Papuan Separatist Group Denies Shooting Police Chief

Index:

1) Papuan separatist group denies shooting police chief
2) Papuans charged with treason
3) Minister orders stern measures against Papua troublemakers
4) Police suspect Papua separatist group behind shooting of police officer
5) Mulia police chief shot dead in Papua
6) Police say separatist behind Mulia police commander`s death
7) Seven dead in Papua miners' strike

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http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/10/24/papuan-separatist-group-denies-shooting-police-chief.html

1) Papuan separatist group denies shooting police chief
The Jakarta Post | Mon, 10/24/2011 7:39 PM

The Free Papua Organization (OPM) denies police allegations that the separatist group was responsible for the murder of Mulia Police chief Adj. Comr. Dominggus Awes on Monday.
'We are not responsible for that. I don't know about it; it must be crosschecked. They should not be making accusations like that,'OPM coordinator Lambertus Pekikir said on Monday, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
He said that the police would have to arrest the perpetrators and question them before making such accusations.

Lambertus explained that even if the individuals who had carried out the attack claimed to be OPM members, the organization would not assume responsibility for their actions.

'There are lots of fake OPMs. Anyone can just make a morning star flag and write up documents but whether they are real (members) or not must be ascertained,'he said.

He said that he would trust the Indonesian police in handling the case.
Awes was standing in front of a plane at the Puncak Jaya airport when two men lunged at him and pinned him down before shooting him in the head.
His body was taken to the Mulia hospital before being transferred to Jayapura.

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http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/201110/s3346921.htm

2) Papuans charged with treason

Updated October 24, 2011 17:22:51

Six Papuans have been charged with treason following their role in last week's Third Papuan People's Congress.

Last Wednesday, security forces in Papua's Abepura district fired shots to break up the Congress killing six people - acording to activists - and arresting hundreds of participants.

But Indonesia's Defence Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro has told his US counterpart the deadly crackdown was in response to a separatist rebellion that had to be quashed.

He was speaking after a meeting in Bali with US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.

Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: John Haseman, retired US Army Colonel and former US military attache to Jakarta
Listen: Windows Media
HASEMAN: Well, you have to divide any kind of relationship into education and training and I think he is speaking primarily of training iterations in which members of the US military meet with their counterparts in the Indonesian armed forces in some form of structured exercise or training scenario and they can be fairly large, like the Cobra Gold exercise in Thailand and they can be just a few soldiers, a few officers, for example, lecturing at an Indonesian military school.

LAM: So Mr Panetta says that the US will keep an eye out on human rights abuses by the TNI and indeed just last week, we had reports from Papua, saying that the TNI had shot at participants at a Congress meeting near Jayapura, killing six people. Quite how politically willing is the Obama administration to keep an eye out and indeed hold the TNI accountable for its actions?

HASEMAN: Well, I can't speak for President Obama, but I think the thought in Washington is that by making their concerns known at a very personal, a very close and a very high level through our embassy in Jakarta and to the Indonesian diplomats in the United States that they will be able to let them know our concerns. The general feeling, I think is that the Indonesian military has transformed itself quite considerably over the past ten years and incidents like that which just happened in Papua are much more rare than they were in the previous administrations.

LAM: And how much attention does the TNI pay to its counterparts at the Pentagon?

HASEMAN: Well, it's a relationship among equals. I think they do listen. I know during my time in Jakarta, I had the ear of senior military officers. I made the US official concern known and they acknowledged that concern. I think the administration will continue to do so through the representatives in the embassy in Jakarta.

LAM: And you were of course Defence attache to Jakarta. How much progress do you think the TNI, Indonesia's military, how much progress has it made towards becoming a much more professional force?

HASEMAN: I think they've made enormous progress and have kept in touch with both my successors on the US side and with my contacts in the TNI. There's a new attitude in the TNI, there has been for a number of years now and I've seen them do things that did not happen before in disciplining misbehaviour and in trying to somehow assess accountability for misbehaviour. That is a considerable change from the attitudes that you saw during the Suharto years.

LAM: So do you think then that the culture of the senior upper echelons of the military, that that has changed as well and that it has trickled down?

HASEMAN: I think that it certainly has changed. When I have my contacts during my trips to Jakarta, I find an atmosphere of professionalism, certainly far less involvement in politics compared to what it was during the Suharto years and obviously a senior officer is going to pass his philosophy down to his subordinates and so on down through the ranks. So yes, I think there is a trickle down affect and the fact that the soldiers are being disciplined, may be not as strictly as we would like to see in some cases, but they are being held accountable and it's been publicised. And that never used to happen in the Suharto years.

LAM: Well, if the activists in Papua are to be believed, it would seem that the message is not getting through or to the troops on the ground in Papua Province. Do you think there might still be rogue elements within the TNI that still do their own thing and not pay much heed to their military officers?

