Kopassus blamed for Papua murders
Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura
Local nongovernmental organizations, churches and student organizations urged the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to set up a fact-finding team to investigate the recent series of shootings in the province.
Eight people, including a church minister and a police officer, were killed in a series of attacks by unidentified gunmen between Aug. 17 and Nov. 12, 2004 in Puncak Jaya regency. Some 15 others, mostly children, died when more than 5,000 residents of 27 villages in the regency had to flee and take refuge in remote areas after they felt their lives were in danger due to the continued presence of the gunmen.
The police and military are blaming the Free Papua Movement (OPM) separatist rebels for the incidents, while tribal leaders, religious leaders and human rights activists in the province are alleging that the Indonesian Military (TNI) is behind the shootings.
A joint press release issued by ELSHAM Papua, the Indonesian Legal Aid Association in Papua, Kontras Papua, the Papuan Presidium Council and Students Organizations in Jayapura, said that the rights body should investigate the incidents as they believed there were strong indications that security personnel from the local TNI unit were involved in the series of shootings.
"The national Commission on Human Rights should immediately send an independent team to investigate the shootings because neither the police nor the local military have sent their own teams to probe the bloody incidents," said the press release.
The press release explained that since Aug. 17, 2004, five deadly killings had occurred in the regency, with the death toll currently at seven, including Pastor Elita Tabuni. The six others were minivan drivers in the regency capital of Mulia.
The latest killing occurred on Oct. 14, when Yance Frans Kirioma, a police officer based at the Mulia police station, was tortured and beaten to death when he and his 11-member team were deployed to monitor the condition of villagers taking refuge in remote areas of the regency.
Reliable sources in the province told The Jakarta Post by telephone here that the local unit of the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) was involved in the incidents.
"We have received information from many groups in the regency, who all say that Kopassus has been involved in the series of shootings, either directly or indirectly," said the sources who have called on the Indonesian Military (TNI) leadership to pull out all Kopassus personnel from the province.
A number of Kopassus personnel were redeployed to the province as the TNI brass believed there had been an increase in separatist activities after the Army disbanded a Kopassus unit in Jayapura in 2003 following the involvement of Kopassus personnel in the killing of Papua Presidium Council Chairman Dortheys "Theys" Hiyo Eluay in 2002.
Puncak Jaya regent Eliezer Renmaur said that his administration would fully support the rights body if it chose to investigate the killing spree. He also said they wanted to help ensure the safety of the civilians, who had just returned home after taking refuge for months.
"We will allow the rights body to freely investigate the incidents if it wants to do so and we will help it carry out the investigation thoroughly," he said.
Albert Yogy, chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle faction at the Papua provincial legislative council, said the legislature had urged the police to investigate the crime wave and penalize the perpetrators to the full extent of the law.
"If security personnel, either from the military or the police, are found to be involved in the incidents they must be punished with the harshest of sentences," he said.