The supply of essential goods in Indonesia’s restive Papua region has been disrupted in recent weeks as a regional airline halted nearly 70% of its flights after one of its pilots was taken hostage by separatist rebels last month.
The Indonesian military said on Wednesday that a tribunal sentenced an army major to life in prison for his involvement in the murder of four Papuan civilians, whose mutilated bodies were found in August in the restive region.
In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded Papua – like Indonesia, a former Dutch colony – and annexed the region.Only about 1,000 people voted in the U.N.-sponsored referendum in 1969 that locals and activists said was a sham, but the United Nations accepted the result, essentially endorsing Jakarta’s rule
Indonesia’s two easternmost provinces of Papua and West Papua, known internationally as the territory of West Papua, have recently been racked by civil unrest. Thousands of people across the region have joined rallies to protest racial discrimination. VOA’S Alam Burnahan looks at the root of the conflict