Indonesia deploys more troops as restive Papua hit by fresh unrest
INDONESIA’S Papua was hit by fresh unrest on Wednesday as more than 1,000 securit y personnel were sent to t he restive region af ter v iolent protests that saw buildings torched and street batt les bet ween police and demonstrators.
Ja karta has ca lled for ca lm in its easternmost territor y – where an insurgency against Indonesian rule has simmered for decades – following riots triggered by t he detention of dozens of Papuan students i n Java at the weekend.
On Wednesday, about 1,000 people protested in t he streets of Timika cit y, where demonstrators threw rocks at the windows of a loca l parliament building as t hey tried to tear down its fence.
The crowd began to disperse as riot police fired warning shots.
Hundreds also marched through the streets of Sorong city, and in the town of Fakfak on the western edge of the island, which is divided between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.
‘Getting out of control’
Severa l cit ies in resource-rich Papua were brought to a standstill t his week, including Manokwari where businesses and the loca l parliament building were set abla ze by angr y demonstrators.
Authorities are hunting for more than 250 inmates who had escaped from a prison in Sorong that was torched during t he riots.
Severa l police officers had been injured, aut horities said, and there are unconfirmed reports of wounded demonstrators. No deaths have been reported.
Some 1,200 extra police and troops have been deployed to Manokwari and Sorong, according to the government and Papuan |aut horities.
But securit y personnel were not equipped with live bullets, and t he situation was “genera lly under control”, National police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal said on Wednesday.
“It is sta ndard t hat if t hings escalate [aut horities] will deploy additiona l personnel,” he added.
But the move could aggravate tensions, obser vers warned.
“It’s making Papuans even more angr y,” said human rights law yer Veronica Koman, a frequent commentator on Papuan issues. “I’m rea lly af ra id t his is gett ing out of control,” she added.
The government has moved to slow down Internet connections in parts of Papua to stop the spread of online hoa xes it said could spark more demonstrations.
Anger boiled over at reports t hat aut horities tear-gassed and detained some 43 Papuan universit y students in t he countr y’s secondbiggest cit y, Surabaya, on Saturday – Indonesia’s independence day.
Police in riot gear stormed a dormitor y to force out students who a llegedly destroyed an Indonesian flag, as a group of protesters shouted racia l slurs at t he students.
Authorities said t he students were questioned and set free.
‘Decades of frustration’
Indonesian leader Joko Widodo, who pledged to investigate t he Surabaya incident, was expected to v isit Papua next week.
“It is sad t hat the Indonesian government only listens to t heir decades of frustration when these people reta liated,” said Andreas Harsono, a researcher at Human Rights Watch in Ja karta.
Papua has been the scene of a decades-old rebel insurgency aimed at gaining independence from Indonesia, which took control of the former Dutch colony in the early Sixties.
Securit y forces have long been accused of committing rights abuses against its ethnic Melanesian population, who say they’ve not shared in t he region’s vast minera l wealt h.
Tens of thousands of Papuans have been displaced amid intense fighting bet ween troops and guerri l las af ter a rebel fact ion k i l led 19 construction workers at a remote jungle camp last year.
The employees of a state-owned contractor had been building bridges and roads as part of efforts to boost infrastructure in the impoverished region.