Banjir Ambarita & Ulma Haryanto – Fighting in the violence-wracked district of Puncak Papua resulted in three deaths on Saturday, bringing the death toll from a long-simmering political feud there to 30.
Sr. Comr. Wachyono, the Papua Police spokesman, said on Sunday that those killed over the weekend were supporters of Simon Alom, who led the transitional administration during the establishment of the district.
"The three people who died were [supporters of] Simon Alom, and they have already been cremated according to local customs," Wachyono said. The victims were identified as Endiles Waker, 26, Yelinus Murib, 30, and Edison Murib, 40.
Wachyono said the clash broke out at 6 a.m. and was triggered by calls for the acting district head, Decky Wambrauw, to step down. "The tribal war was triggered by the demand for Decky's tenure to not be extended, and for him to be replaced," he explained. "However, there was no response so a brawl ensued."
Wachyono added that Decky was deemed to be partisan and critics wanted him removed ahead of a planned district head election.
Supporters of Elvis Tabuni, the speaker of the Puncak Papua legislative council, and supporters of Simon have been engaged in running clashes since July over an election dispute. Thirteen people were killed in the initial clash, and the others died in the sporadic outbreaks of violence that have followed.
Both Elvis and Simon are eyeing the district head post in an upcoming election and both also claimed to have received the backing from the Great Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra).
Elvis used a letter of recommendation from the local branch of Gerindra while Simon registered using a recommendation from Gerindra's central board in Jakarta.
According to Wachyono, police tried to prevent future clashes by dispatching riot police and Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officers to the district.
"Right now we're trying to mediate between both sides and our officers are investigating the scene of the latest clash," he said, adding that police were working with the provincial administration to handle the dispute between the rival groups.
"In fact, both sides expressed their readiness to hold a peaceful local election, but then a clash broke out again."
Siti Zuhro, a regional autonomy expert from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), told the Jakarta Globe that given the history of tribal-based violence in Papua, both the central government and the General Elections Commission (KPU) should pay more attention to elections in the province, particularly in newly established administrative regions such as Puncak Papua.
"The whole chain of deaths could actually have been prevented from the beginning if the KPUD [regional KPU] had been strict about who the official candidates were," she said.
Regional elections are prone to dispute and clashes, she said, and could cause widespread conflicts if the KPUD could not prove its independence.
"KPUD as the poll organizer also should have been clear from the beginning that they were responsible, and that they were not partisan," Siti said.
Suhardi, Gerindra's national chairman, also blamed the KPUD for not responding swiftly to the dispute between the rival groups. "During the verification period, the KPUD could easily have verified the validity of the candidates by contacting us directly."