2) Brutes! The TNI beat and tortured three youths to death at the Bilogai Health Center, Intan Jaya
(It should be remembered that the main stream media in Indonesia are quoting offical security force personal in reference to attacks.
——————————————
https://en.jubi.co.id/three-intan-jaya-men-dead-in-the-hands-of-tni/
1) Three Intan Jaya residents dead, allegedly in the hands of TNI personnel
West Papua No. 1 News Portal | Jubi
A google translate. Be-aware google translate can be a bit erratic.
https://suarapapua.com/2021/02/16/biadab-tni-pukul-dan-siksa-tiga-pemuda-sampai-mati-di-puskesmas-bilogai-intan-jaya/
2) Brutes! The TNI beat and tortured three youths to death at the Bilogai Health Center, Intan Jaya
JAYAPURA, SUARAPAPUA.com - On Monday (15/2/2021) yesterday morning there was a shooting from TPNPB Intan Jaya which killed a TNI member. In an effort to pursue the shooter, the TNI conducted sweeps around the village of Mamba, resulting in a young man on behalf of Janius Bagau being shot in the left arm until his bone was crushed. From a number of information collected by suarapapua.com on Tuesday (16/2/2021), on Monday (yesterday) at noon Janius was evacuated to the Puskesmas in a car belonging to the regent from the TKP in Amaesiga.
"Soni Bagau and Justinus Bagau, both of them joined the regent's car, which brought Janius Bagau from Amaesiga to the Bilogai Health Center so that the victim would receive treatment," he explained. Also read: Activists in Sorong Held the 166th Anniversary of the PI Anniversary and the Release of Three Tapol
For information, Janius Bagau died with a gunshot wound to his left arm with a crushed left arm bone. Before he died, he was interrogated, tortured and beaten by members of the TNI. Meanwhile, Soni Bagau and Justinus Bagau were two healthy young men who died from torture and beatings from TNI members during interrogation at the Bilogai Health Center in Yokatapa, Sugapa, Intan Jaya. He further said that currently the community is ready to bury the three victims in Sugapa. "Now we are getting ready to bury the three victims who were beaten to death by the TNI at the Bilogai Health Center," he concluded. The three victims, from Suara Papua source information, were buried in Tambabuga, Bilogai Village. The location of these three burials is not far from the official residence of the Intan Jaya regent.
Also read: ERROR: Benyamin Weya asks residents of Ndugusiga Intan Jaya Village to vacate until the situation is conducive
The people fled to the Bilogai Pastor
After the TPNPB shot a TNI member, the authorities carried out searches and chased after the perpetrator. In that attempt, Janius Bagau was shot in the left arm until the bone was crushed. After the sweep took place and Janius was shot, while taking the victim to the puskesmas, dozens of people consisting of mothers, children and fathers were evacuated to the Bilogai rectory.
This letter was sitting in our draft from a while ago to respond to the deaths of clergy members in Papua, but with recent developments we thought it was worth updating and sending.
There are numerous ways to discuss the deaths of pastors in Papuan communities. That it is inevitable in light of the escalation of conflict. That statistically, it makes sense; too many state apparatus were deployed to Papua last year (in what may seem like small numbers but constantly). All those deployments are charged with violent potential. All that aggression had to eventually display itself somewhere. Indonesians have the saying sedikit demi sedikit lama-lama menjadi bukit — over time, from little things, big things grow. It’s an approach that works to save money, it is also true for the state apparatus. What we are witnessing with horror is the consequence of that process, wherein the accumulation of deployments result in clandestine civilian deaths. We really wish the government would just announce that they are at war with Papuans. Please bear with us as we explain this step by step.
Beyond the tragedies of individual lives lost, we need to also talk about what this conflict means for their community. And that is one way to interpret this whole situation: this is an attack on community. It is bleak but it conveys an accurate picture of what we are trying to say when we piece together the deaths of pastors and the continued displacement of people. How are we supposed to address the refugees and their silent deaths without speaking of their communities? How else are we to articulate the trauma these deaths and displacement would cause in Papua? How else are we to think of the empty spaces these deaths leave in the communities they left behind? So yes, focusing on the individual deaths in Papua is as important as reflecting on what these deaths mean to communities.
Let us begin by talking about the death of Rev. Yeremia Zanambani in Hitadipa, now that more details have come to light. Soldiers shot and stabbed him, and left him to die. Miriam, his wife, found him as he was dying, alone, in his pigpen. She ran home to get someone who could help her to carry him home. It was an impossible task, people were too afraid. He did not survive the night. This was not an isolated incident, neither was the death of Rufinus Tigau. Tigau was a catechist and he was shot for suspicion of being part of the separatist movement. The suspicion was disproven and therefore, to quote Suara Papua, Rufinus Tigau was shot for no reason.
