Armed conflict in West Papua has caused an exodus of displaced people into one of the most remote parts of neighbouring Papua New Guinea.

The latest flashpoint in the conflict is in the Indonesian-administered Bintang Mountains regency, where state forces are pursuing West Papua Liberation Army fighters who they blame for recent attacks on health workers in Kiwirok district.

Since violence surged in Kiriwok last month, Indonesian security forces have targetted suspected village strongholds of the OPM-Free Papua Movement’s military wing.

At least 2000 people are recorded by local groups to have fled from the conflict either to other parts of Bintang Mountains (Pegunungan Bintang) or crossed illegally into the adjacent region over the international border.

Hundreds of people have fled across to Tumolbil, in Yapsie sub-district of the PNG province of West Sepik, situated right on the border.

A spokesman for the OPM, Jeffrey Bomanak, said that those fleeing were running from Indonesian military operations, including helicopter assaults, which he claimed had caused significant destruction in around 14 villages.

“Our people, they cannot stay with that situation, so they are crossing to the Papua New Guinea side.

“I already contacted my network, our soldiers from OPM, TPN (Liberation Army). They already confirmed 47 families in Tumolbil.”

Evidence of the influx
A teacher in Yapsie, Paul Alp, said he saw evidence of the influx in Tumolbil last week.

“It is easy to get into Papua New Guinea from Indonesia. There are mountains but they know how to get around to climb those mountains into Papua New Guinea.

“There are foot tracks,” he explained, adding that Papua New Guineans sometimes went across to the Indonesian side, usually to access a better level of basic services.

Alp said West Papuans who had come to Tumolbil were not necessarily staying for more than a week or so before returning to the other side.

He and others in the remote district confirmed that illegal border crossings have occurred for years, but that it had increased sharply since last month.

For decades, the PNG government’s policy on refugees from West Papua has been to place them in border camps, the main one being at East Awin in Western Province, with support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Thousands of displaced Papuan have ended up at East Awin, but many others who come across simply melt into the general populace among various remote villages along the porous border region.

Threadbare security
Sergeant Terry Dap is one of a handful of policemen in the entire Telefomin district covering 16,333 sq km and with a population of around 50,000.

He said a lot of people had come across to Tumolbil in recent weeks, including OPM fighters.

“There’s a fight going on, on the other side, between the Indonesians and the West Papuan freedom fighters.

“So there’s a lot of disruption there [in Tumolbil]. So I went there, and I talked to the ward development officer of Yapsie LLG [Local Level Government area], and he said he needed immediate assistance from the authorities in Vanimo [capital of West Sepik].”

“They want military and police, to protect the sovereignty of Papua New Guinea, and to protect properties to make sure the fight doesn’t come into PNG.”

Sergeant Dap said he had emailed the provincial authorities with this request, and was awaiting feedback.

More civilians crossing over
According to Bomanak, the impacts of displacement from recent attacks in Kiwirok district are ongoing.

“This problem now is as we have damage in village, more civilians will cross over in Papua New Guinea side.

“Five to six hundred villagers, civillians, mothers and children, they’re still in three locations, out in jungle in Kiwirok, and they’re still on their way to Papua New Guinea,” he warned.

On the PNG side, Sergeant Dap said some of the people coming across from West Papua have traditional or family links to the community of Tulmolbil

But their presence on PNG soil creates risk for locals who are fearful their communities could get caught in the crossfire of Indonesian military pursuing the Papuan fighters.

Dap said he spoke with the OPM fighters who had come to Tumolbil, and encouraged them not to stay long.

“I’ve talked to their commander. They said there’s another group of people coming – about one thousand-plus coming in,” he said.

“I told them, just stay for some days and then you go back, because this is another country, so you don’t need to come in. You go back to your own country and then stay there.”

The policeman has also been involved in efforts by PNG authorities to encourage vaccination against covid-19.

Mistrust of covid vaccines is deep in PNG, where only around 2 or 3 percent of the population has been inoculated, while a delta-fuelled third wave of the pandemic is causing daily casualties.

Sergeant Dap said convincing people to get vaccinated was difficult enough without illegal border crossings adding to the spread of the virus and the sense of fear.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The Vanuatu Red Cross Society (VRCS) is one of the first humanitarian organisations to intervene and support the volcano internal refugees who were victims of eviction order at MCI on the road to Blacksand last week.

