[Kabar-Irian] News: Sept 9-14 2006

Thu Sep 14 07:53:08 MDT 2006

Sept 9-14 2006
KABAR IRIAN NEWS

TOPICS

* Howard rules out rift with RI over television crew's visit
* Australian television crew questioned in Papua
* INDONESIA: New wave of police violence in Papua  13 Sep 2006
* Free Naomi and the Papua 5!
* Robson ordered to leave Indonesia
* Naomi Robson thrown out of Papua
* Robson 'set up' by Nine, claims Seven
* Robson and crew ready for deportation
* Naomi's bid to save cannibal boy
* Papua: Bows, arrows and a tense gold mine
* Robson's annus horribilis
* Naomi helping Papuans, say Greens
* Papuans protest testimony from FBI
* West Papua - Swept under batik carpet?

---

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060914114147&irec=0

Howard rules out rift with RI over television crew's visit

CANBERRA (AP): Australia's leader on Thursday played down the possibility
of a diplomatic rift with Indonesia over a popular Australian TV host and
four of her film crew being accused of illegally arriving in the restive
province of Papua posing as tourists.

"I would be amazed if it did, it certainly shouldn't," Prime Minister John
Howard told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio when asked if the incident
would damage the delicate bilateralrelationship.

Presenter Naoim Robson of the public affairs program "Today Tonight" and
her team were detained Wednesday at the Papuan capital Jayapura, where
they arrived on a flight from the Indonesian tourist island of Bali, an
Indonesian Foreign AffairsDepartment official said.

"They entered Indonesia using the on-arrival visa which is for tourism,
while we do have some information and other indications that they are
going to do some kind of journalistic activity," department spokesman
Desra Percaya said.

"That's why they were being questioned by the localauthorities, by the
police," he said.

The five have been questioned but are not detained, and will be staying at
a hotel while authorities decide how to deal with them, he said.

Newspaper reports said they were likely to be deported Thursday. Their
employer, Seven Network television, said "the crew are on a special
assignment" and "are in a difficult situation."

Papua was the source of a diplomatic rift between Indonesia and Australia
this year when Canberra accepted 43 Papuans as refugees, including
supporters of the province's secessionist movement. (**)

---

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060914111937&irec=2

Australian television crew questioned in Papua

CANBERRA (AP): A popular Australian television public affairs host and
four of her film crew faced deportation from Indonesia on Thursday after
they arrived in the restive province of Papua on tourist visas, an
official and media reported.

"Today Tonight" presenter Naomi Robson and her team were detained at the
Papuan capital Jayapura Wednesday where they arrived on a flight from the
Indonesian tourist island of Bali, an Indonesian Foreign Affairs
Department official said.

"They entered Indonesia using the on-arrival visa which is for tourism,
while we do have some information and other indications that they are
going to do some kind of journalistic activity," department spokesman
Desra Percaya said.

"That's why they were being questioned by the localauthorities, by the
police," he said.

The five have been questioned but are not detained, and will be staying at
a hotel while authorities decide how to deal with them, he said.

Newspaper reports said they were likely to be deported Thursday.

Their employer, Seven Network television, said "the crew are on a special
assignment" and "are in a difficult situation."

Papua was the source of a diplomatic rift between Indonesia and Australia
this year when Canberra accepted 43 Papuans as refugees, including
supporters of the province's secessionist movement.

Immigration officials in Papua said that the Australians are free to tour
the region, but they would be deported if they work there, Indonesian
officials said Thursday.

"We will not arrest them because we cannot prove they were violating their
visas," said Jayapura police chief J. Kalembang. "We only gave them some
directions to avoid conflict areas that are risky for them."

"But if they conduct journalist activities, then they will certainly be
deported," he said.

Indonesia requires foreign media workers to obtain journalist visas before
they arrive in the country. Extra permission is required to visit Papua,
where a low-level separatist conflict has simmered for years. (**)

---

http://www.survivalfrance.org/news.php?id=1863

INDONESIA: New wave of police violence in Papua  13 Sep 2006

Indonesian police have unleashed a new wave of violence against the tribal
people of Papua. Survival has received numerous reports of torture,
mal-treatment and extra-judicial killings committed by the police this
year.

Survival fears for the safety of Nelson Rumbiak, who was involved in
clashes between students and police in March. He is currently in police
custody, and has been severely beaten. Following the same clashes, police
raided dormitories and assaulted many students. One, Dany Hisage, was
killed.

Another man, Obet Kossay, was tortured to death by police in January. Two
people were shot dead and many others tortured in the town of Wamena in
May. In June, an 18 year old woman was raped and tortured to death by
seven police officers, and in July a 19 year old woman, Selvi Kogoya, was
shot dead by a police officer after she refused to have sex with him.

Survival has written to the President of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, urging him to bring an end to police violence in Papua and to
ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.

