Damien Kingsbury – Violence has again broken out in Indonesia's troubled province of West Papua, with the Australian-supported counter-terrorism police squad Densus 88 leading the attack.

Police in Papua have defended the fatal shooting of two pro-Papuan independence activists on Wednesday, saying that the pair tried to assault police officers as hundreds protested on the 50th anniversary of Indonesia's annexation of Papua.

"The shooting was according to procedure," Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Gede Sumerta Jaya said on Saturday.

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – British Ambassador to Indonesia Mark Canning said on Saturday that the UK government did not support the activities of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM), which claimed to have opened an office in Oxford, England.

Margareth S. Aritonang and Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura/Jakarta – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay has visited Indonesia and has raised concerns over the "ongoing suppression of freedom of expression and excessive use of force in Papua."

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) and West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) strongly urge the US government to condemn the unwarranted assault by Indonesian government security forces on peaceful May 1 demonstrations in West Papua.

SP/Anastasia Winanti Riesardhy – Activists slammed the Indonesian government for weak statesmanship after a Papuan separatist group opened an office in Oxford, England.

Michael Bachelard – Johanes Lokobal sits on the grass that cushions the wooden floor of his little, one-room house. He warms his hands at a fire set in the centre. From time to time a pig, out of sight in an annex, squeals and slams itself thunderously against the adjoining wall.

Hundreds of workers at Freeport-McMoRan's Indonesian mine returned to work on Friday after a three-day strike over pay, the US firm said, ending the latest bout of industrial action to hit the operation.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, has expressed serious concerns over the crackdown on mass demonstrations across Papua since Tuesday, which reportedly includes arrests and the excessive use of force by police officers.

Jakarta – The latest violence carried out by the security forces in Papua and West Papua provinces on April 30 and May 1, 2013, have been met with a strong response from the United Nations.

Among other things, the UN has asked Indonesia to allow international journalists to enter the country's easternmost province.

AWPA is urging the Foreign Minister to raise the matter of the deaths of the demonstrators and the crackdown on the peaceful rallies by the security forces with the Indonesian Government. We are also urging him to call for the release of all those arrested simply for taking part in rally which is their democratic right.

Jayapura – While people all over the world commemorated May 1 as a day for workers, residents in Papua celebrated on Wednesday the integration of Papua province into Indonesia.

Alex Rayfield – For many people around the world the first day in May is a time a celebration, a day to remember how ordinary people won the right to the eight hour working day. But in West Papua May Day is a day of national mourning.

Biak – The Indonesian Military (TNI) is inviting native Papuan high school graduates to enlist as cadets in the military.

Enrollment officer Navy Col. Yuddy Subiantoro said that 29 positions in the new intake had been earmarked this year for Papuan high school graduates for selection and training as cadets for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

Indonesian police and army units have conducted heavily armed security sweeps across Jayapura ahead of mass demonstrations to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Indonesia's annexation of West Papua.

Hundreds of workers at Freeport-McMoRan's Indonesian mine have gone on strike demanding better pay, the US firm said Wednesday, in the latest industrial action to hit the operation.

Banjir Ambarita & SP/Robert Isidorus, Jayapura & Sorong – The Indonesian government's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the integration of Papua on Wednesday was shadowed by pro-independence flags being raised across the province and a case of separatist activists being shot dead by police.

Ezra Sihite & Robertus Wardi – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has called for increased autonomy for Papua province to address the host of development and security problems there, an official said on Monday.

The Indonesian government has been accused of detaining more than 400 political prisoners from West Papua, despite official claims that every inmate in the country's jails has broken criminal law.

National Papua Solidarity (NAPAS) condemns the Papuan police decision to ban the plan to organise public demonstration in Papua to commemorate the transfer of administration of then West New Guinea (now Papua) from UNTEA to Indonesia on 1 May 1963.

Robert Isidorus & Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – Police in the restive province of Papua have arrested a man suspected of taking part in an attack at a police residential compound in the Yapen Islands district on Saturday that left an officer dead.

London – A new report by UK-based NGO, TAPOL, forcefully challenges the Indonesian government's repeated assertion that the country has "no political prisoners."

The report urges President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to open up democratic space in West Papua and order the release of all those jailed for expressing their legitimate opinions and aspirations.

Banjir Ambarita – A police officer was fatally stabbed in an early morning home invasion in Yapen Serui Island, Papua, police said on Saturday.

Brig. Jerfi Sesa, of the Yapen Police, was stabbed in the chest by a group of assailants with alleged ties to the militant Ruddy Orarey separatist group, Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Gede Sumerta Jaya said.

Papuan leaders have voiced their concern at plans for more than a thousand Indonesian soldiers to build 1,500 km of new roads in the next two years to accelerate 'development' in West Papua.

Vicky Anggriawan, Jakarta – Scores of people from a number of difference social organisations that are part of National Papua Solidarity (Napas) held a protest action in front of the PT Freeport Indonesia central office in Jakarta.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Papua – The Papua administration has announced that it will ask for a 10 percent stake in mining giant PT Freeport due to the fact that the company operates on Papuan soil but contributes little to regional development.

Six West Papua National Committee (KNPB) activists from Timika were each sentenced to one year in prison on Tuesday by judges from the Assembly District Court in a trial deemed as opaque and farcical by observers.

