Jayapura – A member of the military police in Wamena, Jayawijaya regency, Papua, is under investigation for allegedly shooting an 18-year-old student at an areca nut-eating party at the house of a local resident early on Friday.

Jakarta – Rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has praised an Indonesian government move to release Papuan political prisoner Filep Karma, who has spent 11 years behind bars for raising the Morning Star flag, a West Papua independence symbol.

Victor Mambor, Jayapura, Jubi – Papuan Legislator from Tolikara Electoral area, Orwan Tolli Wone, criticized the trial against two GIDI young members JW and AK related to the incident occurred in Tolikara on 17 July 2015.

Jakarta – Amnesty International on Thursday welcomed the release of Papuan independence activist Filep Karma but stressed that his decade-long detention for peaceful opposition to Indonesian rule was "an outrageous travesty of justice."

Human Rights Watch says Filep Karma is still coming to terms with his release after 11 years in prison in which he became West Papua's most high profile political prisoner.

Transcript

Human Rights Watch says Filep Karma is still coming to terms with his release after 11 years in prison in which he became West Papua's most high profile political prisoner.

Jakarta – The Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced former Papua governor Barnabas Suebu to four years and six months on Thursday after he was found guilty for inflating prices for a designing project in 2008.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Ina Parlina and Fedina S. Sundaryani, Jayapura/Jakarta – After 11 years behind bars, Papuan pro-independence leader Filep Jacob Semuel Karma, 56, was released on Thursday from prison by the government, a move applauded by democracy activists as a promising step toward resolving problems in one of the country's least-developed regions.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The panel of judges at the Jayapura Military Court in Papua dismissed First Sgt. Ashar from the Indonesian Army on Thursday, sentencing him to nine years' imprisonment for his involvement in a shooting incident that killed two civilians in Mimika regency.

A high-profile West Papuan separatist leader has been released from prison after more than a decade behind bars, in a fresh sign that Indonesia may be easing its tight grip on the restive eastern region.

Filep Karma spent more than a decade of his life in jail when he shouldn't even have been jailed for a day. It was an outrageous travesty of justice. – Josef Benedict, Amnesty International's South East Asia Campaigns Director

Jakarta – A prominent Papuan separatist leader on Thursday walked out of prison a free man in Indonesia's easternmost province after serving over a decade behind bars for treason.

Washington, D.C. – Freedom Now is pleased to announce that Papuan activist Filep Samuel Karma was released from prison today, four years before the end of his 15 year sentence. Indonesian authorities released Mr. Karma after considerable international attention has been brought to his case, most recently from a letter signed by Members of the US Congress.

Phelim Kine and Andreas Harsono – In September, Jakarta-based French journalist Marie Dhumieres decided to test whether Indonesia's decades-long barring of foreign media from Papua had indeed ended. In May, the Indonesian government had announced it would lift restrictions for accredited foreign journalists wanting to report on the Papua and West Papua provinces.

Jakarta – The New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has praised the decision by a military court in Papua last week to convict two soldiers for their role in the deaths of two civilians on Aug. 28.

Phelim Kine – Something remarkable happened last week in Indonesia's easternmost Papua province. A military court convicted two soldiers of murder and aggravated assault for their role in the deaths of two civilians on August 28.

Victor Mambor, Semarang, Jubi – Vice Chairman of Advisory Council of the Union Churches of Indonesia, the Rev. Phil Karel Erari said it will endorse the recommendation of the Pacific Islands Forum to send a fact-finding mission team to Papua could be done under the United Nations.

Jakarta – Indonesian authorities continue to restrict access by foreign journalists and rights monitors to Indonesia's easternmost provinces of Papua, raising serious concerns about the government's commitment to media freedom, Human Rights Watch said today in a new report.

In its latest report, the ICP brings together the research of 25 organisations and experts from in and outside West Papua on the situation of human rights, indigenous peoples' rights and the conflict situation there.

Jakarta – Six months after President Joko Widodo announced that foreign media would have unimpeded access to Papua, Indonesian authorities continue to hamper reporting from the region in various ways, Human Rights Watch said in a report launched on Wednesday.

There are calls for Australia's prime minister Malcolm Turnbull to raise the matter of human rights abuses in West Papua with his Indonesian counterpart. Mr Turnbull is due to meet Joko Widodo for talks tomorrow in Jakarta.

The United Liberation Movement for West Papua has called on Mr Turnbull to discuss violence by security forces aganst West Papuans.

Indonesia has no travel restrictions on foreign journalists in its easternmost province of Papua, the country's security chief said on Wednesday, vowing to dismiss any police officials who blocked such freedom.

Hon Malcolm Turnbull
Prime Minister
House of Representatives
PO Box 6022
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

10 November 2015

Dear Prime Minister,

Robin Williams – A young West Papuan currently in Australia is shooting video rather than bullets in his battle to fight the intimidation, torture and massacres that are regular occurrences in his homeland.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) held on Monday the first trial of two military soldiers accused of fatally shooting two civilians and injuring three others during a festival in Mimika, Papua, in August.

Many people, including members of the Kamoro Tribe and several high-ranking military officers, attended the trial on Monday, Antara news agency reported.

The lid is lifting on what has been for so long Asia/Pacific's hidden region.

Since incorporation into Indonesia in 1969, outside access to West Papua – the western half of New Guinea, has been tightly restricted amid a simmering separatist conflict.

