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8 soldiers shot dead in Papua

The government is condemning the shooting deaths of 8 soldiers by unidentified groups in Papua in the bloodiest attack on security forces in two years

Nethy Dharma Somba and Bagus BT Saragih (The Jakarta Post)
Jayapura/Jakarta
Fri, February 22, 2013

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8 soldiers shot dead in Papua

T

he government is condemning the shooting deaths of 8 soldiers by unidentified groups in Papua in the bloodiest attack on security forces in two years.

“These were irresponsible acts committed by the perpetrators amid the government’s intense efforts to accelerate development in Papua and to improve the welfare of Papuans,” Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto said at a press conference at his office on Thursday.

The minister said that he had instructed the Cendrawasih Military Command [Kodam], the Papua Police and their intelligence units “to carry out immediate enforcement efforts to pursue the suspects and bring them to justice”.

The eight soldiers were killed in two separate incidents in Puncak Jaya regency on Thursday morning.

The first attack took place at 9:30 a.m. local time (7:30 a.m. Jakarta time), when soldiers at a guard post in Tingginambut were ambushed, resulting in the death of First Pvt. Wahyu Prabowo, Kodam Cenderawasih chief spokesman Lt. Col. Jansen Simanjuntak said in Jayapura.

Djoko’s office said that the guard post commander, First Lt. Reza, was injured in the ambush, which was thought to have been carried out by a group led by Goliat Tabuni that has been active in Tingginambut.

Supported by elements from the West, armed separatists from the Free Papua Merdeka (OPM) movement have been active in Papua and West Papua for decades.

The second attack took place at 10:30 a.m. local time, when seven soldiers of a 10-man squad were killed in an ambush on their way to Sinak airstrip. “The soldiers were on a trip from their post to the airstrip to pick up military communications devices,” Jansen said.

The slain soldiers were identified as First Sergeants Muhammad Udin and Frans from the Puncak Jaya Military District Command (Kodim); and First Sgt. Ramadhan, First Privates Mustofa, Edi, and Idris and Second Pvt. Jojo from the Argaviratama 753rd Infantry Battalion.

Djoko’s office identified the slain soldiers by a slightly different set of names and ranks, saying that a group led by Murib was suspected to be active in Sinak.

Security personnel have been sweeping the areas surrounding Tingginambut and Sinak in their search for the perpetrators, Simanjuntak said.

Indonesian Military personnel and a Mobile Brigade [Brimob] police special operations unit from Gurage have been deployed to Tingginambut to sweep the area and evacuate the victims, according to the Kodam Cenderawasih spokesman.

“We have yet to determine the motives and the groups that carried out the attacks,” Simanjuntak said. “We suspect they are members of the armed groups that have been causing security problems in Puncak Jaya.”

Meanwhile, TNI chief spokesman Rear Adm. Iskandar Sitompul said it was not yet necessary
to deploy specialized tracker units to find the groups that killed the soldiers.

“The situation is being handled by the local military units under the Kodam Cenderawasih” he told The Jakarta Post in a text message.

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