Jakarta (Antara Bali) - Papua New Guinean soldiers have arrested several people believed to be witnesses to the incident in which two Indonesian citizens were taken hostage in the neighboring country, police have said.
"They are investigating them to determine if they indeed saw (the hostage taking), knew of or were related to the case," Chief of the National Police Headquarters' Information Service, Senior Commissioner Suharsono, said here.
The Indonesian Police is waiting for a clarification from Papua New Guinea about the incident, he said.
According to him, the Indonesian citizens who have been released chose to maintain silence even with their families and investigators, thus thwarting the police's efforts to gather complete information from them.
"After all, we kept trying to approach them to understand who the culprits were and the motive behind this hostage-taking," he said.
Suharsono said the Indonesians are in good health. When they were found, they were exhausted having traveled a long distance.
Earlier, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Panjaitan said the men who took Indonesian citizens hostage were not members of the Free Papua Organization (OPM).
"This has nothing to do with OPM. This is purely an armed crime," he said. (WDY)
