KUALA LUMPUR: Indonesia's top security and intelligence official Maciano Norman said that the separatist group the Free Papua Organization was behind the ongoing violence in Jayapura. Activists and the OPM have been pushing for separation from Indonesia in recent years, and spates of violence have erupted more regularly in the past year and a half. “Surely they are members of OPM,” Norman, the head of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) said after a meeting at House of Representatives on Monday. “It is a new development that the [OPM] political front in the city and the armed front that fights in the jungle are now combined. So the group that fights in the jungle has moved to the city.” The BIN chief added that a recent string of shootings in Jayapura was part of an effort to attract international attention to the area, which wants to be an independent country. Separatist groups in Papua are engaged in an ongoing fight for independence with the Indonesian military. The province was officially annexed in 1969. Many in the province want to follow in East Timor's steps and gain independence from Indonesia. Mahfudz Siddiq, head of the House Commission I, said the shootings were meant to coincide with the OPM's July 1 anniversary. “Police need to put an end to their hesitation and should strengthen their ties with the Indonesian military as people have demanded the police reveal the mastermind behind the violence,” Mahfudz said. But the OPM has denied the allegations, explaining that all OPM members have been ordered to stay at the organization's secret headquarters in preparation for the anniversary of the OPM's military win, the National Freedom Troop (TPN). “All members have been gathering at our defense headquarters,” Lambert Peukikier, the commander of the TPN office in Keerom, a neighboring district to Jayapura, told kompas.com on Monday. At least 13 civilians and 15 members of Indonesian security forces have been killed in Papua in the past 18 months. The violence intensified in Jayapura, with at least 7 people having been shot in the last week.
