Brimob Officer Shoots Dead Mentally Ill Teenager In Wamena, Beat Witnesses
August 12, 2013
An Indonesian Brimob police officer has shot dead an unarmed mentally ill Lani youth in Wamena on Thursday, after the
youth allegedly verbally ridiculed the passing heavily armed police patrol on Jalan Ahmad Yani, according to witnesses
interview by West Papua Media stringers.
Irwan Janengga, also known as Irwan Wenda (18) was shot dead without verbal warning by a Brimob anti-terrorist officer
from Ambon, BrikPol Lua Lusman from the Jayawijaya brigade, who was a member of a five-man patrol that encountered
Janengga outside the police post, according to witnesses interviewed by human rights activists and our stringers.
According to witnesses with the initials AW and BK, Janengga taunted the officers with nonsensical words and said,
""The plane has landed so (are) storing the goods," (referring to corruption in the police). The five man patrol took
offence to this taunting, and several members fired two warning shots from their automatic rifles without a verbal
warning. Janengga took no notice of these warning shots, according to the witnesses, and continued his "crazy talk".
As the Brimob officers were preparing to shoot Janengga, the two witnesses shouted to BrikPol Lusman, "Just ignore him,
he has nervous disorders of the brain, do not shoot him!". Brikpol Lusman ignored this plea, and opened fire on
Janengga, aiming multiple shots directly at the legs, abdomen, head and left hand of victim. Janengga died instantly
according to witnesses.
Immediately after the shooting, the 5 police officers began an unprovoked attack and beatings on the two witnesses, and
arrested them with force. They were taken then to the Jayawijaya Police HQ, where the witnesses reported to West Papua Media's stringer that they were forcefully interrogated by police, allegedly with the aim to manipulate the official witness
statements of the shooting incident according to BK and AW. Upon learning of their detention, the victims families
demanded the immediate release of the witnesses a demand with which Police complied by early afternoon on Thursday.
Janengga's body was then brought by another police unit to the General Hospital in Wamena. The body of Janengga was
retrieved from the hospital by his family late on Thursday afternoon, and brought to his home, where the family
conducted mourning ceremonies. At the time of publication, the victim was still unburied.
Tiko Kogoya, the victim's aunt, told human rights workers after learning of the testimony of two witnesses after the
shooting. "Our victim's family is upset over the shooting of our son."
"Our Boy, he was (with) nervous disorders of the brain, he just simply said 'why police shoot'," said Tiko Kogoya.
Tiko continued, "we the victim's family, ask that the perpetrators should be prosecuted in court, act honestly, and be
punished accordingly," she said.
Footage shot by local witnesses has emerged of the aftermath of the shooting, showing local people outraged at another
unprovoked killing by Indonesian forces on unarmed indigenous Papuan citizens.
Meanwhile Ogram Wanimbo, an activist with the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) Wamena chapter, told our stringer,
"The shooting that happened, it is a human rights abuse, since police shot a mentally ill young man because of a nervous
breakdown in the brain.. who was sayings word without (being) conscious (of the meaning)", he said.
Ogram also said "We strongly condemn the perpetrators of the shooting, and we are annoyed by his preaching of the case
in local and national media, engineering the chronology of the incident, without interviewing witnesses and families of
victims... the fraudulent news does not fit the facts of incident," he said.
A human rights worker in Wamena told West Papua Media: "This shooting that was done in service of a State mission, that continues to be done, and will be done by the
Indonesian invader forces, through military and police in Papua, are unlawful acts under International law, the ICCPR and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, (all of) which have been ratified into law of the Republic of Indonesia."
ENDS