Jayapura - Indonesian police last night lowered a separatist Morning Star flag in Jayapura, the capital of the rebellious province of Irian Jaya or West Papua, to comply with a government-mandated midnight deadline.
Thousands of people held peaceful rallies and hoisted separatist flags yesterday in Irian Jaya to mark the anniversary of a unilateral declaration of independence in the troubled province.
But 3,700 km away in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, police fired teargas and beat Irianese outside the US embassy when they rejected demands to stop waving the Morning Star flag, symbol of independence in the remote and resource-rich eastern province.
In Jayapura, there was no immediate resistance last night from a stunned crowd of some 700 in Imbia Park who had earlier vowed to defend the flying of the flag with their lives.