Jakarta (AFP)

The Indonesian region of Papua has been shaken for two weeks by deadly riots triggered by racist attacks against Papuans students, who have revived the calls for independence of the territory.

"What began as protests against racist incidents in East Java then evolved into the problem of independence," said Adriana Elizabeth, a Papua specialist at the Indonesian Institute of Science. "But there are a lot of factions in Papua" that do not agree with each other, she said.

Papua Indonesia, west of the island of New Guinea, rich in natural resources, is suffering a sporadic separatist rebellion against the Indonesian government. On the other side of this large, rainforest-covered island, Papua New Guinea gained independence in 1975 after having belonged to Australia.

Since August 19 protests have followed in the cities of Papua, some degenerating into riots with buildings burned and clashes with the police.

In Jayapura, the capital of the region on Thursday, more than a thousand people took to the streets, threw stones at businesses and set fire to several official buildings.

Videos of the city dominated by black smoke plumes could be seen as protesters, calling for independence, occupied the governor's seat before being dislodged.

On Wednesday, the most serious clashes since the beginning of the movement occurred in the isolated district of Deiyai. Clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers have killed at least one soldier and two protesters, according to the authorities.

Witnesses and local media reported that six protesters were shot dead during these incidents. The authorities denied this report and said that the police had been attacked by hundreds of Papuans armed with machetes and arrows.

This assessment could not be verified independently. Especially since a blockage of the mobile internet, imposed in Papua since last week, makes communications particularly difficult.

- racist arrests and insults -

These were incidents that occurred on August 17 in Surabaya, on the island of Java, which set fire to the powders

Riot police raided a dormitory to arrest 43 Papuan students, accused of destroying an Indonesian flag on Indonesia's Independence Day, before releasing them.

At the same time, protesters have instigated racist slurs against Papuan students, calling them "monkeys" or "dogs".

These images triggered the anger of the Papuans who often claim to be treated as second-class citizens in Indonesia.

A predominantly Christian Melanesian indigenous population, the Papuans have a tribal culture very different from the rest of the Indonesians, 90% Muslim.

As an aggravating factor, Indonesian forces have been accused by Papuans and human rights organizations of committing abuses for years in their struggle against the separatists.

Last December, the execution of at least 16 workers on a road project in Papua, claimed by separatists, marked an escalation of violence.

Benny Wenda, spokesman for the United Liberation Movement of West Papua, in exile in London, called on the world to pay attention to Papua, otherwise "the security forces could indulge in a bloodbath", he warned in a statement released Thursday.

He also called for a referendum on independence.

But Jakarta, who took control of Papua by force in 1963, does not want to hear about it. Indonesia considers that a controversial referendum in 1969 definitely settled the Papuans issue.

A group of a thousand Papuans, some of whom reported having voted under threat, then decided to stay in Indonesia.

The situation is "the result of several years during which the government thought that building roads and investing" in the region "would silence the complaints of Papuans," said Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Conflict Analysis ( IPAC) based in Jakarta.

But "all other issues, gratuitous violence, the rapacity of the security forces, the impunity of past abuses (...) have largely been ignored," she laments.

© 2019 AFP