Compiled and Presented by:

Indonesian Evangelical Church (GKII), Mimika, Irian Jaya (West Papua); Catholic Church, Three Kings Parish, Timika; Christian Evangelical Church of Mimika, Irian Jaya (West Papua)

Timika, May 1998

SUMMARY

From Bela and Alama, located some 150 kilometers to the east of Tembagapura, officials and members of the Gereja Kemah Injil Indonesia (GKII, the major Protestant church in Irian Jaya (West Papua)) report that between December 1996 and October 1997, sixteen people became victims of human rights violations during military operations. Thirteen of the victims were from Bela and Alama, two were from Jila and the others were from Mapnduma. Eleven of the victims were shot and killed; two "disappeared"; and three sustained injuries. In the same military operations, in which military forces were not only tasked with crushing the Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka or OPM) but with securing the "vital project" of PT Freeport Indonesia Inc. (PTFI), the troops burned 13 church buildings in 13 different hamlets, 166 homes, and 29 rumah bujang or "men's houses," a traditional structure.

The human rights violations occurred after an operation to free a group of researchers from the World Wildlife Fund (Team Lorentz '95) who were taken hostage by a group of OPM led by Kelly Kwalik and Daniel Yudak Kogoya. The operation, led by units of the Army Special Forces (Kopassus); Infantry Battalion 753 from Paniai; Infantry Battalion 752 from Sorong; and Infantry Battalion 751 from Jayapura, resulted in the flight of people living in the Bela and Alama valley. They fled out of fear to caves and to the forests surrounding Bela and Alama, as well as Ilaga. They felt they had to flee to protect themselves because in the course of the military operation, the troops had shot both people and their animals (pigs, chickens and dogs), burned their homes, and burned the churches of the GKII.

In the course of this operation, a man was shot in Wajitagala in December 1996; another in March 1997 on the banks of the river Mokogom; and another in April 1997 on the banks of the river Tomogong. Six people were shot dead in May 1997, and another was killed in Mapnduma in October 1997. With respect to the bodies of these victims, six were simply covered with leaves and later found by their families and buried, while four others were buried by the military. In addition to these shooting victims, two civilians were declared missing, and two others were wounded.

The people who were shot were civilians returning to their gardens near their hamlets to gather food, such as yams and corn, since they had run out of food in the places where they had sought refuge. The lack of food had made them weak and vulnerable to disease, with the result that 15 people died while displaced. The physical weakness of this population was still visible after they had left their hiding places and returned home. Eighteen more people died of illness after returning around December 1997.

The rate of death has tended to rise over the last three months. Between January and March 1998, 28 people died in three hamlets, Tagalarema (19); Ningimtagalao (6); and Onimogom (3). The total number of those who died in five other hamlets in Bela and four in Alama is not known. The last report received from Bela in April 1998 stated that 65 others had died. The deaths of those who died during and after their flight were caused by general weakness as a result of insufficient food and hunger linked to the military operations in the hamlets of Bela, Alama, and Jila.

The Indonesian armed forces also burned 13 churches: eight in Bela and five in Alama; and burned 166 homes: 66 in Bela and 100 in Alama. Of the 29 men's houses destroyed, 17 were in Bela and 12 in Alama. The military also destroyed one traditional meeting house and two health clinics (puskesmas) and took one SSB (single side band) radio.

Given these grave human rights violations, we request the government, through the National Commission on Human Rights (KOMNAS HAM) and other relevant parties to:

1. Open the affected areas so that the churches and other social institutions can channel food aid and medical supplies to help overcome the famine and disease that have struck our people in Bela, Alama, Jila, Nggeleselema, Mapnduma, and other hamlets in the area of the southern part of the Central Highlands.

2. Send a fact-finding team to investigate and publicly announce and disseminate findings about human rights violations and other problems in Bela, Alama, Mapnduma, and other areas, linked to military operations following the rescue of the hostages. The southern part of the Central Highlands was the main target of those operations.

3. Investigate and punish, in accordance with existing law, the perpetrators of human rights violations and those responsible for the policies which led to the commission of human rights violations in the area.

