Indonesia’s police chief yesterday said that authorities in the easternmost Papua region were regaining control after protesters set fire to tires and torched a local parliament building over the detention of scores of Papuan students.
A separatist movement has simmered for decades in Papua, while there have also been frequent complaints of rights abuses by Indonesian security forces.
The spark for the latest anger appears to have been the detention of Papuan students in Surabaya, East Java, for allegedly bending a flagpole in front of a dormitory during the celebration of Indonesia’s Independence Day on Wednesday last week, activists said.
Photo: AFP
Police fired tear gas into the dormitory before arresting 43 students, Albert Mungguar, an activist, told a news conference on Sunday.
He said students had been called “monkeys” during the operation.
Papuan protesters yesterday morning set fire to a parliament building and blocked streets in the provincial capital of West Papua, Manokwari, by burning tires and tree branches, paralyzing the town, Deputy Governor Mohamad Lakotani told Kompas TV.
Television footage showed a group of about 150 people marching on the streets, as well as footage of smoke billowing from a parliament building.
“According to the report I got from the West Papua police, the situation has gradually turned conducive,” National Police Chief Tito Karnavian told reporters, adding that officers from other parts of eastern Indonesia could be brought in if needed.
Papua Governor Lukas Enembe said residents were angry because of “the extremely racist words by East Java people, the police and military,” he told broadcaster TVone.
East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa in a televised statement said: “We apologize because this does not represent the voice of the people of East Java” and described the slur as “someone’s personal outburst of emotion.”
The incident also triggered a protest in Jayapura, the capital of neighboring Papua Province, where TV footage showed thousands peacefully protesting on the streets.
Papua police spokesman Ahmad Kamal said by telephone that 500 people were involved in the demonstration in Jayapura.
“It’s been a while since I saw West Papuans this angry,” Veronica Koman, a human rights lawyer who focuses on Papua, said on Twitter. “The liberation movement is entering a new chapter.”
Koman posted videos on Twitter that she said were taken in Jayapura of people yelling “free Papua.”
In one of the videos, a group of teenagers can be seen carrying a Morning Star flag, which is a banned symbol used by supporters of independence.
Papua and West Papua provinces, the resource-rich western part of the New Guinea island, make up a former Dutch colony that was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticized UN-backed referendum in 1969.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese