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By APD writer Aditya Nugraha
**JAKARTA, Sept. 24 (APD) ** -- The latest riot in Indonesia’s restive province of Papua has claimed 26 lives, injured some 70 others, provincial police spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Papua Police Headquarters Spokesperson Mustafa Kamal said the finding of several bodies in the burned building, death toll from Monday’s riot in the province’s city of Wamena and Jayapura has risen to 26. The authorities initially announced the death tolls at 20,that include civilians and a troop, on Monday evening.
He said that many of the injured ones now treated in local hospitals, most of them suffered wounds in the head and burned injuries.
The riot conducted by students in the city was sparked by rumors about teacher who insulted local students. The rumor sprawled in social media quickly and apparently provoking the students to stage demonstration that ended up in riot.
Angry mobs torched government buildings, shop, residential complex, cars and motorbikes passing through the city on Monday. The riot had paralyzed the city.
The angry mobs also attacked police and troops with machetes and stone that made the Indonesian legal enforcers responded with gunshots.
Elsewhere in Jakarta, Indonesian Police Headquarters Spokesperson Dedi Prasetyo said some 733 students were questioned over the riot in Jayapura that has killed a soldier and three civilians.
Series of cities in Indonesia’s Papua and West Papua provinces were rocked by riots that have damaged key economic facilities early this month.
The riots happened after demonstrations to protest ethnic discrimination related to the arrest of Papuan students in East Java which was marred with racial insults against the Papuan students. The arrest was conducted after a vandalism act against Indonesia’s national flag.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
