Pirime, Papua – Members of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) were involved in a one-hour shootout with security personnel in Pirime district, Lanny Jaya regency, Papua, at 6 a.m. on Monday.

OPM Pirime commander-in-chief Purom Okiman Wenda said that hundreds of the movement's members had besieged the capital of Lanny Jaya, Tiom, to fight for the separation of Papua from Indonesia. "The shootout claimed no casualties on our side," he said.

Papua Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. I Gede Sumerta Jaya, meanwhile, said that the number of casualties was as yet unknown. Tempo.co., however, reported that an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver in Tiom was hit by a bullet during the shootout.

According to Wenda, his group was involved in the shooting that killed three police personnel – Second Insp. Rofli Takubesi, First Brig. Daniel Makuker and Brig. Jefri Rumkorem – at the Pirime police subprecinct station last month.

The Nov. 27 incident occurred at 6.30 a.m., when hundreds of OPM members shot Jefri, who was about to raise the red-and-white flag at the police station, he said. Dozens of others barged into the station and killed Daniel, before they shot Pirime Police chief Rofli, who was hiding under a cot, Wenda added.

Police have detained seven people following the attack on the station. YW, 40, was captured in Pirime moments after the attack when he resisted arrest while attacking police personnel with a machete, while six other suspects – KW, 40, LK, 22, TW, 24, GK, 35, DTT, 45 and TT, 17, were arrested by police in Waragame village, Piramid district in Jayawijaya regency.

Police seized evidence in the form of a Morning Star separatist flag, Free Papua Movement (OPM) membership cards, a laptop, a United Kingdom flag and a Papua New Guinea flag, five OPM militia notebooks and a machete.

Sumerta said that police had yet to ascertain whether or not the seven men were involved in the attack on the police station. (han)