[Kabar-Irian] News: March 17-27 2007
========================KABAR IRIAN=========================================
News on Irian Jaya/West Papua/IRJA-BAR
Unsubscribe/Change Options:
http://www.kabar-irian.com/mailman/listinfo/kabar-irian
Archives: http://www.kabar-irian.com/pipermail/kabar-irian
Email Commands- Subscribe/unsubscribe/options/help
List-Post: kabar-irian@kabar-irian.com
List-Help: kabar-irian-request@kabar-irian.com?subject=help
List-unsubscribe: kabar-irian-request@kabar-irian.com?subject=unsubscribe
List-subscribe: kabar-irian-request@kabar-irian.com?subject=subscribe
Contacts: admin@irja.org, news@kabar-irian.com, editors@kabar-irian.com
Too much mail? Switch to the digest version. As a matter of policy we DO NOT
handle requests except in emergencies.
KABAR IRIAN NEWS
March 17-27
TOPICS
* Shareholders approve Freeport-McMoran's proposed $25.9B takeover of
rival Phelps Dodge
* Freeport to fix Timika runway
* Papua gets help from British in financial management
* Papua gets help in financial management
* Hundreds of Papuans demand employment in Timika
* Report warns against Lombok Treaty
* Multiple malaria infection inhibits spread of parasite
* New report warns of human rights infringements over Papuans in
Australia/Indonesia treaty
* Council Supports Formation Of Papua’s First Local Political Party
* Twitchers' hearts in a flutter
* HIV/AIDS infections rising fast at PNG, Indonesia border
* Freeport to Raise $5 Billion
* WEST PAPUA: Dying to be free
* Tens of PNG youngsters study in Papua
* RI, PNG trying to settle sea boundary problems
* PNG`s artists trupe to visit RI`s Papua on March 15-20
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillbus.asp?fileid=20070315150652&irec=6
Shareholders approve Freeport-McMoran's proposed $25.9B takeover of rival
Phelps Dodge
NEW ORLEANS (AP): Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s US$25.9 billion
cash-and-stock acquisition of rival Phelps Dodge Corp. was approved
Wednesday by
shareholders of both companies. The deal would create the world's largest
publicly traded copper company.
In separate votes by shareholders of New Orleans-based Freeport and
Phoenix-based Phelps Dodge, the buyout was approved by about 98 percent of
the votes cast, the
companies said in a joint statement.
The deal is expected to close next Monday the companies said.
Phelps Dodge shareholders will receive $88 in cash, or a total of $18
billion and 0.67 percent of a share of Freeport's common stock for each
Phelps Dodge common share
- the equivalent of $125.53, based on Freeport's closing price on Tuesday.
Following the acquisition, there will be about 334 million outstanding
shares of Freeport stock, the company said. In announcing the deal on Dec.
10, the companies said
Phelps Dodge shareholders would have about 38 percent of the company on a
fully diluted basis.
"This is an exciting time for our company as we transform FCX into the
world's largest publicly traded copper producer," said Richard Adkerson,
Freeport's president and
chief executive officer.
The combination will operate as Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, though
businesses operating as Phelps Dodge will continue under that name.
Anderson will be the CEO
of the merged companies.
Phelps Dodge's chief executive officer, J. Steve Whisler, said he was
confident that the combination would be "very successful."
"Business conditions change. Business conditions evolve. This creates a
much stronger player in this sector. They're going to be able to compete
in an ever consolidating
industry," Whisler said.
Freeport officials have said they do not expect any job cuts or facility
closures since the two companies' operations do not overlap. Phelps Dodge
has about 15,000
employees, while Freeport has about 10,000, mostly in Indonesia, said
Freeport spokesmanGreg Probst.
The company's headquarters will be in Phoenix, though Freeport has said it
will maintain a New Orleans office for accounting and administrative
functions for its operation
of the Grasberg minein Pampua, Indonesia. That mine is one of the world's
largest precious metals mines.
Phelps Dodge has operations throughout the world, and is working on an
$850 million (euro645 million) expansion of its Cerro Verde mine in Peru.
