Aceh Peace Model Stumbles in Troubled Indonesian Papua Region

August 25, 2011

Villagers survey a damaged house of a candidate, where a meeting was to be held, after hundreds of supporters of two rival groups clashed at Ilaga in Puncak, West Papua province, Indonesia, August 1, 2011 (file photo)

An Indonesian military officer was fatally stabbed in the most recent attack in the country's Papua province. There have been at least seven shootings reported in the month of August.

Officials were hoping for less confrontation after July's peace conference. Those talks among officials and local Papuan groups were aimed at defusing the conflict between the Indonesian military and an armed separatist movement that has been fighting for independence in the region since 1969.

One of the organizers of the conference is Muridan Widjojo, a Javanese scholar who grew up in Papua and is now a researcher with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences. He says the spike in attacks is in part a reaction from hardliners in both the separatist movement and the Indonesian military who oppose any compromise.

"The pro independence group has kind of an interest to tell to the world that there is something wrong in Papua and we are still here," said Widjojo. "We still exist. We still fight. And then also on the part of the security institutions, [they can say] see, Papua is not stable and Papua has still a strong resistance and unstable and we are needed to be there."