Transcript
Johnny Blades: The attacks on some people like the Indonesian road construction workers... by killing people, what's that going to prove?
Jeffrey Bomanak: We know that all those workers were not civilians, they're not working for the company, but they are military from Indonesia. And that development in our region is especially close to our military base, like in Nduga and Wamena. That means they're trying to destroy our base. So we told them to leave, but they didn't listen, so we killed them. They are military.
Johnny Blades: But what is the result of all this? Attacks on those people or Indonesian troops mean Jakarta will just send more soldiers to Papua to fight more. Violence creates more violence. Is it going to help?
Jeffrey Bomanak: For us if we didn't fight with them, they will kill us, systematically. If we stay and accept them, they will kill us. So there's no other option. We have to go against them. It's a military reason. When we stay, they will occupy all this place and then they will kill us. So before they can do that, we kill them. And if it creates more problems, that's okay, we fight. We know why we fight, We fight but our diplomatic can talk outside, and then we can sit down with Indonesia and solve this problem. So we still fight.
Johnny Blades: What about the killing of the New Zealander near Timika a few months ago? The Freeport worker, he was killed by your group.
Jeffrey Bomanak: In human level, I really say sorry about that. But in the military perspective our stand of the Free Papua Movement and West Papua Liberation Army, we already give the warning to all the Freeport workers, because Freeport is a fundamental reason why we fight. Freeport is a fundamental problem why West Papua is still occupied by Indonesia illegally, why Indonesia still colonises us. So we already announced to all Freeport workers to shut down the Freeport mine and then Indonesia must negotiate with Indonesia at international level. We already gave warning. I can say that our New Zealand friend died because of our bullet. But in the context of war, our military go in against the Indonesian forces. We fought with the Indonesian forces in Kuala Kencana and then sometimes workers come out and they can get bullet.
