[Kabar-Irian] News: Sept 2-6 2006

[Admin-Editors Kabar-Irian]

Sept 2- 6 2006
KABAR IRIAN NEWS

TOPICS

* Experts propose HIV/AIDS programs in the workplace
* 'Men must be the campaign focus'
* Security car of Freeport mine shot at
* Another villager was killed Monday
* Papua: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
* West Papua: Human Rights Documentation Center Report’s Released
* Rival Papua tribes renew their fight
* Extra Indon police sent to Papua violence
* Police and soldiers sent to quell tribal fight
* So close to Australia
* NZ urged to help win release of Papuans held by Indonesia
* EXTRA INDON POLICE GO TO PAPUA
* Inter-tribal violence escalates
* Defendants continue boycotting Abepura trial
* Copper A Better Play Than Aluminum: Analyst
* ICG doubts genocide label for Papua abuse

----

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20060904.B06&irec=5

Experts propose HIV/AIDS programs in the workplace

Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Bogor, West Java

With an estimated 12 million working-age men regularly paying for sex in
the country and most not using condoms, it is time

for HIV/AIDS education programs in the workplace, experts say.

Data from the National AIDS Commission shows many employees are subject to
infection due to their high-risk behaviors.

It says an estimated 10 million to 12 million Indonesian men regularly pay
to have sex. The number of sex workers in the

country are estimated at between 1 million and 1.5 million.

Sailors and fishermen most frequently use commercial sex workers, with 67
percent in the commission's survey admitting to

doing so. Truck drivers come next at 48 percent, and civil servants in
Papua and employees in the mining and forestry sectors

are in third at 30 percent.

"If all of these men wear condoms, fine. But most are not," commission
secretary Nafsiah Mboi told participants recently at a

seminar on HIV/AIDS prevention in the workplace.

The nation also has an estimated 522,000 injecting drug users (IDUs) among
whom the HIV/AIDS infection rate is high. Needle

sharing contributes significantly to the spread of HIV/AIDS.

"Most of the IDUs are in the working age group, as are the people who buy
sex. Over 80 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS

are of working age. The workplace then is a strategic place and is a
relatively easy reach for intervention programs to

contain the virus," she said.

As of Sept. 30 last year, official statistics showed 4,065 people were
recorded as HIV-positive in the country and 4,186

people had AIDS-related illnesses. Local and international organizations,
however, estimate that the actual number of people

living with HIV/AIDS is between 90,000 and 250,000.

The easternmost province of Papua, with a population of only 2.5 million
people, has reported at least 932 cases of AIDS.

That puts the reported case rate at 40 per 100,000 people, or 20 times
higher than the national average.

By 2010, it is estimated that from one million to five million Indonesians
could be infected with HIV/AIDS.

The commission's M. Nasser says companies could help stem the spread of
the virus if they began HIV/AIDS prevention programs

in the workplace. These should focus on companies with a majority of male
employees, who often leave home for a long periods

of time or work in isolated areas in mining and plantation jobs.

Nasser said HIV/AIDS programs in the workplace should include education
and information distribution, access to voluntary

counseling and testing, support treatment, insurance and guarantees of
confidentiality.

Galuh Sotya Wulan from the International Labor Organization national
HIV/AIDS program said the Sentani Commitment to Manpower

and Transmigration as realized in a 2004 ministerial decree set out
guidelines for HIV/AIDS prevention and control in the

workplace.

"But implementation in the field is severely lacking and uncoordinated."
People with HIV/AIDS are still afraid to reveal it

because they will face discrimination and stigmatization in the workplace,
Galuh said at the seminar.

Many government offices, the military and police conduct mandatory HIV
testing to screen employees and potential migrant

workers, Galuh added.

"Testing should be voluntary and confidential. To hold such testing in
order to support employees is fine, but not if it aims

to screen employees."

Most work and private insurance plans here exclude HIV/AIDS patients from
coverage, unlike in Thailand where the government

offers extra support for people living with the virus.

"Companies here often say (there is no need for HIV/AIDS programs) because
the situation is not like in many African

countries where 40 percent of the population are infected.

"But Indonesians have high-risk behaviors, so we must respond quickly,"
Galuh said.

---

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20060904.B07&irec=6



'Men must be the campaign focus'

Some say the ABC HIV prevention strategy, which stands for Abstain from
sex, Be faithful and use Condoms, is irrelevant,

particularly for young women.

Many women are infected with HIV by their partners or husbands, because
they are in no position to demand abstinence,

faithfulness or condoms. Some women, for example, cannot refuse to have
unprotected sex with their infected husbands.

