Army sends Kopassus back into Papua
Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura, Papua
After a daring burglary at the Wamena military district's arsenal on Friday in which two soldiers were killed and 29 rifles were stolen, 144 combat soldiers from the Army's Special Forces have been deployed to hunt down those responsible.
The elite soldiers were flown Jakarta by a Hercules C-13 cargo plane to Wamena, the capital of Jayawijaya regency, and were ordered to immediately join the manhunt in forest areas in the regency.
Trikora Military commander overseeing Papua Brig. Gen. Nurdin Zainal said that his soldiers had so far recovered 10 M-16 and SP2 rifles.
"We will continue with the manhunt until we recover the remaining 19 rifles and arrest the rebels," he said in Wamena on Saturday.
The burglary has been blamed on the Free Papua Movement (OPM) separatist group.
The deployment of elite troops came just over one month after the Army dissolved a Kopassus task force in Papua after a six- year presence.
When seeing off the last batch of Kopassus task force comprising 250 personnel late in March, then Trikora Military commander Maj. Gen. Mahidin Simbolon said that no replacement troops would be sent to the province as security had greatly improved.
Despite the implication of seven Kopassus soldiers in the murder of Papua independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluaway in November 2001, Mahidin said the dissolution of the task force had nothing to do with resistance by locals.
Zainal said he had also ordered all security posts in remote areas in the regency to stay alert against attacks by OPM rebels using the stolen arms.
Two soldiers identified as First Lt. A. Napitupulu and First Sgt. Ruben Lena and alleged rebel Islae Murib were killed in a gunfight when around 15 men broke into the arsenal and stole the rifles and ammunition.
Napitupulu's body was taken to Yogyakarta for burial while Ruben's was buried in Nabire.
The incident sparked a harsh reaction from Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu, who ordered the military in Papua to hunt down the rebels and recover the stolen arms.
Separately, a team led by Col. Sutarno, chief of the military police in the province, is investigating the burglary.
There is suspicion that personnel from the military district played a role in the theft because the burglary occurred under noses of on-duty soldiers. Six soldiers have been already interrogated in connection with the incident and six employees of state electricity company PT PLN's local office were also questioned because there was a blackout at the time of the incident.
Meanwhile, Paskalis Kossay, a legislator of the Golkar Party at the provincial legislative council, called on the local military to be extra cautious in carrying out the military operation to avoid the loss of innocent lives.
He also said it was odd that a theft could occur at the military district's headquarters located in the middle of the Wamena town.
"All officers who were on duty at the time of the burglary should be interrogated, but we don't want the soldiers making any mistakes such as those made in 1977," he said.
The local military killed a number of villagers during a military operation to release Indonesian and foreign researchers abducted by rebels in Mpenduma, Wamena, in 1977.