23 Dec 2014

Indonesian students protest Papua school student shooting

5:11 pm on 23 December 2014

A protest by Indonesian students has demanded President Joko Widodo remove Indonesian military in the provinces of Papua and West Papua.

The students waved banners in Yogyakarta and called on Mr Widodo to investigate human rights violations.

The President is due to visit Papua this week to celebrate Christmas, but some church leaders have pressed him to cancel his plans, in response to the inaction over the shootings.

The protest follows the shooting deaths of five school students who were protesting peacefully earlier this month, in their school uniforms.

Five of the 17 wounded in the incident were primary school students.

The New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully says Indonesia should investigate the shooting.

The Dutch Foreign Minister, Bert Koenders, was asked by fellow Parliamentarians about the incident and says he will raise it with the Indonesian Foreign Minister.

Both the police and the military have denied any fault.