Brawl turns into townwide fracas

JAYAPURA, Irian Jaya: A fight turned into a townwide melee in Nabire yesterday morning, resulting in the destruction of two major markets and the local council building.

The melee stemmed from a fight between diggers at the nearby Topo gold mine, about 69 kilometers outside town, on Sunday which ended with three men being killed.

The bodies of two of the men were then taken to Nabire council building.

Councilors were ready to receive the bodies and had set a place in the building for them to be placed. However, Antara reported that once inside the building the group which brought the bodies suddenly attacked the councilors and began to ransack the building.

The fracas spread through the city and by yesterday afternoon dozens of shops and buildings had been looted or burned.

Antara quoted sources at the Irian Jaya Directorate of Social and Political Affairs as saying that the melee involved a long- standing dispute of the Biak, Sangir and Dani tribal families who work at the mine.

As of yesterday afternoon, local military forces had been sent to the town to stop the riot.