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Military urged to cut presence, use of force in Papua
Resource-rich Papua has seen conflict between separatists and security forces since the 1970s, but tensions have escalated considerably since 2018, with pro-independence armed groups mounting deadlier and more frequent attacks.
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Indonesian Military (TNI) soldiers take part in a ceremony on Dec. 12, 2023, at Sultan Iskandar Muda Air Force base in Blang Bintang, Aceh, before being deployed to Papua for security operations. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
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recent string of fatal clashes in Papua has led experts to call for more restraint in the Indonesian Military’s (TNI) handling of tensions in the country’s restive easternmost region.
Resource-rich Papua has seen conflict between separatists and security forces since the 1970s, but tensions have escalated considerably since 2018, with pro-independence armed groups mounting deadlier and more frequent attacks.
In February of last year, the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), took a New Zealand pilot hostage in the hope of using him as a bargaining chip to negotiate for Papuan independence.
Despite the government’s promise to prioritize a “soft approach” in efforts to rescue the pilot, conflict has escalated. The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has reported that at least eight people have died in 12 clashes that have occurred since March.
Tensions are reaching new heights because the government has continued to look to the TNI to provide an answer to the TPNPB’s more frequent attacks, said Deka Anwar, a researcher at the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), a Jakarta-based think tank.
He said the deployment of more soldiers to safeguard national strategic projects such as the Trans-Papua highway project had followed the intensified TPNPB attacks.
“Rather than deescalating conflict, this chain of action-reaction has escalated it,” Deka said on Tuesday.
