Sarah Stephen – On January 18, 43 West Papuans stepped onto Australian soil at Mapoon on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula. Amazingly, they had traversed 425 kilometres at sea in a 25-metre traditional dugout canoe fitted with an outboard motor. They were flying the West Papuan flag, outlawed by the Indonesian government.

Andra Jackson – A Catholic bishop has warned that Indonesian authorities are "trying to get to" the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers on Christmas Island.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Protesters stormed the Papua legislative council building Monday, demanding Indonesian Military (TNI) soldiers be withdrawn from the province.

The protest follows an incident in Wegete, Paniai, on Friday, in which security personnel fired on a crowd of civilians, killing one.

Gunawan Mashar, Makassar - Scores of West Papuan students in the South Sulawesi provincial capital of Makassar have also held an action demanding the release of the Timika detainees. As well as giving speeches, the demonstration was accompanied by traditional dances.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The Papua People's Council (MRP) has formed four teams to gauge public opinion in West Irian Jaya about the controversial proposal to form the area into a separate province.

Jakarta – Police in Indonesia's Papua on Monday denied allegations that four students were shot dead in a revenge attack linked to a group of separatist refugees fleeing from the province to Australia.

Jakarta – About 200 protesters stormed Parliament in Indonesia's restive Papua province on Monday to demand the withdrawal of troops from the region, witnesses said. Calm was restored by nightfall.

Two policemen were injured in the melee in the provincial capital, Jayapura, state news agency Antara reported. Authorities in Jayapura were not available for comment.

Calls are growing for Australia's immigration department to grant immediate protection visas to 43 Papuan asylum seekers who arrived in far north Australia last week. The group is now being held on Christmas Island, many of them at one of Australia's offshore immigration detention centres.

Nova Maulani, Jakarta - A solidarity action over the Freeport tragedy has ended up at the US Embassy. For one-and-a-half hours around 150 demonstrators gave speeches and held theatrical actions.

Prior to this they held an action at the Hotel Indonesia roundabout and the State Palace.

Nova Maulani, Jakarta - Flavours of West Papua dominated a demonstration in Jakarta by people from Indonesia's eastern-most province. They were demanding that police release the eight people that have been cited as carrying out the shooting of US citizens in Timika in 2002.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Relatives of a Papuan protester killed by security authorities in Paniai regency two days ago demanded on Saturday that Trikora Military Commander Maj. Gen. George Toisutta be held responsible for the death, accusing his soldiers of the shooting.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Unidentified security officers opened fire on a group of protesters outside a police station in Paniai regency in restive Papua province on Friday, killing one person and injuring two others, a police spokesman said.

The Federal Government says it has asked Indonesia for official clarification of reports of a shooting in which one person was killed and two injured, in the troubled province of Papua.

Concerns are being raised that the shooting is linked to the arrival in Australia earlier this week of 43 asylum seekers from Papua.

Andra Jackson and Mark Forbes, Denpasar – Two West Papua school children were shot dead yesterday by Indonesian soldiers, according to a group representing Papuans.

A Papuan man has died and two others are in critical condition after being shot by the Indonesian military yesterday, sparking fears of reprisals in the wake of the arrival of asylum seekers in Australia this week.

The dead man, Moses Douw, is believed to be a close relative of Amatus Douw, one of the 43 Papuan asylum seekers who landed at Cape York on Wednesday.

PO Box 15774, Washington, DC 20003

Prime Minister John Howard c/o Embassy of Australia to the United States 1601 Massachusetts Ave, NW Washington, DC 20036-2273

Via facsimile: 202-797-3168

Dear Prime Minister Howard:

Port Vila – In the 1960s, the Government of the USA shamefully sold out West Papua as a bribe to Indonesia for its cooperation in halting the spread of communism in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The USA is now trading off West Papua to Indonesia once again in return for its cooperation in the struggle against international terrorism and Islamic extremism.

The Australian Coalition of West Papua Support Groups in Australia call on the Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone to allow the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers to remain in Australia.

Australia is being told to expect more asylum seekers to make their way to the country from Papua.

Forty-three Papuan asylum seekers arrived on Cape York on Wednesday and have been sent to Christmas Island; refugee advocates say the group includes independence campaigners from the Indonesian province.

Jakarta – Indonesia strongly rejected claims by dozens of refugees who fled eastern Papua for Australia this week that the government was perpetrating genocide in their home province.

Sydney – Refugee activists want the Papuan asylum seekers who landed on the north Queensland coast this week to be brought back from Christmas Island and given bridging visas.

About 100 people gathered outside the Department of Immigration in Sydney today to protest the department's handling of the case.

Sydney – Refugee activists branded the Australian government cruel Friday for flying a group of 43 Indonesian asylum seekers who accused Jakarta of genocide to a remote island detention center.

The group of 36 adults and seven children from Indonesia's restive West Papua province arrived Wednesday on Australia's remote Cape York Peninsula in a small boat.

"The Australian government must respect the rights of the forty West Papuans who have arrived in Cape York. Australia is required to act in accordance with its protection obligations under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees" said John Dowd, President of ICJ Australia.

Jakarta – The National Police will continue to involve the FBI in resolving the 2002 killings of one Indonesian and two American teachers in Timika, Papua – but agents won't be allowed to question the suspects.

