Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – Disappointed at the slow pace of regional development, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday vowed to make amends by disciplining regional leaders

Camelia Pasandaran, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Thursday demanded an audit of Papua's special autonomous status following rising complaints that it had failed to imp

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Overlapping policies blamed for severely hurting competitiveness will remain effective until the end of 2011 unless annulled by a proposed revision to the

Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – Indonesia's territorial sovereignty could be under threat, following a recent ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which found that Kosovo's u

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Papua's special autonomy fund should be kept separate from the province's budget and independently managed by a new institution, a DPR member says.

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Ismira Lutfia – The government has acknowledged it needs to run more development programs in Papua and Aceh provinces, saying the existing programs are no

Nivell Rayda – The Supreme Audit Agency may have the answer as to why regional areas – particularly new provinces, districts and municipalities – continue to lag behind in terms of deve

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Legislators from the oversight commission for home affairs have called into doubt the president's claim that the creation of new administrative regions was a

Jayapura – Tolikara district on Saturday afternoon succeeded in ending a tribal war that erupted in the small hour of the morning.

Karishma Vaswani – Hundreds of protesters in West Papua have continued their demonstrations rejecting the province's special autonomy status.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Around 2,000 Papuans went on a 20-kilometer march Friday to demand the Papua Legislative Council overturn the province's special autonomy status.

Two official Papuan representative bodies in Indonesia's Papua region have announced they're "handing back" Special Autonomy status to Jakarta.

The Hon Stephen Smith MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra
ACT 2600

30 May 2010

Dear Mr Smith,

Nurfika Osman – Little good has come of the special autonomy status conferred on Papua in 2001 with most people there left behind by the nation's push for development, activists and com

Markus Makur, Paniai (Papua) – The move to involve women in community development has gained momentum in Painai regency, Papua, with a training program specifically targeting women.

Jayapura – Regional Representatives Council member Sophie Maipauw wants the Indonesian government to help with the implementation of autonomy in West Papua with the immediate issue 19 g

Andreas Harsono – In Jakarta in the late 1960s, a young Barack Obama noticed his stepfather's great unease and silence about his one-year military service in New Guinea.

Candra Malik, Solo – With controversy still raging around the bill to extend the special status of Yogyakarta, rival central Javanese city Solo wants to get in on the act.

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

Camelia Pasandaran – Hundreds of flawed local bylaws have been quashed by the central government since the country began the shift toward regional autonomy, the Ministry of Home Affairs

A conference in Dili to mark the tenth anniversary of East Timor's independence from Indonesia has demanded an end to impunity for the perpetrators of the killings of Papuan political l

Fadli, Batam – The police in Natuna regency, Riau Islands, on Monday released three NGO activists who had allegedly been involved in a free Natuna movement on the grounds that they had

Fadli, Batam – Subsiding in both Aceh and Maluku, and taking root in Papua, a separatist movement has emerged on the oil- and gas-rich island of Natuna in Riau Islands province.

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 independenc

Ismira Lutfia & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – A senior member of the self-styled separatist government of the Republic of South Maluku said on Tuesday that his movement would reconside

Flags belonging to Free Papua Organization and South Maluku Republic were hoisted on Saturday as thousands of Indonesian nationals living in the Netherlands celebrated Indonesian indepe

Jakarta – Gunmen fired Sunday at a bus carrying employees of US mining giant Freeport in eastern Indonesia, injuring five, a report said.

Camelia Pasandaran – The Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday said it was examining the effectiveness of decentralization and preparing new rules on how regions should manage their financ

Anita Rachman – Regional autonomy has been a failure, with just 10 percent of about 500 districts and municipalities in the country having developed successfully since the policy was in

The Australian Labor Party's National Conference has adopted a motion recognising that West Papuans in Indonesia are experiencing serious human rights abuses.

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The government and lawmakers have been urged to reevaluate the regional autonomy policy, which in 10 years has led to the creation of more than 200 new regions

Sukabumi, West Java – National Police Chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri said police would act firmly against anyone intending or trying to break up the unitary state of Indonesia.

Aditya Suharmoko, Jakarta – Continued proliferation of administrative regions in Indonesia may no longer be economically sustainable, as it creates additional costs to the state with re

Alfian, Jakarta – Now the PT Medco E&P Indonesia contract in the Block A gas field in East Aceh will be extended, the local authority wants a new state regulation to clarify the 70:

Andi Haswidi, Manado – Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are currently cooperating to repatriate 708 Indonesians, from various backgrounds, currently living in the neighboring country, acc

Five flags of the secessionist South Maluku Republic (RMS) were flown Saturday coinciding with the separatist anniversary in their stronghold Aboru village in Haruku Island district, Ce

Ambon – Unlike in previous years, the anniversary of separatist movement Republic of South Maluku (RMS), which falls today, is not marred with violence or deployment of massive security

In a response to American Samoa's congressman Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has signalled her support for greater autonomy for the Indonesian region

AI Index: ASA 21/012/2009

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The Papua People's Council (MRP) proposed two ordinances in this week's plenary session to strengthen indigenous Papuans' basic rights and the principal o

The Indonesian government has arrested at least 152 people for activities related to the raising of flags symbolizing regional independence over the past two years as part of a crackdow

Ambon – As many as 37 prisoners in a subversion case of the separatist South Maluku Republic (RMS) were moved from Ambon penitentiary to several jails in Java island Tuesday.

Nivell Rayda – Without any real supervision from the central government, regional autonomy had created several provinces with puppet governments, secretly controlled by political partie

Jakarta – Ten years down the track, regional autonomy may be doing more harm than good, the founding father of the country's current self-reliance model says.

Anita Rachman – A decade after the country launched its decentralization drive, the promised prosperity for the regions has failed to materialize, one of the policy's key proponents sai

Jakarta – The slow pace of development in Papua 12 years after the implementation of special autonomy has lead observers to believe that a reevaluation of the special autonomy law is ne

Jakarta – The police has named a total of 66 suspects allegedly involved in violence that led to the death of North Sumatra Provincial Legislative Council Speaker Abdul Aziz Angkat last

The National Police said Monday it had identified a group of elite based in Jakarta who was responsible for planning and financing the violent rally in Medan last week that led to the d

Rizal Harahap, Medan – North Sumatra Police have rejected allegations that police officers had conspired with protesters demanding the establishment of Tapanuli province during a violen

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called for a moratorium to the creation of administrative regions, following the recent death of a council speaker in Nor