VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Representatives of Yonathan Renden and Oktovianus Rayo, two teachers, recently shot dead by several armed Papuan separatist terrorists in Beoga Sub-district, Puncak District, received the Education Award 2021 from Papua’s provincial government on Sunday evening.

The award bestowed by the Papua office for education, libraries, and archives to honor the fallen teachers' dedication to educating Papuan children in the remotely mountainous regions was received by representatives of the slain teachers' mourning families.

Assaulting and killing teachers must be stopped from recurring in future, Secretary of the Papua Provincial Administration Yulian Dance Flassy notified journalists after attending the event to mark the commemoration of National Education Day.

Flassy contended that any deadly acts of violence against teachers in Papua had severely impacted teaching and learning activities amid the shortage of teachers in the province's mountainous regions.

The secretary condemned the fatal shootings of the two teachers that occurred in Beoga Sub-district, Puncak District, on April 8-9, 2021.

Flassy was also optimistic of the government being heedful of the requests of these two slain teachers' spouses for being recruited as teachers to enable them to continue their husbands' dedication to educating the Papuan children in the remotely mountainous regions.

Over the past few years, armed Papuan groups have often employed hit-and-run tactics against Indonesian security personnel and mounted acts of terror against civilians in the districts of Intan Jaya, Nduga, and Puncak to instill a sense of fear among the people.

The recent targets of such acts of terror have included construction workers, motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers, teachers, students, street food vendors, and even civilian aircraft.

Rayo was shot by several armed separatist terrorists during an assault in Julukoma Village, Beoga Sub-district, Puncak District, on April 8, 2021.

At that time, the notorious rebels opened fire at a kiosk, and a bullet hit Rayo. The shooting resulted in the death of this Beoga public elementary school teacher.

After killing Rayo, the armed attackers torched three classrooms at the Beoga public senior high school.

On April 9, 2021, armed separatists again fatally shot another teacher, Yonathan Renden, on the chest.

Two days later, nine classrooms at the Beoga public junior high school were set ablaze by an armed group.

Barely four days later, Ali Mom, a student of the Ilaga public senior high school in Beoga Sub-district, was brutally killed by armed attackers.

On April 25, 2021, Papuan separatists operating in Beoga ambushed State Intelligence Agency (Papua) Chief I Gusti Putu Danny Karya Nugraha and several security personnel during their visit to Dambet Village. (Antaranews)