A group of visiting Indonesian MPs say they are not concerned that Papuan refugees recently granted asylum in Australia don't want to meet them.
The 42 refugees had been frightened by a request to meet the Indonesian parliamentary delegation accompanying Indonesia's ambassador to Australia, Hamzah Thayeb, and had refused, their lawyer said on Thursday.
Brendan Nicholson – A new security treaty with Jakarta will include an assurance that Australia respects Indonesia's integrity – including its ownership of West Papua – says Prime Minister John Howard.
Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – Papuan tribal leaders oppose a plan by local councillors to meet PT Freeport Indonesia bosses in the United States city of New Orleans to renegotiate the company's much-criticized working contract.
Maire Leadbeater – Two Herald contributors, John Roughan and Michael Richardson have now gone into bat for the virtues of a unified Indonesia. I totally agree that New Zealand should foster positive links with Indonesia. If that means a boost in Government funds to the tertiary institutions so that they can get their Indonesian language courses going again I am all for it.
Cath Hart – The only West Papuan refused protection in Australia among a group of 43 asylum-seekers could have the decision overturned when his visa to Japan expires in September.
Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – Lawmakers should summon top Freeport executives to explain the alleged environmental damage and human rights abuses at the firm's Grasberg mine in Papua, a team of legislators says.
Rohan Pearce – While not many details about the "security treaty" being negotiated between Canberra and Jakarta have been made public, the Howard government has indicated that it will include an Australian commitment to Indonesia's "territorial integrity" – in particular, opposition to self-determination for West Papua, including the right of West Papuans to secede from Indonesia an
Sydney – Australia on Wednesday denied refugee status to the last member of a group of 43 asylum seekers from the restive Indonesian province of Papua.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said the man's application was rejected because he was eligible to live in another country and had not exhausted avenues to seek asylum elsewhere.
Australia West Papua Association spokesperson Joe Collins expressed grave concerns at the proposed new security treaty with Indonesia and in particular at the Indonesian demand for a clause in the treaty urging Canberra to reject West Papuan claims for independence.
Tony Hotland, Jakarta – The government plans to issue a new regulation to ensure the trillions of rupiah entering Papua under special autonomy is being spent properly, the President says.
Jakarta – Two supporters of a former Jayawijaya regent died following a clash with the police in Papua on Monday, after they tried to prevent the police from picking him up to appear in court on charges of misappropriating the administration's budget.
Jakarta – Two people were killed and six injured Monday after police clashed with villagers defending a district chief charged with corruption in Indonesia's Papua province, police said Monday.
Police were questioning 139 people after the violence in Wamena, the capital of the mountainous district of Jayawijaya, said Col. Kartono Wangsadisastra, a police spokesman.
Scott Burchill – The arrival of 43 West Papuan asylum seekers in northern Australia earlier this year pressed the pause button on the cosy relationship struck recently between political elites in Canberra and Jakarta.
Despite their common opposition to separatism in West Papua, both governments bungled their responses to this latest challenge to bilateral goodwill.
Kylie Williams, Canberra – International human rights groups have lodged a formal protest over Australia's tough new immigration laws in a letter urging the government to adopt humane refugee policies toward Papuans.
Lloyd Jones, Port Moresby – A Papuan woman who says she fled to PNG after Indonesian intelligence officers forced her to plead for her daughter's return from asylum in Australia should be granted a protection visa by Canberra, Papuan independence activists say.
Reporter: Steve Marshall
Tony Jones: Lateline can reveal disturbing claims tonight by a Papuan woman who says she was forced by Indonesian intelligence officers to make a public statement – or be killed.
In a letter to Prime Minister John Howard, 47 organizations based in eight countries today urged the Australian government "to uphold its obligations under the Refugee Convention, to recognize the plight of Papuans suffering brutalization on your doorstep, and to adopt humane refugee policies in keeping with the widely recognized principles of the Australian people." The organizatio
M. Taufiqurrahman and T.B. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – The tailing system used by PT Freeport Indonesia in its operation in Timika, Papua, has caused severe damage to the environment, a House of Representatives-sanctioned team says, confirming earlier similar findings.
Cath Hart and Samantha Maiden – A Papuan student activist was allegedly stabbed to death by Indonesian police after he was caught trying to flee to Australia along with 21 other students last month.
Alex Bainbridge, Sydney – Sixty supporters of West Papuan self-determination held a flag-raising ceremony outside the Indonesian consulate in Maroubra on April 30.
John Kerin and Tracy Sutherland – The Prime Minister has faced a party-room backlash over planned migration zone changes designed to discourage Papuan asylum seekers, as three more were intercepted on a small island in the Torres Strait.
Reporter: Steve Marshall
Indonesia has frozen ties with two Australian universities, accusing their academics of supporting Papuan separatism.
A spokeswoman for the Indonesian Education Ministry, Nur Samsiah said Deakin University and RMIT University in Melbourne had both been blacklisted, preventing the two institutions from having ties or pursuing contracts with campuses in Indonesia.
Sarah Smiles – The Indonesian Government has accused two Deakin University academics of promoting separatism in West Papua and warned that the country's institutions will have nothing more to do with the university.
Sydney – Editorial independence and journalist safety are at risk in Papua, says the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), after 50 people violently attacked Timika Pos journalists and other employees, in Mimika, Iwan, Papua, Indonesia, during a strike over the appointment of the chief editor.
