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‘Peaceful resolution to Papua’s war for liberation’: A critical comment
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Hundreds of people march in Surabaya on Saturday under the banner of the Papuan Students Alliance (AMP) to commemorate Dec. 1, the day they consider the West Papua Liberation Day. (JP/Sigit Pamungkas)
T
he opinion by Veronica Koman published in The Jakarta Post on Dec. 19 titled “Peaceful resolution to Papua’s war for liberation” is worth commenting on.
The views are tendentious and contain mischaracterizations, not only because of her attempts to justify the recent ruthless killings of civilians and an Indonesian Military (TNI) soldier in Nduga, but also of her impetuous portrayal on the general situation of Indonesia and Papua.
Her opinion is erroneously insinuative on many fronts. To name a few, by depicting the merciless murder in Nduga as part of war for liberation, she insinuated that the loss of lives was a political necessity vindicated by the ends that the criminal group(s) sought. The credo she thus offers is pretty much “the end justifies the means”.
While the government took measures to pursue the armed criminals responsible for these killings to their hideout, Koman, who claims to be a lawyer, forcefully defends the separatists as combatants without any legal explanation to claim such a status. It is a rather upsetting statement as at a moment like this, what matters the most for the family of the fallen victims in Nduga is that the perpetrators of such merciless killings must be brought to justice in a swift manner.
