Officer Shoots Dead Mentally Ill Teenager In Wamena

Brimob Officer Shoots Dead Mentally Ill Teenager In Wamena, Beat Witnesses

August 12, 2013

An Indonesian Brimob police officer has shot dead an unarmed mentally ill Lani youth in Wamena on Thursday, after the youth allegedly verbally ridiculed the passing heavily armed police patrol on Jalan Ahmad Yani, according to witnesses interview by West Papua Media stringers.

Irwan Janengga, also known as Irwan Wenda (18) was shot dead without verbal warning by a Brimob anti-terrorist officer from Ambon, BrikPol Lua Lusman from the Jayawijaya brigade, who was a member of a five-man patrol that encountered Janengga outside the police post, according to witnesses interviewed by human rights activists and our stringers.

According to witnesses with the initials AW and BK,  Janengga taunted the officers with nonsensical words and said, ""The plane has landed so (are) storing the goods," (referring to corruption in the police).  The five man patrol took offence to this taunting, and several members fired two warning shots from their automatic rifles without a verbal warning.  Janengga took no notice of these warning shots, according to the witnesses, and continued his "crazy talk".

As the Brimob officers were preparing to shoot Janengga, the two witnesses shouted to BrikPol Lusman, "Just ignore him, he has  nervous disorders of the brain, do not shoot him!".  Brikpol Lusman ignored this plea, and opened fire on Janengga, aiming multiple shots directly at the legs, abdomen, head and left hand of victim.  Janengga died instantly according to witnesses.

Immediately after the shooting, the 5 police officers began an unprovoked attack and beatings on the two witnesses, and arrested them with force.  They were taken then to the Jayawijaya Police HQ, where the witnesses reported to West Papua Media's stringer that they were forcefully interrogated by police, allegedly with the aim to manipulate the official witness statements of the shooting incident according to BK and AW.  Upon learning of their detention, the victims families demanded the immediate release of the witnesses a demand with which Police complied by early afternoon on Thursday.

Janengga's body was then brought by another police unit to the General Hospital in Wamena. The body of Janengga was retrieved from the hospital by his family late on Thursday afternoon, and brought to his home, where the family conducted mourning ceremonies.  At the time of publication, the victim was still unburied.

 Tiko Kogoya, the victim's aunt, told human rights workers after learning of the testimony of two witnesses after the shooting. "Our victim's family is upset over the shooting of our son."

"Our Boy, he was (with) nervous disorders of the brain, he just simply said 'why police shoot'," said Tiko Kogoya.

Tiko continued, "we the victim's family, ask that the perpetrators should be prosecuted in court, act honestly, and be punished accordingly," she said.

Footage shot by local witnesses has emerged of the aftermath of the shooting, showing local people outraged at another unprovoked killing by Indonesian forces on unarmed  indigenous Papuan citizens.

Meanwhile Ogram Wanimbo, an activist with the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) Wamena chapter, told our stringer, "The shooting that happened, it is a human rights abuse, since police shot a mentally ill young man because of a nervous breakdown in the brain.. who was sayings word without (being) conscious (of the meaning)", he said.

Ogram also said "We strongly condemn the perpetrators of the shooting, and we are annoyed by his preaching of the case in local and national media, engineering the chronology of the incident, without interviewing witnesses and families of victims... the fraudulent news does not fit the facts of incident," he said.

A human rights worker in Wamena told West Papua Media: "This shooting that was done in service of a State mission, that continues to be done, and will be done by the Indonesian invader forces, through military and police in Papua, are unlawful acts under International law, the ICCPR and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, (all of) which have been ratified into law of the Republic of Indonesia."

ENDS

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