Indonesia hunts suspects in alleged mass killing

Indonesian soldiers hunted Wednesday for rebels suspected of killing as many as 24 construction workers in Papua Province, as an eyewitness account supplied by the military described a grisly mass execution.

The survivor’s account detailed the killing of at least 19 people, which if confirmed would mark the deadliest bout of violence in years to hit a region wracked by a low-level independence insurgency.

A Facebook account purportedly run by the National Liberation Army of West Papua said the armed group had killed 24 workers on the orders of regional commander Ekianus Kogoya.

On Wednesday, some 150 military personnel were focusing their operation at Nduga, a remote mountainous region where a state-owned contractor has been building bridges and roads as part of efforts to boost infrastructure.

Many Papuans view Indonesia as a colonial occupier and its building work as a way to exert more control over an impoverished region that shares a border with Papua New Guinea, an independent nation.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo said Wednesday he backed the hunt for those behind what he described as the “alleged assault.”

“I have ordered the chiefs of the military and national police to chase and arrest all the perpetrators of these barbaric and inhumane acts,” he told reporters in Jakarta.

Police and military teams sent to the area on Monday came under rebel gunfire with one soldier killed and another wounded in the firefight, authorities have said.