The body of First Brig. Ronald Sopamena, a police officer from the Mobile Brigade who was killed on Tuesday by unidentified gunmen while on a routine patrol in the area of PT Freeport Indonesia in Timika, Papua, will be sent Wednesday to Ternate, North Maluku, to be buried.
“Papua Police chief Ins. Gen. Bigman L. Tobing will lead the farewell ceremony in Timika, after which the body will be flown to Ternate via Makassar [South Sulawesi],” Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Wachyono told the press in Jayapura on Wednesday.
Sopamena has been bestowed with a posthumous honor by the police department with a rise in rank to Brigadier.
He was the third victim to have been killed in the Freeport mining area this year. Early January, two employees of PT Kuala Pelabuhan Indonesia, a Freeport contractor, Thomas Bagensa and Nasyum Simapoiref, were shot and set ablaze inside their vehicle at Mile 51. (swd)