Police in Papua instructed to safeguard development agenda

Jakarta (ANTARA) - National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo directed police officers in Papua to safeguard the regional development agenda in the province through dialogue and humanistic approaches to be applied in their dealings with local communities. However, the police are required to continue to apply stern measures against armed Papuan separatist terrorists, who continue to pose threats to public law and order, Prabowo stated. The national police chief made the statement while delivering his directives at a technical meeting held at the Police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob) Training Center in the Cikeas neighborhood of Bogor District, West Java, on Thursday. "All police personnel stationed in Papua must emphasize on dialogue and humanistic approaches in their interactions with the local communities," Prabowo emphasized. The government has been striving to transform Indonesia's economy by shifting the foundations of its economy from a consuming to producing country and from the Java-centric development to Indonesia-centric one, he stressed. "Of course, Papua is one of the provinces that receives the government's serious attention," he remarked while adding that the government is striving to boost the locals' prosperity through education, economy, and culture. Amid the government's serious endeavors to improve the Papuan people's prosperity through regional developments in various sectors, there are certain parties, who continue to disrupt the agenda, he pointed out. "The disruptions continue along with the proliferation of propaganda that may pose threats to the unity of Indonesians. The parties want the regional development agenda there to get disrupted," he remarked. To support the implementation of its dialogue and humanistic approaches in Papua, the National Police had officially launched the Operation Peace Cartenz, he stated. ANTARA noted that the operation launched on January 17, 2022, covers the areas of Pegunungan Bintang, Yahukimo, Nduga, Intan Jaya, and Ilaga districts. The operation, which focuses on community empowerment, intelligence, public relations, and law enforcement, will be in effect until December 31, 2022. Papua has borne witness to a repeated cycle of violence over the past few years, with armed groups in the districts of Intan Jaya, Nduga, and Puncak targeting civilians and security personnel. Intan Jaya recorded its bloodiest month in September 2020 when armed groups launched a series of attacks in the area that claimed the lives of two soldiers and two civilians and left two others injured. The acts of terror continue this year. On March 2, 2022, several members of an armed Papuan group operating in Beoga Sub-district, Puncak District, killed Palaparing Timur Telematika's (PTT's) eight workers conducting repair work on a base transceiver station (BTS) tower of state-owned telecommunications operator Telkomsel. The workers slain in the attack were identified as B, R, BN, BT, J, E, S, and PD, while another worker, only identified by his initials as NS, survived the deadly assault, according to Papua Police spokesperson Senior Commissioner Ahmad Kamal. The case of murder of PTT workers is not the first tragedy to have struck this eastern Indonesian province. On December 2, 2018, a group of armed Papuan rebels had brutally killed PT Istaka Karya's 31 workers, who were engaged in construction and building the Trans Papua project in Kali Yigi and Kali Aurak in Yigi Sub-District, Nduga District, Papua Province. The armed rebels, who launched the brutal killings, also slayed a soldier named Handoko and injured two other security personnel, Sugeng and Wahyu.