Establishing OPM as a Terrorist Organization is Appropriate

Establishing OPM as a Terrorist Organization is Appropriate

Seeing the OPM action, it seems clear that there is political motivation supported by the use of armed violence. Casualties, damage to infrastructure, mass fear and disruption of Kamtibmas occur due to OPM action in Papua. OPM as an entity has operated in two important arenas, first its military wing creates security threats and terror, and secondly its political wing actively mobilizes recognition and is intense abroad.

This OPM strategy is a threat to the national interest and needs to be responded to with new perspectives and approaches so that it can be dealt with comprehensively. So far, the government uses conventional legal and security approaches in dealing with OPM actions.

The mention of the OPM and all of its actions as a KKB limits the Indonesian government's space to carry out measurable comprehensive actions to prevent and control the existence of OPM. There is no integrated legal framework to handle the actions of OPM and its sympathizers.

So far, the government has relied on public convictions in handling captured OPM members, and articles on treason for OPM sympathizer activists such as those carried out by 6 pro-Papuan independence activists who raised the Morning Star flag at the Palace in 2019. Therefore, placing OPM as an Armed Criminal Group (KKB) with a conventional criminal justice system approach would not be sufficient.

The patterns, actions and impacts arising from OPM actions clearly meet the definition of Terrorism as acts that use violence or threat of violence that creates an atmosphere of terror or widespread fear, resulting in mass victims.

And / or cause damage or destruction to vital strategic objects, the environment, public facilities, or international facilities with ideological, political, or security disturbances, as stated in Law No. 5 of 2018 concerning Amendment to Law No. 15 of 2003 concerning Stipulation of Government Regulation in Lieu of Law No. 1 of 2002 concerning the Eradication of the Criminal Acts of Terrorism into Law.

The mentioning and handling of OPM as a KKB actually limits the government's role to take more effective and comprehensive actions. The actions of OPM and its sympathizers must be seen as non conventional threats so that a lex specialist and extra ordinary approach is needed by making the Terrorism Law a legal umbrella to integrate policies and actors involved in OPM management.

Therefore it is very urgent for the government to declare OPM as a terror organization, followed by actions that result as a consequence. OPM's statement as a terror organization certainly has a myriad of objective and subjective reasons. Objectively, the OPM has openly declared responsibility for a number of cases of destruction of public infrastructure and killings that have occurred for years in Papua.

This step will be more effective if followed up with the government's proposal for OPM to be included in the List of Organizations and Terrorism Actors made by the United Nations and to develop global cooperation in limiting the scope of OPM's movement. This shows that the Indonesian government is sovereign over domestic policies regarding combating terrorism, and at the same time shows that Indonesia adheres to the due process of law, therefore it cannot be declared as a form of human rights violations.