President Jokowi Talks About KKB Hostage Action: The Situation In Papua Is Not As Easy As In Jakarta

President Jokowi at the National Mangrove Plantation Peak event at the Angke Kapuk Nature Tourism Park (TWA), Jakarta on Monday (15/5/2023) (ANTARA/Desca Lidya Natalia)

JAKARTA - President Joko Widodo said the situation in Papua was not as easy as in Jakarta, making it difficult to overcome the Armed Criminal Group (KKB).

"If we look at the field, the situation on the ground is not as easy as we imagined when we were in Jakarta," said President Jokowi after planting mangroves at the National Mangrove Plantation Peak event at the Angke Kapuk Nature Tourism Park (TWA), Jakarta, reported by ANTARA, Monday, May 15.

This was conveyed by the President regarding the hostage-taking carried out by the KKB against four BTS PT Tenti Bangun Sejahtera (IBS) tower project workers in Okbab District, Mounting Bintang Regency, Papua Province. However, currently, the four of them are no longer held hostage.

"I went to Nduga twice, I didn't know maybe 4 or 5 times to Wamena. The terrain was really very difficult, the wilderness, very cold, the ravine was in hundreds of meters. If you haven't been there, you can't imagine when the KKB took control of the field," said the President.

President Jokowi emphasized that this does not mean that the government is pessimistic about the KKB, including the question of the search and rescue of the Susi Air pilot, Phillip Mehrtens, who has been held hostage by the KKB since February 2023.

"It doesn't mean we are pessimistic, no, but the terrain is like that, but yesterday the hostages were already able to be secured again, the terrain is that if you go there you will understand very well, that the terrain is very heavy," said the President.

Previously, the Papuan Police Chief Inspector General Mathius D Fakhiri confirmed that four BTS PT Inti Bangun Sejahtera (IBS) tower project workers who had been held hostage by the KKB had been released.

Fakhiri said the four project workers were already with the community in Okbab District, and the injured hostage-taking victim was abused by the KKB group and had received medical treatment at the local health center.

As previously reported, three PT IBS employees were injured as a result of the attack by KKB members using sharp weapons, namely Benjamin Sembiring, Asmar and Fery.

Community leaders and religious leaders in Okbab, Bintang Mountains Regency, Papua Mountains, helped free the hostages who would build the BTS tower.

Fakhiri hopes that through the district head he can build communication with the perpetrators of the persecution of the three victims and can meet with one of the employees who is a native of Papua who had avoided the incident.

Of the four people who were held hostage, three were migrant residents who were stabbed and one was a native Papuan and in good condition.

One of them had time to secure himself to the Puskesmas, the second was detained, the other two were based on the approach of community leaders and priests. Finally, it was handed over to them and taken to the puskesmas for treatment," said Fakhiri.

Currently, local officials are trying to coordinate and communicate to be able to remove the three BTS PT IBS project workers from Okbab District to Oksibil, the capital city of the Bintang Mountains Regency.