Indonesia closed PNG border: tensions escalate

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INDONESIA closed its border on Tuesday with Papua New Guinea as violence continues in Papua.

Shots were heard by Indonesian troops with reports of increased rebel activity in the area.

The Organisasi Papua Merdeka (Papuan Freedom Organisation) is believed to be active in the border region after Indonesian security forces and state-backed armed militia attacked and killed indigenous protesters last month. Indonesians – mainly of Javanese and Sumatran ethnicity – have been killed in retaliatory attacks in the past week with tensions continuing to escalate in Jayapura and Wamena.

The official Antara News Agency has reported that Indonesia temporarily closed the Skouw-Wutung Border Post in Muara Tami Subdistrict, Jayapura City, Papua Province, on Tuesday following the sound of gunshots.

Indonesia maintains a company of Border Protection Task Force troops at Skouw, while PNG has a platoon of soldiers at Wutung with reinforcements in reserve at Vanimo, about 40 kilometres away.
Major Dony Gredinand confirmed the temporary closure of the border post which stopped trade at the Skouw and Wutung markets. He said several gunshots were heard around 6am yesterday and as a result, local residents were afraid. No injuries were reported.

BACKGROUND
Indonesian Papua —West Papua— together with Indonesia was part of the Dutch East Indies until Indonesia after 300 years of colonial rule became independent in 1945. Following fighting between Dutch and Indonesian forces, West Papua became part of Indonesia in 1949.  Western powers, particularly the US, were anxious about Soviet influence in  Indonesia, and persuaded the Dutch to cede the province  to Indonesia.  The people are ethnically and culturally identical to the Melanesian people of  the Sepik, Highlands and Western provinces of PNG, and have no affinity to Malayo-Indonesians. Since Indepence, significant numbers of Indonesians, mainly from Java, have been resettled in West Papua.

"Since the first days of Indonesian occupation, the people and land of West Papua have been under relentless attack. In an attempt to control the Papuans, and to claim the land to make way for resource extraction, the Indonesian army has systematically murdered, raped and tortured people in numbers that could constitute a genocide. One of the worst examples of this is the displacement and killing of thousands of people to make way for the giant American- and British-owned Freeport mine, the largest gold mine in the world, which has reduced a sacred mountain to a crater and poisoned the local river system. In a further attempt to eradicate Papuan culture, around one million people from overcrowded shanty towns across Indonesia have been moved into ‘transmigration’ camps cut into the forests." -- from the website of the  Free West Papua movement
https://www.freewestpapua.org/