About 1,000 Papuans are expected to conduct a peaceful demonstration in Manokwari today to coincide with the visit to Indonesia's Papua province of a United Nations representative.
The UN Secretary General`s Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs, Hina Jilani, is making an excursion to Papua during her working visit to Indonesia at the government`s invitation.
The purpose of her trip is to observe how human rights are being funded and promoted in Indonesia as well as to study the legal framework to defend human rights.
The Papua Youth and Student organisation, which has planned the demonstration, aims to inform the UN about human rights abuses they continue to suffer.
Its spokesman, Jek Wanggai, says they have three main points to make:
"The people people of West Papua, we want to [have the UN] review the Act of Free Choice in 1969; then the second, we cannot use Special Autonomy again, because it's not good for our people; and then the third, we want a total referendum [on self-determination] in West Papua."
Jek Wanggai
