Troops patrolling the Indonesian city of Jayapura rounded up suspects yesterday after a frenzied mob bludgeoned to death four security officers during a protest over the world's largest gold and copper mine.
National police spokesman Brigadier General Anton Bachrul Alam told reporters 57 people had been arrested, though only five were named suspects, including one of the alleged protest organizers. They could face charges of assault, murder or destroying public property, he said.
Thursday's demonstration in Jayapura, Papua's provincial capital, was the most violent in a series targeting the US-owned Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc in recent weeks -- and the killings of three policemen and one air force officer underscored the deep hatred many Papuans feel toward Indonesian security forces.
A decades-long separatist rebellion in the remote province has left more than 100,000 dead, many of them civilians who suffered from mistreatment, starvation and other consequences of the war.
Protesters demanded that Freeport's massive gold mine be shut, saying that while it has earned the New Orleans-based company billions of dollars in revenue, the local community has received little or no benefit.
They went on a rampage after gun-toting security forces fired tear gas in an effort to break up the rally, charging demonstrators with their batons. Hundreds of shots were fired, though police insisted they did not use live ammunition.
"Indonesia should respect the Papuans," resident Robi Kubi said yesterday, as a tense calm returned to the provincial capital. "We have huge natural resources, but why are they extracted by foreigners while the Papuans are still poor?"
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sent top security chiefs to the region to probe the unrest, and warned that some people were trying to manipulate anger over Freeport into a push for independence. They would not succeed, he said.
Hundreds of paramilitary police stood guard near the state-run university, the site of Thursday's demonstration. The campus was largely deserted yesterday.
London-based Human Rights Watch called on authorities to determine why the rally spiraled out of control.
The group's Asia director, Brad Adams, said it appeared that police may have opened fire first on the demonstrators, wounding several of them, who then responded by attacking the officers with rocks and knives.
One resident, Marcus, said he was walking by the university when he heard gun shots.
"I was chased by plainclothes police and then beaten up," the 31-year-old man said from Jayapura Public Hospital, his face badly bruised. "I didn't know anything about the protest, but I was a victim. My face hurts. I lost my money. And my family does not know where I am."
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
RSS