Papuan priest Yohanes Jonga has been named the recipient of the 2009 Yap Thiam Hien Award, the country's most prestigious human rights accolade, for his fearless struggles in the troubled province, the organizing committee said.

Manokwari – A group of people attacked Monday the West Papua governor's office in Manokwari, injuring several civil servants and forcing police to guard the building.

West Papua contains some of the last great tracts of undisturbed rain forest in the Asia-Pacific region. Figures vary but total forest cover in West Papua is believed to be about 40 million hectares.

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-168-2009

Dear friends,

Tom Allard, Jakarta – Protesters staged rallies across the restive Indonesian region of West Papua yesterday, marking the long and fruitless campaign of its Melanesian people to gain independence from Jakarta.

Christian Motte – The police have released 13 Papuans who were arrested on Tuesday as they held a peaceful rally to celebrate the 48th anniversary of the pro-independence Free Papua Movement, the Papua Police chief said on Thursday.

Nurfika Osman – Women and their families in Papua are continuing to be forced out of their homes when their land is cleared for mining purposes and the government does nothing to stop this, the leader of the Papuan People's Assembly said on Wednesday.

Christian Motte & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – As rights activists rallied on Tuesday in Washington demanding the immediate release of two Papuan men on the fifth anniversary of their arrest for raising a separatist flag, 13 other activists were charged in Jayapura, Papua, for demonstrating.

Rights activists rallied Tuesday outside the Indonesian embassy in Washington D.C. demanding the immediate release of two Papuan activists on the fifth anniversary of their arrest for raising a separatist flag.

Indonesia's poorest province, Papua, is once again in the spotlight over its human rights record. Amnesty International has called for an investigation into what it's described as unchecked human rights violations by Indonesian police.

Jayapura – Indonesian police arrested 13 Papuans on Tuesday as activists demanded sovereignty at rallies to mark the 48th anniversary of Papuan "independence", a police spokesman said.

Riot police made the arrests as they dispersed up to 40 activists who had gathered in the main Papuan town of Jayapura carrying posters with banned separatist symbols, he said.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – There is no need for the Indonesian Military (TNI) to set a territorial command in West Papua, says the Papua Parliamentary Caucus.

Ilya Gridneff – Papuan activists have raised the outlawed Morning Star flag in defiance of Indonesia's hardline rule over the disputed territory.

Jonah Wenda, spokesman of the Military Council of the West Papuan Liberation Army, told AAP the activists risked arrest for flying the banned flag near Jayapura, Papua's capital, on Tuesday afternoon.

Jakarta – Police detained several protesters flying outlawed independence flags on Tuesday during peaceful demonstrations against Indonesian rule in the restive Papua province, an official said.

Nala Edwin, Jakarta – The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) is urging the government to investigate the beating of Buchtar Tabuni, a prisoner at the Abepura jail near the Papuan provincial capital of Jayapura. The beating triggered a riot at the jail on November 26.

Jakarta – Amnesty International called Monday for an investigation into a "pattern of unchecked human rights violations" by Indonesian police in restive Papua province.

Jakarta – Mimika police in Papua have put joint forces of 400 policemen and soldiers on alert ahead of the anniversary of the separatist Free Papua Organization (OPM) which falls on Dec. 1.

Mimika police chief Adj. Comr. Muhammad Sagih said Monday that the police had anticipated possible security disturbances or the raising of separatist Morning Star flag.

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Christian Motte – Police in Jayapura and five districts across Papua and West Papua were put on alert as authorities tightened security ahead of the Free Papua Movement separatist group's anniversary today.

AI Index: ASA 21/024/2009

Regional Police Chief (Kapolda)
Inspector General Bekto Suprapto
Jayapura, Papua,
Indonesia

30 November 2009

Re: Open letter on unchecked police abuse in Nabire district, Papua

Dear Inspector General Bekto Suprapto,

It has been reported that up to 400 police and military have been put on alert in Mimika in anticipation of possible Morning Star flag raisings by the West Papuan people

AWPA is concerned that the security forces will use any raising of the Morning Star as an excuse to crack down on the West Papuan people.

As West Papuan national flag day approaches (1st December), the Indonesian security forces are ready to clamp down on anybody who attempts to raise the Morning Star flag in West Papua.

Allegations that correctional officials tortured a political prisoner in a jail in Papua has prompted protests from about 30 highland tribesmen in front of the facility, reports indicated on Friday.

A human rights activist claims the beating of a West Papuan political prisoner in Jayapura underlines the need for Indonesia to re-allow access to the region for the International Committee of the Red Cross, or ICRC.

Harlyne Joku – "They're being sent to a concentration camp." This is how a West Papuan spokesman for the Merauke group living in Port Moresby, Nicholas Balagaize, described the repatriation exercise being carried out by the Indonesian government on the West Papuans who opted to return to their homes in West Papua.

Timika – Residents of Mimika, Papua, hoped the security situation in the area of PT Freeport Indonesia would soon be restored to normal, so that there will be no more employee buses being shot at by gunmen.

