Telkomsel BTS Tower Shooting

On 2 March 2022, a group of approximately twelve armed militants attacked a Telkomsel BTS (base transceiver station) telecommunications facility, known as BTS 3, located in Beoga, Puncak Regency, in Indonesia's Central Papua province. According to Wikipedia's account of the incident, the attackers were identified as members of the Free Papua Movement.

At the time of the attack, technicians were working to repair the site's transceiver equipment. The militants opened fire on the workers at the facility. One worker, Nelson Sarira, survived the attack and managed to flee; he reportedly sent a message via the building's CCTV system to Telkomsel's headquarters in Jakarta during or after the assault. Eight workers were killed: Bona Simanullang, Billy Garibaldi, Renaltagasye Tentua, Jamaludin, Eko Septiansyah, Syahril Nurdiansyah, Ibo, and Bebi Tabuni.

The West Papua Liberation Organization claimed responsibility for the killings. The group's spokesman, Sebby Sambom, stated that the movement had previously warned civilians to leave the area, saying there was "no reason to justify that they are civilians when we have announced all immigrants to immediately leave the war zone."

The attack drew condemnation from Indonesian authorities and local community leaders. Local military official Aqsha Erlannga described the shooting as an "extraordinary crime." Abelom Kogoya, a general tribal leader of the Dani people from Puncak Regency, also condemned the attack, noting that one of the victims, Bebi Tabuni, was the son of Abeloni Tabuni, the Dani tribal head from Gome, Ilaga District. Kogoya stated that the armed group responsible would no longer be considered part of the community ("family") and indicated the community would assist authorities against them if further attacks occurred, remarking on the destruction the group had caused in Ilaga through killing and arson.

The Wikipedia article notes that this shooting was among the deadliest incidents in the recent history of the long-running Papua conflict, a separatist and political conflict in the Indonesian region of Papua that has continued since 1962.

This dossier is based on the available Wikipedia summary of the event. Two additional sources — from the Associated Press and Reuters — are listed in the references of the source article as contemporaneous coverage of the incident but their specific text was not available for direct review in compiling this summary; they are included here as corroborating citations per the source article's reference list.