The ramifications of the fast moving events in Libya and the middle east could be felt as far away as Papua in Indonesia, a Sydney Conference has been told. A movement for greater autonomy or even independence from Indonesia has been active since Papua was absorbed by the Muslim state in 1969.

The NGO network, Indonesian Solidarity, is launching a campaign to pressure the government in Jakarta to release political prisoners in Papua region.

Human Rights Watch reports that there are currently around 100 Papuans imprisoned for political reasons.

Human Rights Council
Sixteenth session
Agenda Item 4
General Debate

A written statement submitted by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC), a non-governmental organisation with general consultative status

The chairman of DAP, the Papuan Traditional Council, has called on the Indonesian government to be more judicious about plans to send yet more transmigrants to Papua.

Forkorus Yaboisembut said that plans by the Transmigration Department to move more transmigrants into Papua was a matter of great concern.

Hamdhoon Rashad, Washington, D.C. – The Amnesty group called on the Indonesian government to release the man they call a prisoner of conscience. Karma, 51, who was jailed for his role in a peaceful flag-raising protest in the Papua Province of Indonesia in December 2004.

A lawyer in Jayapura, Gustaf Kawer, has called on the police to be transparent and explain what happened to Miron Wetipo, who was being held in the Abepura Prison. He was shot dead by the police/TNI and Densus 88 during a sweeping operation and searches being undertaken by BTN Puskopad (an army unit).

Peneas Lokbere, the chairman of SKPHP HAM Papua (Solidarity for the Victims of Human Rights Violations in Papua) has declared that they will continue to press for medical treatment for Ferdinand Pakage, a political prisoner, who is suffering from a badly damaged eye which has blinded him in one eye.

Banjir Ambarita – Hundreds of candidates who failed to gain government jobs took the streets of Manokwari, West Papua, on Wednesday.

The demonstrators blocked access to the city at 7:30 a.m. after toppling trees and electricity poles on the main streets leading to the city. The disruption caused a traffic jam that stretched two kilometers in some areas.

Camelia Pasandaran – The government has announced that it would issue new guidelines next month on boosting development in the restive provinces of Papua and West Papua.

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – Leaders of three major churches in Papua object to the ongoing selection of new members of the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP), which they say fails to represent the interests of Papuans.

Biak – The traditional Papuan community in Biak reported the current social and political situation in Papua to the first secretary for political affairs at the US embassy, Melanie Higgins, when she visited the office of DAP (Dewan Adat Papua) in Biak.

Responding to a report that the government plans to send more transmigrants to Papua, the chairman of DAP, Dewan Adat Papua, Forkorus Yoboisembut said this was a serious matter because it would turn the Papuan people into a minority, as well as triggering conflict.

Speaking on behalf of the United Baptist Churches in Papua, the Rev. Socrates Sofyan Yoman said since it is clear that OTSUS (Special Autonomy) in Papua is a failure, they will be pressing for a dialogue between the Papuan people and the central government, mediated by an international party. 'A dialogue is the dignified way forward for the two sides,' he said.

Up to 100 people, arrested by Papua New Guinea police for allegedly illegally crossing the border from Indonesia, have been flown from Vanimo in Sandaun Province to Western Province.

The multi departmental Operation Sunset Merona has swept through seven suspected camps for the Papuan militant group, the OPM, on the PNG side of the border, over the past 3 weeks.

Two Papuans are due to go on trial in Manokwari for raising the 14-star flag. The two men are Melkinus Bleskadit and Dance Bleskadit who, along with five others, raised flags on 14 December 2010. The documents regarding the two men were handed over by the police to the attorney's office.

Jayapura – Although Law 21/2001 on Special Autonomy (OTSUS) provides for the establishment of a human rights court in Papua, the fact is that this has not been done even though OTSUS is already ten years old.

The chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) in Jayapura, Victor Mambor, has called on the press in Papua to regularly monitor cases of human rights violations in Papua.

The legal aid organisation, LP3BH, has called on Papuans not to agree to be nominated for a seat on the MRP (Papuan People's Assembly) in the forthcoming elections. They should also reject the entire nominations process which is now being organised by two agencies, the Kesbangpol and the LMA.

The chairman of Commission A of the provincial legislative assembly, the DPRP, Ruben Magai, has called on the police chief to stop using political stigmatisation when conducting operations in Papua. Such statements, he said, result in scaring the indigenous Papuan people and trying to silence them.

Mathew Pennington, Washington – The US military is concerned over the light jail sentences given to Indonesian troops caught on video torturing men in the restive eastern region of Papua but see the trial as a sign of "progress," a senior official said Tuesday.

Jayapura – Although the three members of the armed forces who were sentenced for acts of violence against civilians have accepted the verdict and are now serving their sentences in a military prison, some sources believe that the verdict is far from just.

Dessy Sagita & AFP – Although the sentences handed down to soldiers found guilty of torturing indigenous Papuans have been roundly criticized for being too light, observers are now saying the trial itself showed the military had improved in its handling of human rights cases.

The governor of Papua New Guinea's National Capital District is accusing the government of using a security operation along the Papua border to do Indonesia's dirty work.

Stevy Maradona – On 1 February 2011, Commander of XVII Military Area Command (Kodam XVII) Major General Erfi Triassunu vehemently denied that Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) Border Security Task Force posts along the border with Papua New Guinea (PNG) would be closed.

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – A group of Papuan students accused the central government of failing in its drive to grant special autonomy to Papua and called for dialogue mediated by a third party to find a solution to the many problems plaguing the province.