It also is building a $550
million copper mine near Safford, Arizona, and planning a $650 million
copper mine at Tenke Fungurme in the Democratic Republic of theCongo.
In 2006, Freeport earned $1.4 billion, or $6.63 per share, on revenue of
$5.79 billion. Phelps Dodge posted 2006 earnings of $3.02 billion, or
$14.83 per share, on revenue
of $11.91 billion. (***)
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070316.G10&irec=9
Freeport to fix Timika runway
TIMIKA, Papua: PT Freeport Indonesia's Airfast Aviation Facilities
Company, which manages the Moses Kilangin International Airport here, is
set to restore its runway in
April.
The repair work is expected to be completed over the next four to five
months, Timika air base commander Lt. Col. Bambang Triono said Tuesday. It
includes a seven-
centimeter overlay on a 200-meter cracked section of the 2,395-meter runway.
Triono said airport authorities had readied the equipment in order to
begin the repairs in April. He added that Hercules transport planes and
Boeing 737-200 jetliners from
the Hasanuddin air base can still safely land on and take off from the
runway at this time.
"Overlaying runways periodically is compulsory for the sake of flight
safety, especially for Moses Kilangin which is an international airport.
Cracks on the runway could
cause punctures," said Triono.
Triono added that the Indonesian Air Force had never encountered problems
when it moved relief troops in and out of Timika through the airport
during natural disasters in
Papua. -- JP
---
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=30907
Radio New Zealand International
The Voice of New Zealand, Broadcasting to the Pacific
Te Reo Irirangi O Aotearoa, O Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa
Papua gets help from British in financial management
Posted at 20:05 on 21 March, 2007 UTC
The British government is holding a ten-day training course in financial
management in the capital of Indonesia’s Papua province, Jayapura
The Jakarta Post reports that the course is being held in cooperation with
the public sector accounting study center of Yogyakarta-based Gajah Mada
University.
Training throughout the week is expected to be attended by 100 officers of
regional working apparatus units throughout Papua.
At the opening of the course, Theressa Mahoni of the British Embassy in
Jakarta said the training demonstrated British support to the Papuan
provincial administration for
implementing its special autonomy.
Ms Mahoni said that the implementation of special autonomy status involves
a large of amount of funding and requires skilled financial officers.
She said that preparing such officers through this training towards good
financial management will help the implementation of the special autonomy
status succeed, thereby
creating a new Papua.
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070321.G10&irec=9
Papua gets help in financial management
JAYAPURA, Papua: The British government in cooperation with the public
sector accounting study center of Yogyakarta-based Gajah Mada University
will help Papua's
financial management in a 10-day training course in Jayapura.
The training, held at the province's training center, started Monday and
will be attended by 100 officers of regional working apparatus units
throughout Papua.
Theressa Mahoni of the British Embassy in Jakarta said at the opening of
the training course that it demonstrated British support to the Papuan
provincial administration for
implementing its special autonomy.
"The implementation of the special autonomy status involves a large of
amount of funding and requires skilled financial officers. We will help
prepare them through this
training," Mohoni said.
"Good financial management will help the implementation of the special
autonomy status succeed, thereby creating a new Papua," she said.
Yesaya Sombuk of the Papua training center said that during the training
participants will be taught new budget regulations according to the
framework for the preparation
of the 2008 budget. -- JP
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070321.G04&irec=3
Hundreds of Papuans demand employment in Timika
Markus Makur, The Jakarta Post, Timika
Hundreds of job-seekers from the Amungme and Kamoro tribes staged a rally
in front of the Memangkawai Mining Institute office in Mimika regency,
Papua, demanding
that they be given priority for employment in local projects.
At least 400 job-seekers from the Amungme and Kamoro Job-seekers
Solidarity rode public buses from the Mimika capital of Timika to the
institute's office, which acts as a
recruitment agency for giant gold mining company PT Freeport Indonesia in
Kuala Kencana district.
Based on Papua's special autonomy law, indigenous people should be given
priority for recruitment at the company.
