Attackers kill 8 technicians in Indonesia’s Papua province

By ALFIAN KARTONO
Associated Press

JAYAPURA, Indonesia (AP) — Attackers believed to be West Papua separatist rebels have killed eight technicians repairing a remote telecommunications tower in Indonesia’s restive Papua province. The military says the technicians were killed when more than a dozen gunmen stormed the tower while the workers were fixing its transceiver. The hilly district is a stronghold of separatists who have battled Indonesian rule in the impoverished region since the early 1960s. Security forces tried to recover the bodies of the technicians with a helicopter but were hampered by bad weather and heavy fog. The government is trying to spur economic development in Papua to dampen the separatist movement, but workers involved in the development are considered outsiders by the rebels.