The Jakarta office of the International Committee of the Red Cross says as far as it knows negotiations are ongoing over the agreement under which it operates in Indonesia, covering its activities in the Papua region.
However an Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman on Friday said that the ICRC would not be allowed to re-open a branch office in Papua.
Australia West Papua Association, Sydney
PO Box 28, Spit Junction
Sydney, Australia 2088
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
President of Indonesia
c/o The Ambassador
Embassy of Indonesia
8 Darwin Avenue,
Yarralumla,
ACT 2600
22 August 2009
Re: Concern for the health of Filep Karma
Dear President Yudhoyono,
Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The granting of special autonomy to the Papua region has not proven sufficient enough to quell the ongoing internal struggle of its people for independence and separation from Indonesia.
"The root of the problem is Papua's political status, which is not recognized by Indonesia or the world.
Ismira Lutfia & Putri Prameshwari – The Indonesian government on Friday reiterated its position that the International Committee of the Red Cross would not be allowed to open an office in Papua, despite the Australian Senate's motion urging the government to allow the Red Cross unfettered access to the troubled region.
Australia's government has sent a quiet signal to Indonesia about mounting concern over human rights conditions in Indonesia's restive Papua region The Rudd government – facing accusations it's too quite on the issue – has allowed its Senators to support a motion in Parliament's upper house that calls for pressure from Canberra on Indonesia to allow the return of the International R
The Australian upper house has supported a motion to urge for the International Red Cross to be granted full access to Indonesia's restive Papua province.
The motion, put forward by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young on Thursday morning, was supported by the country's Senate, including members of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's government.
Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The recent attacks in Papua, especially those around the Freeport mining complex, were aimed at provoking the military into committing human rights violations that would grab the attention of the international community, a military spokesman said on Tuesday.
The Organisation for Solidarity with Human Rights Victims in Papua claims a political prisoner is in intensive care after prison authorities in Indonesia ignored his requests for treatment for a chronic health problem.
Jakarta – The Mimika regency administration has alloted funds of Rp 200 billion (US$20 million) to establish its own Central Papua province, separate from Papua province.
Mimika Legislative Council (DPRD) spokesman Yosep Yopi Kilangin said Wednesday the DPRD had approved the Rp 200 billion budget.
Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The widespread raising of the outlawed separatist Bintang Kejora flag in Papua, even during Monday's Independence Day celebrations, was branded as a form of discontent voiced by the local people over the "unfair and ineffective development" in their restive province.
Papua police have identified a group suspected of supplying the ammunition used in a number of armed attacks against US-based gold miner PT Freeport Indonesia in the past month, an officer says.
Erwida Maulia – Indonesian Military Chief Gen. Djoko Santoso said the military would be taking action against any members of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) who wave the Morning Star flag in Papua at any point on Indonesia's 64th Independence Day on Monday.
Jacob Rumbiak
Foreign Affairs, West Papua National Authority
Provisional government of West Papua
President Barak Obama
White House, Washington
United States of America
Your Excellency Mr President,
Indonesia's Human Rights Watch group says eight Papuans detained by police in Timika in connection to last month's deadly shootings near the massive Grasberg mine are unlikely to be involved.
This comes as police in Timika increase security in the area after continued shooting attacks along the main road to the mine operated by US mining giant Freeport.
Jakarta – Gunmen fired Sunday at a bus carrying employees of US mining giant Freeport in eastern Indonesia, injuring five, a report said.
The official Antara news agency said the bus was attacked as it transported workers to the world's largest gold mine in Papua province. It said the five were hurt by broken glass.
Jakarta – Papua Police have intensified security measures along a road connecting Timika and Papua following three shooting attacks on the road Wednesday.
Sr. Comr. Agus Rianto, spokesman for the Papua Police, told tempointeraktif.com that police had closed the road and launched investigation at the shooting sites.
A West Papuan human rights activist is in New Zealand this week to lobby support for international dialogue on issues surrounding Indonesia's Papua region.
Australia-based Paula Makabori, who is a member of the Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights, says Australia and New Zealand could play a vital role in addressing the deteriorating situation in her homeland.
A West Papuan human rights activist visiting New Zealand has thanked local outdoor furniture retailers who have stopped selling products made of illegally-sourced kwila, or merbau, hardwood from Indonesia's Papua region.
Nethy Darma Somba, Jayapura, Papua – Papua military commander Maj. Gen. Azmyn Yusri Nasution called on the public Thursday to stop speculating about the involvement of the Indonesian Military (TNI) in a series of attacks on US-based gold miner PT Freeport Indonesia.
Lincoln Tan – A West Papuan activist is leading protests in Auckland to ban imports of kwila, an endangered tropical hardwood used in decking and outdoor furniture.
Heru Andriyanto – US mining giant Freeport McMoRan has criticized a lawsuit filed by Papua's Amungme people, who are seeking $30 billion in damages over the company's 40-year mining operation in the region, saying the action lacks legal credibility.
The Australian Labor Party's National Conference has adopted a motion recognising that West Papuans in Indonesia are experiencing serious human rights abuses.
The Conference has urged Australia's Government to raise concerns about the human rights situation in Papua region and Papuan Special Autonomy with the Indonesian Government.
Cairns – West Papuans in Cairns to lobby the two-day Pacific Islands Forum for observer status and a response to the abuse of human rights in the Indonesian province have been disappointed.
Neither of its requests is recognised in the official communiqui issued at the end of the forum – the 40th.
Vanuatu Prime Minister, Edward Natapei says there simply wasn't time to raise the issue of West Papua at the Pacific Islands forum meeting.
