Papua armed criminal group targets PT Palapa Ring

Terror by armed criminal groups

Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA) – An armed Papuan group reportedly vandalized and set fire to property owned by telecommunication developer PT Palapa Ring Timur in Puncak district in the easternmost Indonesian province of Papua.

Confirming the report, chief of the Puncak District Police, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Dicky Saragih, said on Monday that the armed group burned down several items belonging to the company, which had arrived on February 8, 2021 and were pending installation.

On January 7, 2021, the armed group had reportedly set fire to two base transceiver stations (BTS) — BTS 4 Pingeli cliff, Omukia district and BTS 5 in Muara district Mabuggi, Puncak, he informed.

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Papua has borne witness to a vicious cycle of violence, with armed Papuan criminal groups in the districts of Intan Jaya and Nduga targeting civilians and security personnel over the past two years.

Intan Jaya recorded its bloodiest month in September, 2020, with armed groups launching a series of attacks in the area that claimed the lives of two soldiers and two civilians and left two others injured.

The acts of terror have continued this year. On January 10, 2021, for instance, an Indonesian soldier died in a gunfight in the Titigi area of Intan Jaya District. (INE)

Source of news of Terror by armed criminal groups: ANTARA NEWS

Notes:

Located on the western half of the island of New Guinea and long racked by a simmering violent separatist insurgency, Papua encompasses Indonesia’s two easternmost provinces.

A former Dutch colony, West Papua was formally incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after an undisputed vote of about 1,025 representative tribal leaders. The result of the plebiscite was overseen and endorsed by the United Nations.

Since the democratization in 1998, especially since 2007, democracy by mean of elections has been introduced to increase political participation in Papua and West Papua. The fact that the leaders of Papua and West Papua provinces are democratically elected by the people has strengthened the legality of West Papua as a province of Indonesia.