4. Undertake to calm the fears and create a sense of peace among the people of Bela, Alama, Ngeselema, Mapnduma and other hamlets in the region that have up until now been the targets of military operations.

5. Withdraw military forces which up until now have been responsible for operations in the area in order to create the atmosphere mentioned above in the areas of Bela, Alama, Ngeselema, Mapnduma and other hamlets in the region.

INTRODUCTION

From the end of the hostage rescue drama in the hamlet of Ngeselema in the Central Highlands of Irian Jaya (West Papua) on May 15, 1996 until now, there have been disturbing reports about abuses experienced by civilian occupants of Jila, Bela, Alama, Ngeselema, Jigi, Mugi, Mapnduma and other hamlets in connection with the presence of troops from the Armed Forces of Indonesia (ABRI) to crush the OPM as well as to protect the "vital national project" of PT Freeport Indonesia.

That presence was marked by the number of military posts built from the time the hostage crisis broke out in January 1996 until the present, beginning in Port Site, Timika along the main road of PT Freeport Indonesia up to Tembagapura and the villages of Banti, Arwanop, Tsinga, Howea, Jila, Bela and Alama, Jigi and Mugi, Ngeselema, and Mapnduma.

There are accounts of how frightened people in the area became because of the military operations, to the point that many residents of different hamlets in the Bela, Alama and Mapnduma valleys fled to the forests and to other hamlets for safety. More than 1,000 civilians from 23 GKII congregations in the area left their homes to hide in the forests and mountain caves, or to flee to other areas that they felt were more secure Some were reported to have fled to Eralmakawia, Jila, some 130 kilometers to the east of Tembagapura, while others fled to the ethnic Nduga area in the east, and still others sought refuge in the subdistrict of Ilaga, Paniai, as well as in Timika and Tembagapura in Mimika district.

Reports abound of the destruction of people's gardens and animals, and there are also accounts of a significant number of killings of the people themselves. There are also widespread reports of the burnings of churches and homes as well as the looting of property of local residents.

Local people whom army troops managed to gather in hamlets were tightly guarded. No matter where they went, they had to obtain a travel permit signed by security officials, making it difficult for them to go to their gardens or hunt.

People relayed their experiences in a number of different ways, through oral accounts directly from eyewitnesses or victims, sometimes via letters, sometimes through poetry and songs. These accounts shocked us but at the same time made us very concerned about the people who had suffered so, all the more so because we felt almost powerless to help; because the areas involved were so remote, it was difficult to get there to investigate what had happened almost two years earlier.

But no matter how difficult, we could not stay silent. Our hearts were moved by the fate of our brothers and sisters. With all the limitations, we tried to the best of our abilities to find out more precisely what had happened.

As is well-known, these incidents affected people who for the most part are members both of the Gereja Kemal Injil Indonesia and of a representative council of the Amungme people known as LEMASA (Lembaga Musyawarah Adat Suku Amungme).2Our team undertook three research missions to the village of Bela and Alama in subdistrict Ilaga, Paniai district, about 150 km to the east of the town of Tembagapura and to Mapnduma subdistrict in Jayawijaya district.

The first mission took place from August 23 to September 9, 1997, the second from December 1997 to February 1998, and the third during the second half of April 1998. The delay in undertaking field research resulted from problems of transport and communication as well as the tight security system of the armed forces in the area.

During the first mission, the team left from Timika to Ilaga. From Ilaga the team spent two weeks walking over hills and valleys, scaling cliffs and crossing traditional hanging bridges to get across rivers to meet and interview witnesses and collect evidence. To add to and verify the findings of the first mission, two teams were sent to the area to collect information about the incidents and identities of witnesses. One of these teams worked from December 1997 to February 1998 while the other team was on mission during the third and fourth weeks of April 1998.

The result of the investigation has helped us enormously in drafting this report. The emphasis in the contents is on when and where incidents of human rights violations took place. We have not mentioned the names of the witnesses in order to protect their safety.

