Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights is investigating the shooting deaths of a dozen West Papuans from a recent Jakarta military operation.
The commission, known as Komnas HAM (Komisi Nasional Hak Asasi Manusia), had acknowledged the incident in which up to 12 people were killed last Tuesday in Kembru district in Puncak regency of the Central Papua province.
Komnas HAM confirmed the dead included women and children as the result of gunshot wounds sustained during Indonesian forces' operation in the West Papuan territory.
One of the deaths was confirmed to be a pregnant woman while a child, aged five, was also shot and died in a separate incident in another village in the district.
Dozens of other civilians on the scene also suffered serious injuries.
Komnas HAM said that any operation that results in civilian casualties "cannot be justified on any grounds".
Indonesia's military admitted to local media this week that its forces had killed four Papuan pro-independence militants during an exchange of fire in Kembru. However, the West Papua National Liberation Army, the military wing for the territory's United Liberation Movement for West Papua organisation, has denied there was an exchange on the scene with the Indonesian military.
Urging the head of Indonesia's military to investigate the incident further, Komnas HAM has also asked restraint from all the parties involved, including the role of Indonesia's national government and the Papua regional government of the Papuan People's Assembly to protect civilians, treat those injured in the operation humanly, and recover the bodies of those killed.
One eyewitness had told Free West Papua campaigners in one report that the bodies of several people killed had been burned in an alleged cover-up.
The independent human rights authority also noted the risk of mass displacement of villagers in Kembru.
Commission chief Anis Hidayah strongly criticised the military's actions during Komnas HAM's initial investigation.
"We condemn the enforcement operation against Papuan rebels that resulted also in civilian casualties," she said.
"All forms of attacks against civilians, whether in situations of war or otherwise, carried out by state or non-state actors, constitute violations of human rights and International Humanitarian Law."
Ms Hidayah said there was a "strong suspicion" that Indonesian soldiers may be responsible for the civilian deaths.
The commission, however, added in its report that it is not immediately clear whether the civilians were killed by Indonesian or West Papuan fire, or, possibly, both.
But regardless, Ms Hidayah has urged Indonesia's military to re-evaluate its operations against Papuan rebels.
The violence follows another massacre earlier in the month where at least five people were killed at the hands of Indonesian police in the Dogiyai regency.
Resource-rich West Papua, home to the world's second-largest gold and copper mine behind an operation in the nearby autonomous region of Bougainville, has witnessed a simmering separatist movement since it was brought under Indonesian control in a 1969 vote that was overseen by the United Nations.
Indonesian Major General Aulia Dwi Nasrullah said in a statement without the mention of the other eight civilian deaths that the four West Papuan fighters killed had instead been "neutralised" in Kembru.
The Indonesian military's Habema taskforce were allegedly only carrying out "an enforcement operation" after saying it received reports from Papuan civilians about the presence of rebels in their village, taskforce spokesperson Wirya Arthadiguna added.
Mr Arthadiguna also defended the claim over the death of the five-year-old child as unrelated to the gunfire where most of the 12 deaths took place during the military operation.
"No military personnel were present at that village at the time of the shooting of the child, and the two incidents took place at different locations and times and are not connected," he said.
As Indonesian authorities reported their side of the incident, a Foreign Affairs committee hearing on West Papua was held on the other side of the world in the Netherlands parliament.
The hearing in the home of West Papua's former coloniser included a focus on unfolding events in West Papua and the ongoing demand for a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit the occupied territory in front of officials for the West Papuan self-determination, including the United Liberation Movement for West Papua interim chairman, Benny Wenda.
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