Ridwan Max Sidjabat and Nethy Dharma Somba, Jakarta/Jayapura – Papua's provincial leaders have expressed concern over a rumor that the central government will include West Irian Jaya province on the list of more than 95 regions that will hold direct elections of regional heads this year.

Andre Vltchek – Mr. Peter M Baki has been interviewed while attending UNESCO EFA (Education for all) Forum for the Pacific, held in the city of Nadi in Fiji. Interview was conducted on the 21st October 2004.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Two Papua opposition leaders went on trial separately on Wednesday at the Jayapura District Court for treason.

Prosecutor Maskel Rambolangi said defendant Yusak Pakage, 26, led a ceremony to commemorate the self-declared Papua independence day on December 1 last year.

Matthew Moore and Karuni Rompies – They look like barbeque chips or mulga roots and exude a comforting smell drifting between fresh timber and flowers. Burn them and they produce rich smoke said to warm the lungs and drive out asthma. Distil them and they'll produce oil so potent it can perfume a beard for weeks.

Christine Susanna Tjhin, Jakarta – President Susilo's decision to spend Christmas in Papua (Dec. 26, 2004) may well be a very sympathetic yearly ritual. And the recently signed presidential regulation on the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) has been considered by many as one of the wonderful Christmas gifts all Papuans could get.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Following the issuance of a presidential decree on the Papua People's Council (MRP), the Papua provincial government is now preparing the establishment of a team that will discuss MRP election.

A boycott of today's Christmas visit to the capital of the Indonesian province of West Papua is an embarrassing rebuke to newly elected President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Two years ago, whilst West Papuan tribal leader and independence activist, Benny Wenda, was being tortured in an Indonesian prison cell, Oxford MP Andrew Smith was sitting at the Cabinet table in 10, Downing Street with Tony Blair and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw as the Labour Government's then Secretary of State for Work & Pensions.

Monica Sloan – Oxford MP Andrew Smith has met a West Papuan tribal leader who fled torture to highlight the oppression of Papuans by Indonesia.

Benny Wenda, 29, was held and tortured in 2002 by Indonesian forces – which are occupying the territory – until he escaped with his wife Maria and two young daughters and fled to England.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – At least 23 people had starved to death in the remote Papuan highlands after fleeing a massive Indonesian military operation, church leaders claimed last night.

They pleaded for urgent action to end a crisis which began when the military stepped up its hunt for leaders of separatist rebel group, the Free Papua Movement or OPM.

Darmawan Sepriyossa, Cunding Levi, TNR – A team of eight men had apparently come and gone with the wind. They arrived in Papua "stealthily". On Sunday a fortnight ago, boarding a chartered Airfast flight, they landed at the Moses Kilangin Airport, Timika, Papua. No official reception awaited them. In fact, even the local administration had no previous knowledge of their arrival.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Police personnel will not hesitate to arrest any parties who attempt to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the proclamation of the West Melanesian State, a top police officer in Papua warned on Monday. The anniversary celebration falls on December 14.

Kanis Dursin, Jakarta – The 150 or so people in the room suddenly burst into laughter when one of the speakers conveyed what he said was an appeal from Papuan girls.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Leading Papuan figures said the establishment of West Irian Jaya province as a province from Papua was still the subject of heated controversy despite the Constitutional Court's ruling upholding the split.

Jayapura – At least 5,000 people in Indonesia's West Papua province face hunger and starvation after fleeing a military offensive against separatists, church leaders in the region said.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Papua will probably return its special autonomy status to Jakarta and, instead, demand for a self-determination ballot for the province's future, if the government decides to establish Papuan People's Assemblies in Papua and West Irian Jaya, Papuan leaders say.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Violence erupted in the capital of Indonesia's troubled province of West Papua on Wednesday as security forces moved to break up a flag-raising ceremony by independence supporters who had gathered to celebrate West Papua Day, according to a Sydney-based human rights monitor.

Agencies – Police personnel clashed on Wednesday with pro-independence Papuans in Trikora field, Jayapura, after the independence supporters hoisted in the area the Bintang Kejora flag, the symbol of the Papua independence movement. Several people were injured after the clash, but no fatalities were reported in the incident.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), and the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) that causes it, may be contributing to the extinction of some of Papua's 250 tribes. With a population of 2.4 million, 15,000 people in the province have developed the disease, while 660,000 are HIV positive.

Violence has flared in the capital of Indonesia's troubled province of West Papua as security forces moved to break up a flag-raising ceremony by independence supporters, a Sydney-based human rights monitor said today.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The establishment of West Papua province could remain a stumbling block in the relations between the central government and Papuans, if it is not resolved in a way that both sides agree upon.

[The following Press Release by the Jakarta-based NGO, SNUP (National Solidarity for Papua), was issued on 22 November last year. It provides a much Clearer picture of events in Puncak Jaya, West Papua from September to November 2004 than previously obtained, and is therefore being translated in its entirety - February 15, 2005.]

Jakarta – Even though the Indonesian province of Papua sits on the sprawling nation's remote, far-eastern frontier, it has been placed squarely on the frontlines of the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Greg Poulgrain – Thousands of people were starving after they were driven from their villages by Indonesian forces and militia groups, a Papuan leader claimed yesterday.

Jayapura – The governor of West Papua, Jaap Salossa, has forbidden people from commemorating December 1 as Papua's independence day as well as hoisting the morning star flag or other symbols which are incompatible with official state symbols of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.

