Pete Thomas: What footage will you be broadcasting?

Mark Davis: It's a rather extraordinary video that was sent to us last week from the Balian valley, from an OPM rally, which is documenting reports that have been coming out all this year from church groups, but of course no journalists are allowed in there at the moment.

It's documenting a military operation thats going on at the moment, cracking down on the independence movement, which had been "tolerated" more or less for the last couple of years but that period has come to an end very firmly. These accounts are the first eyewitness accounts of people being shot ... we don't know how many, some tens of them at least. There's villages being burnt down, there's reports of up to 5000 people hiding in the forest.

Pete Thomas: Is there any information about who's actually controlling these forces, are they paid security connected to mining companies?

Mark Davis: No, It's just conventional TNI ... the tape we have, this is a speech, a secret rally if you like, again calling for independence, but more importantly saying look we are being decimated, um we cannot fight, we don't have weapons, and it's a call to the international community and it comes with a letter addressed to Megawati, pleading for the troops to be withdrawn, pleading for the fighting to end, and it's also written to the Prime Minister of Australia and to the head of the UN, asking for international assistance in trying to broker talks ... So we're going to pass that letter on to Mega, we'll send it to John Howard, we'll send it Kofi Annan and we'll send this tape along with it.

Pete Thomas: It certainly sounds quite disturbing.

Mark Davis: There's no horrific footage. It's just literally a plea. No footage comes out of this place. This is the great untold story of our time and it is on our doorstep. No footage comes out of this place and so, in that great clichi, no picture no story and that's exactly what's been happening to the Papuans and the Indonesians have understood this very well and they've sealed this place off very effectively, and with very few people going in, no international agencies, certainly no reporters allowed in, generally tourists aren't allowed in ... nothing comes out of the place, so in that environment you can do whatever you like and that's exactly what's been happening.

Pete Thomas: I was looking at a comment from Senator Robert Hill on the issue and he said that West Papua was an integral part of the Indonesian republic, we've not changed that opinion and there's no reason to suggest that will in the future.

Mark Davis: Unlike east Timor which always had Portugal with an ongoing interest, West Papua interests nobody, nobody has an interest there. They have no sponsor. There's no one that will support them internationally ... This place is unspeakable, this place is the full horror story. I've covered it for many years, it's as bad as you can imagine, it is the nightmare of, it's the place of nightmares and it's not sustainable ultimately and it's not sustainable for any Australian politician to support Indonesian action there.