SINGAPORE - The beleaguered students' union of the National University of Singapore (NUS) has broken its silence on the recent saga of sexualised activities at the orientation camps it organised.

In an official statement posted on its Facebook page on Sunday (July 31), the NUS Students' Union (Nussu) apologised to the freshmen who went through such activities, which they called "indecent, reprehensible and not condoned".

Reiterating that such activities were not endorsed by it or any of its constituent bodies, it added that it was helping the university with investigations.

NUS on Friday suspended all orientation activities, following a New Paper report on increasingly sexualised games, some of which involved the simulation of rape scenes, at orientation camps.

In its post, Nussu said it had not been consulted on the suspension. "The hard work of our organising committees and volunteers should not have been sacrificed due to the errant behaviours (sic) of some students."

It also said it had received several reports of NUS students being called names and harassed by members of the public based on the incidents.

"We would like to emphasise that the inappropriate behaviour of a few errant students involved in the reported camp incidences is not an accurate and conclusive representation of the entire NUS undergraduate population of over 28,000," it wrote.

"The Union would like to seek the public's understanding and we sincerely appeal to you to refrain from extending such treatment to our students."

It stressed that student welfare remains its top priority, and said that it would work with faculty and non-faculty clubs to see how it could still welcome the freshmen despite the recent developments.

It added: "We will also work with the school in restoring the faith in all student-led events, to identify and rectify the issues arising from the surfaced inappropriate cases while not compromising the interest of our students."