JAKARTA, June 27 (dpa): Separatist rebels killed five civilians in the latest violence in Indonesia's Papua province, the military has announced.
Members of the Free Papua Movement fired shots at a truck that was fleeing their ambush in Yahukimo district on Thursday (June 24), killing five bystanders, said regional military spokesman Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Suriastawa.
Suriastawa said the truck was carrying materials for the construction of a bridge when it was ambushed by the rebels.
"These people are terrorists," he said.
"They don't want Papua to be developed and prosperous and target civilians as their victims."
The Indonesian government in April designated separatist insurgents as terrorists after an army general was killed in a rebel ambush.
The killing prompted President Joko Widodo to order a crackdown on the separatist group.
The National Liberation Army of West Papua (TPNPB), the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, claimed responsibility for the killing.
There has been a separatist insurgency in Papua since the 1960s, but deadly clashes between rebels and government security forces have intensified in the past several years.
Government security forces have been accused of human rights abuses in Papua, a mainly Melanesian region that was incorporated into Indonesia in a UN-administered ballot that rights groups and pro-independence activists criticized as a sham. - dpa
Members of the Free Papua Movement fired shots at a truck that was fleeing their ambush in Yahukimo district on Thursday (June 24), killing five bystanders, said regional military spokesman Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Suriastawa.
Suriastawa said the truck was carrying materials for the construction of a bridge when it was ambushed by the rebels.
"These people are terrorists," he said.
"They don't want Papua to be developed and prosperous and target civilians as their victims."
The Indonesian government in April designated separatist insurgents as terrorists after an army general was killed in a rebel ambush.
The killing prompted President Joko Widodo to order a crackdown on the separatist group.
The National Liberation Army of West Papua (TPNPB), the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, claimed responsibility for the killing.
There has been a separatist insurgency in Papua since the 1960s, but deadly clashes between rebels and government security forces have intensified in the past several years.
Government security forces have been accused of human rights abuses in Papua, a mainly Melanesian region that was incorporated into Indonesia in a UN-administered ballot that rights groups and pro-independence activists criticized as a sham. - dpa
Already a subscriber? Log in
Get 20% OFF The Star Digital Access
Cancel anytime. Ad-free. Unlimited access with perks.
