Roads were blocked, tyres were burned, and a prison was set alight
were the colours of the day. It was August 17th, the anniversary of Indonesia’s liberation from the Dutch, andscreens showed the national flag, with its red and white stripes, billowing across the country. But in Surabaya, a city in eastern Java, one flag lay in the gutter.
The next day, thousands of people took to the streets in cities across Papua, blocking roads and burning tyres. In Sorong they vandalised the airport and set fire to a prison . In Manokwari, the capital of West Papua province, they burned shops and the provincial parliament. In addition to holding banners reading “We’re Papuans, not monkeys”, protesters waved the Morning Star flag, a symbol of Papuan nationalism, and chanted: “We are not white and red, we are Morning Star”.
In a statement about the protests Benny Wenda, a Papuan separatist, linked the struggle against racism to the fight for independence. Papua remained a Dutch colony after the rest of Indonesia became independent in 1945. It was only in 1969 that it voted to join Indonesia in a referendum. But the vote was a sham: out of a population of some 800,000, the Indonesian army selected just 1,026 people to take part.
Veronica Koman, a human-rights lawyer, believes these protests mark a new chapter in the liberation movement. She cites the sheer intensity of the protesters’ anger, and the power of videos of the protests on social media to convince Indonesians of Papuans’ commitment to their cause. A few politicians are showing some sensitivity: the governor of East Java province apologised for the racism in Surabaya, and President Joko Widodo announced plans to visit Papua.
Singapore Latest News, Singapore Headlines
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