Tag: `mysterious’ killings

People who have been shooting near Freeport are well trained: Police

JUBI, 7 December 2011

According to the police in Timika, the people involved in the shootings that have occurred during the past month or so in the vicinity of Freeport are certainly well-trained.

‘Our investigations in the places where these shootings have occurred reveal that they have been using firearms. The result of the shootings aimed at vehicles in which the victims were driving suggests that they are well trained in the use of firearms,’ said the head of the Criminal Research Unit, AKP Toni Sarjaka, speaking to journalists in Timika.

Pressed to explain whether these people were well trained, he said: ‘Well yes, indeed. In some cases a single shot hit the driver of the car, and killed him instantly.’

During the month of October, there have been four victims of shooting in the Freeport area and in some cases, the victim was killed by a single shot.’

He went on to say that the police were still investigating the killings and were currently speaking to witnesses.

In addition to those who have been killed, a number of people have been injured.  But as yet, the police have not been able to identify the persons who carried out the shootings.

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OPM condemns shooting of Papuan in Keerom

Bintang Papua, 22 August 2011The Papuan National Liberation Army, the military wing of the OPM has condemned the shooting dead in Arso 14, district of Keerom of a Papuan named Dasnum Komba which occurred on 17 August. According to the TPN/OPM Komba died after being shot by members of the 330 infantry brigade (Yonif 330) which is based in the area.[See our translation of a report by ELSHAM about the failure of Komba to return home from his garden which we posted yesterday.]

‘We strongly condemn this killing and call on President Susilo Bambang  Yudhoyono to take action to solve the Papuan issue,’ said Lambert Pekikir, general co-ordinator of the TPN/OPM in the area..

He called on the police in the area as well as the military commander of the Cenderawasih Military Command, Major-General Erfi Triassunu to arrest the perpetrator of this crime and deal with the case in accordance with the law. ‘The military commander and the police must take responsibility for this case. He was apparently shot because he was suspected of being a member of an armed unit. ‘The shooting happened while the victim was working in his garden which is not far from Arso 14.’

Suddenly a large group of soldiers arrived at the spot and started asking him questions. Because he could not speak Indonesian very well, they started to beat him. ‘Then the victim was shot, his body was put into a sack and buried nearby. Some people who happened to be nearby saw the incident  but were afraid to do anything because it would have meant confronting a member of the military, so they went to informed Komba’s family.’

‘Since this happened on 17 August, Indonesia’s independence day, it was not reported (in the press). ‘The incident has been covered  up but the fact is that he was shot in the chest. Lambert did not see the incident himself but received a report from some of his subordinates and also heard about it from a local inhabitant. ‘We dont want any more incidents like this. It must stop,’ said Lambert.

He said that the president, SBY, should understand that this is not just a trivial incident, and should realise that Papua has now become a matter of international concern.

Major-General Erfi Triassunu later confirmed that shots were fired by a member of the TNI- the Indonesian army – because they alleged that Komba was preparing to attack his men. He said he was not clear about what happened but claimed that Komba had tried to seize a weapon from his men who were on patrol in the area. According to Triassunu, his men could not possibly have shot someone at random. He said that the TNI has a ‘noble duty’ in Papua  and would not do such things, still less would they do it during Ramadan, the fasting month.

According to Bintang Papua, an autopsy confirmed that there weere fragments of ammunition in Komba’s body but the calibre of the bullets is not known. Witnesses said that Komba had been told  to go home by three soldiers, but just as he turned round, intending to return home, they heard two gunshots. His body was not found until Sunday, two days after the shooting.

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Papuan goes out to pick bananas but never returns home

From Elsham News Service, 22 August 2011

On a short journey to his banana garden, a Papuan peasant is killed

Das Komba, 30 years old, left home early in the morning on Friday, 19
August to go to his banana garden, two hundred metres from home to cut
down some bunches of bananas for a family celebration. After filling his
sack with several bunches he started for home but then went back,
feeling that he had not cut down enough. But Das Komba never returned home.

Two days later, on Sunday, search parties were sent out to look for him
and his body was found in a ditch about one km from his garden.

According to information received by Elsham, a local man, TD, left home
by car to go to Youtefa market in Abepura. On the way, about 200 meters
from Arso, several passengers were stopped by a group of men in
military uniform. Two passengers were ordered to get off the bus and
questioned by the soldiers ‘What are you carrying there?’ they were
asked, said TD as he watched the men pulled the goods out of the sacks.

At 7am next morning. WO, 30 years old was about to take his children to
school but when he opened the front door of his home, he was startled
to see about five men outside. When he said ‘Good morning’, the men did
not reply but just stared at him. After returning home, WO went to his
garden which is about 600 metres away, but after walking about 50
meters, he found some leftovers of food and thought that some soldiers
must have rested there to have a bite to eat. He then decided to return
home. WO later said that their clan chief, Fabion, had warned people not
to leave their homes to collect things from their gardens because the
army would be coming there.’But if we dont go to our gardens, we will
have nothing to eat,’ the people said.

A woman, TB, 27 years old, said that on that morning she had gone to her
garden which was a short distance from the garden of Das Komba with her
children walking in front, listening to music on their hand phones, when
they heard the sound of gunfire coming from the direction of Das
Komba’s garden. As they continued their journey, three men in army
uniform appeared and, holding their guns out, said: Where are you
going?’ When she said she was going to her garden, the men told her to
go home. When she arrived home, she told her family that she had heard
shots coming from the garden where Das Komba. was harvesting some bananas.

When Das Komba failed to return home, several people went out to look
for him but they found no trace of him.. All they found was his hat, but
there was no trace of his sacks or his machete. As it was getting dark,
they decided to return home and continue to search on the following day.

