Chief Pvt. M. Taufik Bilak of the Timka Cavalry Detachment III was killed when the armored combat vehicle he was driving overturned at Mile 43 of the copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia (PT FI) in Timika, Papua, at 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
The ill-fated vehicle was carrying six people, three soldiers including the driver and three civilians.
Spokesman
of the Cenderawasih Military District Command Col. Ali Hamdan Bogra
confirmed the incident, but had no detailed information as of Tuesday
afternoon.
“There was an incident, but no details are available yet,” Ali Hamdan said.
M.
Taufik died after being evacuated to the nearby Kuala Kencana clinic,
while First Pvt. Arifin was tranferred from the clinic to Mitra
Masyarakat Hospital having sustained fracture to his wrist. Second Pvt.
Dimas was also slightly injured.
M. Taufik’s body will be flown to Situbondo, East Java, for burial.
“We’re still meeting. We’ll check the condition of others,” Ali Hamdan said.
Ali
Hamdan said of the three civilians, who were employees of PT FI,
Jonatan Mansawan sustained head injuries; Rudi Irianto slight injuries
on his right temple and Achmad Saiful was injured on his head and face.
Meanwhile,
a spokesman for PT Freeport Ramdani Sirait expressed condolences to the
family of the dead soldier and also hoped for a speedy recuperation by
those injured in the incident.
“PT FI expresses regret at the
incident which caused one death and expresses condolences to the
victim’s family members and hopes for the immediate recovery of those
injured,” Ramdani said in an SMS message to The Jakarta Post.
Ramdani
further said that the authorities had been on the location to
investigate the cause of the incident with the full support and
cooperation of PT FI.