Jakarta – The National Police headquarters (HQ) is to investigate the involvement of former Sorong Police Operations chief, First Inspector Anshar Johar and former Sorong Police chief, Adj. High Comm. Faisal A.N. as they were allegedly involved in an illegal logging case in Papua.

Indonesia's human rights watchdog may launch an investigation in Papua following fighting which has left eight people dead and forced thousands to flee gunmen said to be covert members of the notorious Kopassus commando unit.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Human rights advocates in Australia and Indonesia fear a new military campaign in Papua province is behind eight recent deaths and has caused up to 5000 people to flee their villages.

Tony Hotland and Nethy Dharma Somba, Jakarta/Jayapura – Police are investigating the possible involvement of high-ranking police officers in illegal logging in Papua following the confession of a low-ranking officer who surrendered late last week after years on the lam.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Local non-governmental organizations, churches and student organizations urged the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to set up a fact-finding team to investigate the recent series of shootings in the province.

Nethy Dharma Somba and Apriadi Gunawan, Jayapura/Medan – The nationwide drive against illegal logging continued as the police apprehended a foreign ship carrying illegal logs in Papua and a minister revealed that a number of officials were allegedly involved in the rampant illegal logging.

Jayapura – An alliance of 20 political parties that participated in the April 5 legislative election in Mimika, Papua protested the recent inauguration of 25 councillors for the Mimika regency legislature, saying it was against Decree No. 44/2004 issued by the General Election Commission (KPU).

A joint statement by the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, (Sydney University), the Uniting Church of Australia and the West Papuan Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy (Elsham) has said that evidence points to Indonesian Army involvement in an incident last Friday that caused one policeman killed and two government officials badly wounded has the potential to precipit

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Around 500 locals and religious leaders staged a rally around the Provincial legislature in Jayapura, the capital of Papua province, protesting the prolonged supply of liquor and sex workers with HIV/AIDS from other provinces that has infected many people in the southern part of the country's easternmost province.

Ridwan Max Sijabat – The decision by the Constitutional Court on the judicial review of Law No. 45/1999 in Jakarta on Thursday surprised many, including those opposed to and those who support the controversial formation of West Irian Jaya province.

Australian and Papuan human rights groups have accused the Indonesian Army's elite Special Forces (Kopassus) of responsibility for a recent attack on a convoy of local government officials in troubled Papua province.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Constitutional Court's recent ruling on Papua should prompt a revision to Law No. 21/2001 on special autonomy for the province that will justify the establishment of West Irian Jaya as a separate province, an expert says.

Ricky Binihi – Vanuatu chiefs at the recent Melanesian Trust conference held in Tanna have unanimously agreed with other Melanesian representatives that Independence is a God-given right to the people of West Papua.

Oct. 4, 1999: Law No. 45/1999 issued to establish West Irian Jaya and Central Irian Jaya provinces, the regencies of Paniai, Mimika and Puncak Jaya, and the Sorong mayoralty. Jan. 1, 2001: Law No.

Jayapura – Papuan rebels went on a rampage in Puncak Jaya regency causing Rp 19 billion in damages, a top government official said on Thursday.

The alleged rebels attacked and set fire to residential houses and government offices, said Elieser Renmaur, the regent of Puncak Jaya.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The Constitutional Court was established in 2003 to provide legal certainty in the face of conflicting laws, but its ruling on Papua's division on Thursday is likely to create more legal ambiguity in the country's easternmost province.

Oxford, UK – The international campaign calling on Kofi Annan to set up an official United Nations review of the UN's conduct in the 1969 Act of "Free" Choice received a huge boost today when a recent UK Government Minister pledged his support to the campaign.

In Indonesia, at least three people are dead, and as many as 20,000 may have been displaced, after raids in Puncak Jaya district in Papua province. Thousands of Papuans who fled the raids, allegedly by Kopassus Special Forces, are sheltering in the Highlands and badly in need of food. It's believed at least two people died when villagers were fired on from a helicopter.

The restive Indonesian province of Papua was a ticking time bomb that could drag Australia into its wreckage, a prominent Papuan human rights campaigner has warned.

Like war-torn Aceh, Papua remains in the spotlight. Papua Governor Jaap Solossa talked with The Jakarta Post's Ridwan Max Sijabat on Friday after leading a Papuan delegation to meet with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to discuss the situation in the province.

Question: Would you like to summarize your delegation's meeting with the President?"

Sapto Pradityo, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked the former governor of West Papua, Freddy Numberi, to assist in resolving the Papua question.

Suwarjono, Jakarta – A number of West Papuan public figures have asked President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to immediately proceed with the formation of the Papua People's Council (MRP) which has been delayed for the last three years.

Eworaswa, Jakarta – The fatal shooting on September 14 in Mulia, Puncak Jaya, in which four civilians were killed, has left behind feelings of deep fear. The Commission for Victims of Disappearances and Violence (Kontras) is urging the government and the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) to immediately conduct an independent investigation into the case.

Gunawan Mashar, Makassar The perpetual internal conflicts in West Papua has prompted students originating from Papua who are studying in the South Sulawesi provincial capital of Makassar to demonstrate on at the provincial parliament on Jalan Urip Sumohardjo.

Cunding Levi and Lita Oetomo, Jayapura – Thousands of demonstrators from the Papua People's Anti-Militarism Front (Front Rakyat Papua Anti Militerisme, FRPAM) led by Jefrison A. Pagawak demonstrated again on Friday October 29.