Wednesday, 8 July 1998
ABRI: NO DEATHS IN BIAK PROTEST ACTIONS
JAKARTA – The ABRI Defence and Security Information Centre (Puspen ABRI) in Jakarta, on Tuesday stated that as of that time, contrary to the report of one foreign news agency, no deaths had occurred in the actions of a group of separatists on Monday (6/7) in Biak. However, when contacted by ANTARA, Puspen ABRI did confirm that there were casualties with injuries of a critical nature from rubber bullets fired by the security forces. The Reuters news agency had copied information from an NGO mentioning a report which had yet to be confirmed to the effect that at least seven people had died in the protest action by the separatist group in Biak.
Irian Jaya Regional Police Chief, Brig. Gen. Pol., Drs Hotman Siagian, had only confirmed earlier that his officers had detained about 180 people and 24 others had suffered injuries from being shot with rubber bullets.
Siagian did not mention any deaths in the incident which involved a group of 700 OPM (sic).
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Translated 7/6/13: JG
