• Tweeter
  • republish

A building on fire in Wamena, September 23, 2019. Vina Rumbewas / AFP

New riots erupted on Monday, causing the death of a soldier in that province of eastern Indonesia agitated by violence for more than a month.

The story repeats itself . The unrest erupted in a high school in Wamena. It is the main city of central Papua. The spark is part of a teacher who allegedly treated several Papuan high school students as " monkeys " last week.

We do not know if she really pronounced this term. But an event ensued on Monday, with degradations, buildings burned. And a tough police response, with tear gas fired. A soldier died from stabbing near the town of Jayapura, according to the Indonesian military, and at least one high school girl was reportedly seriously injured.

►To read too: West Papua, the reasons for the anger

Victims of discrimination

Why did the situation degenerate so quickly? Because Papuans feel they have been discriminated against and considered as second-class citizens since the annexation of their region by Indonesia in the 1960s. On the one hand, the central government exploits the natural resources of Papua but it is not the Papuans who reap the benefits. On the other hand, they are daily victims of racism because they have darker skin than the rest of the Indonesians, because they are of Melanesian origin and not Malay and because they want independence and that we refuse them.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo had campaigned promising to accompany Papua, to integrate better with the rest of the country. So far, the Papuans are still waiting.