JAYAPURA, Indonesia, May 21, (V7N )— Separatists in Indonesia’s restive eastern Papua region shot and killed eight gold miners they alleged were undercover security personnel, the military said Thursday.
The miners were attacked Wednesday while working in the remote Yahukimo district of Papua Pegunungan province, military spokesman Wirya Arthadiguna said in a statement.
The victims, he said, were “civilians panning for gold in the area.”
The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), however, said it carried out a “cleansing operation” against “soldiers/police officers disguised as illegal gold miners.”
TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom said the attack was retaliation for the deaths of two of its members in Yahukimo last week, which it blames on the military.
Wirya said the military has sent teams to pursue the attackers and evacuate the victims’ bodies by helicopter. Security in the area will be increased, he added.
Papua, which shares an island with Papua New Guinea, is a former Dutch colony that declared independence in 1961. Indonesia took control in 1963, followed by a 1969 referendum in which 1,000 Papuans out of roughly 800,000 voted for integration.
Papuan independence activists often dispute that vote and call for new polls, but Jakarta maintains its sovereignty over Papua is backed by the United Nations.
Last year, separatists killed at least 11 gold miners in Yahukimo, according to the military, in a similar case where the victims were accused of being undercover soldiers.
In 2022, 10 civilians were shot dead in a rebel ambush, and eight telecom workers were killed in another attack in what the guerrillas called a war zone.
Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights is investigating the killing of more than a dozen civilians, including women and children, during a military operation in the Papuan village of Kembru in April. The military said it had targeted rebel fighters.
END/WD/RH
