John Mcbeth, Jakarta – Separatist rebels have ramped up attacks on Indonesia's Trans-Papua Highway, a 4,320-km project that aims to spur development in the contested region

Jakarta – The Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) on Tuesday called for the National Police chief to investigate police officers in Wamena, Papua, for "arbitrarily" shaming alleged sex workers.

The rights group also urged the Home Ministry to assess Jayawijaya Regent Jhon Richard Banua, who had condoned "the violation of human rights".

Nithin Coca – With increasingly regular protests and a violent crackdown by police and the military, the contested Indonesian region of West Papua is currently seeing the highest levels of agitation it has experienced in years.

Victor Mambor, Jayapura – Calm has yet to return to Nduga regency in Indonesia's Papua province where pro-independence rebels killed 19 construction workers in December, forcing residents to flee to escape clashes between the insurgents and government security forces.

Hans Kapisa, Manokwari – The Manokwari Papuan Women's Forum (FPP) held a silent action on March 8 to commemorate International Women's Day (IWD).

During the action, the protesters handed out flowers and leaflets as a sign of the grief over the injustices against Papuan women who often fall victim to violence.

Indonesia's military says negotiation with the West Papua Liberation Army can only take place if both sides have the same goal.

Humanitarian concern is growing for villagers displaced by armed conflict in the Highlands between the Liberation Army and Indonesia's military.

Johnny Blades – As the numbers of casualties and displaced people in Papua's Highlands pile up, prospects for an end to armed conflict in the Indonesian-ruled region appear dim.

Humanitarian concern is growing for villagers who have been displaced by conflict in the Highlands between Indonesia's military and the West Papua Liberation Army.

As many as 15 people are feared to have been killed in a firefight between Indonesian soldiers and Papuan independence fighters, adding to more than two dozen deaths in the simmering conflict since November.

Victor Mambor and Ahmad Syamsudin, Jayapura and Jakarta – Three government troops and at least one rebel were killed in a shootout Thursday when scores of guerrillas attacked soldiers who were guarding the construction of a major highway in far eastern Indonesia's Papua province, the military said.

West Papuan independence campaigners are supporting a British parliamentary petition calling for investigations into Indonesia's alleged chemical weapon use in Papua.

Labour MP Alex Sobel last month filed a motion demanding the British government and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons investigate.

Liselotte Mas – Residents of Papua, the easternmost province of Indonesia, have been fighting for decades to defend their rights and preserve their homeland against business interests, which seek to exploit the terrain for minerals and transform it into vast palm oil plantations.

Benny Mawel, Jayapura – A radical Muslim cleric faces being kicked out of Papua after more than 2000 Christians in Indonesia's Christian-majority eastern province demanded his expulsion.

Primus Dorimulu, Jakarta – Papua looks blue from up above. Its shorelines and mountains are covered with verdant forest. The river that runs across its land resembles a thin brush of white paint drawn on a canvas of blue. Abundant minerals, notably copper and gold, lie beneath its fertile grounds.

Jakarta (Antara) – Hasanuddin XIV regional military commander Major General Surawahadi has released 600 TNI (Indonesian military) soldiers to provide security for the construction of the Trans Papua highway.

Jakarta (Antara) – Papua Police Chief Insp. Gen. Martuani Sormin has stated that there is no military operation in conflict-plagued Nduga district, Papua province.

"Only law enforcement operation code-named operasi Nemangkawi is currently being conducted in the district," he said Friday, March. 1.

Indonesia's military says the West Papua Liberation Army set fire to a digger owned by a state-owned construction company on Tuesday.

The attack on Istaka Karya's operations in Nduga regency follows the killing of at least 16 of its employees there by the Liberation Army in December. The Liberation Army has claimed the staff were actually Indonesian military in disguise.

Farouk Arnaz & Dion Bisara, Jakarta – Police have named firebrand cleric Ja'far Umar Thalib, former commander of the disbanded Islamist militant organization Laskar Jihad, a suspect in a case of assault in Jayapura, Papua.

