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The arrival of Troops in Paniai, by air and land, has caused panic, said a nun who works there. She did not want her name to be made public.
A group of armed men launched attacks in the Papua regency of Paniai as Indonesia celebrated its 66th Independence Day. As the hoisting of the flag ceremony was carried out at Paniai Regency Office, Maddi District, a series of gunshots were heard, causing people who attended the event to get nervous
Paniai Regent, Naftali Yogi said the OPM members “had planned to disrupt the Independence Day as a few days earlier there was information that there would be an interruption during the flag flying ceremony.”
The sound of gunshots has been heard since about 2 a.m. on Wednesday morning in Pagepota and Uwibutu villages in Paniai. There have been no reports of casualties.
“The sound of gunshots ceased for a moment, then was heard again between 5 a.m. and 7 a.m.,” Markus You, a local resident, said on Wednesday.
A church official said that some of those who had fled after the shooting had not returned home and their present whereabouts were not known. ‘We think that some of them have fled to far-away kampungs and don’t want to return to the town which is full of heavily armed troops whose presence is very frightening,’ the official said. They would only come back when the town had been cleared of the troops. The church official said they were refusing to come back because they knew that the fighting had been a put-up job and they didn’t want to become casualties.
Paniai Regency is one of the regencies (kabupaten) in Papua province, Indonesia.
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News category: Asia Pacific.
