Nethy Dharma Somba and Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jayapura/Jakarta – The shooting deaths of eight soldiers and four civilians in Papua on Thursday may be connected to the province's recent gubernatorial election, according to the police.

Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Kurniawan said here on Sunday that the police suspected that the supporters of those who were expected to lose the election might have been behind the attacks.

According to Tito, the attacks came on Thursday, just two days before the Papua General Elections Commission was slated to convene a plenary session to verify the vote count and announce a winner in the gubernatorial election, which was held on Feb. 14.

The police chief speculated that the attacks might have been launched to force the postponement of the plenary session.

While Lukas Enembe, backed by a coalition led by the Democratic Party, was certified as the winner by the Papua KPUD, the five losing campaigns have asked the Constitutional Court to overturn the commission's certification of Lukas' victory.

Tito denied that the killings were connected with Papua's prolonged secessionist movement. "The incident should not be connected with the separatist movement. If its purpose was to have backed Papua's independence, why did they not launch a major attack with numerous victims far beforehand?"

He said he assigned his chief detective, Sr. Comr. Bambang Priambada, to lead a team working with local Indonesian Military (TNI) forces to arrest the perpetrators of the attacks. "The team will pursue those who committed the shooting, investigate their motives and bring them to justice."

Eight soldiers were killed in two separate ambushes in Puncak and neighboring Puncak Jaya regency on Thursday. The regencies are known as a stronghold for separatists who have battled for independence from Indonesia for decades.

The first attack was carried out by a group of unidentified gunmen who attacked a TNI guard post in Tingginambut, Puncak Jaya, leaving one soldier dead and another injured.

About an hour after the attack, another group of armed assailants ambushed a squad of 10 soldiers who were on their way to the Sinak airstrip in Sinak, Puncak. Seven of the 10 soldiers and four civilians were killed.

The bodies of 11 of those slain on Thursday have been taken to Jayapura on Sunday after a helicopter sent to recover the bodies was shot at and forced to return to its base.

The incident was the latest in a series of attacks against security personnel in the restive province. Previously, two police officers were killed when unidentified gunmen assaulted a police station in Mulia.

In Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has condemned the incident, instructing officials to find the perpetrators, while Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto, who recently visited Papua, attributed the attacks to groups supporting the Free Papua Movement (OPM).

A senior politician from the National Mandate Party (PAN) also condemned the shootings, calling for the government to reevaluate its policy in the province.

"The incident indicates that a segment of the Papuan people hates the TNI and the police as representative of the state in Papua and West Papua," PAN deputy chairman Bara Hasibuan said. "The government must necessarily reevaluate all the actions it has taken to resolve the Papuan situation."

Bara said that Jakarta should stop looking down at Papuans and trust the province's residents to manage their domestic affairs under the law on special autonomy. He also said that security matters in the province should be left to the police, not the TNI.

Bara said that the government should hold comprehensive and open dialogues with all parties, including the OPM, to solve Papua and West Papua's political, security, economic and human rights problems.

According to Bara, security disturbances in the province would continue unless all groups fighting for Papua's independence were invited to seek a comprehensive solution.

Bara said that he regretted that a decade of special autonomy given to the province has enriched only the elite while a majority of residents remain in poverty.

"The government should hold a dialogue with all elements to convince everyone that Papua's integration into Indonesia was final during the 1969 self-determination vote," Bara said.

He said that he also wanted the government to form a reconciliation and rehabilitation committee to handle allegations of unresolved human rights abuses and to rehabilitate human rights victims and their relatives.