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Indonesia not to compromise on kidnapping: VP

Xinhua, September 15, 2015 Adjust font size:

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said on Tuesday that Indonesia would not comply with demands of an armed band which kidnapped two of its nationals, ordering to continue negotiations with the abductors to release the Indonesian hostages.

"There is no way to make such a deal. It is not possible," Jusuf said at his office here to respond to the demands of the abductor group.

The vice president said he had coordinated with Indonesian military commander Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo and related senior officials discussing on how to free the hostages.

A spokesperson of Papua insurgent group of Independence Papua Organization (OPM) Saul Bomay said on Monday that the abduction was conducted by OPM operatives in West Papua province.

The abduction was intended as a pressure for the new government led by President Joko Widodo to have a talk with the insurgent group about solution for the future of Papua, Saul told a local media.

The insurgent group demanded the talk with Indonesian government should be mediated by other nations it regarded of neutral with the location to be notified later, he said.

Indonesian military Spokesperson Endang Sodik said Indonesia has prepared troops, ready to be dispatched to free the hostages in PNG.

"Later after PNG gives us its clearance, under the consent of PNG government we will go there," Endang said on Tuesday.

Troops prepared in the operation to free the hostages would come from Indonesia's special forces units, he added.

The two Indonesian nationals, namely Sudirman and Badar, were abducted when they carried out their jobs in a lumber firm located in West Papua province's Arso district near the border with Papua New Guinea (PNG).

They were brought to PNG territory by the abductors, trespassed the border. Indonesian authority has intensified contacts with PNG military to save and the free Indonesian nationals taken hostages there.

Indonesia received information regarding the whereabouts of the abductors and the hostages from PNG military on Saturday.

Media reports said a local was being shot in Skauw Skopro village near the district when he was cutting trees on Thursday. He was treated at a hospital in the province's capital of Jayapura at the moment. Endi