Vanuatu's Foreign Minister Ralph Reganvanu says the Pacific Islands' Forum needs to be stronger in its stance regarding West Papua.
Vanuatu is a strong proponent of West Papuan self-determination from Indonesia and has taken the battle for decolonisation to the global stage.
Febriana Firdaus, Wamena, Indonesia – Under the pine trees, a nine-year-old girl is sitting on a blue tarpaulin, rubbing her feet.
For the past six months, she's been living in a church-run shelter after escaping the chaos that enveloped her village in Nduga, a remote highland region in the western part of the island of Papua.
The Military, Police and the National Commission on Human Rights are investigating the deaths of four people in a shooting during election related violence in Papua.This week it was reported that Indonesian soldiers shot and killed four people in Asmat regency after supporters of a losing candidate attacked the area of a rival.
Ghina Ghaliya, Jakarta – The Papua Military Command, the National Police and the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) have launched an investigation into the deaths of four in an alleged shooting by military personnel during an election dispute-turned-riot in Asmat regency, Papua.
Indonesian soldiers shot and killed four people in Papua province during a riot reportedly linked to the recent national elections.
Robert Isidorus, Jakarta – Four people were killed and one wounded when a soldier opened fire on a mob of angry supporters of a regional legislative council candidate, who failed to win a seat in the recent election, stormed the Asmat district office in Papua on Monday.
Jakarta – Thousands of have signed the petition #TurunkanTiketPapua on change.org to urge Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi to regulate airfares to and from Papua.
As of 9:49 a.m. on Wednesday, 114, 238 people had signed the petition posted by Paul Hendri Eria, who said many people in Papua had complained about domestic airfares because they were not affordable.
Dion Bisara, Jakarta – Freeport Indonesia, the country's largest gold and copper mining company, will start discussions after Idul Fitri next month with 15 local and foreign banks interested in financing its $2.8 billion unprofitable smelter project, senior executives said.
Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel have shot dead four people after supporters of a local legislative candidate stormed the Fayit district office in Asmat regency, Papua.
Benny Mawel, Jayapura – A resident of Wagete of Deiyai Regency, Papua Province was reportedly shot dead by the police on Tuesday evening, while another resident was seriously injured (21/5/19). This incident triggered the outraged people to burn down the local police station (Tigi sector) in Deiyai.
Benny Mawel, Jayapura – Angry residents in Wagethe in Deiyai regency, Papua, set fire to Tigi Police station on Tuesday, following the shooting of a young man by the police on the same day.
Dan McGarry, Port Vila – During his visit to Port Vila last weekend, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was confronted with questions about West Papua – but he waffled in his responses.
At least one Indonesian soldier has reportedly been killed by West Papuan rebels during a prolonged shootout on Monday.
Military spokesperson Colonel Mohammed Aidi said the incident took place in Mugi district, in the conflict-prone Nduga regency.
RNZ Pacific – Two West Papuans accused of "rebellion" have been sentenced to more than a year in an Indonesian prison.
Yakonias Womsiwor and Erichzon Mandobar were detained in September when authorities raided the office of a Papuan independence group.
Jakarta – At least one Indonesian Military (TNI) officer was killed in a clash with West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) freedom fighters in Nduga regency, Papua, on Monday morning.
Papua Cendrawasih Military Command spokesman Col. Muhammad Aidi said around 20 TPNPB personnel attacked TNI soldiers who were patrolling Mugi district airfield at 11:15 a.m.
Johnny Blades – Indonesia has lost a significant asset from in its Pacific diplomacy efforts with the recent passing of the West Papuan, Franzalbert Joku.
The prominent Sentani landowner was the international spokesman for the Papua Presidium Council which galvanised momentum in the independence struggle at the turn of the century.
British MPs have urged the government to do more to press Indonesia to stop human rights abuses and violence in Papua.
On Wednesday, the UK's elected representatives in the House of Commons debated West Papua and its human rights problems.
A Polish tourist in Indonesia jailed for five years after meeting West Papuan rebels has filed an appeal of his sentence.
Jakub Skrzypski was sentenced last Thursday on treason charges for plotting to sell arms to the West Papua Liberation Army.
Indonesian prosecutors have demanded jail sentences for two West Papuans accused of possessing weapons.
Yakonias Womsiwor and Erichzon Mandobar were detained in September when authorities raided an office of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB).
Jayapura, Papua – German Ambassador to Indonesia Peter Schoof undertook a visit to Papua Province on Monday for exploring areas for cooperation with Indonesia's easternmost province.
Schoof and his delegation held an hour-long meeting with Deputy Governor of Papua Klemen Tinal.
Ivany Atina Arbi and Benny Mawel, Jakarta – The National Liberation Army of West Papua (TPNPB) has lambasted the government for demanding the death penalty for a TPNPB member arrested over the killing of military personnel.
The armed group demanded that the prosecution retract the death penalty demand, as Yogor Telenggen was a political defendant, not a criminal one.
A Polish tourist in Indonesia sentenced to five years jail for meeting West Papuan rebels is maintaining his innocence ahead of an appeal.
Jakub Skrzypski was arrested in August and charged with treason after police said he was part of a plot to sell arms to the West Papua Liberation Army.
Wamena, Papua – A Polish man was sentenced to five years in prison for treason on Thursday after meeting with rebels in the restive Indonesian province of Papua.
Jakub Fabian Skrzypski, 39, was arrested in August and accused of plotting to overthrow the Indonesian government and making contact with an outlawed separatist group.
It might seem incongruous but the Indonesian Constitutional Court is being asked to adjudicate a case that challenges Indonesian sovereignty in Papua.
