SOCRATES QUESTIONED THE SHOOTING OF POLICE OFFICERS IN PUNCAK JAYA AND REGARDED IT AS A MANIPULATION

Bintang Papua, 26 June 2009

Jayapura, Bloody Tingginambut incident where a police officer named Ahmad L was shot to death at Irinmuli hill, Puncak Jaya was regarded as an effort to maintain conflict in West Papua.

This was not the first time a police officer was shot to death in the highland regions of West Papua. The victim was always the police officer and the accused shooting actor was always TPN OPM (Free West Papua Freedom fighters).

In a press release, Socrates Sofyan Yoman, President of the Fellowships of Baptist Churches of West Papua said, “This cannot be understood logically because Irinmuli hill was an area occupied by TNI (Indonesian armed forces). Why the victims were always the police officers and not the TNI soldiers who operated in the region?

“The fellowships of Baptist Churches of West Papua had sympathy for the police officer who was shot to death. However, the church also concerned with what would happen after the shooting incident. Certainly, daily activities of the ordinary civilians will be badly affected. Accusations against OPM will disturb the civilians’ activities”, said Socrates.

Socrates said that the church was very concerned with the incident and that the community members cannot be accused as the actors of the shooting or members of the OPM.

According to Socrates the shooting incident was part of the strategies to maintain conflicts in West Papuan land. The community members who were accused as OPM members were just ordinary civilians who had never had any specialised military training.

“The Indonesian security personnel must stop manipulating things in this region. The questions we need to answer are: Where did the OPM get military training on how to use the weapons? Where and how do they get their weapons and ammunition from? Who are the OPM? Where do the OPM come from? What villages? Were the OPM brave to visit the area occupied by TNI?” asked Socrates.


Reported by

Socrates Sofyan Yoman
President of the fellowships of Baptist Churches of West Papua
Address: Jl Jeruk Nipis Kotaraja, PO Box 1212
Phone: 62-067-583462
HP: 08124888458