WestPAN Exclusives

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

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".)

A trying two months in Manokwari

The latest major earthquake to hit Indonesia's West Papua region highlights the plight faced by people who struggle to cope with the compounded effects of man-made and natural disasters.

 
Many activists around the world use e-mail and Internet tools on a regular basis. They are often spied on and harassed by people who are trying to hurt them or their cause. If you use technology for your cause, you may be endangering yourself or the people you communicate with - unless you take the following precautions.

Don't make it easy for the wrong people to gain access to your private information, i.e., to identify and locate you, and to read your e-mail messages. Protect your safety and the safety of others! (Please pass this information on to anyone whose life may be threatened by forces monitoring their use of email and the Internet.)

Seorang jutawan Australia sedang menyiapkan sebuah iklan televisi yang akan ditayangkan di seluruh Asia Tenggara guna mendesak Jakarta mengizinkan pemantau-pemantau HAM masuk ke Papua, provinsinya Indonesia.

Presenter/ Pewawancara: Graeme Dobell

Pembicara: usahawan jutawan Australia Ian Melrose; aktivis Papua Clemens Runawery

DOBELL: Iklan televisi itu menayangkan gambar Perdana Menteri Australia, John Horward dan Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Versi sebelumnya yang disiarkan di Australia bulan lalu. Sekarang sebuah serial baru direncanakan akan ditayangkan pula di seluruh Asia Tenggara. Iklan tersebut diluncurkan pada sebuah konferensi pers di Parlemen Australia di Canberra yang diselenggarakan oleh empat Anggota Parlemen (MP)- seorang anggota MP independen and seorang MP partai Buruh di majelis rendah, dan senator-senator dari Partai Demokrat dan Partai Hijau.

(Originally published in the International Herald Tribune, January 2006)

One year after the tsunami, it is clear that the attention it brought to the previously overlooked conflict in Aceh is contributing to an end to three decades of insecurity and terror there. Both sides are disarming, and the Indonesian government has offered new political and economic freedoms to the region. The Aceh peace agreement, while still untested, inspires a new hope for peace in the Indonesian archipelago. But without closer scrutiny, there is a grave risk that peace in Aceh may spark further conflict in West Papua.

At Wamena's three-room airport a sturdy young man in military uniform whips a stick at a small crowd that has gathered, shooing them off like stray dogs.

The Indonesian soldier's Javanese features set him apart from the Papuans in this remote mountain valley. His aggression and scorn are contrasted by the crowd's disbelief and fear as they scurry to safety.

For three years I have been visiting Papua regularly to coordinate on a Canadian-funded peace building project. Upon arrival this time, I was struck by this scene and the rise in tensions it signified.

Kornelius, the assistant director of a local group working to protect the rights of the Lani tribespeople in and around Wamena, came to meet me. Shaking my hand, his eyes were fixed sideways on the soldier. "We should get to the office, better if you report to the police later." I agreed, and we were soon off on the back of Kornelius" motorcycle.