Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – Police announced on Tuesday that nine municipal and district police chiefs across Papua were rotated, but denied the move was a response to allegations of a heavy-handed crackdown against pro-independence protesters.
"This rotation has nothing to do with the recent security situation in Papua," Insp. Gen. Bigman Lumban Tobing, the provincial police chief, said at police headquarters in Jayapura.
"It is simply a matter of moving the officers around," he said. "It shows that the National Police as an institution is not stagnant but dynamic in its response to complex public problems."
Among those affected in the shake-up was the Jayapura Police chief, Adj. Sr. Comr. Imam Setiawan, who was replaced by Adj. Sr. Comr. Alfred from the Mappi district police force.
Imam has come under sharp criticism from human rights groups after his officers opened fire on a peaceful gathering of the pro-independence Papuan People's Congress last month. They arrested almost 400 people.
A day after the incident, the bodies of six congress participants were found near the local military headquarters, reportedly with gunshot wounds.
The incident has since come under the scrutiny of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), which is conducting a probe into allegations of excessive use of force. On Tuesday, the rights body said preliminary results of their investigation show that security forces likely killed three people and assaulted almost 100.
Julles Ongge, the head of the provincial chapter of Komnas HAM, said that of the 387 people taken into custody, 96 claimed to have been beaten by police.
"In the process of arresting the participants of the Papuan People's Congress, there were very clear violations of human rights," he said. "This included summary killings, arbitrary arrests, incarceration and torture. If everything had been done by the book, then there would have been no victims."
Among those likely killed by the police were Demianus Daniel Kadepa, a university student, and Yakobus Samonsabra and Max Asa Yeuw, both members of the Papuan Caretaker Movement (Petapa), the rights group said.
About 100 members of Petapa were guarding the congress when police and military crashed the event, firing shots into the air and hitting participants with batons, bamboo poles and the butts of their rifles. They also kicked and stomped on those already down.
Julles said that because of the violent crackdown, Imam and Bigman owed it to the Papuan people to make amends.
"The investigating team has seen the wounds suffered by the victims," he said. "Some of them have expressed willingness to testify [against the police], but first we must coordinate with the LPSK [Victim and Witness Protection Agency] to ensure their safety."
Julles called on police to take responsibility for the violence and to return the items they seized from congress participants during the arrest.
Preliminary findings of the investigation will be submitted to Komnas HAM headquarters in Jakarta, Julles said, before a final conclusion and recommendations are made.
The National Commission on Human Rights determined that three of the six people found dead following a security crackdown on last month's Papuan People's Congress were likely killed by security personnel.
One of the victims was Demianus Daniel Kadepa, 23, a student at Umel Mandiri Law School in Jayapura who died from severe blunt force trauma to the back of the head.
Yakobus Samonsabra, 48, a part of the Papuan Caretaker Movement (Petapa) that was guarding the congress, was found with multiple wounds to the neck, head and face. Max Asa Yeuw, 33, also from Petapa, died of a gunshot to his buttock that penetrated his rib cage.