AP
Smoke billows from a British-made BAe 146 cargo plane that caught fire while being unloaded at the airport in Wamena, in Indonesia's Papua province, on May 8, 2013. An official said that the plane caught fire after an oil drum fell from the aircraft and somehow sparked the fire.
-- The Associated Press
AP
Tjahjono Eranius / AFP - Getty Images
Papuan tribal warriors armed with bows and arrows and improvised shields move into position as clashes erupted anew between two tribes in Kwamki Lama village in Mimikaa, a district located in Indonesia's restive Papua province, on June 18, 2012.
Agence France Presse reports — Two tribesmen were killed, one critically injured and several policemen injured while three police vehicles were torched as tribal clashes erupted in Indonesia's restive Papua province on Monday.
Police and military troops were overwhelmed by the fighting, which was sparked by the death of a tribesman in a road accident in early June.
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Tjahjono Eranius / AFP - Getty Images
A phalanx of armed police blockade a road while a police vehicle burns in the background in Kwamki Lama on June 18, 2012.
Tjahjono Eranius / AFP - Getty Images
An injured Papuan tribal warrior pierced by an arrow is aided by tribesmen in Kwamki Lama on June 18, 2012.
Demonstrators in Indonesia's restive region of Papua raised an outlawed flag on Thursday, marking the 50th anniversary of the region's claim to independence, Agence France Press (AFP) reports. Shortly afterwards, Indonesian police and troops opened fire to break up the protest.
Tjahjono Eranius / AFP - Getty Images
Papuan demonstrators erupt in a short lived celebration as they raise the banned Morning Star flag on a bamboo pole in Timika, eastern Indonesia, on the 50th anniversary of the region's claim to independence, on Dec. 1, 2011. Shortly afterwards, Indonesian police and troops opened fire to break up the protest.
Displaying separatist symbols such as the Morning Star is considered an act of treason in Indonesia under the criminal code and several perpetrators are serving 20-year jail terms for the offence, according to AFP.
Tjahjono Eranius / AFP - Getty Images
Indonesian police backed by troops break up the Papuan separatist flag-raising ceremony displaying the banned Morning Star flag in Timika on Dec. 1, 2011.
Muhammad Yamin / Reuters
Police arrest a man after dispersing hundreds of Papuans attending a ceremony in Timika on Dec. 1, 2011. Police and military dispersed hundreds of people and fired warning shots after they raised the Morning Star flag, a witness said on Thursday.
Papua is the most remote region in Indonesia and the last to be relinquished by its Dutch colonial masters a half century ago. It was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored ballot of tribal leaders that has widely been dismissed as a sham, according to the Associated Press.
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Tjahjo Eranius / AFP - Getty Images
Indonesian police clash with striking workers of US gold and copper mining giant company Freeport McMoran in Timika, Papua province on October 10. Police shot and killed one protester and wounded another. Papua police spokesman Wachyono said that police officers fired warning shots into the air after the striking workers, who are protesting over wages, pelted them with stones, injuring seven policemen.
Spedy Paereng / EPA
Striking miners employed by Freeport McMoran march during a protest in Timika, West Papua, on October 10.
The AP reports from TIMIKA, Indonesia:
Indonesian security forces fired on striking workers at the world's biggest gold mine Monday, killing one and injuring more than a dozen other people, officials said.
Two container trucks heading to the mining town from a nearby port were set ablaze by striking employees, angry that mine operator, Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoran, was bringing in replacement workers by the busload and moving them into their barracks.
Grasberg, which is the world's largest gold mine and one of the biggest copper mines, has frequently seen protests over wages that workers complain are one tenth of what Freeport pays its miners in other countries. Read the full story.
GRAPHIC IMAGE BELOW: Please be forewarned that an image lower down on this post could be disturbing to some readers.
21 people have been reported killed in two separate incidents of political violence in Papua, a province in eastern Indonesia.
On Sunday, the AP reported that 17 were killed in clashes between supporters of rival candidates in upcoming local elections. A police spokesman said that hundreds of supporters of two rival groups clashed with rocks, bows and arrows outside the local parliament building in Puncak district.
The BBC reported a second incident in Abepura district on Monday, where gunmen opened fire on a crowded minibus killing four people and wounding at least seven others.
Pictures taken after the first incident were made available by the AP today.
AP
In a photo taken on August 1 and made available today, villagers survey the damaged home of an election candidate, where a meeting was to be held, after hundreds of supporters of two rival groups clashed at Ilaga in Puncak, West Papua province, Indonesia, on July 31.
AP
A man, with arrows stuck in his body, lies dead as a house belonging to a candidate burns after supporters of two rival groups clashed at Ilaga in Puncak, West Papua, on July 31.
Reuters reported that thousands of Papuans marched on the local parliament in the provincial capital on Tuesday, demanding a referendum for independence from the archipelago.
Indonesia's government and military have been criticized in the past for human rights abuses in the province, after Indonesia took over Papua in 1969 from Dutch colonial rule in a vote by community leaders that was widely criticised as flawed, Reuters reported.
Romeo Gacad / AFP - Getty Images
Papuan tribesmen ride a ceremonial boat during the Lake Sentani festival located in Indonesia's eastern Papua province on June 20. For decades, the only foreign visitors to venture into Papua were gold-diggers, anthropologists, missionaries and soldiers fighting imperial wars. But the vast, western half of New Guinea is slowly opening its doors to tourists as a "hidden paradise", a land of ancient tribal cultures, glittering reefs, soaring glaciers and teeming wildlife. The annual festival brings together thousands of people from 24 communities scattered around the huge lake.
Romeo Gacad / AFP - Getty Images
A tribesman uses a shell as a horn during the Lake Sentani festival.
Romeo Gacad / AFP - Getty Images
Papuan tribal houses are built on stilts on the edge of Lake Sentani, the site of annual festival.
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