Australian unions have called on the Indonesian Government to respect international labour Conventions and human and trade union rights following the arrest of five nurses in West Papua.

Vanuatu's opposition leader, Edward Natapei, says the country should reconsider its membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).

Last year, when Natapei was Vanuatu's leader, he was involved in an acrimonious spat with Fijian leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama af ter cancelling an MSG summit scheduled to be held in Fiji.

Jayapura – Thaha Alhamid, secretary general of Papuan Presidium Council, (PDP), has welcomed the initiative taken by the Papuan Peace Network, the JDP, to seek to solve the Papuan problem by means of a Jakarta-Papua dialogue, and says this should include all the leaders of the struggle for Papuan independence, here in the Land of Papua as well as abroad.

As the Melanesian Speahead Group meeting goes ahead in Suva, an Australia-based pressure group is calling for full membership for West Papua.

Vanuatu's opposition leader, Edward Natapei, says he has grave concerns at the decision by the Melanesian Spearhead Group giving Indonesia observer status. The MSG is meeting in Suva with a leaders' summit set for next Thursday.

KontraS Papua, the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence, is convinced that the detention of five nurses by the police in Papua is a violation of their human rights. KontraS Papua member, Olga Helena Hamadi said that the police should not treat the nurses as criminals, adding that the government should quickly act to resolve this case.

Repeka Nasiko – The Australian West Papua Association (AWPA) in Sydney has written a letter to Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) leaders urging them to discuss and speak out against the deteriorating human rights situation in the territory at the next MSF forum in Fiji.

In an open letter to the leaders of the MSG, AWPA calls on the MSG to give full membership to the Melanesian people of West Papua.

A West Papuan independence group has been angered by a decision to grant Indonesia observer status at a summit meeting of the Melanesian Spearhead Group next week. The decision was made by MSG leaders.

East Timor also has been granted observer status, while a founding member of the European Union, Luxembourg, has been invited as a special guest

Eight nurses and midwives have been arrested in Jayapura for their involvement in a strike that resulting in a halt to services at the general hospital in Jayapura – They face charges of inciting their colleagues to take part in a strike.

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.