II. The Full Report

A. Those Killed by Shooting

1. Marthen Kemong (16 years old) Since the clean-up operations after the release of the hostages began in May 1996, the Kemong family had fled, hiding out in a cave in Bulumaungin, near Bela. To check whether their hamlet of Wajitagala, near Bela, was safe or not, Marthen and two friends left their refuge in Bulumaungin on December 18, 1996, with the intention of going to Wajitagala. But when they got to the garden there, they encountered troops who were conducting an operation. Marthen Kemong, the eldest child, was in front walking along a log, followed by his two friends. One end of the log was outside the fence of the garden, the other end was inside the fence. Marthen and his two friends had stepped on the part that was outside the fence, while some soldiers were on the other end in the garden. After getting on the log, one of the friends saw the soldiers with their rifles cocked ready to shoot. Gesturing to his friends to run to avoid getting shot, the friends ran to the side of the path to escape the hail of gunfire in front of them. From their hiding place, the friends heard a cry of "Get them!" from the soldiers. They ran from the military trap toward higher land.

Marthen Kemong also tried to get out of the way by running to an overgrown area to hide. But he couldn't get out because he was caught in the vegetation. The troops, who were part of the "Deermouse Group" (Kelompok Kancil), were alerted to the presence of the victim and shot him as he emerged.

From their hiding place higher up, Marthen's companions, who escaped the attack, saw the victim dragged across the log. The two did not know for sure what the military was doing. They only heard the sound of several shots. Then the victim was brought to the cliff and tossed over.

The next day, the two went back to the place where the incident had occurred. After reaching there, they saw that troops were still present, so they returned to their hiding place. On the second day, they stopped their efforts to find the body because soldiers were still around. Only on the fifth day were they able to search because the soldiers had moved on to another location. They went down to the base of the cliff and there they found the victim's head. They carried it while looking for the rest of his body. It turned out the body was lying on top of some tree branches and had already begun to decompose. Because they could not reach the body, the two buried the head near the tree where Marthen's body was.

2. Zakari Katagame (14 years old) Because of the military operations, civilians in the hamlet of Tagalarama were afraid and left their homes to seek refuge in Igiliponop, in Bela. But because there was no food, Zakari Katagame, 14, together with three friends went out from their hiding place to their gardens in Tagalarama.

After taking some sweet potatoes and corn, they returned, but out of hunger, they decided to rest in a small honai (traditional house) in Mongkogom while cooking the sweet potatoes that they had taken. At that moment, some Indonesian soldiers from the Kopassus post in Nigimtagalaok were conducting operations not far away and saw the smoke rising from the honai in Mongkogom. They went to set a trap for their target. Zakari and one of his companions were sitting on a log outside their house, while his mother and brothers were cooking in the honai. When they saw the soldiers coming, they panicked and began to shout. Hearing their cries, the troops immediately opened fire, firing indiscriminately in the direction of the two victims from a distance of about 15 meters. Zakari Katagame was hit in the head with the hot lead, while his friend escaped and ran toward the house where the others were. He called to them, telling them to leave at once because they were being attacked.

The soldiers kept advancing, keeping their guns at the ready to shoot at Zakari's friend. With amazing energy, the friend was able to jump past the troops, but he fell and got tangled up in the branches of a tree. He scrambled to try and extricate himself. Another friend ran to help and managed to break up some of the branches. The two men then ran in a zigzag fashion and were able to hide in the vegetation, escaping a stream of bullets from the soldiers.

Hearing the gunfire, Barnabas Katagame, the father of Zakari, together with two other relatives, Moses and Karolus Deikme, who were not far away at the time, came to the place that Zakari was shot, carrying a number of flyers distributed by the army, exhorting people to return home because the situation was now safe. Along the way they ran into the same troops who had shot Zakari. (They didn't know at the time that these were the same soldiers). When they showed the soldiers the flyers, they were allowed to pass and thus escaped being killed.

Barnabas Katagame was asked by the same troops who had just killed his son to go to Nigimtagalaok where the army had persuaded some of the displaced people to come down from their hiding places in the caves and forest. They were then put up by local church officials. At the same time, Moses and Karolus Deikme were ordered by the troops to go and get their relatives who were still in hiding and bring them to the "safe" area of Nigimtagalaok.

