APD | Indonesia pursues insurgents after deadly ambush killing 3 troops in Papua

By APD writer Aditya Nugraha

JAKARTA, Mar.8 (APD) — Indonesia intensified the pursuit against Papua insurgents following a fresh ambush in road project located in the province’s Nduga regency that killed 3 troops, a spokesman of Indonesia’s Papua military command headquarters said on Friday. 

“No time limit is set for the pursuit activities. They will be either death or captured alive, or surrendered themselves and pledged their loyalty to Indonesia only,” Spokesman of Papua province’s Cendrawasih Military Command Muhammad Aidi said. 

The ambush against Indonesian troops occurred on Thursday at around 08.00 a.m. local time when they were in the mission  to secure the Trans-Papua road project in the regency’s Mugi district.

 The 25 troops involved in the mission were attacked by up to 70 Papua insurgent group members using rifle guns combined with tribal weapons such as spears and arrows, Aidi said. 

He added that shootout between the troops and the insurgents took place at that time, resulted in the death of 3 Indonesian troops and at least 10 from the insurgent group. 

“Our troops managed to resist in the ambush and eventually gained the control on the field, hit them back that made them ran into the jungle,” Aidi said. 

 The insurgent group also attacked the helicopter attempting to evacuate the killed troops, Aidi added. “The helicopter managed to do so after troops onboard it shot them back from above,” Aidi said.

Bodies of 3 Indonesian troops killed in the ambush have been transferred to their respective families in Sulawesi and Java on Friday.

 After the clash, Aidi added the troops confiscated 5 rifle guns used by the insurgent group, found dead body of an  insurgent. “The remaining bodies were carried along by the insurgents as they left the shootout scene,” Aidi said in a statement.

Perpetrators of the Thursday’s ambush in Trans Papua road project were allegedly the similar insurgent group led by Egianus Kogoya that slain 19 road construction workers and a troop in December last year. 

The 4,325-kilometer Trans Papua road project linking cities of Sorong to Merauke in West Papua and Papua provinces was expected to be completed this year. 

Aidi said the project is now carried out by 600 troops after the killing incident in December last year when the project has progressed 70 percent from completion. 

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)