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.