Earlier this year the United Liberation Movement for West Papua served a petition on the UN High Commission for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, demanding a fresh independence vote for West Papua.
Andrew Johnson – Since 2004, a number of university papers have raised the question of genocide in the Pacific territory of West Papua administrated by Indonesia subsequent to a 1962 United Nations General Assembly vote to occupy the colony in defiance of the territory's objections.
Jakarta – A number of people who said they came from the group PT Freeport Striking Workers joined the May Day commemorations in Jakarta today demanding that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo fulfill the promise he made to the workers on February 13.
Jakarta – The Indonesian People's Front for West Papua (FRI-WP) and the Papuan Student Alliance (AMP) have declared that they will hold a demonstration in front of the State Palace in Central Jakarta on Wednesday May 1 to coincide with the commemorations of International Labour Day or May Day.
Volunteer education services continue for West Papuan children displaced by ongoing conflict in the Highlands.
Nduga regency has been the focal point of fighting between the West Papua Liberation Army and Indonesia's military.
Johnny Blades – A former West Papuan independence campaigner who became an Indonesian government supporter, Franzalbert Joku, has died in Jayapura.
Mr Joku, who controversially advocated autonomy for Papua within Indonesia rather than independence, died yesterday aged 66 after illness linked with heart disease and kidney failure.
Helen Davidson – An Indonesian human rights lawyer is among those taking the Indonesian police to court on behalf of all West Papuans, in an unprecedented civil case over what she claims is the illegal takeover of an activist group's headquarters.
Judges in Indonesia's Papua region will today rule on the case of a Polish man who allegedly supplied arms to Papuan rebels.
Islami Adisubrata, Wamena – Legal representatives of Jakub Fabian Skrzypski and Simon Magal, Latifah Anum Siregar and Aloysius Renwarin, question the indictment of public prosecutor against their clients in a defence trial conducted in Wamena District Court on Tuesday (23/4/2019). In the prior lawsuit, the state prosecutor charged their clients with a ten-year sentence.
Richard Chauvel – Father Neles Tebay, who died of cancer in Jakarta on 14 April, was a champion of peace in Papua.
Jakarta, Indonesia – Lawyers are challenging Indonesia's incorporation of the volatile Papua region into its territory in 1969 with a judicial review at the country's highest court.
Rebel fighters in West Papua's Central Highlands shot and wounded two Indonesian soldiers on Wednesday.
It's the latest violence in troubled Nduga regency, where a war has killed dozens on both sides since December.
Indonesia's military says a helicopter was unloading 10 soldiers and supplies at a compound in Nduga when rebels sprang an ambush.
Indonesia's military says elections held last week in Papua went smoothly, despite threats of more violence from rebels.
It comes after claims from the West Papua Liberation Army that it prevented voting from taking place in 32 districts across restive Nduga regency.
The trial of three West Papuans charged with treason has been adjourned until tomorrow.
Prosecutors in Timika's district court were due to call on witnesses on Tuesday to give evidence against Yanto Awerkion, Sem Asso and Edo Dogopia.
Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-005-2019
Dear Friends,
Three West Papuans will today appear in an Indonesian court on treason charges.
Yanto Awerkion, Sem Asso and Edo Dogopia were detained by police in January after they planned to hold a public prayer meeting.
Papua's governor, Lukas Enembe, says people should wait for the official vote count in Indonesia's elections before claiming victory.
Both presidential candidates, Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto, have claimed election wins, but several polls back the incumbent Mr Widodo. Official results will be released by May 22.
Pacific Media Centre – The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has claimed a successful boycott of the Indonesian election on Wednesday, estimating that about 60 percent of voters have declined to cast their ballot.
Febriana Firdaus, Yahukimo, West Papua, Indonesia – It was late on Tuesday afternoon, just hours before Indonesia was due to go to the polls, and the ballots had still not arrived in Mugi, a village in the central highlands of Papua, the most easterly province in the archipelago.
Benny Mawel, Jayapura – At least 160,000 residents of two districts in Jayapura, the provincial capital of Papua, will vote in the general election on April 18 after logistical glitches on Wednesday, when the country held the legislative and presidential election.
Violence has broken out again in Indonesia's Papua province, where tensions are high as the nation goes to the polls today.
It's the latest in an escalating war between rebels and state forces which has killed dozens on both sides since December.
Angus Watson – As Indonesia's presidential candidates draw massive crowds to rallies across the country, leaders in the resource-rich but restive twin provinces of Papua and West Papua have called for an election boycott and their own vote to secede from the Southeast Asian archipelago-nation.
David Robie – A human rights defender and researcher has warned in a new book published on the eve of the Indonesian national elections tomorrow that the centralised political system has failed many of the country's 264 million people – especially minorities and those at the margins, such as in West Papua.
Aditya Mardiastuti, Denpasar – The Papua Student Alliance (AMP) is protesting the arrest of student demonstrators at Renon Park in the Balinese provincial capital of Bali. The AMP said that it was a peaceful action rejecting the April 17 elections and they already had a police permit.
RNZ Pacific – A leading West Papuan peace campaigner, Neles Tebay, has died in Jakarta after being hospitalised with leukemia.
A Catholic priest and academic as well as the coordinator of the Papua Peace Network, Dr Tebay was a tireless advocate for dialogue between West Papuans and Indonesia's government over the political conflict in their homeland.
Ryan Dagur, Jakarta – Papuans are mourning the death of a priest and leading peace campaigner working to try and end a long-running insurgency in Indonesia's easternmost region Papua.
Father Neles Kebadabi Tebay died on April 14 in Jakarta at 54 after losing his battle with blood cancer.