“Instead of keeping the peace, members of the national police and military, versed in the illegal arms trade, have contributed to escalating the violent conflict in the Land of the Bird of Paradise,” name poetically designating Papua where this bird is endemic, emphasizes Tempo Newspaper.
According to the daily, this business has proven to be particularly lucrative. On the black market, a handgun costs between 1,000 and 7,000 euros depending on the model. An M16 or M4 assault rifle can trade for over $22,000. “The most heartbreaking thing is that one of the sources of the funds used to buy these weapons comes from the embezzlement of the aid allocation to Papuan villagers.”
According to the Alliance of Democracy for Papua (AIDP), the value of these transactions would amount, over the last ten years, to more than 1.5 million euros. This association based in Jayapura, the regional capital of Indonesian Papua, notes that of the 50 traffickers arrested over this period, 14 were members of the police or the army.
Their number is much greater, says Koran Tempo: “During trials, judges are still reluctant to reveal the identity of those actually involved, while the serial number of confiscated firearms could easily be used as a means of investigating the origin of the contraband. ”
A fifty-year-old struggle
But on August 22, 6 members of the Indonesian army were charged with killing 4 Papuan civilians, then mutilating their bodies and dumping them in a river. They were arrested with 250 million rupees (about 17,000 euros) in cash on them, the jackpot that the victims were about to pay them against contraband weapons. “The police claimed that these soldiers had pretended to sell firearms to these civilians, one of whom was allegedly a fighter from the West Papua National Liberation Army (OPM)”, reports the daily.
The OPM has been fighting for the independence of West Papua since Indonesia integrated this province into its territory, in 1969, by a biased referendum, known as the Act of Free Choice, validated by the UN.
Research by the Papuan Task Force at Gadjah Mada National University in Yogyakarta, Central Java indicates that at least 320 civilians have been killed in Papua since 2020. A figure that may be grossly understated. According Tempo Newspaper, until the Indonesian government stops this arms trafficking, “any promise of a ‘new approach’ in resolving the protracted conflict in Papua will be doomed. And the killings and human rights abuses will continue.”