- by Peter Farmer
- The Guardian
- Issue #2192
The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) says that it carried out a successful “cleansing operation” against “soldiers/police officers” posing as illegal gold miners on 20 May. TPNPB spokesman Sebby Samborn said the operation was an act of retaliation for the deaths of two of its members in the remote distract of Yahukim in the previous week.
The Indonesian military claims that the victims were “civilians panning for gold in the area.” Since West Papua is under Indonesian military occupation, it’s next to impossible to verify such statements. West Papua has been under Indonesian control since 1963. In 1969, a referendum held under military supervision allowed 1,000 West Papuans out of a population of around 800,000 to vote for integration with Indonesia.
The Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights is investigating a military operation in April this year in which more than a dozen civilians including women and children were killed in the Papuan village of Kembru.
