Violence in Indonesia’s Papua kills at least 32 people, ‘some burned, some hacked to death’
- Unrest was provoked by a hoax about a student being racially abused, which went viral on social media
- The resource-rich Papua region was rocked by separatist protests last month, forcing authorities to deploy additional troops
At least 32 people were killed and dozens injured as fresh clashes erupted in Indonesia’s restive Papua region, according to military and police officials.
Protesters clashed with police and military in the cities of Jayapura and Wamena on Monday after a hoax about a student being racially abused went viral on social media.
“We believe this false information was intentionally designed to create riots,” Papua police chief Rudolf Alberth Rodja said. “This is a hoax and I call on people in Papua not to be provoked by untrue news.”
Some 700 people had been rounded up for questioning over the deadly riots, the military said.
“Some were burned, some were hacked to death... some were trapped in fires,” local military commander Chandra Dianto said. “[We’re] going to scour the debris to look for more possible victims in shops and stalls that were set on fire.”
Of the casualties, 28 were in Wamena, a city in the Papua mountain region. Four others were killed in the provincial capital Jayapura.
Papua police spokesman Ahmad Musthofa Kamal said on Tuesday that 12 bodies were found in and around the burned-out wreckage of buildings engulfed in the fires set by rioters, and that the number of dead is expected to rise as authorities search through affected areas in Wamena.
“Of the total ... 22 are migrants, non-Papuans, including motorbike taxi drivers and other workers,” National Police Chief Tito Karnavian told reporters.