With more men than women living with HIV in the country, men have an
important role to play in the prevention and treatment

of HIV/AIDS.

However, Budiarto from AUSAID's Indonesian HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care
Project (IHPCP) said that men were a neglected

population in many AIDS responses.

"We initially focused more on sex workers than men. But sex workers have
no bargaining power to make their clients use

condoms," he said in last week's seminar in Bogor, West Java.

An estimated 10 to 12 million Indonesian men frequent brothels.

Richard Howard from Family Health International said that Indonesia ranked
No. 1 on the list of Asian countries with the

lowest levels of condom use.

Condom use by men in Thailand is 90 percent, he said, but in Indonesia, it
ranges from three to 10 percent.

The prevalence of sexually transmitted infection (STI) in Indonesia, he
said, is also the highest among Southeast Asian

countries.

"We have done a lot of work, but still condom use in the country remains
the same," Howard said.

Learning from the epidemic in Africa, he said, when the infection rate
reaches one percent, it will rise drastically.

While the country's infection rate has yet to reach one percent, in some
places, like Papua, it has already surpassed one

percent.

"We need to focus on men instead of sex workers. The programs must be
sustainable and have a wider scope," Howard said.

Budiarto said using a "health problems" approach did not work for men,
unless it affected them personally. Referring to men's

negative behavior is not effective either, he said.

"If they say that using condoms reduces their pleasure, persuade them that
condom use makes premature ejaculation less

likely. Men are interested in sex and sexual pleasure, so pleasure and
reasons for sex remain the focus of discussions with

men," he said, referring to IHPCP's program with men in South Sulawesi,
East Nusa Tenggara, Bali and Papua.

Programs for men, he said, should focus on how to build the strengths of
men, instead of criticizing them, and take a

holistic approach by discussing stress, smoking, relationships, work and
home life.

"When combined with social marketing, condom use increases. Showing that
condoms are the best method and providing tips on

how to make condom use more pleasurable are essential in encouraging men
to use them." -- JP/Hera Diani

---

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20060904.G08&irec=7

Security car of Freeport mine shot at

TIMIKA, Papua: An unidentified group of people shot Sunday a security car
of PT Freeport Indonesia, the giant gold and copper

mine, in the country's easternmost province, a police officer said.

Director of the crime unit of the Papuan Police Sr. Comr. Paulus Waterpauw
said that the police had opened an investigation

into the incident in which bullets hit the left side of the car and the
car's rear window.

The incident took place in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

No one was injured in the incident, Waterpauw said, adding that seven
bullet casings were found at the scene, along with

several footprints.

"The motive for the shots remains unknown," Waterpauw said.

The police had questioned a security guard who at the time of the incident
was on duty at Terowongan Post, about 200 meters

from the incident site.

Waterpauw believed the shooting was intended mainly to destabilize
security in the area.

He also denied speculation that the shooting was linked to the attacks
Saturday by angry protesters at Mimika Legislative

Council building.

During Saturday's attacks, protesters demanded that the police settle
fresh fighting between two warring tribes in Timika. --

JP

---

http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=19470

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Another villager was killed Monday in ongoing
tribal warfare in Indonesia's remote Papua province,

bringing the death toll to four in a month of fighting, police said.

"Yes it's true, a man died. We are still investigating how he died," Papua
police spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra told AFP.

An eyewitness to the fighting in Timika, eastern Papua, claimed that the
man was shot dead by riot police known as Brimob, who were sent to the
area to bring a halt to the fighting.

The police spokesman said he could not confirm or deny allegations that
the man had been killed by police, adding that police

suspected some of the tribespeople were using guns along with spears,
arrows and machetes.

"We're still investigating this. There is shooting there, and we are still
examining which group is shooting," said

Wangsadisastra.

More than 600 riot police, military and ordinary police flown in from
other parts of Papua managed to halt fighting by late

Monday, said Wangsdisastra.

"We have people injured by stones, knives, spears. But it's stopped
because we are carrying out an operation to disarm all

the people with guns, knives, machetes and traditional weapons," he said.

Renewed open tribal war between the Dani and Damal tribes erupted again
for the third time since August, last week after a

Damal woman was killed by an arrow allegedly fired by a neighboring Dani
tribesman, said police.

A third tribe joined in the conflict Sunday after one of its members was
injured by an arrow.

Papua is home to groups that traditionally engage in elaborate war rituals
to solve disputes between clans or tribes.

