10 shot dead in Indonesia's restive Papua: Police
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JAKARTA • Ten people were shot dead in Indonesia's easternmost region of Papua in an ambush believed to be perpetrated by armed separatists, police said yesterday.
Police in the provincial capital of Jayapura told local media that the incident, the deadliest since March when eight telecommunications workers were shot dead, occurred yesterday morning in the remote highland area of Nduga.
Police said about 20 people - three armed with guns and the others with sharp weapons - attacked a truck full of civilians, some of whom were traders transporting their goods to another village.
"When the truck was stopping, the KKB opened fire towards the vehicle from 50m away," a Papua police spokesman said in a statement, using an abbreviation to describe the area's separatist groups. "Ten people were killed and two others severely injured."
The motive remains unclear but the police and army are now investigating exactly which separatists are responsible, the spokesman said.
Yesterday's attack comes days after protests against a new law that will see the region divided from two into five provinces, with the addition of South Papua, Central Papua and Highland Papua.
The government says the new administrative regions will accelerate development, improve the delivery of public services and create more opportunities for Papuans to join the civil service.
But critics say the move will give Jakarta more power over the far-flung, resource-rich region, where a low-level battle for independence has been waged since the area became part of Indonesia after a controversial United Nations-supervised vote in 1969.
The West Papua Liberation Army, which the government has designated as a terrorist organisation, this month rejected the administrative carve-up, threatening to shoot dead any officials involved.
"Jakarta's divide-and-rule strategy was opposed across the board in Papua... Papuans are concerned more non-indigenous Papuans will arrive, further marginalising them in their own land," said Ms Veronica Koman, an Indonesian human rights lawyer with Amnesty International Australia.
"It is likely Papuan armed fighters today sent a message that more non-indigenous Papuans are not welcome."
REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
