By: Moses Walker )*
The Separatist Terrorist Group (KST) is indeed too brutal in making the atmosphere in an area heat up, their existence seems to be the cause of the riots in Papua and West Papua. The public also criticized KST’s heinous actions which continued to act ahead of the OPM anniversary.
KST continues to commit various human rights violations in Papua. As happened in Intan Jaya, which heated up again after KST burned down a number of houses of residents living in Sugapa District, Intan Jaya, Papua on November 2, 2021. There were no fatalities in the arson incident.
Colonel Czi IGN Suriastawa as Head of Information for the Joint Regional Defense Command (Kogabwilhan) III in a written statement said that officers received information that the DPRD office building was burning by KST on Tuesday, November 2, 2021 afternoon. However, thanks to the anticipated monitoring of the TNI-Polri Task Force Team on duty in the Sugapa District, Intan Jaya managed to anticipate the burning with tight security.
Suriastawa explained that KST apparently came back around the DPRD office, precisely in the village of Mamba Bawah, on Tuesday afternoon and immediately set fire to residents’ houses. After KST was seen carrying weapons and burning houses of residents, the TNI-Polri Task Force at the location immediately opened fire at them.
There were no fatalities in this incident. The TNI-Polri officers also continued to guard the location to prevent further attacks from KST terrorists. The arson was allegedly carried out by the KST Intan Jaya terrorist group led by Undius Kogoya.
The arson and terror carried out by KKB terrorists in Intan Jaya are not the first time this has happened. Previously, on Friday, October 29, 2021, KST had also set fire to the houses of residents around the Sugapa Police Sector. Not only warehouses and ambulances, a water tanker at Bilogai Airport was also burned. Gunfire between the TNI-Polri Task Force also occurred after the arson.
On a different occasion, the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD asked the TNI-Polri to be more careful in military operations against KST in Intan Jaya Papua. This was conveyed by Mahfud after the incident that two civilians who were still toddlers were shot. One of them died in a gun battle between KST and the TNI-Polri on November 26, 2021.
For this incident, Mahfud requested that the TNI-Polri officers take measured measures so that there would be no civilian casualties. In fact, as the public knows, the TNI-Polri have been very careful in protecting civilians.
He said that the incident occurred because KKB always used civilians as shields. Meanwhile, the West Papua Liberation Army – Free Papua Organization (TPNB-OPM) claims that currently an intense money war has occurred again with the TNI-Polri apparatus in Intan Jaya since October 24, 2021.
At first KST shot at the Sugapa Koramil Post and Polsek. So that the personnel in charge of providing counter fire, triggering gunfire. If all this time KST has stated that it is fighting to free Papua from the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, this action has in fact only made people afraid, in fact civilians have become victims of violence and shootings.
The former Papuan Regional Police Chief, Inspector General Paulus Waterpauw said that KST is a group that often clusters and disrupts security conduciveness in Papua. Paulus emphasized that he always categorizes KST as a free man. His life is just violence, frightening everyone, threatening everyone with guns.
Of course the atrocities committed by KST, which used to be called KST, can no longer be tolerated. The state must also act immediately. So that the death toll among the Papuan people will no longer fall, the state must act decisively and measuredly.
When the state acts decisively and KST members surrender, they must be faced with legal processes to account for the armed violence they have committed so far. On the other hand, if the state’s decisive action is responded to by a deadly armed attack by KST, it would not be wrong if the TNI-Polri soldiers also launched a counterattack in the name of defending the country and protecting all the blood spilled.
Papua is an integral part of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, so that security in the region must be maintained as much as possible, the TNI-Polri have a heavy duty to crush KST, but Papua must be protected in any case.
)* The author is a Papuan student living in Bali
