AsiaNews 03/28/06) Islamic extremist groups are entering West Papuan territory, with the consent of elements of the Indonesian army, to set up bases there. The charge has been leveled, according to a report in the Australian daily, The Australian by Giles Cote, the bishop of a diocese of Papua New Guinea on the border with West Papua , the Indonesian part of the island. The bishop said the extremists were fighting supporters of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM).
“Our information indicates that jihad militants are in West Papua to do the dirty work of the police and military,” said Bishop Cote, whose diocese of Western Province borders Papua. Cote said the extremists were coming from Mindanao Island in the south of the Philippines and from Sulawesi and other islands in northern Indonesia . He voiced concern about the decision of Jakarta to shift thousands of Indonesian troops to Papua from Aceh, where Jakarta resolved an age-old separatist rebellion last year.
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