Melbourne – Indonesian Environment Forum (WALHI) yesterday launched a damning environmental report on the Rio Tinto joint venture at the Freeport Mine, ahead of shareholder concerns and protests to be held outside the company's Annual General Meeting today.
Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – The environmental damage caused by PT Freeport Indonesia's Grasberg mine in Papua province is much worse than earlier reported by the government, an environment watchdog says.
Pip Hinman – An Australian coalition of West Papua support groups has asked the UN to list West Papua as a non-governing territory requiring a self-determination plebiscite.
Jakarta – Environmental damage caused by Freeport's huge gold and copper mine in Indonesia's remote Papua province is much worse than previously thought, an environmental watchdog said Wednesday.
Rob Taylor, Jakarta – The giant Freeport gold mine blamed for a slew of environmental and social catastrophes in Papua is causing far greater damage to the environment than previously thought, green activists claimed today.
Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Around 500 people, consisting of freedom fighters, war veterans, and their children and grandchildren commemorated Monday the 43rd anniversary of Papua's return from the Dutch government to Indonesia, at the Cenderawasih Sports Hall in Jayapura.
Executive Summary
This report presents a new and independent picture of the environmental impacts of the Freeport mine, a Freeport McMoRan and Rio Tinto joint venture, which although one of the largest mines in the world, operates under a shroud of secrecy in remote Papua province.
Sydney – Australia needs to do more to help Papua attain independence, but the decision to grant bridging visas to 42 asylum seekers has put the province's struggle back on the world agenda, a Papuan activist says.
Greens leader Bob Brown has called for the resignation of Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone after she accused Papuan separatists of racism.
Responding to an article by Senator Vanstone in The Weekend Australian newspaper, Senator Brown said the immigration minister had made a major gaffe in calling the cause of separatism "toxic" and based on "racist sentiment".
West Papua solidarity groups today welcomed law firm Mallesons Stephen Jacques's legal action against the Howard Government and claim the proceedings will highlight undue and unlawful interference with domestic immigration policy.
Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – "You should send the Australian military into Papua. Why not? The sooner the better. It would be a humanitarian operation."
Louise Dodson and Mark Forbes, Jakarta – Australia is ready to offer economic aid to help Indonesia smooth the introduction of Papuan autonomy, as the two countries try to restore relations under stress over the treatment of refugees.
Mark Forbes – Indonesia's ambassador to Australia has blamed the Uniting Church for fomenting unrest in West Papua and criticised Canberra's response in comments likely to inflame the continuing diplomatic rift.
Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition Leader Kim Beazley have misjudged public support for Papuan independence, The Greens said.
Greens Leader Bob Brown said a Newspoll released today, showing 77 per cent of Australians support independence for the Indonesian province, proved the major parties were wrong.
Reporter: Alexandra Kirk
Eleanor Hall: To tensions with Indonesia now and the Prime Minister has this morning discounted an opinion poll, out today, which shows that more than three quarters of Australians support independence for the Indonesian province of Papua.
Jakarta – A prestigious American think tank is urging the Indonesian government to make use of a "window of opportunity" to resolve unrest in Papua, and also calls on the international community to help expedite the process.
Jakarta – Indonesia denied Tuesday that its military had pressured the mother of a four-year-old Papuan asylum seeker into demanding that Australia return her daughter, as alleged in a media report there.
Pandaya, Banda Aceh – Teen pop icons Raja and Ratu's joint concert turned Banda Aceh upside down last month. The partitions erected to segregate the thousands of boys and girls, as required by the province's sharia law, crumbled as the hysterical star-struck young people jostled to get closer to their idols on stage.
Jakarta – Nineteen people are still on the run following last month's riots in Indonesia's Papua province in which six people were killed, police said.
Four of the fugitives described as the "main actors" are suspected of being responsible for the deaths of five security officers in the March 16 riot at a US-run mine, Papua chief detective Paulus Waterpauw said.
Saffron Howden and Adam Gartrell, Canberra – The federal government's tough new asylum-seeker regime has been condemned as an act of moral abandonment timed to be obscured by the fallout from the AWB wheat scandal.
Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, Jakarta – It is naive to think that the country's top circle of political-security decision makers could so easily lead the nation into folly.
But Indonesia's impulsiveness in recalling its ambassador from Canberra after Australia granted temporary visas to 42 Papuan asylum seekers remains a crude and unnecessary response.
Max Lane, Sydney – The arrival of 43 Papuan refugees in Australia followed soon after by the violent dispersal of otherwise peaceful student demonstrations in Papua has resulted in two weeks of sustained media coverage of the situation in Papua and its implications for Australia.
Max Lane – On April 5, the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) issued a resolution calling for the closure of the huge Freeport mine, a demand that had been raised by student protesters at a March 15-16 demonstration and at protests earlier in the year in both Papua and other parts of Indonesia.
Sarah Stephen – Soon after the federal government's decision to grant 42 West Papuan asylum seekers temporary protection visas, an April 2 national day of action in solidarity with West Papua welcomed the decision while urging the government not to ignore the human rights situation in West Papua.
Tiarma Siboro and Nethy Dharma Somba, Jakarta/Papua – Security authorities suspect "outside elements" may have been involved in Monday's deadly attack on a military post in Papua, with the hunt continuing for the killers.