Unconfirmed reports: Riots in Nabire leave 2 shot

Unconfirmed reports: Riots in Nabire leave 2 shot after truck crash kills schoolboy

by westpapuamedia

West Papua Media

January 6, 2013

Tensions flared into a riot in Nabire on Friday, January 4, after a truck travelling at high speed ploughed into a family group injuring several people and killing a young school boy, drove off from the scene, according to credible but unconfirmed reports from human rights sources in Nabire.

Peter Wakei, a Grade 5 elementary school student, was reportedly buried on Saturday after succumbing from serious head injuries from the collision at 10 am local time on Friday, according to family members spoken to by local human rights activists. Schoolboy Alfon Tegeke (12, below) was lightly injured from the crash and treated in hospital, with the dead boy's older brother Anton Wakei (32), the District Head of West Mapia, remains in a critical condition in Nabire hospital.

Indonesian Police were accused by community members of failing to search for the truck driver, according to witnesses, who reported that community members then mounted their own search for the truck driver at the Coral Market on sundown.

A heavily armed unit of Indonesian police confronted the Papuan community members in the market, and opened fire without warning on the group at 1830 local time, hitting two civilians with live bullets. Apedus Wakei (31), was shot in the buttocks, while John Tekege (26) was shot in the thigh, and were taken to Nabire district hospital in a serious but stable condition, according to reports from Napas (National Papua Solidarity) sources in Nabire.

Police then arrested seven more community members and held them overnight without charge. The seven detainees were released the following morning after the Nabire Police Chief met with members of the victim's families together with the new Dogiyai Regent in order to defuse the tense situation in Nabire. The inflamed situation has since returned to safe conditions after the intensive community negotiations, according to local human rights activists.

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