Dili – A call for more lenient abortion legislation in this predominantly Catholic country is renewing friction between the Church and pro-abortion activists.

Jakarta – Education and Sport Minister Adhyaksa Dault revealed Saturday evening that 15,000 Indonesians die of drug-related illnesses each year.

The Australia West Papua Association says dramatic statistics about infant and maternal mortality emerging from the Provincial Health Department in Indonesia's Papua are almost certainl

Jakarta – An average of 2.3 million women, 30 percent of whom are teenagers, report having abortions in Indonesian each year, according to a report released by an NGO on Monday.

Jakarta – Most generic medicines consumed here fall short of international standards, with drug companies complicit in the scam, experts said Tuesday.

Tara Ravens – Women in East Timor are forced into potentially fatal abortions because they cannot legally terminate a pregnancy even for medical reasons, according to a Darwin researche

A report has found women in East Timor are 300 times more likely to die during childbirth than women in developed countries.

Yemris Fointuna and Agus Maryono, Kupang, Purwokerto – Six children in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, have died of acute malnutrition over the past two weeks while Banyumas, Central Java,

Agus Maryono, Purwokerto – In the past two years, at least 137 people in the four regencies of the Banyumas area of Central Java have committed suicide by hanging themselves because of

Panca Nugraha, Mataram – West Nusa Tenggara was ranked 32nd among 33 provinces in the Indonesian Human Development Index (HDI), since its illiteracy and maternal and infant mortality ra

Jakarta – Poor sanitation has cost the state in terms of both health and wealth, a World Bank expert said Thursday, citing annual revenue losses estimated at Rp 56 trillion yearly.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Papua's provincial legislative council has decided to postpone the endorsement of the Papua HIV/AIDS Handling bylaw planned for approval this Monday, afte

Jon Afrizal and Agus Maryono, Jambi, Purwokerto and Yogyakarta – Against a backdrop of HIV/AIDS infection rates that are rising at alarming levels in Jambi, activists and sex workers in

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The government has been urged to change its "ineffective" approach to HIV/AIDS, as the number of people infected by the disease continues to grow each year.

Hotli Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh – Maimun panicked when a doctor told him he was infected with HIV, detected when he went to give blood for one of his relatives.

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – Inconsistent standards and unethical recruitment methods in the health industry are to blame for Indonesia's costly yet ineffective medical services, a study sa

Aubrey Belford, Wamena – Gaunt and covered in sores, 20-year-old Christina Mabele is a rarity in the ballooning AIDS crisis that has hit the remote Papua region in eastern Indonesia: sh

Agus Maryono, Purwokerto – The number of HIV/AIDS cases in Banyumas, Central Java, has been growing steadily every month, sparking public concern, while local authorities have done litt

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The Papua AIDS Commission (KPA) on Tuesday submitted a letter rejecting a controversial draft bylaw that would require people living with HIV/AIDS to be i

Havana – East Timor's President, Jose Ramos-Horta, today highlighted Cuba's medical collaboration with his country, which has nearly one million inhabitants.

Sarah Boseley, health editor – People with HIV in Papua, Indonesia, who are deemed to be "sexually aggressive" may be microchipped to enable the authorities to identify, track and punis

Angel Flassy, Papua – Amid protests from Papuans and NGOs, the Papua provincial legislative council is set to pass a bylaw on HIV/AIDS that includes a controversial article requiring ce

Luh De Suriyani, Denpasar – Men's active participation in the government's family planning program is minuscule, with just 0.1 percent of the province's 625,000 fertile couples using co

Triwik Kurniasari, Jakarta – The city administration and a number of anti-smoking NGOs plan to conduct raids across the city targeting smokers caught ignoring the bylaw on smoking in re

Jakarta – The HIV/AIDS infection rate is exploding in Indonesian prisons because intravenous drug users are being kept in the same overcrowded cells as other inmates, officials said Thu

An international health NGO says the death toll from a cholera epidemic in Indonesia's Papua has reached an estimated 200.

Urgent Appeal General: AHRC-UAG-012-2008

Dear friends,

Havana – A farewell ceremony for a group of six Cuban healthcare service providers in East Timor was held at that country's Health Ministry (MINSA).

Jakarta Post – Wilson just had his first birthday last weekend and his mother was busy not only preparing for his party but also entertaining formula milk marketers.

Jakarta – Poor hygiene and sanitation cost Indonesia's economy more than US$6 billion per year, supporting the need for greater investment in water and sanitation infrastructure, a Worl

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – Men's resistance to condom use will transform moderate-risk Indonesia into a country with the highest HIV/AIDS rate in the region within a few years, the Commis

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – East Nusa Tenggara provincial administration has accused the central government of neglecting a help plea to address chronic malnutrition in the area.

Jon Afrizal and Agus Maryono, Jambi, Purwokerto – The number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Jambi and Central Java provinces, especially in Banyumas regency, is rising at an alarming

Dianing Sari, Jakarta – About 1.5 percent of 228 million Indonesians or 3.4 million are suffering from eye problems that leads to blindness.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Deaths from cholera increased to 173 in Papua as of Saturday, with lawmakers and civil society groups accusing the local administration and central government of

A diarrhoea outbreak in a remote area of Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua has killed at least 156 people and sickened hundreds of others, media reports say.

Jakarta – At least 172 villagers have died in a cholera outbreak that has triggered unrest in Indonesia's remote eastern Papua province, church authorities said Tuesday.

Nethy Darma Somba and Angela Flassy, Jayapura – At least 16 have died of HIV/AIDS in Puncak Jaya regency, in Papua, and millions more are at risk in the country with the world's highest

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – About 3.5 million babies will be born in Indonesia every year if the current birthrate continues.

Arwa Damon, Remote West Timor – Maria's labored breath echoes within the walls of her family's mud hut. Her tiny, bony hands open and close in slow claw-like motions.

Prodita Sabarini, Jakarta – UNICEF has renewed calls for donors to refrain from sending formula milk as humanitarian assistance to victims of disasters, saying it could cause even more

Prodita Sabarini – A decline in the breast-feeding rate in Indonesia is one of the primary causes of the rise in childhood malnutrition in the country, a UN official says.

Erwida Maulia, Depok, West Java – Speakers at a seminar in Depok on Saturday said drug laws needed to place more of an emphasis on rehabilitation for users and stop treating addicts the

Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara – The death toll from severe malnutrition cases in East Nusa Tenggara province rose from 23 to 25 as of Thursday, an official from the local health office sai

Panca Nugraha, Mataram – Malnutrition has claimed 20 lives in West Nusa Tengarra over the past six months, according to a local health office.

The Hon Kevin Rudd MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
Canberra
ACT 2600

23 June 2008

Re Health Concerns in West Papua

Dear Prime Minister,

Jayapura, Papua – In a bid to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, the National AIDS Commission (KPAD) in Merauke has marked red light districts and entertainment centers employing workers infe

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – An activist and a councillor have lambasted the East Nusa Tenggara government, saying it did nothing to address widespread malnutrition that has contributed to

Jakarta – Public health care in Indonesia has improved, but it still needs more efficient regulations, greater private sector involvement and better financing, a World Bank report says.

Aubrey Belford, Tibar, East Timor – East Timor, which gained formal independence in 2002 after a long history of occupation under Portugal and Indonesia, is Asia's youngest country in m