{"id":369174,"date":"2021-10-31T22:00:36","date_gmt":"2021-10-31T22:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=65563"},"modified":"2021-10-31T22:00:36","modified_gmt":"2021-10-31T22:00:36","slug":"awpa-protests-over-canberras-lack-of-concern-over-west-papua-crackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/10\/31\/awpa-protests-over-canberras-lack-of-concern-over-west-papua-crackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"AWPA protests over Canberra\u2019s \u2018lack of concern\u2019 over West Papua crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a> newsdesk<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Australia West Papua Association has protested over the &#8220;lack of any concern&#8221; by Canberra over worsening clashes in the Indonesian military crackdown on pro-independence groups in West Papua.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Collins of AWPA said in a statement today that the harsh &#8220;behaviour&#8221; of the Indonesian forces would lead to the instability that the Australian government fears.<\/p>\n<p>He said there was a risk that Indonesian soldiers might breach the Papua New Guinean border in pursuit of rebels.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2021\/10\/28\/west-papuans-flee-from-liberation-conflict-into-remote-png-area\/\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> West Papuans flee from \u2018liberation\u2019 conflict into remote PNG region<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2021\/10\/28\/baby-killed-by-indonesian-military-as-papuans-flee-to-png-claims-wenda\/\">Baby killed by Indonesian military<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?s=West+Papua\">Other West Papua reports<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Collins said there have been a number of clashes between the Indonesian forces and the pro-independence Papuan rebel force TPNPB in the town of Sugapa, Intan Jaya Regency.<\/p>\n<p>Media reports have said that in one incident, on October 26, a <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2021\/10\/28\/baby-killed-by-indonesian-military-as-papuans-flee-to-png-claims-wenda\/\">two-year-old infant, Nopelinus Sondegau was killed<\/a> and a six-year old, Yoakim Majau, was wounded by Indonesian forces although the police have denied this.<\/p>\n<p>The TPNPB alleged the children were shot because the military &#8220;lost control&#8221; after one of their personal was shot by the TPNPB, said the statement.<\/p>\n<p>According to Father Dominikus Hodo at the Catholic Diocese in Timika, <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2021\/10\/28\/west-papuans-flee-from-liberation-conflict-into-remote-png-area\/\">large numbers of people had fled from the security forces<\/a> with up to 2000 taking refuge in a church compound.<\/p>\n<p>At one stage the pro-independence OPM took control of Bilogai Airport in Sugapa subdistrict, leading to the suspension of civil flights.<\/p>\n<p>The commander of the Nemangkawi Law Enforcement Task Force said that a generator, house, kiosk, and two motor vehicles, including an ambulance had been set on fire.<\/p>\n<p>Senior Commissioner Faizal Rahmadan said that they would station two platoons of personnel in Intan Jaya to reinforce security.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s hard to understand the lack of any concern from Canberra to what is going on in West Papua,&#8221; Collins said in the statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s in the interest of Canberra to have a stable region to our north, yet it\u2019s the behaviour of the Indonesian security forces that will lead to the very instability Canberra fears.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;West Papuans have fled across the border into PNG and there is always the possibility that one day the Indonesian security forces could follow.<\/p>\n<p>Collins said AWPA would write again to Australian Foreign Minister <span class=\"ILfuVd\"><span class=\"hgKElc\">Marise Payne<\/span><\/span> expressing concern about the crackdown.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2021\/11\/01\/awpa-protests-over-canberras-lack-of-concern-over-west-papua-crackdown\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Asia Pacific Report newsdesk The Australia West Papua Association has protested over the \u201clack of any concern\u201d by Canberra over worsening clashes in the Indonesian military crackdown on pro-independence groups in West Papua. Joe Collins of AWPA said in a statement today that the harsh \u201cbehaviour\u201d of the Indonesian forces would lead to the instability<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11680,206,5,6,7,435,8314,33500,10,12,366,14,1743,37724,9451,19,209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369174"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369174"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":369177,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369174\/revisions\/369177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}