In Nigimtagalaok, Barnabas Katagame heard from someone involved in an army auxiliary unit called Tenaga Bantuan Operasi (TBO) that Kopassus had killed his son. That night, Barnabas and ten of his friends managed to escape from the tight guard of the troops and go out to look for their relatives. From his second wife, Rosa Wauwapelik Mom and Peni Balineming, who had escaped the gunfire, he was able to confirm that indeed his son, Zakari Katagame, had been killed by the troops.

Barnabas and his relatives were extremely angry and confused. They went out to collect Zakari's body, bring it back to Nigimtagalaok, and protest to the military: "Why do you soldiers give out flyers to the people hiding in the jungle and mountains telling them to go back home because it's safe? In fact, after we gather together, other troops come and kill innocent people just like that. It's behavior like this that makes the people of the ten churches in the upper part of Bela run away so that to this day we don't know what's happened to them." But hearing this, a Kopassus soldier showed his gun to Barnabas and said in an arrogant way, "For us, the people from two churches who have already come back and gathered here is enough for us. As for the others still in hiding in the caves or forest, we will search for them with the barrel of our rifles."

According to the witnesses, the protest against the killing of Zakari Katagame took place in March 1997, during a time when there was tension between the Kopassus unit, and its commander named Jai, who is strongly suspected of the murder, and the troops of KODAM VIII Trikora, Infantry Battalion 753. Because they were unhappy with Kopassus actions, the troops of battalion 753 left that day to return to their post in Jila.

3. Ter Balinol (38 years old) In April 1997, Ter Balinol and his wife, Murip Kwalik, who were hiding in a cave near the hamlet of Terowi left for the hamlet of Pusikama in Bela to visit Murip's family in Kingewun. Along the way, Murip was walking in front, followed by her husband. When the couple reached the Tomogong River (between the rivers Belogong and Alamogong) Ter Balinol, who was walking behind, was shot by troops who were conducting operations in the area. According to the wife of the victim, they did not pay any attention to her as a woman walking in front. Ter Balinol, who had two wives, Murip Kwalik and Agnes Pinimet and was the father of Otje Balinol (son) and Ozeana Balinol (daughter), died on the spot. Murip ran toward her parents' house in Pusikama to tell them about the bloody incident. But because they were afraid, they did not return immediately to the place where Ter was shot. It was only a few weeks later that they went back and found the decomposing body. The body was just left there by the troops. The family dug a grave and buried Ter Balinol not far from the site.

4-5. Ninuor Kwalik (50 years old) and Daugunme Kwalik (12 years old) Around May 1997, Ninuor Kwalik, 50, and Daugunme Kwalik, 12, were shot and killed by the military outside a military post when they were acting as lookouts while two of their relatives took food that the army had left inside the post.

Witnesses recounted the incident as follows. That day, Ninuor Kwalik and Daugunme Kwalik wanted to go out to their garden to get food, because they were very hungry in their hiding place in Daugin. Before reaching the garden, they passed a military post that seemed "empty" although it was full of food such as rice, instant noodles, and so on.

According to the witness, they did not know that the troops had simply left the food in the post while they went out and built a shelter, but they were continuing to watch the post the whole time. When they saw so much food, they cancelled their plans to go to their gardens. Instead, they returned to their hiding place and asked two relatives to go with them to help carry some of it away.

While the relatives were collecting the food, Ninuor and Daugunme were acting as lookouts for the military. But alas, it seems that the military had detected them, and the two victims died in a hail of gunfire. The two relatives had been collecting the food and heard a noise, but they thought it was only a tree branch breaking so they did not give it any thought. When they heard the gunfire, though, they were able to escape.

About three weeks later, when the troops had moved to another area, some people who had been hiding in Kolwonop, about two hours by foot from Alama, wanted to go to Alama to get food because of the shortages where they were. A witness we interviewed, who was passing then in front of an army post, saw two suspicious-looking rectangular places on the ground. He went closer, then began to dig. As he was digging, he smelled something rotten, then a human hand appeared, the skin of which had begun to come off. Since he had found one victim, he began to dig in the other place, and sure enough, he found the other victim whose corpse had also begun to decompose. He then told his relatives what he had found, and the news reached the two witnesses to the killing. They recognized that the corpses were those of Ninuor and Daugunme who had been shot by the military some time earlier. The witness said the graves were still there in front of the army post in Alama and were still being guarded by troops.

