Hanoi (VNA) – Indonesia has blocked Internet access in eastern Papua to preventprovocative posts online from fueling violence, after a wave of protests against mistreatment ofstudents and ethnic discrimination turned into riots.

The country’sCommunications and Informatics Ministry has cut off access to telecommunicationdata and Internet to prevent people in Papua from accessing social media sinceAugust 21 night, though calls and text messages will still work, said ministryspokesman Ferdinandus Setu.

It was aneffort to stop people from sharing offensive messages that can spark racialhatred, he noted, adding that the restriction may be removed if the situationis back to normal.

Indonesiansecurity minister, police chief and military commander visited the port city ofSorong in Papua province to inspect where theprotests erupted, but there was no report of fresh demonstrations there.

Demonstrationshave spread across Papua after thousands of people, mostly university students,took to the street on August 19 to protest racism and discrimination. Theyblocked roads, damaged an airport and set fire to the headquarters of theRegional Legislative Council.

Authorities are hunting for more than 250 inmates who hadescaped from a prison in Sorong that was torched during the riots.

Over 1,000policemen have been deployed to Papua to maintain security there.

According tonational police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo, anger boiled over at reportsthat authorities tear-gassed and detained some 43 Papuan university students inthe country's second biggest city, Surabaya, on August 17 - Indonesia'sIndependence Day. The students were detained but released hours later after noevidence was found that they had damaged the flag.

Papua is a former Dutch colony in the western part of New Guinea that isethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia. It was incorporatedinto Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored ballot. –VNA