Jakarta – Suspected rebels trying to steal weapons during a night raid on a military post exchanged fire with government troops early yesterday, killing two soldiers in Indonesia's remote Papua province, the military said.
The gunbattle also killed one man, who villagers later identified as a rebel, said Papuan military chief Brigadier-General Nurdin Zainal.
Some 15 unidentified men were involved in the raid on the armoury at a military post in Wamena at 1 am, Brig-Gen Zainal said. He declined to speculate on which group was responsible, but he said Wamena was known as a stronghold of the separatist Free Papua Movement, which has several factions.
Rebel leader Kelly Kwalik operates in Wamena and Timika, near the central highlands of the vast mountainous region.
"We have strong indications that separatist groups are involved based on their motives and actions. But we don't know which faction," he said.
Wamena is a hill town about 3,700 km east of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.
Most of the soldiers were asleep when the gunmen broke the locks of gates with a crow bar, switched off the lights and entered the military compound, he said. A night guard saw the gunmen and woke up his colleagues and the two groups clashed.
"They went straight to the armoury so we strongly suspect that they are part of the separatist movement. But we don't know which one," Brig-Gen Zainal said.
The military claimed the rebels had left identity cards: a rubber stamp with the mark of the separatist liberation army, three jackets, a crow bar and M-16 automatic rifle ammunition. A first lieutenant and a first sergeant were fatally shot, he said.
Villagers identified an attacker who was shot dead as an alleged rebel named Ismail Murid. Kwalik also goes by the name of Titus Murid – the surname is a clan name in Papua.
The attackers stole 13 M-16s, 13 other unidentified guns, three Stens – a British World War II sub-machine gun – and thousands of bullets, the military said.
Indonesia occupied the former Dutch colony in 1963 on the western side of Papua New Guinea. Papua's sovereignty was formalised in 1969 through a UN-sponsored referendum. Rights groups claimed the ballot was a sham, and a loosely organised guerilla band has been fighting for independence since then.
The rebels fight mainly with bows and arrows and other homemade weapons. In the past, the military has accused them of stealing soldiers' firearms to boost their weapons cache.
Even though the mineral-rich province is home to one of the world's largest gold mines – run by New Orleans-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold – the indigenous people, who live a stone-age-like existence, see little of the wealth gained from their natural resources.