Indonesia recovers bodies of 4 soldiers killed in clashes in Papua

Indonesian Security forces recovered the bodies of four government soldiers killed in a separatist attack during a search. new zealand The pilot was taken hostage by rebels in Indonesia’s Papua region, officials said Thursday.

Four elite forces were killed Saturday after attackers from the West Papua Liberation Army, an armed group of the Free Papua Movement, ambushed 36 government soldiers in the mountainous Nduga district of Papua Highlands Province.

Security forces on Wednesday found bodies, including those of soldiers who had fallen into a 15-meter (49-foot) deep gorge, and evacuated them to a hospital in Timika, a mining city in neighboring Central Papua province, according to the Papuan army. . Spokesperson Colonel Herman Taliaman.

While searching for Philip Mark Mertens, a New Zealand pilot who was kidnapped by rebels in February, the army was ambushed by rebels. He added that a second attack was launched while the

Security forces are still searching for the missing fifth soldier, but bad weather and rugged woodlands are hampering search and evacuation efforts, Taliaman said.

Security forces recovered the bodies of four soldiers in a day after the Indonesian commander-in-chief on Tuesday dismissed claims by separatist groups that more than a dozen government soldiers were killed in an attack.

Admiral Yudo Margono confirmed that only one man was killed and four other soldiers were missing. The rest returned to their posts, he said. Five soldiers were injured, in stable condition, and evacuated to a hospital in Timika.

Rebel spokesperson Sevi Sambom said in a statement Monday that fighters in his group were holding the bodies of 12 soldiers, including nine he said had been “arrested and executed.” said. The rebels provided no evidence to support their statements.

Sambom said rebels carried out an attack last month in retaliation for Indonesia’s “massive military operation” in Papua, killing two rebels in a shootout with security forces.

Margono denied the rebels’ claims as “fake news” and said the military operation in Papua was launched with the aim of minimizing casualties. But he said the authorities would step up pressure on rebels around several separatist strongholds, including Nduga.

In February, rebels attacked a single-engine plane shortly after it landed on Paro’s small airstrip and kidnapped the pilot. The plane was originally going to carry 15 construction workers from other Indonesian islands after rebels threatened to kill them.

Margono said the authorities will continue to prioritize a peaceful approach to Mertens’ release.

The pilot’s kidnapping was the second incident committed by independence fighters since 1996, when rebels kidnapped 26 members of a World Wildlife Fund research mission in Mapenduma. Two of his Indonesians in that group were murdered by the kidnappers, but the remaining hostages were eventually released within five months of him.

The kidnapping of pilots reflects the deteriorating security situation in Papua, Indonesia’s easternmost region. Papua is a former Dutch colony in western New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from most of Indonesia.

Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a United Nations-sponsored vote widely regarded as a sham. Since then, low-level insurgency has raged in the region, which was split last year into five provinces to boost development in Indonesia’s poorest regions.

Saturday’s fighting is the latest in a series of recent violent incidents in Papua, where conflicts between indigenous Papuans and Indonesian security forces are common.

Insurgent attacks have surged significantly in recent years as the government expanded infrastructure and the controversial Trans-Papua Highway, a road under construction in the heart of the Papuan Plateau, intensified resistance. Many indigenous Papuans see the move as a threat to their identity and traditional way of life, prompting attacks by separatist groups and further deployments of the Indonesian military.

Military activity in Papua has raised concerns among rights groups who say the security approach Jakarta has followed for decades has proven incapable of resolving violence in the region. There is

Amnesty International Indonesia called for prioritizing dialogue with separatists to prevent potential human rights abuses and a greater humanitarian crisis. data Between 2018 and 2022, clashes between rebels and security forces killed at least 179 civilians, 35 Indonesian soldiers, nine police, and 23 independence fighters, according to data collected by human rights groups. died.