"As far as we can see, PT Freeport Indonesia and its subsidiaries have
disregarded the local people. Now, in our rally we demand that Memangkawai
employs local people
at PT Freeport," said Gerson Meno Imbir, the head of the solidarity group.
Imbir said that PT Freeport Indonesia had never paid much attention to
indigenous people, thereby contributing to unemployment in the region.
"Now in the era of special
autonomy, indigenous people should be given priority in PT Freeport
recruitment," he said.
Deputy chief of the solidarity group Pontius Kelanangame questioned the
achievements of the Mimika Manpower and Resettlement Office, which is
considered to have
been disregarding the needs of the Papuan indigenous people.
Kelanangame said that he felt nothing had been done by the office to help
the local people.
"We want to be involved in development in Mimika regency rather than
simply being made development objects," he said.
Kelanangame said that PT Freeport and its subsidiaries had to pay
attention to indigenous job-seekers. "We support progress in Mimika
regency, but please pay attention
to the indigenous people," he said.
Yusuf Tapa, one of Nemangkawai Mining Institute's staff members, said his
office had received notification of the aspirations of job-seekers from
Amungme and Kamoro as
well as five other tribes.
Nemangkawai, he said, has been committed to recruiting at least 57 workers
per month for employment at PT Freeport's underground, operations and
mechanic sections
and another 120 have joined training sessions as apprentices.
"Nemangkawai has contributed greatly to the seven tribes in terms of the
development of worker's skills. Those learning enough skills will be
transferred to PT Freeport," he
said.
>From March 26 to 30 there will be a recruitment test for local apprentices
in Mimika. If they pass the test they will be trained, Yusuf said. If not
they will be given another
chance to try again at a later date, he added.
---
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Report-warns-against-Lombok-Treaty/2007/03/27/1174761385574.html
2007
Report warns against Lombok Treaty
March 27, 2007 - 12:04AM
A new security treaty with Indonesia could hamper Australia's ability to
speak out about human rights abuses, a Sydney University report warns.
Australia and Indonesia last year signed an historic security pact, known
as the Lombok Treaty, which is currently being examined by a parliamentary
committee.
The wide-ranging treaty - which covers cooperation in areas such as
defence, law enforcement, counter terrorism and intelligence - is the
first formal security agreement
since Indonesia tore up the previous pact during the 1999 East Timor crisis.
The agreement, signed last November, signalled relations between the two
neighbours were back on track after a row earlier in the year when
Australia granted protection
to 43 Papuan asylum-seekers.
The treaty is yet to be ratified by the Australian parliament.
As part of the treaty, both countries pledge not to support "in any
manner" any activities which threaten the "stability, sovereignty or
territorial activity" of the other, including
separatist groups operating in their own territories.
A report from the West Papua Project at Sydney University's Centre for
Peace and Conflict Studies warns that the pact in effect has Australia
colluding with Indonesia in
an "undeclared war" against the Papuans.
It says that Australia will be providing training, funding and material
aid to Indonesian forces who are engaged in what many Papuans believe is
genocide against their
people.
The report says ratifying the treaty may even impinge on Australian
democracy by hampering Australians' ability to speak out about human
rights concerns.
"It is a right, and arguably a duty, to speak out on behalf of our
neighbours who are being severely repressed, dispossessed and
marginalised, yet this treaty, at least in the
eyes of official Indonesians, would make such concern criminal," the
report says.
"We would be unable to openly criticise Indonesian military excesses
without being branded separatists.
"Worse still, those people who believe that West Papua is entitled to
independence could be subject of government surveillance or punishment
here in Australia.
"The treaty will, in effect, give Indonesian generals the right to
determine what Australians can do and say."
A number of submissions to the parliamentary inquiry have already warned
that the treaty lacks sufficient human rights safeguards.
In its submission, the Human Rights Law Resource Centre said: "The HRLRC
is concerned that the broad scope of the treaty in respect of defence, law
enforcement,
counter terrorism and intelligence cooperation in particular does not
include sufficient human rights safeguards, and that such safeguards
present in related domestic
legislation and international agreements are noticeably absent from the
treaty."
