West Papua Liberation Army fighters (linked with kidnapped New Zealand pilot Phillip Mark Mehrtens) killed in clash with Indonesian security forces

boywar3, 6 months ago

Here’s an interesting video in case anyone wants to learn more about the conflict

youtu.be/nSf3268tAbg?si=ygPhIGPMZKKEptjK

livus, 6 months ago

@boywar3 thanks so much, this looks great!! I've never seen that channel before.

For those who don't have time to watch the video this article from last month touches on some of the recent background, and this older article is quite good.

boywar3, 6 months ago

I will warn(?) you, it’s an eclectic channel lol

A comedian who does silly skits about Australia (complete with cheap wigs and accents), who also does hard-hitting journalism about Australia and its corruption to the point of having his house firebombed by “someone.”

livus, 6 months ago

@boywar3 thanks, that's interesting. I will have to watch more. Crazy about the firebomb. I did wonder when I noticed some people in the comments referring to potential attackers!

Comedians and hard-hitting journalism is shaping up to be a bit of a phenomenon. E.g. I really like John Oliver's show.

livus, 6 months ago

From the article:

Authorities seized two assault rifles, a pistol, arrows and more than 300 rounds of ammunition
A spokesman for the independence fighters confirmed the deaths and said they would not make the group surrender
Clashes were sparked after the independence fighters killed Indonesian soldiers who were looking for a New Zealand pilot they had kidnapped...

Clashes between the two sides began in mid-April when attackers from the liberation army ambushed dozens of government soldiers in Nduga district and killed at least six Indonesian troops who were searching for Phillip Mark Mehrtens, a New Zealand pilot who was abducted by the rebels in February.

They stormed Mr Mehrtens's single-engine plane shortly after it landed on a small runway in Paro.

The plane initially was scheduled to pick up 15 construction workers from other Indonesian islands after the rebels threatened to kill them.
Constant clashes due to simmering insurgency

The kidnapping of the pilot was the second that independence fighters have committed since 1996, when the rebels abducted 26 members of a World Wildlife Fund research mission in Mapenduma.

Two Indonesians in that group were killed by their abductors, but the remaining hostages were eventually freed within five months.

The pilot kidnapping reflects the deteriorating security situation in Indonesia's easternmost region of Papua, a former Dutch colony in the western part of New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia.

Saturday's fighting was the latest in a series of violent incidents in recent years in Papua, where conflicts between indigenous Papuans and Indonesian security forces are common.

Data collected by Amnesty International Indonesia showed at least 179 civilians, 35 Indonesian troops and nine police, along with 23 independence fighters, were killed in clashes between rebels and security forces between 2018 and 2022.

Rebels in Papua have been fighting a low-level insurgency since the early 1960s, when Indonesia annexed the region.

Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a UN-sponsored ballot that was widely seen as a sham.

Since then, the insurgency has simmered in the region, which was divided into five provinces last year to boost development in Indonesia's poorest region