Jakarta, NU Online
Tens of youths from Papua demonstrated in front of the Gedung Plaza 89 in Kuningan, South Jakarta, where PT Freeport Indonesia’s Jakarta office is located on Wednesday to demand the closure of the company’s operations in Timika.

The youths from the West Papua People’s Struggle Unity Front (Front Pepera PB) carried  posters and banners containing their demands.

<>"The foreign investor in Timika has not brought any  welfare to the locals. People have remained poor in spite of its presence for the past 30 years in the region. Around 37 percent of the local population live below the poverty line and are still backward," the demonstrators’ spokesman, Viktor Kogoya said.

He said the Front Pepera PB had also asked the government to facilitate a political dialogue on  various problems facing them.

"The success of the government in settling the Aceh problem must be repeated in Papua. It is high time for the government to settle the Papua problem," he said as quoted by Antara.

Tens of policemen blocked access to the building so that the dmonstrators could not enter it.

The rally proceeded orderly but the demonstrators were disappointed because there was no response from the  company.

"The demonstration happened at lunch time so that many company employees who wanted to go out for lunch could not do so and had to wait until it was over," a security guard said. (dar)