INDONESIA: TENSIONS REMAIN HIGH IN REMOTE PROVINCE OF IRIAN JAYA FOOLOWING RECENT CLASHES BETWEEN LOCALS AND MIGRANTS IN CAPITAL JAYAPURA

Record ID: 646954

  • Title: INDONESIA: TENSIONS REMAIN HIGH IN REMOTE PROVINCE OF IRIAN JAYA FOOLOWING RECENT CLASHES BETWEEN LOCALS AND MIGRANTS IN CAPITAL JAYAPURA
  • Date: 11th November 2000
  • Summary: JAYAPURA, IRIAN JAYA (RECENT - NOVEMBER 11, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. WIDE OF POLICE BEHIND SHIELDS FOLLOWING ETHNIC BRAWL AT ABEPURA MARKET/CU SHIELDS (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. MV: MORE OF POLICE GUARDING STALLS 0.14 3. LV: BLOCKADES ON STREET 0.19 4. MV: MIGRANTS SITTING OUTSIDE SHOPS 0.22 5. CLOSEUP OF TRADITIONAL SWORD HELD BY MIGRANT 0.26 6. SV: MORE OF MIGRANTS INSIDE MARKET 0.29 7. CLOSEUP OF SWORD 0.35 8. PAN UP: STONES ON STREET 0.43 9. CLOSEUP/SV OF HOMEMADE IRIANESE ARROW (2 SHOTS) 0.52 10. WIDE OF INJURED IRIANESE IN HOSPITAL 0.57 11. CLOSEUP OF WOUND 1.02 12. CLOSEUP OF FACE 1.07 13. SV/CU: MORE OF THE INJURED (2 SHOTS) 1.15 14. WS: EXTERIOR OF ABEPURA MARKET 1.20 15. VARIOUS OF EMPTY STALLS 1.25 16. VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS PACKING THEIR MERCHANDISE 1.32 17. SV: (SOUNDBITE) (Bahasa Indonesia) STALL OWNER SAYING: "We don't want to bother anyone, and we do not want to be bothered either. Because I have lived here for a long time." 1.40 18. SV: MORE OF PEOPLE PACKING 1.44 19. VARIOUS: MORE OF EMPTY STALLS, PEOPLE PACKING (3 SHOTS) 2.03 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 26th November 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JAYAPURA, IRIAN JAYA
  • Country: Indonesia
  • Reuters ID: LVAANR6P2Z4D4ZPTTIPJ95283ALT
  • Story Text: Tensions have been running high in Indonesia's remote
    Irian Jaya province following recent clashes between locals
    and migrants in capital Jayapura.


    Dozens were injured during an ethnic brawl between
    Irianese and migrants from Sulawesi and Java on Saturday
    (November 11).

    The incident at main Abepura market has increased the
    already-high tension in the province, which is seeking
    independence from Indonesia.

    The stabbing of a drunk Irianese man and a stall owner
    triggered the clashes.

    Stall owners packed their merchandise out of fears of
    furthur clashes.

    Police came to the scene and put up blockades to prevent
    riots and looting.

    The Abepura market has experienced two previous ethnic
    riots in 1996 and 1998, in which it was burned to the ground.


    The majority of the stalls in the market are owned by
    migrants, leaving only some 10 percent of the market for local
    traders.

    It has become a source of resentment towards the central
    government whose transmigration policy brought thousands of
    settlers from highly populated areas such as Java and Sulawesi
    islands.

    Lying at the eastern end of the huge archipelago, Irian
    Jaya, also called West Papua, is home to around two million
    people and is one of Indonesia's main separatist hotspots.

    Independence demands have been exacerbated by Indonesia's
    harshness in putting down separatists and the funnelling of
    much of the province's wealth into Jakarta's coffers.

    Many indigenous people -- some of whom still practise
    Stone Age lifestyles -- despise the presence of settlers
    who were shipped in under previous government policies and
    dominate commerce and account for almost half the population.


    In a bid to ease tension, Indonesian President Abdurrahman
    Wahid has promised greater autonomy for Irian and said the
    territory would have more power to handle its affairs.

    But he has refused to budge on independence.



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