Conflicts can take days to be resolved, with each side taking turns to
shoot arrows and throw spears.

According to tradition, a death should be avenged by another death or the
killer's tribe must pay a hefty fine of prized pigs and hold a feast to
seal the peace.(*)

COPYRIGHT © 2006 ANTARA

---

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4364&l=1&m=1



Papua: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

Jakarta/Brussels, 5 September 2006: Correcting false assumptions about
Papua and the Papuan independence movement can lead to

better policies on the part of Indonesia and the international community.

Papua: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions,* the latest briefing from
the International Crisis Group, examines what lies

behind some of the most commonly held assumptions. Abroad, Papua is
pictured by many as a place where the Indonesian army

perpetrates genocide against a defenceless people struggling for freedom.
Inside Indonesia, Papua is often portrayed as the

target of machinations by Western interests, bent on bringing about an
East Timor-style international intervention that would

further divide and weaken the Indonesian nation. Neither portrayal is
accurate.

“Both external and internal misconceptions of Papua are difficult to
dislodge because they contain kernels of truth”, says

Francesca Lawe-Davies, Crisis Group South East Asia analyst. “Papua is not
a happy place, but neither is it a killing field”.

Among the issues examined are:

    *
      Governance – Implicit in the image of Papua as a place of
persecution and oppression is the idea that non-Papuan

Indonesians are in control. In fact, governors and district heads are all
indigenous Papuans, with significant political and

fiscal authority. But this has not eased corruption or improved local
government.

    *
      Military expansion – rumours that the Indonesian military is about
to double its forces in Papua or that soldiers

withdrawn from Aceh have been systematically rotated there are untrue, but
the number of troops has risen in the last two

years.

    *
      Human rights violations – Allegations of genocide by security forces
are not well-founded, but a past pattern of grave

human rights violations and a current one of chronic low-level abuse and
extortion are facts. Improving the financial and

human rights accountability of the military and transferring security to
locally-recruited police could help.

“The most useful assistance the international community can provide to
Papua is development aid to strengthen local

institutions and deliver basic services”, says Sidney Jones, South East
Asia Project Director. Facilitating wide-ranging

consultations to evaluate and revise the 2001 autonomy package would also
help. Many of the distortions about Papua could be

addressed by lifting restrictions on foreign journalists.

Asia Briefing N°53
5 September 2006
OVERVIEW


No part of Indonesia generates as much distorted reporting as Papua, the
western half of New Guinea that has been home to an

independence movement since the 1960s.

Some sources, mostly outside Indonesia, paint a picture of a closed
killing field

where the Indonesian army, backed by militia forces, perpetrates genocide
against a defenceless people struggling for

freedom. A variant has the army and multinational companies joining forces
to despoil Papua and rob it of its own resources.

Proponents of this view point to restrictions on media access, increasing
troop strength in Papua of the Indonesian armed

forces (TNI), payments to the TNI from the giant U.S. copper and gold
mining company, Freeport, and reports by human rights

organisations as supporting evidence for their views.



Others, mostly inside Indonesia, portray Papua as the target of
machinations by Western interests, bent on bringing about an

East Timor-style international intervention that will further divide and
weaken the Indonesian nation. Specifically,

according to this view, Western interests are encouraging an international
campaign to review and reject a 1969 United

Nations-sponsored plebiscite, called the Act of Free Choice, that resulted
in Papua's integration into the Indonesian

republic. Should that campaign be successful, the international legal
grounds for a referendum on independence would be

established. They believe that the independence movement consists of a
small band of criminals who have no real support in

the population at large.



Neither portrayal of Papua is accurate, but both are extraordinarily
difficult to dislodge - particularly because both

contain kernels of truth that fuel false assumptions. Papua is not a happy
place, but neither is it a killing field.

Historical injustice and chronic low-level abuse on the part of security
forces are facts. Solidarity groups concerned about

Papua are more active now than five years ago, and some parliamentarians
in Western countries have taken their cause to

heart; this has not, however, translated into growing international
support for Papuan independence.



Failure to understand the complexities of the Papuan problem not only
produces bad policies in Jakarta, but can also have

severe international consequences, as witnessed by the plummeting of
Indonesian-Australian relations in early 2006 over

Australia's decision to grant temporary asylum to a group of Papuan
political activists.

