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View all search resultsProbe launched as more Papuans killed in Intan Jaya
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Dozens of Papuans gather on July 4, 2026 at the Sugapa field in Intan Jaya regency, Central Papua to meet with representatives from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) following the deadly clash between the Indonesian Military (TNI) and a separatist group in the district two days earlier. (Courtesy of the National Commissions on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) Papua/-)
T
he National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) is investigating eight separate violent incidents in Intan Jaya regency, Central Papua, with the latest being a pregnant woman killed during a shootout allegedly between the Indonesian Military (TNI) and a separatist group.
The cases include two separate grenade attacks targeting St. Paulus Nabuni Catholic Church and a neighborhood in Agisiga district, which wounded six civilians, and a gunfight of unknown origins in the same district on June 29 in which a clergyman, identified as Elianus Agimbau, was killed according to the Papua chapter of Komnas HAM.
On the same day, two more gunfights left two civilians injured and damaged a car belonging to a local church in Titigi village, Sugapa.
Hostilities between the TNI and the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), have also led to the deaths of a TNI soldier during a clash in Agisiga on June 27 and, more recently on Thursday night last week, of 31-year-old pregnant woman Melkiana Duwitau in Sugapa.
“Violence in Intan Jaya has been escalating in both scale and intensity, with a growing tendency of targeting civilians,” Komnas HAM’s Papua chapter chairman Frits B. Ramandey told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
A preliminary investigation by the rights body found that Melkiana was likely hit by a stray round with a “strong possibility of it originating from a nearby TNI post” during a gunfight with the TPNPB in close proximity to her home in the mountain village of Wandoga.
She was rushed to hospital, but neither she nor her unborn child survived. Her death came just one day after a missing person identified as Okto Tigau was found dead on Wednesday in neighboring Mamba village. Frits said Okto had previously been accused by the TNI of being a member of the OPM.
