On 16 March 2006, students from Cenderawasih University protested the Grasberg mine in Abepura, Jayapura, where they blocked the road to the airport and refused talks with representatives of local authorities and did not disperse when ordered by police.

After a standoff, the police's Mobile Brigade Corps (Brimob) opted to disperse the crowd with tear gas, and after some time the protests turned into a clash with the police employing firearms and the protesters throwing rocks and bottles at them.

[1][2] The day after the incident, multiple Brimob officers fired their weapons towards the sky in front of Abepura's military base, injuring three civilians.

[3] Raids were launched against the student dormitories, with 23 people arrested for the attacks, of which 20 were prosecuted.

[4] Australian Senator Natasha Stott Despoja claimed, citing activists, that 16 corpses had been discovered close to the scene of the rioting, though this claim was rebuked by an Indonesian local human rights organization.