Papua is home to around 312 different tribes. All Papuan peoples have
suffered terribly under the Indonesian occupation, which began in 1963.

---

http://radar.smh.com.au/archives/2006/09/free_naomi_and.html

Free Naomi and the Papua 5!
September 14, 2006
Robson Fur Indonesia's prisons are full to bursting point with
Australians. Not only are Schapelle Corby and the Bali 9 currently
sweating in our northern neighbour's jails – though most of the latter
group won't be for long, tragically – but the queen of tabloid current
affairs herself, Naomi Robson, has been arrested along with her crew for
having a tourist visa. Oh, the injustice.

The SMH report points out that this wouldn't exactly be hard to detect,
since there's a full camera crew with her. Usually when reporters want to
surreptitiously film under a tourist visa, they use one operator and a
domestic-looking camera. Tourism visas may well have been the appropriate
option. But I dispute any suggestion that they've got the wrong visa.
Anyone who knows her work would find it completely credible that Robson
would have hired a professional camera crew to shoot her holiday footage.

She must be freed immediately, because she has important work to do – not
just for Seven, but also for Indonesia, if not humanity itself. I don't
believe she wants report about cannibals and potentially embarrass
Indonesia. It was probably just that someone in West Papua, who may or may
not have been a cannibal, welfare cheat, rip-off merchant, or youth gone
wild. I can guarantee that what she is actually there to do is condemn
someone down on their luck, and possibly mentally ill, to provide a
spectacle that confirms the petty prejudices of middle Australia.

Come to think of it, that might mean doing a report about how all Papuans
are cannibals after all.

The sad thing is that the Yudhoyono Government could have worked with
Naomi. They aren't happy about Australia's recent decision to grant asylum
to a bunch of West Papuans, and who better to pick on possibly bogus
refugees than Today Tonight? The Government shouldn't be kicking her out
of the country, they should be leading her straight to Papua's shonky
refugee boat operators, so she can harangue them about jumping the queue.

Seven's head of News, Peter Meakin, denied that Robson's uncharacteristic
trip to cover a real story was a bid for credibility, telling ABC radio
that "We don't decide what stories to do on the basis of journalistic
credibility." Of course they don't! Had the interviewer ever watched the
show? Let's just say that TT isn't generally angling for Walkleys.

So shame on to the Indonesian Government for deporting Naomi because she
didn't have a journalist visa. I sincerely hope some junior reporter is
dispatched to kick the relevant authorities' door in and ask the tough,
simplistic questions. Come on – as if the host of Today Tonight would ever
be involved in journalism.

Dominic Knight

---

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20410807-2702,00.html

Robson ordered to leave Indonesia
Padriac Murphy and AAP
September 14, 2006
SEVEN Network television personality Naomi Robson has been ordered to
leave Indonesia as soon as possible, Indonesian authorities say.

The Today Tonight host and a four-member crew were stopped by Indonesian
police yesterday after they entered the troubled province of Papua on
tourist visas.

They were preparing a story on cannibals but have been ordered to leave
the country.

"I can confirm that they have been told to leave by the Indonesian
government," Indonesian foreign affairs department spokesman Desra Percaya
told AAP.

"We have evidence that they were conducting journalistic activities, which
is in contravention of the specific purpose that has been given for the
visa on arrival."

Mr Percaya said the five would leave on the next available flight from the
Papuan provincial capital Jayapura.

Channel Seven today defended Robson and her crew for lying to Indonesian
officials, saying it was standard practice to go into Indonesia on a
tourist visa to cover stories "the Indonesian Government doesn't want
covered".

While refusing to confirm the story was about cannibals in West Papua,
Seven's head of current affairs, Peter Meakin, said claiming to be
tourists rather than journalists was "fairly standard operating procedure
when you're not allowed in to do stories in the public interest".

"It happens very commonly. Channel Nine was up there recently and I
believe they used tourist visas as well," Meakin told Neil Mitchell on
Melbourne's 3AW today.

He said the Indonesians were "being quite decent at the moment .. but I
don't want to provoke them".

The Australian revealed today that Robson was on assignment following a
story on Nine 60 Minutes about cannibals.

Despite Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials yesterday
initially saying the group was getting Australian consular assistance,
John Howard today denied they were receiving diplomatic help.

"Obviously if any Australian citizen anywhere in the world wants consular
help, they will receive it, but I am not aware of any particular requests,
particular responses or particular contact between her and the
government," Mr Howard said.

He said the incident was unlikely to affect diplomatic relations with
Indonesia, strained recently by an Australian decision to grant refuge to
Papuan asylum seekers.

"I would be amazed if it did," Mr Howard said. "It certainly shouldn't."