Gary LaMoshi, Denpasar – The United States and Indonesia have gotten their man in the ambush killings of two Americans in Papua three years ago. The arrest of Antonius Wamang, an alleged separatist military commander, is supposed to quell speculation that the Indonesian military was behind the shootings.

New York – Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. paid Indonesia about US$1 billion since 2004, including for security at the Grasberg mine that has sparked a US government inquiry, Chief Executive Officer Richard Adkerson said.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – The 2002 killings of an Indonesian and two American teachers in Papua province was caused by local separatist soldiers firing on civilians by mistake, National Police chief Gen. Sutanto said here Monday.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Four Timika residents arrested by Papua Police over the killing of two American teachers and their Indonesian colleague continue to live in fear, despite being released after it became clear they had no connection to the murders.

Nurfajri Budi Nugroho, Jakarta - Around 40 students from the Papua Students Action Front (FAMP) have demonstrated demanding that police release the eight suspects being held over the shooting of two US citizens in Timika on 2002.

The action was held in front of the national police headquarters on Jalan Trunojoyo in Jakarta on Tuesday January 17.

Hon Alexander Downer MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

16 January 2006

Dear Mr Downer,

Ellen Nakashima, Jakarta – Eleven men and a teenager met with two FBI agents at a small hotel in the remote Indonesian province of Papua on Wednesday night, expecting, they said, to be flown to the United States.

Raymond Bonner, Jakarta – An Indonesian who was indicted by a federal grand jury in Washington in connection with the killing of two American school teachers in Papua Province has admitted to the police that he fired shots during the ambush, but he also says he saw three men in Indonesian military uniforms firing at the teachers' convoy, his lawyer said Friday.

Foster Klug, Washington – The US government is welcoming Indonesia's arrest of a dozen suspects in the 2002 ambush killings of two American teachers. Rights activists demanded more information.

Tiarma Siboro and Tony Hotland, Jakarta – A government's plan to go ahead with an earlier administration's plan to split the province into five has met with strong opposition from Papuan leaders.

The leaders were responding to the government's determination to go ahead with the plan, despite an Supreme Court ruling that the split was unconstitutional.

Secretary of State
Condoleeza Rice
US Department of State
2201 C Street
NW Washington, DC 20520

Dear Madame Secretary:

The West Papua Advocacy Team at the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights wishes you a safe and successful upcoming journey to Southeast Asia. We write you out of a particular interest in your visit to Indonesia.

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) has denied reports that the world's biggest gold and copper mining company was polluting rivers near its mining site in Papua.

A'an Suryana, Jakarta – Four years after special autonomy legislation came into effect in Papua, it has been called a failure for not living up to the expectations of the people.

Sean Barry – Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold has hit back at reports that were critical of its financial support for Indonesian military personnel guarding the company's giant Grasberg copper and gold mine.

Muridan S. Widjojo, Jakarta – The meeting between Vice President Jusuf Kalla, flanked by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo AS, Minister of Home Affairs Mohammad Ma'ruf and Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, and the official leaders of the province of Papua on Nov.

Slobodan Lekic, Jakarta – Indonesia's military acknowledged for the first time Thursday that its commanders in Papua had received "support" from a US gold-mining giant – responding to allegations that Freeport-McMoRan Co. gave the army millions of dollars to protect its facilities in the remote province.

Tiarma Siboro and Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Former Trikora Military Commander in Papua Maj. Gen. Mahidin Simbolon has confirmed direct payments from US gold miner Freeport-McMoRan to Indonesian military and police personnel guarding the firm's mine.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The Jayapura Military Court on Tuesday sentenced a soldier to six years in jail for killing a civilian in Papua. The soldier was also dishonorably discharged from the Army.

Dorothy Kosich – It was only a matter of time until the New York Times "investigative" series on gold mining would highlight the track record of Freeport McMoRan's Grasberg operations in Indonesia.

Greg Poulgrain – Supporters of Papuan Governor Jacob Salossa have raised allegations of foul play over his sudden death last week. They are concerned that no autopsy was performed on the man who led Indonesia's easternmost province for five years.

Jane Perlez and Raymond Bonner, Jakarta – The closest most people will ever get to remote Papua, or the operations of Freeport-McMoRan, is a computer tour using Google Earth to swoop down over the rain forests and glacier-capped mountains where the American company mines the world's largest gold reserve.

Organisations campaigning for independence in the Indonesian province of Papua hope that a new umbrella body will help them gain support from governments in the Pacific.

Fabio Scarpello, Jakarta – A recently published Dutch-report has rekindled hopes of "correcting the course of history" in Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province and theatre of a struggle for independence ignored by most of the world.

Organisations campaigning for independence in the Indonesian province of Papua have formed a new umbrella organisation – the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation. Members of the armed wing of the Organisasi Papua Merdeka – the OPM independence movement – crossed into Papua New Guinea to participate in the founding meeting of the new coalition.

Jakarta – Indonesian police have seized dozens of atlases showing the flag of separatist rebels in Papua province amongst the banners of nations.

Fifty-nine atlases containing the Morning Star separatist flag were seized from bookstores in the resort island of Bali during a recent raid, Bali police spokesman Antonius Reniban was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying.

Jakarta – A high-ranking government official returning from Yahukimo regency in Papua denied on Thursday a famine was underway in the isolated region, describing people there as "fat".

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, who just returned from the regency, said "people in the area are fat, the pigs are big, and the corn and cabbage is growing well".