HASEMAN: I don't think rogue is the right word. I think that when a tense situation develops, certainly things can go wrong. When you have a crowd of people regardless of how threatening they might appear to you or I, it may appear threatening to the state and the troops that are there facing that crowd may or may not have had the correct training and the correct discipline. I might add as you recall earlier this year, there was a furore over some misdeeds by the military and some attempts to substitute one case of wrongdoing for another. As it turns out the two star general in command in Papua was relieved very quietely after that happened for allowing that to take place. You never would have seen that ten or 15 years ago.

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http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/76901/minister-orders-stern-measures-against-papua-troublemakers

3) Minister orders stern measures against Papua troublemakers
Mon, October 24 2011 15:49 | 278 Views

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Chief security minister Djoko Suyanto on Monday instructed law enforcing agencies in Papua to take stern actions against the perpetrators of violence and attacks on the government that had happened in the province.

"The perpetrators of the attacks on the government, the violence against the people or state apparatus in Papua must be dealt with sternly according to the law," he said to ANTARA here.

The chief of the Mulia police sector, Adjunct Commissioner Dominggus Octavianus Awes was killed by an unknown person at Mulia airport in Puncak Jaya on Monday.

The incident occurred when the police commander had come to the airport to take delivery of a consignment of goods. Suddenly, someone believed to be a member of a local armed gang (GPK) approached him, snatched his pistol and used it to shoot him.

After the Dominggus had fallen to the ground , the gunman shot him again in his head. The police officer died with shot wounds in the head, eyebrow and in the upper part of his chest.

Djoko asked all security apparatus to find the perpetrator and take legal action against him.

"Everyone involved in the shooting must be dealt with according to the existing law in the country," he said.

He said the Unitary State of Indonesia is already final including the extension of a special autonomy status for Papua to accelerate development in the province.

"To deal with shortcomings in its implementation the government has already established a Papua and West Papua Development Acceleration Unit which routinely evaluates the implementation of the special autonomy," he said.

He said "the funds for the implementation of the special autonomy are not small reaching trillions of rupiahs (billions of dollars) and therefore accountability and evaluation are needed."

The authorities dispersed the Third Papua People`s Congress last week leading to violent clashes that caused the death of a number of people.(*)

R018/H-YH/HAJM/O001
Editor: Jafar M Sidik

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http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/10/24/police-suspect-papua-separatist-group-behind-shooting-police-officer.html

4) Police suspect Papua separatist group behind shooting of police officer

The Jakarta Post | Mon, 10/24/2011 5:19 PM

The National Police said on Monday that they suspect the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) was behind the shooting of a police chief in Papua.

'We strongly suspect that it was done by the separatist group,'national police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.
Comr. Domingus Oktavianus Awes, chief of Mulia Airport Police in Puncak Jaya, was shot by unknown assailants at the airport at 11:30 a.m. local time (9:30 a.m. in Jakarta) on Monday.

According to witnesses, Anton said Domingus was standing in front of a plane when two men lunged at him and pinned him down.

'One of the men took the chief's gun and shot him in the face,'he said.
The two perpetrators, still carrying the gun, ran off into the forest.
'We are chasing them. The victim has been taken to the hospital for the autopsy,'Anton said.

The attack, he said, was the fourth deadly incident in two weeks, after eight people were killed following incidents related to PT Freeport and the recent Papua Congress in Abepura.

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http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/76916/mulia-police-chief-shot-dead-in-papua

5) Mulia police chief shot dead in Papua

Mon, October 24 2011 20:12 |

Jayapura (ANTARA News) - Mulia Sector Police Chief Adjunct Commissioner D Awes was shot dead by unidentified gunmen at Mulia airport, Papua Province, on Monday at 11.30 am local time.

Adjunct Commissioner Awes was shot in his head and his body was now at Mulia Hospital, according to informed sources here Monday.

Senior Commissioner Wachyono, a spokesman of the Provincial Papua Police, however, said he had not yet received a report about the fatal shooting.

Until Monday noon, security forces and an armed group exchanged fire in a mountainous area.

Meanwhile, police said ten people were involved in the fatal shooting of three Freeport Indonesia employees in Papua recently.

"Based on information from witnesses, the perpetrators were 10 in number and carried two rifles," the head of the National Police`s public relations division, Inspector General Anton Bachrul Alam said in Jakarta on October 21,2011.

Aloysius Margono, a company driver, was shot and died at Mile 38 while on the way to Mile 40, he said.

"When he reached Mile 38 the victim was shot by an unknown person from the right hand side," he said.

Fifteen minutes later at Mile 39, two other people were shot in or near their homes. One of the victims had tried to save himself by fleeing but was shot in the back while the other was hit in the head, Anton said.

"Eto was hit in the back and Yunus in the head. The two come from outside the region and live in Timika," he said.

Anton said the police found 5.56 milimeter casings believed to be from XX1 or M16 bullets and 7.62 millimeter caliber believed from AK67 bullets at the scene.