Edward Natapei says NGOs, like Amnesty International and Red Cross, have illustrated what is happening in Papua.
Heru Andriyanto – The Amungme tribe on Thursday filed a $30 billion lawsuit against Freeport McMoRan, one of the world's major mining firms, for alleged damages sustained over 40 years of operations on their ancestral lands in Indonesia's Papua province.
Leaders of the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation were in Cairns North Queensland to push hard for the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) to grant West Papua observer status and also for the forum to discuss many other issues affecting West Papuan people.
It is very disappointing that the Pacific Island Forum (PIF) leaders have again failed to condemn the human right abuses being committed by the Indonesian security forces in West Papua.
Border crossings between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea that were closed last month remain restricted due to the security situation in Papua province, a military official said on Tuesday.
Several West Papuans are gathering in Cairns this week to lobby Pacific Islands Forum leaders at their annual summit to have Indonesia's Papua region discussed at the Forum.
West Papuan representatives have regularly lobbied Forum leaders to raise the issue of ongoing human rights abuses in Papua with the Indonesian government.
Police have charged five more suspects in a spate of deadly shootings at the Indonesian gold mine of US company Freeport, but the motive for the attacks remains a mystery, officials said Friday.
In a doorstop interview following Friday prayers, National Police Headquarters spokesman Nanan Sukarna said that police had now apprehended five additional suspects.
The federal government is warning of a risk of further violence near the Freeport mine in Indonesia's restive Papua province.
Three people have been killed, including 29-year-old Australian mine technician Drew Grant, and more than a dozen wounded in a series of ambushes near the Grasberg mining complex in recent weeks.
Members of the National Liberation Army of the Free Papua Movement are reported to have raised an independence flag in the border region between Indonesia's Papua Province and Papua New Guinea.
The Indonesian newspaper, Kompas Cyber Media website reports that the group raised a Morning Star Flag and demanded open dialogue regarding Papuan independence.
Christian Motte, Jayapura – The Papua Church Council is investigating the recent spate of violence in the province, especially near the PT Freeport Indonesia mining concession, the head of the council said on Tuesday. It also called for security and law enforcement to halt intimidation, arrests and violence against local residents.
Markus Makur, Timika - Police have named seven suspects, including an employee of mining company PT Freeport Indonesia, for their involvement in a series of shootings in the vicinity of the company's mining concession in Timika, Papua, which killed three people.
Timika – A vehicle carrying medical supplies between Timika and Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Corporation's Grasberg mine, about 3,400 kilometres east of Jakarta, was fired on yesterday morning, reports Tempointeraktif.com. There were no fatalities, the report says.
Fidelis E. Satriastanti – The Papua tribe suing mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia reported what it claims is a series of intimidations by the company to the National Commission on Human Rights, or Komnas HAM, on Friday.
Christian Motte – The Papuan People's Assembly, a body representing the cultural and social rights of Papuans, on Friday urged the police to find those responsible for a recent series of armed attacks at the massive Freeport gold and copper mine in Timika.
Christian Motte & Farouk Arnaz – Another convoy of PT Freeport Indonesia vehicles came under attack in Papua on Wednesday, leaving a Timika Police officer and a local Freeport employee with gunshot wounds at the same place as an Australian was shot and killed in a similar ambush near the Grasberg mining complex on July 11.
Anthony Deutsch, Jakarta – Three more people were wounded by gunfire Wednesday at the world's largest gold mine, the latest ambush targeting employees of US conglomerate Freeport in Indonesia's underdeveloped Papua province.
Christian Motte, Jayapura – The trial of 15 people accused of treason just days before April's legislative elections began on Thursday in Papua's Nabire District Court.
One person was injured in a shooting Wednesday along the embattled road leading to the Freeport gold and copper mine in Papua.
Nurhabri, a deputy spokesman for the Papua Police, said someone opened fire on a bus full of Freeport employees at around 11 a.m. local time. Contrary to early reports, no-one was killed in the attack, he added.
Timika, Papua – Fourteen people have been arrested over a series of deadly ambushes near a Freeport gold and copper mine in Indonesia's Papua province, police said yesterday.
Fourteen local Papuans have been arrested over the series of deadly ambushes near the Freeport mine last weekend.
At least several of them are believed to be members of the Amungme tribe whose lands were expropriated by the Indonesian government to make way for the Freeport operations.
Jayapura, Indonesia – Indonesian police have questioned 12 people in connection with deadly shootings near the giant Grasberg mine in Papua operated by a unit of Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc.
The Australian foreign minister says he's leaving it up to Indonesian authorities to decide whether to take up his country's offer for more assistance to investigate the deadly shootings in Papua.
TAPOL warmly welcomes the decision of the Papuan Amungme Tribal Council to file a lawsuit against the Indonesian Government, the Coordinating Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie and Freeport, the operator of the gold and copper mine, which has been exploiting Papua's natural resources for more than thirty years.
Christian Motte – For the sake of their own safety, thousands of Freeport employees are temporarily forbidden to leave the company's Tembagapura mining site in Papua following a series of fatal shootings, a spokesman said on Saturday.
A Papua human rights activist has dismissed claims by Indonesia's Defence Minister that foreign governments or NGOs could be behind a series of deadly ambushes near the Freeport mine in Papua.
Jakarta – "Foreign countries" could be behind a series of deadly ambushes near a US-owned goldmine in Indonesia's remote Papua province that have killed three people, the defence minister said on Thursday.
Jakarta – The Papua Council Presidium (PDP) has called on the central government to form an independent team to investigate a series of shooting along the road to Freeport Indonesia's Gresberg gold and copper mine in Papua.