Jayapura – Today, on Monday February 17, students who are members of the West Papua High School Students Solidarity Front (FSPWP) held peaceful demonstrations against the government's free nutritious meals (MBG) program in a number of cities in the land of Papua.
Some of the demonstrations were broken up or restricted, but there were others that were not. Actions were held in Jayapura, Wamena, Yalimo, Nabire, Dogiyai and several other cities in Papua.
In Dogiyai, a protest action was held in the courtyard of the Dogiyai regent's office, while in Wamena an action was held at the Wamena Cross Monument and was visited by acting governor of the Papua Highlands province Dr. Velix Wanggai.
After meeting with the protesters the governor then invited them to come to the provincial governor's office in Wamena where they met with the acting regent of Jayawijaya regency and the Regional Leadership Coordinating Forum (Forkopimda) in the governor's courtyard.
In Jayapura, as many as 15 students were arrested by the police from the Herram Sectoral Police (Polsek). A team from the Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) has been accompanying those who were detained.
In the protest actions carried out in other cities in the land of Papua, the protesters consisting of junior and senior high school students rejected the free nutritious meals program which has been promoted by the central government.
They asked that instead of the free meals program, schooling in every school should be free.
In preparation for today's demonstrations, on Saturday February 15 the FSPWP handed out leaflets rejecting the MBG. Leaflets were distributed in a number of cities namely Jayapura, Wamena, Nabire and Yalimo regency.
[Translated by James Balowski. Abridged slightly due to repetition. The original title of the article was "Solidaritas Pelajar WP Gelar Aksi Penolakan Program MBG di Sejumlah Kota di Tanah Papua".]
