[Kabar-indonesia] Papuan asylum seekers unhappy in Australia: RI legislator [+Factbox]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: Factbox - Key facts on Papua; and Japanese citizen detained 
by Jayapura immigration

Papuan asylum seekers unhappy in Australia: Indonesian legislator

JAKARTA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- An Indonesian senior legislator said
Tuesday that 42 Papuan asylum seekers in Australia began to regret
things as lives in the neighboring country were contrast to their
prior expectation.

A.S. Hikam, a member of the House of Representatives' commission one
overseeing foreign affairs, said the Papuans felt that they had been
deceived by the group's leaders, who promised them better jobs in
Australia.

"The 42 Papuans apparently do not share a common interest. They felt
they had been deceitfully forced to believe they would get jobs,"
Hikam, who recently visited Australia, was quoted by the Detikcom news
website as saying.

But the legislator refused to cite his source.

He said the Australian lawyers representing the Papuans have blocked
his delegation's access to face-to-face meeting with the asylum
seekers.

The lawyers have expressed worries that the House commission one will
intimidate the Papuans and turned down request for the meeting, he
said.

Australia has sparked anger in Indonesia after giving protection visas
to all but one asylum seekers in March. Jakarta recalled its
ambassador in Canberra in protest, but the envoy returned to office
last week.

Another thorny issue between Indonesia and Australia is the recent
release of cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who has spent 26 months in jail
for a minor role in the Bali bombings that killed 202 people,
including 89 Australians.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Australian Prime Minister John
Howard are scheduled to meet June 26 on Batam island.

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Factbox - Key facts on Papua

June 20 (Reuters) - Australia is expected to reinforce its support of
Indonesia's sovereignty over Papua province in this week's top-level
meeting on Batam island, after the issue disrupted relations between
the neighbours earlier this year.

Here are some key facts on Papua:

WHERE AND WHAT IS PAPUA?

- Formerly known as Irian Jaya, remote Papua lies at the eastern end
of the Indonesian archipelago.

- It is the nearly Iraq-sized western half of the world's second
largest island, New Guinea. Papua New Guinea occupies the eastern half
of the island.

- In 2003 Indonesia split Western New Guinea into two provinces: Papua
and West Irian Jaya. Their estimated combined population is two and a
half million people.

- Papua is home to 312 tribes, including the largest number of
uncontacted peoples outside Brazil. It contains 0.01 percent of the
world's population, but 15 percent of the world's known languages.

INDONESIAN RULE:

- Papua was incorporated into Indonesia under a widely-criticised
U.N.-backed vote in 1969, after Jakarta took over the area from Dutch
colonial rule in 1963.

- A 2001 law gave Papua more share of revenues from its rich mineral
and natural resources and more political autonomy.

INDEPENDENCE:

- Papuan independence activists have campaigned for more than 30 years
in a simmering low-level rebellion.

- Human rights groups accuse Indonesia of widespread abuses. The Free
Papua Movement says 300,000 Papuans have been killed since 1963.

- Papuan protesters also want the closure of U.S company Freeport's
massive gold and copper mining operations, which opened in 1973 with
permission from the Indonesian government.

WHY IS AUSTRALIA INVOLVED?:

- On March 24 2006, Australia granted asylum to 42 Papuans in defiance
of Jakarta. The group, who arrived by outrigger canoe in January, said
they feared becoming victims of genocide.

- The Indonesian Foreign Ministry said Australia's decision gave
support to Papua's independence movement.

- Jakarta recalled its Australian ambassador for the first time,
making the dispute the most serious since Australia intervened in East
Timor's bloody 1999 secession.

- The Ambassador returned to Australia in early June to prepare for
this week's meeting.

BACKSTORY:

- As the world's largest archipelago, and home to two million people
from Malay, Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese and Papuan and other ethnic
backgrounds, Indonesia is sensitive about its territorial integrity.

- Papua could be spotlight as Indonesia's next unresolved zone of
conflict after another rebel province, Aceh, signed a peace deal in
August 2005. Thirty years of fighting in Aceh, on the northern tip of
Sumatra island, saw 12,000 Acehnese killed in Indonesia's biggest
military assault since the 1975 invasion of East Timor.

Sources: Reuters, Reuters Alertnet, Survival International, 
Free Papua Movement

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Japanese citizen detained by Jayapura immigration

Jayapura, June 20 (ANTARA) - A Japanese national, Makita Tsuyoshi
(65), was quarantined at the Jayapura immigration office Monday night
for an immigration law violation, an official said here Tuesday.

Tsuyoshi was questioned together with the captain of the tanker  MT
Bung Gaya 3 and an official of PT Muasamus shipping company which had
dealings with Jakarta-based PT Dok Tawiri , the company employing the
Japanese, Jayapura immigration office head Giri Harijanto said.

Tsuyoshi claimed he had been working for PT Dok Duri  for 15 years.

He also said he was ordered by PT Dok Tawiri general manager Suradi
Markam to monitor MT Bung Gaya tanker which sailed from Vanimo in
Papua New Guinea to Jayapura, capital of Indonesia?s easternmost
province.

Tsuyoshi who hold passport number TZ6040627 which valids on July 17,
2000-July 18, 2010 received a 60-day tourism visa last April 28 from
the Indonesian Consulate General in Vanimo.

The Japanese citizen was arrested when his Malaysian flagged-MT Bung
Gaya entered a port in Jayapura on April 28 for fuel oil unloading.

The Jayapura immigration office deported last June 10 four Russians
for breaching Indonesian immigration law. They entered Indonesia using
tourism visas but later were hired by private airlines Trigana Air
Service as pilot, co-pilot and technicians.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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