---

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s1741225.htm

Naomi Robson thrown out of Papua

The World Today - Thursday, 14 September , 2006  12:44:00
Reporter: Alison Caldwell
ELEANOR HALL: In an attempt to break free from the TV current affairs
staples of diets, and cures for back pain, a Channel Seven team has
ventured to the remote Indonesian province of Papua, and into a world of
trouble.

Today Tonight presenter Naomi Robson and four producers are facing
deportation and the possibility of being blacklisted by the Indonesian
Government because they entered the province on tourist visas.

Alison Caldwell reports.

ALISON CALDWELL: It's unfamiliar territory for Channel Seven's Today
Tonight team, which has found itself at the mercy of Indonesian
authorities in the troubled province of Papua.

Today Tonight presenter Naomi Robson and her crew flew from Bali, hoping
to enter Papua on a tourist visa to cover a story.

As it is, even accredited journalists can't work in Papua.

The Indonesian Government says it's almost certain they'll be deported and
possibly even blacklisted.

It's a nightmare for Channel Seven's publicists.

Last night a Seven spokesman reportedly denied the crew had been
apprehended or detained by anyone and was quoted as saying the crew was
merely discussing internal travel with Indonesian authorities.

Peter Meakin is the director of Seven's news and current affairs. He's
trying to put a good spin on an unfortunate situation.

PETER MEAKIN: This is a really good story. That's the bottom line, it is a
really good story.

ALISON CALDWELL: We've been told that there were stopped by Indonesian
authorities because they were on tourism visas. Is that right?

PETER MEAKIN: They were intercepted rather than stopped. I mean, they did
get through the airport. It's not as if they were detained at the airport
or anything like that. They were questioned subsequently.

ALISON CALDWELL: But Mr Meakin won't say exactly what Today Tonight was
doing in Papua.

PETER MEAKIN: Well, they've gone there to do an assignment and I'm not
going to disclose the details of the assignment for journalistic and
political reasons.

ALISON CALDWELL: In recent years, journalists, academics and human rights
advocates have been banned from entering Papua.

The province has recently been the site of tribal unrest, protests against
the Freeport Gold Mine and claims of human rights abuses by independence
activists.

Normally accustomed to reporting on new fad diets and shonky builders,
whatever Today Tonight was doing in Papua is almost certainly a departure
for the program.

Peter Meakin again.

PETER MEAKIN: Today Tonight does a range of stories, a huge range of
stories, and that's two of them. But I don't think any subject is outside
the agenda.

ALISON CALDWELL: It's been said that this was an attempt to boost the
program's journalistic credibility, going into Papua?

PETER MEAKIN: It was an attempt to get a good story. And a very good story
we didn't... we don't decide what sorts of stories to do based on
journalistic credibility. That's more an ABC judgement.

ALISON CALDWELL: Nicole Brady is the editor of the Age newspaper's Green
Guide.

She's skeptical about the Seven network's decision to send Naomi Robson to
Papua.

NICOLE BRADY: Naomi is a bit of a soft target who sets herself up, doesn't
she, when she appears outside Australia Zoo in a khaki suit with a lizard
on her shoulder.

They knew what they were doing. They thought that was going to be a good
look. And now they've been ridiculed for it.

I think they're backpedalling, and they've now tried to present her as a
serious person, sending her off on an overseas assignment.

And again, it's blown up in their faces, possibly because she had a
make-up bag going with her to West Papua.

(Sound of Frontline theme tune)

MIKE MOORE: Hello, I'm Mike Moore. Welcome to Frontline.

ALISON CALDWELL: In a remarkable twist of life imitating art.

A decade ago, the frustrated presenter of the ABC's current affairs spoof
Frontline was sent to Papua New Guinea in a desperate bid to boost his
journalistic credibility.

In an episode called 'Playing the Ego Card', Mike Moore begs his Executive
Producer, Brian, to send him overseas.

MIKE MOORE: It would give us the edge, it would really separate us from
Real Life and A Current Affair.

I couldn't sleep when I thought of this last night. Why not give us a
freshness?

I mean, people will really tune in for it, because they'll go, wow,
they've actually sent them away! He's actually over there! He's in....

Brian, Brian... you're not... come on, Brian, it'll be good for the show!

BRIAN THOMPSON: Like where?

MIKE MOORE: Bosnia?

BRIAN THOMPSON: (Laughs) Past its use-by date, mate.

MIKE MOORE: New Caledonia?

BRIAN THOMPSON: Sounds like Club Med!

MIKE MOORE: There's a civil war going on there, Brian. It's in our region.

BRIAN THOMPSON: First smart thing you've said. Apart from that, it's a dud.

MIKE MOORE: Bougainville... Bougainville!

BRIAN THOMPSON: Where?

MIKE MOORE: Bougainville! The copper mine they're fighting over - that's
Australian owned!

BRIAN THOMPSON: Now who's not listening.

