{"id":2627,"date":"2018-12-05T15:53:49","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T15:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/?p=2627"},"modified":"2018-12-05T15:53:49","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T15:53:49","slug":"gunmen-kill-31-construction-workers-in-indonesias-papua-province-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/2018\/12\/05\/gunmen-kill-31-construction-workers-in-indonesias-papua-province-officials-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Gunmen Kill 31 Construction Workers in Indonesia\u2019s Papua Province, Officials Say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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JAKARTA, Indonesia \u2014 Gunmen in the remote Indonesian province of Papua have killed as many as 31 construction workers who were brought from a distant island to help build a major highway, officials said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The police attributed the attacks to separatists who have long pushed for an independent Papua, The Associated Press reported. But there were few details of the killings, which were said to have begun on Sunday with the shooting of 24 workers.<\/p>\n

Indonesia\u2019s public works minister, Basuki Hadimuljono, told reporters on Tuesday that work on the highway would be halted while the authorities investigated the killings in the district of Nduga, a mountainous area near the center of the province.<\/p>\n

Police officers and soldiers were attempting to reach the area where the attacks were reported to have occurred.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Papua, which shares the island of New Guinea with the country Papua New Guinea, is a vast, largely inaccessible region with huge oil, mineral and timber resources.<\/p>\n

Papua declared independence in 1961 but was annexed by Indonesia in 1969 following a vote of tribal representatives that was widely seen as illegitimate.<\/p>\n

For years, the Free Papua Movement, known by its Indonesian acronym O.P.M., has operated a low-level insurgency in the province.<\/p>\n

Bobby Anderson, a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London with years of experience in Papua, said that the separatists were not particularly active in the Nduga area, where clan violence is common.<\/p>\n

He said locals seeking to extort money often target construction workers, who are seen as outsiders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n