JAYAPURA, SUARAPAPUA.com — Responding to information and news coverage accusing the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) burned the churches in Opitawak village, Tembagapura, Victor Yeimo, International Spokesperson of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) asserted that this was not true.
“The Church and the TPNPB have the same mission for liberation. So impossible that TPNPB burned the Church in Opitawak, Tembagapura. There is no reason for TPNPB to burn down the Church. TPNPB can’t burn the place worship of the nation (its family) which is being fought for to be free from the exploitation of Freeport capitalists and Indonesian colonialism,” said Yeimo to suarapapua.com on Friday (3/20/2020) in Jayapura City.
“Indonesia must understand that all Papuans are very supportive to the TPNPB struggle to close down Freeport’s operations which are genocide and ecocide criminals in West Papua. So what is the point of media propaganda?” he asserted.
According to Victor, everyone also knows through credible media that Indonesia is financing cyber-army in charge of spreading hoax news online. There is an eighty hoax account was blocked by FB and Twitter. Scammer Country.
“So of course the perpetrators of the Opitawak Church were not TPNPB. This is an effort by the state to seek public attention and support for the Indonesian National Police operations that protect Freeport when the people are not protected from the threat of the Coronavirus,” Yeimo said.
To prove it, Yeimo challenged Indonesia to just allow the international investigation team to go there, as Gen suggested. Goliath Tabuni, Commander of TPNPB.
“If not, let the Freeport shut down, and the military will return to barracks to protect their families from the threat of the Corona Virus,” he said.
West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) through the release sent by Sebby Sambom, the TPNPB spokesman for media, rejected the accusation. The reason is they did not fight to burn houses and churches.
“We convey to the public that what has been alleged to us by the Indonesian Military and Police is not true. We are fighting not to burn houses of Indigenous Papuans, and also we are fighting not to burn Church buildings, but we are fighting only for the Right to Independence for the Papuan Nation,” he wrote in the release.
Sebby considered that the Indonesian military accusations were only cheap propaganda to cover up the crimes they committed in Papua.
Lekagak Telenggen, through Sebby in the release, asserted, the root of the problem was the independence of Papua which had been eliminated by the United States Government, the Government of the Netherlands, the Government of Indonesia and the United Nations in 1963.
With this basis, he said, TPNPB had risen and stood up to fight for the Papuan people’s independence rights again.
“We submit that the war that has been and is being fought by TPNPB in West Papua is to fight for independence. We are not fighting this war for church buildings, homes for citizens, killing Papuans, targeting the people and also not for community terror,” said Sambom.
Reporter: Arnold Belau
Translator: Imelda Kopeuw