Ja'far, who is at the forefront of spreading a puritanical form of Islam in Indonesia, has a long history of involvement in sectarian conflict.

A special mission from the World Council of Churches has criticised the ongoing human rights violations by Indonesian security forces in the West Papua region after its five-day visit to Indonesia last week and has called for "more openness" by the authorities.

Yamin Kogoya, Canberra – In the days leading up to Christmas, 16 Indonesian construction workers were killed in Nduga by the West Papuan National Liberation Army.

Lukas Enembe, Governor of Papua, declared through media: "I am asking President Jokowi to withdraw all the troops in Nduga."

A global grouping of Christian churches has found that discrimination and human rights violations in Indonesia's Papua region are as severe as they were two decades ago.

A team from the World Council of Churches wrapped up a week-long trip to Indonesia on Friday, which included visits to several cities in Papua province.

Edho Sinaga, Jayapura – A child and nine West Papua National Committee (KNPB) activists in Merauke were arrested by the Merauke district police on Saturday February 23.

Five-year-old Martina Yawon was arrested as he was walking with nine KNPB members who were wearing the Morning Star (BK) flag logo on their shirts.

The West Papua National Committee (KNPB) says nine of its members were questioned by police in Merauke for wearing the Papuan Nationalist emblem.

The KNPB's secretary-general in the southern Papuan city, Yoris Yapo, said a five-year old child accompanying the members was also taken in by police.

This month, the World Council of Churches sent a delegation to West Papua in solidarity with the West Papuan people and to help understand the deteriorating human rights situation in the country.

Jakarta (DPA) – Indonesia on Friday (Feb 22) said action would be taken against officers who used a snake to extract a confession from a suspected thief in the restive province of Papua, after UN experts called for an investigation into the incident.

Jakarta – Children in Jayawijaya regency, Papua, who have been traumatized after fleeing a recent armed conflict between the Indonesian Army and a rebel group in Nduga regency, are receiving social and psychological assistance from the central government, a senior official at the Social Affairs Ministry confirmed on Saturday.

A group of UN human rights experts is calling for urgent investigations into alleged killings and other abuses of Papuans by Indonesian police and military.

It follows outcry by human rights advocates at a video circulated online of police using a live snake to interrogate a Papuan man who was arrested for allegedly having stolen a mobile phone.

Pacific Media Watch – The Free West Papua Campaign has welcomed the call by the United Nation's human rights experts for "Prompt and impartial investigations... into numerous cases of alleged killings, unlawful arrests, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of indigenous Papuans by the Indonesian police and military".

Tom Miles, Geneva – United Nations rights experts have urged Indonesia to investigate accusations of violence by police and military in Papua after a video showed officers using a live snake to intimidate a suspect during questioning.

Jakarta – Papua Regional Police Public Information Head Assistant Superintendent Suryadi Diaz is asking all parties not to dramatise or make a big issue out of the use of a snake during an interrogation of a suspect by police.

The Free West Papua Movement, or OPM, has called on the international community to mediate negotiations with Indonesia's government to end conflict in Papua region.

Armed conflict in Papua's Highlands between the OPM's armed wing, the West Papua Liberation Army, and Indonesian security forces has intensified since last year.

Geneva – Prompt and impartial investigations must be carried out into numerous cases of alleged killings, unlawful arrests, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of indigenous Papuans by the Indonesian police and military in West Papua and Papua provinces, say a group of UN human rights experts.

Jakarta – Hundreds of students have fled fighting in Indonesia's restive Papua province, a local NGO said, amid unconfirmed reports of violent military reprisals after a massacre of civilian workers by separatist rebels.

A. Muh. Ibnu Aqil, Jakarta – The Jakarta Police have named Papua administration regional secretary Hery Dosinaen a suspect in a case of alleged assault against two Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) investigators who were assigned to tail several Papuan officials at a Jakarta hotel early this month.

