THE WhatsApp message appeared on the mobile phone of Istaka Karya operational director Widi Suharyanto in the midst of a board meeting on Monday last week. It was sent by one of his field team members, saying that 20 Istaka Karya workers had been slaughtered in the Yigi district in Papua’s Nduga Regency. Widi quickly relayed this information to CEO Sigit Winarto.

Everyone at the meeting was in shock. Sigit asked some of them to leave the r