Emma Mesao, senior branch officer of SHEFA Red Cross, said the organisation dealt with the lives of people, and they responded to natural disasters.

While the eviction was not a natural disaster, people’s living and welfare had been affected.

On Thursday, a team was deployed to the area to assess the situation and identified two priority needs, including shelter and water.

The Red Cross distributed two tarpaulins and two jerry cans to each household. More than 60 households received their share of emergency supplies.

Mesao confirmed that when distributing the supplies, they had also encouraged the people to boil water before drinking to avoid other health issues.

Relocated to other settlements
Most of the families have relocated to other settlements.

Many of them went to Blandiniere Stage Three, and Crystal Blue Area.

Others went to other areas within the peri-urban areas of Port Vila, including Blacksand and Erangorango.

The Red Cross team visited all the areas to distribute the water containers and tarpaulins.

Speaking on behalf of the families at MCI, Lai Sakita, thanked the Red Cross for providing the families with the tarpaulins and jerry cans.

These emergency supplies would allow the people to set up temporary shelters while they resettled.

SHEFA Provincial Government Council, through its National Disaster Management Office officer supported VRCS in the logistics, during the distribution rollout.

He said these families were victims of the ash-fall from Tanna’s Yasur volcano.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Indonesian authorities have been accused of adopting a strategy of deploying military force to drive thousands of Papuans from their homes to make way for powerful business interests.

The accusation comes from the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) in a statement responding to news that about 2400 internal refugees have been displaced from 19 villages after renewed Indonesian military operations in the Maybrat regency.

The humanitarian crisis there is being compared to Nduga and Intan Jaya, where more than 50,000 West Papuans have been displaced by military operations in recent years.

“Maybrat is a peaceful place. The violence we are seeing now is a result of Indonesian state attempts to clear the local people and grab the gold and minerals that lie under the earth,” said ULMWP interim president Benny Wenda.

“I have been stating for a long time that Indonesia’s military operations are not about ‘sovereignty’, but business.

“Now, Indonesia’s own NGOs have confirmed this. New reports from WALHI Papua, LBH Papua, KontraS, Greenpeace Indonesia and several other groups have noted the deep links Indonesia’s retired generals, Kopassus officers and intelligence chiefs have with resource extraction projects in West Papua.

“Powerful Indonesian leaders like Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Maritime Affairs Minister, hold direct interests in the Wabu Block gold concession in Intan Jaya, where huge military operations have forced thousands of people from their homes.”

‘Wiping out entire villages’
Wenda claimed the military operations were attempts to “wipe out entire villages and clear the way for illegal mines”.

“They are killing us because we are Black, because we are different. This is state-sponsored terrorism,” he said.

Wenda said that given these economic interests, the Papuan people could not “trust the reports of the Indonesian police and military whenever one of their own is killed”.

“The military men’s presence in the region is illegal. Their presence is part of Indonesia’s business interests, part of their illegal colonial occupation of my land.

“The 1969 Act of No Choice was illegal, it was not done by one man one vote as required by the 1962 New York Agreement. The UN did not endorse what happened, it only ‘took note’ following fierce opposition led by Ghana in the UN General Assembly.

“Indonesia cannot claim that its invasion of West Papua is a done deal – it is not. It is the root cause of all the issues we see today.

“Indonesia has no right to send any more military to West Papua, to build the Trans-Papua Highway, or to construct any more military posts.”

Negotiated solution
Wenda said the issue would never end until Indonesian President Joko Widodo negotiated a “solution for the good of West Papua and Indonesia to hold a referendum on independence”.

He said Indonesia must listen to the will of 84 countries and allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit West Papua immediately.

“If the international community wants to help end the bloodshed in my homeland, it must act to ensure this visit happens,” Wenda said.

A new wave of displacement of thousands of people from 19 villages in Maybrat, West Papua.

They are running away from raids by Indonesian security forces following the killings of four soldiers by the West Papua National Liberation Army last week. pic.twitter.com/L7D7qTGD1N

— Veronica Koman 許愛茜 (@VeronicaKoman) September 7, 2021

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz