[Kabar-Irian] News: March 7-16 2007

Thu Mar 15 22:02:54 MDT 2007

KABAR IRIAN NEWS

March 7-16 2007

TOPICS

* Air Force to install radars in remote Papua
* PNG's artists troupe to visit Papua on March 15-20
* INDONESIA: Papua to build satellite station
* Clashing Papua clans asked to make peace
* Medical team still missing at sea after two weeks
* Nine people die during long running dispute between two Papua clans
* Lost World' scientist at Quiet Waters : New species uncovered in New Guinea
* Papua students say autonomy causes graft
* Shareholders OK Freeport-Phelps Deal
* Papua nature reserves in danger
* Asmat carvings fuel education
* Clashing Papua clans asked to make peace
* Nine people die during long running dispute between two Papua clans
* Tribal violence in Papua leaves nine dead
* Papua to build satellite station
* Scientists make breakthrough in treatment of drug resistant malaria
* WE ARE VICTIMS OF GENOCIDE, SAYS PAPUAN LEADER

---

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailgeneral.asp?fileid=20070314191628&irec=7

Air Force to install radars in remote Papua

TIMIKA, Papua (Antara): The Indonesian Air Force (TNI)Headquarters plans
to install air defense radars in Timika, the capital of Mimika district in
Papua, and in Kaimana

town in West Papua next year, an official said.

"The radar will be installed to monitor and anticipate air violation of
foreign airplanes as well as sea crimes," Timika Air Force Base Command
chief Lt. Col. Bambang

Triono said Wednesday.

So far, TNI AU only has one radar in Biak town that it cannot observe all
of air zones of Papua region which is prone to illegal logging and
poaching.

"The radars will be set up next year and fully operated in 2010. The
gadgets are capable of monitoring air zone within a radius of 250 nautical
miles," he said.

Lt. Col. Bambang said he had no idea on the cost to build the radars.

"Installing high technology equipment is certainly not cheap," he said.

Despite inadequate means, infrastructure and equipment, Bambang said, TNI
AU has continued to conduct air patrol along the year using a Boeing
737-200 airplane. (***)

---

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailgeneral.asp?fileid=20070315160224&irec=0

PNG's artists troupe to visit Papua on March 15-20

VANIMO, PNG (Antara): Governor of Papua New Guinea (PNG)'s Manus province
Dr Jacob Gris Jumogot MP has expressed his provincial administration's
wish to conduct

cultural cooperation with Indonesia's Papua province by sending troupe of
artists soon.

Jacob Gris made the remarks here on Thursday in his meeting with
Indonesia's Consul in Vanimo Ign. Kristanyo Hardojo and cultural team
liaison officer on the bilateral

ties Maria Wagey to discuss a visit of PNG's provincial artists troupe to
Papua province on March 15 to 20, 2007.

"I will directly head the artists troupe of Manus province in a visit to
Papua. The troupe of artists is called Paksonon Heritage Cultural Dancing
Group," Jacob Gris

Jumogot," said, adding that the ties will be followed by other cooperation
in fishery and maritime affairs.

The PNG's governor opined that it was a proper cultural cooperation
because people of PNG's Manus province and Papua have the same culture and
tradition.

Some 45 dancers of 52 members of the troupe would show their performance
on the Melanesian Cultural stage in Jayapura and Keerom district, he said,
noting that they

would be picked up at Wutung gate before proceeding to Jayapura. (***)

---

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southeastasia.asp?parentid=65553

INDONESIA: Papua to build satellite station

Governor announces five-year plan to improve telecommunications in
isolated areas

The Jakarta Post
Monday, March 12, 2007

Timika, Papua --- The Papua provincial administration will build a
satellite telecommunication station in Biak, Biak Numfor regency, to
improve communications in isolated

areas.

Papua Vice Governor Alex Hesegem said in Timika that improvement in the
telecommunications sector would enable Papuans to communicate with the
outside world.

Hesegem said the plan, a top priority in the administration's five-point
development program, would be completed within the next five years.

He said the administration had invited people who were interested in
investing in Papua to join the project. The administration will set aside
funds for the project from its

annual budget.

"The administration needs to work hard to realize this project. It will be
directly overseen by Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu. We are positive about
the satellite station

because Papuans have already realized the importance of sophisticated
telecommunications technology," said Hesegem.

Date Posted: 3/12/2007

---

http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=30748

Radio New Zealand International

The Voice of New Zealand, Broadcasting to the Pacific

Te Reo Irirangi O Aotearoa, O Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa

Clashing Papua clans asked to make peace

Posted at 01:54 on 14 March, 2007 UTC

Police in Indonesia’s Papua region are working to persuade two quarrelling
tribes in a remote part of Paniai to end their bloody clash, in which nine
people have been killed

and dozens of others wounded.

The Jakarta Post quotes police spokesman, commander Kartono
Wangsadisastra, saying that traditional approaches have been used to nudge
the fighting Sani and

Kobogau groups toward a peace deal.

However, commander Kartono says the efforts have been hindered by the fact
that several noted figures from the Kobogau tribe do not want peace.

He says the reason is that the number of casualties from their tribe is
still bigger than at the Sani tribe, with five dead from the Kobogau tribe
to the Sani’s four.

Commander Kartono says there is no need to deploy more security officers
to the area because existing officers have at this stage succeeded in
separating the two

opposing clans and preventing them from continuing their war.

He says that those provoking the war would still be subject to the legal
process.

---

http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=30704

Radio New Zealand International

The Voice of New Zealand, Broadcasting to the Pacific

Te Reo Irirangi O Aotearoa, O Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa

Nine people die during long running dispute between two Papua clans

Posted at 22:30 on 12 March, 2007 UTC

Indonesian police say nine people have been killed and hundreds of others
injured during continuing inter-clan fighting in a remote part of Papua
province

The Jakarta Post newspaper quotes the Sugapa distirct deputy police chief,
Brig. Gen. Max D Aer, as saying the violence, in Yoparu village, was
sparked by the death of a

local teacher.

The man’s family, who are from the Sani clan, believed he had been
poisoned by members of the Kobogau clan.

The Sani clan then demanded the traditional penalty of a "head for a head".

That demand was rejected and the violence began on Jan. 21st..

Police negotiated an end to the hostilities in early February but fighting
broke out again on the 26th and has continued since.

Four of the nine dead were from the Sani clan.

Five members of the Kobogau clan have died in the violence.

---

http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2007/03_14-50/CAN

Lost World' scientist at Quiet Waters : New species uncovered in New Guinea
By E.B. FURGURSON III, Staff Writer

It's like Indiana Jones meets the "Lost World," only better, because it's
true.

The Maryland scientist who led an expedition into the jungles of New
Guinea and discovered several new species of plants and animals is coming
to Annapolis tomorrow

evening to talk about the trip and his plans to return this year.

Ornithologist Bruce Beehler, who led a team of a dozen American,
Australian, Dutch and Indonesian scientists into the mist-cloaked Foja
Mountains in 2005, will share

photographic evidence of the new species of flora and fauna recorded on
the trip at the event sponsored by the Anne Arundel Bird Club.

The club's annual Richard E. Heise Jr. and Quiet Waters Park Annual
Lecture will be at 8 p.m. in the Great Blue Heron Room.

The remote area Mr. Beehler explored covers some 2-million acres of old
growth tropical forest, with no trails or other signs of human impact, in
the Indonesian province of

Papua on the island of Papua New Guinea.

Mr. Beehler first conceived the expedition back in 1987 when he flew over
the area during an earlier trip to New Guinea and spotted a clear area in
the jungle. After 19

years of planning, he and his team were dropped by helicopter into that
boggy area for their month-long mission of discovery.

And what a trip it was. In that time, he saw things few humans have ever
seen.

The expedition found 20 new species of frogs, four butterflies, five new
palm trees and several species of flowers.

Just minutes after the team's landing they saw a new species, the Wattled
Smokey Honeyeater, a bird marked by a bright orange face patch.

They also found the largest rhododendron flower on record and atiny frog
no more than a half-inch long.

The group observed a few species believed to have been hunted to near
extinction - including a primitive egg-laying mammal, the Long-Beaked
Echidna, and a Golden-

Mantled Tree Kangaroo - previously thought to inhabit only a single
mountain in neighboring New Guinea.

Former state senator and conservationist Gerald Winegrad, also program
chair of the bird club, has known Mr. Beehler more than 10 years.

"The area they went to was so remote they took guides from two different
tribes with them," he said. "The tribesmen had never seen these critters,
but told stories their

grandfathers used to tell about them."

Mr. Beehler, is on the staff of Conservation International an organization
working to preserve global biodiversity and also is vice president of the
Melanesia Center for

Biodiversity Conservation & Pacific Islands. He was in Australia earlier
this week and could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Beehler has described the area as the closest thing to the Garden of
Eden found on the planet.

In an interview with National Public Radio last year he recalled finding
two of the species documented by the team.

One was Berlepsch's Six-Wired Bird of Paradise, first recorded more 100
years ago but assumed lost to science since.

"On our second day we were eating lunch, when we heard a strange sound
like a bird of paradise," he said. "And on the path at the entrance to our
camp a male and

female Six-Wired Bird of Paradise appeared. And the male started to do a
display. It is a bird we have never seen."

The other he described as the most bizarre animal on earth, the echidna.

"It is like an overweight cross between a hedgehog and a porcupine, but
with a long nose like an aardvark for digging out insects," he said.

Though it is a mammal, it lays eggs. "It is one of three to six species of
mammal that lays eggs," he added.

Mr. Beehler is supposed to head back to the area with a crew from CBS's
"60 Minutes" to record the breakthrough species on video tape.

"People will get a kick out of this, it is just amazing," Mr. Winegrad said.

---

http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=30654

Radio New Zealand International

The Voice of New Zealand, Broadcasting to the Pacific

Te Reo Irirangi O Aotearoa, O Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa

Papua students say autonomy causes graft

Posted at 04:11 on 09 March, 2007 UTC

A student activist in Papua says the establishment of autonomous regencies
and provinces in the Indonesian province is designed to serve the
interests of the political elite.

The Jakarta Post reports that the head of the Indonesian Central Papua
Highland Alliance, Markus Haluk, made the comment while addressing a crowd
of 200 students at

the Papua gubernatorial office.

He told the throng that Autonomous regions will only enrich a certain
group of people and lead to greater corruption.

According to Mr Haluk, the political elite and government officials are
the ones who favour the creation of more autonomous regions.

Six areas in Papua have so far petitioned the central government for
autonomous status.

Mr Haluk says that the creation of autonomous regions would also lead to
human rights violations and environmental destruction by investors
exploiting an area’s natural

wealth.

---

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/03/14/ap3516138.html?partner=alerts

Associated Press
Shareholders OK Freeport-Phelps Deal
By ALAN SAYRE 03.14.07, 1:57 PM ET

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.'s $25.9 billion cash-and-stock
acquisition of rival Phelps Dodge Corp. was approved Wednesday by
shareholders of both

companies. The deal would create the world's largest publicly traded
copper company.

In separate votes by shareholders of New Orleans-based Freeport and
Phoenix-based Phelps Dodge, the buyout was approved by about 98 percent of
the votes cast, the

companies said in a joint statement.

Phelps Dodge shareholders will receive $88 in cash, or a total of $18
billion, and 0.67 percent of a share of Freeport's common stock for each
Phelps Dodge share - the

equivalent of $125.53, based on Freeport's closing price on Tuesday.

The deal is expected to close March 19, the companies said.

"This is an exciting time for our company as we transform FCX into the
world's largest publicly traded copper producer," said Richard Adkerson,
Freeport's president and

chief executive officer.

---

http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20070313.G12

Papua nature reserves in danger

National News - March 13, 2007

JAYAPURA, Papua: The future of nature conservation water catchment areas
in the Papuan cities of Jayapura and Sentani is under threat from rampant
illegal logging.

4,330 people have illegally settled in the conservation areas -- known as
Cycloop -- thanks to lax government control.

"These people have illegally felled trees and developed farming," Jayapura
Regent Habel Melkias Suwae said. He said human settlement of the area was
limiting its

effectiveness as a water catchment.

Habel explained out of the 22,500 hectares earmarked for nature
conservation in the area, 9,374 hectares have been classified as 'critical
land'.

Illegal logging in the conservation areas has caused landslides in three
locations and caused flooding in parts of Sentani, Habel said.

He said the government's ban on people living in the conservation areas
was not being heeded. "They claim the land belongs to them so that they
feel they can do as they

like. But when their activities cause flooding, it is the local
administration which is to blame," he said.

Relocating conservation area residents was not an easy job, Habel said, as
residents had to be provided with new land in resettlement areas. -- JP

---

http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20070313.G07

Asmat carvings fuel education

National News - March 13, 2007

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura

The price of an Asmat wood carving can vary dramatically depending on
circumstances.

An Asmat woodcarving can fetch tens of millions of rupiah during auctions
held at the annual Asmat Cultural Festival. Purchasers are usually foreign
collectors and tourists.

However, Asmat students studying in Jayapura need money to finance their
studies and often sell pieces for as low as Rp 30,000 (US$3.30).

Fifteen Asmat students staying in Waena have built a modest hut on a plot
of land owned by a Toraja resident, functioning as accommodation as well
as a workshop to

produce carvings.

They usually carve pieces of art in the afternoon after returning from
campus. Their work area has a clay floor and a thatched roof.

"This hut has produced 50 graduates from the profits of selling wood
carvings," said Tinus Ir, a final-year law student at the Unmel Mandiri
Institute in Jayapura.

Tinus lives with 14 other students in the hut which has not had
electricity since it was built in 1999. The stilt hut consists of three
bedrooms with walls made of sago trunks.

The kitchen is located at the rear of the hut.

The students use kerosene lamps or candles to study at night.

They realize that when funds run low, the time has come to sell their
carvings at cheap prices. "It is better to sell our work cheap rather than
not have money to eat or for

transportation to campus," said Kaletus Paulus Sein, who recently
completed his studies at the Law School at the same university.

Students usually charge between Rp 200,000 and Rp 350,000 per carving to
art traders at the Hamadi market in Jayapura, who later sell them to
tourists for at least Rp

500,000.

The students buy materials such as wooden panels and beams for Rp 350,000
per cubic meter, which is enough to make between 10 and 20 items depending
on size.

The wood carvings produced by the students are of a high quality and are
as good as those crafted by their parents.

The students are generally self-taught in the art. "I used to watch my
father produce wood carvings when I was young and I acquired the skill
naturally," said Kaletus.

Tinus acquired the skill after becoming a student. However, his products
are still of a high quality. "I learned the skill when I started
university and I am able to sell my works

now," he said.

The art of Asmat wood carving has become a tradition and a necessity for
many Asmat students paying for their own studies in Jayapura.

They can produce dozens of carvings each month. It is unfortunate that
many pieces are sold at low prices considering the world-renowned status
of Asmat carvings.

However, for the sake of their studies, the students see this as no big deal.

"One day we hope to open an art shop or gallery to exhibit the works of
Asmat students so that tourists will no longer buy carvings from second or
third parties but directly

from us," said Kaletus.

---

http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20070313.G05

Clashing Papua clans asked to make peace

National News - March 13, 2007

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura

Police are attempting to persuade two quarreling tribes in Yoparu village,
Paniai, Papua, to end their bloody clash, in which nine people have been
killed and dozens of

others wounded.

Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Kartono Wangsadisastra said Monday that
traditional approaches had been used to nudge the two groups toward a
peace deal.

However, the efforts have been hindered by the fact that several noted
figures from the Kobogau tribe do not want peace, Kartono said.

"The reason is that the number of casualties from their tribe is still
bigger than at the Sani tribe," Kartono said. There are five dead from the
Kobogau tribe and four from the

Sani.

Papua Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Max D Aer said Sunday that the
violence was sparked by the death of a local teacher named Hendrikus, 30.

The man's family, who are from the Sani clan, believed Hendrikus was
poisoned by members of the Kobogau clan, Max said. The Sani then demanded
the traditional

penalty of "a head for a head". When the demand was turned down, the
violence erupted.

Kartono said there was no need to deploy more security officers to the
site, because existing officers had succeeded in separating the two
opposing tribes and preventing

them from continuing their war.

"There are no more clashes at present ... the officers are busy persuading
them to begin peace negotiations," he said, adding that the efforts were
personally led by Paniai

police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Anthon Diance.

Kartono further explained that the Yoparu violence was not a tribal war,
but simply a clash between two clans.

He said despite the persuasive measures, those provoking the war would
still be subject to the legal process.

---

http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20070312.A05

Tribal violence in Papua leaves nine dead

National News - March 12, 2007

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura

Nine people have been killed and hundreds of others injured in tribal
violence in Sugapa district in Paniai regency, Papua, the provincial
deputy police chief said Sunday.

Brig. Gen. Max D Aer said the violence, which has been focused in Yoparu
village, was sparked by the death of a local teacher named Hendrikus Sani,
30.

The man's family, who are from the Sani clan, believed Hendrikus was
poisoned, using a substance called Minaba, by members of the Kobogau clan.

The Sani clan then demanded the traditional penalty of a "head for a
head". That demand was rejected and the violence began on Jan. 21.

Police in Sugapa, with the help of traditional and religious leaders, were
able to get the two clans to agree to end the hostilities on Feb. 8, Max
said.

However, that agreement lasted only until Feb. 26 when members of the two
clans fought each other with bows and arrows and knives. The violence has
since continued

despite the efforts of authorities.

On March 3, an officer with the Sugapa Police, Second Brig. Yafet Turembi,
was shot by an arrow, Max said.

The officer survived the injury and was transported to Nabire Hospital in
Nabire for treatment.

Four of the nine dead were from the Sani clan. They have been identified
as Hendrikus Sani, 30; Yan Sani, 30; Rafael Sani, 35; and Niko Sani, 50.
Another 20 members of

the clan were seriously wounded in the fighting, and another 30 suffered
minor injuries.

Five members of the Kobogau clan have died in the violence. They are
Alfons Kobogau, 36; Herman Kobogau, 11; Enos Jegeseni, 28; Boka Kobogau,
38; and Daniel

Kobogau, 40. Twelve clan members suffered serious injuries and 92 minor
injuries.

Max said Paniai Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Anthon Diance had traveled to
the area to encourage the two sides to end the violence.

Yoparu is far from the nearest police station and the village can only be
reached by foot. Communication between the village and the outside is
difficult, so Max was unable

to provide more detailed information on the clashes.

---

http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20070312.G08

Papua to build satellite station

National News - March 12, 2007

TIMIKA, Papua: The Papua provincial administration will build a satellite
telecommunication station in Biak, Biak Numfor regency, to improve
communications in isolated

areas.

Papua Vice Governor Alex Hesegem said in Timika that improvement in the
telecommunications sector would enable Papuans to communicate with the
outside world.

Hesegem said the plan, a top priority in the administration's five-point
development program, would be completed within the next five years.

He said the administration had invited people who were interested in
investing in Papua to join the project. The administration will set aside
funds for the project from its

annual budget.

"The administration needs to work hard to realize this project. It will be
directly overseen by Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu. We are positive about
the satellite station

because Papuans have already realized the importance of sophisticated
telecommunications technology," said Hesegem. -- JP

---

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2007/s1868188.htm

Scientists make breakthrough in treatment of drug resistant malaria

PM - Friday, 9 March , 2007  18:38:00
Reporter: Jennifer Macey
MARK COLVIN: Australian scientists have made a breakthrough in the
treatment of a drug-resistant strain of malaria in the Asia-Pacific
region.

The scientists from the Menzies School of Health Research in Darwin did
trials of two different anti-malarial drugs. They tested them on more than
700 people in the

Indonesian province of Papua.

They found that both drugs were successful in treating the effects of
malaria but one stayed in the bloodstream longer and protected the patient
from reinfection.

Jennifer Macey reports.

JENNIFER MACEY: The less virulent strain of malaria, vivax, is widespread
throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

But like the falciparum strain, which is the main killer of children in
Africa, vivax is becoming increasingly resistant to malaria drugs.

Dr Ric Price is a senior researcher at the Menzies School of Health
Research in Darwin.

RIC PRICE: Forty per cent of the world's population are actually at risk
of vivax and there are over 250-million cases per year each year in Asia
and the Asia-Pacific rim.

One of the main problems with vivax is that this has now become resistant
to the normal treatment, which is chloroquine, and this has mainly arisen
in Papua and Papua

New Guinea just to the north of Australia.

JENNIFER MACEY: In collaboration with the Indonesian Government, the
Australian researchers conducted drug trials in the Indonesian province of
West Papua.

RIC PRICE: We conducted a study in Papua with 774 people, comparing these
two drugs and we found that the new treatment was significantly better
than the one

currently available in Australia.

It reduced the number of people who came back within six weeks with a
recurrence of malaria and this reduced in itself the secondary effects of
anaemia.

So, it has a major advantage, particularly in malaria-endemic countries,
where people are exposed to repeated infections.

JENNIFER MACEY: Dr Eva-Maria Christophel is the malaria specialist with
the World Health Organisation for the Western Pacific Region. She says
vivax malaria can

cause relapse within weeks, particularly in Pacific countries.

EVA-MARIA CHRISTOPHEL: And vivax has the additional issue that because of
the relapses of parasites, which can remain in the body, in the liver,
that internally their

relapse is started.

The Pacific knows a certain strain of this vivax parasite, which makes
early relapses.

JENNIFER MACEY: The World Health Organisation now recommends that the more
deadly strain of malaria is treated with a combination of drugs that
includes a derivative

of the Chinese herbal medicine, artemisinin.

The WHO's Dr Christophel says this artemisinin combination therapy, or
ACT, is primarily aimed for African countries where there's widespread
resistance to anti-malarial

drugs.

EVA-MARIA CHRISTOPHEL: It's more expensive and I mean if you think that,
it depends which country you are, but I mean primaquine on the
international market costs

per treatment 10 US cents, while the cheapest artemisinin-based
combination therapy regime you have costs $1 something.

So, there is a huge price difference. So, normally you do not recommend
ACTs for treatment of vivax malaria normally.

The only argument you use, or the major argument is resistance. And we
don't see really, in most of the countries, we do not see chloroquine
resistance of vivax except

some countries of the Pacific, like PNG.

JENNIFER MACEY: But Dr Ric Price says the vivax strain is growing in
resistance in the Asia Pacific and costs developing countries tens of
billion of dollars a year.

RIC PRICE: Left untreated, about 40, half the people who have malaria in
this region will get malaria again within two months.

And so, if you ask someone "When do you want your next bout of malaria?"
you want it as long a way as possible.

The new drug will actually give you a malaria-free holiday for six weeks
and will actually protect you for a longer period of time.

JENNIFER MACEY: The treatment is currently available in China and Vietnam
and is being rolled out in West Papua, where over 50,000 people have been
successfully

treated.

But at $1 a treatment, it's still prohibitively expensive for many in the
Asia-Pacific region.

MARK COLVIN: Jennifer Macey.

---

http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Politics&loid=8.0.393541178&par=0

INDONESIA: WE ARE VICTIMS OF GENOCIDE, SAYS PAPUAN LEADER

Jakarta, 9 March (AKI) - A leader of the movement for independence of the
Indonesian province of Papua has said that the Papuan people are in danger
of being wiped

out because of Indonesian rule. "We are at risk of genocide," said Benny
Wenda, a Papuan independence leader in an interview with Adnkronos
International (AKI) from

Britain where he lives in exile. "I fear that in 30 years the Melanesian
race will be wiped off Papua. The international community must force
Indonesia to stop its military

operation and leave Papua," he said.

Papua is the eastern most province of the Indonesian archipelago. Papua,
formerly known as Irian Jaya, has been a scene of secessionist violence
since Dutch colonial

rule formally ended in 1962 and Indonesia formally took control after a
referendum conducted in 1969.

The pro-independence movement - mostly peaceful and led by activists and
religious leaders - calls for historical reassessment and a new
referendum. According to some

estimates, some 20,000 to 100,000 people in the province have been victim
of abuse by the Indonesian military. The Indonesian government does not
allow foreign

journalists and human rights organisations to enter the province.

The Reverand Socrates Sofyan Yoman, leader of the Baptist church of Papua,
said that the risk of "genocide" also comes with the flow of immigrants
that continue to arrive

from other parts of Indonesia.

"Genocide is also seeing our culture and religion disappearing with the
arrival of migrants," the religious leader told AKI.

The Papuans are made up of 312 tribes of ethnic Melanesian people and
Christians are a majority among the populations. The immigrants from other
parts of Indonesia are

of various ethnicities and are mainly Muslim.

At the time that Jakarta took over control of the province, Papuans made
up almost the entire population. Today, it is estimated that they only
account for half of the

population.

Up until 2000, Jakarta had imposed a programme of internal migration,
aimed at bringing those from more populated provinces such as Bali and
Java, to Papua and other

less populated islands. Today, voluntary migration continues.

Neles Tebay, a Catholic priest and local accademic said that the presence
of immigrants is evident everywhere.

"There are mosques at every corner. Migrants are by far the majority in
the main cities of the region," Tebay told AKI.

A 2003 study conducted by Yale University, said that the migratory flow of
people towards Papua could be considered "an act of genocide".

The Indonesian government has denied these accusations. Jakarta has said
that with respect to human rights, the situation in Papua has
significantly improved in the last

few years and that the desire for independence is not shared by most in
the population. The government also said that the provinces in the Papua
region - Papua and West

Irian Jaya - are ruled by Papuans, as stipulated by a special statute
giving these area provincial autonomy in 2001.

The government also said that in Indonesia, citizens can move freely from
one island to another.

---