Papuan Student Alliance Holds Protest at Tugu Jogja

The Papuan Student Alliance held a protest at two locations in Yogyakarta on Monday afternoon. The action began at the Gondomanan intersection, after which the crowd marched to the Tugu Pal Putih monument. The protest concluded with the delivery of a statement of position.

According to detikJogja monitoring, the crowd began gathering at the Gondomanan intersection at around 11.30 WIB. The demonstrators then delivered their aspirations in the middle of the intersection.

Shortly afterwards, tension arose between the crowd and police officers. The tension occurred because the demonstrators wanted to hold their protest at the Zero Kilometre point of Yogyakarta. However, the tension quickly subsided.

The crowd then moved north, marching to Tugu Pal Putih. There, demonstrators took turns delivering their aspirations.

“On this occasion, we from AMP call for national unity across all elements of the Papuan people’s movement, solidarity, pro-democracy unity against oppression, racism, militarism, and to destroy capitalism and abolish colonialism, as well as to demand the right to self-determination for the people of West Papua,” read the AMP’s statement of position received by detikJogja from demonstrators at the scene on Monday (17/8/2026).

Meanwhile, Yogyakarta Police Chief, Senior Commissioner Ari Setyawan Wibowo, said the reason the crowd was prohibited from demonstrating at the Zero Kilometre intersection was because a public festival was still taking place at the location.

“At the Zero Kilometre point there is a public festival event, so we continued to secure the area to prevent any friction because there is a public festival at the Zero Kilometre point, which is why they earlier tried to force their way in even though we had informed them beforehand,” said Ari.

“We immediately escorted them, we managed the safety of the Papuan student alliance group, and we also secured and managed traffic so it would not be obstructed. Thank God they were willing to cooperate and also gave way for other members of the public to pass,” he concluded.