Jason MacLeod – Just as Indonesia's president Susilo Bambang Yudhuyono was being feted globally for being a democrat, the Indonesian government was entrenching Papua's reputation as Indonesia's last bastion of authoritarian military rule. Now Peace Brigades International has finally been forced out.

The leaders of a number of churches in Papua have called on the central government to hold a dialogue with indigenous Papuans, stressing that it should be mediated by a neutral third party and held without conditions.

Tom Allard – Indonesia's Vice-President has flagged a drive for reconciliation with the troubled region of West Papua, revealing plans to create a agency to facilitate talks with disaffected Papuans.

The Student Executive Board of the Cenderawasih University Law Faculty has called on the Papuan branch of Komnas HAM, the National Human Rights Commission, to take firmer action regarding a number of human rights violations in Papua.

Australia West Papua Association (Sydney)
PO Box 28, Spit Junction, Sydney, Australia 2088
Ph/fax 61.2.99601698 email: bunyip@bigpond.net.au

Vice-President Boediono
C/- Indonesian Consulate
Perth, Western Australia

9 March 2011

Dear Vice-President Boediono,

Several hundred people attended a demonstration in Jayapura on Tuesday 8 March, mostly from the Central Highlands Students Association, urging the provincial legislative assembly, the DPRP, to convene a special session to declare that OTSUS (the special autonomy law) has failed and that it should be sent back to the central government at the latest by 22 March this year.

UA: 53/11 Index: ASA 21/004/2011. Indonesia Date: 03 March 2011

In the early hours of 3 March, journalist Banjir Ambarita was stabbed in the Indonesian province of Papua. He is currently in intensive care, recovering after an operation. He is at risk of further attacks and intimidation.

Responding to recent moves to hold a dialogue between Jakarta and Papua, the chairman of DAP, the Papuan Traditional Council, Forkorus Yaboisembut, said that such a dialogue will not be acceptable if it takes the form of constructive communications.

The chairman of DAP, the Papuan Traditional Council, Forkorus Yaboisembut, is reported as saying that the process of elimination of the Melanesian Race which is currently turning the indigenous Papua people into a minority in their own homeland does not yet fall within the definition of genocide.

Marni Cordell – Protests in North Africa have sparked renewed interest in citizens' rights – and media coverage has helped. So why do we still overlook serious government oppression just a few hundred kilometres to our north? Marni Cordell reports.

West Papuan solidarity groups met in Sydney on the 26 February to discuss issues of concern in relation to West Papua including the deteriorating human rights situation.

Self-determination

The delegates reaffirmed the right of the West Papuan people to self-determination, in accord with the demands of the West Papuan people themselves.

A Papuan pro-independence alliance is calling for Indonesia's application for observer status at meetings of the Melanesian Spearhead Group to be declined.

John Magai Yogi who is said to be the commander of the TPN/OPM in the district of Paniai and who has for some time been on the police 'Wanted' list, has been arrested by the police in Nabire. He was arrested along with one of his men named Usak Gawe.

Banjir Ambarita – Jayapura – Three officers from the Jayapura Police have been jailed for 21 days for repeatedly forcing a female detainee to perform oral sex over a three-month period.

Papua Police Chief Insp. Gen. Bekto Suprapto confirmed on Sunday that the incidents had taken place at the Jayapura Police's detention center.

Dear brothers and sisters

We, Papuan Church leaders send you as our partners, our theological statement issued recently as reflection of our faith over the worsening Human Rights situation in Papua.

An academic specialising in Papua affairs says it's unlikely effective popular uprisings like those in the Middle East and North Africa will take place in Indonesia's Papua region.

The comment by Richard Chauvel from Melbourne's Victoria University came at this week's Comprehending West Papua conference in Sydney.

A West Papuan student activist says the dialogue over self-determination aspirations is still very much alive among young West Papuans through social media like Facebook.

Jakarta – We welcome the plan for a Jakarta-Papua dialogue that is now being pursued by the Indonesian Government. Peaceful dialogue is the only dignified way to resolve all the political and humanitarian problems that have persisted in Papua to the present day.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).