Students clash with police in Jayapura
R.K. Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura
Jayapura Police apprehended 42 students involved in a violent antigovernment demonstration in the city on Saturday, but some were later released after questioning.
The 42 students were arrested because they attacked security personnel after being asked to disperse peacefully.
Some 150 student demonstrators clashed with security personnel when the latter tried to disperse the students, who were demonstrating outside the provincial legislative council building. Several demonstrators pelted stones at security personnel.
The students had marched 12 kilometers from their campus in Abepura to the legislative building, where they held a free- speech forum.
Holding aloft a picture of the late Theys Hiyo Eluway, former chairman of the proindependence Papuan Presidium Council (PDP), and antigovernment banners, the demonstrators raised their hands and gave victory signs and sang a Papuan folk song to attract attention.
Adj. Sr. Comr. Totok K., chief of the Jayapura Police, said only a few demonstrators had been detained and that the majority of them would be released after police finished questioning them.
"We just want to know who coordinated the demonstration and their political aspirations, because the legislature is closed on Saturdays," he said.
Two demonstrators, identified as La Ali Kudu from Cendrawasih University and Demianus Wariman from a private university in Jakarta, have been arrested for the roles they played in coordinating the demonstration, he said.
Totok said the demonstration was part of a series of antigovernment rallies that the students held over the last seven days without notifying the police.
"The police do not prohibit students from holding demonstrations, but they should first notify the police for security reasons and in accordance with the law," he said.
During the free-speech forum, the students expressed their opposition to special autonomy, which takes effect as of January 2002.
They called on local authorities to allow them to conduct a referendum to determine whether or not the Papuan people supported special autonomy.
The demonstrators, mostly from state Cendrawasih University in Abepura, called on the provincial legislature to amend history books concerning Irian Jaya's integration into Indonesia.
The demonstrators also demanded that an independent team that includes foreign parties be established to investigate Theys' murder.
Theys was found dead in the border area between the province and Papua New Guinea on Nov. 11, 2001 after he was abducted by unidentified men a day before. Theys' driver, Aristoteles Masoka, who witnessed the abduction, is missing.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri is expected to issue a presidential decree to set up a national commission to investigate Theys' death.