JAKARTA: Rebels in Indonesia’s Papua region said on Thursday they have killed more than 17 people since the weekend, claiming that they were soldiers disguised as gold miners, and police said the insurgents were holding two hostages.
A low-level but increasingly deadly battle for independence has simmered between security forces and rebels in resource-rich Papua ever since it was controversially brought under Indonesian control in a vote overseen by the United Nations in 1969.
Sebby Sambom, a Papuan rebel spokesperson, said in a statement the rebels had killed more than 17 people since April 6, including five on Wednesday, and claimed they were military members disguised as gold miners.
“If the Indonesian government military wants to chase us, please come to Dekai town, we are in the town,” Sebby said, referring to a town in Yahukimo district, where the incident took place.
Frega Wenas, a spokesperson for the country’s defense ministry, told reporters that 11 illegal miners were ruthlessly killed in the area and denied they were military officers, adding this was the rebels’ propaganda.
Separately, police said in a statement on Thursday that 35 people in the area were evacuated to another district, while two residents were still being held hostage by the rebels.
Frega said the attack was one of the deadliest in recent years. In 2018, a separatist group killed 21 road construction workers in the highland area of Nduga.
Rebels in Papua have in recent years managed to acquire better weapons, taken in raids on army posts or sourced from the black market. They have also abducted foreigners, including a New Zealand pilot who was released last year after being held for 19 months.
Rebels in Indonesia’s Papua kill 17 people disguised as soldiers
https://arab.news/4q8gy
Rebels in Indonesia’s Papua kill 17 people disguised as soldiers
- A low-level but increasingly deadly battle for independence has simmered between security forces and rebels
- Papua was controversially brought under Indonesian control in a vote overseen by the United Nations in 1969
UN chief calls on Israel to reverse NGOs ban in Gaza
- In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out
- Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” at the development.
Guterres “calls for this measure to be reversed, stressing that international non-governmental organizations are indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work and that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” he added.
Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials.
The ban includes Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories — the majority of whom are in Gaza.
NGOs included in the ban have been ordered to cease their operations by March 1.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, leaving infrastructure decimated.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