This briefing will examine several

questions that lie behind the distortions:


a.. Who governs Papua and how? Are TNI numbers increasing, and if so, why?

b.. What substance is there to the claim of historical injustice in
Papua's integration into Indonesia?

c.. How strong is the independence movement in Papua? Who supports it?

d.. What substance is there to allegations of genocide?

e.. Are there Muslim militias in Papua? And a process of Islamicisation?

f.. How much of Papua is off-limits to outsiders? Why the restrictions?

g.. What can the international community do?

Jakarta/Brussels, 5 September 2006


Contacts: Andrew Stroehlein (Brussels) +32 (0) 2 541 1635
Kimberly Abbott (Washington) +1 202 785 1601

*Read the full Crisis Group briefing on our website:
http://www.crisisgroup.org

---

http://www.unpo.org/article.php?id=5334


West Papua: Human Rights Documentation Center Report’s Released

2006-09-05

Below is an abstract of the report published by the Human Right
Documentation Center:

The people of West Papua have been subjected to persistent human rights
abuses since the region was annexed by Indonesia in

1969. While the devastating conflict over Timor Leste gained the
condemnation of many international players, there has been a

deafening silence over the Indonesian Government’s violations of
international human rights law in West Papua. [
]

Any rights for the West Papuans?
The West Papuan people, although linguistically and culturally diverse,
share a common Melanesian identity that sets them

apart from the majority Javanese population of Indonesia. When Indonesia
gained independence in 1949, it assumed sovereignty

over West Papua until 1969 when the international community supported an
‘Act of Free Choice’ to enable the people of West

Papua to exercise their right to self-determination. Although a United
Nations (UN) monitoring team was dispatched, the

presence of the Indonesian military greatly undermined its effectiveness
[
]. There were no dissenting votes. In what has

been labeled as an ‘Act of No Choice’, West Papua’s annexation by
Indonesia was formalized and accepted as legal by the UN

General Assembly.The tribes of West Papua opposed the annexation, leading
the Indonesian government to crack down.

Approximately 100,000 West Papuans have reportedly been killed,
(representing almost ten per cent of the population) in what

has been labeled by a project of the Yale Law School as genocide. [
]

As the West Papuan land is rich in gold and copper, many of the
Government’s policies in West Papua surround their economic

interests in resource exploitation. The mine continues to be the centre of
West Papuan frustrations as the indigenous

population benefit very little from the mine [
]. The Indonesian
government, however, benefits directly from Freeport-

McMoran, which reportedly paid the government US$ 33 billion between 1992
and 2004.

Terrorists or civilians?
Since the annexation, the Indonesian government has focused on the
suppression of separatist sentiments such as those of the

Free Papua Movement (OPM - Organisasi Papua Merdeka). Civilians, as well
as West Papuan political and village leaders, have

been the targets of violent attacks and have been denied their civil
liberties such as the freedom of expression, opinion and

association - it is, for example, illegal to fly the West Papuan Bintang
Kejora (Morning Star) flag. Further, the Indonesian

government has labeled it a terrorist organisation. [
]Impunity for TNI
troops and paramilitary forces is a major reason for

the persistence of human rights violations. Despite a 2000 legislation
providing for permanent Human Rights Courts and the

establishment of a National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) in 1993,
those accused of human rights abuses in West Papua

have gone unpunished. [
]

Special Autonomy
[
]The complete provisions of the Special Autonomy law have still not been
implemented and there are demands for the

government to uphold its obligation to the people of West Papua by doing
so. Efforts must also be made to ensure that the

legislature and the MRP are both involved in any revision to the law and
that the law does not neglect the cultural values of

the Papuans.

What must be done?
[
] Indonesia must uphold this by promptly incorporating the provisions of
the ICCPR and ICESCR (acceded in February 2006)

into its domestic legal system, withdrawing its reservations on ratified
human rights treaties, and by extending open-ended

invitations to the outstanding Special Procedures visit requests on the
issues of torture; freedom of religion or belief;

migrants; freedom of opinion and expression; extrajudicial, summary or
arbitrary executions; human rights defenders; and on

structural adjustment policies and external debt. [
]. Human Rights
organizations have put forward a number of

recommendations in this regard. [
]Most importantly, it is imperative that
states cease all arms sales and military support

to Indonesia. [
]

Please visit the UNPO website to read the full report: 
http://www.unpo.org/article.php?id=5327


---

http://www.bruneitimes.com.bn/details.php?shape_ID=4245

ASIA

Rival Papua tribes renew their fight

05-Sep-06

HUNDREDS of extra police and troops have been sent to the remote
Indonesian province of Papua, where fighting between rival

tribes has killed three people, police said yesterday.

