OPM Uses Village Funds to Buy Weapons, Threatens Civilian Security and Further Hinders Papuan Development
By: Hugo Steve Momoribo )*
The Free Papua Movement (OPM) uses village funds to buy weapons. By purchasing these weapons, they threaten the security and safety of civilians and clearly further hinder efforts to accelerate development in the region nicknamed Bumi Cenderawasih.
The misuse of village funds by OPM is indeed worthy of monitoring by all parties and all elements should be aware of this. Not without reason, because it is very clear that if this activity continues to occur, it will greatly threaten the sustainability of the future of the Land of Papua itself.
In fact, the Government has disbursed a number of village funds, the amount of which is actually not small for Papua, with the aim of accelerating development to the maximum and optimal level there, namely to fully support the special autonomy (Otsus) policy so as to bring prosperity to the local community.
However, instead of the village funds being utilized properly, OPM actually misappropriated them and bought weapons using village funds which actually had a very bad impact, namely disrupting the entire development process of Bumi Cenderawasih.
OPM deliberately misappropriated the government’s aid in the form of village funds by purchasing weapons on the black market. In fact, since 2015, the President of the Republic of Indonesia Joko Widodo (Jokowi) introduced the ‘Village Fund’ program.
It is clear that there is no place in Indonesia that is more challenging than the program distribution supervision scheme in highland and remote or isolated areas such as Papua.
There is something that must also be noted, namely that it turns out that the Village Fund from the Government is the main source of income for the region located in the farthest east of the country.
Moreover, in the region nicknamed the Little Heaven that Fell to Earth, there is also the OPM which demands that the region be separated from the Republic of Indonesia by carrying out a number of cruel and barbaric acts of terror including rebellions which have recently continued to occur massively in line with the surge in arms sales in the region.
Data shows that in 2015, there was only 1 case of illegal arms and ammunition trafficking in Papua, but this number has continued to soar, even in 2021 the number of arms trafficking cases skyrocketed to 14.
Head of Public Relations for the Papua Regional Police (Kabid Humas Polda), Senior Commissioner of Police (Kombes Pol) Ignatius Benny Ady Prabowo admitted that he was very concerned because the Village Fund from the Government which should be aimed at improving community welfare has instead become a source of funding for illegal arms purchasing activities by the OPM.
Likewise, the Head of Operations (Kaops) Peace Cartenz 2024, Police Brigadier General (Brigjen Pol) Faizal Ramadhani said that around 40 percent of illegal weapons cases actually involved funds from the Village Fund program.
In fact, the Government designed the allocation of Village Funds to spur economic growth in Papua, so that the increase in these funds has continued to occur up to 3 times since 2015.
However, it is very sad if it turns out that the use of Village Funds is actually misused by OPM and they use it to carry out illegal firearms purchase transactions. Increasing ownership of firearms by separatist groups who are enemies of the state is also very clearly seen in several recent photos that they have released along with threats to civilians.
In the Papuan highlands, they even treat Village Funds like a ‘revolutionary tax’ that OPM confiscates both through intimidation and coercion. Even as an example, there is a recent case that has recently occurred, namely the burning of a school in the Bintang Mountains.
After the security forces conducted further investigations, it turned out that the school building burning case occurred because the Free Papua Movement did not receive a share of the Village Fund. So they went on a rampage by launching a cruel and barbaric act by burning down the one-roof elementary, middle and high school buildings in Borban Village, Okbab District.
The Head of Information for the Regional Military Command (Kapendam), Lieutenant Colonel of Infantry (Letkol Inf) Candra Kurniawan said that the very inhumane terror act carried out by the OPM was very regrettable by all local residents because the school they burned down was a place for the children of the next generation of the nation from Bumi Cenderawasih to gain education for their future.
It is not surprising why the entire community then strongly condemned the burning of the school building by the terrorist group, the enemy of the country. They deliberately did this so that young Papuans would not have a good future.
The reason turned out to be because they did not get a share of the Village Fund, because so far it turned out that the misappropriation of Village Funds by OPM which they used to fund illegal firearms (senpi) purchases to threaten all civilians and further hinder the development of Papua.
)* Papuan Students Living in Yogyakarta
