TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Papua chapter of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has sent a team to Tiom, Lanny Jaya district, Papua, to investigate Mondays shooting incident that claimed the lives of two police officers.
"We have sent a team to Lanny Jaya to investigate the shooting incident there. They left on Monday and returned on Tuesday," acting chief of the Komnas HAM Papua chapter Frits Ramandey stated on Wednesday.
Ramandey noted that the team had also met the wounded officers who are now being treated in the police hospital in Kotaraja, Jayapura.
"We asked them about the situation before the incident occurred," he added.
Based on information from the wounded victims and the reports received from the team, he noted that the district was not essentially a conflict zone.
"Lanny Jaya is actually not a conflict area, but it is prone to conflicts. So, the police and military (TNI) personnel who are assigned there must be on alert," he affirmed.
Ramandey stated that the villagers were afraid when they saw the police and TNI personnel carrying guns and considered it as a way to scare them. But, he pointed out that they would become victims if they did not carry guns during their field assignments.
"This pattern must be taken into consideration," he noted.
In view of that, Ramandey emphasized that the district head and community members should help the security forces, including the TNI and the police, by rejecting the presence of armed civilian groups that were always behind every shooting incident there.
"We asked community members and local heads of government to reject their actions," he remarked.
First Brigadier Zulkifli and Second Brigadier Prayoga died after being fatally hit during a shootout between police officers assigned to carry out a community guidance program in the district and an armed civilian group on Monday (July 28), while two other officers suffered injuries.
ANTARA | MUSA ABUBAR