Papuan police spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra said they have not made any
arrests since renewed fighting between the Damal

and Dani tribes in the Mimika region erupted for the third time since last
month.

``We have summoned tribal chiefs to make peace. It is hard to intervene
because they always say they want to settle the

matter for themselves,'' Mr Wangsadisastra said.

Reuters


---

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20350161-1702,00.html


Extra Indon police sent to Papua violence

>From correspondents in Jakarta

September 04, 2006 03:36pm
Article from: Reuters

HUNDREDS of extra police and troops had been sent to an area in the remote
Indonesian province of West Papua, where fighting

between rival tribes had killed three people, police said today.

Police had not made any arrests since renewed fighting between the Damal
and Dani tribes in the Mimika region erupted for the

third time since last month, Papuan police spokesman Kartono
Wangsadisastra said.

An extra 200 police and 100 soldiers had been sent from the provincial
capital Jayapura to the area as members of a third

tribe joined the fighting after one of their members was wounded by a
stray arrow, he said.

"We have summoned tribal chiefs to make peace. It is hard to intervene
because they always say they want to settle the matter

for themselves," Mr Wangsadisastra said.

"We fear that if we arrest the people involved, the conflict could widen.
We're trying to separate members of the warring

tribes."

The fighting, involving arrows and spears, had killed three people, all
Catholics from the Dani tribe, and injured dozens

others, he said.

Another police official said last week that the dead included a Papuan
Catholic priest and an evangelist caught up in the

violence. He said church members sometimes tried to mediate in the tribal
disputes.

West Papua is home to more than 250 tribes, including some in remote
jungle areas virtually cut off from the rest of the

world.

Separately, West Papuan police were investigating after bullets hit a
security vehicle belonging to US-owned Freeport McMoRan

Copper and Gold Inc near the company's mine yesterday.

Provincial police detective chief Paulus Waterpauw said no one was hurt in
the attack, which took place about 8km from where

two Americans and an Indonesian colleague were killed in 2002 in a
shooting blamed on Papuan separatists.

Seven alleged Papuan separatists are on trial in the capital Jakarta for
the 2002 attack.

Freeport's Grasberg mine, which is believed to hold the world's
third-largest copper reserves and one of the biggest gold

deposits, has been a lightning rod for controversy.

Environmentalists have criticised the company for its record of protecting
forests and rivers, while other activists object

to payments for security made to Indonesia's military.

---

http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=26561


Radio New Zealand International

The Voice of New Zealand, Broadcasting to the Pacific

Te Reo Irirangi O Aotearoa, O Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa
u
Police and soldiers sent to quell tribal fight in a remote part of
Indonesia’s Papua

Posted at 08:09 on 04 September, 2006 UTC

Indonesian police say that hundreds of extra police and troops have been
sent to an area in a remote part of Papua province,

where fighting between rival tribes has killed three people.

A Papuan police spokesman, Kartono Wangsadisastra, says police have not
made any arrests since renewed fighting between the

Damal and Dani tribes in the Mimika region erupted for the third time
since last month.

He says an additional 200 police and 100 soldiers had been sent from the
provincial capital Jayapura to the area as members

of a third tribe joined the fighting after one of their members was
wounded by a stray arrow.

Mr Wangsadisastra says that they have summoned tribal chiefs to make peace.

But he says it is hard to intervene because the tribal fighters want to
settle the matter for themselves, and an arrest could

cause the conflict to widen.


---

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/so-close-to-australia-so-far-from-hope/2006/09/05/1157222134891.html?

page=fullpage#contentSwap1

So close to Australia

Home is literally nowhere for one West Papuan political refugee, writes
Hamish McDonald.

POLITICAL leaders in Canberra and Port Moresby want the voices of a
diplomatically awkward rebellion buried in East Awin,

Papua New Guinea, a settlement in a vast and sparsely populated landscape
of rivers, swamps and forest.

To reach East Awin takes an expensive flight to the little town of Kiunga,
a two-hour trip up the Fly River, followed by a

three-hour truck ride through axle-deep mud, and finally a 12-kilometre
walk when the road becomes impassable for normal

vehicles.

Paulus Samkakay's quest for political asylum took him to the fringes of
Australia, took the life of his youngest child and

ended in bitter disappointment here.

Samkakay, 35, was the political refugee from Indonesia's restive West
Papua whom the Howard Government turned away earlier

this year.

He made it to Australian territory, the Torres Strait island of Boigu, on
May 11, only to be held in detention at an out-of-

the-way hotel and blocked from journalists and human rights lawyers.