It highlighted the case of so-called Bali Nine, a number of whom face the
death penalty, as an example of how cooperation between Australia and
Indonesia could work to
the detriment of Australians.
© 2007 AAP
---
http://www.spiritindia.com/health-care-news-articles-7745.html
Multiple malaria infection inhibits spread of parasite
People who are frequently infected with malaria parasites can develop
immunity against the gametocyte, the infectious stage. This immunity
inhibits the spread of the
parasite.
Dutch researcher Mike van der Kolk discovered this during his research
into malaria transmission under the inhabitants of Cameroon, Senegal and
Indonesia. After just a
few infections, people can develop immunity that inhibits transmission.
Malaria is not caused by a mosquito but by a parasite in the mosquito. The
malaria parasite needs the mosquito to reproduce and spread. The
gametocyte is the
developmental stage of the parasite that can be transmitted from people to
the mosquito. In the mosquito's stomach the gametes are released and
fertilisation takes place.
The parasite develops further until the final stage (the sporozoite) in
the salivary gland. The sporozoite can be transmitted with the saliva to a
person if he/she is bitten by
this mosquito. There the parasite reproduces rapidly and the person
becomes ill.
Immunity
People who live in areas where malaria is prevalent, can develop a natural
immunity that stops the development of the parasite in the mosquito. This
prevents the parasite
from spreading further. The presence of this immunity, the so-called
transmission-reducing activity, is determined using a laboratory test. Van
der Kolk discovered that
people who are often infected with malaria could quickly acquire this
immunity. He also found that people with higher numbers of gametocytes are
more frequently immune.
Infectious bites
Each year more than 200 million people develop malaria. More than one
million people die from malaria each year. In Cameroon, the researchers
recorded how often
people were bitten by a mosquito that carried malaria parasites. They also
examined the number of transmittable parasites in the blood of infected
persons. In a
neighbourhood of the capital Yaoundé, 34 infectious bites per person per
year were found to occur. The number of gametocytes per person was season
and age
dependent. Children were found to be by far the most important source of
malaria transmission in the area. In the village Koundou, the number of
infectious bites was about
five times as high as in the capital. There previous research had revealed
177 infectious bites.
Test
The existing laboratory test for malaria immunity did not yet work
optimally. Therefore the researchers first modified this method before
starting the research on immunity.
With the improved test, the researchers studied how people not previously
exposed to malaria become infected or immune. Migrants in the province of
Papua in Indonesia,
who had not previously been exposed to malaria were investigated for this
purpose. Malaria is highly prevalent in Papua. After just one to four
malaria infections the
immunity against the infectious gametocytes increased. Immunity therefore
develops quickly after exposure to an infection. The researchers expect
that the modified
methods will make it possible to carry out more detailed studies into the
development and maintenance of immunity within the population.
(Last updated on Monday, March 26, 2007, and first posted on Monday, March
26, 2007)
---
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=31029
Radio New Zealand International
The Voice of New Zealand, Broadcasting to the Pacific
Te Reo Irirangi O Aotearoa, O Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa
New report warns of human rights infringements over Papuans in
Australia/Indonesia treaty
Posted at 07:57 on 26 March, 2007 UTC
A new report says Australia’s recently signed security treaty with
Indonesia commits Canberra to opposing Papuan political activity.
The report from the West Papua project at the centre for peace and
conflict studies at Sydney University raises the alarm over the treaty
which is yet to be ratified.
The WPP report, titled, Blundering In?, says the treaty amounts to a
decision to take sides with the corrupt Indonesian military against the
Papuan people.
It warns the Treaty threatens human rights by apparently committing the
Australian government to treat political activity by Papuan emigres and
supporters in Australia as
subversive and a threat to Indonesian security.
Australian greens senator Kerry Nettle says Article 2.3 of the Treaty is
particularly concerning as it appears to infringe on the basic right to
political expression both in
Indonesia and in Australia.
