Step Vaessen in Jakarta
Escalating violence in the Indonesian-ruled province of Papua in the region of West Papua has left at least 16 people dead.
The tension rose after Indonesia was criticised by the United Nations last month for its human rights record in Papua.
Indigenous Papuans, who are Melanesian, and the Indonesian military are blaming each other for the ongoing unrest.
The attacks are in the country’s far east, where Papuans have been calling for independence for 40 years. The province of Papua borders on the independent state of Papua New Guinea.
While Papuans are calling for an international investigation, the government insists the problem must be solved locally.
In Auckland, the Indonesia Human Rights Committee has called on the New Zealand government to respond to the latest escalation of deadly violence and destruction in Indonesian-controlled West Papua.
Step Vaessen is a Jakarta-based journalist reporting for Al Jazeera.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
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