One survivor said:
“The attack on July 6th took place in the morning, when we were under the water tower. During the initial attack the troops assembled around us in a U formation. There were Brimob police in riot gear, army troops(Kopasgad), a company of soldiers from the local Kodim barracks, as well as Navy personnel.  They formed a letter U around us and then shot at us repeatedly while we were still under the water tower.  They kept shooting, telling us to head down to the dock.  We were herded down to the dock.  So at around 6:30, I was led by two Indonesian military officers directly to a Naval Ship.  The ship has a number on its side, 534.”  Eyewitness testimony to Eben Kirksey in 2003.

 

Killings at the Water Tower

 

Shootings at the Watertower
The Water Tower

 

Andrew_Kilvert_WP_photos_1999-2000_water_tower2

Hand Drawn Map from a Survivor

 

Massacre Location Hand Drawn Map
This hand-drawn map comes from a 73 page report, “Names Without Graves, Graves Without Names,” by Elsham Papua.  The report is entirely in Indonesian as are the captions here.  Key features of the map are the Laut (Sea) and the Pelabuhan Biak (Biak Harbor) towards the top, and the Puskesmas (Health Clinic) and Menara Air (Water Tower) where the protestors were camped out in the middle and Lapangan Terbang TNI (The Military Air Base) at the bottom.  The symbols listed on the right hand side are used to illustrate the position of the Indonesian forces at the time of the attack: “oo” represents the position of a platoon of Navy Marines (Marinir TNI AL), “**” shows a company of Mobile Brigade Police (Brimob), “xx” illustrates Air Force Special Forces (Pashas TNI AU), and “///” represents one company of military troops (TNI AD).