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A demonstration of several thousand people in the Indonesian province of Papua degenerated on Monday 19 August in riots. The anger follows the arrest of dozens of pro-independence students. The Indonesian authorities have announced that they have regained control of the situation.
Stores and vehicles burned, road signs torn off, thrown stones on official buildings, fire of the regional Parliament, the demonstration in Manokwari, the capital of West Papua, quickly sank into violence. This region is marked by a sporadic independence rebellion against the Indonesian government.
At the beginning of the riots: racist remarks that the Indonesian authorities and the local population would have sent to Papuan students during the week-end in Surabaya, on the island of Java. Forty-three students, accused of destroying an Indonesian flag during Independence Day, were reportedly detained, interrogated by police and released. These incidents are the latest in Indonesia's poorest province, where the military has been accused by NGOs of human rights abuses against the Melanesian population.
Papua, a former Dutch colony, declared independence in 1961, but its western part, rich in natural resources, was occupied two years later and officially annexed by Indonesia in 1969. Many Papuans claim independence , as Papua New Guinea, another half of this big island that got it in 1975 after being an Australian colony. Last month, two soldiers were killed in Papua during clashes with separatists. In December, at least 20 Indonesian workers were also killed on their construction site .