Paniai (West Papua) Chronology: Events And Actions Of The Brimob Troops

Following the development of the situation which is happening in Paniai, with the appearance here of Brimob troops from Kelapa II in Depok in West Java, we as the Secretariat for Justice and Peace (SKP) comprised of the Committee for Justice and Peace at Dekenat, Paniai and the bishop of Timika, set out the following chronology of events:

1. Brimob troops numbering 150 have arrived from Depok and from Kalimantan, coming down to Enarotali, fully fitted out with military equipment such as is used in a war. They arrived in Enarotali by air via Trigana Air Service between Wednesday 2nd November and Saturday 5th, and now they are located in the local (new) Paniai police station at Madi. After arriving, the brimob troops did a patrol of the main road in their full military equipage as if they were in a conflict situation. This made many of the citizens of Paniai afraid and uneasy.
2. From the 5th to the 6th November 2011, Papua Police also sent Brimob troops from Jayapura, transported in four trucks and two buses from Nabire, arriving in Paniai by the Nabire/Paniai main road.
3. Meanwhile, from 6th to 7th November, the Brimob troops from Papua district who had been detailed to Enarotali were sent to Degeuwo (a gold mining area) to pacify the local gold miners via a company helicopter.
4. On Wednesday 9th November to Wednesday 16th, these Brimob troops made inspections of all the private citizens of many of the villages, from house to house, for example in Kogekotu (Enarotali), Bapouda, Ipakiye and Madi. Also, on Monday 14th November a group of police and Brimob conducted a military parade around the towns of Enarotali and Madi in twelve vehicles which were fully equipped with military weapons. In this inspection, the troops seized property belonging to citizens, such as knives, axes, adzes, saws, bows and arrows etc. They entered the homes without asking, but just knocking the doors and windows in, and stomping over all the articles in their way.
5. On Monday 21st November at 3 pm, Brimob troops entered and searched rooms in the health clinic in Madi, the main town of Paniai, causing the occupants, the employees and nurses, and the patients sheltered there to become afraid and to run away from this intrusion.
6. On Friday 25 November at 9 am, Brimob troops made a patrol all the way to Weya and to Eka. So the people around Lake Paniai hid in their homes, afraid to go out. The feeling of fear of the people of Dagouto (on the edge of Lake Paniai) grew greater because of this searching from house to house by Brimob, and in the end they seized and occupied two of the houses, namely the village hall of Dagouto and a house belonging to GKI church.
7. The next day, Saturday 26 November, the Brimob troops combed the gardens belonging to the people in the hills surrounding Dagouto. As well, they went down to Bibida and made a house to house search using two trucks on two different roads. At 10 am the Brimob troops began a house to house search of all the homes of the people of Bibida, Koleitaga and Polesugapa and Pagopugaida. After this, about 30 of the Brimob troops made a camp beside the District Office in Bibida. The same thing was done at Pasir Putih. Aboard outboard boats, they occupied the centre of the district of Pasir Putih from 9.30 am to 3.30 pm. Afterwards, 50 members of Brimob located themselves in the District Office of Pasir Putih and also at Komopa. Thus the peope of these villages, including women and children from all the areas of Ekadide, were in a state of panic, and fled the villages with their whole families.
8. The search of the housing complexes in Madi began again on Sunday 27th November at 11 am. Brimob troops made a search of all the rooms of the houses of the workers in the housing complex, and the houses of the residents in Madi and Ipakiye. So the children who were in the houses were afraid and cried. At the same time, some of the residents of the area of Eka (the villages of Dagouto, Obaiyo, Yimouto and Dei) went to the Head of Police in East Paniai at Enarotali to address this problem of the terrorising of the people, and to ask why this extreme concentration of troops was taking place. However, this request for information was not answered, but rather they went back to their villages with nothing.
9. On Monday 28th November at 7 am, Brimob troops began moving in on what they believed were groups of TPN/OPM in the area. The troops from the east, from the district of Bibida, moved to meet at the border of Eduda near the village of Pagopugaida. From the west, other troops moved from the village of Dagouto, in the district of East paniai, towards Mount Kubiyai. From the north, troops moved towards the district of Pasir Putih towards their camp at Eduda through the village of Dei. At the same time in the south, troops from Enarotali moved towards the Eduda camp with three outboard vehicles through the village of Uwamani, in the area of Wegama, in the district of East Paniai. However, there they met with the TPN/OPM troops on the edge of Weya, who came out in four directions, shooting, so that the Brimob troops returned to Enarotali. At the same time, this situation convinced the people in the area of Eka and Wegama to stay in their village square and flee from the other villages in the area of conflict.
10. On Tuesday 29 November, there was an outbreak of weapons fire. This event began after the Brimob troops had for the previous two days made camp in the village of Pagopugaida, in the district of Bibida, moving in on the TPN/OPM base which was fully armed with guns and bows and arrows, facing Brimob troops so that in the end the two sides met. However, the TPN/OPM had few real weapons, mainly bows and arrows, while they were facing heavily armed Brimob troops. So they retreated to find shelter to protect themselves, in the direction of the marshes near the village of Toko, and down the road to Madi towards the vilage of Timida. This account was validated by Janus Siregar, the Head of police at Paniai. He said that the members of Brimob who had been patrolling had been shot at by TPN/OPM from within the village of Papato. In this event, there were no casualties on either side. At the same time, the Brimob troops and the TPN/OPM fighters conducting their military engagement had caused the people from some of the villages in Eka region to retreat from where the fighting is taking place, to go and live in other villages which are far from the conflict zone.