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AKARTA: The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) says the government needs to evaluate its military operations in Papua, as more soldiers and civilians are injured by gunfire.

“We know there are threats from separatists. However, if we use a military approach to solve the separatism problem, we also have to evaluate the approach’s impact on civilians, especially children,” Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar said on Wednesday.

He said that the government might evaluate the military operation, but it still had to solve the security problem.

“We need a guide for conducting military operations that reduces the number of victims, especially civilian victims,” he said.

Haris said that the dialogue approach, which was accepted by all Papua citizens, would help handle the security problems in Papua, especially those caused by separatists.