Indonesian General Is Killed in Rebel Ambush, Sparking Fears of Retaliation
President Joko Widodo announced the death of the high ranking intelligence chief and called for the arrest of rebel gunmen. Activists said they feared reprisals against Indigenous Papuans.
President Joko Widodo of Indonesia on Monday expressed his condolences and vowed revenge after Papuan separatists killed the top intelligence official in the province. Credit.Indonesian Presidential Palace, via Associated Press
April 27, 2021Updated 7:34 a.m. ET
Indonesia’s top intelligence official in Papua Province was a one-star general who did not believe in leading from his office. A Bali native, Brig. Gen. I Gusti Putu Danny Karya Nugraha rose through the ranks of Indonesia’s feared special forces and often went on patrol with troops in areas where separatist rebels were known to stage attacks.
Indonesian Presidential Palace via AP
Indonesia’s president ordered a crackdown against Papuan rebels Monday after insurgents killed an army general who headed the government’s intelligence operations in the region – the highest-ranking military officer to die in the decades-old separatist conflict.
Separatist rebels shot dead Brig. Gen. I Gusti Putu Danny Karya Nugraha, the head of the State Intelligence Agency’s (BIN) Papua region office, in an ambush on his convoy Sunday afternoon as he was visiting Beoga, a district in Puncak regency where the government has launched counter-insurgency operations, officials from both sides said.
“I have ordered the military and police chiefs to pursue and arrest members of the armed criminal group,” President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said in a televised statement.
[AFP]
Separatist rebels shot dead a 16-year-old schoolboy in Indonesia’s Papua province, police said Friday about the latest in a spate of recent killings of civilians whom the insurgents accused of spying for the government.
As they did after other fatal attacks this month, the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) rebels claimed responsibility for the boy’s killing. Lekagak Telenggen, the group’s general operations chief, said the teenager, Ali Mom, was a spy for the authorities.
“Yesterday night around 6 or 7 p.m. my members shot dead a provocateur and intelligence agent named Ali Mom in Ilaga,” Lekagak told BenarNews by phone from Ilaga, a district in Puncak regency where the teenager was gunned down.
[AFP]
Updated at 8:17 p.m. ET on 2021-04-14
Suspected separatist rebels shot and killed a motorcycle taxi driver in the Papua region of far-eastern Indonesia on Wednesday, police said, about the third fatal attack on a civilian in the past week.
The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), an insurgent group, could not be immediately reached for comment on Wednesday, but its operations commander said a day earlier that it was responsible for last week’s killing of two of the civilians, who were teachers. The rebels claimed they were informants working for the government.
“We shot them dead. If you want war, face us. Don’t go after the people. We are responsible for the shootings,” Lekagak Telenggen, TPNPB’s general operations commander, told BenarNews.
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