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How Indonesian village aid funds weapons for Papua's rebellion
The "Dana Desa" village fund introduced by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in 2015 and valued at $4.7 billion this year has long been criticised as prone to corruption. Nowhere is the oversight of the scheme more challenging than in Papua's remote highlands.
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A man, identified as Philip Mehrtens, the New Zealand pilot who is said to be held hostage by a pro-independence group, stands among the separatist fighters in Indonesia's Papua region, in this undated picture released on February 14, 2023. (Reuters/The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB))
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eparatists in Papua where a New Zealand pilot was taken hostage in February have been siphoning off government aid money to buy black market guns for a deadly guerrilla war, officials say.
The "Dana Desa" village fund introduced by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in 2015 and valued at $4.7 billion this year has long been criticised as prone to corruption. Nowhere is the oversight of the scheme more challenging than in Papua's remote highlands.
More than 3,000km (1,800 miles) from Jakarta, Papuan rebels have been fighting for independence since the region rich in copper, gold, nickel and natural gas was absorbed by Indonesia after a 1969 vote.
The escalating insurgency is coinciding with a spike in illegal weapons sales in the region, according to lawyers and court documents, with the village fund providing a key source of revenue.
In 2015, there was just one case of illegal weapons and ammunition trade in Papua, court documents and reports show. By 2021, the number jumped to 14.
In Nduga, where Susi Air pilot Phillip Mehrtens has been held hostage for more than three months, so concerned are police the village fund is being used to buy guns they have asked the central government to withhold the $14 million allocated to the district this year.
"If we don't block this, then the village fund will flow to the village and they (rebels) might keep asking for support… Maybe to buy weapons, to buy food," Papua police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Ignatius Benny Ady Prabowo told Reuters.
