13 Jan 2012

Police to withdraw from Papua region

12:09 pm on 13 January 2012

Police in the Indonesian province of Papua say about five hundred paramilitary police will withdraw from the region within two weeks because of improved security there.

The Jakarta Globe reports that 480 members of a mobile unit had been sent to bolster provincial police ranks in the country's eastern most region from Jakarta, East Kalimantan and North Sulawesi.

A Papua police spokesman says they would be replaced by members of the Papua Mobile Brigade and police.

The men have served about two months in Papua which has seen tight security over recent months due to pro-independence activism and strikes at the Freeport McMoran mine.

Beefed-up security was also in place for last month's anniversary of Papua's original declaration of independence, fifty years ago.

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