ALISON CALDWELL: Seven's Peter Meakin says that's not the case with Today
Tonight's Naomi Robson.

PETER MEAKIN: I don't think there's any parallels at all. I think we will
find that we've got a good real story rather than a slightly comic
imagined one.

ELEANOR HALL: The Seven Network's Director of News and Current Affairs,
Peter Meakin, ending Alison Caldwell's report.

---

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20413092-1702,00.html

Robson 'set up' by Nine, claims Seven
September 14, 2006
SEVEN television personality Naomi Robson flew straight into an ambush in
Indonesia after being set up by a rival network, Seven claimed tonight.

Robson and a Today Tonight crew say they were trying to save a Papuan
orphan from being eaten by his cannibal tribe when they were detained by
Indonesian authorities this week.

The five journalists were deported today after trying to enter the
troubled Indonesian province of Papua on tourist visas.

Foreign reporters are supposed to have a journalist visa to work anywhere
in Indonesia, and a special permit to report in Papua.

But the permits are notoriously difficult to obtain, in part because of
the activities of the secessionist movement in the province.

Seven tonight accused the Nine Network of sabotaging the rescue mission by
tipping off authorities to the visa breach.

"Our crew flew into a set-up - a dangerous, tense and extremely delicate
situation," the program said.

"We can't be certain, but we do know the Nine Network somehow found out we
were going and tried to sabotage the trip, threatening, cajoling and
intimidating."

The Nine Network says it will take legal action over the claims.

"Any suggestion Nine has contacted or alerted Indonesian authorities about
Seven's proposed journey are absolutely false and reprehensible," news and
current affairs director Garry Linnell said in a statement.

Nine reporter Ben Fordham took a swipe at Today Tonight during an
appearance on Nine's A Current Affair, denying claims he or anyone else
from the network tipped off Indonesian authorities.

"I can tell you categorically that that hasn't happened and I've spoken to
all sorts of people at the Nine network and no one at Channel Nine has
even had discussions with Indonesian authorities," Fordham said.

"I can tell you that newspaper journalists have informed me in the last
hour that Channel Seven people have been saying that off the record, it
was me that tipped off Indonesian authorities.

"That never happened and if you believe that, you believe in Alice in
Wonderland," he said.

Fordham covered the boy's story for 60 Minutes in May.

Fordham said the 60 Minutes crew were given clear instructions by people
on the ground that snatching the boy in an attempt to save him would place
him in even more danger.

"It was said to us very, very clearly that it's not in the best interests
of (the boy) to go in there and take him anywhere and that's clearly what
someone's attempted to do in the last 48 hours," he said.

Papua provincial police spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra said after
arriving in Jayapura the Seven crew had approached police to ask
permission to cover "cultural" stories in Jayapura and Merauke.

But when police found they did not have journalist visas, they were told
to leave and come back with proper permits, he said.

Indonesian foreign affairs officials will meet next week to decide whether
to blacklist Robson and her colleagues.

Indonesia has defended its restrictions on coverage of Papua, citing
concerns that foreigners may encourage separatism in the remote province.

Papuan independence activists have campaigned for more than 30 years to
break away from Indonesia.

Today Tonight was following up on a Nine Network report about an orphaned
boy, Wah-Wah, who was going to be killed and eaten at some stage in the
next 10 years.

When Nine refused to go in and rescue the boy, Today Tonight stepped in,
leading to the crew being detained, the program claimed.

---

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Robson-told-to-leave-Indonesia-ASAP/2006/09/14/1157827030752.html

obson and crew ready for deportation

September 14, 2006 - 2:43AM

Five Australian Seven Network journalists were being deported from
Indonesia after travelling to restive Papua province on tourist visas,
police and witnesses said.

Today Tonight presenter Naomi Robson and four members of her film crew
were escorted by immigration officials on board a commercial flight from
Papua to the capital, Jakarta, said Papua Police Chief Major General Tommy
Jacobus.

>From Jakarta they will be deported, he said. "They admitted to being
journalists who were intending to report on events here," Jacobus told
reporters. "It is best if we deport them.

The Network has defended its decision to send a news crew to the troubled
Indonesian province of Papua on tourist visas, saying it's common practice
to take "short cuts" to get a story.

Today Tonight host Naomi Robson and four colleagues face deportation and
possible fines after they were caught in Papua on tourist visas.

They remained in the provincial capital Jayapura, where foreign ministry
officials said they were being questioned.

Police in Jayapura say the Seven team was told they could not film in the
sensitive province because they did not have journalist visas.

Such visas are notoriously difficult to obtain, in part because of the
activities of the secessionist movement in the province.

Foreign reporters in general are supposed to have a journalist visa to
work anywhere in Indonesia, and in addition the Indonesian government
requires foreign journalists wishing to report in Papua to get a special
permit.

