Around 300 members of the Papuan Students Alliance in Surabaya, East Java, staged a protest on Saturday, nearly clashing with a separate group that appeared to be staging a counter-protest, The Jakarta Post reports. The Free Papua Movement, a separatist group in Indonesia’s restive Papua province, declared independence from Dutch rule on Dec. 1, 1961. That was rejected by the Dutch and later by Indonesia. A petition banned by the Indonesian government, but bearing the signatures of 1.8 million West Papuans – more than 70% of the contested province’s population – has been presented to the United Nations, with a demand for a free vote on independence, The Guardian reports.