Two months later, he was turned over to Papua New Guinea, under an
agreement signed in 2003 that asylum seekers spending more

than seven days in transit through PNG are deemed to be Port Moresby's
responsibility.

While his application was being studied by Australian authorities, his
wife, Yokbet, and three children waited in a tiny

village just inside PNG territory, and the youngest, a three-month-old
girl, died of an unknown illness.

Reunited in July, the couple and their two remaining children were
transferred to East Awin, placed in a small guesthouse and

told they had six months before they had to build their own house and find
their own source of income.

"I came to the land of the kangaroo with big hopes," Samkakay said, his
eyes filling with angry tears.

The dockfront activist from Merauke, a port town on the south coast of
Papua, is a prime example of the kind of refugee

Canberra does not want, if it wants any at all.

He embodies the disillusionment of most Papuans with Indonesian rule. His
late father, Boneffasius Samkakay, had been one of

1000 local figures hand-picked by Indonesia to carry out the 1969 act of
self-determination after a transition from Dutch

rule.

They dutifully delivered a 100 per cent pro-Jakarta vote, and Samkakay
carries the certificates of appreciation given to his

father from former president Soeharto and the Indonesian army commander at
the time, General Sarwo Edhie Wibowo.

But he also carries a carefully folded Morning Star flag, the flag of the
Papuan independence movement whose appearance at

sneak flag-raisings across the border is usually followed by tough
crackdowns and long jail terms.

After Soeharto's fall from power in 1998, Samkakay was prominent in the
upsurge of open independence activism, becoming a

member of a Papuan youth council.

He was first arrested in 1988 and has had to lie low on several occasions.
Finally in March, in the tense atmosphere

following the crossing of the Torres Strait by 43 Papuans, he says he was
summoned to a meeting with local police, and

decided to clear out.

The family walked along the coast to the PNG village of Bula, where they
stayed for a month. At the beginning of May,

Samkakay set off for Boigu, finally making the short canoe crossing,
helped by two other Papuans.

On arrival, they handed over a letter describing themselves as political
asylum seekers. Samkakay was immediately arrested,

flown by helicopter to Horn Island and kept in a hotel.

His immigration case officer was in contact with a counterpart in Merauke,
named as Ibu (Mrs) Ida, while the Indonesian

interpreter employed by Immigration kept telling him not to raise
independence issues, saying: "There's no need to talk about

things that are already over."

In July, just before being sent back to PNG, he was formally notified:
"Because of Australian law and where you landed, you

are not able to apply for any visa in Australia."

But in East Awin, a string of settlements in country inhabited by
cannibals about 40 years ago, the 2500 Papuan settlers are

far from reconciled to their fate and precarious subsistence livelihood.

Deliberately chosen for its inaccessibility, East Awin is a gruelling
day's journey to the nearest marketplace in Kiunga for

its peanuts and other produce, with truck and boat fares chewing up much
of the earnings.

"From the beginning it was not logical to build a settlement so far from
the river and the road," said Father Jacques Gros,

66, a French-born Catholic priest who lives in the settlement and walks
its muddy roads barefoot. "But nothing can be done -

we have to make the best of it."

The Papuans are from diverse backgrounds, the majority villagers from
directly across the border, some educated people from

the cities of Jayapura and Biak on the north coast, some Dani highlanders
from the Baliem Valley. Most arrived in the late

1980s after a flare-up of violence.

A further 8000 Papuans are squatting in camps close to the border between
the Star Mountains and the Torres Strait, not

regarded as refugees.

Many remain in close contact with the rebel Free Papua Organisation, the
OPM, which keeps up a political and guerilla

struggle against Jakarta rule, and whose operatives such as John Wakom
live along the Fly and maintain contact with its armed

groups.

Fear of Indonesian spies and informers pervades the community. The murder
of a European journalist in Kiunga some years ago,

found with his throat cut in his room at a Catholic school, is attributed
to an agent.

On an overnight visit to East Awin, this reporter was advised by the PNG
Government's camp manager, Jex Punai, to lock all

doors and keep a parang, or machete, by his bed: "It's just a precaution.
You just never know, there are so many factions

here."

After hopes raised by the Indonesian political flux following Soeharto's
fall in 1998, the Papuans realise they are facing

more difficult times as Jakarta regains some strategic importance for the
West.

"We were sold out in the Cold War and now it's happening again in the war
against al-Qaeda," says John Ondawame, who runs the

Papuan independence movement's sole quasi-diplomatic office in the region,
located in Vanuatu.

