Army sends Kopassus back into Papua
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.