YAHUKIMO – The Management of the Central Headquarters of the National Command of the West Papua National Liberation Army (KOMNAS TPNPB) has officially issued a firm statement regarding the conflicting information over the death of a Civil Servant (ASN) in Yahukimo that occurred on April 21, 2026. Through an official report sent by the Operations Commander of TPNPB Kodap XVI Yahukimo, Major Kopitua Heluka, TPNPB strongly denies involvement in the action and accuses Indonesian security forces of being the actors behind the bloody event.
Spokesperson for TPNPB OPM, Sebby Sambom, in a press release on Friday, April 24, 2026, emphasized that the accusations directed at the troops are a form of structured propaganda. According to him, the death of Yemis Yohame was intentionally designed by the Indonesian military to create horizontal conflict and trigger mutual distrust among fellow Papuans and between the people and TPNPB. Sebby stated that the state is using intelligence and military force to pit Papuans against each other through various schemes, ranging from government position issues to physical conflicts on the ground.
In his explanation, Sebby Sambom detailed that based on data and field facts gathered by the central headquarters management, the victim Yemis Yohame was executed with a gunshot wound precisely in the chest. TPNPB considers the pattern of denial carried out by the apparatus currently as an old song that has frequently occurred in various cases of violence in Yahukimo since 2019. TPNPB notes a series of dark events, starting from the dispersal of demonstrations that claimed lives, the mutilation of civilians, to the use of explosives in residential areas where the cases are considered to have vanished without complete legal resolution for the perpetrators.
TPNPB also issued a stern warning to Papuan civilians working as police assistants or Banpol to immediately stop their activities as they are deemed to be assisting colonial movements that harm the struggle of the Papuan nation. Sebby also requested the victim's family and church institutions not to easily believe reports issued by state intelligence institutions such as BIN or BAIS. TPNPB emphasized that the narratives built by Indonesian security authorities often aim to cover up traces of human rights violations committed by personnel in the field.
Closing the statement, the Management of the Central Headquarters of KOMNAS TPNPB called for unity among all Papuan people from Sorong to Merauke so as not to be trapped in tribal war scenarios or social disputes designed by external parties. "We appeal to the Papuan people that the Indonesian state through its military apparatus is pitting Papuans against each other to kill one another and distrust one another so that the state executes Yemis Yohame then accuses TPNPB troops as the perpetrators," Sebby Sambom emphasized in the official report.
TPNPB believes that this incident in Yahukimo shares a similar pattern with other incidents of violence in the regions of Puncak Jaya, Intan Jaya, and the Bintang Mountains. ***