And democrat senator Natasha Stott Despoja says the government must amend
the treaty to include human rights protections or else Australia risks
being complicit in the
suffering of the Papuan people.
---
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=30917
Radio New Zealand International
The Voice of New Zealand, Broadcasting to the Pacific
Te Reo Irirangi O Aotearoa, O Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa
Council Supports Formation Of Papua’s First Local Political Party
Posted at 03:40 on 22 March, 2007 UTC
The Cultural Institute of the Papua People’s Council or MRP in Indonesia
says it fully supports the formation of Papua’s first local political
party, the Papua People’s
Awakening Party.
The MRP’s Vice Chairwoman, Hanna Wikoyabi, says the movement that led to
the new party’s establishment could lift
the indigenous Papua people’s esteem and dignity.
She says a provision in Law No 21 on Papua Province’s Special Autonomy
enables more indigenous Papuan people to run in legislative elections at
national and regional
levels in the Indonesian Province.
She says the local political party must be a means for people from various
walks of life, including women, clergymen, youth,
customary communities, to have a chance to win seats in legislatures.
Hanna Wikoyabi says there are already indigenous Papuans in the central
parliament, provincial and district legislative councils for the 2004-2009
period but their number
was still very small.
She says efforts should be made to increase their number through the 2009
general election so that indigenous Papuans could play a greater political
role in the country.
---
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21429571-32683,00.html
Twitchers' hearts in a flutter
* THE INCIDENTAL TOURIST
Virginia Jealous
* March 24, 2007
IMAGINE a quest. There's a goal, of course, and set in unknown country
there will be a lake or a forest with unfamiliar pathways, strangers who
may or may not be friendly,
suspicious locals, surprising encounters and the possibility of love.
Sometimes you find what you're looking for; sometimes the pursuit itself
is enough. It's a notion of travel
that birdwatchers know well.
Welcome solitude and occasional loneliness accompany solo travel.
Binoculars and a bird book are the perfect travel companions, and birding
a perfect travel activity,
completely portable because birds will (almost always) be where you are if
you look for them. So you can be alone but not alone and be purposeful in
places where it's
regarded as unusual to be alone.
Working in Papua (goal: flame bowerbird), I spend time out bush,
travelling with my skin brothers. (I've been adopted into the bird of
paradise clan which, as a birder,
pleases me no end, as the alternative is bush rat.) We go to places where
tribal languages are spoken and I don't have words in common with the
villagers. But I do have a
bird book and it provides the evenings' mimed entertainments. Sitting by
the fire, thumbing through it, local people argue at length about who has
seen what and where, and
at what time of year, while I learn local names for birds and try to work
out what can be seen nearby (a greater bird of paradise dancing tree and
an active eclectus parrot
nest, as it happens: fabulous).
I love this book, smeared and smoke-stained as it is, and warped by the
wet season, and with bird names written in the smudged and wavery writing
of several hands. But
it's not just the birds; what happens also is the great generosity and
absolute selfishness that this most trivial-seeming activity can bring out
in people. In Costa Rica (goal:
resplendent quetzal), a man describes a hummingbird in exquisite detail to
his blind companion while drawing with his finger its size and shape on
the back of her hand.
Alternatively, birders at an observatory can hog a telescope and, with it,
probably the only chance to see a wind-blown visiting migrant, while
others peer hopefully through
scratched and mildewed binoculars. (Yes, there is a hint of bitterness
here; birding grudges persist.)
Birding separates from routine and connects to the here and now in a way
that is absolute. A community of birders transcends conventional social
groupings to become
something unique. Disparate birding acquaintances at Broome (goal: spotted
redshank and-or the recognition of almost any wader out of breeding
plumage) include
doctors, bikers, graffiti artists, scientists, nerdy and not-so-nerdy
teenagers and more. But birders rarely talk about what they do outside the
binocular-framed moment; it's
an opportunity to be entirely in the present and to have a completely
common purpose with the people around you.
