Politics & History

The Australia West Papua Association (Sydney) Media release

As the US Congress debates a human-rights crisis in West Papua, the Australia West Papua Associations (AWPA) refute TIME Magazine and NGO reports purporting human-rights concerns have been driven by impoverishment in the territory.

In a statement issued today AWPA asserts Papuan protests have been driven by Indonesian administration and denial of self-determination since a US drafted contract in 1962. The association refutes Indonesian assertions that West Papua is a domestic matter.”

Dear Friends,

Please help us help humanity by reading and encouraging other adults to read the graphic novel at www.papuanvoices.com. (Does not yet work on mobile phones.)

The Illustrator and I have chosen to release the first three chapters (60 pages) now, given the urgency of the content but also because we can update and add to this "flip book" over time. (Try your scroll wheel to flip pages.)

If you care about disappearing cultures and biodiversity, you can help raise the world's awareness of West Papua by forwarding this appeal to your friends and colleagues, or by letting them know about this through Facebook, Twitter or word-of-mouth.

If you enjoy the beautiful illustrations in this book and you come to appreciate the global significance and dire urgency of its story, please tell others about papuanvoices.com.

The Author

‘Indonesian democracy stops in papua’

Autonomy isn't Independence

by Philippe Pataud Celerier
Le Monde Diplomatique, June 2010

Indonesian nationalists deny all ethnic and religious claims for separatism in the vast archipelago that makes up their country. But in Papua, people feel exploited, and threatened with cultural, and demographic, annihilation

Resource-Rich West Papua, But Who Benefits?

The Jakarta Post - Friday May 14, 2010
by:Carmel Budiardjo

Indonesia is these days praised as a success story among the countries of Southeast Asia, with growth figures that compare favorably with its neighbors and an absence of conflict. It is also the largest country in the region which enjoys an abundance of natural resources that have lured foreign companies to its shores. Since the fall of Soeharto in 1998 and the end of his dictatorship, economic progress has fostered a growing middle class.

A referendum in East Timor 18 months after his exit secured that country’s independence after 25 years of devastating occupation, while in the other conflict-ridden province, Aceh, where thousands of people died from 1976 till 2004, a peace agreement has secured it an era of reconstruction, thanks largely to the devastating tsunami in December 2004 and to the agreement reached a year later between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and Jakarta.

However, the situation in its most easterly region, West Papua, is far from satisfactory and rarely draws international attention except when shooting incidents take the lives of foreigners employed by a mining company which is recognized as being Jakarta’s largest taxpayer.

OPM Military Wing Calls For UN-Mediated Dialogue
The Jakarta Post, Monday, March 15, 2010

The military wing of the separatist Free Papua Movement (TPN-OPM) said it welcomed dialogue with Jakarta as long as an international organization, preferably the UN, acted as the mediator.

 
From www.etan.org/news

SBY Implicated in Cover Up of Ambush Murder of U.S. Citizens

1 July, 2009 - Previously secret U.S. State Department documents implicate the President of Indonesia in a probable cover-up in an ambush in West Papua. The documents show Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is running for reelection on July 8, maneuvering behind the scenes to manage the investigation into the August 2002 murder of three teachers—one Indonesian and two U.S. citizens.

West Papuans recently announced a foundational consensus on their legal defence and right to declare national sovereignty, thereby asserting their fundamental human rights and ancestral ownership of land. (The consensus has global significance in that West Papua remains on a scale similar to the Amazon in terms of what is being lost - diversity of local species and tribal societies, and the amount of oxygen produced by the "lungs of Asia".)

AUSTRALIA WEST PAPUA ASSOCIATION (VIC)
Thursday 9 April 2009 For immediate release

The Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) Victoria is calling on the
Australian Government to make an urgent diplomatic representation to
its Indonesian counterpart over escalating violence in the lead up to
the general elections taking place today.

Members of Melbourne’s West Papuan community and supporters will hand
out flyers and speak with members of the public at Flinders Street
Station this afternoon before travelling to the Indonesian Consulate

John M. Miller | December 4, 2008
Editor: John Feffer

Foreign Policy In Focus (www.fpif.org)

According to some pundits, U.S. re-engagement with the largely unreformed and unrepentant Indonesian military is the best way to promote reform and human rights. The Wall Street Journal Asia, for instance, called on President-elect Barack Obama "to stand down liberal senators and interest groups" for seeking conditions on military assistance to Indonesia. "Indonesia's military has certainly had human rights problems in the past," the editorial states, but urges the incoming administration to forget about them in the name of building an alliance on the "global war on terror."

Preparations underway for visit of Indonesian President

Report from Manokwari, received 28 November 2008

Translation courtesy of Tapol

1. At the beginning of October, the Indonesian Army located 2 companies of LINUD 733 troops from Ambon in Manokwari. They have been placed in position as security guards at several posts around the town.