Police fail to identify Freeport killers<\/p>\n
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Three days after a group of armed men killed two American school
\nteachers and an Indonesian in an ambush at a location that is
\nnormally tightly controlled by police and soldiers in Papua, the
\npolice are as yet in the dark as to who the perpetrators were.<\/p>\n
National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said that his men
\nwere still evaluating all the evidence and were as yet unable to
\nconclude whether the perpetrators were members of the Free Papua
\nOrganization (OPM).<\/p>\n
\"We don't know exactly. We are still assessing the situation,\"
\nDa'i told the press on the sidelines of a hearing with the House
\nof Representatives's foreign and defense committee here on
\nTuesday.<\/p>\n
Two Americans and an Indonesian -- all the employees of PT
\nFreeport Indonesia -- were killed in the incident on Saturday,
\nwhile 12 others were injured.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the United States Embassy in Jakarta condemned the
\n\"senseless attack on unarmed civilians\" in Papua.<\/p>\n
\"We extend our sincere condolences to the families of those
\nkilled and our concern for those who were injured in the attack,\"
\nthe embassy said in statement.<\/p>\n
The attack on the innocent victims, who were mostly
\nschoolteachers, was an outrageous act of terrorism, it said.<\/p>\n
\"We urge the government of Indonesia to take all necessary
\nsteps swiftly to apprehend and punish the perpetrators of this
\nhorrible attack,\" it said.<\/p>\n
The attack was surprising, considering that the location is
\ntightly controlled by the military and police.<\/p>\n
Security forces shot dead a suspected rebel in a gunfight one
\nday later as they hunted for the armed men who killed the
\nemployees of PT Freeport Indonesia.<\/p>\n
Da'i said that residents living in the vicinity did not
\nrecognize the suspected rebel after being shown his body.<\/p>\n
Local residents, according to Da'i, said that the dead man had
\nsimilar physical characteristic with the gunmen that launched the
\nattack on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\"Local residents don't recognize the body. Possibly, he is a
\nnewcomer,\" Da'i added.<\/p>\n
However, residents in the village of Banti Tembagapura wanted
\nto take the body for burial, prompting speculation that the
\nsuspected rebel was a local resident.<\/p>\n
Human rights activists suspect that military personnel might
\nbe involved in the attack and called for the establishment of an
\nindependent inquiry to investigate the incident.<\/p>\n
The Papuan people's trust in the security forces is at a low
\nebb as the latter have been unable or unwilling to uncover those
\nbehind the murder of Papuan independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluway
\nin November last year.<\/p>\n
During the hearing, led by foreign and defense committee
\nchairman Ibrahim Ambong, the police chief related the chronology
\nof the bloody incident to committee members.<\/p>\n
Da'i said that the bullet casings showed the gunmen had used
\nM-16 automatic and SS1 semiautomatic rifles. \"We'll keep on
\nchasing the attackers,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He brushed aside demands for the government to set up a
\nspecial investigation. \"We will continue what we have been doing
\nto date,\" he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/police-fail-to-identify-freeport-killers-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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