2 May 2012

Kopassus leak exposes targetting of West Papuan leadership

4:25 am on 2 May 2012

The self-proclaimed administration of an independent state of West Papua says Indonesian special forces are planning the assassinations of Papua leaders.

These include Papuan leaders who declared a Federal Republic of West Papua at last October's Third Papuan People's Congress in Jayapura.

Five of the West Papuan leadership, including President Forkorus Yaboisembut and Prime Minister Edison Waromi, are serving three-year jail terms for treason as a result of the declaration.

The administration's Foreign Affairs spokesman, Jacob Rumbiak, says their names have emerged on a hit-list leaked from a top-level meeting of Indonesia's special forces unit Kopassus.

"So now we should expose this issue so that we try and save other leaders. We never fear about death but we try to share with Jakarta so that it not make them very happy. It's a risk of the movement: death or freedom."

Jacob Rumbiak.