A specifically focused zone opens up, a space where it's permissable to
sit for hours watching, say, almost identical little brown birds until
subtle differences in detail reveal
themselves. After sitting a while, small picture gives way to big picture.
Bird melds into flower or tree or fencepost in the landscape and sweat
runs down the neck under a
humid sky or there's a stiffness of frost-cold fingers on binoculars; the
view opens wider and higher in the open air with its smells and noises of
other creatures moving in
the bush. That's all there is and it's everything.
It's difficult to hold on to that feeling as it fades around the peopled
world. For now the domestic pleasures of backyard birding (goal: protect
nesting willie wagtails from
neighbour's cat) will have to do.
---
http://english.people.com.cn/200703/22/eng20070322_360104.html
HIV/AIDS infections rising fast at PNG, Indonesia border
HIV infection is on the fast rise in the West Sepik province of Papua New
Guinea (PNG) and Jayapura in Indonesia's West Papua province, reported The
National, a local
newspaper, on Thursday.
Reports said in the remote Lumi district alone more than five public
servants had died this year after contracting AIDS and it is believed
there may be more unidentified
cases in other districts.
People in the West Sepik and Western provinces were exposed because of
frequent travels and exchanges with Papua province, which also has a high
incidence of
HIV/AIDS cases in Indonesia .
Christian Brethren Church lay missionary and provincial AIDS trainer
Wassam, who had been conducting awareness on HIV/AIDS for the last two
years in most parts of
West including Drekikir district in East Sepik, said sex products
including pornographic materials were contributing to the spread.
Wassam warned that failure by the community leaders and police to rein in
such behavior would lead to more HIV/AIDS-related deaths.
Wassam is stepping up his HIV/AIDS awareness campaign and is visiting
Magleri village, in the Telefomin district next week.
His last stop was at Angugunak village in Lumi, where he trained more than
30 participants, who will now work with East Sepik provincial AIDS council
as volunteers.
Source: Xinhua
---
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/03/23/ap3545867.html?partner=alerts
Freeport to Raise $5 Billion
Associated Press 03.23.07, 10:00 AM ET
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. on Friday said it expects to raise $5
billion in gross proceeds from two stock offerings.
The mining giant, which this month completed its $26 billion acquisition
of Phelps Dodge Corp., priced a planned offering of 41 million common
shares at $61.25 apiece,
and said it is selling 25 million shares of 6.75 percent convertible
preferred stock at $100 per share.
The preferred stock is scheduled to pay dividends at a rate of 6.75
percent per year. The stock will convert May 1, 2010.
The company plans to refinance existing debt with the money.
Freeport shares fell 26 cents to $61.65 in morning trading on the New York
Stock Exchange.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press.
---
WEST PAPUA: Dying to be free
By Richard Samuelson, Co-Director of the Free West Papua Campaign
Green World (Winter/Spring 2007) [Journal of the UK Green Party]
IMAGINE A COUNTRY under military occupation: Palestine? A country whose
occupiers deny its people the right to choose their own identity and
culture: Tibet? Where
the occupiers have murdered at least 10% of the population in an orgy of
genocidal bloodshed: Armenia? Where the people are subjected to daily
racist abuse,
intimidation and violence: apartheid South Africa? Where a brutal military
rules every aspect of daily life with an iron fist: Burma? Where
indigenous civilisations and the
species-rich rainforests they call home are being bulldozed by Western and
Chinese greed for timber, gas, copper and gold: Brazil? And whose
suffering the British,
American and other Western governments shamefully choose to ignore to
protect their own selfish interests: Chechnya?
Now imagine a country where all of this is true: West Papua.
Have you ever met a West Papuan? Probably not. Indonesia doesn’t want you
to. Otherwise you may discover the bloody secrets of its 43 year long
occupation. The
generals in Jakarta who still wield the real power in Indonesia despite
the façade of democracy which is the current civilian government, don’t
want you to know the truth.
