By: Rebecca Marian )*
The riots in Papua a few weeks ago caused community grief. The anarchist action triggered by racial hoax was allegedly driven by separatists, following the referendum for Papua.
Papua got its own spotlight after the racial incident last August, the riots and the plural referendum demands we heard on social media. The Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Wiranto stressed that the riots in Papua, especially Wamena were driven by two forces. Namely OPM where the figure behind the organization is Benny Wenda.
Benny Wenda’s group seeks to build a riot and expose it to the outside world, where there is power to liberate Papua and West Papua.
Wiranto detected that Benny Wenda’s role was moving ahead of the High Level Conference on Human Rights (Human Rights Summit) in Switzerland and at the General Session of the United Nations (UN) in New York, United States.
Wiranto revealed that Benny and his group were trying to show the existence of those who were also moving abroad. But no specific country listened to the efforts of the OPM and Benny Wenda because it contradicted UN Resolution 2524, which was decided in 1969.
Benny mentioned trying to lobby so that the UN human rights commissioner could visit Indonesia and see first hand the conditions in Papua.
The escalating situation in Papua and West Papua in August 2019 also allegedly involved Benny’s role in it.
Benny is strongly suspected of spreading provocative and hoax content on social media, telephone lines, and WhatsApp messaging applications related to Papua. He distributed the content to a number of state officials in the Pacific region.
Head of the Public Information Bureau of the Police Public Relations Division Brigadier General (Pol) Dedi Prasetyo said the police had difficulty processing the law because Benny’s citizenship and the crime scene were in London, England.
Also reported that Benny is a British citizen and now lives in Oxford, England.
On June 11, 2002, it was reported that Benny was arrested by the police on suspicion of inciting the community and leading a number of illegal meetings.
The arrest was apparently not accepted by the Jayawijaya community. They held a demonstration at the Papua DPRD office demanding the immediate release of Benny Wenda. At the same time, the police seized evidence in the form of an Indonesian passport and Benny’s Papua New Guinea passport.
On October 29, 2002, Benny and 1 other prisoner escaped from a detention house by prying a bathroom window.
The Abepura Sector Police attack on December 6, 2001 was also allegedly in collaboration with Benny and Matias in the border region of Jayapura, Papua New Guinea.
In addition to his role in heating up Papua and West Papua, Benny Wenda also claimed to have issued edearan letters instructing Papuans not to take part in the independence ceremony.
The police also suspect that the riots that occurred in Wamena, could not be separated from the role of Benny Wenda. The incident was also not free from other organizations related to ULMWP led by Benny, the West Papua National Committee (KNPB).
The KNPB Chair in the Mimika region, Steven Itlay, is suspected of having links to Benny Wenda. Steven is secured in front of the gate of Cenderawasih University (Uncen) in Jayapura, Wednesday (11/09/2019) evening. Steven has also been named as a suspect in the Jayapura riots which occurred on 29 August.
On another occasion, Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko mentioned that Benny Wenda was the intellectual actor behind the action which had an impact on the riots.
According to him, the riots in Papua were a political problem and could not be solved by a military approach. So the problem must also be resolved with a political approach.
The former TNI Commander did not rule out the possibility that the government would coordinate with British authorities. Because, Benny Wenda settled there.
Of course it is natural that the Indonesian government has begun to grow furious with the network of organizations that are the masterminds of the spread of hoax issues to cause various riots.
National Police Chief Tito Karnavian also explained that there would be local networks and international networks that were the masterminds of this incident. The network is the one who compiled various strategies and agenda setting of various actions in several regions in Indonesia.
It is clear that Benny Wenda is playing with the issue subtly to create chaos in the Republic of Indonesia, therefore the Indonesian people must be careful and not easily provoked by provocative news.
)* The writer is a Papuan student living in Jakarta