Fact-Finding
Team: The president will set up an independent probe into the deaths of five
civilians at the hands of the police
Jakarta Globe, Banjir Ambarita, Dec 28, 2014
President Joko Widodo says the killing of five young civilians by security forces in Papua earlier this month is deplorable. (Antara Photo/Prasetyo Utomo) |
Jayapura.
President Joko Widodo has told a crowd in Papua that the shooting of five young
civilians in the province earlier this month is unacceptable, and that the
government will soon form a fact-finding team to investigate the case.
Joko, who
is in Indonesia’s easternmost province to attend Christmas celebrations, said
the incident, which occurred in the town of Enarotali in Paniai district on
Dec. 8, was deplorable.
Security
forces opened fire on about 800 peaceful demonstrators, including women and
children. Five protesters were killed and at least 17 others — including
elementary school students — were injured, according to a report from Human
Rights Watch.
Joko, who
addressed a crowd of hundreds at Mandala Stadium in Jayapura, the provincial
capital, on Saturday, said he empathized with the grieving families.
“I want
this case to be solved immediately so it won’t ever happen again in the
future,” the president said. “By forming a fact-finding team, we hope to obtain
valid information [about what actually happened], as well as find the root of
the problems.”
Joko added
he wanted peace in Papua.
“I want my
visit to Papua to be useful, I want to listen to the people’s voices, and I’m
willing to open dialogue for a better Papua,” he said.
Joko said
the government needed to listen to Papuans in order to solve the long-running
conflict in the restive region.
“I think
that the people of Papua don’t only need health care, education, the
construction of roads and bridges, but they also need to be listened to. That
is what I will do in dealing with the problems in Papua,” he said.
Hostilities
between Papuan civilians and the security forces have frequently turned deadly
since Indonesia annexed the region in 1969.
The
president had earlier faced strong calls from Papuans to abandon his plan to
celebrate Christmas in the troubled eastern province due to his previous muted
response to the Paniai shootings, which were one the worst acts of state
violence in years.
Victims and
activists have said the incident was prompted with the beating of a 12-year-old
boy from Ipakiye village, five kilometers from Enarotali, when the boy
confronted a group of men in an SUV for driving at night with their headlights
off.
The beating
resulted in villagers marching to the capital to demand an explanation the next
day. At around 10 a.m. the crowd spotted the same SUV and began attacking it.
Police then opened fire on the unarmed crowd, witnesses said.
But the
National Police chief, Gen. Sutarman, gave a different account of what
happened, claiming the victims were planning an attack against the local
military base, where locals suspected the SUV driver was hiding.
Police
stopped the crowd from advancing by setting up a barricade, he said.
“Amid the
protest, some [unknown] gunmen fired shots from the hills far away, causing the
200 or so people to riot,” the police general claimed.
He also
denied that a high school student was among the five people shot dead by
officers, despite photographs obtained by HRW clearly showing young men in
school uniforms among those shot.
The
coordinator of the Papua Peace Network, or JDP, Rev. Neles Tebay, welcomed the
president’s plan to form a fact-finding team, having previously criticized the
police for being “very secretive” about their investigation.
“The president is willing to identify the problem, so surely this is a good commitment,” Neles said on Saturday.
“The president is willing to identify the problem, so surely this is a good commitment,” Neles said on Saturday.
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