Indonesian police were yesterday hunting for more than 250 inmates who fled a jail in Papua that had been set ablaze a day earlier during a wave of civil unrest in cities across the country’s easternmost area.
The jail in the port city of Sorong was targeted in violence sparked by claims of racist abuse and physical mistreatment of Papuans studying elsewhere in Indonesia.
Protesters had attacked the jail, among other buildings, said Ade Kusmanto, a spokesman for the director-general of correctional facilities at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights.
“After burning the regional government’s office facilities, [protesters] headed to the prison and threw rocks, provoking inmates,” Kusmanto said, adding that a prison warden had been injured in the unrest.
A total of 258 inmates had escaped, from among 547 held in the jail, he said, but added that some had since been recaptured, without elaborating.
Thousands of Papuans took the streets of the cities of Sorong, Manokwari and Jayapura in Monday’s protests, blocking roads, damaging an airport and torching a town hall.
The protests were triggered by the detention of Papuan students in the East Java city of Surabaya following accusations that they had disrespected the Indonesian flag in front of a dormitory during celebrations of Independence Day on Saturday.
Police fired tear gas into the dormitory before arresting 43 students, an activist said, adding that the students had been called “monkeys” during the operation.
The situation in some parts of Papua yesterday appeared calmer, with TV footage of Manokwari showing police and the military patrolling streets, while residents swept debris from the road.
However, in Sorong, about 400 protesters remained on the streets, Sorong Police Chief Mario P. Siregar told news portal Detik.com, while state news agency Antara said that some streets were still being blocked by burning tires.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in 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
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was