On Saturday, 20 August, five members of his family went out to look for
him . All they could see was that banana trees has been slashed down and
the fruit had been trampled on. There were signs that something had been
pulled along, perhaps timber but they didn’t find Das Komba, so they
went home to ask other people to help in the search for Das.

WO then went together with several others to the police station, and
later went together with the chief of the clan to the cemetery , where
they found some empty food cans, a jerry can and a few plastic bags,
which the police took away as evidence.

On the next day, Sunday an extended family from Angkasa and Entrop
Jayapura travelled by truck to Arso, and when they arrived there they
divided into three groups to continue the search for Das Komba. From
there, a group of people climbed a nearby hill and at about 3pm , they
discovered the body of Das Komba which they decided to bury.

Several people then went to the police station to tell the police where
they had found Das Komba. The police went there, dug up the body and
took it in an ambulance to Dok 11 Hospital for an autopsy.

According to WO, Das Kombawas just a simple peasant who was not a member
of any organisation. ‘All he did was to tend his garden,’ said WO,
looking very sad.

Because of this incident, the people of Arso are very afraid to leave
their homes and dont want to go to their gardens to collect food.

[Abridged translation by TAPOL]

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The Indonesian State is responsible for the shooting of three civilians in Dogiyai

Press Release

The Indonesian State is responsible for the shooting of three civilians in Dogiyai

 

(JAKARTA, Friday, May 13th 2011) – The Anti-Militaristic Papuan Students’ Coalition urges the Head of the National Police to immediately dismiss the Heads of Papua provincial police, Nabire regency police and Moanemani district police after the shooting of three civilians that occurred in Moanemani district, Dogiyai regency, Papua.

This was stated by Frans Tomoki from the Anti-Militaristic Papuan Students’ Coalition during a press conference at the KontraS office, Jln. Borobudur No. 14, on Friday, May 13th.

According to Frans, shooting incidents have been occurring for nearly one month but haven’t been clarified yet. He also criticized the brutal behavior of  the police officers who shot at civilians without warning.

“There must be a warning before shooting, but the police directly opened fire without thinking of the possible consequences.  This  can be categorized as a serious human rights violation.”

According to Agus Okama Kosay, human rights violation have been going on in Papua since the territory was forcefully merged into Indonesia. “From 1961 on there have been human rights violation and tensions keep rising.”

In the Reformasi era, all the more since the implementation of the Special Autonomy Law, human rights violations should have decreased. But this eventually didn’t materialize. As compared to the Ancient and New Order eras, the Special Autonomy era is even worse.

“Why do Papuan people think that the Special Autonomy is a total failure?  Because human rights violations keep occurring  and the central government never tried to solve this problem,” Agus explained.

The Anti-Militaristic Papuan Students’ Coalition also urges the international community to lobby the Indonesian government to take responsibility  for the frequent serious human rights violations in Papua, including the shooting incident in Dogiyai regency.

Images of shooting sites, Dogiyai (IMages courtesy of witnesses on ground)

“The international community must lobby the Indonesian government to  thoroughly investigate several human rights violations in Papua,” Agus added.

The shooting of three civilians by police officers took place on April 13th, 2011, around 1.30 pm. It began as police officers raided a togel [illegal lottery] kiosk in Moanemani market housing complex. They seized the money belonging to the togel vendor who was just known as an agent working in fact for police members.

A group of people refused this and followed the police car to the district police station. The upset police officers shot at three civilians and wounded two others, directly in front of the district police station. Dominikus Auwe (24), Otniel Yobe (26) and Agus Pigay (24) died, while two of their friends were critically wounded.

As a consequence, local people were angered and torched the Moanemani district police station as well as several kiosks belonging to migrants from other islands, including the illegal lottery kiosk operated under the names  of First Brigadiers I Made Sudarsa and Eka. Papua provincial police sent two Brimob [Mobile Brigade] platoons to secure the area in Dogiyai and investigate the involvement of police officers but to date,  no further clarification was provided. (**)

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Priest says OTSUS is accelerating Papuan extermination

(WestPapuaMedia note: we are aware of the allegations of mysterious killings in 2010, however the reports given are not containing enough information to make any detailed report).
JUBI, 6 April 2011 

OTSUS IS ACCELERATING  PAPUAN EXTERMINATION

A priest in Nabire has described the special autonomy law, known as OTSUS, as being a move by the Indonesian government that was intended to accelerate the extermination of the indigenous Papuan people.

The Rev. Daud Auwe said that ‘the intention  is clear from the systematic and violent killings which have taken place up to now.’  He mentioned in particular the case of the Rev. Kindeman Gire in Puncak Jaya, and the shooting of Melkias Agapa and Abetnego Keiya in Nabire. He was speaking at a demonstration of several hundred people outside the office of the Nabire  provincial legislative assembly.

There was also the case of the mysterious killing of ten people in Nabire [no time mentioned] and the killings of 1,435 people  that occurred during the four years from 2006 to 2010.

Another speaker, Yones Douw spoke about the culture of dependency and the destruction of the people’s economy, the appalling condition of education and healthcare facilities for Papuan people, all of which were the result of OTSUS. ‘294 people in Dogiyai died of diarrhoea in 2008, 42 people died of malaria and 41 people died of starvation in the district of Nduga.’

Other factors were the destruction of Papuan culture, the uncontrolled increase in the number of inhabitants that has been occurring annually, all of which has led to a lack of protection for indigenous Papuan people.

Yones also condemned the government’s UP4B programme which is now being promoted by the central government, which he described as a public cover-up for the failures of OTSUS. ‘While there is no legal basis for the UP4B programme, the OTSUS law which is within the legal framework has not been properly implemented by the government.’

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