Jayapura, Papua – Some 816 authorities and military workers are on standby in locations around Jayapura, Papua, as a preventive step against likely local demonstrations over Balikpapan District Court’s guilty decisions against 7 Papuan youths implicated of treason.
The implementation of cops and military personnel will be conducted to secure locations, such as Abepura and Zipur Waena T-junction, Jayapura City Cops Chief Accessory Sen. Coms. Gustav R. Urbinas mentioned here on Wednesday.
Ferry Kombo, Alex Gobay, Hengku Hilapok, Irwanus Urobmabin, Buchtar Tabuni, Steven Itlay, and Agus Kossay were the seven Papuan youths, who stood trial in the Balikpapan District Court in East Kalimantan Province.
According to media reports, the court’s panel of judges handed out their verdicts on Wednesday, under which they got 10 as much as 11 months in jail or significantly lower than five to 17 years that the district attorney had asked.
The local authorities likewise stationed several tactical cars to support the security personnel, consisting of putting water cannon and Barracuda, Urbinas said.
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On Wednesday, tens of individuals gathered in the Perumnas III of Waena community area and front gate of the Abepura-based Cenderawasih University school to vociferously echo their needs for the release of the seven Papuan youths.
In the meantime, Indonesia’s National Police representative, Inspector General Argo Yuwono, dismissed a claim that the 7 Papuan youths, attempted in connection with a treason case at the Balikpapan District Court in East Kalimantan, are political prisoners.
Tendering an information to this end, Yuwono stated in Jakarta on Wednesday that Papuan children were simply bad guys, who had actually allegedly incited a string of deadly violence and rioting in Papua Province, particularly in the locations of Jayapura, last year.
As a repercussion of their provocative acts, violence and riots broke out in the easternmost province, resulting in several locals incurring material losses and resulting in damage to personal effects, he expounded.
For this reason, Yuwono rebuked the reports distributed by little showing groups amongst members of the general public in their recent rallies of Papuan youths standing trial in the Balikpapan District Court being political detainees, calling them totally unwarranted and groundless.
” They are clearly bad guys, and their court procedures have met the legal basis in accordance with what they did,” Yuwono specified, adding that the youths’ trial was not deemed being a political matter considering that it was purely associated to their acts of criminal offense.
ANTARA noted that Papua and West Papua had come under the radar of both Indonesian and foreign media after a wave of violence broke out in numerous parts of these two Indonesian provinces in August and September 2019.
On August 28, 2019, violence appeared in Deiyai District, some 500 kilometers away from Jayapura, leading to the deaths of an army soldier and two civilians.
The indigenous Papuan residents of Jayapura once again protested on August 29, as they vented out their ire over the supposed racist habits versus their Papuan compatriots in Surabaya, East Java, however their rally then took a violent turn.
On September 23, a lethal riot had appeared in Wamena, the capital city of Jayawijaya District, Papua Province, which declared the lives of 33 civilians, consisting of a senior medical physician, who had served the native Papuans for 15 years.
The Indonesian authorities implicated Benny Wenda, a member of the West Papua movement separatist group, of participation in the spread of phony news to instigate native Papuans.
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