Yayat Supriatna and Michael Taylor – Workers at the Indonesian unit of Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc have refused to rule out a repeat of a 2011 strike that crippled the world's largest copper mine, trade union officials said in the run-up to pay negotiations next month.

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-062-2013

Dear friends,

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Papua Governor Lukas Enembe has pledged to embrace Free Papua Movement (OPM) separatists, expressing his will to build a bridge between the group and the government by involving them in the provincial development.

Jayapura – Today the Civil Society Coalition for the Upholding of Law and Human Rights in the Land of Papua, working together with a number of human rights NGOs in Jakarta and internationally will formally launch the Papuans Behind Bars website www.papuansbehindbars.org, or in Indonesian, 'Orang Papua Dibalik Jeruji.' The website is int

An expression of people's desire for freedom, cries of "Papua Merdeka" continue to ring out through the cities, mountains and forests of West Papua.

Defence witnesses have revealed the extensive and systemic use of casual torture and inhumane treatment by Indonesian police, whilst testifying at the Makar (treason) trial of two West Papuan peaceful political activists in Yapen District Court, Serui, on April 9.

A group of West Papuan students from Solidarity for Papua (SUP) held a demonstration in front of the Abu Bakar Ali Park in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta on April 15.

Independent human rights workers in Puncak Jaya regency have reported that Indonesian police and army in the remote highlands district of Tolikara have been continuing to arbitrarily arrest civilians, allegedly to fill arrest quotas required for promotion, as part of routine crackdowns on civilians harbouring pro-independence thought in Papua.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Sixty-one residents of Samenage hamlet in Helenga district, Yahukimo, Papua, are reported to have died between January and March this year due to a variety of illnesses, some of which are related to malnutrition, a source said on Wednesday.

Robert Isidorus, Jayapura – Sixty-one people have reportedly died in the past three months in the Samenage district of Yahukimo, Papua, due to the lack of health-care facilities.

Nadya Natahadibrata and Nethy Dharma Somba, Jakarta – A non-governmental organization (NGO), National Papua Solidarity (NAPAS), urged the government to investigate the cause of death of 95 people in Tambrauw regency, West Papua, saying that the Health Ministry neglected Papuans in remote areas.

Robert Isidorus & Dina Manafe, Jayapura/Surabaya – Activists in West Papua province say that up to 95 people have died of hunger in Tambrauw district since last November, with hundreds more still at risk.

Ezra Sihite & SP/Jeis Montesori – Indonesian government officials have denied a recent allegation that dozens of people in a Papuan district died after suffering from severe malnutrition.

Prodita Sabarini, Reportage – For Papuans, their graves are a reminder of the grief that besieges their land.

In front of the Justice and Human Rights Advocacy Network office in Wamena is the grave of Opinus Tabuni, a member of the Papuan Indigenous Council, killed in a military crackdown on World Indigenous Peoples' Day in August 2008.

Papua continues to be plagued by violence. Last month gunmen shot at an army helicopter, as the military was to evacuate victims of an ambush which killed eight soldiers and four civilians. Activists say the solution lies in a mediated comprehensive dialogue, but the government rejects any attempt to revisit history.

Prodita Sabarini – Papuans have been allowed to reject secrecy as one of the principles of general elections. The open-ballot system is permitted there, but customary leaders say the open election system as it stands in Papua today has no roots in tradition and could easily cause conflicts in the already restive province.

The Archipelago – The Papua Police reportedly has identified the gunmen who attacked a missionaries' helicopter in Puncak Senyum, Puncak Jaya, Papua.

The Bell 206 JetRanger helicopter was manned by a German pilot and was on a flight to pick up two missionaries from Lumo village. There were no fatalities in the incident, but two bullet holes were found in the front window.

Returning to the land may be one way to improve food security and welfare in Papua. The Jakarta Post's Prodita Sabarini was recently among a group of journalists invited by the Britsh NGO Oxfam to examine a few of their programs in Serui and Jayawijaya regencies in Papua. Below is her report.

Prodita Sabarini, Wamena, Jayawijaya – A mama walks barefoot under the skin-burning sun in a hamlet in Piramid district, Jayawijaya regency. With their traditional woven bags (noken) dangling from their heads, Papuan women, lovingly called mama-mama, dig into the earth to harvest sweet potatoes.

Rendi A. Witular, Papua – When it comes to realizing a massive road project, nothing could match what governor general Herman Willem Daendels did during the Dutch colonial era.

Rendi A. Witular, Jayapura – The government has taken on the near impossible: building 1,520 kilometers of new roads in less than two years on the harsh terrain of Papua and West Papua – the nation's least developed and isolated provinces.

Rendi A. Witular, Papua – The stakes are high when it comes to infrastructure development work in Papua.

Aside from the pervasive threat of malaria, construction workers deployed in remote areas also put their lives on the line amid the constant threat from Free Papua Movement (OPM) separatists.

Development in Papua, Indonesia's most eastern and underdeveloped province, has been hampered by extremely expensive logistics costs caused by the lack of transportation infrastructure. The Jakarta Post's Rendi A. Witular recently traveled to several remote areas of the province to find out more. This is the first of three reports about the development in Papua.