Phosphorous bomb propaganda in West Papua: A seriously fake, yet silly issue administered by Australian media
The realm of West Papua news and reports has recently been ‘stung’ by an issue that some phosphorous bomb was just deployed in the region. An Australian media outlet, The Saturday Paper, articulately reported (22/12) that that sort of deadly bomb was allegedly used by the Indonesian military to kill innocent West Papuans deliberately.
But reading carefully the way all information provided, we believe that the report was written based on presumptuous narratives and non-credible sources. It is unfortunately aimed at merely boosting the media’s image by discrediting Indonesians.
The kind of weapon at a glance
The phosphorous bomb weapon is often called WP (White Phosphorus), also called Willy Pete. The main purpose of using this WP is to burn enemy locations or destroy the targeted areas. This is a sort of bulk killer chemical weapon.
The way to use it is by using Artillery Cannon Weapons from tens to hundreds of kilometres and can even be between islands. It can also be carried by particular bomber types of aeroplanes or choppers, making it is impossible to be transported using transport helicopters, let alone only carried by Infantry Soldiers.
Some logical questions
With that information, what will come in your mind first would be this thing is not infamous in news about Middle East wars. So the first question to be asked is how on earth this info can now relate to what is happening to a region that is far from and has never ever been related to the wars as mentioned earlier? The second question would be when on earth have you heard that Indonesian military’s weaponry is now so sophisticated that they would have such, say, choppers or aircrafts deployed in West Papua?
You will have to see how the country’s economy is now struggling and how so silly it would be if they spend or waste their money on buying that unnecessary bomb. It is the fact that the Indonesian military has never wanted and will not possess and use such chemical killer weapons, including the White Pete.
And in West Papua, no one, not even a military member, has never had a single sight of artillery weapons and fighter planes stationed in the region. If there were some, Indonesians would have been rallying the government for wasting their budget on buying wasteful weaponry while people are barely economically getting by.
It is a fact that the primary tools of the armaments system the Indonesian military owns in West Papua are only the Transport Choppers named Bell, Bolco and MI-17. There are no airfare planes, let alone bomber choppers as reported by the Australian media.
Furthermore, because of its mass killing and firing using Artillery Cannon weapons or with bomber fighter planes, it was impossible and wasteful to fire the phosphorous bomb at locations or areas where terrains are mountainous and residences are non-concentrated where civilians and comrade forces are in the place.
If right that such weapon were fired, all living things in the area must have been dead or at least were severely injured and disabled for life. The fact is that most of the civilians, members of the military and the police and many volunteers in Nduga have until now been healthy with none of the phosphorus trace has been reported. If it is true that the army used White Pete, then at least all parts of the Nduga region would have already been burned and all the humans and animals there were dead.
Propaganda vs real actions
To this end, on purpose of not, it seems like the media has deliberately tried to create propaganda to make the world, especially Australians, believe that this Australian neighbour is a rogue country. They keep claiming that international organisations and media are not allowed to enter the region. Meanwhile, there have been international people came to West Papua and became volunteers in many areas.
These international people have become voluntary teachers, doctors, and health workers. Some international organisations have even established schools and medical centres there voluntarily.
And now here comes The Saturday Paper that has never ever done something for West Papua, deliberately created propaganda that the phosphorous thing was happening there. If there is one that they have done to the region is that they just degraded the image of West Papua and Indonesia and let many volunteers down.
In the end, entities like the media who make the phosphorus propaganda news are irresponsible, yet silly ones, who do not learn well the context of including the characteristics of a weapon and the West Papuan local real-life situations before ‘propagandising’.
Otherwise, they are a well-trained community that wants countries like Indonesia, and regions like West Papua to always stay in a chaotic atmosphere for some vested interests and gaining ‘evil’ advantages. They provide presumptuous narratives and non-credible sources for their reports.
We do not know for sure what the advantages are. However, as we have discussed above, what they do is surely to keep uploading fraudulent information and news that are not based on accurate data. Supporting the armed civilian groups who just killed dozens of innocent civilians in West Papua, it seems like these types of organisation and media mercilessly keep displaying fake and absurd data.
It is unfortunate that to boost the media’s image they have to come up with propaganda especially by discrediting their fellow Indonesians. (*)
