TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Brawijaya Military Command (Kodam) head of information Lieutenant Colonel Imam Haryadi announced that five Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) members will face discharge for allegedly participating in the besieging of a Papuan dormitory in Surabaya.

“They will be suspended from their duties until the investigation report on them is complete. Then it will be replaced by a penalty determined by the military court,” said Imam on Monday.

According to Imam, the discharge on the five TNI members are not directly related to the racial smears against the Papuan students during the siege but is closely related to their lack of communication skills and persuasion upon handling a conflict.

He says that a soldier must put forth communication and persuasion in the midst of an escalating moment of tension in the field.

“They failed to represent the true nature of an authority figure, lashing out in anger is forbidden. Meanwhile, our method is clearly to put forth social communication,” he said.

The siege and acts of discrimination shown by the perpetrators on a Papuan students’ dormitory in Surabaya are widely considered as the incident that later sparked widespread anger among the people of Papua and caused a massive riot across several locations in Papua Province and West Papua.

ANDITA RAHMA