National – West Papua National Committee (KNPB) deputy chairman Agus Kossay and two other Papuans, Bano Kalaka and Nodi Hilka, were interrogated on Friday in connection with the arrival of French journalist Marie Dhumieres in Papua on Oct. 1.

Despite a handful of Papuan political prisoners being freed recently by Indonesia's president, there's a lot more still languishing behind bars in West Papua.

Transcript

A West Papuan activist is calling for the Indonesian government to free all Papuan political prisoners. The Indonesian president Joko Widodo in May freed a handful of prisoners from Abepura prison.

Victor Mambor, Jayapura, Jubi – The House of Representatives said the military should expand its base in Biak to anticipate security problems in eastern Indonesia.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) expects continued conflict in Papua unless the government takes immediate steps to better coordinate its security forces in the region and hold intensive dialogue with native communities.

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – While the annual land and forest fires usually occurr in Sumatra and Kalimantan, a large agricultural project in Merauke, Papua, could turn the eastern part of Indonesia into a new hotbed of fires in the archipelago.

The prediction was based on a latest finding by Greenpeace Southeast Asia, which monitored 112,000 hot spots from Aug. 1 to Oct. 26.

Jakarta – An Indonesian documentary maker has withdrawn her film from the government-funded Melanesian Cultural Festival this week, calling it a "political program" that diverts focus from the real issues facing repressed communities in the country's impoverished east.

On Monday, President Obama met Indonesia's new president, Joko Widodo, at the White House to discuss climate change, trade and strengthening US-Indonesian ties.

Muhamad Edy Sofyan, Jakarta – The Indonesian stock exchange authority says it will restrict the market for a highly anticipated initial public offering of shares in mining giant Freeport Indonesia to local investors only.

Ryan Dagur, Jakarta – Government leaders and activists in Indonesia's Papua province said talks on extending the contract of the US-based PT Freeport McMoRan mining company ignored input from the local community.

Jayapura, Jubi – Papua Governor Lukas Enembe said the Indonesian Government's proposal to establish the Indonesian Melanesian Brotherhood, which is marked with the signing of declaration in Ambon in the early October, was only a political ploy.

Australia's new Prime Minister has indicated that his government will prioritise economic interests over support to reinscribe West Papua on the UN list of territories to be decolonised.

The sign came via a letter from Malcolm Turnbull in response to correspondence by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua.

The Governor of Indonesia's Papua province has warned that indigenous Papuans could disappear as a people if they remain marginalised in their own land.

Lukas Enembe's warning came as he delivered a stern rebuke for transmigration – Indonesia's state programme of resettling people from over-populated regions into less crowded regions such as Papua.

For the first time, Radio New Zealand International journalists have been able to enter Indonesia's eastern region of Papua.

Papua has long been restricted to outside access, but during a visit to the region in May Indonesia's president Joko Widodo announced that foreign journalists were now free to enter.

The Governor of Indonesia's Papua province Lukas Enembe says moves to form a Melanesian Brotherhood among five Indonesian provinces is mainly about politics.The governor was explaining his reluctance to travel to the recent signing of the Brotherhood agreement in Ambong.

Reverend Dormon Wandikbo is a leading member of the GIDI, or Gereja Injili di Indonesia, a Protestant church which, unlike other leading Protestant churches in Papua, has a presence in other parts of Indonesia.

A note of caution has been sounded about Indonesian government plans to carve up another province out of Papua region. This comes as lawmakers look set to create two more provinces in the Indonesian territory of New Guinea.

Rochelle Jones – West Papuans have struggled for their freedom since they were annexed by Indonesia and robbed of their right to a fair referendum in 1969. While the independence struggle slowly gains more visibility due to a courageous network of civilian journalists on the ground, it is the stories and struggles of West Papuan women that are often silenced.

A Papua church leader says media reports about the recent burning of a small mosque in Tolikara have largely mis-represented relations between different faiths.

Reverend Dormon Wandikbo, is a leading member of GIDI, or Gereja Injili di Indonesia, a Protestant church which, unlike other leading Protestant churches in Papua, has a presence in other parts of Indonesia.

Dozens of students marched on the Indonesian Embassy in the New Zealand capital, Wellington, today to protest over continuing violence from the security forces in West Papua.

The students, many of them from Melanesian countries, had walked from Victoria University and were joined by several MPs, including the Green Party's Catherine Delahunty.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Hundreds of Indonesian Military personnel have been dispatched to extinguish spot fires across southern Papua that have caused thick smoke and disrupted flights at Mosez Kilangin Airport over the last two weeks.

Reporters Without Borders is very disappointed by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's performance as regards freedom of information and media freedom during his first year in office.

Jayapura, Jubi – Native Papuans in seven indigenous territories will welcome the arrival of a fact-finding team from the Pacific Island Forum (PIF) to investigate human rights violations in Papua.

Robert Isidorus, Jayapura, Papua – West Papua has declared itself as the world's "first conservation province" in a signed declaration on Monday, in an bid to formally dedicate its efforts to conservation purposes.

Jayapura, Jubi – The people of Papua, especially the West Papua Liberation Army (TPN) has mourned the death of a charismatic figure in Brigadier General Richard Joweni.

The man whose real name was Uria Hans Joweni, passed away on 16 October at 23:00 Papua time at 72.

Pacific churches say Indonesia must seriously address human rights abuses and extra-judicial killings in Papua.

The call by the Pacific Conference of Churches comes after the killing of a student in Timika and Indonesia's denials at the UN General Assembly of human rights abuses in the territory it annexed in 1961.