4 workers survive deadly Papua shootings by pretending to be dead

Indonesian Mobile Brigade Police head to Nduga, where 31 construction workers are believed to have been shot dead, from Wamena on December 4, 2018. (Photo by ANYONG / AFP)
Indonesian Mobile Brigade Police head to Nduga, where 31 construction workers are believed to have been shot dead, from Wamena on December 4, 2018. (Photo by ANYONG / AFP)

Four workers for state-owned infrastructure construction company Istaka Karya survived Sunday’s attack by a group of armed men in Papua, which the latest reports confirm killed 19 of their colleagues.

According to the military, 11 workers initially survived being chased and shot at by the gunmen by pretending to be fatally hit by the hail of gunfire.

“Some of the workers were killed on the spot. Some pretended to be dead. They pretended to be dead and did not move at all,” Cendrawasih Military Command Spokesperson Col M Aidi told Kumparan today.

Aidi then said that the gunmen left the scene and walked up a hill. When they were seemingly out of sight, 11 of the workers tried to run away from the scene but were noticed by the gunmen. Five workers were apprehended and shot dead while the remaining six managed to flee.

Two of the survivors separated from the group during their escape from the shooters and their fates are currently unknown. Only four managed to reach a military outpost some 10 kilometers away from where the shootings took place.

The four survivors were airlifted to the town of Wamena for treatment. Three of them reportedly sustained gunshot wounds.

Initial reports put the total number of Istaka Karya workers killed by the gunmen at 31, though authorities today have only confirmed the deaths of 19 of them.

The employees of Istaka Karya were building bridges and roads as part of efforts to boost infrastructure in the impoverished region.

The killings were reportedly carried out by rebels who are part of a decades-long insurgency against Jakarta’s rule. Indonesia routinely blames separatists for violence in Papua.

The alleged killings come as more than 500 activists — including an Australian — were arrested in a nationwide police crackdown that coincided with rallies on December 1, a date many Papuans consider should be the anniversary of their independence from the Dutch.

Papua declared itself an independent nation on that date in 1961, but neighboring Indonesia took control of the region by force in 1963. It officially annexed Papua in 1969 with a UN-backed vote, widely seen as a sham.

Jakarta keeps a tight grip on the resource-rich region, which has been the scene of a low-level independence insurgency since the late Sixties.

Papua experienced several outbreaks of violence this summer including the killing of three local people, allegedly by rebels.

The deaths followed a gunfight that saw a small plane carrying 15 police officers — sent to oversee the local elections — was shot at as it landed at Nduga.

Some of the violence has been centred on protests against a huge gold and copper mine operated by US-based firm Freeport McMoRan — a frequent flashpoint in the local struggle for independence and a bigger share of the region’s rich resources.

With additional reporting by AFP



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