NB:
For daily updates, on the web or in your inbox,
also digests, click on:
West
Papua News
*** To receive email notice
of events in Ireland, email wpaction@iol.ie
with Subscribe Enews in the subject heading.
***
See also Newsletter
On This
Page:
Boats collide in Indonesian waters-18 missing
Massive Australian support for West Papua
Protesting Papuans blockade gold mine
Foreign media ban in West Papua obstructs press freedom
West Papua's 43 asylum seekers
West Papua Action AGM Dec 3rd
Boats collide in Indonesian waters-18 missing
By Indonesia correspondent Geoff Thompson
Indonesian police say a wooden motorised boat carrying 21 people from the province of Papua to Papua New Guinea sunk early this morning north of Jayapura.
One person is dead, and two survivors have reached the coast, while 18 people are still missing.
A spokesman for Indonesia's Papua province police, Commissioner Kartono, said that the boat sank when it collided with a speedboat about one kilometre north of the Papuan capital Jayapura.
Media in Indonesia are quoting local police as saying that OPM (Free Papua Movement) documentation has also been found floating in the ocean.
Police say a bag with children's clothing in it has also been recovered.
He says the two survivors told police they had been heading for Vanimo in neighbouring Papua New Guinea but declined to say why.
Massive Australian support for West Papua
From The Australian, 19th April 2006
MORE than 75 per cent of Australians support self-determination or independence for Papua, a new poll shows.
The Newspoll, published in The Australian newspaper today, found 76.7 per cent of respondents believed Papua should have the right to self-determination or independence.
The poll, which comes amid Indonesian anger towards Australia over the granting of visas to 42 Papuan refugees, was commissioned by businessman Ian Melrose, who has campaigned for a better deal for East Timor over oil and gas rights in the Timor Sea. Only 5.5 per cent of Australians opposed self-determination for Papua, while 17.7 per cent said they did not have an opinion on the issue or did not know.
Papuans are fighting for independence from Indonesia , saying that because they are Melanesian, their culture is completely different to that of the rest of the country.
East Timor, a former Indonesian province, won independence after the intervention of the United Nations.
Protesting Papuans blockade gold mine
Sian Powell from The Australian, 23 February 06
WORK at the world's largest gold and copper mine was suspended yesterday
after a band of 300 Papuans brandishing machetes and bows and arrows blocked
the road to the site in Indonesia's remote province of Papua.
The blockade followed a ruckus on Tuesday when security guards from
Freeport's Grasberg mine chased locals away from their illicit gold-mining
operations.
Two security guards were shot with arrows, according to the local police
chief Adjutant Commissioner Dedi Junaidi, with one seriously injured,
suffering damage to his lung.
The protesters yesterday demanded a meeting with Freeport's largest US
shareholders; a meeting with Papua's governor or the regent; and permission
to pan for gold around the mine, Commissioner Junaidi said.
He said the protesters had blocked the road with trucks and bulldozers they
had taken from the mine, after threatening the employees with machetes.
"There's no rioting now, they are just sitting in the street waiting for
their demands to be met," he said.
The protesters earn a living recovering gold from waste rock dumped by the
mine and they cannot understand why they are not permitted to use this
"rubbish" as they want, a company spokesman said.
Grasberg mine, which is run by a local unit of New Orleans-based
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc, has long had problems with the local
people living in the area, who regard the land as theirs.
Desperately poor, the locals resent the massive earnings enjoyed by
Freeport, and its reliance on the Indonesian armed forces for security.
An official inquiry was launched in Indonesia earlier this year into the
mine's security practices following revelations Freeport-McMoRan paid nearly
$US20 million to Indonesian military and police officials posted around the
massive mine between 1998 and 2004.
Indonesian politicians have also begun to investigate claims that Freeport
has polluted the surroundings with toxic tailings.
The mine's relations with Jakarta were dealt a blow in 2002, when assailants
opened fire at teachers from a school run by the mining company when they
were driving through the mining location, killing two Americans and an
Indonesian.
The Indonesian military was suspected of playing a role in the attack, but a
rebel from Papua's independence movement, OPM, has since been indicted for
the murders.
Foreign media ban in West Papua obstructs press freedom
IFJ Press Release, 17th February 2006
The IFJ is concerned over the stance taken by Indonesian Minister of Defence, Juwono Sudarsono, claiming the ban on all foreign media, churches and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is required for fear their presence in West Papua would "encourage Papuans to campaign on issues of human rights".
The ban has prevented any foreign journalist from having official access to the region in the past eighteen months, severely restricting the media's ability to tell the West Papua story. There is also the concern that the foreign media ban is a direct attempt to conceal human rights abuses from the world.
The restrictions on foreign media are in direct opposition to Indonesia's obligations since ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 19 recognises the right to "seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers."
"Restrictions on foreign journalists represent a blatant violation of this right and seriously curtail the ability of the world's media to report in West Papua," said IFJ president Christopher Warren.
"An independent and free media is essential to ensure democracy," said Warren.
"The silencing and censoring of the media will only fuel misinformation and foster conditions for abuse, mistreatment and corruption," said Warren.
"The denial of foreign media access to West Papua suggests an attempt to conceal human rights abuses," said Warren.
The IFJ is calling on the Indonesian Government to lift the ban as was done in Aceh after the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. A free and independent media in Aceh allows the media to fulfil its job as the people's watchdog against corruption, human rights abuses, mistreatment and political and corporate mismanagement.
Greater public scrutiny of the region is needed to minimise social, cultural, political, human rights and environmental abuses by the military, local government or corporations.
The president of IFJ's affiliate in Indonesia, Alliansi Jurnalis Independen (AJI), Heru Hendratmoko, said: "AJI will never agree with any policy on media banning . . . We have to respect the people's rights wherever they live, including people in West Papua, to get access for information. So let journalists work freely there."
The IFJ represents over 500,000 journalists in more than 100 countries.
West Papua's 43 asylum seekers
by 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.
Early on January 13, Australia-West Papua Association convener Louise Byrne was rung and informed from Merauke, West Papua, that a boat-load of independence activists was leaving for Australia.
According to Byrne, the asylum seekers include student leaders from all over West Papua's lowlands and highlands. Herman Wainggai, one student leader aboard the boat, was imprisoned for treason last year in the provincial capital of Jayapura, having previously spent long periods in jail for his activities. Wainggai comes from a political family; his father died in Cipinang Prison in Jakarta, where he had been imprisoned alongside leader of the East Timorese resistance Xanana Gusmao.
The asylum seekers had hung a huge banner which read: “Save West Papua people soul from genocide intimidation and terrorist from military government of Indonesian. Also we West Papuan need freedom peace love and justice in our home land.’‘
West Papua
Action AGM
West Papua Action's Annual General Meeting will take place in Dublin from 2.00pm
to 5pm on Saturday 3rd December in the Central Hotel, Exchequer Street, Dublin
1. All members and intending members welcome! Tel. 01 860 3431.
Return to Top>>>
**********
