Police and TNI raid Papua rebel group
Police and TNI raid Papua rebel group
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A joint team of police and Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel
stormed the headquarters of the armed wing of the Free Papua
Movement (OPM) over the weekend, arresting one rebel fighter,
Julius, and confiscating seven homemade firearms and several
documents.
Papua Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Raziman Tarigan said on
Saturday that the raid had been carried out on Friday afternoon
acting on information extracted from a captured rebel, 17-year-
old Kornelis Pica.
Raziman said the joint team also found ammunition, knives,
axes, logistic equipment, a set of military fatigues, a TNI bag,
medicine and medical equipment, clothes and cooking utensils,
Antara reported on Sunday.
Irian Jaya police resort chief Adj. Comm. Totok Kusmiarto said
the two rebels were currently in detention at Jayapura police
headquarters and would face further interrogation about their
activities.
Kornelis was arrested earlier by members of 122 Rajawali Task
Force who suspected him of being a rebel fighter.
Security personnel initially detained him for questioning, but
Kornelis, who was just getting off a passenger ship at the
provincial capital of Jayapura, refused to answer questions,
saying that he was too tired to do so.
Kornelis soon got into a quarrel with security personnel,
prompting a member of the 122 Rajawali Task Force to fire a
warning shot.
But instead of answering the questions of the military
personnel, Kornelis ran to his house. Security personnel chased
after him to his house, where the officers found homemade
firearms.
Kornelis was arrested immediately.
During his interrogation, Kornelis told security personnel
about the rebels' headquarters in Irian Jaya regency, which,
according to police investigators, also served as a place where
the rebels manufactured homemade firearms and ammunition.
Kornelis' information led to the Dec. 6 raid.
A low-level secessionist movement has been fighting for an
independent Papua since the 1960s, resulting in the loss of
thousands of lives, mostly innocent civilians.