West Papuan activists have voiced disappointment that the issue of West Papua was not brought up at the Forum Leaders Summit in Port Vila.
The new chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, Vanuatus Prime Minister, Edward Natapei, indicated earlier this year he would pursue the issue at the Forum level.
No official decision was made at a special sitting of the upper house of the Papua provincial parliament to formally return special autonomy status to the Indonesian Government in Jakarta.
But an Australia-based human rights advocate, Nick Chesterfield, says the upper house and the Papuan Traditional Council have agreed to call for a Papuan Peoples Congress.
Robin McDowell, Jakarta – The jumpy video shows a prisoner lying in a jungle clearing in eastern Indonesia moments after troops allegedly sliced open his abdomen with a bayonet, sending intestines tumbling from his stomach.
Using the little life he has left in him, Yawen Wayeni lifts his arm into the air, and says weakly, "Freedom! Papua... Freedom!"
Jakarta – Ahead of an audit of Papua's special autonomy regional development fund, an NGO has urged the government to recognize that the root of problems causing resentment among Papuans is in fact a political, not an economic issue, an NGO says.
Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – The prevailing violence being committed by police and military personnel to quell separatist sentiment in resource-rich Papua would cease if the central government was committed to prosecuting those responsible for past human rights abuses, an NGO says.
The statement came on the heels of another show of violence in the restive province.
Rebecca Henschke, Jakarta – Papua's most well-known pro-independence leader, Filep Karma, is serving 15 years in jail for rebellion. Amnesty International considers him a prisoner of conscience.
In a rare interview with a local radio station, obtained by the BBC, he claimed he had suffered physical and mental abuse while in jail.
Nivell Rayda, Jakarta – The government must shift its policy approach on Papua away from the welfare model and toward one focused on resolving the political turmoil there, a leading security NGO said on Tuesday.
Fifty members of the United States Congress have called on President Barack Obama to hold Indonesia accountable for what they call slow motion genocide in the Papua region.
They have signed a letter to Mr Obama saying there're strong indications the Indonesian government has committed genocide against Papuans.
John M. Glionna, Jakarta – The video, shot in the jungle of Indonesia's restive Papua province, shows a wounded political activist lying face-up on the ground, surrounded by an armed national police tactical squad.
Jakarta – After a decade of implementation, the central government plans to thoroughly evaluate the special autonomy for Papua next year, an official says.
Director of regional administration and special autonomy at the Home Affairs Ministry, Sumarsono, said the central and Papua governments would determine parameters of the review.
Jakarta – A high-profile prisoner sentenced to 15 years' jail for raising a banned flag in Indonesia's Papua province returned to prison Saturday after surgery for a potentially life-threatening prostate ailment that had been denied for nearly a year.
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – A planned dialogue between the central government and Papua to seek a comprehensive settlement to long-standing problems is in limbo because both sides still deeply distrust one another, researchers say.
Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday demanded an audit of Papua's special autonomous status following rising complaints that it had failed to improve the welfare of the people after nine years.
Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Papua's special autonomy fund should be kept separate from the province's budget and independently managed by a new institution, a DPR member says.
Indonesia Human Rights Committee,
Box 68-419,
Auckland, 1125
New Zealand
25 July, 2010
The Secretary General
Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat
Private Mail Bag
Suva, Fiji
2010 Pacific Island Forum
Dear Heads of States,
Dev Nadkarni – A push for independence in Indonesia's rich but troubled territory of Papua is set to become an issue for the Pacific Island Forum.
Vanuatu is leading the regional charge in lending open support for the long-standing cause of the territory's independence from Indonesia.
The decision of the Obama Administration to begin "gradual and limited" engagement with the Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus) ignores more than a decade-old, bi-partisan, bi-cameral Congressional consensus opposing assistance to that organization.
Banjir Ambarita & Nurfika Osman, Jayapura – The separatist Free Papua Movement, which has been engaged in a low-profile armed resistance against the Indonesian presence in the province since the 1960s, on Thursday threatened to step up attacks against the government until Papuan independence was granted.
A decision that was adopted at a recent congress of the OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka) along with its armed wing, Tentara Papua Nasional/TPN, made it clear that the organisation would continue to struggle for independence, that is to say, for secession from the Republic of Indonesia.
The Industry Ministry said Tuesday that the government planned to expand the pulp and paper industry to eastern Indonesia, including Papua, because of its vast tracts of forest.
"Currently, only western Indonesia has pulp and paper factories," Industry Minister MS Hidayat said after opening the April Technology Center (ATC) in Pelalawan, Riau.
Re: Pacific Islands Forum
Dear Prime Minister,
Nivell Rayda – A report published by an Australian university this month warns that massacres such as those alleged to have occurred in East Timor are likely to occur in Papua.
Camelia Pasandaran & Banjir Ambarita – If the broad autonomy accorded to Papua had not raised the region's prosperity it was the local authorities' fault, government ministers said on Tuesday.
