Kopassus blamed for Papua murders

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.