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Jayapura, Jubi – West Papua National Committee (KNPB) spokesperson Emanuel Dogopia stated that KNPB Timika was not involved in the firearms and ammunition trade in Papua. He made the statement responding to the arrest of the Chairman of KNPB Timika, Yanto Awekion (YA), for alleged involvement in the arms trade in Mimika Regency last week.
Dogopia said that the KNPB Timika never mobilized its members to do arms trade for the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB).
“KNPB Timika Region as an organization has never discussed, scheduled, decided, and determined to carry out transactions of firearms and ammunition for TPNPB,” Dogopia told Jubi via telephone call on Monday, September 26, 2022.
Previously, on Thursday and Friday, the police of the Cartenz Peace Operation arrested three people suspected of being involved in the arms and ammunition trade in Mimika, MN, BK, and YA.
“If Awerkion did the trade, he must be doing it on his own, not on behalf of the KNPB. KNPB has never appointed any of our members to do weapon transactions,” he said.
However, Dogopia doubts the police’s claim that Awerkion was involved in the arms trade. Dogopia fears that Yanto Awerkion was criminalized due to his political activities with KNPB Timika.
“If Awerkion was truly caught selling ammunition, why does the police not explain to the public Awerkion’s role and the amount of ammunition he sold? Awerkion is only accused, and that shows how the police want to bring down the KNPB,” he said.
Previously, the spokesperson of the Cartenz Peace Operation, Sr. Comr. Ahmad Mustofa Kamal said the police confiscated 95 rounds of yellow sharp bullets with green stripes of 5.56 caliber, 18 rounds of yellow rubber bullets with “pin 7.62 TK” written on it, nine pieces of iron ammunition pin K50, and four mobile phones.
Kamal explained the role of each suspect was different. According to him, MN sold 95 live bullets to BK for Rp 19 million. MN then gave a bonus of 18 rubber bullets to BK. According to Kamal, BK bought the bullets to give to Undius Kogoya, the leader of TPNPB Intan Jaya.
Kamal said police were still developing the case, and pursuing a number of other suspects. Kamal did not specify Yanto Awerkion’s role in the ammunition transaction between MA and BK. However, Kamal said YA was the ammunition dealer.
“He has admitted to investigators. However, he has not talked about where did he obtain the ammunition,” Kamal said in a written statement. (*)
Jayapura, Jubi – Member of the Papua Legislative Council (DPRP) John NR Gobai asked the Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander to intervene in the legal process against soldiers in the case of murder and mutilation of four Nduga residents in Mimika Regency, as well as the persecution of six civilians in Mappi Regency.
TNI Commander’s intervention was needed to ensure that soldiers involved in the two cases were immediately tried through the general court in Papua and fired from the TNI, Gobai said in a press conference after meeting with the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) in Jakarta on Monday, September 26, 2022.
During the meeting, members of the DPRP and commissioners of Komnas HAM discussed the Mimika murder and Mappi persecution cases. Gobai said the two violent cases were an insult to God’s creation.
Gobai also condemned the actions of Raider 600/Modang soldiers who placed money on the coffin of Bruno Amenim Kimko, a Mappi resident who died after experiencing persecution at Bade Post, Edera District on August 30. Gobai said the action of placing money on Kimko’s coffin was an insult to the Papuan people.
He emphasized that the compensation money should not stop the legal process against the suspected soldiers. “Maybe the soldiers think that money solves the problem but it is not. We Papuans do not accept that,” he said.
Gobai also criticized ten soldiers of the Raider 600/Modang who declined to provide information to Komnas HAM. Therefore, Gobai asked Komnas HAM to encourage the TNI Commander to intervene so that the two cases could be processed transparently and provide justice.
Chairman of Komnas HAM Ahmad Taufan Damanik stated that his party had followed up on the two cases but the investigation had not been finalized yet. “We will do another deepening,” said Damanik.
Damanik said that the preliminary findings of Komnas HAM’s investigation would become a recommendation in law enforcement. For the mutilation case in Mimika, Komnas HAM encourages law enforcement through a court-connected dispute resolution at the Timika City District Court.
“We encourage a fair court. We will convey it to the government, especially to the TNI Commander, the National Police Chief and his staff,” he said. (*)
Cartenz Peace Operation Task Force spokesman Ahmad Mustofa Kamal told reporters on Sept 24 that Yanto Awerkion, who heads the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) in Mimika district, was arrested on Sept. 23 at his residence in Kebon Sirih village.
The task force seized a large cache of ammunition from MN’s residence during a raid, according to Kamal. Another man — identified only as BK — was also arrested at the weekend.
He also said the three, who were already named as suspects in the ammunition supply case, played different roles. Awerkion was the seller, while MN and BK served as the buyer and the funder, respectively.
The ammunition was supposed to be given to Undius Kogoya, a leader of the KKB in Intan Jaya district, Kamal said, adding that the task force is pursuing other individuals involved in the case.
He said the arrest was carried out following the arrest of a man — identified only as MN — a day earlier by the task force after it obtained information on a planned delivery of ammunition to the KKB.
Besides leading KNPB, which was founded in 2008 by a group of NGOs to mobilize the West Papuan people towards independence through a referendum, Awerkion, a 32-year-old Catholic, faces several charges.
In March 2018, he was sentenced to 10 months in prison by Timika District Court for his involvement in a pro-independence petition which gathered more than 1.8 million signatures in West Papua.
KNPB spokesman Ones Suhuniap called the arrest of Awerkion “pure criminalization.”
“We suspect that the arrest is an attempt to divert the attention of the Papuan people, in general, and of the Timika people, in particular, from the killing and mutilation of four civilians from Nduga district. Some parts of their bodies have not been found yet,” he said in a written statement seen by UCA News on the Facebook page of KNPB News.
The bodies of the four Protestant Christians were discovered by residents of Iwaka village in Mimika district in sacks floating on the Pigapu River on Aug 26. Six soldiers and four civilians have been named as suspects in the case.
“We want the Papua police chief to stop criminalizing and scapegoating the KNPB in Timika and to immediately release its leader,” Suhuniap said, claiming that there was “a scenario” in his arrest and naming as a suspect.
Meanwhile, Emanuel Gobay, a human rights activist and director of the Legal Aid Institute in Papua, said there were some illegal ammunition transactions in Papua as recorded by the Democratic Alliance for Papua in its latest report.
“Many were involved in such activities, both civilians and security officers,” he told UCA News.
Released in July, the report showed that there were 51 people — 31 civilians, 14 soldiers and six policemen — sent to prison because of their involvement in illegal ammunition transactions in the Papua region between 2011 and 2021.
Following the end of Dutch colonial rule in 1962, Indonesia annexed Christian-majority Papua through a 1969 referendum, considered a sham by many.
However, an independence movement that began in 1965 soon turned into an armed struggle, prompting a heavy-handed response from the Indonesian military. Thousands of civilians, soldiers, and separatists have been killed in the conflict in the decades since.
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