More聽than 500 people were arrested in West Papua on December 18 during self-determination protests that were demanding the 聽聽be granted full membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. West Papua has been occupied for more than five decades, which opposed the MSG recognising West Papua as part of its denial of Papuan self-determination.聽The MSG聽includes other Melanesian nations, Vanuatu, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
TeleSUR English :聽"Thousands marched across the region to support West Papuan freedom and to condemn decades of brutal treatment of Indigenous Melanesians by Indonesia."
In total, 528 people, including several children were arrested in the peaceful rallies across Indonesia鈥檚 most eastern province, TeleSUR English said. Some had already been detained the night before the planned protests and activists reported that some people were beaten and badly injured before being arrested.
Activists also said that several of those detained were interrogated without a lawyer and at least one protester was tortured by Indonesian police. Journalists were banned from several areas and the headquarters of the West Papua National Committee in Jayapura was vandalised.
Demonstrations took place in at least 15 locations and several people were arrested after applying for demonstration聽permits with authorities, accoring to lawyer Veronica Koman, who is representing independence activist Filep Karma. Karma has been detained since 2004 for peacefully protesting for his people鈥檚 independence.
鈥淭his year alone over 4800 people have been unlawfully arrested and many others killed and tortured by the Indonesian military and police,鈥 said exiled West Papua聽independence leader聽聽in a statement.聽
TeleSUR English said the protests coincided with the anniversary of 鈥淥peration TRIKORA,鈥澛爓hich was carried out when the Indonesian government invaded West Papua on December 19, 1961 after Melanesian West Papuans first raised their Morning Star flag on December 1. The region was formally annexed by Indonesia in 1969 in a controversial referendum after winning independence from Dutch colonialism in 1963. Independence supporters say that the 1969 annexation was illegal and that Indonesian control has amounted to genocide.
"Throughout Indonesia's hard rule of the mineral-rich area, around half a million Melanesian West Papuans are thought to have been killed by Indonesian authorities and pro-independence supporters face restrictions of movement and assembly, media blackouts, and many also have been held as political prisoners," the article said.
Protesters were also throwing their support behind the full membership of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, ULMWP, to the Melanesian Spearhead Group, MSG.
A MSG meeting is due to be held this month in Vanuatu to discuss a proposal to give the ULMWP membership, which would give West Papua an international platform to push for independence. A number of nations from the MSG have聽West Papua鈥檚 struggle for self-determination and condemned Indonesian human rights abuses in the area.