Indonesian police (Source: AFP/VNA)Jakarta (VNA) - Indonesia on August 21deployed more than 1,000 security personnel to Papua province amid spreadingprotests and violence.
About 1,000 people protested in the streets of Timika city, throwing rocks atthe local parliament building as they tried to tear down its fence. The crowdbegan to disperse as riot police fired warning shots.
Thousands of people, mostly university students, turned out to protest againstracism and discrimination on August 19. They blocked roads, damaged an airportand set fire to the headquarters of the Regional Legislative Council.
Authorities are hunting for more than 250 inmates who had escaped from a prisonin Sorong that was torched during the riots.
Anger boiled over at reports that authorities tear-gassed and detained some 43Papuan university students in the country's second-biggest city, Surabaya, on August17 - Indonesia's Independence Day. The students were detained but releasedhours later after no evidence was found that they had damaged the flag.
Papua is a former Dutch colony in the western part of New Guinea that isethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia. It was incorporatedinto Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored ballot that was seen as a sham bymany. - VNA
VNA