Jonathan Pearlman – As dawn was breaking across the Indonesian province of Papua on a Saturday last July, an Australian mine worker, Drew Grant, set out with friends along the winding road near the Freeport mine for a weekend of golf.

Liam Fox, Papua New Guinea – More than 100 people who fled the Indonesian province of Papua to neighbouring Papua New Guinea have returned home.

Several thousand Papuans live in PNG. Some have been here for more than 30 years after fleeing Indonesian rule. Indonesia wants to repatriate about 700 of them.

Nurfika Osman – Despite the raft of killings, abductions and other violence carried out by unidentified groups in Papua, the nation's eyes remain elsewhere, an activist said on Thursday.

Jakarta – Indonesia should release three men imprisoned for raising a banned separatist flag because the harsh punishment undermines the country's democratic values, a prominent rights groups said Thursday.

Cunding Levi, Jakarta – Papua New Guinea repatriated on Thursday 141 Papuans on Thursday as part of the program to return about 700 Indonesian citizens in the Papua New Guinea territory.

President Yudhoyono has a chance to show Papuans before the December 1 anniversary that Indonesia is a rights-respecting country that upholds free expression. Yudhoyono should have these men freed without delay. – Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch

Harlyne Joku – A West Papuan Independence leader in the United Kingdom, Benny Wenda has described 2009 as a vital year for the indigenous people of West Papua.

Mr Wenda, the Chairperson of the Koteka Tribal Assembly based in UK said it is 40 years since the former Indonesian President Suharto announced the result of the so called "Act of Free Choice".

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Former political prisoners raised the separatist bintang kejora (morning star) flag Monday at the Papua People's Council in Jayapura to protest the failure of seven years of special autonomy for the province.

"We say special autonomy has failed," said protest leader Sem Yaru. "If there isn't any improvement, we'd rather demand independence."

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Activists on Monday urged the government to push the police in their stalled investigations of a number of human rights violations in Papua, particularly the murder of Opinus Tabuni, who was killed in August 2008.

A Morning Star flag was raised in front of the office of the Papuan People's Consultative Assembly in Jayapura, Papua, on Monday. The flag, which is the symbol of the West Papuan pro-independence movement, flew for thirty minutes.

A number of policemen arrived and took the flag down. They arrested three people from the assembly's office.

Jayapura – The Papuan Traditional Council (DAP) chief, Forkorus Yobiosembut, in Jayapura, Monday, stated that it was not Kelly Kwalik or his group that committed the series of terrorist acts in the area of PT Freeport Indonesia, Tembaga Pura, Mimika, Papua.

"I've communicated with Kelly, and he said he wasn't the one who did the terror acts," said Forkorus, Monday.

Ilya Gridneff, Port Moresby – Three Papua New Guinea politicians have joined an international campaign to support West Papuans persecuted by Indonesian authorities.

Jayapura – Logging and agribusiness is threatening environmental destruction in Indonesia's Papua region, one of the world's last vast wildernesses, local leaders said on Thursday.

Mimika – More than 22 percent of the population in Mimika regency, Papua, or about 40,000 people, are illiterate.

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-152-2009

Dear friends,

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The Indonesian Armed Forces said on Tuesday that it would not seek to influence President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's response to an open letter from two US congressmen regarding the restive Papua region.

Washington, D.C. – The Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment, Rep. Eni Faleomavaega, along with the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, Rep.

Jayapura – The Papuan Traditional Council (DAP), the Human Rights and Violence Foundation (Yahamak), and the Association of Pengunungan Tengah Students (AMPTI) urged police to release seven people arrested for a series of attacks on PT Freeport Indonesia.

Australia West Papua Association, Sydney
PO Box 28, Spit Junction, Sydney, Australia 2088
email: bunyip@bigpond.net.au

The Hon Stephen Smith MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra
ACT 2600

2 November 2009

Re: West Papuan political activists Yoab Syatfle and Victor Yeimo

Dear Stephen Smith,

James Crafti – As workers filed out from their shift at the Buana factory in western Jakarta, they were greeted by members of the Solidarity Alliance for Workers Struggle (GSPB) who handed them leaflets demanding wage rises and improvements to working conditions. Very few of Indonesia's mostly women industrial workers are unionised.

Makassar – Dozens of Papuan students in Makassar staged a protest on Thursday, rejecting the special autonomy status given to Papua in 2001.

The protesters said the special autonomy failed to bring about prosperity in the province, and had instead created new problems in relation to fund disbursement.

Yoab Syatfle, a political activist in West Papua, has received repeated death threats. The threats, sent via SMS to his mobile phone, are apparently related to his peaceful political activities. On 26 October, Yoab Syatfle received six anonymous SMS messages threatening that he would be abducted and killed if he left his house.

An Indonesian political activist has received a number of anonymous SMS messages warning him that he will be killed if he leaves his home, Amnesty International has learned.

Cunding Levi, Jakarta – Indonesian diplomats stationed in European countries faced a protest by dozens of Papuan students during a visit by the diplomats to a university in Jayapura the seat of the province.

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-143-2009

Dear friends,