They don’t want you to know the shameful way they annexed West Papua in
the 1960’s by holding a sham referendum, cruelly named the “Act of Free
Choice”, by hand-
picking 1,026 Papuan “representatives” and telling them that if they voted
for independence instead of rule by Indonesia they would have their
tongues cut out. They don’t
want you to know that their “glorious heroes”, the Indonesian military,
have slaughtered at least 100,000 West Papuan women, men and children and
raped and tortured
countless others. And our Foreign & Commonwealth Office doesn’t want you
to know that Britain not only actively colluded with Indonesia in the
1960’s to ensure that the
“Act of Free Choice” was never challenged in the UN, but has supported
Indonesia’s illegal occupation ever since. As one of Indonesia’s major
foreign investors (BP is
developing a natural gas field off the Papuan coast and Rio Tinto holds a
share in the huge Freeport gold and copper mine in the Papuan Highlands),
Britain knows when it
is politic to keep silent.
To keep their secrets safe, the Indonesian Government bans foreign
journalists and human rights observers from West Papua. Very few Papuans
ever make it out. That is
until now. Three years ago, for the first time ever, a West Papuan
independence leader, Benny Wenda, escaped from an Indonesian prison,
trekked for weeks through the
jungle and eventually made it across the border into Papua New Guinea.
>From there, he flew to Heathrow to claim asylum and carry on the struggle
for freedom from
Britain. His predecessor as leader had not been as fortunate. Theys Eluay
was strangled to death by Indonesian Special Forces in 2001.
Operating from Oxford, Benny Wenda is now telling
West Papua’s story to university, political, trade union,
environmental, human rights and religious groups across
Britain and beyond, starting the journey of turning support
for his people’s cause into the sort of real political pressure
which can change even the most fossilised government
policy. Remember that not even Thatcher’s determination
in the 1980’s to “preserve British interests in South Africa”,
could withstand the grass-roots anti-apartheid pressure for
Britain to support majority rule.
In 2005 Benny Wenda was invited to address the Green
Party Conference. Shortly afterwards support for a
genuine act of self-determination for the West Papuans
became official Green Party policy. And in December
2006, Caroline Lucas MEP issued a Written Declaration
on West Papua in the European Parliament and the
Papuans’ Green friends in Oxford City Council voted to
fly the banned West Papuan flag from the roof of
Oxford Town Hall.
Now imagine a free country with her people living in
peace, her culture respected and Nature revered.
You have glimpsed West Papua’s future -- but it cannot
happen without you.
For more information on the Free West Papua Campaign and to invite Benny
Wenda to speak to your group about his people’s freedom struggle, visit
www.freewestpapua.org or e-mail Richard Samuelson onsamoxen@dsl.pipex.com
(Tel: 01865 241200)
---
http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/3/19/tens-of-png-youngsters-study-in-papua/
Tens of PNG youngsters study in Papua
Jayapura, Papua Province (ANTARA News) - Some 37 youngsters from Papua New
Guinea (PNG) are currently studying in Waris state high school in Keerom,
Papua
province, which shares a border with PNG.
"When a cultural mission from PNG`s Manus province led by the province`s
governor, Dr Jacob Gris Jimogot, visited Keerom on Sunday (March 18) , I
told them that a
total of 37 PNG students were studying at Keerom`s Waris high school. They
go to Waris for study because it is very close to their villages in PNG,"
Keerom Deputy
District Head Wafhir Kosasih told ANTARA here on Monday.
Governor Jumogot when meeting Keerom officials expressed hope that there
would be closer relations, especially in the education field, between. the
two regions.
Kosasih said that PNG people living near the border tended to send their
children to study in Papua because they have established close ties. They
even have a joint tribal
house for their common use.
Meanwhile, a Catholic leader in Waris, Father John Jonga, Pr said that the
people of Waris in Papua, Indonesia`s eastern most province, and the
people of PNG, the
neighboring country, were like family to each other. They visit and help
each other daily, he said.
"Many PNG students study in Waris because geographically, traditionally
and culturally they are very close. We must continue to support education
development in Waris,"
he said.
