[Kabar-indonesia] Papuans protest over tribal fighting [+Third tribe joins violence]

[Joyo at aol.com]

also: Third tribe joins inter-tribal violence in Indonesia's
Papua

The Jakarta Post 
Sunday, September 3, 2006

Papuans protest over tribal fighting

INDONESIA: Angry protesters damaged Mimika council building Saturday while 
voicing their demands for an end to fresh fighting between two warring tribes in 
Timika, Papua.

The fighting, which started Friday, left two people dead and dozens of others 
injured. The Dani and Damal tribes had earlier made peace on Aug. 14 by 
holding a traditional arrow-breaking ritual.

During the protest, some 500 people called for the Mimika administration and 
police to stop the fighting in Kwamki Lama hamlet. If they failed to restore 
the peace, the protesters threatened to join the fighting.

At the council building, they destroyed anything they could get their hands 
on, from chairs to desks to files.

Mimika Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Jimmy Tuilan told The Jakarta Post the 
situation was under control by Saturday afternoon, after the protesters returned 
home following a meeting with Mimika Regent Klemen Tinal and himself.

"The residents are protesting because they feel we're not paying any 
attention to them. We were actually holding a meeting to work out a way of stopping 
the fighting when the protesters ran amok," he said.

He said police were making every effort to secure the area. "We hope to end 
the fighting Monday," Jimmy said.

In Kwamki Lama, the fighting continued Saturday. Eighty people were taken to 
Mitra Masyarakat Hospital for treatment, seven of whom were seriously injured.

"Those with mild injuries were discharged, but seven remained. One of the 
seven was in critical condition," the hospital's director, Paulus S. Sugiarto, 
told the Post.

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Third tribe joins inter-tribal violence in Indonesia's
Papua

JAKARTA, September 3 (AFP) -- A third tribe has joined
the violence in a renewed inter-tribal conflict in
Indonesia's remote Papua which has already claimed
three lives, police said.

"The conflict now involves a third tribe, just because
one of its members got inadvertently hurt by an arrow
during violence between the initial warring tribes,"
Papua police spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra told
AFP.

He did not name the tribe but said that angered by the
injury suffered by one of its tribesman on Friday,
hundreds of members of the tribe took to the street,
armed with bows and arrows and machetes.

"They also vandalized two buildings but because the
situation is still tense we have made not arrests for
the time being," Kartono said.

He said that the local police chief declared a curfew
Saturday evening in the town of Timika.

Renewed open tribal war pitting the Dani and Damal
tribes erupted again for the third time since August,
leaving three people dead and more than 80 wounded
according to a staffer at the Mimika Mitra Masyarakat
hospital.

The third tribe, identified by the Kompas daily as the
Mee, pelted the local district council building and a
meeting hall with stones to protest the authorities'
failure to rapidly bring an end to the tribal war.

The authorities have facilitated peace between the two
tribes twice in the past but the renewed violence
broke out following the wounding of a woman by one of
the tribes.

Papua is home to groups that traditionally engage in
elaborate war rituals to solve disputes between clans
or tribes. Conflicts can take days to be resolved,
with each side taking turns to shoot arrows and throw
spears.

According to tradition, a death should be avenged by
another death or the killer's tribe must pay a hefty
fine of prized pigs and hold a feast to seal the
peace.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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