Mahfud MD Forms Team to Investigate Violence in Papua

Team to Investigate Violence in Papua

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law, and Security Affairs (Polhukam) Mahfud MD on Friday has officially formed a fact-finding joint team (TGPF) to investigate the shooting of Papuan pastor Yeremia Zanambani and other cases of violence happening in the Papua district of Intan Jaya.

In the press conference on October 2, the minister mentioned that the TGPF consists of 18 members from the ministry, TNI, National Police, intelligence, and Papuan public figures. 

Mahfud MD revealed that Intan Jaya conflicts have killed at least four people with two of them being TNI soldiers while the other two were locals; one of them was being the pastor. However, the perpetrators are still a debate.

“The TNI – Police say that the shooters were armed criminal groups while others put the finger on authorities. The latter accusation emerged after the death of pastor Yeremia,” said Mahfud MD.

The field investigator team will be led by Chief Executive of the National Police Commission Benny Mamoto and the deputy will be Sugeng Purnomo who is the Polhukam Coordinating Ministry’s deputy of law coordination and human rights.

Notes:

A former Dutch colony, West Papua was formally incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after an undisputed vote of about 1,025 representative tribal leaders. The result of the plebiscite was overseen and endorsed by the United Nations.

Since the democratization in 1998, especially since 2007, democracy by mean of elections has been introduced to increase political participation in the two provinces. The fact that the leaders of Papua and West Papua provinces are democratically elected by the people has strengthened the legality of the region as a province of Indonesia.

Team to Investigate Violence in Papua is the correct response to avoid wild speculation and hoax spread by Free West Papua supporters and conflict provocateurs.