Nethy Dharma Somba and Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jayapura/Jakarta – Papuan lawmakers have urged Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi to replace caretaker governor Syamsul Arief due to him being "incapable of performing his tasks, especially in relation to holding gubernatorial elections".

During the course of 2010 – 2011, the Indonesian Government has restricted the number of foreign journalists who are given access to enter Papua and report on the situation there. As well as journalists, a number of foreign NGOs have been prevented from functioning in West Papua.

The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) is a vast mega-project, a plan for over a million hectares of plantations and industrialised agriculture that threatens the people and environment across the southern part of West Papua.

Over 400 Bintang Kejora (Morning Star) flags were flown by scores of people on a demonstration in Tanggal, Serui, West Papua.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Calls have been aired in Medan, North Sumatra, by the Teacher Eye Drop Community (KAMG) for the government to cancel the National Examinations for good due to its concerns that it is plagued with cheating year after year.

UA: 109/12 Index: ASA 21/017/2012 Indonesia

Indonesian prisoner of conscience Filep Karma is in urgent need of medical treatment. He needs to travel to receive this treatment, but the prison authorities have refused to pay for his transport and medical costs.

Steve James, New York – Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc whose recent profits were hurt by lower output from its strike-hit Grasberg mine in Indonesia, expects production to return to normal there by the end of June.

Jakarta – Speaking in Jakarta on Wednesday April 18, Indonesian Military (TNI) headquarters information centre chief Rear Admiral Iskandar Sitompul said that intelligence personnel on duty in Papua do indeed have its own chain of command.

Farouk Arnaz – A convoy of Freeport Indonesia cars was on Saturday attacked twice on the road linking Tembagapura and the company's Grasberg mine, but no one was injured.

13 April, 2012

Rt Hon David Cameron, MP.
Prime Minister,
10 Downing Street
London SW1

Dear Mr Cameron,

The Free West Papua Campaign has condemned Britain's renewal of selling weaponry to Indonesia as "one of the worst outcomes imaginable," while the UK seeks arms exports opportunities for its businesses.

Ati Nurbaiti, Jakarta – Several unexplained cases of violence involving mysterious snipers are heightening insecurity in Papua, the national rights body has said.

Banjir Ambarita, Arientha Primanita & Farouk Arnaz – The identity of the gunmen who on Sunday fired machine guns at a commercial plane in Papua may already be known by authorities.

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – A top military officer was quick on Wednesday to blame the Free Papua Movement (OPM) for a recent shooting at an airport in Papua that killed one and injured four even though the investigation into the incident has not concluded.

Rory MacKinnon – David Cameron may have once been a West Papuan hero but activists poured scorn on the PM on Wednesday after he promised their Indonesian oppressors "the best defence equipment in the world."

Demonstrations were held in Jayapura on April 5 in support of a groundbreaking conference held in The Hague, The Netherlands, to examine pathways to the reinstatement of the New Guinea Council or Nieuw-Guinea Raad, the original Parliament of West Papua from 1961 until Indonesia's invasion.

Arientha Primanita, Farouk Arnaz & Ismira Lutfia – Soldiers may be deployed in Papua to assist the police in the search for the gunmen responsible for Sunday's attack on a commercial airplane, as the president demands swift justice.

Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered security forces to intensify and heighten security measures in Papua following the attack on a commercial aircraft by an armed gang at an airport in the country's easternmost province.

Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – Police and soldiers of the Indonesian Armed Forces are combing the hills in Mulia, Papua, after gunmen sprayed an incoming commercial flight with bullets, killing one passenger and wounding four people on Sunday.

Nick Chesterfield – Concern is mounting in Puncak Jaya that an Indonesian military unit of "unknown persons" seeking to create a security crisis in Puncak Jaya may be behind the April 8 shooting attack on a Trigana Air Twin Otter aircraft in which a Papua Post journalist was killed.

Gunmen fired on a small plane after it landed in Indonesia's restive Papua region Sunday, killing one passenger and wounding four people including both pilots, police and a district official said.

Despite the threat of resistance from the KNPB in response to a summons from the police to its chairperson, Buchtar Tabuni, the police chief, Drs BL Tobing said that they will continue to issue the summons the chairperson of the KNPB to take responsibility for the demonstrations.

The Aliansi Demokrasi Untuk Papua – Democratic Alliance for Papua – has called on the Indonesian government and specifically on the police force to immediately arrest and charge the perpetrators of the serious bloody incident which occurred at the time of an attack on the ammunition dump of Kodim – district military command 1702 in Wamena on 4 April 2003.

The insistence by the chief of police in Papua that Buchtar Tabuni, the chairperson of KNPB – the National Committee of West Papua – be held responsible for the KNPB organising two demonstrations instead of just one has led to a response from the KNPB.

A former Vanuatu Prime Minister, Barak Sope, has condemned the growing links between Vanuatu and Indonesia, which he says ignores the plight of the Melanesian people of West Papua.

