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Komnas HAM demands transparency on Papua massacre
“We ask the law enforcement authorities to immediately arrest and process the suspects. We ask for the case to be as transparent as possible,” National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) chairman Ahmad Taufan Damanik said.
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Mobile Brigade officers head from Wamena to Nduga, where 19 construction workers are believed to have been shot dead, on Tuesday. Authorities are investigating reports that the construction workers were shot dead by separatist rebels in the restive province of Papua. (AFP/Anyong)
T
he National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has urged the National Police, the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the government to be transparent in investigating the mass killing of construction workers in Nduga regency, Papua.
A rebel group led by Egianus Kogoya allegedly massacred 19 workers hired by state-owned construction firm Istaka Karya to work on the trans-Papua road project in Yigi district, authorities said.
The group, believed to be a faction of the National Liberation Army of West Papua (TPNPB), also killed a TNI member and injured another on the following day.
Commission chairman Ahmad Taufan Damanik said that whoever was behind such “brutal and inhumane” actions could not be tolerated. He said the government should pay more attention to this case, because killings in Papua had happened repeatedly.
“We ask the law enforcement authorities to immediately arrest and process the suspects. We ask for the case to be as transparent as possible,” Damanik said at his office on Wednesday.
He added that the background of killings in Papua often remained unclear.
The commission also requested that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo ensure the protection of witnesses and guarantee that costs for the physical and non-physical recovery of victims and witnesses are covered.
“I also hope that the Witness and Victim Protection Agency can work together with the government to handle this matter,” he said. (ggq)
