Pradito Rida Pertana, Yogya – A rally by students demanding the closure of the Freeport Indonesia gold mine in West Papua and self-determination for the West Papuan nation at the University of Gajah Mada (UGM) traffic circle in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta was broken up by police on Friday April 7.
The head of the Sleman municipal police operational division, police commander Khundori said that the demonstration was broken up because the protesters, calling themselves the Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-West Papua) and the Papua Student Alliance (AMP), had not notified police beforehand.
“We immediately broke up [the rally] because there was no prior notification, [according to] regulations [there should be] a notification three days before a protest action”, he said.
Khundori added that police were already on alert at the UGM traffic circle before the rally was held which started at around 10am.
“Before [they moved off to the] UGM traffic circle we broke up [the rally] at the point where they were gathering near the UGM entrance gate”, he said in conclusion.
[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was “Polisi Bubarkan Aksi Demo Mahasiswa di Bundaran UGM karena Tak Berizin”.]
