Helen Davidson
MELBOURNE (Guardian Australia/Pacific Media Watch): Indonesian authorities have conducted mass arrests and burned down the homes of West Papuan villagers in response to the deaths of two police officers, a West Papuan independence leader in exile has claimed.
Benny Wenda, who is also an international lobbyist for the Free West Papua campaign and spokesman for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, told Guardian Australia Indonesian military police raided the village of Utikini near Timika on the southern coastline last week and found pro-independence banners in the house of a villager.
More than 100 people were arrested, including women and some children, and dozens of houses were burned down, he said.
Most people were released but some are still being detained.
Remaining villagers had fled further into the mountains, he said.
“Yesterday I got a phone call, many of them are hiding and some of them have run away – the women and children and elderly people,” he said.
On Friday Papuan police chief inspector general Yotje Mende confirmed the arrests but said just 13 people had been detained by a joint police and military team, the Jakarta Post reported, and two were being treated in hospital.
The 13 were part of a group led by a man suspected by police of being behind the recent shooting of two officers and a Freeport mine security guard, Yotje claimed. The three men – members of the mobile brigade – were killed on January 1.
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