Ondawame said the OPM's armed resistance was weak, but important, and the
Papuan cause was getting more notice

internationally. "The situation is the reverse of Aceh," he said,
referring to the fierce separatist war at the other end of

Indonesia which has ended in an autonomy agreement.

Afonsina Hambring, 49, who spent three years in the jungle with her
husband, an OPM commander, before crossing to PNG in

1988, leads the Papuan women's association here. Their main activity is
prayer. "Every second we pray that God will start a

war to change us," she said. "To make us one. Let's not get to the
position of East Timor, fighting against each other."

Paulus Samkakay, sent to East Awin by Australia, is determined not to be
silenced as a condition of his "permissive

residence".

" I am under orders from the PNG Government not to engage in any political
activity," he said. "But I will not agree - it is

within my human rights. I am a supporter of independence and will keeping
saying so. If Australia will not take me, maybe

Holland."


---

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/bulletins/rnzi/200609041519/1886eede


NZ urged to help win release of Papuans held by Indonesia

Posted at 3:19pm on 04 Sep 2006

A church leader from the Indonesia province of Papua, the Reverend
Socratez Yoman, is calling on New Zealand to urge Jakarta

to release Papuans being held in custody.

Reverend Yoman, who is on a visit to New Zealand, says they include eight
Papuans held for the killings of two Americans near

the Freeport goldmine four years ago, but he claims it is clear that
Indonesian are forces were responsible.

He says it is part of the Indonesian government's effort to destabilise
the province and justify the presence of more troops

there and so the military can gain more income from providing security for
the mining company.

Reverend Yoman as also called on the international community to encourage
Jakarta to seek a peaceful dialogue to resolve the

Papuan problem, using international instruments.

Copyright © 2006 Radio New Zealand International

---

http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=131097&region=2

EXTRA INDON POLICE GO TO PAPUA
4.9.2006. 16:34:09

Hundreds of extra police and troops have been sent to an area in the
remote Indonesian province of Papua, where fighting

between rival tribes has killed three people.

Police have not made any arrests since renewed fighting between the Damal
and Dani tribes in the Mimika region erupted for

the third time since last month, said Papuan police spokesman Kartono
Wangsadisastra.

An additional 200 police and 100 soldiers had been sent from the
provincial capital Jayapura to the area as members of a

third tribe joined the fighting after one of their members was wounded by
a stray arrow, he said.

"We have summoned tribal chiefs to make peace. It is hard to intervene
because they always say they want to settle the matter

for themselves," Mr Wangsadisastra said.

"We fear that if we arrest the people involved, the conflict could widen.
We're trying to separate members of the warring

tribes."

The fighting, involving arrows and spears, has killed three people, all
Catholics from the Dani tribe, and injured dozens

others, the spokesman said.


SOURCE: Reuters

---

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20345211-1702,00.html


Inter-tribal violence escalates

>From correspondents in Jakarta

September 03, 2006 01:34pm
Article from: Agence France-Presse


A THIRD tribe has joined the violence in a renewed inter-tribal conflict
in Indonesia's remote Papua which has already

claimed three lives, police said.

“The conflict now involves a third tribe, just because one of its members
got inadvertently hurt by an arrow during violence

between the initial warring tribes,” Papua police spokesman Kartono
Wangsadisastra said.

He did not name the tribe but said that angered by the injury suffered by
one of its tribesman on Friday, hundreds of members

of the tribe took to the street, armed with bows and arrows and machetes.

“They also vandalised two buildings but because the situation is still
tense we have made not arrests for the time being,”

Kartono said.

He said that the local police chief declared an evening curfew in the town
of Timika last night.

Renewed open tribal war between the Dani and Damal tribes erupted again
for the third time since August, leaving three people

dead and more than 80 wounded according to a staffer at the Mimika Mitra
Masyarakat hospital.

The third tribe, identified by the Kompas daily as the Mee, pelted the
local district council building and a meeting hall

with stones to protest the authorities' failure to rapidly bring an end to
the tribal war.

The authorities have facilitated peace between the two tribes twice in the
past but the renewed violence broke out following

the wounding of a woman by one of the tribes.

Papua is home to groups that traditionally engage in elaborate war rituals
to solve disputes between clans or tribes.

Conflicts can take days to be resolved, with each side taking turns to
shoot arrows and throw spears.

According to tradition, a death should be avenged by another death or the
killer's tribe must pay a hefty fine of prized pigs

and hold a feast to seal the peace.