Seven news and current affairs chief Peter Meakin declined to comment on
reports the crew was chasing a story about cannibals, but said they went
to Papua "with the best possible motivation.

"We can talk about errors I think at a later date, but as you know it's
fairly common procedure to get into situations to use tourist visas and
operate on them," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

"Yes, it's a short cut and on this occasion it was done with the best
possible motivation.

"If you ask for the official permission sometimes all you get is the door
slammed in your face."

Asked if the crew was going to film a "cannibal boy," Mr Meakin said he
did not want to jeopardise the story.

"I'm being really tight-lipped here ... for a number of reasons, we're
still on the ground there and I don't want to do anything that jeopardises
us journalistically or politically," he said.

Mr Meakin said he had spoken to Robson a couple of times in the last 12
hours.

"She seems fine but clearly it's a pretty tense situation," he said.

He did not know when Robson and the crew would return to Australia, but
suspected it would be as soon as possible, "because I don't think they're
welcome there anymore".

"The Indonesians are being very decent at the moment and they're handling
the situation in a quite mature manner and I don't want to do anything to
inflame them," he said.

Mr Meakin said Robson and her colleagues had entered Papua and were
"intercepted" later.

He denied the story was an attempt to boost Today Tonight's credibility.

"It was an attempt to get a good story," he told ABC radio.

"We don't decide what stories to do on the basis of journalistic
credibility."

It remained unclear today when the Seven team would leave Papua for Bali.

An Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman said they had not yet been
deported and were still being questioned today.

Local police said the Today Tonight crew had intended to stay only three
days, and had told officers they planned "cultural" coverage.

Papua provincial police spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra said after
arriving in Jayapura the Seven crew had approached police to ask
permission to cover stories in Jayapura and Merauke.

But when police found they did not have journalist visas, they were told
to leave and come back with proper permits, he said.

Meanwhile Robson and her colleagues are staying at one of Jayapura's best
hotels, the three-star Sentani Indah.

Staff at the hotel said they had paid for three days and had been planning
to leave today, but had been taken back to the police station and were now
believed to be staying another night.

© 2006 AAP

---

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20412115-1702,00.html

Robson 'deserves deportation': expert

By Maria Hawthorne

September 14, 2006 06:12pm
Article from: AAP

TELEVISION personality Naomi Robson deserved to be deported from Indonesia
for thinking she might be able to find a 21st century cannibal tribe, an
academic said today.
The Today Tonight host and a four-member crew were tonight being deported
from Indonesia for visa breaches.

The five journalists arrived in the province of Papua on tourist visas but
planned to film a story about rescuing a boy from a cannibal tribe.
Journalists need special permits to report in Papua.

Australian National University expert Ron May said the last authenticated
case of cannibalism in the region was in 1972, when some bushmen arrived
in a village on the Fly River in neighbouring Papua New Guinea where a man
had been murdered.

The villagers were keeping the body until police arrived, but the
tribesmen saw it as a source of protein and helped themselves, Dr May
said.

"The people in the village were rather shocked at that and when the police
came in these guys were arrested for cannibalism," Dr May said.

Cannibalism was not an offence under PNG law, so the men were charged
instead with indecently interfering with human remains.

"When that came up before the judge, who was a good Australian Catholic
gentleman, his ruling was that within the terms of these people's culture
they could not be said to be indecently interfering with human remains and
he dismissed the case," Dr May said.

"That's the last recorded case of cannibalism you'll find in Papua New
Guinea."

Dr May said there may have been more recent incidences in Papua, west of
PNG, where the Seven Network crew was apprehended.

But he doubted there were any cannibal tribes living in the hills waiting
to be discovered by Westerners.

"People who are running around looking for cannibals and lost tribes in
the 21st century I think deserve to be deported," he said.

"Imagine if you're an educated Papuan and some white fella comes in and
says, 'I'm going to take a picture of a cannibal tribe'.

"It's a bit insulting and a bit silly on the part of the people who do it."

Dr May is the author of a cookbook on every food or plant ever consumed,
including human flesh.

---

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20410407-5005941,00.html

Naomi's bid to save cannibal boy

By Fiona Connolly in Sydney and staff

September 14, 2006 12:00
TODAY Tonight host Naomi Robson and her four-member TV crew have been put
on a flight from Papua to Jakarta, from where they will be deported,
authorities in Indonesia have said.

The reporters were escorted on a commercial flight by Indonesian
immigration officials this evening.

Robson was trying to get into Papua to save the life of a young boy
earmarked to be eaten by a tribe of cannibals, an industry source claims.

Today Tonight claimed in its program tonight that Robson and her crew had
been "set up" by the Nine network.  Nine said it was planning legal action
over the "reprehensible" claim.

The plan was to bring the six-year-old orphan named Wawa to safety in
nearby village, the TV insider said today - adding that such a plan might
be unwise in volatile Papua.

