Four protesters, identified as AS, RAM, JD, and RM, are under police custody for questioning, Keerom Police Chief Adjunct Sen. Coms. Joko Mujiono told ANTARA that contacted him from Jayapura, the capital of Papua Province, on Friday.
Police investigators interrogated the four to unearth their involvement in the Arso unrest that broke out following the announcement of results of the recent civil servant recruitment test that might have triggered a sense of disappointment among several local residents.
Currently, a sense of normalcy has been restored in the town, though 400 police personnel are still stationed there as a precautionary measure against any unwanted eventuality, he stated.
Mujiono clarified that his men had fired warning shots and tear gas to disperse a crowd, armed with machetes and arrows, blockading a Trans-Papua road section, as the people had also attacked the police officers with stones.
"The warning shots and tear gas are fired to disperse the crowd, so that the Trans-Papua road section can again become accessible," he stated.
Several hundred people in Arso Kota, Keerom District, staged a violent protest. Some protesters, disappointed with the results of a recent civil servant recruitment test, set ablaze two local government buildings.
The ravaged buildings belong to the district administration's Workforce Office and Empowerment of Rural Community.
Violent protests have repeatedly erupted in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua over the past two years.
Last year, Papua and West Papua had come under the radar of both Indonesian and foreign media after a spate of violence broke out in several parts of these two Indonesian provinces in August and September 2019.
On August 28, 2019, violence erupted in Deiyai District, some 500 kilometers away from Jayapura, resulting in the deaths of an army soldier and two civilians.
The indigenous Papuan residents of Jayapura again held protests on August 29, 2019, as they vented their ire over the alleged racist behavior against their Papuan compatriots in Surabaya, but their rally then turned violent.
On September 23, 2019, a deadly riot had erupted in Wamena, the capital city of Jayawijaya District, Papua Province, killing 33 civilians, including a senior medical doctor, who had served the native Papuans for 15 years.
Meanwhile, on September 23, 2020, several youths staged a rally for discontinuation of the special autonomy status granted to Papua and West Papua in Timika, the capital of Mimika District, Papua Province.
Indonesian police officers in Mimika District dismissed claims of having cracked down on them. "The allegations are completely groundless," Head of the Mimika Police Precinct's Criminal Investigation Unit Adjunct Sen. Coms. Hermanto stated.
Hermanto refuted allegations by several individuals that police personnel had physically abused protesters while clarifying that the police officers, assisted by several military personnel, were instead attacked by them.
"They pelted stones at us at Perintis Street of Timika Indah. We have video footage as evidence," he noted, adding that the police caught eight protesters, including five believed to have organized the protest.
They were identified as Andi Murib (25), a field coordinator and university student, Peuyoka Yeimo (28), Melvin Yogi (33) working as a farmer, Penehan Wanimpa (24), and Dolice Yaouwau (28).
However, the police had released them all, he confirmed.
Related news: Police refute crackdown on demonstrators rallying against autonomy
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EDITED BY INE
Translator: Evarukdijati, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Suharto
Copyright © ANTARA 2020
