Otherwise, the police and the military will continue to hunt down, and even shoot, Papuans hoisting the flag they love.

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