"The problem was they were only going to put him in more danger by going
in there and disrupting his situation.

"If so it's a good thing they got detained - it probably has saved him in
the end.''

This afternoon Seven admitted the mission - and blamed rivals at Nine for
"sabotaging" the plan.

Seven bosses gave Robson and her four-member crew two weeks of leave to go
on the "special assignment'' - but the mission came to an abrupt end
yesterday when Indonesian police detained them at Jayapura airport in
Papua province after they attempted to enter on tourist visas.

The story, which was originally covered by A Current Affair reporter Ben
Fordham for 60 Minutes - and became 60 Minutes' highest rating episode for
the year rating over two million - may have been too good for the Seven
network not to chase up.

Rival Channel Nine sources deny sabotaging Robson's trip, but do claim a
lack of proper planning in gaining access to the sensitive region led to
the star's border problems.

"You can see the level of planning that's gone into this - they haven't
even organised access,'' an insider said. "This is a seriously sensitive
region we're talking about.''

A Nine source admitted the 60 Minutes crew had considered doing the same
thing and looked at options in getting Wawa out of region.

"We examined all those possibilities months ago. We would have at the time
if Fordham and his team deemed it feasible, appropriate or proper to do
that.

"The advice from experts was that it wasn't. That he'd be in more danger
if we did attempt to get him out."

Seven Network news director Peter Meakin told 2GB's Jason Morrison it
would be a story "anyone would be proud of'' and Robson would "execute it
brilliantly''.

Indonesian police stopped the Today Tonight current affairs show host and
her crew after a tip-off - but Nine insiders denied they were responsible.

---

Article from: The Daily
Telegraphhttp://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/HI08Ae01.html

Sep 8, 2006

Papua: Bows, arrows and a tense gold mine
By John McBeth

TIMIKA, Papua - For centuries, Papua's warlike mountain tribesmen have
used bows and arrows, spears and knives to settle their differences over
women and pigs - and not necessarily in that order of priority.

But a recent pitched battle on the outskirts of the lowland boom town of
Timika on the south coast of the Indonesian province has underlined what
can happen when urban migration and traditional

practices collide. The resultant clashes - and an  influx of illegal
highland miners - represent the latest headache for US mining giant
Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, far and away Indonesia's largest foreign
taxpayer.

The battle stemmed from the drowning of the epileptic seven-year-old son
of a Dani tribal headman. Angry that better care had not been taken, the
boy's hot-tempered uncle - a member of the closely related Damal tribe -
killed one the headman's brothers and wounded another with a bow and
arrow.

In the days that followed, tribesmen from both sides engaged in a
week-long series of running skirmishes that left 12 of the combatants dead
and another 150 wounded from arrow and spear wounds. Then, true to
tradition, the two sides held pig roasts and an arrow-breaking ceremony in
a show of reconciliation and agreed to let matters rest.

Three weeks later, fighting erupted again in Kwamki Lama, a largely Dani
settlement. Three more tribesmen died and another 80 were hurt before
security forces managed to separate the two sides. But with a third tribe,
the Ekari, now joining in the clashes, community workers are wondering how
to bring an end to the continuing spiral of violence.

This, after all, isn't Papua's rugged mountains, where deep valleys
separate tribes and provide the space needed to calm emotions and work out
peace deals. In the villages scattered around Timika, a town of 60,000
people, seven different tribal groups - some of them harboring age-old
grudges - live in uncommon and uncomfortable proximity.

Once a clapboard settlement serving only ethnic-Javanese transmigrants,
Timika owes its lifeblood to the Freeport Indonesia copper and gold mine,
which has acted as a magnet for thousands of highland tribesmen and
migrants from other parts of Indonesia looking for jobs and economic
opportunities unavailable on other more crowded islands. With more than
18,000 workers, Freeport is one of Indonesia's biggest employers.

By the time Freeport's Grasberg operation goes underground, scheduled for
2012-14, Papuans will have become the core of the company's workforce,
rather than the minority that they are now. But the recent outbreak in
ethnic tensions adds a new complication to the planned changeover.

The attraction Timika holds for the highlanders, in particular, underlines
the fact that for all their isolation and ancient customs, they are just
as interested in money and an education for their children as anyone else.
But it may take more than a generation for them to come to terms with an
urban environment where historic grievances have no place.

Money also creates its own problems. "There's a lot of social jealousy,"
said anthropologist and author Kal Muller, who has spent three decades in
Papua. "In many highlands societies the basic ethic has been egalitarian,
with respect gained not by accumulating capital, but by distributing
capital. Here, a lot of money is spread around and the distribution is
very uneven."

