TNI Investigate Video Of Residents Allegedly Persecuted By TNI Members In Papua

JAKARTA - The TNI investigated the contents of the video containing footage of the abuse of a man suspected of being a TNI soldier in Papua.

Video footage shows the actions of a number of men, one of whom is suspected to be soldiers, taking turns beating and molesting a man who is tied up and injured standing in a drum.

"(The persecution, ed.) was allegedly carried out by unscrupulous TNI soldiers, and the TNI is currently conducting an investigation," said Head of the Indonesian Armed Forces Information Center (Kapuspen) Maj. Gen. Nugraha Gumilar as quoted by ANTARA, Friday, March 22.

In the broadcast, one of the perpetrators is suspected of being a TNI soldier because he was wearing a T-shirt that might refer to the unit name, namely the Raider 300/Brajawijaya Infantry Battalion. The writing "300" in golden yellow is clearly printed on the chest of the Army green T-shirt.

However, so far there has been no information to justify the allegation or to state that the allegation was wrong.

Kapuspen asked the public to wait for the results of the investigation, because currently the TNI is examining in depth the contents of the video.

"All related to the video, the TNI is conducting an in-depth investigation," said Kapuspen TNI.

He promised that the TNI would announce the results if there were developments.

Meanwhile, the Head of Information for Kodam (Kapendam) XVII/Cendrawasih Lt. Col. Inf. Candra Kurnia conveyed the same information as Kapuspen, namely the TNI is still investigating the contents of the video, including the original recording of the incident or the engineering results, the perpetrators of the abuse along with their identities.

He emphasized that if the results of the examination show that the perpetrator is a soldier, then the TNI will not hesitate to punish the perpetrators.

"If it is true that the perpetrators are TNI soldiers, then the soldiers will be dealt with firmly and legally to be held accountable for their actions, because the TNI is like other institutions or institutions that also uphold the law and human rights," said Kapendam XVII/Cendrawasih in a written broadcast uploaded to the Instagram account of Kodam XVII/Cendrawasih @kodam17, Friday.