Police Claims No Victims Of Clashes In Rempang Batam: Pingsan-Babies Student Dies Not True

Officers cleaned the rest of the trees and tires that were burned by residents in the middle of the road while securing land measurements for the development of the Rempang Eco City project, Thursday (7/9). (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The National Police claimed that there were no victims during the riots that occurred on Rempang-Galang Island, Batam. In fact, information about babies dying due to clashes is called untrue.

"Once again there are no victims, both on the community and in the security forces," said Karo Penmas, Police Public Relations Division, Brigadier General Ahmad Ramadhan, to reporters, Friday, September 8.

In addition, regarding the information that school students had fainted due to being exposed to tear gas and the baby who died was said to be not true.

From the search results, said Ramadhan, none of the victims were injured or died as a result of the incident.

"So it's not true that a student fainted, then let alone someone informed a baby died, that's not true. We've checked that's not true," he said.

According to him, the riots occurred when the police dispersed the crowd that blocked officers at the location.

"What is there is because of security measures by the police by spraying tear gas," said Ramadhan.

As previously reported, joint officers from the National Police, TNI, Ditpam of the Batam Entrepreneurship Agency (BP), and Satpol PP were involved in clashes with residents of Rempang who were guarding the measurement process, Thursday, September 7.

The commotion broke out when joint officers arrived at the location. The commotion was triggered because residents still did not agree with the development of the area, which is a traditional village for the Malay community.

As a result of the commotion, officers were forced to fire tear gas because of the unfavorable situation.