Mahfud MD Persistently Endeavors to Solve Papua Issue Peacefully

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's top security minister, Mahfud MD, has made relentless efforts in pursuit of peaceful solutions to the Papua issue through engaging in a dialog with Catholic and Christian leaders on Monday.

Attendees at the meeting comprised several figures: Mgr Innocentius Rettobjaan from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Agats and Mgr Petrus Canisius Mandagi from the Archdiocese of Merauke.

Ignatius Cardinal Suharyo, the Indonesian Bishops Conference (KWI) chairman and Archbishop of Jakarta, also partook in the dialog with Mahfud MD.

"We hold dialog with everyone, including those who can create room for peace and security for all Papuans," he noted in a press statement that ANTARA quoted here, Wednesday.

According to the press statement, Mahfud MD has been holding a dialog with Papuan and other influential figures since his appointment by President Joko Widodo as the coordinating minister for political, legal, and security affairs in 2019.

Members of Indonesia's Regional Representatives Council (DPD) handling the Papua issue and Muslim figures from the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) also got involved in the dialog.

Despite Papua being part of Indonesia as stipulated in Resolution No. 2504 at the 24th UN General Assembly on 19 November 1969, several people there continue to echo a wildcard independence referendum.

Over the course of the last few years, armed Papuan terrorist groups have also employed hit-and-run tactics against Indonesian security personnel and mounted acts of terror against civilians in the districts of Intan Jaya, Nduga, and Puncak to create a sense of fear among the people.

Construction workers, motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers, teachers, students, street food vendors, and also civilian aircraft were the recent targets of such terror acts.

On December 2, 2018, a group of armed Papuan rebels brutally killed 31 workers from PT Istaka Karya, who were engaged in the construction of the Trans Papua project in Kali Yigi and Kali Aurak in Yigi sub-district, Nduga District.

On the same day, the armed attackers also killed a soldier, identified as Handoko, and injured two other security personnel, Sugeng and Wahyu.

Such acts of violence have continued this year. On January 6, 2021, at least 10 armed separatist terrorists vandalized and torched a Quest Kodiak aircraft belonging to the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) on the Pagamba village airstrip.

On February 8, 2021, a 32-year-old man was shot at close range in Bilogai Village, Sugapa Sub-district.

The victim, identified by his initials as RNR, sustained gunshot wounds on the face and right shoulder and was shifted to the Timika Public Hospital in Mimika District on February 9.

In a separate incident on February 9, six armed Papuans fatally stabbed a motorcycle taxi (ojek) driver.

On April 8, 2021, several armed Papuan rebels opened fire at a kiosk in Julukoma Village, Beoga Sub-district, Puncak District.

The shooting resulted in the death of a Beoga public elementary school teacher, identified as Oktovianus Rayo.

After killing Rayo, the armed attackers torched three classrooms at the Beoga public senior high school.

On April 9, 2021, armed separatists reportedly fatally shot another teacher, Yonatan Randen, on the chest.

Two days later, nine classrooms at the Beoga public junior high school were set ablaze by an armed group.

Barely four days later, Ali Mom, a student of the Ilaga public senior high school in Beoga sub-district, was brutally killed by armed attackers.

On April 25, 2021, Papuan separatists operating in Beoga ambushed State Intelligence Agency (Papua) Chief Maj. Gen. I Gusti Putu Danny Karya Nugraha and several security personnel while they were visiting Dambet Village.

Following Nugraha's fatal shooting, President Joko Widodo ordered the TNI and National Police to track down and arrest all members of armed separatist and terrorist groups operating in Papua, affirming there is no place for them within the Indonesian territory.

Read: Papua Security Task Force Confiscates KKB Firearms, Ammunition

ANTARA