Dear MSG leaders,
Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – Several correctional officers were injured when dozens of prisoners at Abepura Penitentiary rioted on Sunday in revenge for a previous incident in which officers beat up an inmate and took his money.
Jayapura – Tolikara district on Saturday afternoon succeeded in ending a tribal war that erupted in the small hour of the morning.
Jakarta – Most political prisoners in Papua refused to ask for a pardon from the President as they claimed not guilty for their separatist movement.
Kompas.com reported that there are 34 Papuan political prisoners who were involved in the Free Papua Movement in the 1960s.
Karishma Vaswani – Hundreds of protesters in West Papua have continued their demonstrations rejecting the province's special autonomy status.
The protesters, who camped outside the provincial parliament in Jayapura overnight, say they will not leave until their demands are heard by the government in Jakarta.
Papua is in a state of heightened tension following a series of events that culminated in a mass rally yesterday by thousands of Papuans at the provincial parliament, the DPRP, in Jayapura.
Indonesian police have been praised for showing restraint in their handling of a massive demonstration in the capital of Papua province.
At least 50,000 Papuans marched towards the provincial parliament in Jayapura yesterday, calling for formal rejection of special autonomy status.
Jayapura, the Baliem valley and Timika – The next trick is to find a way out of Wamena. The only airline with seats available is a company whose track record includes ten crashes and forced landings. Flying can be hazardous anywhere in Indonesia, and the same is at least as true of Papua. If I am to move on quickly, however, I have no choice.
Amnesty International has welcomed the release of an Indonesian prisoner of conscience jailed for his role in a peaceful flag-raising protest.
Jayapura – Thousands of Papuans rallied on Thursday to urge the provincial legislature to demand a referendum on self-determination, and reject the region's special autonomy within Indonesia.
1. June 9-10 2010 open forum convened by the MRP and Traditional Papuan people. Consensus reached that Otsus has "totally failed".
2. 15 June 2010 MRP publicise the results of the public deliberations and a list of demands.
A prominent Papuan activist jailed for raising an outlawed separatist flag has been released after Indonesia granted him a pardon, an official said on Thursday.
Neles Tebay – Last Friday indigenous Papuans – through the provincial legislative council – symbolically handed back the 2001 Law on Special Autonomy to the Indonesian government.
Bonnie Malkin, Sydney – Anthony Corbyn, who holds dual British and Australian nationality, was attempting to sail from Australia to the Philippines as part of a bid to circumnavigate the globe, when his yacht the Shiseido hit a coral reef ten days ago.
Dear Prime Minister,
Hans David Tampubolon, Jakarta – The Regional Representatives Council claims the government was too slow in helping victims of a 7.1-magnitude earthquake that rocked the Papua regencies of Yapen and Biak last week.
An academic in Indonesian politics says the United Nations approval of the referendum which incorporated Papua region into the republic makes it difficult to have it revised.
The Indonesian government has told the global rights watchdog group, Human Rights Watch, that it plans to address the mistreatment of political prisoners in Papua.
In its new report on freedom of expression in Indonesia, HRW found that jails hold at least 100 political prisoners from the Papua and Moluccas regions, and some are being tortured.
A Vanuatu member of parliament says he's not worried about reaction from Indonesia to Vanuatu's attempts to get the question of West Papua raised internationally. On Saturday, parliament unanimously passed a motion calling for the International Court of Justice to investigate the legality of West Papua becoming part of Indonesia in the 1960s.
Nivell Rayda – The government must release 100 political prisoners in Papua and Maluku if it is to make any headway in its upcoming human-rights dialogue with the European Union, says a leading rights group.
More than 2,500 homes were "badly damaged" and 17 deaths in Wednesday's 7.1-magnitude earthquake in Papua, Andi Arief, the presidential adviser for social welfare, said on Monday.
Vanuatu's parliament has unanimously passed a motion calling for the International Court of Justice to investigate the the legality of West Papua becoming part of Indonesia. The motion was jointly sponsored by prime minister Edward Natapei and opposition leader Maxime Carlot Korman.
Vanuatu's Prime Minister, Edward Natapei, has said he will sponsor the issue of Papua to the Melane sian Spearhead Group and Pacific Islands Forum meetings.
He will propose that the independent movement of West Papua be granted Observer Status within these two regional bodies.
A Vanuatu government MP says it's hoped that parliament's passing of a motion to raise issues around the status of Indonesian territories of New Guinea, at the United Nations, won't upset relations with Jakarta.
Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Around 2,000 Papuans went on a 20-kilometer march Friday to demand the Papua Legislative Council overturn the province's special autonomy status.
The protesters held a peaceful rally, some clad in traditional attire, and marched from the Papua People's Assembly in Abepura to the council building in Jayapura.
Banjir Ambarita & AFP, Jayapura – An estimated 2,000 Papuans took to the streets of provincial capital Jayapura to demand independence from Indonesia, days after a local council called for the province's special autonomy to be revoked because of its perceived ineffectiveness.
Two official Papuan representative bodies in Indonesia's Papua region have announced they're "handing back" Special Autonomy status to Jakarta.