Tabuni was born in 1959 or 1960 in Gurage, Netherlands New Guinea (today
Puncak Jaya Regency). Between 2009 and 2015, at least 29 Indonesian police and military members have been killed in Puncak Jaya, due to ambushes by guerilla fighters led by Tabuni. Other TPNPB units in the regencies of
Puncak,
Paniai, and
Mimika operate under Tabuni's command to an extent, although Tabuni's units have also come into conflict with a breakaway faction under
Purom Wenda. Partly due to his actions, he was appointed as the Supreme Commander of the
West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) in 2012 during a
National Committee for West Papua conference in
Biak. Due to his prominence as a guerilla leader, he also became involved in local politics – in 2006, a local politician approached him for support in a regional election against later Papua governor
Lukas Enembe, and in 2009 Tabuni supported
Golkar in exchange for his cousin Deerd Tabuni becoming a provincial legislator – and Deerd later even became the legislature's chairman. In March 2015, there were media reports that Tabuni had surrendered to the Indonesian government, retracted shortly afterwards. Later reports claimed that he had retired from guerilla fighting and ran a wood business, a claim denied by a TPNPB spokesperson. == References ==