Ricky Binihi – A veteran Vanuatu politician who has relentlessly campaigned for the freedom of Pacific Islanders, former Prime Minister Barak Sope, is not happy with what the government is doing with West Papua.

While the Australian government is keen to hear about the present situation in West Papua and is hoping to get inputs from a number of sources, in believes in principle that Papua should continue to be a part of Indonesia.

There has been growing international interest in the situation in Papua. This is apparent from the fact tht two countries have instructed their embassies to visit Papua and West Papua.

A while ago, the Dutch ambassador made a visit there and then it was the turn of the Australian embassy to make a visit.

Banjir Ambarita, Jayapura – In the latest violence against soldiers in the restive province of Papua, an infantry soldier was fatally stabbed by an unknown assailant not far from his base in Skamto district after dark on Sunday.

The commander of the district military command in Jayapura denied that any military operations are taking place in Papua. Lieut-Colonel Rano Tilaar was speaking to journalists after taking part in a Joint Forum of the SKPD (Regional Government Work Unit) and the start of a Consultation on Development in Jayapura.

Alex Rayfield – Five West Papuans were given jail terms on Friday for peaceful expressions of political opinion. Alex Rayfield reports on a trial that will only amplify calls for independence

Natasia Christy Wahyuni – From charges of setting an irrelevant curriculum to corruption allegations, wide-scale cheating in the national exams and substandard facilities, Indonesia's national education system has long been a target of criticism.

Now a competency test carried out on teachers across the country shows they scored a paltry average of 42 out of 100.

From:

Forkorus Yaboisembut and Edison Waromi, in their own name and on behalf of the West Papuan people.

To:

IHRC is shocked that a West Papua court has decided to imprison five West Papuan leaders for their role in organising an entirely peaceful national Congress.

Index: ASA 21/011/2012

Indonesian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release five men who have today been sentenced to three years' imprisonment for taking part in a peaceful gathering in Papua province in October 2011. The court decision significantly erodes Indonesia's respect for freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

Levi Cunding – An Indonesian court on Friday sentenced five men to three years in jail in the restive Papua region for raising an outlawed separatist flag and declaring the region's independence.

The men had led a peaceful pro-independence celebration attended by 5,000 Papuans on October 19.

[Joint Press release by TAPOL, the Asian Human Rights Commission, the Faith-Based Network on West Papua, Franciscans International and the West Papua Network.]

Erwida Maulia – New York-based Human Rights Watch has condemned the Indonesian government for allowing the conviction of five Papuan independence activists on Friday, saying the prosecutions went against constitutional freedom of expression.

Michael Bachelard – Five activists fighting for an independent West Papua will immediately appeal their conviction and imprisonment on treason charges, handed down today.

If the Indonesian government wants to make an example out of these people, then it should free them as a symbol of its commitment to free expression. Instead, the legacy of the Papuan Congress crackdown will be five unjust convictions, while those responsible for the violence go unpunished. – Elaine Pearson, Deputy Director

Just prior to its Universal Periodic Review before the UN Human Rights Council, Indonesia's commitment to democracy and free speech has been questioned with the conviction of Papuan activists, Forkorus Yaboisembut, Edison Waromi, August Makbrowen Senay, Dominikus Sorabut and Selpius Bobii (the "Jayapura 5") for treason.

Timika – The Indonesian subsidiary of US mining giant McMoRan said on Monday it had resumed operations after a two-week suspension caused by fighting among workers.

Several thousand people crammed the grave site of murdered independence hero Ondofolo Theys Eluay on March 7, to hear resolutions from the Pacific regional Feb 29 launch in Canberra of the International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP).

An Indonesia soldier shot Thursday morning during a firefight in Puncak Jaya, Papua has died, Indonesian Military (TNI) officials said.

Jayapura – In Papua, the Indonesian army, the TNI, always uses the welfare approach towards the Papuan people, including armed civilians who continue to create disturbances in Puncak Jaya and other places in Papua.

Mrs. Margaret Sekaggya
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders,
c/o Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights – Palais Wilson
United Nations Office at Geneva
CH 1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland

7 March 2012

Dear Mrs Sekaggya

Indonesia: Threat to prosecute human rights defender, Mr Gustav Kawer

Bearing in mind the continual terrorising of defence lawyers during the makar (treason) trial [now under way in Jayapura] and of human rights activists as well as journalists covering the trial, the central executive of GARDA-P, the Movement for People's Democracy has called upon the security forces to put an end to all of their attempts to silence these people.

Cynthia Warwe – Concerns have been raised again over the health of internationally renowned West Papuan political prisoner Filep Karma, after a series of visits to hospital to treat his worsening health, amid atrocious conditions in the notorious Abepura prison.

At the latest hearing of the trial of Forkorus Yaboisembut, Forkorus announced that the proclamation of the Federal Republic of West Papua had been registered with the UN Security Council in order to receive international recognition.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – American mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia (PT FI) has donated Rp 58 billion (US$6.38 million) to the Timika-based Human Rights and Anti-Violence Foundation (Yahamak) to fund its programs.