Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesian police said on September 2 that they havebeen investigating possible foreign involvement in violent protests in Papuaand West Papua provinces since August 19.

President Joko Widodo has ordered the police to look into the acts of racismagainst the Papuan students as well as take firm action against the groupsresponsible for the subsequent violent protests in the localities.

National Police Chief Tito Karnavian said the groups have links to aninternational network.

According to National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Mohammad Iqbal, an investigation is already underwayto follow up on initial information related to foreign involvement in a seriesof incidents on the islands of Java and Papua in the past two weeks.

The police have mapped out the groups who drove racial discrimination andviolent protests, he said.

Earlier, another National Police spokesman, Brig.Gen. Dedi Prasetyo, said an investigation, jointly conducted by theNational Police, the National Intelligence Agency and the National Cyber andEncryption Agency, had discovered 1,750 Facebook and Twitter accounts that hadbeen the source of 32,000 fake news articles and provocative content about thecurrent security situation in Papua. Some of these accounts were operated fromoverseas.

The findings were already reported to the Communication and InformaticsMinistry. All of the fake news articles have been deleted from Facebook andTwitter.

Some 6,000 extra personnel have been deployed to Papua and West Papua to regaincontrol.

Police Chief Tito Karnavian and Military Commander Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto hadset up office in Papua since September 2, and they would stay on the islanduntil the security situation returns to normal.

The Directorate General of Immigration on September 2 announced that itdeported four Australian nationals, aged 25-37, for their participation inpro-independence protests in Papua on August 27.

Thousands of people, mostly students, take to the streets to protest againstracism and discrimination. The protestors blocked roads and destroyed sevenstate agencies. Police said the riots caused an estimated 4.9 million USD inasset loss.

Indonesia took control of Papua, former colony of the Netherlands, in 1969following a vote patronised by the United Nations. Papuan locals’ practice andculture are radically different from the remaining parts of Indonesia.-VNA