Djoko Suyanto, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, has denied reports that security forces conducted sweeps against Papuan students across the country ahead of the 50th anniversary of the declaration of West Papua that fell on Thursday.
"I am clarifying that there has been no such policy or actions," Djoko told a news conference. He said that if there were any Papuan students who felt they were victim of such sweep operations, they should report it to him or Police Chief Gen. Timur Pradopo.
Military and police personnel, he said "cannot conduct sweeps." He said only the city or district law and order units (Satpol PP) had the authority do so. "If there are personnel at one location, do not immediately think that they are there to conduct a raid," he added.
Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Baharudin Djafar also denied reports that authorities had raided a Papua student dormitory in Jalan Tebet Dalam, South Jakarta, on Nov. 11.
"There was no such raid. There was a check by the local urban ward authorities who had received complaints from residents around there and were called on to conduct a check," Baharudin said. He said that the presence of soldiers was only to accompany the officials "to prevent unwanted things from taking place."
Rights group Kontras has criticized the security forces for raiding dormitories in Jakarta and Bali. It cited witnesses as saying that security personnel broke down the doors by force to enter the dormitory in Jakarta.
Nur Kholis, deputy chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), said in Bali that the government, especially security forces in Papua, was not yet committed to dialogue to settle problems there.
"This commitment [to dialogue] is not yet understood by the security forces," Nur Kholis said, adding that his organization would push for the security forces to partake in dialogue.
In July, a peace conference attended by Djoko seemed to herald tentative progress toward peaceful resolution of Papua's problems, but state-sanctioned violence has since marred any improvement.