[TW: graphic description of violence. If this would upset you, you need to skip this paragraph. In our previous newsletter we speak of how the death of Rev. Zanambani is a sign of conflict escalation. But if you read the report recently issued by the Humanitarian Team for Papua (Tim Kemanusiaan untuk Papua), it is clear that his death is also part of a more general escalation of conflict in the region. (If you read Indonesian, you can download and read the report for a detailed timeline of the crisis in Intan Jaya). A few weeks after it was launched, we found an answer to one of the mysteries referred to in the report. The mystery concerns the disappearance of Apinus and Luther Zanambani. They were relatives of Rev. Zanambani and two of them disappeared in April 2020. The army recently confirmed that they were tortured to death during an interrogation. To hide evidence, the men incinerated their bodies and disposed their ashes in a river. When we speak of Papuan Lives Matter, this is partly the reason why. Sometimes Papuans evaporate as if they never existed, and the rest of us have to scramble for proof that they ever lived.]
It is not enough to talk about these deaths as events, we also need to talk about what it reflects about the wider situation. We are not saying that their lives matter more because they were members of the clergy. However, analyses of their deaths should keep in mind the integral function of the church and its leaders in Papua. Churches are communities and they keep communities together. They also connect Papuans in this community to a world beyond themselves. When their workers are targets to these kinds of incidents, what happens to the rest of the community? When they die, from whom are you to ask for consolation and support? If your church is empty and the congregation damaged, from what well are you supposed to get strength? With those considerations, while we can offer you a rational and logical reading of this, we won’t. The abrupt deaths of church workers are emotional affairs.
Deepening the crisis in Hitadipa is the displacement of people because of the incident. The community left behind have left their houses, leaving some villages empty while its inhabitants scrambled for safety. The report from the independent Humanitarian Team for Papua notes that at least 466 people have fled deeper into the jungle or neighbouring towns. During the public launching of the report, Harris Azhar spoke of the persistent attack on civilians. (Again, if you can, you really should read the report.)
We bring up that number because we want to emphasise that as people scatter, communities are broken and homes are left behind. We remind you again that in the Indonesian media, the insurgents are often portrayed as transient people. And because of that home serves an additional function; it is a way for Papuans to ‘prove’ that they are not militias. But recent events have deprived more and more Papuans in the hinterland of this. In the absence of home, how is a Papuan supposed to prove that they are civilians? That they are innocent and therefore in the twisted logic of Indonesians ‘do not deserve to die’?
There are few things that people in conflict areas can hold and cherish. In Hitadipa, people do not get to hold and cherish their school, as the military took it and made it their temporary base. One wishes they at least get to hold on to each other and cherish that. That at least they get to keep their community. But apparently even that is a luxury because they had to flee and abandon that. Communities give you annoyance, consolation, joy, laughter, gossip; they make your life what it is. They give you a sense of place in the world and meaning. They are one of the few things that Papuans can hold dear. Because of this war, Papuans in the highland cannot even hold that anymore.
We revised this and decided to send it even though this was from a while ago because the conflict is still ongoing. We see no end in sight. Last week, Benyamin Weya, a member of the Intan Jaya’s regional house of representatives, encouraged people from a village to leave their homes until the situation improves. His encouragement was based on the recognition that this battlefield keeps on expanding and the conflict cannot be contained. Just now, Suara Papua reported the death of one West Papuan National Liberation Army (WPNLA) member after a skirmish on February 3. This comes after the news that two weeks ago two Indonesian soldiers were killed in another skirmish on January 22. This is not over, and we have no idea how many more lives will be lost before it is. Running away is a desperate option that many have taken. It is so unfair that in the middle of a raging pandemic, Papuans in the highlands still have to make the impossible choice between their health and immediate survival. (Yes, we say this because the refugee crisis in Nduga is also still ongoing).
What we are metaphorically consuming
- Febri recently launched her documentary, Our Mother’s Land. The documentary contains a series of interviews she conducted with women fighting to defend their land against destruction. Watch the beautiful documentary on Youtube, here (there is also the Indonesian version of it).
- The PDF version of anthropologist Veronika Kusumaryati’s dissertation is available online. ‘Ethnography of a Colonial Present: History, Experience, and Political Consciousness in West Papua’. The dissertation is based on an exhaustive fieldwork in Papua and a deep dive into various archives.
- If reading isn’t your thing (we think it should be), you can also watch Kusumaryati’s virtual seminar where she discusses the place of Papuan Lives Matter within the history of Papuan resistance and Papuans’ historical encounters with blackness.
- In news that should surprise absolutely no one, some Indonesians were racist and equated a Papuan man to a gorilla. The story has evolved into a somewhat irritating debate involving government buzzers and this annoying habit Indonesians have of using racism against Papuans to score political points. We don’t have time to unpack that, so instead we recommend this thorough and thoughtful op-ed. In it, Yamin Kogoya reflects on what casual racism means for the Jakarta-Papua relationship. And before we move on, if your reflex when criticising Papuans involves equating them with monkeys or some other primates, you’re racist.
Hopefully we’ll see you next month!
Help us get the word out. Tell your friends to sign up for short but unmissable updates.
