This clip shows a confrontation on another Indonesian island, not in Papua

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 1, 2019 at 10:30
2 min read
By AFP Indonesia

A video has been seen more than 90,000 times in a Facebook post that says the footage shows people in civilian clothing attacking men in military fatigues in the eastern Indonesian province of Papua. The claim, however, is false: the clip is of a clash on the western Indonesian island of Sumatra.

The video appears on this July 18, 2019 post on Facebook, where it has been watched 93,000 times.

The caption below the 43-second clip translates as: “Where is our country’s government? Papua has been like this for a long time, why remain silent? What is the meaning, then, of ‘NKRI harga mati’?”

“NKRI” is the abbreviation of Indonesia’s official name, the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. “NKRI harga mati” means “NKRI is the non-negotiable bottom line” -- a phrase widely used to express support for the unity of Indonesia.

Below is a screenshot of the post:

A screenshot of the Facebook post

"Papua" refers to Indonesia’s most easterly region, comprising Papua province and West Papua province, where Indonesian soldiers frequently clash with separatist rebels.

AFP reports on recent clashes in Papua region can be read here and here.

A Google reverse image search using digital verification tool InVid found this video, which includes the footage in the misleading post and was posted on the official YouTube channel of Tribun Timur -- part of the Jakarta-based Tribunnews media network -- on July 18, 2019.

The clip posted to Facebook can be seen between 0:56 and 1:37 in the Tribun Timur video embedded below, which is just over three minutes long:

Translated to English, the YouTube post is headlined: “VIRAL: the moment when on-duty Indonesian military officers were attacked by Serikat Mandiri Batanghari group”.

The first paragraph says: “A video circulating widely on social media shows the moment when a group named Serikat Mandiri Batanghari (SMB) attacked some Indonesian military officers for trying to extinguish fires burning on a plot of land in Jambi, Sumatra on Saturday (13/7/2019).”

Jambi is a province on the western Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Below is a comparison between a screenshot taken from the Tribun Timur footage (L) and another from the same moment in the video in the misleading Facebook post (R):

Here is a map of Indonesia, with Jambi marked in red to the left, and Papua to the right:

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