Jayapura – A majority of Papuan people still consume rain and river water since 70 percent of villages in the provinces have no clean water facilities.

Head of the irrigation section at the provincial public works agency Yusuf Yambe said 2,900 of the province's 3,300 villages lacked clean water facilities.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – A delegation of West Papua politicians has blamed Jakarta for the stagnation of special autonomy in Papua and West Papua, saying the two provinces could not properly implement autonomy without guidance from the central government.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – A delegation of Papuan politicians has called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to appoint a special envoy to improve Papua's image in the international world.

The British Foreign Office has urged the Indonesian government and all Papuan groups to engage in a peaceful dialogue.

In its Human Rights Report 2007 launched this week, the Foreign Office says while peace was being maintained in Aceh, Indonesia continues to experience low level conflict in Papua.

Jakarta – The international environmental activist group Greenpeace called for Jakarta to strongly support the maintenance of Papua's log export ban despite recent logging industry pressure to loosen the regulation.

Nethy Dharma Somba and Lilian Budianto, Jayapura/Jakarta – Protesters from the Papua Students and Youths National Front (FNMPP) took to the streets again Tuesday demanding the Papua legislative council hold a referendum on the perceived government failure to implement special autonomy.

One teenage student is in hospital in a serious condition after being shot in the stomach when Indonesian security forces went on a shooting rampage against local people in the Paniai Lakes region of West Papua two weeks ago. The human rights violation coincides with the visit of Indonesian Defence Minister Sudarsono who is in Australia to attend the East Asia Dialogue Forum.

Dear Prime Minister

Markus Makur, Timika – As much as 80 percent of Papua's population of about 2 million lives in destitution, despite the natural wealth of the province, according to an official in the Papua provincial administration.

Thaha al Hamid, secretary-general of the PDP (Papuan Presidium Council) has called on the MPR, the DPRP and the provincial administration of West Papua to stop talking all the time about PP77, the presidential decree about regional symbols.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
US State Department
2201 C St., NW
Washington, DC 20520

Dear Secretary Rice,

Indonesian Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono in Australia AWPA Calls on the Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon to raise the human rights situation and the behavior of the Indonesian military in West Papua with the Indonesia's Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono

According to latest reports from West Papua, more than a dozen Papuans have been arrested for taking part in peacefully unfurling their flag, the Morning Star (Kejora), some or all of whom are likely to be charged for rebellion (makar).

Indonesian police have sought assistance from New Zealand police to implement improved community policing in the Papua region. They are also looking to recruit about 1,500 more Papuans into their ranks as part of the initiative.

A group of Papuan leaders have written to a British newspaper outlining a list of grievances with the operations of British Petroleum at the Tangguh gasfield in their part of Indonesia.

The Guardian reports that the Papuan leaders requested anonymity in their claim that BP has reneged on its agreements over the 7-billion US dollar natural gas plant project at Bintuni Bay.

London – The Indonesian government should order the immediate release of nine Papua activists arrested for displaying the Papuan Morning Star flag, Human Rights Watch said today. All charges against them should be dropped.

When BP set out to build a £3.5 billion natural gas plant in remote West Papua, local villagers hoped for a bright future. But all is not well.

The New Zealand-based Indonesia Human Rights Committee says it continues to be deeply concerned about the human rights situation in West Papua.

It has written to the New Zealand foreign minister, Winston Peters, asking the government to suspend all defence training ties with Indonesia.

Rt Hon Winston Peters,
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Parliament Buildings,

Wellington 18 March, 2008

Dear Winston Peters,

The Indonesia Human Rights Committee continues to be deeply concerned about the human rights situation in West Papua.

The Hon Stephen Smith MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra
ACT 2600

17 March 2007

Dear Mr Smith,

I am writing to you concerning the dangerously deteriorating situation in West Papua.

"Papuans still are subject to torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests and unfair trials by the Indonesian authorities," said the World Council of Churches (WCC) programme executive for human rights, Christina Papazoglou in a 14 March oral intervention before the United Nations Human Rights Council, which is currently holding its seventh session in Geneva.

Jayapura – It appears that the police will show not tolerance to those who unfurled the Morning Star flag during a demonstration on grounds of the Manokwari Regional House of Representatives on Thursday March 13. The evidence, nine out of the 12 demonstrators arrested earlier by police are to be charged with rebellion.

Timika, Papua – Four Australian military attaches arrived at the Mimika district town of Timika on Wednesday for a two-day working visit in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua.

Jayapura – The controversial issues of using separatist symbols such as the morning star flag on any accessories has become one of Governor Suebu's concerns. According to the governor, the handling of the people's use of the separatist's symbols should be dealt persuasively and not repressively.