Yogyakarta – The special autonomy that has been in effect in Papua since 2001 is not working in accordance the hopes of the indigenous people there. There are still many infringements and even human rights violations. As a consequence, there has been no development and indigenous people have never enjoyed the produce of the land of their birth.

The Indonesian government has come under renewed criticism over alleged torture in West Papua after a military tribunal sentencing three soldiers to between eight and ten months prison for abuse and insubordination.

The ABC'S Senior Correspondent for the Australia Network, Jeff Water was the first journalist to broadcast the torture video from West Papua.

AWPA has written to the PNG Prime Minister asking that the West Papuan people who have been apprehended during Operation Sunset Merona along the PNG/West Papuan border not be handed over to the Indonesian authorities.

Joe Collins said we are urging the PNG Government not to return any West Papuans back to the Indonesian authorities where their lives would be at risk.

Jakarta – The people of Papua has several times expressed the attitude that, of Act No 21 of 2001 regarding Special Autonomy (Autonomy Act) for Papua Province has failed. Therefore, the central government asked to revoke the status of the Papua Special Autonomy Law.

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The perpetrators of torture against two Papuans should be brought to a civilian court, activists said on Wednesday, in response to an eight to 10-month sentence from the Jayapura military tribunal.

Usman Hamid of the International Center for Transitional Justice said Indonesian law allowed such cases to be tried before civilian courts.

A spokesperson for the Institute of Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights says the border between the Indonesian province and Papua New Guinea isn't recognised by the indigenous people living there.

Yogyakarta – A group of Papuans in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta from the Anti-Colonial Movement (Ganja) held a protest action in the Jl. Malioboro area on Thursday January 27. During the action, they called to the Home Affairs Minister to fulfill the 11 recommendations made by the Papuan People's Council (MRP).

The United Nations refugee agency in Papua New Guinea says it's received an official assurance that border-crossers from Papua arrested in a border security crackdown won't be returned to the Indonesian province.

PNG's acting deputy police commissioner says the 77 Papuans arrested are being assessed for links with the Papuan liberation movement, OPM.

Hundreds of Papuans protested on Wednesday rejecting the region's special autonomy within Indonesia and demanding a referendum on self-determination.

Papua New Guinea's acting deputy police commissioner says the 77 Papuans arrested in a border crackdown near Vanimo are being assessed for links with the Papuan liberation movement, the OPM.

Fred Yakasa says anyone found not be a citizen of PNG will be considered an OPM activist and sent to the refugee camp at East Darwin.

Jerry Omona, Jayapura – Thousands of Papuan occupied the Papua People's Council (MRP) offices in the provincial capital of Jayapura on Wednesday January 26 demanding that the government cancel the election of council members scheduled to take place on January 31.

Washington – The US says Indonesia must hold its armed forces accountable for rights violations after three soldiers accused of torture received only 8 to 10 month jail terms.

Footage of the torture of two Papuan men was posted on YouTube last year. It showed the soldiers burning the genitals of one unarmed, naked man and running a knife across the neck of another.

The West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT), East and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) and TAPOL condemn the Indonesian government's failure to hold Indonesian military personnel responsible for the grave crime of torture of two Papuans.

The Australian Greens have called for the Government to cut all military ties with Indonesia in response to light jail terms handed down yesterday to Indonesian soldiers who tortured two Papuan men.

Esther Samboh, Jakarta – The government will set aside about Rp 1 trillion (US$110.34 million) from the 2011 State Budget to build the foundations for the Merauke food estate project in the country's easternmost province of Papua, a senior minister says.

Tom Allard, Jakarta – Three soldiers who tortured two Papuan men were yesterday handed prison sentences of less than a year and will be allowed to continue their careers, despite assurances that perpetrators of such abuses would be dealt with severely and dishonourably discharged.

Nethy Dharma Somba and Bagus BT Saragih, Jayapura/Jakarta – In what one rights activist called a "miscarriage of justice", a military tribunal sentenced three soldiers to eight to 10 months in prison on Monday for torturing two native Papuans.

Banjir Ambarita, Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Nivell Rayda, Indonesia – A military tribunal in Papua that handed light sentences to three soldiers involved in torturing two civilians faced a chorus of anger from activists who called it a gross injustice that they had not been tried for human rights violations.

Peter Alford, Jakarta – Three Indonesian soldiers have been sentenced to short prison terms over the torture of two Papuans, bringing an unsatisfactory close to another discreditable episode for the troubled territory's army.

Jakarta – Most of the people reporting HIV/AIDS infections in Papua last year were housewives, accounting for 164 individuals, the government says.

Most of these women had contracted HIV from their husbands, Jayapura AIDS Commission secretary Purnomo said Monday in Sentani as reported by kompas.com reported. "Their husbands were unfaithful," he said

Amnesty International has criticised the trial and sentences handed to Indonesian soldiers who were filmed abusing Papuan prisoners.

Senior officials must both talk the talk and walk the walk on human rights. The military should stop shielding its officers from prosecution, and the government needs to hold abusers accountable. – Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Activists have lambasted "lenient" sentences sought for three soldiers accused of torturing two Papuan men, but the military has urged the public to reserve judgment until the ongoing court-martial is finished.

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The light sentences sought for soldiers who tortured two Papuans, coupled with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's dismissal of the torture as "a minor incident" only perpetuates systematic torture of Papuans, activists said.

Jayapura – The Home Affairs Ministry has asked for alteration of the definition of "Indigenous Papuans" amid the ongoing election of new members for Papua People's Council (MRP).

MRP members consist of representatives from Papuan tribal elders, the religious community and women. "Indigenous Papuan" used to be defined as the indigenous ethnic people of Papua.