In Indonesia, at least three people are dead, and as many as 20,000 may have been displaced, after raids in Puncak Jaya district in Papua province. Thousands of Papuans who fled the raids, allegedly by Kopassus Special Forces, are sheltering in the Highlands and badly in need of food. It's believed at least two people died when villagers were fired on from a helicopter.

Presenter/Interviewer: Kathy Leverett

Speakers: Pastor Socrates Sofyan Yoman, President of the Fellowship of Baptist Churches in Papua

Leverett: Reports are only now filtering in, of a raid carried out on October the 17th, in pursuit of members of the Free Papua Movement.

Pastor Socrates Sofyan Yoman, President of the Fellowship of Baptist Churches in Papua, has just returned from a visit to the town of Mulia. He says that on the 14th September, the military killed a clergyman there, the Reverend Eleesa Tabuni.

Yoman: The Special Forces shoot him, and is killing him. And I have meeting with the military commander, Kopassus commander, I meet them. And then I make contact with the local people, and I confirm with them.

Leverett: Shortly afterwards, the Pastor says, troops in a helicopter fired on Papuans who were gathering food in a garden, killing two of them. The villagers fled and, he says, are now starving, because the military destroyed their crops.

Yoman: 22 churches empty now. No people. People run to the mountains. Now they need food, yeah? Now, they need food.

Leverett: The human rights organisation, Elsham, says the operation was carried out in revenge for the killing in September of a group of road workers. According to Elsham, local church members refused to hand over a witness to the execution of the clergyman.

Members of the Papuan parliament say they'll set up an investigation into the raids, and the move has been backed by Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Observers say Kopassus Special Forces may be trying to pressure the President into giving up his plan for special autonomy for Papua. They say the region provides the military with considerable income, from sources such as the illegal logging of timber.