Agus Salim, Suwanti, Jakarta – Indonesia's central government, along with the Papua provincial government, will conduct an evaluation of the policy and implementation of Papua's special autonomy status, according to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

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Jakarta (VNA) – The Indonesian government on October 11 officially inaugurated Sorong Special Economic Zone (SEZ) on an area of 523.7 hectares in Sorong district, West Papua province.

Jakarta (Antara) – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has stated the central and the regional governments will evaluate the policy and the implementation of the special autonomy (otsus) of Papua.

"We will hold a discussion between the central government and the administration of Papua," said the President at the Merdeka Palace, Jakarta, Friday, Oct. 11.

Benjamin Strick & Famega Syavira for the BBC – Indonesia's Papua province has become the focus of a well-funded social media campaign using bots to promote a pro-government agenda, the BBC has found.

Jakarta – Police in Indonesia's restive Papua region pledged on Friday to hold an investigation after a local leader said the bodies of five villagers had been found with bullet wounds in an area where there has been a military crackdown.

Sydney – Veronica Koman, who is currently on the Indonesian police's wanted persons list, met with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Australia on Tuesday October 8.

The meeting with Michelle Bachelet in Sydney was revealed in a posting on Koman's Facebook and Twitter accounts along with a photograph of the two together.

National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop is leading non-government organisations, the PNG Council of Churches, students, disciplined forces and others in the city to petition the United Nations at the Sir John Guise Stadium today.

Indonesia's West Papua police chief is making assurances that no jihadis have arrived in Papua.

Paulus Waterpauw's comments come after hardline Indonesian Muslim group Front Jihad Islam, or FJI, issued a call to arms in the Indonesia-ruled Papuan provinces after non-Papuan settlers were among the victims of recent violence there.

Human rights activists from the Papuan Civil Coalition have condemned police in Papua for transferring treason suspects to East Kalimantan.

The activists, including the suspects' lawyers, claim the transfers were made without any legal basis and without their knowledge.

Jakarta (Antara) – There are still around 5,000 people displaced by the riots in Wamena, Papua. They currently live in 22 temporary refugee posts, mostly in Jayawijaya Regional Police, Jayawijaya Regional Military Command, Koramil, and Wamena Air Field.

Jakarta – The Papua Police have named 13 people suspects for allegedly having been behind the recent deadly unrest in Wamena, Jayawijaya regency, which caused tens of thousands of residents to flee their homes.

Indonesian authorities should independently investigate recent riots in West Papua that led to 33 deaths, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said as indigenous Papuans urged the government to allow United Nations human rights officials access to the restive region.

Andita Rahma, Jakarta – The National Committee for West Papua (KNPB) spokesman Vic Yeimo denied that 13 suspects in the deadly riot in Wamena are members of his organization.

Papua Regional Police earlier named 13 suspects in the riot and identified most of them as parts of the KNPB and United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP).

Human Rights Watch is calling on Indonesia to investigate riots in West Papua, which killed dozens last month.

The clashes in Wamena on 23 September killed 33 people, injured at least 77, and displaced thousands more.

James Massola, Jakarta – Indonesia has taken the "unusual" step of blocking foreign diplomats from visiting strife-torn Papua, citing security concerns following weeks of violence and ethnic conflict.

Jakarta – Indonesian authorities should independently investigate recent riots in Wamena, Papua that resulted in 33 deaths, Human Rights Watch said today. Since September 29, 2019, at least 8,000 indigenous Papuan and other Indonesians have been displaced from their homes in Papua.

Jakarta – Human rights activists who are part of the Papuan Civil Coalition condemned the Papua Police for transferring treason suspects from Papua to East Kalimantan without their knowledge. The activists, including the suspects' lawyers, claimed that the plan was done without any legal basis.

Diana Mariska, Robert Isidorus, Telly Nathalia and Farouk Arnaz, Jakarta – Papua Police said on Monday that the situation in Wamena had returned to normal and that residents were starting to return home, following deadly riots that broke out in the city on Sept. 23.

