Indonesia riots: six dead, Facebook and WhatsApp features blocked as anti-China hoaxes spread22/5/2019 JAKARTA, May 22 -- Indonesian authorities said on Wednesday they were limiting access to social media platforms after six people were killed and about 200 injured in riots that followed the release of the country’s official election results. The deaths came as supporters of the unsuccessful presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto, clashed with security forces and set fire to a police dormitory and vehicles in Jakarta on Wednesday after the release of the results, which showed Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to have won a second term with more than 55 per cent of the vote. Some of the protesters chanted anti-Chinese slogans such as “Usir Cina” (kick Chinese out) and “Awas Asing” (beware of foreigners) – apparently in reference to Jokowi, who has been criticised for favouring the Chinese Indonesian community and for his openness to investment from China. A total of 69 people were arrested in the violent protests, which calmed down in the afternoon but resumed at around 7pm outside the Election Monitoring Body (Bawaslu) office in central Jakarta, where hundreds of mostly young, masked protesters hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at security personnel. Rioters accused the police of defending the “unfair election”, and said they would not back down. “They are provoking us. The police tried to disperse us and prevent us from expressing our rights to protest,” said Hasan Ali, a 29-year-old protestor from Bandung. “We will not back down. We will keep fighting. We only responded to police violence. They shot us with tear gas. It shows clearly that they are guarding this fraud and unfair election,” he said. A riot police officer, who declined to be named, said the demonstrators were “violating the regulations of mass gatherings”. “They should be dispersing themselves before 7pm, according to law,” said the officer. “They provoked us by burning things on the roads, and trying to push to enter the Bawaslu office. We all are tired and they keep provoking us. None of us are using sharp bullets. It’s totally a big lie.” Some protestors said foreign media were intentionally making them look bad and siding with the incumbent by “hiding the truth”.
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