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Some schools in Puncak closed following shootings, arson involving TPNPB

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Tabloid JUBI - April 19, 2021

Hengky Yeimo, Nabire – Evanggelis Penehasa Wandagau, a Christian Religion teacher at the Papua's Evangelical Churches Education and School Foundation (YPPGI) Elementary School, said that schools in Beoga District, Puncak Regency had not conducted learning activities after a series of shootings and class arson that took place in Beoga this month. As of Friday, April 16, 2021, schools were still closed.

Two weeks ago, two teachers in Beoga were shot dead allegedly by The National Liberation Army of West Papua (TPNPB). On April 8, Oktovianus Rayo (43) was killed in Julukoma Village as the armed group accused him of being a spy for Indonesia's security personnel. Rayo's neighbors, however, denied the allegation, saying that Rayo was suspected because he sometimes carried a gun.

Another civilian victim, Yonatan Renden (28), who was a contract teacher at the Beoga 1 Junior High School, was shot by the troop on April 9 in Ongolan Village. The TPNPB also shot an ojek driver, Udin, on April 14 and a high school student, Ali Mom, on April 15, both accused for being a spy for Indonesian security personnel.

Last week, the TPNPB also set fire in several classrooms in the Beoga 1 Junior High School and Beoga 1 High School, as well as four teacher's houses in Beoga, disrupting teaching and learning activities in the district. Learning activities in SD (elementary school) Inpres Dambet and SD Inpres Kelemabet were paralyzed as well.

Wandagau, who also teaches religion at the YPPGI High School and Beoga 1 High School, said Beoga had a total of 200 students. Among them are 29 elementary school students and 30 third-year students of the Beoga 1 Junior High School who will take the final exam.

"I have six high school students who had taken their school examinations, which is the practical exam. As for the national exam, we are waiting for information from the central [government]. If there are no national exam [using] computers, we will hold exams based on the minister's instructions, held at schools," Wandagau told Jubi via phone call on Friday.

According to Wandagau, the final year students will take the exam in Timika, Mimika Regency. "Schools [in Beoga] are temporarily closed and the students will take their exams in Timika," he said. He added that currently, there were no more non-Papuan teachers who lived in Beoga, only seven teachers of Indigenous Papuan.

He also said that the learning process in Beoga would recover once the burned buildings were renovated. "We have to wait until the junior high and high school's buildings were repaired," he said.

Source: https://en.jubi.co.id/schools-puncak-closed-tpnpb-shooting

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