UPDATED: 6:51am – Reports from West Papua say one man is dead and up to 16 people have been injured in a police shooting.
The local newspaper Tabloid Jubi reported seven children are among those who were injured in the incident in Deiyai district on Tuesday.
Four of the injured were airlifted to hospital in Nabire on Wednesday according to a human rights lawyer who deals with West Papua.
Tabloid Jubi reported the security forces were called to deal with a group who were complaining a company hadn’t assisted when a man needed help to get to hospital after drowning.
The lawyer Veronica Koman spoke to an eye witness to the shooting and has seen photos of the injured.
“The company called Brimob (Mobile Brigade Corps). Brimob is a special taskforce of police and Brimob taskforce came and just shooting at people. As a lawyer I think it’s not proportional, even if they were angry but it’s not necessary to shoot randomly at people. Like children got injured,” Veronika Koman said.
-RNZ
