TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
TNI shrugs off ‘unified’ West Papua Army
The KNPB said it did not support the unification.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Hundreds of West Papua National Committee members (KNPB) and Local People Parliaments (PRD) holds a rally at Cendrawasih University, Papua, on May 2. (tabloidjubi.com via tempo.co/-)
T
he Indonesian Military (TNI) has shrugged off claims made by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) that three armed groups had united in a “historic declaration” to create the West Papua Army.
Papua’s Cendrawasih Military Command spokesman, Col. Muhammad Aidi, said the issue was “old news” and the TNI was not afraid.
“They declare this again and again every year but always [fail to] face the military,” Aidi told The Jakarta Post via phone interview on Monday.
Aidi said the military would not tolerate any act of rebellion in Indonesia.
“Whether it’s one person or a group of people, especially by those illegally armed, we will fight them,” he said.
“Militants commit acts of violence and kill military soldiers, too. But when the military defends itself, the militants stretch their political wings and tell national and international media that their human rights had been violated, that the military had committed crimes against humanity,” Aidi said. “So, I say they are cry-babies.”
The ULMWP announced on Monday that West Papua’s three largest separatist factions had united.