Johnny Blades – Jihadis are being encouraged to go and fight in West Papua by Indonesian Muslim hardliners.

Front Jihad Islam, or FJI, issued a call to arms in the Indonesia-ruled Papuan provinces after non-Papuan settlers were among the victims of recent violence there.

Nic Maclellan – When Vanuatu's prime minister, Charlot Salwai Tabimasmas, stood before the UN General Assembly last week, he would have known how Indonesia was likely to react to his words. Echoing the decision of the recent Pacific Islands Forum, he called on the United Nations to find solutions to ongoing violations of human rights in West Papua.

Alan Weedon – West Papua – an Indonesian region with closer cultural and ethnic ties to Melanesia – has been rocked by protests for more than a month, resulting in the deaths of dozens of people.

Tensions between Papuans and those ruling in Jakarta have simmered since it was formally incorporated into Indonesia from Dutch rule, following a disputed referendum in 1969.

Jakarta – Indonesian People's Front for West Papua (FRI-WP) spokesperson Surya Anta, who has being detained at the Mobile Brigade Command Headquarters (Mako Brimob) in Depok since September 1, is reportedly ill and is not receiving proper treatment. Anta is said to be suffering from an ear infection and cannot hear out of his right ear.

Antara and Halida Bunga Fisandra, Jakarta – There are at least a total of 9,078 people taking refuge from Wamena. A number of refugees are staying at the Papare Military (TNI) Base, with some set to board the Indonesian Air Force's Hercules aircraft destined for regions outside of Wamena this Friday, October 4.

The treason trial of several West Papuan pro-independence activists is to be moved to Indonesia's East Kalimantan province.

The activists, who belong to the West Papua National Committee and United Liberation Movement for West Papua, were arrested during recent unrest in Papua.

Virginia Langeberg, Maani Truu – A pro-Papuan lawyer who has been threatened with an Interpol Red Notice says she receives daily rape and death threats as the uprising in the Indonesian provinces ramp up.

A Pacific peacekeeping force should be mobilised under the auspices of the United Nations to enable a peaceful solution to the current violence in Papua.

Pacific Conference of Churches' General Secretary, Reverend James Bhagwan, called for a peacekeeping force after shots were fired in an area near the Papua New Guinea border on Tuesday.

Johnny Blades – The West Papuan pro-independence movement is insisting that genuine talks with Indonesia's government must address self-determination.

President Joko Widodo and his chief of staff have both told Indonesian media in recent days that they were prepared to meet anyone to discuss problems in Papua.

Sydney Jones – Violence has swept across Indonesian Papua in the last six weeks, starting with racist taunts against Papuan students in East Java, and moving back to Papua where protests against racism turned into larger pro-independence demonstrations.

Jakarta (Antara) – A number of residents, who are being evacuated from Jayawijaya, Papua due to Wamena riot, are starting to suffer from diarrhea and skin disease at the refugee camps.

Tom Allard, Jakarta – Indonesian President Joko Widodo has opened the door to holding talks with separatists in the restive easternmost region of Papua, a departure from the stance of previous governments and some of his cabinet ministers.

Indonesia's President Joko Widodo has told media he is prepared to meet West Papuan pro-independence groups to discuss problems in Papua.

Viva News reports that President Widodo, known as Jokowi, indicated he was willing to meet anyone to discuss important issues in his country.

The Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Richard Di Natale, today applauded the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, Charlot Salwai, for raising human rights abuses in West Papua before the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Senator Di Natale commended Salwai for speaking up on the ongoing abuse, which has seen dozens of lives lost in the past few weeks alone.

Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo says that he doesn't have any problems will a proposal that he meet with pro-referendum Papuan figures, including those in the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) and the West Papua National Committee (KNPB).

