By Erlina Fury – March 26th, 2022
Jakarta, Gatra.com – The case of three Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) who died at the Ramil Gome Post, Puncak, Papua on January 27th, 2022, has a long tail. The Commander, General Andika Perkasa said there was an alleged insubordination of the company commander who ordered his members to secure sand mining activities in his area.
The director of the Imparsial agency, Gufron Mabruri, assessed that Andika's move to ask his staff to thoroughly investigate the case and prohibit the soldiers from being involved in securing businesses was a positive thing. However, this step is not enough if it is not accompanied by an evaluation of security policies, especially regarding the involvement of the military in Papua.
"It is important to note that the death of three soldiers while carrying out security for the sand mining business last January cannot be separated from the chaotic policy of military operations in Papua, which opens up the potential for irregularities in the apparatus in the field," Gufron said in a written statement to Gatra,
In the context of investigating the case of the apparatus' involvement, Gufron said that the steps taken should not only target violations of commando orders, but on potential criminal offences.
Gufron gave examples, including gratuities to negligence which caused the soldier losses. This becomes important to provide a shaker or deterrence effect for the rest of them.
"In addition, investigation efforts must not stop at the United Commander alone. The investigation of other parties who may be involved, including the commander himself and the sand miner, must also be carried out," he said.
Gufron said this case shows that the TNI involvement in the mining business in Papua is true. Recently, the Clean Indonesia! Coalition also reported military activity related to the extractive mining investment project in Intan Jaya.
However, instead of being taken seriously by the government, the report was instead responded by determining Fatia and Haris Azhar, two human rights activists who voiced the results of the report, as suspects.
“We consider the case of the involvements in securing the sand business to show the importance for the government to evaluate security policies in Papua. So far, the issue of accountability for security policies in Papua, particularly regarding the military's involvement in various military operations, has never been a serious concern of the government," he said.
The government must also review the basis for the existence of military operations in Papua. Bearing in mind that military operations in Papua are not carried out during wartime through the designation of Papua as a Military Operations Area (DOM) but are carried out during peacetime.
In addition, Gufron sees that the legal basis for military operations in Papua is also problematic. Article 7 paragraph (3) of Law no. 34 of 2004 concerning the TNI requires that both military operations for war (OMP) and military operations other than war (OMSP) must be based on state political decisions.
Meanwhile, referring to the explanation of Article 5 of the TNI Law, what is meant by state political policies and decisions are the government's political policies together with the Indonesian Board of Representatives (DPR), which are formulated through a working relationship mechanism between the government and the DPR such as consultation meetings and working meetings so far. there never was.
Imparsial urged President Joko Widodo to evaluate all military operations in Papua, by first ordering the TNI Commander to withdraw non-organic troops from Papua.
That aside, Imparsial also urges the DPR to summon the President and the Commander to account for all military operations in Papua so far and carry out their authority in accordance with Article 7 paragraph (3) in conjunction with Article 5 of Law no. 34 of 2004 concerning the TNI.
English (UK) 
Bahasa Indonesia