KNPBNews Another activist of the KNPB (National Committee of West Papua)
has been arrested. This time, it was the secretary-general of the Lanny
Jaya branch of the KNPB.
Athys Wenda was arrested while sitting
in the waiting room of Wamena Airport. He was arrested at 7am on 1
December. He was seized by the police, taken to the police station in
Lanny Jaya and maltreated there.
Dules Wamimbo, the chairman of
the KNPB in the district of Lanny Jaya, said that Athys was also badly
mistreated while in a cell of the local police command in Jayawijaya.
In
a short message, Dules said that while being held by the Wamena
police, Athys 'was beaten until he was black and blue all over.'
Athys had been trying to peacefully mediate a conflict among the people of Lanny Jaya.
Athys
and several of his KNPB colleagues are being closely watched by
Densus88. Dules said that when an armed conflict broke out between the
TPN (the military wing of the OPM) and the Indonesian military, KNPB
activists tried to mediate this conflict but they were treated as if
they were the military.
Dules said: ' We very much hope that the police will stop arbitrarily arresting people without clear evidence.'
[Translated by TAPOL]