28 December 2015•Update: 28 December 2015
By Ainur Rohmah
JAKARTA
Three Indonesian policemen have been killed and two others injured in an attack on their station in eastern Papua province, home to a decades-long insurgency for independence.
The national police declared Monday that it was too early to say whether the gunmen involved in the incident the night before belonged to the Free Papua Organization (OPM) separatist group.
"It's too early [to conclude the OPM] are the perpetrators. There are many possibilities. This could be criminal or political motives,” the force’s spokesperson Anton Charliyan said.
“This could be cleared if [those responsible] are arrested. The police cannot guess," MetroTV broadcast him saying.
During the attack in Puncak regency, the gunmen also seized seven assault rifles and a crate of ammunition.
Papua Regional Police suspect the assailants had criminal motives such as seizing weapons to strengthen their group, rather than the attack being related to President Joko Widodo's planned visit to Papua to celebrate the New Year. Kompas.com quoted spokesperson Patrige Renwarin as saying, “because even without the arrival of the president, armed criminal groups still carry out attacks against officials and civilians."
He added that since the attack occurred while officers were watching television and chatting, police suspect that a personnel member at the station had informed the gunmen about their "careless condition."
Pledging to pursue those responsible, he said, “in our raids, we will try to catch the perpetrators alive or dead.”
Three platoons of troops have been deployed to pursue the groups that may have been involved.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Tjahjo Kumolo told Kompas that he suspected that a small group operating in an area of Sinak district and known as Lekagak Telengge -- or Tenggamati – was behind the attack.
Papua Governor Lukas Enembe has called on police to be vigilant in “vulnerable areas” where armed groups "threaten the public, and arbitrarily take livestock belonging to the community."
Papua has been home to a low-level insurgency ever since the former Dutch colony was transferred to Indonesian rule in 1963. Despite its wealth of resources, the province is among the most impoverished and has witnessed the arrest of political prisoners and alleged abuses by security forces over the decades.
In Feb. 2013, seven unarmed military personnel were killed by armed groups in Sinak while trying to unload communications equipment that had arrived by plane.
In May, Indonesian President Joko Widodo pardoned five political prisoners in Papua and announced that foreign journalists would no longer need special permission for visits -- which had also been restricted to human rights activists, aid workers and researchers.
After pledging to develop the region, the government of Widodo -- who took office in October following a populist campaign -- allocated $460 million for infrastructure projects in Papua this year focusing on roads, bridges, irrigation and sanitation.