---


http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20060905.G07&irec=6

Defendants continue boycotting Abepura trial

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura

The Jayapura Prosecutor's Office failed for the third time Monday to
present in court seven defendants being tried for their

involvement in a deadly clash with police on March 16.

The seven defendants had refused to appear in the same court Wednesday and
Friday after one of them was beaten up by a police

officer several days earlier.

Monday's trial, presided over by the head of the panel of judges, Moris
Ginting, was opened to hear witnesses' testimonies.

"We've tried to present the seven defendants, but they requested that
proceedings be postponed until Sept. 6," said

prosecutor I Nyoman Sumartawan, in answer to Moris' inquiry as to why the
defendants were not present.

"Are the prosecutors incapable of bringing them here?" Moris asked.

"We will present them on Sept. 6 ... if they refuse to come we will use
force," I Nyoman said.

Moris said that, with or without the defendants, the trial would go
ahead."If they are present, we will hear witnesses'

testimonies, if not we will proceed to the sentencing recommendation."

Prosecutor's office head Jabaik Haro Munthe said they were still trying to
persuade the defendants and their lawyers to

attend the trial.

When escorting the defendants from Jayapura District Court on Aug. 28,
police officer Brig. Novrel beat up defendant Nelson

Rumbiak in front of Abepura Penitentiary. Nelson suffered head and chest
injuries from blows with a blunt object.

Following the incident, the defendants' lawyer, Aloysius Renwarin, said
the defendants would not appear in court until their

demands had been met, namely a public apology from the Papua Police chief
and the head of the Jayapura Prosecutor's Office,

and an official letter guaranteeing their safety.

"Why should I apologize, I'm not the guilty one," Jabaik said.

Novrel is being detained by police for 21 days, a punishment that was laid
down by the Jayapura Police disciplinary

committee.

---

http://www.forbes.com/2006/09/05/alcoa-0905markets20.html?partner=alerts

Copper A Better Play Than Aluminum: Analyst
Greg Levine, 09.05.06, 5:35 PM ET


Related Quotes
AA	28.89	+ 0.00
AL	45.72	+ 0.00
FCX	61.59	+ 0.00


Citigroup analyst John H. Hill says copper is shinier than aluminum.

"We are making a series of changes to commodity forecasts and company
earnings" projections, Hill declares.

One set of changes involves downgrading metals giants Alcoa (nyse: AA -
news - people ) and Alcan to hold from buy.

"We think aluminum has peaked," Hill avers, adding that a "surplus looms."

Citigroup is cutting third to fourth quarter earnings per share estimates
for both firms; the analyst also says that "M&A

speculation appears misplaced."

Hill says price targets for the aluminum producers are also being slashed:
Alcoa was lowered 28%, to $31 from $43; and Alcan

(nyse: AL - news - people ) cut 31%, from $70 to $48.

A play in copper: Freeport-McMoRan (nyse: FCX - news - people ), raised to
buy from hold. Hill points to its "continued cash

returns to shareholders" and praises its "M&A marking multiples to [market]."

Besides stronger commodity forecasts for copper, Freeport also enjoys the
strength of its gold business. Thus, Citigroup is

raising the firm's price target by 26%, to $72 from $57.

---

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/bulletins/rnzi/200609061526/icg_doubts_genocide_label_for_papua_abuse


ICG doubts genocide label for Papua abuse

Posted at 3:26pm on 06 Sep 2006

The International Crisis Group says the Indonesian province of Papua is
not a happy place, but neither is it a killing field.

In a briefing statement released from its headquarters in Brussels, the
NGO says allegations of genocide in Papua by security

forces are not well-founded.

The NGO says it's a fact that in Papua there's a current pattern of
low-level abuse and a past pattern of grave human rights

violations.

But the Group says the number of troops has risen in Papua in the last two
years, but rumours that the Indonesian military is

about to double its forces in the province are untrue.

The briefing says governors and district heads are all indigenous Papuans
but this has not eased corruption or improved local

government.

The South East Asia Project Director for the NGO, Sidney Jones, says the
most useful assistance the international community

can provide to Papua is development aid to strengthen local institutions
and deliver basic services.

The briefing says sources outside Indonesia tend to paint a picture of
Papuans suppressed by pro-government militias and

multinational companies.

It adds sources within Indonesia portray Papua as the target of Western
nations seeking to bring about military intervention

in support of separatists.

The ICG reports that many of the distortions about Papua could be
addressed by lifting restrictions on foreign journalists.

Copyright © 2006 Radio New Zealand International