goodmorningpapua.com – Head of Public Relations of the Papua Regional Police, Kombes Ahmad Musthofa Kamal, clarified the ‘attack’ on the chief of Papua Police, Inspector General Mathius Fakhiri while he went mourning in the funeral home of the Deputy Governor of Klemen Tinal, on Saturday, May 22, 2021, yesterday.
Kamal explained that the attack on the Papua Police Chief and guests coming to the funeral home of the deceased Klemen Tinal were the customs of the local community. Klemen Tinal’s relatives and local people perform a religious ritual known as the Waeta dance.
The Waeta dance, said Kamal, is a local belief or custom which is carried out by dancing while pelting the coming guests with various objects. However, the dance didn’t last long.
“It is the Waeta dance according to their custom while dancing and throwing glass with sticks and stones. The Regional Police Chief and other guests were around the spot of the crime. That is their belief, it was not long before it was calm like a grieving situation,” said Kamal, Sunday (23/5 / 2021).
Kamal emphasized that the incident against the Papua Police Chief at the funeral home of Klemen Tinal was not an attack. Kamal said, the belief in the Waeta dance was carried out by Klemen Tinal’s relatives as a form of loss.
“There was no (attack). The people who came and picked up the corpse from the airport to the residence were so much. The residents felt that they had lost their deceased,” he concluded.
Previously reported, chaotic condition had occurred when Klemel Tinal’s corpse arrived at the funeral home in the Jayapura City area on Saturday (22/5/2021). The Kapolda and a number of Papuan officials who came to the funeral home were pelted with objects by the relatives of the deceased Klemel Tinal.