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| Morning Star flag of West Papua (Wiki Info) |
By Luke Hunt
In a rare interview, the one-legged commander of a Papuan militant group, Danny Kogoya, has vowed to return to the jungle to fight and continue a 50-year struggle against Indonesian rule in the country’s far-east and resource-rich province of Papua.
But first, Kogoya wants a prosthetic limb. He says his leg was amputated below the knee without his permission, after he was shot by Indonesia police while in their custody, in jail on manslaughter charges that were later dropped. Police say he was resisting arrest.
"This leg was amputated for the Free Papua Movement. I am asking for independence,” he told Radio Australia from his hideout known as Camp Victoria in neighboring Papua New Guinea (PNG). “I am asking for West Papua to exit the Republic of Indonesia.”
Jakarta annexed the former Dutch colony in 1969 after a dubious vote. It granted the resource-rich province some autonomy in 2001. Still, its military presence – more than 14,000 troops – has been a constant irritant with locals who claim mining interests have taken precedence over their daily lives.
Read the full story at The Diplomat