Violent protests rack the Indonesian part of New Guinea
WHITE AND RED were the colours of the day. It was August 17th, the anniversary of Indonesia’s liberation from the Dutch, and TV screens 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. Responding to allegations that someone had torn down an Indonesian flag the day before and then retreated to a dormitory housing university students from Papua (the Indonesian part of New Guinea), police fired tear gas into the building before barging in and arresting 43 residents. As they were rounded up, a jeering mob is said to have called the Papuans, who tend to have darker skin than most other Indonesians, “monkeys”.
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 (258 prisoners escaped). 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”. As The Economist went to press on August 22nd, the protests had not abated.
In a statement...