Jakarta – Senior Papuan journalist Victor Mambor suspects that yesterday’s bomb attack next to his house in Jayapura on Monday January 23 was linked to several reports published over the last month by Tabloid Jubi.
The reports were related to court hearings into a case of four civilians who were allegedly murdered and mutilated by military officers in Mimika and the human rights trial into the 2014 bloody Paniai massacre.
Mambor claimed that although he was not the author of the reports, he was the chief editor who took responsibility for them.
“First, I’m not active, not active in Jubi’s reporting, I’m more in non-editing”, said Mambor during a virtual press conference on Tuesday January 24.
“There were indeed observations on several issues, on the mutilations, the mutilation trial, bloody Paniai, the shootings in the Bintang Highlands", he said.
Legal Aid Institute for the Press (LBH Pers) public defender Ahmad Fathanah Haris also suspects that this is the case because on several occasions journalists have been terrorised after writing critical reports.
"Every time there's an incident certainly there are casualties that arise, because there were reports [on the mutilation case trial] at the Military High Court", he said.
He is also urging the police to follow up on the bomb attack. According to Haris, the police can identify the perpetrator from the remains of the home-made bomb that were left behind at the location.
"The bombing was in the form of a home-made bomb, if the police have already evacuated [the area] they can look for traces of fragments", he said.
"From there, right, it can be seen who sold the materials for the home-made bomb. It's different from the destruction, which doesn't eliminate traces, yes", he added.
Earlier, Mambor explained the chronology of the seconds before the bomb exploded alongside his house in Jayapura on Monday.
Mambor related how he woke up at around 2 am local time. He went outside his house and opened his laptop to work on something. After that, Mambor went back inside to watch television at around 4 am.
Several minutes later, Mambor heard the sound of a motorcycle approaching his house. The sound of the motorcycle, said Mambor, stopped for several minutes, and then there was the sound of the motorbike leaving.
Not long after it left the bomb exploded at around 4.20 am, just after the call to morning prayers was heard. Mambor said that the explosion was very large and made his house shake.
“I heard a person start a motorcycle, an automatic motorcycle. Then the motorcycle moved off. If it’s an automatic it moves off straight away. Less than one minute after they left it exploded”, said Mambor at Tuesday’s press conference.
“The sound was very loud, I was also shocked because it wasn’t like a firecracker, or a gunshot. The sound was very close”, he added.
North Jayapura Sectoral Police Chief Senior Commissioner Jahja Rumra meanwhile said that they are conducting an investigation in order to uncover the motive behind the attack. (yla/isn)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Victor Mambor Duga Teror Bom Terkait Pemberitaan Mutilasi dan Paniai".]
