3 Dec 2015

Reports dozens of Papuan students arrested in Jakarta

1:52 pm on 3 December 2015

Reports from Indonesia say dozens of Papuan student activists were arrested during a street rally in Jakarta on Monday.

Bernardo Boma of the Alliance of Papua Students told the West Papuan newspaper Tabloid Jubi he and other student activists were detained at the Jakarta Police Headquarters.

Papuan pro-independence demonstrators are arrested by police in Jakarta on December 1, 2015, after police fired tear gas at a hundreds-strong crowd hurling rocks during a protest against Indonesian rule over the eastern region of Papua.

Papuan pro-independence demonstrators are arrested by police in Jakarta, December 2015. Photo: ROMEO GACAD / AFP

Reports say up to 500 Papuan students studying in Java and Bali had rallied in the city on December the first, a day regarded as their national day by many Papuans fighting Indonesian rule.

Mr Boma said the students had given police formal notice of the rally long before it took place and they regretted the turnout of a fully equipped force.

Another student activist Wilson Nawipa told Jubi about 200 activists had been detained and two had been shot by the police.

The Jakarta Post reports two Papuan students have been named suspects in attacks against a police officer during the demonstration.

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