By: Alfred Jigibalom
Separatist and terrorist groups (KST) continue to carry out heinous acts and violate human rights in Papua. Last June they rioted in Yahukimo, so the authorities had to act decisively to crush the gang.
Papua is the easternmost province that joined Indonesia, because there was a dispute with the Netherlands. In the end, Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) became the territory of the Republic of Indonesia after the Pepera (determination of popular opinion) in 1969. However, there were parties who did not agree and finally they formed an independent Papuan organization (OPM) and had the KKB as their troops.
The KKB whose name was changed to KST (separatist and terrorist group) has always been consistent, unfortunately in a bad way. They spread chaos in Papua, with the excuse of wanting independence. The question is, if you want to be free, why are the victims mostly civilians who are indigenous Papuans?
Therefore KST continues to be hunted by the Nemangkawi Task Force and other officers, because they have committed gross human rights violations, namely murder. There have been too many deaths due to the KST atrocities. They always reasoned that the civilians who were suspected and shot were spies from the police, even though they were just ordinary people.
Member of Commission I DPR RI Yan Permenas Mandenas stated that the violence perpetrated by KST was a violation of human rights, especially since many of the victims were civilians. Murder, for whatever reason, cannot be justified. If any member of the KST is caught, the maximum sentence is life imprisonment, due to their actions.
Yan Permenas himself, who is actually a native Papuan, does not like to see the existence of KST, because they always spread hatred and terrorize the community. This shows that the people of Bumi Cendrawasih themselves do not approve of KST’s actions, because they are brutal and create chaos in Papua.
At the end of June 2021 KST also threw another tantrum by killing 4 people in the Yahukimo area, and 1 tribal chief in critical condition. Residents fled to other safer places, so as not to be hit by KST’s fury. Meanwhile, the officers continued to search for the KST headquarters, to chase them straight to their nests.
The riots in Yahukimo also included serious human rights violations, because there were casualties. Moreover, one of the victims was a tribal chief, they should have respected the elders but instead wanted to finish him off. If this keeps happening, it is feared that there will be tribal wars, because KST is playing them against each other, even though the war has not happened for decades.
The pursuit of KST continues and there are additional troops to facilitate the performance of the apparatus. The community is even happy because they are indeed assigned to maintain security in Papua and prevent riots caused by KST.
Outside parties also do not have to interfere by commenting that the addition of troops in Papua will have the potential to increase human rights violations, because the officers are in charge of preventing this from happening. To deal with KST, dialogue cannot be done, because since the New Order era until now this method has always failed.
An effective way to deal with KST is to chase them to their headquarters, and they are allowed to be dealt with firmly and measurably, and this is not a violation of human rights. Instead of killing many civilians later, they were immediately arrested and if forced to be shot in the leg so as not to escape.
KST is a serious human rights violator and must be eradicated, so as not to create chaos and frighten the people in Papua. They have committed gross human rights violations by killing civilians, so they must be hunted down to their headquarters.
(The author is a Papuan student living in Bali)
