The London-based Friends of Peoples close to Nature (FPCN) have issued a statement saying:  "The Government of Indonesia caused a massacre on 2nd December 1999 in Timika, West Papua.  Hundreds of Papuans have been injured as well.  Helicopters, highly sophisticated guns, hand grenades and poisonous gas have all been used for the killing of unarmed Papuans.  Reporting to the outside world was totally suppressed.  FPCN however was able to make and holds unique film footage recorded and brought out of the country with great difficulty."

The Indonesian military opened fire with live rounds on a peaceful flag-raising demonstration on December 2nd 1999.  55 people had been reported injured at the time.  It is hoped that the above-mentioned video imagery will become available to West Papua Action.  Interested parties should contact the WPA office.

On the afternoon of the 9th December 1999, the Netherlands Foreign Affairs Minister, Van Aartsen agreed to Member of Parliament Van Middelkoop's proposal to investigate fully and honestly the incorporation of former Dutch New Guinea into Indonesia.  Van Aartsen suggested that the Dutch Institute for War Documentation (NIOD), which conducted an investigation of Srebrenica, could also do the New Guinea investigation.

Viktor Kaisiëpo, spokesperson for the Netherlands-based West Papua Peoples' Front was quoted in the Netherlands' biggest daily, Algemeen Dagblad as saying:  'This is tremendous.  The investigation may get the discussion going on the Dutch role in the hand-over of New Guinea,' he said.  The Front takes the view that this vote has to be redone.  The Netherlands has to raise the matter with the international community.  'I do hope', said Kaisiëpo, 'that the Papuans will be heard in the investigation.'

The Foundation Study & Information Papuan Peoples talks of an encouraging first step. 'For us it is important that the government recognises that the act of free choice has been a farce', said Evelien van den Broek.

Member of Parliament Van Middelkoop (GPV) called the voting by the appointed representatives a joke:  'One of the blackest pages from the history of decolonisation'.

The EU lifted its embargo on transfer of arms to Indonesia, allowing it to expire on January 17th.  The Netherlands, the Portuguese and the Irish governments are reported to have spoken against lifting the embargo.  The British government is expected to allow Hawk fighters to be shipped to Indonesia in February.  The lifting of the embargo sends a signal legitimising the Indonesian military, who are seen as a threat to the emergence of full democracy and accountability in Indonesia by many including Richard Holbrooke, the US ambassador to the UN.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported (Jan. 21st): Military authorities and political enforcers associated with the former Soeharto regime appear to be building up East Timor-style militias in the contested province of West Papua, human rights activists warned yesterday.

The claim follows clashes in the north coast town of Serui on Wednesday when pro-Jakarta elements clashed with pro-independence supporters.

An Australian-based West Papuan academic, Mr John Ondowame, has accused former Soeharto-regime activist Mr Yurris Raweyai of engineering the formation of pro-Jakarta militias in West Papua - as Irian Jaya has been renamed since a visit by President Abdurrahman Wahid over the New Year.  Mr Yurris, an indigenous Papuan, is infamous in Indonesian politics for his prominent role in the ousting of Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri, now Indonesia's vice-president, as the head of the Indonesian Democracy party in 1996.  "Yurris is forming militias," Mr Ondawame said.  "It is very dangerous, the Yurris rallies are protected by TNI [the Indonesian armed forces] but at the independence rallies the people are shot."

A group of 48 people from Timika, led by Rev. Izaak Onawane, and including Mama Yoshepa Alomang, winner of a human rights award recently, paid a visit to the regional assembly in Jayapura in January to demand the withdrawal of army and police forces who are present in the area to protect the Freeport gold and copper mine.

Assembly member, Anthonius Kelanangame, who is himself from Timika, said the Indonesian government should listen to the voice of the people.  'The security forces at the Freeport concession frequently violate human rights,' he said:  'Timika is like a military base and virtually every army unit is present there: the Marines, Kopassus, Brimob, Paskhas dan Kavaleri.  A big problem at the moment is the presence of armoured vehicles.  Whenever there's a problem in Timika, these armoured vehicles are brought out on patrol, causing the people to panic'. 
(Detikcom- Jakarta, 12 January 2000)

Thom Beanal, the leading tribal leader in West Papua, told the news agency Reuters (Jan. 10th) that separatists plan a major congress later this year to map out a strategy for independence, which they want to achieve through dialogue with Jakarta:  "I want freedom. I don't want anything from Indonesia.  I just want Indonesia to give us independence," Beanal said in Jakarta.  "Papuan people want independence through dialogue."

Reuters goes on: Beanal said he feared elements within the Indonesian military would try to thwart any move towards separation, as they did in East Timor, where thousands are believed to have been killed after voting for independence last August.