Polish globe-trotter blunders into Indonesia-Papua conflict

Avid traveller: Skrzypski with the head of Papua Representative Office of the National Human Rights Commission Frits Ramandey at his detention house in Jayapura, Papua. — AP

JAKARTA: To the Indonesian government, the 39-year-old factory worker and globe-trotting Polish traveller is a danger to the state, a man who plotted with shadowy gunmen to foment revolt in isolated eastern jungles.

But to his supporters, Jakub Skr­zypski is just an idealistic tourist with no money to his name, a man with an oddball combination of sympathies for right-wing and liberation causes. Even Indonesian police say it’s unlikely Skrzypski could have arranged the arms deal they say he promised to make with rebels.