Budi Sutrisno, Jakarta – A government-sanctioned joint fact-finding team (TGPF) started conducting initial investigations into the recent killings in Intan Jaya regency, Papua, soon after the team members arrived in the country's easternmost region on Wednesday.
The team, formed by Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD, arrived in two groups. The first group arrived in Timika regency and the second group in Jayapura.
"We came all the way here to work wholeheartedly, so we can provide appropriate reports and input for the government," Benny Mamoto of the National Police Commission (Kompolnas), who leads the field investigation unit, said in a statement on Wednesday.
Benny landed in Timika, together with several other team members, including Papuan community and religious figures, university figures, as well as officials from the National Police, the Indonesian Military (TNI), the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) and the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK).
The group immediately held a technical meeting with local officials and set plans to gather information from witnesses.
On Thursday, Benny and his team members went to Intan Jaya and met with Regent Natalis Tabuni as well as representatives of the Regional Leadership Communication Forum (Forkopimda), the Papua Military Command and the Papua Police.
Meanwhile, the team members arriving in Jayapura included Papuan community figures, former Indonesian Ambassador to the United Nations Makarim Wibisono and Sugeng Purnomo, a deputy from the Office of the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister who is also a TGPF deputy chair.
The group met a number of human rights figures and Papuan nongovernmental activists and held a dialogue with officials from the Papuan Legislative Council and several law enforcement institutions, as well as members of the Papuan Interfaith Forum (FKUB) on Wednesday.
The TGPF team is set to head to the locations of the shootings in Intan Jaya and hold further meetings with various stakeholders to obtain more detailed information on the killings.
"We have received a lot of input, which we will further scrutinize and elaborate through our upcoming meeting with witnesses," Benny said, "On the next day we have to go to the locations [of the incidents] to see the reconstruction of the case, so that the dossier on testimonies will be further confirmed by the exact condition in the field."
The TGPF was formed to investigate a series of shootings that occurred in Intan Jaya in September.
In addition to the fatal shooting of Papuan pastor Yeremia Zanambani in Hitadipa district on Sept. 19, the team will also investigate other cases that took place around the same time, including the shooting of a civilian named Badawi and TNI soldiers, Chief. Sgt. Sahlan and First Pvt. Dwi Akbar.
The team has been given two weeks, starting from the formation of the group on Oct. 1, to report the results of the investigation to the government.