Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA News) - Papua Police Chief Inspector General Tommy Yacobus said he guaranteed that Security agencies in the region would do nothing the academic community including students as well as people needed to fear in the wake of the bloody Abepura invcident.
Five security officers were killed and many more injured in the clash between security troops and anti-Freeport demonstrators in Abepura last March 16.
"All students, members of the academic community of Cendrawasih University or other institutes of higher learning and the people at large can engage in their normal activities as usual and should not be influenced by rumour about door-to-door police raids. There will be no more police raids or other kinds of pressure by the security agencies. We gurantee it," Yacobus said on Monday.
He called on students and other people who were still hiding at homes or in the forests to return to their dormitories or homes and resume their normal actvities.
Many students and ordinary people had reportedly gone into hiding after police launched sweeps in the area around the scene of the March 16 incident to look for the perpetrators of the violence. Later, police announced 16 people had been declared suspects in the case.
Yacobus also offered his apologies to the Cendrawasih University (Uncen) rector for his men`s rude actions in the sweeps that damaged certain facilities at the university`s dormitories following the riot.
Prof Dr Bert Kambuaya, the Cendrawasih University rector, said the university had suffered a material loss of Rp300-Rp500 million due to the police actions.
But police had later rehabilitated some of the damaged facilities, he added.
Meanwhile, commenting on reports that a number of Papuan students had sought asylum in neighboring Papua New Guinea (PNG), Yacobus said he had no information on it.
According to the reports, nine Papuan students had asked for asylum in neighbouring PNG claming they were wanted by Indonesian police for their alleged involvement in the March 16 riot.
From Yogyakarta it was reported that tens of students from Papua and some activists staged a peaceful rally in front of the Yogyakarta Post Office, urging the authorities to stop their operations to arrest people believed involved in the Abepura incident.
They also called for the withdrawal of non-organic Indonesian military troops from Papua for the closure of PT Freeport Indonesia`s mining operations in Papua. (*)
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