Jayapura. In the latest act of violence in volatile Papua, an Indonesian military officer stationed in Abepura was fatally stabbed by unknown attackers on Tuesday.
Capt. Tasman, 53, from the Cendrawasih Regional Military Command, was on his way to work when the attack took place near a housing complex on Jalan Baru in Heram sub-district in the outskirts of Jayapura.
“The victim was ambushed as he was riding his motorcycle, then stabbed to death,” said Lt. Col. Ali Bogra, a spokesman for the Cendrawasih Military Command.
He said the incident occurred at about 7 a.m. local time.
A Cendrawasih University student named Kiki who witnessed the incident said that he was riding a motorbike behind Tasman when two men approached the soldier.
One man was wielding a knife, and the other a machete. Tasman was stabbed repeatedly, before he fell to the ground. His attackers then fled.
Kiki reported the attack to a nearby police precinct, but Tasman was already dead when police arrived at the scene.
“[Tasman] was stabbed in his back and in his stomach. His neck was slashed,” Kiki said.
Military command spokesman Ali said authorities have arrested one of the alleged perpetrators, identified as 32-year-old Julianus Wenda.
“However, we still don’t know the motive behind the killing. We have ruled out the possibility of robbery because nothing was stolen,” Ali said.
The restive province has seen an increase in violence over the past few months. Early this month, the town of Abepura was wracked with tension after an early-morning ambush by suspected separatists left five people dead, including an army officer, and dozens more seriously wounded.
Armed conflict has also taken place recently in the districts of Paniai, Dogiyai and Puncak Jaya, where there have been at least seven shootings.
Human rights activists have expressed concern about the current tension in Papua, which has seen calls for independence, both peaceful and armed, since annexation by Indonesia in 1969.
Activists urged the government to hold immediate talks with people in the restive province, which has been suffering from years of poverty, unemployment, poor education and health as well as massive environmental damage.
Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a recent report that it was crucial that the government swiftly set up the Unit for the Acceleration of Development in Papua and West Papua (UP4B), first proposed in the middle of last year.
The draft decree to set up the UP4B has been stalled at the Cabinet Secretariat since May.
“Without the new unit, the chance of any positive change is much diminished, allowing developments in Puncak Jaya to stand as a symbol for activists inside and outside Indonesia of everything that is wrong with Papua,” the report said.