Singgih Wiryono, Jakarta – Papua Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) Director Emanuel Gobay is urging the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) to declare the murder and mutilation of four civilians in Mimika, Papua, as a gross human rights violation.
Gobay says that doing this would be in accordance with the conclusions drawn from the examination of the case by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) Papua representative office.
"The Komnas HAM national office [must] immediately follow up on the Komnas HAM Papua representative's conclusion in the case of the murder of four civilians who said it represents a crime against humanity and fulfills the elements of a gross human rights violation because it was premeditated and carried out by state officials", said Gobay in a press release on Saturday September 17.
In addition to this, Gobay is asking the Komnas HAM Papua representative office to monitor law enforcement officials up until the mutilation case is fully resolved.
Gobay is also urging TNI (Indonesian military) commander General Andhika Perkasa to reprimand the commander of the Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Pangkostrad), Lieutenant General Maruli Simanjuntak, who said that the mutilation case was not a gross human rights violation.
According to Gobay, the statement conflicts with the conclusions drawn by the Komnas HAM Papua representative office which were obtained from the results of the investigation.
"The Pangkostrad is obliged to support the Komnas HAM national office in carrying out its task of investigating human rights violations in the murder and mutilation of four Papuan civilians in Mimika in accordance with Article 89 Paragraph 3b of Law Number 39/1999 on Human Rights", explained Gobay.
As has been reported earlier, Army military police have detained six personnel who have been declared suspects in the Mimika murder and mutilation case.
The Army's information office chief (Kadispenad), Brigadier General Tatang Subarna, explained that the six suspects have been detained in order to facilitate questioning and the investigation.
"Right now the suspects are being held at the Subdenpom XVII/C [military police sub-detachment] detention centre in Mimika counting from Monday August 29 to September 17, 2022", said Subarna in a written release on Tuesday September 30.
Subarna insisted that the Army is serious about solving the case and handing down firm and severe punishments against the perpetrators. "(The application of punishments) will be in accordance with prevailing regulations and legal stipulations", he said.
Two of the six suspects are infantry officers with the initials and rank Infantry Major HF and Infantry Captain DK. The remainder are soldiers with the initials Master Private (Praka) PR and Privates First Class (Pratu) RAS, RPC and R.
Meanwhile the four civilian suspects – APL alias J, DU, R and RMH – are being dealt with by the police.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "LBH Papua Desak Komnas HAM Tetapkan Kasus Mutilasi di Mimika sebagai Pelanggaran HAM Berat".]
