JAKARTA (AFP) – Indonesia’s National Police reported that seven civilians were tragically killed on Tuesday when armed rebels attacked a gold mine in Papua.
The assailants opened fire on mining workers in the remote Yahukimo district on Monday afternoon, in the mountainous region, according to the authorities.
The police have identified the West Papua Liberation Army (TPNPB), a separatist group led by Egianus Kogoya, as the perpetrators of the attack.
“We will chase the perpetrators and we will take legal action against the separatists and Egianus Kogoya,” Faizal Ramadhani, head of Cartenz Peace Taskforce, a special group formed to handle the Papua separatists, said in a statement Tuesday.
“We will chase the perpetrators and we will take legal action against the separatists and Egianus Kogoya,” Faizal Ramadhani, head of Cartenz Peace Taskforce, a special group formed to handle the Papua separatists, said in a statement Tuesday.
Faizal said a police unit sent to retrieve the bodies and rescue survivors was fired on by the rebels.
“As soon as we arrived at the location, our personnel were attacked and the gunfire lasted 1.5 hours,” he said.
Seven bodies have been retrieved from the location while 11 other people were rescued alive, police said. Most of the dead were migrants from the South Sulawesi.
The rebels also burned down excavators, trucks and the workers’ camp, police added.
The rebels claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying that they had warned the migrants to leave the region and all Papuan areas.
“(Indonesia) must immediately open a negotiation with the Papuan nation to find a solution,” said the group’s spokesperson Elkius Kobak in a statement.
The group is also responsible for the February 2023 kidnapping of a New Zealand pilot from the Papuan highlands.
Papua has seen several deadly attacks linked to the insurgency in recent years.
Ten people were killed in July last year when a group of rebels attacked a truck full of civilians transporting goods.
In March 2022, eight telecommunications workers were shot dead while installing communications towers in Puncak district.
