OPM: We Don't Need the Trans-Papua Road, but Independence

Photo: of an armed group based in Lanny Jaya, Papua.

Jayapura December 6, 2018

The Free Papua Organization or OPM rejects the term made by the Indonesian government or the TNI which calls them 'armed criminal groups' or 'armed separatist criminal groups'.

In its press release about the shooting of 31 trans-Papua road project workers, the OPM argued that what they did was not a criminal act, but a part of the Papuan liberation struggle from Indonesia. They even call Indonesia a colonial state.

"We convey to the colonial state of Indonesia that we are fighting, not KKB (armed criminal groups), KKSB (armed separatist criminal groups), etc., but we are true fighters for the freedom of the West Papuan republic," said OPM spokesman Sebby Sanbom, in its written statement on Wednesday, December 5, 2018.

Sebby claimed, the OPM and the Papuan people did not need the trans-Papua road as it is currently doing, nor in other forms of development. "But the solution to the problem in Papua is independence and sovereign self as a civilized nation."

He also reminded the TNI and National Police not to attack civilians in any place in Papua, because the battlefield with the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) was in the Mbua District to Habema, not Dal Yigi District and others.

The Sebby warning follows an air military operation launched by the TNI and Polri in Kenyam, Nduga District, on December 4. The TNI-Polri, he said, even deployed four Indonesian Air Force helicopters and one police helicopter.

In the air strike, said Sebby, the TNI dropped a large-capacity explosive bomb but two of them did not explode and two others exploded in the air. This means, he said, not one of the bombs dropped touched the ground, let alone injuring the TPNPB militia.

In addition, Sebby claimed, the National Police officers deployed 24 pickup truck vehicles to mobilize joint forces to hunt down the TPNPB militia.

In essence, he asserted, the OPM and TPNPB prepared to fight the TNI and Polri, while rejecting any form of development in Papua. "We don't need development by the Indonesian colonial government; we only want full independence, "he said.

"Therefore," he said, "all infrastructure development will immediately stop, and immediately conduct negotiations between representatives of the TPNPB-OPM and the Indonesian government to determine the future of the Papuan people." (ase)

Reported: Viva