Jakarta – Indonesia's Papua remained tense with hundreds of students hiding in the jungle to evade a police manhunt, reports said, as the death toll from riots over a US-run mine rose to six.
Students staged a rally last week that degenerated into bloodshed on the outskirts of Jayapura, the Papuan capital. They were demanding the closure of a huge mine operated by a local unit of US company Freeport-McMoRan.
Some 1,200 students have since fled their dormitories at the state-run Cendrawasih University, where the demonstration was held, and were in hiding, Aloy Renwarin from rights group Elsham-Papua told AFP.
"The 1,200 students ran and are still hiding in the forests, and they're hungry," he said. The university remained closed and the streets were still tense, he added.
Decky Avide, chairman of the university's student body, told the Jakarta Post the students were "in fear of another security sweep by Mobile Brigade members." The Mobile Brigade, better known as Brimob, has developed a reputation for brutality in dealing with separatist conflicts in places such as Papua and Aceh, and has been strongly criticised by international human rights groups.
The state-run Antara news service reported that security had been reinforced at several locations in Jayapura, including the governor's office, provincial parliament and several main streets.
Activists accuse Freeport of polluting the environment and of tacitly condoning human rights abuses by the Indonesian military assuring the Timika gold and copper mine's security.
They also complain that Papua has not received its fair share of profits from the mine, something which has hepled to fuel the decades-old separatist insurgency against Jakarta's rule in the region.
Papua police spokesman Samuel Payu said another Brimob member identified as Eko had died of his injuries in hospital Wednesday, bringing the overall toll to six. Protestors lynched three Brimob police and an air force officer during the melee, while a civilian died in hospital shortly afterwards.
Police also said that they had charged two suspects with the murder of the security officers. "From the fourteen suspects, two of them are direct perpetrators of murders. They killed using stones and by stabbing with a knife," deputy national police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam told a press conference. He did not name the pair. Police were still searching for another 24 suspects, he added.
The director of Jayapura's main hospital Pauline Watufa said that three seriously injured protestors had fled the hospital after the clashes because they were too afraid to stay there. She feared their wounds would be infected without treatment.
Police said Tuesday they were readying another 200 troops to send to Papua, some 3,000 kilometres (1,800 miles) east of Jakarta, as reinforcements.
Meanwhile, Papua's parliamentary tribal council began discussing Freeport Wednesday in response to the demands to close the mine. "On Friday we will send our report to Papua's parliament," Agus Allua, the chairman of the council, told AFP.
The Papuan provincial parliament has said it would hold a special session to discuss the mine. It does not have the power to close the mine but could apply pressure to the Indonesian government to do so.
Freeport signed a 30-year contract with Jakarta to run the mine in 1991. Last week's violence has stoked fears of further separatist unrest.