Subcribe untuk dapatkan Newsletter Suara Papua terbaru dengan klik link ini Voice of Papua.
Papua provincial government's secretary, Doren Wakerkwa, stated that the report on Intan Jaya's general condition of public services, communities, and security and stability situation is expected to be sent immediately.
Wakerkwa noted in Jayapura, the capital of Papua Province, on Tuesday that the provincial administration was aware of the ground reality in Intan Jaya though nonetheless awaited the district government's official report.
However, the Intan Jaya district government had yet to submit the report amid the spate of violence gripping the district's administrative areas over the past two years.
The district's residents are in need of assistance, for which the Papua provincial government is willing to help cater to its people's needs if help is sought, he remarked.
On February 15, 2021, several armed Papuan criminals engaged in a gunfight with Indonesian army personnel in Mamba Village, Sugapa Sub-district, Intan Jaya District, resulting in a soldier being killed.
On the same day, a joint team of the Indonesia Defence Forces (TNI) and police personnel shot dead three armed Papuan criminals that had attempted to take hold of the rifles of several security personnel, who had secured the Sugapa public health center.
The Indonesian province of Papua has borne witness to a spate of violence, with armed Papuan groups in the districts of Intan Jaya, Nduga, and Puncak targeting civilians and security personnel over the past two years.
Intan Jaya recorded its bloodiest month in September 2020, with notorious armed groups launching a series of attacks in the area that claimed the lives of two soldiers and two civilians and left two others injured.
Armed Papuan groups have continued their acts of terror during the new year. On January 6, 2021, some 10 armed Papuans vandalized and torched a Quest Kodiak aircraft belonging to the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) at the Pagamba Village airstrip.
The armed groups often employ hit-and-run tactics against Indonesian security personnel, while they unleash acts of terror against civilians to instill a sense of fear among the people.
On February 8, 2021, an armed rebel reportedly shot a 32-year-old man at close range in Bilogai Village, Sugapa Sub-district.
The victim, identified by his initials as RNR, sustained gunshot wounds on the face and right shoulder and was taken to the Timika Public Hospital in Mimika District on February 9.
On February 9, 2021, six armed Papuans fatally stabbed a motorcycle taxi (ojek) driver.
The 40-year-old driver, identified as Rusman HR alias Aco, was reportedly stabbed on a street near Ilambet Village in Ilaga Sub-district, Puncak District.
The local police reported that the driver sustained serious stab wounds on the back while attempting to escape his attackers and died of exsanguination.
Related news: Two earthquakes rattle Papua's Jayapura district
Related news: Find effective ways to crush Papua rebels: MPR tells TNI, police
EDITED BY INE
The housewife, Deljati Pamean, was attacked by three men suspected of belonging to an armed Papuan group operating in the district, Puncak Police chief, Adjunct Sen.Coms.Dicky Saragih, informed on Wednesday.
"We are still probing the case and attempting to find out which armed group they belong to," he told ANTARA in Jayapura, the capital of Papua province.
Saragih said 28-year-old Pamean survived the assault, but sustained sharp force injuries.
Pamean runs a kiosk from her house in partnership with one Hendra Tenan, who also lives in the same house, he added.
Pamean told police that three men came to her kiosk around 1 p.m. on Tuesday while she was serving a buyer. Two of the three men told her they also wanted to buy goods, Saragih said.
One of the two men suddenly asked her about her husband. Pamean reportedly told him that her husband had gone to the village market. The two men then allegedly approached her and attacked her with a machete.
Pamean's scream for help was heard by Hendra Tenan, who happened to be at home, and he rushed out of his room to help her. The attackers and their friend ran towards the creek and escaped, Saragih said.
Tenan took Pamean to the village's public health center for treatment, he said, adding that the victim has been discharged from the public health center.
The Indonesian province of Papua has borne witness to a spate of violence, with armed Papuan groups in the districts of Intan Jaya, Nduga, and Puncak targeting civilians and security personnel over the past two years.
The armed groups often employ hit-and-run tactics against Indonesian security personnel, while they unleash acts of terror against civilians to create fear among the public.
On February 9, 2021, a motorcycle taxi (ojek) driver was stabbed to death by six armed Papuans.
The 40-year-old driver, identified as Rusman HR alias Aco, was reportedly stabbed on a street near Ilambet village in Ilaga sub-district, Puncak district.
He sustained serious stab wounds on the back while trying to escape his attackers and died of exsanguination, according to local police.
On February 8, 2021, an armed rebel reportedly shot a 32-year-old man at close range in Bilogai village, Sugapa sub-district, Puncak district.
The victim, identified by his initials as RNR, sustained gunshot wounds on the face and right shoulder and was taken to the Timika Public Hospital in Mimika district on February 9. (INE)
Related news: Papua: Armed group targets PT Palapa Ring, burns down property
Related news: 359 terrorized Papuans in Intan Jaya take refuge in church
EDITED BY INE
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.