Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights has opened an investigation into the deaths of at least 12 civilians, including women and children, killed during a military operation in the remote central Papuan village of Kembru on 15 April. The commission, known by its Indonesian acronym Komnas HAM, said the victims died of gunshot wounds during what the armed forces described as an "enforcement operation" against the TPNPB-OPM, a Papuan separatist rebel group. Several others were wounded in the incident. Commission chairwoman Anis Hidayah said there was "strong suspicion" that Indonesian soldiers were responsible, while the military, for its part, said it had "neutralised" four rebel combatants in Kembru and made no mention of civilian deaths. The military is separately investigating a report that a child was fatally shot in another village, but denied any troop involvement in that case.

Komnas HAM, which operates independently despite being part of the Indonesian state structure, stated unequivocally that any operation resulting in civilian casualties "cannot be justified on any grounds," adding that attacks on civilians — whether by state or non-state actors — constitute violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. The commission called on all sides to exercise restraint and urged the military to re-evaluate its operations against Papuan rebels.

Papua, the vast jungle-covered region that occupies the western half of the island of New Guinea — shared with the independent nation of Papua New Guinea — has been the site of a low-level but persistent insurgency for decades. The territory declared independence in 1961 following centuries of Dutch colonial rule, but Indonesia took control two years later. A 1969 referendum, in which only around 1,000 people voted out of a population of roughly 800,000, formalised integration into Indonesia — a process Papuan independence advocates have long condemned as illegitimate. Jakarta, however, cites UN acceptance of its sovereignty and has consistently rejected calls for a fresh vote.

The region's troubled history is compounded by deep economic inequality. Papua holds some of the world's most significant mineral reserves, contributing substantially to Indonesia's mining output, yet its population — predominantly Christian and ethnically distinct from the rest of the country, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation — faces poverty rates far above the national average. Despite a push in recent years by the central government in Jakarta to modernise the region's infrastructure, local communities say the benefits have been limited, and cycles of violence between separatist fighters and the military continue. Sunday's announcement marks the latest in a long series of incidents that human rights groups say demand greater accountability from Indonesian security forces.