Indonesian military’s tactics slammed
The Indonesian military were attempting to “East Timorise” the unsettled province of Papua by fomenting civil unrest, a human rights coalition said.
There was evidence the army’s crack Kopassus troops were behind an incident in the remote highlands last week in which a policeman was killed and two government officials wounded, the Uniting Church of Australia and Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies said in a joint statement.
The statement was co-authored by John Rumbiak, a spokesman for the Papuan human rights group Elsham, who left his home in the province after a series of death threats two years ago.
The official party was ambushed after delivering vital food aid to villagers in the Puncak Jaya regency which has been at the centre of unrest over the past month with eight people dead already, including a prominent local pastor.
An estimated 5,000 villagers have been forced to flee their homes in the Mulia area of Puncak Jaya which has been closed by the military as they conduct an operation against independence fighters.
Fifteen people have died from hunger, according to the joint statement.
Mr Rumbiak said one of the officials wounded in the attack had previously reported extortion of the local administration by the military who used the money to fund their crack-down.
The human rights investigator described the latest incident as evidence of an attempt to “East Timorise” the conflict in Papua.
“Friday’s attack now threatens an escalation of military repression across the highlands,” he said.
“It is likely that Papuans have been used to carry out this attack by the Indonesian army’s special forces, Kopassus, who have been using local groups in Papua in the same way they manipulated East Timorese to fight their own people.
“This is a precursor to civil war. The military threatens the administration of President (Susilo Bambang) Yudhoyono with a situation where he must give them the green light for a new military operation.
“They have already begun to engineer incidents which will destabilise his presidency.”
Reverend John Barr, the Uniting Church’s international relations spokesman, and Stuart Rees, who heads Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, called for an urgent humanitarian assistance mission to be allowed into the Puncak Jaya area and a halt to the military assault.
“These people have suffered enough,” Professor Rees said.
“It’s time there was a negotiated and internationally supported solution.
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