Banjir Ambarita, Dessy Sagita & Ezra Sihite, Jayapura – A pro-independence Papuan group has claimed responsibility for the killing of the Mulia subdistrict police chief earlier this week, a police official said on Thursday.
Adj. Comr. Dominggus Awes was attacked by two men on Monday at the Mulia airport and killed with his own handgun.
"We received a letter, claiming to come from the OPM, that claimed responsibility for the shooting of the subdistrict police chief. But I do not trust it," said the Puncak Jaya Police chief, Adj. Sr. Comr. Alex Korwa.
Alex was referring to the Free Papua Organization, which is a mostly uncoordinated amalgam of small and poorly armed groups that has fueled a low-intensity pro-independence resistance movement in Papua for decades.
Alex said the letter, signed by Purom Wonda, also claimed responsibility for other recent shootings in Puncak Jaya district. "But I still doubt this," he said, adding that OPM's armed wings were split into a number of uncoordinated groups, and that anyone could claim responsibility.
Wonda's OPM group, the officer said, had previously been unknown. He said it did not appear to be linked to the Tingginambut-based OPM group led by Goliath Tabuni or to the Yambi-based group led by Murib. In the letter, according to Alex, Wonda said his group operated out of the Pilia area.
Lukas Enembe, chief of Puncak Jaya district, said he believed the Wonda group was previously linked to Marunggen Wonda, who has since left the resistance movement.
Police in Puncak Jaya have been on high alert since the killing of Dominggus on Monday, with one platoon – or about 100 officers – deployed in the area, Alex said. He said that planned reinforcements from Jakarta, said to number about 170 men, had not yet arrived in Mulia.
"The situation is conducive again and we have asked everyone to remain calm because we are continuing to hunt them down," Alex said, referring to the attackers.
Meanwhile, the head of the Papuan People's Representative Council, John Ibo, claimed that 80 percent of Papuans wanted to secede from Indonesia.
Though he did not say how he arrived at that figure, Ibo said that every new injustice and conflict in the region only served to strengthen pro-independence sentiment.
If the government wants to curb separatism, he said, it should promote sustainable development in Papua and it should avoid repressive measures, prioritizing dialogue instead.
"Treat Papua as a complete entity, as part of the Indonesian nation that also needs attention," he said.
Mahfudz Siddiq, head of House of Representatives Commission I, which oversees defense affairs, said the government needed a clear plan to address the conflict in Papua.
If it has not yet created a strategy, he said, the defense commission would ask it to do so. "Without a clear roadmap, the kinds of security disturbances that we have seen can clearly occur every month, if not each day," he said.
Mahfudz also suggested that a nationally respected figure should initiate a dialogue in Papua. He floated the name of former Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who already has experience solving conflicts in Aceh, Maluku and Central Sulawesi.
Rights group Imparsial agreed that the government should focus on dialogue, calling on the state to drop the security approach it has unsuccessfully relied on in Papua. "A security approach is not applicable to the entire region of Papua," said Imparsial's executive director, Poengky Indarti.