Tribe on tribe
There has also been a dramatic change in the demographic balance. Mimika,
the district surrounding Timika, was once home to only the highland
Amungme and the lowland Kamoro tribes, who lived in relative harmony. But
Freeport's rich Grasberg mine, into which the company has poured more than
US$12 billion in investment over the decades, has drawn an increasing
number of Dani, the dominant Papuan tribe that now makes up 60% of
Timika's highland population.

Dani migration is nothing new. Originally from the Balien Valley, 200
kilometers northeast of Timika, they have been pushing westward for
centuries. Indeed, those who have settled on the more fertile northern
slopes, well to the north and west of Freeport's high-altitude mine, are
now known as the Western Dani, or the Lani as they like to call
themselves. Even their language is different in a region with 250
different dialects.

The only reason thousands of Amungme tribesmen ended up where they are now
is that the Dani expelled them from their original home before the turn of
the 20th century. There was no mine then, but since it opened in the early
1970s the Amungme have found themselves under pressure again from the same
tribe that pushed them out of the more fertile northern side of the
highlands.

In 1997, with over-aggressive Dani settlers intruding on their hillsides
and sweet-potato gardens and taking the virginity of young girls whose
bridal bounties had already been paid, the Amungme hit back. Eleven people
died in the fighting, which ended with authorities relocating most of the
more than 3,000 Dani to a new lowland area west of Timika.

Although they continue to populate 17 valleys, the 10,000 Amungme still
feel increasingly like strangers in their own land. Those who have settled
in the lowlands have been nudged out of Kwamki Lama, and the tribe itself
now faces the prospect of losing the privileged position it once enjoyed
as the original benefactor of Freeport's largesse.

The Damal may have fared even worse. Enforced inter-marriage with the
dominant Western Dani has, over the years, in essence reduced them to
little more than a sub-clan - even if the recent clashes suggest that old
enmities remain a lot closer to the surface in an urban setting than they
do in the highlands.

Added to Timika's melting pot have been settlers from the Nduga, Ekari and
Moni, three other highland groups. There are also stragglers from the
Asmat and Senpan tribes who have drifted in from further down the swampy
southeast coast, which borders the shallow waters of the Arafura Sea
separating Indonesia and Australia.

The town itself has a similar yet different mix. Old-time Javanese
migrants mix with tens of thousands of native Buginese - traders from
distant South Sulawesi - and lowland Papuan settlers from as far away as
Maureke, on the Papua New Guinea border in the east, to the island of Biak
and the provincial capital Jayapura on the north coast and the former oil
center of Sorong in the west.

With the world gold price rocketing from $250 to $650 an ounce in just two
years, hundreds more Dani have been trekking south to join an army of
illegal gold miners now working in the tailings, or waste rock, flowing
downstream from the Freeport mill. The number of gold panners has grown
from several hundred to more than 3,000, most of whom sell the gold to
military middlemen who then pass it on to dealers in Timika.

There are concerns that with the gold running out in an alluvial deposit
near Nabire, on Papua's north coast, more fortune hunters will head across
the highlands to Timika, potentially adding more ethnic tension to a
problem authorities seem unable or unwilling to solve.

John McBeth is a former correspondent with the Far Eastern Economic
Review. He is currently a Jakarta-based freelance journalist.

(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact
us about sales, syndication and republishing .)

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http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/robsons-annus-horribilis/2006/09/14/1157827064904.html

Robson's annus horribilis

Kylie Northover
September 14, 2006 - 12:13PM

The news that Today Tonight anchor Naomi Robson has been kicked out of
Indonesia where she was working, reportedly, on a story about cannibalism,
comes just over a week after she was criticised for a "tacky" on-air
appearance outside the Australia Zoo.

Just 24 hours after Steve Irwin's death, Robson appeared outside the zoo
dressed in an Irwin-style khaki outfit with a live lizard on her shoulder.

After viewers rang Channel 7 to complain about the "insensitive" stunt,
the station blamed the unintentionally comical safari look on the wardrobe
assistant who packed Robson's bags, saying the host was apparently
"unaware" what her on-air outfit would be until just before the cameras
rolled.

Robson said it was "just all too quick" and the shirt was all she had to
wear.

The lizard, she added, was given to her by a young Irwin fan who brought
along his reptile collection.

"He wanted his dragon lizard on air and someone thought it would be a good
idea. I didn't have the heart to tell him no," she said.

It hasn't been a good year for Robson publicity-wise.

In April, as the country's media descended on the Beaconsfield mine in
Tasmania to cover the story of two miners trapped underground, Robson's
demeanour was criticised by her colleagues.

She suffered a barrage of bad publicity which, surprisingly, she addressed
on air.

Although some of the reports were untrue - such as her having a Winnebago
on hand just for her hair and make-up - she was the only member of the
media pack to abandon the rescue scene and fly to Melbourne for the
Logies.

"You could not have imagined Melissa Doyle or Tracy Grimshaw leaving the
story for the awards," one journalist said.