6. Marinus Deikmom (16 years old) A week after the death of Zakari Katagame, Marinus Deikmom, together with seven friends, left his hiding place in Kwalem, Bela to go to his garden near his home in Agap-Agap. They were hungry, and they also wanted to observe a day of giving thanks.

After arriving in Agap-agap, they first checked the plants by the side of their houses that they had abandoned since the military occupation began, then they went to see if there were troops in the area. After checking, Marinus Deikmom said he was going to check once again outside the fence around his home. (The houses of the indigenous inhabitants of the Central Highlands and the Baliem Valley are usually surrounded by a kind of fence to protect the occupants and plants from pigs and other animals.) A witness said that as soon as Marinus had gone outside the fence, the military opened fire. Marinus, an innocent civilian, died instantly.

Seeing this, his relatives panicked and looked for a way out. A witness who was able to escape said that after the victim was shot, his body was dragged some 15 meters from the fence, then covered with leaves and grasses. The witness thought this incident happened in about May 1997.

7. Ikadius Deikmom (20 years) On May 28, 1997, Ikadius Deikmom and Manus Balinol, his brother-in-law, were shot at by troops at the edge of their garden in the hamlet of Onyimogom, Bela. At that moment, Ikadius Deikmom and Manus were observing the situation to see if the army was around. They did not know that they were being watched by soldiers who were nearby, eating. A gun was aimed at the head of the first victim and went off. Ikadius Deikmom was hit in the forehead in a way that blew off his head and he died immediately. Seeing this, Manus Balinol threw himself backward and headed for a kind of ditch The soldiers let off a burst of gunfire but the bullets hit nearby trees, and Manus was not hit.

According to the witness, the body of the victim was covered with leaves from a sweet potato plant (ubi jalar) and guarded by troops for about a week. As soon as the troops left, Manus went and buried the victim at the edge of a garden belonging to several families from the hamlet of Onyimogom, Bela. (See Photo 3).

8. Henok Mulugol (50 years old) Henok Mulugol, 50, was shot by troops in his garden in Norama-augin, upstream of the river Alamogong. He had gone there with his wife because there was no more food at the place in which he and his family were hiding. After getting what he needed, Henok ordered his wife to go home first to cook, because he wanted to clear some of the trees around his garden.

On her way back to the hiding place, his wife heard the sound of gunfire. When she reached her family, she told them what she had heard and asked relatives to go back and check on the whereabouts of her husband. But it was already dark, so the family did not go out. The next day, however, very early in the morning, three youths ran to the garden of Henok, their chief.

In the garden they saw the corpse of Henok Mulugol covered with grass. They realized their chief had been shot in the head, so that the eyes and ears of Henok were totally destroyed. They also said that the body seemed to be covered with stab wounds. The body of Henok was then buried by his family in his own garden.

9. Wewe Amisim (39 years old) In May 1997, Wewe Amisim and Melkianus Balinol went to get food from their garden that they had left behind when they were displaced. When they arrived at the edge of the Amokonomon River, they saw several soldiers who immediately opened fire on the two. They ran for cover, but after running several kilometers, they paused because Wewe Amisim who had been shot in the back, piercing his chest, was not strong enough to run further. He ordered Melkianus Balinol to keep on going to save himself and gave him a knife as a memento. He told Melkianus, "If I do not return tomorrow, come and look for my body in the cave over there." The two then parted. Melkianus, whose arm had been shot when he raised his hands to surrender, ran to their hiding place and told others there of what had happened. They decided to move to another location because troops were already closing in on their hiding place.

The next day, after Wewe did not return, a group went with Melkianus to search for him in the place where the incident had happened. There they found the body of Wewe Amisim. He had been shot in the stomach and chest, and the body was covered with flies. They carried away the body and later buried it near the Amokong River.

10. Pastor Wenesobuk Nggiwijangge (48 years) On Sunday, October 12, 1997, about 9 a.m., Pastor Wenesobuk, a leader of a congregation in Gilpid, was leading the worship service there. About 12:00 p.m., he left the church and arrived home about one hour later. There, he began to bake sweet potatoes. After putting the sweet potatoes in the ashes, he asked his family to watch the sweet potatoes and told them to be sure to take them out when they were ready He said he was going to check on a trap he had set some time earlier near the Pinigi River to catch tree kangaroo (kus-kus). He also wanted to get rattan to build a fence around his house to protect it from pigs who often went in and out of the yard of the honai, where he lived. He left between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m.

