15 June 2022
by WestPapuaMedia Eds
West Papuan activists peacefully marking the 10th anniversary of the assassination of West Papua National Committee (KNPB) Chairman Mako Tabuni, were violently dispersed using rubber bullets and beatings by Indonesian police in Jayapura on Tuesday June 14.
2 protestors sustained penetration injuries from rubber bullets fired point-blank, and a further 8 sustained injuries from severe beatings. 4 protestors, Vara Iyaba, Ferry Molama, Emani Pahabol & Wene Beni Hiluka, were arrested by Police. The four were released on 15 June.
The KNPB commemoration was held at the Waena roundabout, the site of the 14 June 2012 assassination of Tabuni by a death squad from the Australian-trained Detachment 88 counter terror unit, was a small and peaceful gathering, but at approximately 1pm Jayapura time, 5 truckloads of heavily armed Dalmas Police attacked the gathering of students sitting on the ground singing with guitars.
KNPB spokesperson Ones Suhuniap told WestPapuaMedia, “At 1pm, 5 Dalmas trucks of joint TNI POLRI arrived at the P3 Waena taxi round, then (the protest was) forcibly dispersed by the TNI-Polri without negotiating with the masses, beating with rubber, tear gas,and shooting rubber bullets.”
8 people were injured from beatings. They were :
1. Jhon S Kadepa, on the head of the forehead.
2. Kikibi Pigai, on the soles of the feet
3. Manu Tinal, on the legs and eyebrows
4. Benediktus Tebai, hit in the palms
5. Nopen Tulama, in the palm of the hand
6. Jendri Wanimbo, hit in the cheek
7. Natan Pigai, hit with a weapon on the head, and in the hand
8. Fransiskus Petege, hit in the spine with a weapon
Coswin Tabyor was shot in the right buttocks by point blank rubber bullets, and Yuber Kalakmabin was shot in the waist. Both suffered deep penetration wounds.
The arrests follow a significant upsurge in Police violence against peaceful protestors, after the Jayapura Police Chief Gustav R. Urbinas began to issue aggressive orders criminalising all West Papuan dissent ahead of the Papuan People’s Petition (PRP) mobilisations in May, resisting the creation of new provinces and reimposition of the failed Special Autonomy package.
On both May 10 and June 3, PRP demonstrations were brutally attacked with live fire and rubber bullets, resulting in scores of injuries and arrests.
Witnesses to the latest police violence have called for international condemnation of Indonesia’s criminalisation of peaceful dissent and repeated acts of excessive and disproportionate violence against unarmed and peaceful Papuan protestors .
/WPM
West Papua Media Alerts 
Please leave a comment. Keep it nice to other users, and remember, no disrepect tolerated. Yell at the killers, not each other; Criticise the abusers deed, not their race or faith.. And please keep it relevant and punchy.