And rumours that the host is not well-liked by her own colleagues seemed
to be confirmed when two damaging tapes of her in the Today Tonight studio
were leaked.

In one she swears nine times in 15 seconds. "They f---ing drop it in at
the last minute, you should be able to read every f---ing word, every
comma," she says.

In the other tape, she calls her audience stupid and laughs at fat people
while touching up her make-up.

But perhaps the worst scandal hit in April when it was alleged she had a
relationship with a cocaine-dealing Melbourne conman turned police
informant, who is on the run after breaking a promise to give evidence
against millionaire Melbourne drug baron Tony Mokbel.

Robson said she had been duped by the man, who racked up hundreds of
convictions in a life of crime before turning informer on the missing drug
kingpin and exposing police corruption. "I had absolutely no idea of who
or what he really was," she said in court.

Robson met the man through friends under one of his 20 false identities,
that of a successful company executive. She went out with the criminal for
several months in 2000 - unaware he was dealing drugs with Mokbel and
corrupt police. But Robson angrily denied courtroom claims the man had
supplied her with cocaine during their friendship.

Robson became the host of Today Tonight in 1997 and commands an audience
of more than one million across three capital cities.

theage.com.au

---

http://www.theage.com.au/news/people/naomi-helping-papuans-say-greens/2006/09/14/1157827056475.html

Naomi helping Papuans, say Greens

September 14, 2006 - 10:23AM

Current affairs host Naomi Robson's run-in with Indonesian authorities has
brought some badly needed attention to the plight of the Papuan people,
the Greens say.

The Seven Network personality and four of her colleagues face deportation
and possible fines after they were caught trying to enter the Indonesian
province of Papua on tourist visas.

Despite reports the Today Tonight crew ignored visa regulations to film a
story on cannibalism, Greens leader Senator Bob Brown lauded the
organisation for their efforts to bring media coverage to Papua.

"I don't know what their motivation is, and we will have to wait to find
out about that, but I do know that as far back as in 1979 I was refused a
visa to go to Papua to climb a mountain," Senator Brown said.

"Nothing has changed and it's very difficult to get in there and let's be
frank about this, there is repression of media coverage of what's
happening in Papua.

"And so if people are trying to get some news about Papua and the plight
of the Papuan people back to the rest of the world then good on them."

Indonesian police say they stopped the Today Tonight crew at Jayapura
airport yesterday morning following a tip-off about their impending
arrival.

They are expected to be deported for breaching visa regulations and may
also be fined and prevented from ever entering the country again.

The five have been questioned but were not detained, and are staying at a
hotel while authorities decide how to deal with them.

Papua was the centre of a diplomatic row between Australia and Indonesia
earlier this year after Australia granted protection visas to 43 boat
people who fled the province claiming persecution by Indonesian
authorities.

The asylum seekers were part of a separatist movement that claims that the
Indonesian military is carrying out genocide in the province.

"It's a resource-rich provence and it's got a military presence which
cracks down on democracy, cracks down on human rights, cracks down on the
cultural life of one to two million Papuans - aided and abetted by the
Howard government by the way," Senator Brown said.

AAP

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http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/headhunter-robson-boned-by-indonesia/2006/09/14/1157827058519.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Headhunter Robson boned by Indonesia

Today Tonight presenter Naomi Robson and four members of her film crew
were escorted by immigration officials on board a commercial flight from
Papua to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, today said Papua Police Chief
Major General Tommy Jacobus.

>From Jakarta they will be deported, he said.

"They admitted to being journalists who were intending to report on events
here," Jacobus told reporters. "It is best if we deport them."

Today Tonight was following up on a Nine Network report about an orphaned
boy, Wah-Wah, who was going to be killed and eaten at some stage in the
next 10 years.

When Nine refused to go in and rescue the boy, Today Tonight stepped in,
leading to the crew being detained, the program claimed.

A member of the Today Tonight crew said from their hotel in the West
Papuan capital Jayapura that they were flying out of Indonesia this
morning and had been advised not to speak publicly about the circumstances
of their departure until they were out of the country.

"We couldn't get permission to do the story," the crew member said. "We
did actually seek to get permission to do the story from the government
and they said 'No, and we actually don't want you here either'.

"We had a short holiday in Bali then we flew into this area, sought
permission to do the story and they said 'no, and on your current visas,
you must leave now'."

Seven news and current affairs chief Peter Meakin declined to comment on
reports the crew was chasing a story about cannibals, but said they went
to Papua "with the best possible motivation".

"We can talk about errors I think at a later date, but as you know it's
fairly common procedure to get into situations to use tourist visas and
operate on them," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

"Yes, it's a short cut and on this occasion it was done with the best
possible motivation.

"If you ask for the official permission sometimes all you get is the door
slammed in your face.'"