
REPORT:
West Papuan minors killed in Indonesian air raids

Militer Murib, military commander for the armed West Papuan independent guerillas, the OPM. Photo: TPNPB-OPM.
REPORT
- PUBLICERAD 2021-05-17
West Papuan minors killed in Indonesian air raids
Reports from the closed West Papua speak of deaths of civilian minors, of burning villages, and intensive Indonesian bomb raids. The Indonesian governmentâand Indonesian pressâhowever, speak more about the necessity of peace talks in the IsraelâPalestine conflict, than the developments in the far-eastern corner of the countryâs widespread archipelago.
By Klas Lundström
WEST PAPUA Three women have been killed in Indonesian military operations in North Ilaga district, in Puncak Jaya in the central West Papuan highlands, per reports in Suara Papua.
Among the causalities, two were minorsâ12-year-old Neri Murib and 16-year-old Rana Tabuniâwhile the third victimâSiska MomÂâonly lived to see her twentieth birthday after being killed in a bomb raid.
âThey were killed in a helicopter raid in North Ilaga. The helicopters attacked and fired indiscriminately at Kingmi Kabuki Church. The church was destroyed, and the three young women shot to death,â per an anonymous sourceâs witness account made to Suara Papua.
â650 people have fledâ
Moreover, the Indonesian military have killed a member of the armed West Papuan independence movement, Organisasi Papua Merdekaâsince late April classified as a âterrorist organizationâ by the Indonesian government in Jakarta.
In addition, more than 650 people from various districts and villages in Puncak Jaya have fled the increased fighting and bombingsâfurther increasing the already high number of West Papuan internally displaced people as a direct result of recent weeksâ escalating military operations in the region.
âThese new bombing raids remind me of what I went through as a child in the Highlands of West Papua in the late 1970s. Our villages were bombed, our fathers killed, our aunties raped in front of our eyes,â Benny Wenda, West Papuan provisional president in exile in London, tells Global Magazine.
A village on fire in Puncak Jaya, in West Papua’s central highlands. The escalating conflict has killed three young women, two of them were minors. Photo: Anonymous source.
Indonesia remains silent
Per sources to Global Magazine, the cities of Timika and Nabire are now being filled with internally displaced people. Those are expected to be dependent on local organizationsâmainly churches and social movementsâfor food and shelter as Indonesia continues to block access to West Papua for international aid organizations, independent journalists, and UN human rights investigators.
Global Magazine has received photos of burning villages and cartridge cases, documents that are in line with the reports that have come out of the isolated conflict centerstage in Puncak Jaya.
The Indonesian government led by Joko Widodo, however, shows no apparent interest in the conflict developments in the far-eastern corner of the Indonesian archipelagoâalthough the President in both vocal and persistent in his stand for a ceasefire and peace talks regarding the IsraelâPalestine conflict and the ongoing humanitarian crisis on the Gaza Strip.
âMy heart criesâ
The audible demands for a peaceful solution to the conflict in the Middle East is echoed by Indonesian press, who has yet to report on the devastating development in Puncak Jaya, in what per official Indonesian politics is called domestic soil.
Neither The Jakarta Post nor Jakarta Globeâtwo of Indonesiaâs leading and most prominent newspapersâhave reported on the escalating conflict in Puncak Jaya, let alone about the deaths of the three civilian women, seeking refuge in the Kingmi Kabuki Church.
âThe Indonesian air forces fired rocket bombs about 40 times on air attacks at Local residents in Ilaga, Puncak Papua Regency, the highlands of West Papua,â per a source in Puncak Jaya.
To Benny Wenda, the escalation of violence in Puncak Jaya and the rising civilian death toll arenât merely an echo of a bloody pastâitâs also an urgent political reminder of the West Papuan peopleâs vulnerability behind barred Indonesian doors to the outside world:
âJust like whatâs happening to the people in Puncak Jaya right now, we had to flee to the bush for years. It makes my heart cry to see it happening all over again,â Mr. Wenda says.
*
Further reading:
Total warfare âimminentâ in West Papua â PNG dragged into the conflict
West Papuan leader arrested â may be charged with âtreasonâ