Papua. The National Police have denied allegations that officers disemboweled a Papuan detainee with a bayonet and taunted him, saying his injuries were caused by a gunshot wound sustained during a firefight.
“He was shot in a gun battle because he opted to fight rather than surrender,” police spokesman Insp. Gen Edward Aritonang said on Thursday.
“He had a homemade rifle that was loaded. Police shot him in the abdomen, which is why the film shows him with his intestines hanging out.”
The incident, which happened last year, came to light recently when a video of the dying moments of activist Yawen Wayeni circulated online.
The video shows him lying in a jungle clearing moments after the police’s Mobile Brigade, or Brimob, allegedly sliced open his abdomen with a bayonet. Edward also denied allegations that police had failed to get him medical treatment, saying that Wayeni had refused any kind of help.
“He kept shouting out ‘Free Papua’ and cussing out our officers,” he said.
“So our officers had to forcibly take him to the nearest hospital, but he died on the way.”
Wayeni was reportedly a combat instructor with the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM), which has waged a low-level war for independence since 1965. He had previously been convicted of assault and arson against a military post in Yapen-Serui district.
Edward said Wayeni had served only one year of his nine-year sentence before escaping from Serui Penitentiary.
“He was on the list of wanted fugitives in May 2009, prior to his death in August,” he added.
The video has garnered the attention of leading rights group Human Rights Watch, based in New York.
“It’s equally surreal and horrific watching as the grievously injured Yawen Wayeni answers teasing questions from uniformed Indonesian security forces about his political beliefs,” HRW deputy director Phil Robertson told The New York Times.
Edward said the video was recorded as crime scene documentation.
“Our officer recorded it to include in the body of evidence,” he said.
“But we don’t know who uploaded it onto the Internet or why they did it, since this incident occurred a year ago.”
Another police spokesman, Sr. Comr. Untung Yoga, said his office’s version of events came straight from Papua Police Chief Insp. Gen. Bekto Suprapto.
“So we can’t tell you in detail what’s going on in the video,” he said.
Indria Fernida, from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said Wayeni’s family had reported the incident to the group, which had for the past year sought justice for his death.
“No officer has been punished for this incident,” she said. “We don’t believe the story that the wound was inflicted by a bullet.”
Meanwhile, police said OPM militants killed one person and injured another in an attack on Wednesday in Puncak Jaya district.