Jakarta – The chief of police in the capital of Indonesia's restive Irian Jaya province was quizzed Friday over the deaths of three students in December, a human rights investigator said.
Jayapura police chief Lieutenant Colonel Daud Sihombing is one of six police commanders questioned in the past two days by investigators from Indonesia's Human Rights Commission over the student deaths on December 7.
On Monday 19 senior sergeants are due to face questioning, secretary of the probe team, Sriana, said.
The students were killed when scores of police raided their dormitories following the brutal pre-dawn killings of two policemen and a security guard by suspected separatist guerillas who descended from the foothills ringing Jayapura.
The attackers struck within days of the anniversary of an unrecognised declaration of independence in the resource-rich province, when police intensified a crackdown on the separatist movement by enforcing a ban on the flying of the separatist 'Morning Star' flag.
Sihombing said at the time that the students were killed for resisting arrest by police who believed they may have perpetrated the attack.
The commission plans to summons dozens more lower-ranked policemen in coming weeks as part of its probe into the deaths, Sriana told AFP. "We will question 19 senior sergeants on Monday. We've asked for the names of the men below them too."
A five-member probe team lead by the commission's Albert Hasibuan is conducting inquiries in Jayapura. The provincial police commander at the time, Brigadier General Sylvanus Wenas, will be questioned in Jakarta next Wednesday.
Two of the students died in the field and a third died in a Jayapura police cell after severe beatings.
Sriana said Sihombing would show investigators the exact place in the city police station "where one of the students was tortured."
All three students were from the central highlands region, considered a hotbed of the separatist movement.
Witnesses said police shot at, chased and beat the students before arresting around 100. Students described further police beatings in the jail to local human rights advocates.
Irian Jaya lies on the western half of New Guinea island and is home to some 250 Melanesian tribes, most of them devoutly Christian.
A long-simmering separatist movement, fostered by the central government's perceived exploitation of the province's resources and repressive security forces, regained momentum least year.
A mass people's congress attended by tribes from across the province's remote highlands and coastal regions in June demanded Jakarta recognise the province's sovereignty.
Authorities have since charged five of the key organisers with subversion. On Thursday the five were released from jail, pending a trial in mid-April, after more than three months in detention.