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Activists stage peaceful rally, ask UN to monitor situation in Papua
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West Papua rally participants on board a police truck on Jl. Imam Bonjol, Central Jakarta, on Dec. 1. Activists staged a march on Monday to call on the United Nations to monitor the situation in Papua. (JP/Safrin La Batu)
P
apuan and non-Papuan activists held a march in Jakarta on Monday to demand that the United Nations (UN) respond to the current heated situation in the easternmost part of the country.
The Alliance of Papua University Students (AMP) and the Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-West Papua) marched from the Arjuna Wijaya chariot statue in Central Jakarta to the UN representative office on Jl. MH Thamrin, also in Central Jakarta.
“We want the UN to be involved in determining our faith, which is to hold a referendum for West Papua and the Army’s withdrawal from the region,” AMP spokesman Jefry Wenda told The Jakarta Post.
Seventy-seven people participated in the march, which was also staged in conjunction with the expected announcement of United Liberation Movement on West Papua’s official membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group on Tuesday.
(Read also:Participants of West Papua rally arrested)
The FRI-West Papua, consisting of non-Papuan Indonesian activists and intellectuals, was established to demonstrate solidarity by non-Papuans with Papuans in their struggle for independence.
Marches were also held in other 15 cities across the country, with reports of several hundred rally participants being detained by the police in Sulawesi and Java. (adt/jun)
