Indonesian police ban violent protests, separatism in Papua

September 02, 2019, 06.01 PM | Source: Reuters
Indonesian police ban violent protests, separatism in Papua

ILUSTRASI. KONDISI JAYAPURA SEUSAI AKSI UNJUK RASA


Security was being maintained throughout Papua on Monday as police worked with influential people in the region to control the situation, said national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo.

Television footage showed people cleaning up a partly charred building that protesters torched in the provincial capital of Jayapura.

Antara said four people were killed in Jayapura during protests last week, citing the city’s police chief.

At least one soldier and five civilians were killed in the rural town of Deiyai last week, among the deadliest of the latest demonstrations, Papuan police spokesman Ahmad Kamal said.

The authorities and activists have different accounts of what happened in Deiyai.

An internet blackout across Papua has made verifying information difficult.

Wiranto promised to withdraw the additional troops and lift an internet curb “when the situation returns completely to normal.”

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Papua and West Papua provinces, the resource-rich western part of the island of New Guinea, were a Dutch colony that was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticized U.N.-backed referendum in 1969.

The spark for the latest protests was a racist slur against Papuan students, who were hit by tear gas in their dormitory and detained in the city of Surabaya on the main island of Java on Aug. 17, Indonesia’s Independence Day, for allegedly desecrating a national flag.

Editor: Tendi Mahadi
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