Tony Blair MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA

26 March 2006

Dear Prime Minister,

Your visit to Indonesia: Concerns about West Papua

Sydney – The Australian government must take the issue of Papua's right to self-determination to the United Nations, the Greens say.

Jakarta – Indonesia has recalled its ambassador to Australia amid a furore over Canberra's decision to grant temporary visas to 42 asylum seekers from restive Papua province.

Greens Senator Kerry Nettle has urged Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to press Indonesia for an end to violence in West Papua.

Washington – Australia's top diplomat in the US has delivered a rousing speech in support of Indonesia and criticised the motives of fighters for the independence of Papua.

Port Vila – In the 1960s, the Government of the USA shamefully sold out West Papua as a bribe to Indonesia for its cooperation in halting the spread of communism in Southeast Asia and t

Havana – President Fidel Castro has confirmed that Cuba is prepared to receive another 400 young people from Timor Leste for medical training, and to extend the new literacy method Yo s

New Delhi – India and Indonesia, Asia's largest democracies, agreed Wednesday to forge closer defense and economic ties and cooperate in fighting terrorism, Indonesia's president said.

The Pacific Concerns Resource Centre expresses alarm and disgust at recent news that Australia has signed a new Security Treaty with Indonesia.

Jakarta – Indonesia has greeted with a sigh of relief a decision by the United States Congress to omit references to Papua from the State Department Authorization Bill, saying it reflec

Ati Nurbaiti, Jakarta – Karen P.

Washington – Thirty-five members of the US Congress have called on Indonesia to lift travel restrictions to West Papua and halt the military buildup in the province where a rebellion ha

Tony Hotland and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The House of Representatives has warned the government to take all possible measures to block a US Congress bill that questions the s

Washington – As a peace deal nears in a 29-year war in Aceh, US lawmakers are seeking support for an independence movement in another Indonesian province: West Papua, also the site of a

Jakarta – A United States Congressman assured Indonesia on Thursday of his country's support for the territorial integrity of this country, which has been plagued by secessionist moveme

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Papuan leaders reacted cautiously on Monday to the bill recently approved by the US House of Representatives, stressing that Papua is legally part of Indo

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – The House of Representatives plans to send a four-member delegation to the US to lobby congress in an attempt to block passage of a bill that raises questions ab

Neles Tebay, Rome – The government is beginning to pay the price for its reluctance to honor its commitment to fully implement Law No. 21/2001 on special autonomy for Papua.

Jakarta – The government should be more serious in handling problems in Papua following foreign intervention like the support given by an American senator for Papuan freedom.

Jakarta – The US State Department announced on Friday that Washington would not support any effort that would allow Papua to gain independence from Indonesia.

Jakarta – The Indonesian National Youth Committee (KNPI) will soon send a protest letter to the US administration through its embassy here against the US Congress adopting a bill questi

Jakarta/Shenzen, China – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned the US not to interfere in Indonesia's domestic affairs after the US House of Representatives recently approved a bill

Tom Allard – It has to be the most unlikely of alliances, a concord that has defied a bloody history forged in battle.

A senior Indonesian diplomat, who has accused some Australian aid groups of fuelling separatist sentiment in restive Papua, has been nominated as Jakarta's new ambassador to Australia.

Matthew Moore Herald, Jakarta – Imron Cotan has been told he will be returning to a new position, having barely completed half of his three-year term that began in November 2003.

Dan EatonSat – Fury in Australia over the jailing of a young woman in Bali for drugs smuggling has puzzled ordinary Indonesians, and given the world's most populous Muslim nation a chan

Alan Boyd, Sydney – "Twelve brutal Indonesian troopers armed with high-caliber rifles.

Max Lane, Murdoch WA, Australia – Since soon after the arrest of Schapelle Corby in Bali sections of the Australian media have waged a non-stop campaign agitating for her to be found in

Scott Burchill – From an Australian perspective there have always been two separate relationships with Indonesia.

A biological attack on Indonesia's embassy in Canberra has damaged Australia's standing among Indonesians, Prime Minister John Howard said, but he downplayed the threat it posed to the

Rendi Witular, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) denied on Monday reports saying it had reduced its naval presence in a maritime area of Ambalat that has been at the center of dis

James Crafti, Canberra – "Over the years our relations have experienced many twists and turns, highs and lows ...

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono laid a wreath at an East Timor cemetery where Indonesian soldiers massacred dozens of pro-independence protestors 14 years ago.

Matthew Moore – As is usually the case with those watching him for the first time, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono left few people unimpressed.

Rendi A.

With a 21-gun salute, Indonesia's president was greeted in East Timor on a visit to bolster reconciliation between Jakarta and the territory it once occupied with brutal force.

Andrew Burrell – John Howard gushes that he is an "impressive man" of "immense grace and character" who represents Indonesia's "future, not its past".

Separatist leaders from the Indonesian province of West Papua say they are not troubled by Australian Prime Minister John Howard's latest statement that Australia will recognise the ter

Reporter: Tanya Nolan

Tanya Nolan: The Australia-Indonesia relationship has been tense at best since East Timor's transition to independence.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono hailed a "new era" of relations with Australia here as a spate of shared tragedies brought the once-rival neighboring nations closer togeth

Zakki P.

Jakarta – Activists here criticized the media for contributing to the tension between Indonesia and Malaysia over the disputed Ambalat offshore oil block in the Sulawesi Sea.

Louise Williams – A proposed new security treaty between Australia and Indonesia is likely to face political sniping in Jakarta, despite the goodwill generated by Australia's response t

Ioannis Gatsiounis, Kuala Lumpur – The last news to come from Malaysia and Indonesia was that the two countries were working hard diplomatically to resolve a border row in the Sulawesi

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Denpasar – Indonesia and Malaysia began negotiations on Tuesday behind closed doors in Bali to seek a peaceful solution to the Ambalat border dispute.

Lisbon – Foreign Minister Diogo Freitas do Amaral says Lisbon's new Socialist government intends to increase its cooperation with Portuguese-speaking African countries and East Timor, w

Kalinga Seneviratne, Jakarta – From Medan to Jakarta, Yogakarta, Surabaya, Solo and Batam, all across this vast archipelago Indonesian konfrontasi, or confrontation volunteer militias,

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Indonesia and Malaysia pledged on Friday to use all means possible to defuse tensions, including some "adjustments" to prevent armed conflict, and hav

Yuliawati, Jakarta – The Malaysian government has made complaints regarding demonstrations by Indonesians in front of the Malaysian Embassy in Jakarta.

Joseph Nevins – When I saw Paul Wolfowitz's smug grin in the January 17 issue of The New York Times, trouble was clearly on the horizon.