"Right now the police along with the TNI (military) totaling four units are hunting down the perpetrators," he said.
(Uu.F001/HAJM/O001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH

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http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/76908/police-say-separatist-behind-mulia-police-commanders-death

6) Police say separatist behind Mulia police commander`s death

Mon, October 24 2011 19:51 |

"He is believed to be a member of a separatist group because he escaped into the jungle. We are now still chasing him," the Head of the National Police`s Public Relations Division, Inspector General Anton Bachrul Alam, said.

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Police said the man who shot to death the chief of the Mulia district police in Papua earlier on Monday belongs to a separatist group.

"He is believed to be a member of a separatist group because he escaped into the jungle. We are now still chasing him," the Head of the National Police`s Public Relations Division, Inspector General Anton Bachrul Alam, said here on Monday.

He said the shooting incident was certainly of special concern to the police and local police had already been ordered to pursue its perpetrator. The manhunt was led by the chief of the National Police Headquarters` security maintenance division, Commissioner General Imam Sudjarwo.

"We have also asked the military (TNI) to help us in the hunt because we know it also has high skills in these matters," he said.

"Three other shooting incidents previously occurred in Papua, namely in Timika, at Mile 38 and Mile 39, leaving eight people dead," he said.

Last Monday`s incident happened at around 11.30 am at Mulia airport in Puncak Jaya in which the chief of the Mulia police sector, Adjunct Commissioner Dominggus Oktavianus, was killed.

"The victim was in front of an aircraft when two men suddenly came and attacked him," he said.

He said one of them snatched the police commander`s pistol and with it he shot the victim on his head.

"The two fled while still carrying the gun," he said.(*)
Editor: Heru
COPYRIGHT © 2011

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http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2011/10/24/Seven-dead-in-Papua-miners-strike/UPI-38831319450580/

7) Seven dead in Papua miners' strike

UPI.com

Published: Oct. 24, 2011 at 6:03 AM

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JAKARTA, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Three more people have been killed at the Grasberg mine -- one of the world's largest -- in Papua, taking the death toll during a strike to seven.

Unidentified gunmen killed three people near the mine in Indonesia's restive Papua province, a report by the state news agency Antara said. One of the dead was a contract worker who had worked at the mine for 20 years.

Operations have been severely cut back since Sept. 15 when workers began a strike at the copper and gold mine, run by PT Freeport Indonesia, a division of Freeport-McMoRan, which has headquarters in Arizona.

The open pit mine forms a 1-mile-wide crater and is the world's third largest producer of copper. The low-cost labor setup has around 20,000 employees.
But Papua province is in one of Indonesia's most politically sensitive and remotest areas. The province is about the size of Spain and occupies the western half of the island of Papua. Papua New Guinea occupies the eastern half.
Papua has been a part of the Indonesian archipelago federation since the Dutch gave up their colonial rule and a slim majority in a controversial referendum in 1969 voted in favor of joining.

Papuans are ethnically Melanesian and closer to Australia's aborigines than the Asians who make up most of Indonesia's population. Papuans say their culture and identity is being eroded by an influx of Asian Indonesians.
As with many of Indonesia's governments, that of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been faced with a Papuan independence movement. The struggle periodically erupts into deadly attacks on security forces and employees at the mine, as well as brutal attacks by police on demonstrators.

A shootout at the mine by suspected members of the Free Papua Movement in July 2009 left three people dead, including Australian technician Drew Grant, 29, a project manager at the mine. He was killed when the vehicle he was driving was ambushed.

FPM denied it was involved.

The next day an Indonesian security guard was killed in another attack and a police Mobile Brigade officer who went missing during a third attack was found dead in a ravine near the ambush site.

There are persistent allegations that members of the military and police are fighting over multimillion-dollar protection contracts for mine employees.
In the current strike at the Grasberg mine, workers are blocking main roads from Porsite Harbor to Timika, Kuala Kencana and Tembagapura. This has cut off food, production equipment, medicine and other supplies needed for mine operations.

There have been reports of striking workers intimidating other workers on their way to the mine and outside working hours at public places, including the bus terminal, Antara said.

Last week a spokesman for mine made a plea for the workers to end the strike, saying there is the danger of closure of the project.

But the owners also back the police as they try to improve the security situation, said PT Freeport Indonesia spokesman Ramdani Sirait.

"PTFI fully supports and cooperates with the security personnel to investigate the incidents. Such actions must be stopped and civil order must be restored," Sirait said.

"And most importantly, they must be responsible for the illegal acts and face the consequences. Striking workers who are involved in those actions have violated basic human rights and criminal laws."

Talks continue between the company and the mine workers' union, the BBC said.
The union wants a five-fold pay increase on their wages of $3.50 per hour. They say the increase would put the Papuan workers' pay in line with that of other PTFI mine-workers around the world.

ENDS

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