Indonesia-PNG Border Remains Tense After Rebel AttackThe Situation remained tense in parts of Indonesia's Irian Jaya province on Sunday after at least one person was killed in an attack by separatist rebels on a logging camp in Skouw village, two kilometers from the border of Papua New Guinea (PNG), a report on Monday, December 11, quoted police as saying.Irian Jaya Police Chief Brig. Gen. Wenas confirmed the attack conducted last Saturday morning by rebels during which a worker of the camp was killed and two fellow workers injured, the Jakarta Post daily reported. None of the assailants have been apprehended as of Sunday evening, said Wenas. The attack followed a riot in Abepura district of the province last Thursday in which at least six people including two policemen were killed and four officers injured when some 100 armed rioters attacked a police station. The attackers were suspected to be militia from the Free Papua Organization and another rebel group called the Koteka task force. Following Thursday's incident, police detained 99 people, mostly students from the Nayak and Ninmim dormitories in Jayapura, capital of Irian Jaya province, for their alleged involvement in the fatal assault. The situation in the eastern-most province has remained tense after the unrecognized December 1 independence commemoration in the area. At least ten people have died in a series of violent outbreaks since December 2. Irian Jaya is the largest island in Indonesia and home to a native Melanesian population of about 2 million people, most of whom are Christians, plus another 700,000 settlers from other parts of the country. |
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