Evarianus Supar, Timika – A sole judge at the Timika District Court in West Papua, Saiful Amam, has rejected a pre-trail suit by three West Papuan National Committee (KNPB) activists against National Police Chief (Kapolri) Tito Karnavian, Papua Police Chief (Kapolda) Inspector General Martuani Sormin and Mimika District Police Chief (Kapolres) Assistance Superintendent Agung Marlia

Jayapura, Jubi – Two West Papua National Committee (KNPB) activists have been arrested by police in Bitung City, North Sulawesi, for carrying shirts with the Morning Star logo.

Jakarta – Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) researcher Aisah Putri Badriati is surprised that neither presidential candidate raised the issue of West Papua in first presidential debate on January 17.

Indonesian state media is reporting that hundreds of students have fled violence in Papua's central Highlands.

Since December, an increasing number of gun fights have occurred between the West Papua Liberation Army and Indonesian security forces.

Antara News reported the violence had displaced 406 students and more than 80 teachers in Jayawijaya regency.

Jakarta – Thirty-five sacked PT Freeport Indonesia workers, who have been camping out in front of the State Palace for a week, have been forcibly removed by police and are being held at the Metro Jaya regional police headquarters in Jakarta.

Jakarta – The Indonesian People's Front for West Papua (FRI-WP) and the Papuan Student Alliance (AMP) say that the West Papuan people will not take part in the 2019 presidential and legislative elections.

A short documentary which highlights the risks of being a journalist in Indonesian-ruled Papua region, or West Papua, has won an international film award.

Aprila, directed by Rohan Radheya, took out the best short film award at the 16th Pacific Fifo Documentary Film Festival in French Polynesia.

Indonesian police have acknowledged officers terrorised a Papuan man with a snake after a video of the incident circulated online showing the man screaming in fear while his interrogator laughed.

Jakarta (Antara) – Some 320 children from Nduga district in Papua province have fled to the neighboring Jayawijaya district along with their parents or on their own, as firefights are ongoing between the armed criminal group and security personnel.

A Polish man on trial for treason in Indonesia after meeting with Papuan independence supporters said that visitors to his prison assaulted him and threatened to kill him as guards watched. The development has once again spotlighted the issue of Papua, one of several challenges Jakarta has faced on the democracy and human rights front.

Jakarta – The Papua Police have apologized for wrapping a snake around a native Papuan they suspected of theft.

A video of the incident, which took place while the police were interrogating the suspect, has been circulating online.

Jakarta – For exactly four days scores of former PT Freeport Indonesia employees have been camped out opposite the State Palace in Central Jakarta. Sleeping under tents made from tarpaulin, the employees who were sacked by the Freeport gold-and-copper mine in 2017 are sleeping over making use of whatever supplies they have available.

John Martinkus – There is a new war on Australia's doorstep. After 57 years of sporadic fighting, military crackdowns, killings and detentions by the Indonesian authorities against the West Papuans, the Free West Papua Movement (OPM) last week declared war on the Indonesian government.

Jakarta – Indonesian authorities should release and drop treason charges against three Papuan activists for peaceful advocacy in the Papua mining town of Timika, Human Rights Watch said today. The Indonesian government is currently imprisoning at least nine people from Papua and the Moluccan Islands for exercising their rights to freedom of expression.

Indonesian corruption investigators have been assaulted while tailing Papua Governor Lukas Enembe.

Indonesian state media reported the two officials were hospitalised prompting an inquiry from Jakarta police.

Jakarta – After gaining control of 51.23 percent shares of gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia, the government is eyeing to gain a 20 percent stake in publicly listed nickel miner PT Vale Indonesia (INCO).

Bangkok – A highway under construction in Indonesia's Papua province is hurting the environment and stoking conflict by threatening indigenous land rights, analysts and activists said.

The Trans Papua highway is part of Indonesian President Joko Widodo's plan to develop the impoverished eastern province, and open up access to its abundant natural resources.