"We continue hoping that the central government and the provincial
administration will help improve the quality of education in areas on the
border between Indonesia and
PNG. We also hope that the government will keep on developing these areas
as a front yard of Indonesia for international community to come," he
said.
Meanwhile, a PNG official earlier said that the government of Papua New
Guinea (PNG) will cooperate with Indonesia in student exchange programs,
especially involving
students from Papua province, in the fields of culture and education.
Nasser Tamel, PNG deputy consul to Indonesia in Jayapura, said on Saturday
(March 17) that after building cooperation with the largest archipelagic
country in the world
in the field of trade, Manus province in PNG intended to cooperate in
student exchange programs with Indonesia`s Papua province.
The cultural mission from PNG`s Manus province is currently on a goodwill
visit to Indonesia`s Papua province from March 15 to 20, 2007. The PNG
cultural delegation
consists of 45 traditional dancers from Paksonon Heritage Cultural Dancing
Group. (*)
---
http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/3/16/ri-png-trying-to-settle-sea-boundary-problems/
National
03/16/07 18:52
RI, PNG trying to settle sea boundary problems
Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian and Papua New Guinea (PNG)
governments are currently trying to settle problems relating to their
common sea
boundaries, Indonesian Consul in Vanimo Ignasius Kristanyo Hardojo told
ANTARA in Vanimo on Thursday.
He said one of the things the two sides aimed to agree on was how to
reduce the number of Indonesian fishermen arrested by PNG authorities for
fishing in PNG waters.
"Indonesian fishermen are free to catch fish in the seas but they should
heed sea border markers," he said.
Last month, 12 fishermen from Merauke were nabbed in PNG waters for
illegal fishing, while two fishermen from Serui were also arrested in the
same area two months ago,
he added.
But the Indonesian consulate in Vanimo was evntually able to settle the
arrested fishermen`s cases and secured their release after which they were
sent home.
Hardojo called on all parties concerned to be aware that a country`s
border markers were not only to be found on land but aloo at sea.
He said Indonesian fishermen should immediately turn back when they see a
lighthouse because lihthouses often alo serve as sea border markers. (*)
Copyright © 2007 ANTARA
---
http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/3/15/pngs-artists-trupe-to-visit-ris-papua-on-march-15-20/
Entertainment
03/15/07 15:35
PNG`s artists trupe (sic) to visit RI`s Papua on March 15-20
Vanimo (ANTARA News) - Governor of Papua New Guinea (PNG)`s Manus province
Dr Jacob Gris Jumogot MP has expressed his provincial administration's
wish to
conduct cultural cooperation with Indonesia`s Papua province by sending
troupe of artists soon.
Jacob Gris made the remarks here on Thursday in his meeting with
Indonesia`s Consul in Vanimo Ign. Kristanyo Hardojo and cultural team
liaison officer on the bilateral
ties Maria Wagey to discuss a visit of PNG`s provincial artists troupe to
Papua province on March 15 to 20, 2007.
"I will directly head the artists troupe of Manus province in a visit to
Papua. The troupe of artists is called Paksonon Heritage Cultural Dancing
Group," Jacob Gris
Jumogot," said, adding that the ties will be followed by other cooperation
in fishery and maritime affairs.
The PNG`s governor opined that it was a proper cultural cooperation
because people of PNG`s Manus province and Papua have the same culture and
tradition.
Some 45 dancers of 52 members of the troupe would show their performance
on the Melanesian Cultural stage in Jayapura and Keerom district, he said,
noting that they
would be picked up at Wutung gate before proceeding to Jayapura.
In the meantime, Indonesian Council in Vanimo, PNG, Ign. Kristanyo Hardojo
said Indonesian government and the people especially in Papua were ready
to receive the
PNG`s Manus province`s artists delegation.
In addition, Jacob said Manus province has large fishery potentials which
have yet been made use by the local people. (*)
Copyright © 2007 ANTARA
---
============================================================================
KABAR IRIAN ("Irian News since 1994") www.kabar-irian.com
NOTE: "All items are posted for their news/information content. They are
not necessarily the views of IRJA.org or subscribers. "