Vanuatu's prime minister has again pressed the United Nations General Assembly over human rights abuses in West Papua.

During his speech in New York, Charlot Salwai lamented how some Pacific territories are yet to break the shackles of colonialism.

Mr Salwai cited France's territories of New Caledonia and French Polynesia, as well as Indonesian-ruled West Papua.

Marchio Irfan Gorbiano, Bogor, West Java – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has blamed a local armed group for the deadly riots in Wamena, Papua, last week, which killed at least 33 people, ordering authorities to hunt down those responsible for the unrest.

Benny Mawel and Ivany Atina Arbi, Jayapura – As thousands of non-native residents are trying to flee from Wamena in Papua's Jayawijaya regency following deadly rioting, some heartwarming stories have emerged about native residents of the province protecting non-native residents during the chaos.

Jakarta – Papua Governor Lukas Enembe has apologized for deadly riots that rocked Wamena, the seat of Jayawijaya regency in Papua, which paralyzed parts of the city and left more than 30 people dead, with thousands fleeing their homes in fear.

Jakarta – Journalist, filmmaker and founder of the production house Watchdoc, Dandhy Dwi Laksono, was arrested by police on charges of violating Article 28 Paragraph (2) of the Electronic Transaction and Information (ITE) Law on the night of Thursday September 26. The charges relate to tweets he posted on Twitter on September 23 about violence in Papua.

Antara & Telly Nathalia, Jakarta – Police in Papua's Jayawijaya district have identified three suspects involved in last week's riots in Wamena, in which 32 people died and more than 60 were injured.

"The three suspects are S.E. (40), I.G. (29) and Y.E. (53)," Papua Police spokesman Senior Comr. Ahmad Musthofa Kamal said in Jayapura on Friday.

Benny Mawel, Jayapura – After the student protests that ended in unrest and killings in Wamena, Papua, on Monday, both indigenous and non-indigenous residents have started to leave the city.

The residents are fleeing the city amid rumors that there will be a huge military deployment to prevent further turbulence in the area.

Wamena, Indonesia – Thousands of scared residents in Indonesia's Papua scrambled to board military planes Friday, fleeing urban unrest after one of the region's deadliest eruptions of violence in years.

John Martinkus – In the town of Wamena, in the highlands of Papua, thick smoke poured from the roof of the regent's office. It had been torched by protesters, according to police, along with dozens of other buildings and cars.

Virginia Langeberg – Australia has been urged to "step up substantially on the issue of West Papua", with Vanuatu's leaders taking to the stage of the UN General Assembly to "emphatically condemn" alleged human rights violations in the region.

Kate Lamb in Jakarta, Marni Cordell and Ben Doherty – Witnesses to Monday's deadly riots in West Papua claim Indonesian police gunned down Papuan students in the street during the unrest, and say Wamena has since become a militarised ghost town.

Arya Dipa, Jakarta – Activist and documentary filmmaker Dandhy Dwi Laksono has been accused by the Jakarta Police for spreading hate speech after he posted about clashes in Jayapura and Wamena, Papua, on his Twitter account.

Jakarta – Thousands of residents living in Wamena, Papua are seeking to leave the restive city following violent unrest earlier this week that left at least 32 people dead.

Stanley Widianto, Jakarta – An Indonesian journalist and documentary filmmaker, Dandhy Laksono, was detained by police on Thursday night amid a crackdown on activists sympathetic to self-determination for the country's easternmost provinces of Papua and West Papua.

There's been more deadly violence in West Papua with two motorcycle taxi drivers reportedly shot dead in Puncak regency.

The Antara news agency reported that the deaths in Ilaga sub-district have been blamed by Indonesian authorities on "armed rebels".

Dandhy Dwi Laksono, a journalist filmmaker for WatchDoc, was arrested on September 26 and charged under Indonesia's controversial Information and Electronic Transaction Law (ITE Law) for a series of Twitter posts about the ongoing protests in Papua.