JAYAPURA, Indonesia: Indonesian police used water cannon against protesters in the province of Papua on Tuesday after thousands came out to oppose plans for a major redistricting in the restive region. Jakarta announced last year it was considering making six new provinces in the region, home to a decades-old rebel insurgency. It said the shakeup would accelerate development and make it easier to govern, but many Papuans fumed that they were not consulted, and the move would tighten the capital's control of the mineral-rich region. In March, two people were killed and several others were injured when a protest against the plan turned violent in Papua's Yahukimo district. On May 10, thousands gathered in several locations near the provincial capital Jayapura to reject the plan, with similar protests in other parts of the country. Authorities used water cannon to disperse the protesters in Waena, on the outskirts of Jayapura, national police spokesman Gatot Repli Handoko told Agence France-Presse (AFP). More than 1,000 police officers were sent to the protests in Papua. Papua's ongoing insurgency aims to gain independence from Indonesia, which took control of the former Dutch colony in the 1960s.
