The Manokwari Police have arrested 13 people believed to have been involved in a riot in Manokwari on Dec. 20, when the house of West Papua governor-elect Abraham O. Atururi was burned down, as well as a number of vehicles, causing total damages of Rp 7 billion (US$823,00).
“Police are still questioning the 13 suspects and building the case, but have yet to name suspects,” Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Wach-yono told The Jakarta Post.
The situation in Manokwari, said Wachyono, had returned to normal as residents were once again going about their daily activities, and the logs that had been used to block roads had been cleared.
Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Bigman L. Tobing and a number of high-ranking officers from the Papua Police headquarters are in Manokwari to observe the situation and hold dialogues with local leaders and customary, religious and community figures to maintain peace in the area.
“The provincial police chief and other high-ranking police officers are currently in Manokwari and holding negotiations with community leaders there,” Wachyono said.
The riot was sparked by the Constitutional Court’s ruling on Dec. 19 that rejected an appeal by the campaign teams of the three losing West Papua gubernatorial candidate pairs, who had filed a lawsuit against the West Papua General Elections Commission’s decision to declare that incumbent Abraham O. Atururi and running mate Ra-himin Katjong had won reelection.
The repeat election held on Nov. 9, featured four candidate pairs — Dominggus Mandacan-Origenes Nauw, Abraham O. Atururi-Rahimin Katjong (incumbents), Wahidin Puarada-Herman Orisoe and C.G. Auparay-Hassan Ombaier.
The three candidate pairs rejected the result, but their appeal was thrown out by the Constitutional Court, which backed the West Papua KPUD’s official result, which was a victory by Abraham and Rahimi, who garnered 186,040 ballots, or 43 percent of the total vote.