BFF-38 Six protesters killed in Papua clash: eyewitness

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INDONESIA-PAPUA-UNREST

Six protesters killed in Papua clash: eyewitness

JAKARTA, Aug 28, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Indonesian authorities shot dead six
protesters during a violent clash in its unrest-wracked Papua region
Wednesday, according to an eyewitness and a media report, but police disputed
that account.

Local priest Santon Tekege said chaos erupted after several thousand
people rallied in the remote district of Deiyai — following riots and
demonstrations across the region last week when buildings were torched and
street battles broke out between police and protesters.

In Deiyai, authorities fired tear gas to disperse the demonstration on
Wednesday, sparking an angry response that saw a group of protesters attack a
soldier, Tekege added.

The military then opened fire on the crowd, according to Tekege, who
said he was at the rally.

“Six of them died,” he said, adding that several more demonstrators were
injured and sent to hospital.

A report on the local news website Suarapapua.com earlier Wednesday also
said six demonstrators were gunned down.

The deaths could not be independently verified and authorities disputed
the number of deaths.

Papua police spokesman Ahmad Mustofa Kamal said Wednesday that two
protesters had died, one from a bullet wound and another who was shot in the
stomach by an arrow — and suggested the deaths might be the fault of
demonstrators.

“The protesters shot arrows and threw rocks at our officers,” he told
AFP.

“We even heard gunshots coming from their direction so that is why we
shot back,” Kamal added.

Earlier Wednesday, Indonesia’s military — long accused of committing
rights abuses against Papuans during a decades-long separatist insurgency —
said a soldier had been killed and several more were injured by Papuans armed
with machetes and bows and arrows.

About 150 protesters had descended on Deiyai’s government office,
demanding that the district head sign an agreement to hold a referendum on
Papuan independence, said national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo.

Conflicting accounts are common in Papua, a resource-rich but
impoverished island that shares a border with Papua New Guinea.

– Internet shutdown –

The recent riots appear to have been triggered by the arrest this month
of dozens of Papuan students in Java, who were also pelted with racist abuse.

Police in riot gear stormed a dormitory in the city of Surabaya to force
out students accused of destroying an Indonesian flag, as a group of
protesters shouted racial slurs at them, calling them “monkeys” and “dogs”.

Last week, the government moved to shut down internet services in the
region, saying it was trying to stop a stream of offensive and racist online
posts that it feared would spark more violent protests.

Critics slammed the move as a threat to free speech and journalists say
it has made verifying information more difficult.

Indonesia sent in 1,200 extra police and military to Papua as tensions
soared, while President Joko Widodo has offered to meet with Papuan leaders.

Jakarta took control of Papua, a former Dutch colony, in the 1960s after
an independence referendum widely viewed as a sham.

Many Papuans — who are ethnic Melanesian and have few cultural ties
with the rest of Indonesia — say they have not gotten a fair share of vast
mineral wealth in the region, which is home to the world’s biggest gold mine.

BSS/AFP/BZC/1955HRS