Mahfud MD: Conditions In Papua Are Now Under Control, There Is No SARA-motivated Conflict

JAKARTA - Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs (Menko Polhukam) Mahfud MD said conditions in Papua were under control.

Mahfud also emphasized that there was not a single conflict in the region caused by issues of ethnicity, religion, race, and inter-group (SARA).

This was conveyed after holding a coordination meeting with the TNI Commander, Pangdam, and Kapolda in Papua, West Papua and Maluku online.

"Alhamdulillah, now it is under control and no one is motivated by SARA. Please don't develop it. There is no SARA motive," Mahfud said in a video caption that was shown on the Kemenkopolhukam RI YouTube, Friday, January 28.

He said that recently there have been three violent incidents that occurred in Eastern Indonesia, such as conflicts between residents in Haruku Village, Maluku to the burning of entertainment venues in West Papua. However, he said this whole incident happened because of pure conflict.

"In West Papua, there were cases where people entertained conflicts, then there were fights and houses were burned, entertainment venues were burned, then 17 people died," he said.

"Then in Haruku, land conflicts between villagers who claim each other because they may be of different ethnic groups is a conflict. So it's not SARA. In the sense that SARA, which is known in politics, is pure conflict," added the former Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court (MK).

As for the TNI shooting in Papua, he said it happened because of the new approach that was now defensive. So that in the future, the TNI Commander General Andika Perkasa will re-evaluate the approach he uses even though he has succeeded in minimizing civilian casualties.

Mahfud said this evaluation step was important because the targets of armed criminal groups (KKB) in Papua were TNI and Polri personnel.

"Then in Papua there have been shootings in recent times, indeed some TNI residents have died, but indeed it is a new change in the situation in the new approach, the TNI is now defensive, not offensive," he said.

"Now how to be defensive with this new approach, according to the Commander in Chief, will be evaluated and perfected immediately," he concluded.