Andra Jackson – The leader of the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers on Christmas Island has made a direct appeal to the Australian public for protection.

Peter Short, Perth – "The voice of West Papua must be heard, it has been silenced for 45 years", West Papua solidarity activist Ned Byrne told a crowd of 140 people who packed into Frem

Sarah Stephen – Greens Senator Kerry Nettle received a warm welcome when she finally managed to get to Christmas Island on January 28-30 to visit the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers and a

Greg Roberts – The number of people crossing illegally from the Indonesian province of West Papua into Australia may be much greater than was thought.

Indonesia has ramped up pressure on the Howard government not to grant asylum to 43 Papuan boat people, with a senior minister denying that human rights abuses are systemic in the troub

Jakarta – Indonesia on Sunday challenged Australia to prove that 43 boat people from troubled Papua province seeking asylum from Canberra are really fleeing persecution.

Tom Allard – Indonesia has stepped up its campaign for Australia to return 43 Papuan asylum seekers, with its new ambassador warning that relations will be strained if they are granted

Indonesia's new Ambassador to Canberra says relations between Australia and Indonesia will certainly be affected if Australia grants refugee status to more than 40 asylum seekers from t

Australians protested around the country last week in solidarity with the 43 West Papuan refugees who have been detained by the federal government on Christmas Island.

Sarah Stephen – Among the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers who were transferred to Christmas Island on January 18 are four family groups.

Sarah Stephen – One of the passengers aboard the outrigger canoe that landed on Cape York peninsula on January 18 was a five-year-old child.

West Papuan asylum seekers on Christmas Island have told Greens senator Kerry Nettle their families have been terrorised by Indonesian security forces since their journey to Australia.

Greg Poulgrain – Ten US members of Congress have described the arrival on Australian shores by canoe two weeks ago of 43 asylum seekers from West Papua as a flight to freedom.

Australian refugee advocates say they are alarmed by the Indonesian Government making a direct request to Prime Minister John Howard for the return of 43 Papuans.

Russell Skelton – Australia and Indonesia are headed for a diplomatic crisis over the fate of 43 West Papuan asylum seekers whose claims of persecution now appear likely to be recognise

A group of Papuan asylum seekers being held in immigration detention on Australia's remote Christmas Island is expected to meet their lawyers for the first time this weekend.

The Hon John Howard MP
Prime Minister of Australia
C/o Australian High Commission UK
Strand London WC2B 4LA

27 January 2006

Dear Prime Minister Howard,

Andra Jackson – A Catholic bishop has warned that Indonesian authorities are "trying to get to" the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers on Christmas Island.

Sarah Stephen – On January 18, 43 West Papuans stepped onto Australian soil at Mapoon on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula.

Ivy Susanti, Jakarta – The Indonesian government urged the group of 43 Papuans seeking asylum in Australia to return home, and pledged that there would be no punishment.

Senator the Hon Amanda Vanstone
Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs
Suite MF 40 Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

25 January 2006

The Indonesia Human Rights Committee is calling on the Australian Prime Minister and Immigration Minister to release the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers detained on Christmas Island.

The Federal Government says it has asked Indonesia for official clarification of reports of a shooting in which one person was killed and two injured, in the troubled province of Papua.

M.

PO Box 15774, Washington, DC 20003

Prime Minister John Howard c/o Embassy of Australia to the United States 1601 Massachusetts Ave, NW Washington, DC 20036-2273

Australia is being told to expect more asylum seekers to make their way to the country from Papua.

Sydney – Refugee activists want the Papuan asylum seekers who landed on the north Queensland coast this week to be brought back from Christmas Island and given bridging visas.

Sydney – Refugee activists branded the Australian government cruel Friday for flying a group of 43 Indonesian asylum seekers who accused Jakarta of genocide to a remote island detention

The Australian Coalition of West Papua Support Groups in Australia call on the Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone to allow the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers to remain in Australia.

"The Australian government must respect the rights of the forty West Papuans who have arrived in Cape York.

Dili – East Timor's government is ready to adopt "drastic measures" to reconstruct Dili, ending anarchy and reducing population pressures, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Wednesday.

Tim Johnston, Jakarta – Seven weeks after December's tsunami devastated Indonesia's Aceh province, the immediate crisis is under control.

We have just received a tragic message from a Papuan contact (copied below), letting us know that three more Papuans have died in just one of the many refugee camps in the jungles of We

Jay Solomon and Andrew Higgins, Banda Aceh – Government authorities here said they are investigating claims by an Indonesian anticorruption watchdog that the number of refugees in some

The Indonesian government said that separatist rebels were not infiltrating refugee camps in tsunami-hit Aceh province and were not responsible for a shooting near the main UN compound,

Fadli, Batam – Dozens of survivors of the quake-triggered tsunami have found they cannot even enter Batam to find their relatives.

Matthew Moore, Banda Aceh – They call them refugee camps, but the scores of little plastic tent settlements that have sprung up across Aceh are unlike the refugee camps that have long b

Alan Sipress, Banda Aceh – At the Indonesian military's primary airfield here, cartons of instant noodles, bottled water and medicine were stacked high inside a hangar Wednesday, awaiti

Jayapura – At least 5,000 people in Indonesia's West Papua province face hunger and starvation after fleeing a military offensive against separatists, church leaders in the region said.

Greg Poulgrain – Thousands of people were starving after they were driven from their villages by Indonesian forces and militia groups, a Papuan leader claimed yesterday.

In Indonesia, at least three people are dead, and as many as 20,000 may have been displaced, after raids in Puncak Jaya district in Papua province.

Nur Raihan, Banda Aceh – The raging armed conflict in Aceh has left behind a huge trauma for the Acehnese people.

Banda Aceh – Indonesian troops killed seven men they claimed were separatist rebels in the country's oil-and-gas rich Aceh province, the military said Sunday.

Banda Aceh – A senior separatist rebel on Tuesday was given 16 years in jail for treason in Indonesia's war-hit Aceh province.

Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh, still the subject of an ongoing corruption investigation, is now facing accusations of supporting the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Jakarta – The Malaysian government is forcibly returning Indonesian refugees from Aceh province to Indonesia where their safety is at risk amid a continuing conflict there, Human Rights

A barbed-wire fence and steel gate stand in the way of Fatimah Ali (not her real name) in Bukit Petaling, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Nezar Patria, Kuala Lumpur – A wooden boat stealthily approached a beach near Port Klang in Malaysia at the end of last February.

Banda Aceh – The troubled province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam still needs 20,000 more teachers for elementary schools, junior high schools and senior high schools in 20 districts and m

Lesley McCulloch, Kuala Lumpur – When her husband died in January, Faridah (not her real name) fled with her two-and- a-half-year-old son from the province of Aceh in Indonesia's northw