Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – The Free Papua Movement (OPM) has claimed responsibility for the fatal shooting of an Indonesian Military (TNI) soldier, which also left a civilian dead in the Papua district of Puncak Jaya on Tuesday.
Second Lt. I Wayan Sukarta, the head of the TNI station in Puncak Jaya's Ilu subdistrict, was traveling in a car along with two lower-rank soldiers when a group of armed men attacked them with rifles in Jigonikme village in Ilu.
They managed to contact the station for help, but Sukarta and the civilian driver of the car, who has been identified as Tono, were already dead as more soldiers arrived in the location on Tuesday afternoon.
"There were, more or less, seven attackers who carried riffles," Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Gede Sumerta Jaya said on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Goliath Tabuni, the commander of the OPM's National Liberation Army (TPN), claimed responsibility for the attack.
"The shooting was done by my members, on my order," Goliath told Suara Pembaruan. "If the TNI and the National Police wish to hunt for the shooters, then come look for me or my members, not Papua civilians."
But he denied that his members had killed a civilian in the attack. "My members wouldn't recklessly shoot civilians. If the media say a civilian has been a victim, that's a lie. The TNI may have shot civilians in this region and even throughout Papua, but we don't randomly shoot [civilians]."
Goliath added his group had taken some guns belonging to the soldiers they attacked on Tuesday, saying, "We're getting stronger."
In Jakarta, TNI commander Adm. Agus Suharto said the military together with police were hunting for the perpetrators, but no additional force would be sent to Papua.
"I am concerned. We've lost another TNI member. This shows that although we have tried to reach out to them with welfare approach, they keep committing violence. That needs to be underlined," Agus said. "We will evaluate our activities there".
Rights group Imparsial, meanwhile, warned the TNI against retaliating with more violence, saying the government needed to establish dialogue with separatist groups in order to end conflict in the restive region.
"Imparsial urges police to arrest the attackers... but hopes that the government won't use the violence to justify deployment of more troops to Papua," Imparsial executive director Poengki Indarti said on Wednesday.
"To end violence in Papua, it is time for the government to begin preparing dialogue with groups considered to oppose the government. The government shouldn't have a phobia for dialogue because peaceful dialogue will inspire trust between each other and disentangle the problem." (JG, Suara Pembaruan)