Before he arrived at the river, he ran into two soldiers who detained him. It appears he was not immediately shot, because near the place he was captured, there were footprints indicating he had struggled to get away. It seems likely that it was when he was trying to escape from his army captors that he was shot, he was thrown in a pit about 10-12 meters deep. When he had been shot the first time, the sound was not too clear. The second and third times, the sound was quite loud and everyone in Gilpid heard it clearly. The shots were also heard by the people on the Mapnduma side of the Nggul River who were just coming back from church in Mapnduma Piet Nggwijangge, a member of the village government of Mapnduma, was among those who heard the gunfire.

After waiting until about 5:00 p.m., five people from Gilpid, including the pastor's son, Elinus Nggiwijangge, went to look for Wenesobuk, knowing that he had gone to check his kus-kus trap. On the way they saw a military camp in the middle of the forest around Gilpid. One of the soldiers called out, "Where are you going?" One of the family members replied, "Our father came here today but has not returned. We want to look for him." The soldiers said, "We didn't see anyone pass this way, maybe he went somewhere else." But the five people knew he would have passed by the path they were on and they redoubled their efforts to look for Wenesobuk. The soldiers asked, "What color was his shirt?" The five said it was black, and he was also wearing black shorts. The soldiers let them pass but told them they might meet up with two more soldiers in the forest.

Then, as the five were climbing toward the forest, they found the footprints, as well as an army boot. They also saw drops of blood and traces of someone's having been dragged downhill. They followed the trail and not much further on, as they were beginning to descend, they found the two soldiers, one of whom was named Ali, the other whose name they could not recall. The men appeared to be working at something. The soldiers seemed startled and frightened as the five appeared and said, "What are you doing here?" One of the five said, "We're looking for our father." But the two soldiers threatened the group, saying unless they should leave, and unless they went elsewhere, they would be shot. Because it was getting dark, the family went back to Gilpid.

On their way back, they passed the same military camp that they had gone by earlier. The soldiers said, "Tomorrow, you cannot come by here between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. and if you do, we'll consider you OPM and shoot you. You have to come after 8:00."

On Monday, October 13, around 6:00 a.m., Elinus, Wenesobuk's second-eldest son, went to the Kopassus post (from the Tribuana IX group) in Mapnduma to ask for a travel pass (surat jalan).3 Before reaching the post, Elinus stopped at the house of Pastor Zakheus Lokmbere, regional head of the GKII church in Mapnduma, and Pastor Zakheus asked him, "Why do you want to get a travel pass?" Elinus said his father had been shot by the military in the forest and he needed a pass to search for his father. Pastor Zakheus then went with him to meet the Kopassus commander, Second Lt. Uco. When they arrived at the post, Lt. Uco told them they did not need a pass, they could just go ahead and he would contact the military camp in the area. Hearing this, Elinus went home to Gilpid.

There they collected a group of about 200 people, led by Pastor Barok Kogoya and two evangelists, Yosias Nggwijangge and Yopi Nggwijangge, and together they left to look for Wenesobuk. They divided themselves into two large groups of men and women and started their search at about 7:00 a.m. When they arrived at the military camp in Gilpid, they found it had been torn down. They then came upon signs of violence where two soldiers had dragged Wenesobuk after killing him from the banks of the river to the edge of a cliff where he would not be seen by anyone. There were also signs that they had tried to bury the body there but could not because there were so many rocks and wood debris. So they dragged him back and dug in a second place but that did not work either, so finally they dragged the body back to the banks of the Pinigi River. When the body was exhumed, there was not even a thread of clothing on it.

The body was covered in wounds as though a sharp object had been used to cut open his forehead, temples, arm, and lower legs as well as to break his jawbone and spine. In addition, he had been shot about eight to ten cm to the left of his spine. The bullets had hit the lower right-hand part of his ribcage, breaking two ribs and leaving a wound of about five cm.