Indonesian police have arrested 11 people in Papua for raising the Morning Star flag.

Police broke up a rally in the west of the province when demonstrators held the banned flag aloft and called for a referendum on Papua's future.

The demonstrators could be charged with promoting separatism. Police have rejected claims that they beat several of the demonstrators.

Vidhyandika Perkasa, Jakarta – No significant progress has eventuated in Papua as far as sociocultural, political and economic dimensions are concerned.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – A women's alliance has called the campaign against HIV/AIDS infection in Papua ineffective, citing the steep rise in cases in the last several years.

A number of Papuan women of the Women's Challenge Alliance held a demonstration to observe World Women's Day in Abepura on Saturday.

Washington, D.C.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Growing demands for a self-determination referendum show the Papuan people are fed up with corruption caused by the province's "special autonomy" status, an academic and informal leader said.

Biak – After having meetings with the DPRP, the MRP and the Papuan provisional government, a team from Komnas HAM visited Biak Numfor to seek opinions from local people about views for and against the satellite launch project.

Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – The government will issue an emergency government regulation within the next two months to justify the formation of West Papua province, which has been a source of tension between Jakarta and Papua for the last five years.

Jayapura – Two Papuan students detained after a pro-Papuan independence demonstration were released after paying bail to the local police.

Zakaria Horota, chairman of the National Front of Papuan Students (FNMPP), said here Tuesday that Marthen Manggaprow and Frangky Inekep were released with a letter of summons.

Jayapura, Papua – Papuan members of the West Papua National Authority gathered Monday to demand the government hold a referendum, claiming that special autonomy has failed to raise the welfare of local people.

The group said a referendum is needed because any dialogue between the Papuan people and the government always ended in deadlock.

Adpara, Jayapura – An association of former Papuan fighters urged greater government efforts to publicize a regulation that prohibits regions from using secessionist flags.

A series of demonstrations calling for a referendum on Papuan self-determination have been taking place today in several main towns of Indonesia's Papua region.

However at least two of the rallies in Jayapura, Manokwari, Serui and Sarong, have reportedly been restricted by police who have deemed any demonstrations without a permit illegal.

The Papua People's Assembly, the MRP, says it's pursuing dialogue with Jakarta in an effort to stop the proposed formation of a new province in its region.

Joe Collins from the Australia West Papua Association said that "Mr. Debus is the 10th Federal Government Minister to visit Indonesia since the swearing in of the new Australian Government".

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Two senior campaigners of the Papua Free Movement (OPM) surrendered over the weekend with a statement praising the significant progress the province has achieved.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Residents of Papua's Pegunungan Bintang regency on Tuesday voiced their opposition to the proposed formation of a new province.

After five regents on Monday issued a joint statement in Jayapura for an autonomous province that would include Pegunungan Bintang, people in Oksibil, the regency's capital, staged a rally rejecting the plan.

Angela Flassy, Jayapura – Two Papuan intellectuals have expressed deep concern over a bill on the formation of four new provinces in Papua, which they said would benefit Jakarta and could sow conflict among tribes.

Congress of the United States
Committee on Foreign Affairs
U.S. House of Representatives
Washlngton, DC 20515

Telephone: (202) 225·5021

http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/

February 14, 2008

At least 100 people demonstrated Monday in Jayapura, Papua's capital city, to demand the dissolution of the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP), which they said failed to protect the rights of Papuans.

We

1. declared West Papua as 'Land of Peace' on the 5th February 2002.

Joe Collins from the Australia West Papua Association said that AWPA is still concerned about the ties with the Indonesian military that the Lombok Treaty commits us to. The treaty came into force on Thursday at a ceremony in Perth which was attended by the foreign ministers of Australia and Indonesia.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Papua needs a mediating force to oversee an effective implementation of special autonomy, similar to that in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, a religious leader in Jayapura said Friday.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) and the Papuan Legislative Council (DPRP) have rejected a proposal by the House of Representatives (DPR) to divide Papua into four provinces.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Threats and intimidation against rights defenders increased in Papua and West Papua provinces in 2007 while efforts at military reform stalled, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Thursday in its global report on human rights.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday gave extraordinary praise for former dictator Suharto's role in the brutal military operation in Papua which killed thousands of tribesman.

A religious leader in Indonesia's Papua has called for Jakarta lawmakers to consult with Papuans before going ahead with their plan to split their region into four new provinces.

Last week, Indonesia's House of Representatives endorsed its own plan to create eight new provinces, including adding four provinces to the two in its Papua region.

Neles Tebay, Abepura, Papua – Since the fall of Soeharto's regime, Indonesia has apparently begun to move toward democracy. Indonesian citizens have found space to exercise their rights and duties without fear, pressure and intimidation from the state.