The killing of a Baptist reverend in rural West Papuan has led to mass demonstrations, calling for independence for the Indonesian-occupied western half of New Guinea. The killing and subsequent military reinforcements show, however, that Indonesian President Joko Widodo remains determined to crush the uprising by military force, rather than through dialogue.

By Klas Lundström

It is 5 P.M. on Sunday, September 19. Baptist reverend Yeremia Zanambani and his wife, Miriam Zoani, leave their home in the town of Hitadipa, in West Papua’s isolated central highlands, for a walk to the neighboring village of Bamba to feed their pigs.

They soon realize that they haven’t brought enough food, so Miriam returns home to collect some more.

Her husband will never return.

Unanimous witnesses accounts confirm that four soldiers from the Indonesian army (TNI) approached Yeremia Zanambani with accusations that the Reverend was secretly feeding the West Papuan guerilla, OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka, “The Free Papua Movement”), and not the family’s pigs. Reverend Zanambani denied the accusations but ended up fatally injured by bullets and bayonet blows, including to his throat.

Reverend Zanambani’s life might have been able to save, had the TNI allowed him emergency care at Hitadipa’s health center; something the TNI, however, rejected due to the curfew imposed in the wake of intense fighting between the Indonesian military and the OPM.

Instead, Yeremia Zanambani bled to death in the pigsty.

His dead body was hastily taken away without his family’s permission, and then burned. No autopsy or report with a confirmed cause of death has of yet been performed.

“We never hold funerals on Sundays,” says Reverend Damianus Wandagau. “But we were forced by the TNI.”

“A New Phase”

The 63-year-old Pastor Zanambani was neither known for any contact with nor known for expressing any vocal support for the OPM guerrilla. Living and breathing in Intan Jaya regency seems to crime enough. It is partly from here that the West Papuan independence movement operate; conducting attacks directed at the Grasberg mine, jointly owned and run by the Indonesian state and American mining company Freeport-McMoRan, brooding on one of the planet’s largest gold and copper reserves.

“We’ve been told that the OPM killed an Indonesian soldier with a machete, and then took his weapons and equipment,” says Samuel Tabuni, a young West papuan leader, based in the provincial capital of Jayapura.

The civilian population later paid the price for the guerilla’s action–which follows a long-standing pattern where the OPM operate in small jungle units, hitting the static but militarily superior Indonesian army in sneak attacks.

“The soldiers took out their rage after the soldier’s death on Yeremia Zanambani,” says Samuel Tabuni. “Without any risk, whatsoever, of being held accountable, like so many times before.”

Samuel Tabuni sat down with Indonesian military leaders in Jayapura earlier this week, but whether an independent investigation into the assassination will take place remains to be seen, let alone whether any investigation could be considered “independent.”

 Indonesian church organizations have called upon President Joko Widodo to launch an investigation of the murder, and Socratez Yoman, President of the West Papua Baptist Church Alliance Central Service Agency (BPP-PGBWP), reminds the public–and the outside world–about the numerous violent raids that took place in Hitadipa at the same time as the Reverend’s death. Raids that led to many West Papuan civilians abandoning their homes to seek refuge in nearby forests.

“These TNI atrocities and crimes were an integral part of the military operation order from the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, in Nduga regency, in December 2018, which led to massive gross human rights violations committed by the TNI,” says Socratez Yoman.

Reverend Yeremia Zanambani, killed by Indonesian soldiers while feeding his pigs in Intan Jaya regency, central West Papua. Photo: Amnesty

State of emergency and reinforcements

Since the current crisis erupted in full swing in December 2018, everyday life in West Papua has been characterized by a state of emergency. The Indonesian government has, in phases, expanded its military presence in western New Guinea–since 1969 an integral part of the Indonesian archipelago, as a result of an farse referendum called the “Act of Free Choice”–underlining President Widodo’s hopes for a military, rather than dialogue-based, end to the ongoing conflict.

On Wednesday, September 23, independent West Papuan media outlets stated that elite battalions had arrived in West Papua, anchoring at the Freeport-McMoRan-owned port in Timika. The Infantry Battalion Raiders 400 is normally stationed on the island of Java and consisting of 450 soldiers; a well-equipped reinforcement package that signals what has rapidly escalated into a full-fledged armed conflict, and one which President Widodo continues to wage behind closed doors for UN inspectors and independent journalists.

Civilian independence activists in West Papua find themselves in an increasingly vulnerable position where the assassination of Yeremia Zanambani is but the latest indication that the TNI from now on openly and arbitrarily may aim its weapons at anyone they consider an enemy. Civilians as well as rebels. Verbal opponents of the Indonesian occupation as well as religious leaders about to feed their pigs.

“The cruelty, violence and savagery of the TNI which denigrate human dignity as inhuman and uncivilized acts against the pastors and pastors of the people, deserve to be condemned,” says Socratez Yoman.

A shared video of arrested West Papuan civilians.

“People rise up”

Despite the cruelty, West Papuans continue to drag their unheard calls for independence to the streets and social media. On Thursday, September 24, some 200 students were arrested in the northern-coastal city of Nabire after open manifestations against the Indonesian oppression.

In a video shared by now-exiled Indonesian human rights activist and lawyer Veronica Koman on Twitter, civilian West Papuans arrested by Indonesian police are forced up on a waiting truck in front of gathered spectators.

“Look at the arrested students,” Tweets Veronica Koman. ”As soon as they get on the police truck they immediately raise their hands again.”

Clenched fists stretched against the sky.

“People who are determined to be free.”