West Papua contains some of the last great tracts of undisturbed rain forest in the Asia-Pacific region.

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 in

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 Mov

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 t

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

Rights activists rallied Tuesday outside the Indonesian embassy in Washington D.C.

Indonesia's poorest province, Papua, is once again in the spotlight over its human rights record.

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.

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.

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

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 Abepu

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

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

AI Index: ASA 21/024/2009

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

30 November 2009

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

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 indicat

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 Commi

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 repatria

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 bei

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 r

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

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

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.

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.

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 failur

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

A Morning Star flag was raised in front of the office of the Papuan People's Consultative Assembly in Jayapura, Papua, on Monday.

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

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 co

Washington, D.C. – The Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment, 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 s

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

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 han

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

Yoab Syatfle, a political activist in West Papua, has received repeated death threats.

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

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-143-2009

Dear friends,

Markus Makur, Timika – Hundreds of employees at PT Freeport Indonesia refused to resume work Monday in protest at the deteriorating security situation on road from Timika to Tembagapura

Roselyn Ellison – Seventy-six people from the West Papuan community in Manus province will move back to their homeland, as part of the nationwide repatriation of refugees from the Indon