Mastodawn

abolitionmedia Mar 8, 2025

TPNPB-OPM Condemns Construction of Military Post in Yuguru

The West Papua National Liberation Army-Free Papua Organization (TPNPB-OPM) has condemned constructing a military post in Yuguru village, Mebarok District, Nduga Regency, Highland Papua. They became aware of post construction after receiving information about a meeting between the Mebarok District Head, senior TNI (Indonesian National Armed Forces) officials, and the Indonesian military team at Taipur Yuguru on 9-11 February 2025.

TPNPB-OPM spokesperson Sebby Sambom stated that the Mebarok District Head drafted three letters during the meeting. The Mebarok District Head, the church, the village chief, and the tribal chief have signed these letters.

“The proposal formed by these three letters was handed over to the regional military commander and the Indonesian military at the Yuguru airfield,” said Sebby Sambom in a written statement on Wednesday, 5 March 2025.

After signing the letters, Sebby stated that the Mebarok District Head and his entourage disappeared. According to Sebby, the incident was similar to when Nduga Regent Acting Deputy Edison Gwijangge released Susi Air pilot Philip Mark Mehrtens in September 2024.

Sebby requested that the Mebarok District Head refrain from exploiting the situation for personal gain under the guise of serving the Nduga community. He stated that TPNPB-OPM Kodap III Ndugama Battalion Yuguru did not trust the district head, village chief, or tribal chief.

In response to the planned military post construction, TPNPB-OPM Kodap III Ndugama Battalion Yuguru has requested the return of the Mebarok District Head and Edison Gwijangge. Sebby suspected that post construction in the Yuguru region was a directive from Edison Gwijangge.

He asked for the abandonment of the military post construction and for the military to leave their region. Sebby stated that the military presence was very disturbing and disruptive to the community, and it also caused trauma to the residents of Yuguru. “The Yuguru region is not a war zone, but a place for Nduga refugees.”

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=17410

#indonesia #SebbySanborn #TPNPB #westPapua

TPNPB-OPM Condemns Construction of Military Post in Yuguru – Abolition Media

abolitionmedia Dec 24, 2024

Mass Displacements in West Papua Show Prabowo’s True Face

In multiple regencies, including Yahukimo, Maybrat, and Intan Jaya, thousands of West Papuans have been forced to flee into the bush by the sudden arrival of Indonesian soldiers into their villages. The entire region of Oksop has been emptied of people. As the GIDI Church said in their statement, the military is acting with total impunity, murdering innocent children and killing civilians just for having dreadlocks. Women and children are going hungry in the forest. They are in grave danger this Christmas: over 1200 Papuans have been killed due to forced displacement since 2018. According to the latest estimate by human rights defenders, over 83,000 of my people are currently displaced, refugees in their own ancestral lands.

Foreign governments should not be fooled Prabowo’s PR campaign. He is desperately seeking international legitimacy through his international tour, empty environmental pledges, and the amnesty offered to various prisoners, including eighteen West Papuans and the remaining imprisoned members of the Bali Nine.

Make no mistake: this is a pure smokescreen to distract from the violence that is already being unleashed on West Papua. Releasing a few token Papuan political prisoners has become a tradition for new Indonesian Presidents – Joko Widodo did the same with Filep Karma, one of our national heroes. When Prabowo was elected, I said that the ghost of Suharto has returned. What is happening now – mass displacement, increased militarisation, increased deforestation in Merauke, and the restarting of the transmigration programme – is proof of that judgment. Prabowo is complicit in genocide. All he knows is war, violence, and destruction.

The division of West Papua into five new provinces under former President Widodo was the first sign that the occupation was entering a new phase. Now, Prabowo is by creating an independent military command for all five provinces, replacing the previous unified command with a new, more thorough and far-reaching system of occupation. By establishing new administrative divisions, Indonesia creates the pretext for new military posts and checkpoints. The result is the deployment of thousands more soldiers, curfews, arbitrary arrests, and human rights abuses. West Papua is under martial law.

In the Star Mountains and across the Highlands, West Papuans will mark Christmas in the bush. How can the international community trust Prabowo? He will never clean the blood from his hands for his crimes as a General in West Papua and East Timor. Now, as President, he is new creating a new regime of brutality in West Papua.