To cover any traces of the killing left on rocks or earth, the soldiers had tried to cover up the marks using an army boot. But the people had gone after them, shouting, so that the soldiers were afraid and dragged the body to the mouth of the Pitano River. Because there was sand there, the soldiers tried to hide the body by digging a grave for Wenesobuk.

But not all of the body could be buried. Part of it was wrapped in black plastic, then buried and covered over with sand. Then a few large rocks were placed on top.

When they saw the rocks, the people knew they marked the body of Wenesobuk Nggiwijangge. In the end, the people dug up the body and brought it back to Gilpid.

When they arrived there, the people wanted to cremate the body, but the village head of Mugi, Alex Nirigi and church leaders, together with people from Mapnduma, sent a message asking that it not be cremated. The people must bring it to Mapnduma so that the soldiers who were still in Mapnduma could see the results of their work. The body was then brought to Mapnduma around 2:00pm, two days and one night after the search had begun.

As soon as the body had arrived in Mapnduma, all the people, including Lt Uco, commander of the Kopassus post Tribuana IX and one of his men named Soekirman, came and saw the body. The two officers were silent.

After this the church officials and indigenous leaders began to speak: "We have always tried to meet the needs of every unit of the armed forces that entered this area, with anything that was available. We have given you chickens, pigs, rabbits and vegetables. We fulfilled almost all of your requests. But you felt that the livestock, chickens, pigs, rabbits and other things we gave you were not enough. You wanted human lives. You wanted the life of a servant of Christ, but we didn't want to surrender it to you. Now a calamity has struck. We have lost a church leader who worked in this area giving direction and guidance to the people. We can't do anything. We are little people, ignorant people." After that, the people left.

Then the indigenous leaders and church officials told the others, "The deaths of human beings are not all the same. Some die because of illness. Some drown in the river. Some are buried by landslides or floods. And Wenesobuk's death was as you see here." Then the crowd dispersed. Around 4:00 p.m., the people gathered wood and cremated the corpse but before they did so, they had the body examined.

Two days later, on October 16, 1997, a man named Heru, commander of the local post of infantry battalion 751, called church leaders, medical officers, and indigenous leaders to the post. He told them that his men had found the body in the road and that to prevent dogs and pigs from getting at it, they had buried it. He asked that those gathered not spread the word that Wenesobuk had been killed by the military but that he had died naturally. He repeated his request several times.

This caused some of those invited to say, "The chickens that we gave to Kopassus and to Battalions 751 and 752 were not chickens but the souls of human beings that we turned over to you to guard and protect. But we will later see together who is cut up and eaten and who is protected." The army then asked the group to drink together, then everyone went home.

After this incident, troops from Battalion 751were recalled to Timika using a military helicopter.

11. Tepias Aim (22 years old)

In March 1998, Tepias Aim and his uncle were invited by three soldiers to shoot birds in the forest near the hamlet of Amongkonop, in the village of Jila. The uncle escaped from the trap of the soldiers who were part of the Rajawali forces, but Tepias Aim to this day has not returned to his home. It is strongly suspected that Tepias was shot dead. This suspicion is based on the testimony of witnesses given below.

Testimony of Elias Aim

In March 1998, the head of subdistrict Akimuga, Drs. Willem Farissa, together with two people, one of his staff members from Kaimana and another person named Yohanes Piligame, a teacher-in-training for Jila, his own village, approached us in the village of Amongkonop. After the subdistrict chief and his group visited other areas, ABRI troops from the Rajawali team came into Amonkonop.

Several days after they arrived, Tepias Aim (my nephew) and I (Elias) were invited by three soldiers from the Rajawali team to look for birds in the forest. We went into the forest and arrived at a kind of shelter we had made to use when we went to look for frogs. One of the three soldiers looked around at the contents of the shelter. After doing so, he said that there were no OPM around but they would spend the night in the shelter because there was a fire. In fact, I saw no trace of any fire in the shelter.

I was separated there from Tepias. Tepias was guarded by one soldier, while I was asked to go with two other soldiers who were armed. After walking a ways from the shelter, one of the soldiers guarding me ordered me to squat and face in his direction, as his frie