Nine soldiers arrested for arsenal burglary

Nine soldiers arrested for arsenal burglary

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura, Papua

The military police unit of the Trikora Military Command
overseeing Papua has arrested nine soldiers and seven civilians
for their alleged involvement in the April 4 arsenal burglary in
Wamena, in which two soldiers and a Free Papua Movement (OPM)
rebel were killed.

The suspects arrived in Jayapura from Wamena on Wednesday and
were placed in the detention facility at the military command
headquarters in the city.

Military police unit chief Lt. Col. Sutarna identified the
nine soldiers as Maj. Sgt. KI, First Sgt. PP, Chief Corp. PK,
First Pvt. EK, First Sgt. YM, Second Corp. MIJ, First Sgt. IK,
First Sgt. IK and Second Lt. PW, and confirmed that they were all
members of the Wamena Military District.

He said six of the nine suspects were being charged with
negligence, for which they faced one year imprisonment.

"Second Lt. PW and First Sgt. IK will stand trial for their
part in giving weapons and ammunition to the rebels, who shot
dead two soldiers. Under military law, they face a maximum ten
years' imprisonment," he added.

Further, Sutarna said First Sgt. SJ was facing death row or a
life sentence for his involvement in helping the rebels attack
the two soldiers, which resulted in their deaths.

"All nine suspects will stand trial at the military tribunal
and will be punished as befitting the part they played in the
arsenal burglary," he said, adding that the nine suspects would
likely be dismissed from military service.

Sutarna identified the nine civilian suspects as Kanius Murib,
Nugungga Talenggen, Kimanus Wenda, Yaprai Murib, Enos Locobal,
Des Wenda and Mikael Heselo, who are to be tried at the Jayapura
District Court.

"The seven will be indicted for helping the rebels to launch
the attack and break into the arsenal. We have appointed
Fantrisno R. Tagihuma as their defense attorney in the case," he
said.

Two soldiers, First Lt. A. Napitupulu and First Sgt. Ruben
Lena, and one rebel, Islea Murib, were killed when a group of 15
OPM rebels attacked the two on-duty soldiers in their attempt to
break into the Army's arsenal in Wamena Military District. After
killing the two soldiers, the rebels stole 29 M-16, SP and AK-47
rifles and thousands of ammunition rounds.

Twenty-one of the 29 rifles have already been recovered in an
operation involving 144 soldiers of the Army's Special Forces
(Kopassus) and the Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad), who
helped the local military to hunt down the rebels.

Local religious groups and non-governmental organizations have
expressed their deep concern over the arsenal burglary and the
subsequent military deployment, but called on the government not
to use the incident as a reason to relaunch a military operation
in the province.

Thousands of people were killed in the 1980s and the 1990s
when the government launched a military operation to crush the
Free Papua Movement.