Season’s Greetings

Whatever is breath-taking. Whatever has meaning. Whatever brings you cheerfulness.

May it be yours this Christmas season and throughout the next year.

Office of Free West Papua

No secret in West Papua

Thanks to the press in Indonesia, now the world can see the transparency in West Papua. No more secret, and no more hidden agenda. Both hardliners, Free Papua Movement and Indonesian Military can not hide any of their actions from the world eyes.

Democracy offers two different perspectives for Indonesian citizens. At national level, the majority of Indonesia agrees to continue the secular state model and starts a new era of nations building by introducing regional autonomy, which is practically a federal model of Indonesia. Some small Islamic groups however see an opportunity to create theocratic state model by a simple argument of the fact that the majority are Muslim. At local level, the regional autonomy can be interpreted as decentralization process of government, but at the same times some provinces see an opportunity to create a new state by simple argument of the right of determining their own future. Rich provinces such as East Kalimantan, Riau, Bali, Papua, West Papua, Aceh are among provinces that has voice for independence.

Honesty is always the best policy

A comment from Chris on my previous article about Benny Wenda’s lies to British people is very important for all Papuan to realise that honesty is always the best policy. In one side, we should not denied the positive development after the 1998 Indonesian reform, and we could not denied the improvement of special autonomy since 2001. On the other side, we should stand together with our brothers from Mollucas, Sulawesi, NTT, Java, Kalimantan, Bali, and Sumatera to stop any violence from both sides the OPM (Free Papua Organization) and military. We should keep our dream alive, to create the prosperous peaceful land of Papua.

My main argument is never ignoring the fact that there are some serious human rights problems in Papua and West Papua provinces. Why am I accusing  Benny Wenda telling lies to British people is simply based on fact that he keep saying the worst thing that rarely occur in West Papua and Papua provinces. I am happy that Chris did indeed visit Papua and he said that Papua is fairly safe.

West Papua – asylum seekers and lessons from their existence in UK

The current Indonesian government has done a very good job in advancing democracy and human rights. However, we should also understand that in the country face of some very difficult challenges. But regardless of how difficult the challenges facing the Indonesian administration are, the stark fact still remains that there are human rights abuses continuing to be inflicted on West Papuans by some in the Indonesian military.

One of the victims of human rights abuses is Benny Wenda and his family who become asylum seekers in UK. It is understandable that Benny wenda was hurt so bad by Indonesian security aparatus. But who didn’t get hurt in the militaristic government of Indonesia before the reform era? Most Indonesian were lived underpressure, many of which suffered human rights abuses. But now change has come, I would say, Indonesia for about ten years 1998-2008 is under the era of transition to fully democratic. The transition by the reform program is reaching the possible peak that Indonesia could touch.

West Papua NGO denies coercion claims over refugees’ return to Indonesia

Posted at 03:32 on 01 December, 2008 UTC by RZNI

The Vanuatu spokesman for the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation, Andy Ayamiseba, has denied claims that two West Papuan refugees were coerced into returning home from Australia.

Two of the group of 43 Papua asylum seekers who fled to Australia in 2006, Yunus Wainggai and his daughter Anike, returned home late last week.

West Papua: Land of Peace

The West Papua: Land of Peace campaign was initiated by religious leaders in West Papua to help promote peace, justice and human rights in West Papua.

West Papua is situated 250kms north of Australia. The eastern half of the island is the independent state of New Guinea. In recent years the western half of the island has been know variously as Irian Jaya (the Indonesian term for the territory), West Papua or simply Papua.