Data Check: Did an Armed Papuan Group Really Attack Local Residents?

Presidential candidate number two, Prabowo Subianto, stated that armed groups in Papua are attacking local residents.

"We must protect all the people of Papua, because there, terrorist groups are attacking the Papuan people themselves," said Prabowo.

He made this statement during the first 2024 Presidential Debate, themed Governance, Law, Human Rights, Corruption Eradication, Strengthening Democracy, Improvement of Public Services, and Community Harmony, at the KPU office, Central Jakarta, on Tuesday (12/12/2023).

According to data from the Papua Task Force of Gadjah Mada University (UGM), there were 348 cases of violence in Papua and West Papua provinces between January 2010 and March 2022.

The majority of these cases were perpetrated by local armed groups, often referred to as Armed Separatist Groups (KSB), Armed Criminal Groups (KKB), or the West Papua National Liberation Army-Free Papua Movement (TPNPB-OPM).

Since April 2021, the Indonesian government has also designated these groups as "terrorist" organizations.

Between January 2010 and March 2022, these armed groups were recorded as perpetrators in 226 cases of violence in Papua and West Papua.

There were also cases of violence perpetrated by civilians, police, TNI (Indonesian National Armed Forces), and unidentified individuals. However, these were fewer in number, as shown in the graph.

The UGM Papua Task Force compiled this data from mass media reports. They also re-confirmed the data's validity with official sources such as security forces, regional leaders, and others.