Benny Wenda
Interim President
ULMWP Provisional Government

Source: Free West Papua

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/?p=13324

#indonesia #Prabowo #TPNPB #westPapua #WestPapuaNationalLiberationArmy

Human Rights Monitor (@hurimonitor) on X

Indonesian military operations in Oksop & Serambakon, Pegunungan Bintang Regency #WestPapua have displaced civilians since 4 December 2024. The Head of GIDI's Legal and Human Rights Department confirmed that around 3000 people fled to the forest after witnessing brutal military

X (formerly Twitter)

Bert Ernste • NL | BR Dec 22, 2024

‘We willen niet eindigen als de Aboriginals in Australië, vernietigd door het systeem’ (Vrij Nederland) (€)

In West-Papoea, het vroegere Nederlands-Nieuw-Guinea spreken stamoudsten en activisten zich onverschrokken uit tegen de Indonesische machthebbers.

https://www.vn.nl/vernietigd-door-het-systeem/

Citaten uit stuk: https://diasp.nl/posts/4274610

#indonesie #NieuwGuinea #NederlandsNieuwGuinea #papoea #papua #WestPapua #WestPapoea #TPNPB #opm #DaadVanVrijeKeuze #ActOfFreeChoice #volksstemming #mensenrechten

abolitionmedia Sep 20, 2024

The armed faction of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) in the Indonesian-ruled West Papua region have proposed the terms of release for the New Zealand pilot taken hostage almost 18 months ago.

The group kidnapped Phillip Merhtens, a 38-year-old pilot working for the Indonesian internal feeder airline Susi Air, in February last year after he landed a small commercial plane in a remote, mountainous area.

The group has tried to use Mehrtens to broker independence from Indonesia.

It is now asking the New Zealand government, including the police and army, to escort the pilot and for local and international journalists to be involved in the release process.

The TPNPB have warned that military attacks in recent days to rescue Merhtens could instead threaten his safety.

The independence fighters in the Papua region warned Friday that increased Indonesian military attacks in recent days to rescue a New Zealand pilot who was taken hostage over a year ago could instead threaten his safety. The rebels then issued the proposal on Tuesday for freeing Mehrtens that outlined terms including news media involvement in his release.

“The Indonesian Government appears to be ignoring the TPNPB Proposal for the release of the Susi Air Pilot from New Zealand,” rebel spokesperson Sabby Sambom said in a statement Friday. “Therefore, the NZ Government must be serious and urge their friendly country, Indonesia, to stop the Military operations during the process, because it endangers the life of the New Zealand Pilot Philip Mark Mehrtens.”

Sambom said the Indonesian government has deployed more troops in Nduga, a regency in Papua Mountains province known as a rebel hotbed, and launched airstrikes with helicopters since Monday on the TPNPB headquarters in Alguru village, where the pilot is believed to be held.

In another statement on Thursday, Sambom said Indonesian soldiers with tanks were on their way from neighboring Wamena district to Alguru to rescue the pilot.

The Cartenz Peace Taskforce, the joint security force set up by the Indonesian government to deal with separatist groups in Papua, could not immediately be reached for comment on the rebels’ statements.

In April, the TPNPB attacked Indonesian troops who were deployed to rescue Mehrtens. The group sent a letter the next month to Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Sambom said they received a response indicating that Widodo would negotiate with the TPNPB, but there was no further communication.

In August, gunmen stormed a helicopter and killed its New Zealand pilot, Glen Malcolm Conning, after it landed in Alama, a remote village in the Mimika district of Central Papua province. No one has claimed responsibility for that attack, and the rebels and Indonesian authorities have blamed each other.

In 1996, the Free Papua Movement abducted 26 members of a World Wildlife Fund research mission in Mapenduma. Two kidnapped Indonesians were killed by their abductors. The remaining hostages were freed within five months.

Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored ballot that was widely seen as a sham. Since then, a low-level insurgency has simmered in the region, which was divided into five provinces last year. Conflict has spiked in the past year.

https://abolitionmedia.noblogs.org/post/2024/09/20/west-papuan-fighters-who-kidnapped-kiwi-pilot-propose-terms-of-release/

#guerrilla #indonesia #NewZealand #TPNPB #westPapua #WestPapuaNationalArmy

West Papuan Fighters Who Kidnapped Kiwi Pilot Propose Terms of Release – Abolition Media

War Noir May 20, 2024

#Indonesia 🇮🇩: A new photo posted by the fighters of #WestPapua National Liberation Army (#TPNPB-OPM).

Fighters can be seen with 5.56x45mm #NATO M4 carbines (with a carry handle attached backwards), Pindad SS1-V1 rifle, Pindad SS1-V2 carbine, Mauser rifle and a Pindad P1 pistol.

https://twitter.com/war_noir/status/1792407600971022648