fPcN interCultural:

friends of Peoples close to Nature

(some names and data are replaced with XXX for security reasons!)
I just wanted to send through a quick update on the situation in West Papua. I just arrived after spending the last 8 weeks (November and December 2008) there making an undercover documentary with a friend. We managed to smuggle alot of very powerful video footage out of the country, and come back with a very strong message from the people of West Papua - their desire for freedom and readiness to act by whichever means to achieve it is burning more brightly now than at anytime in recent history. Below is a brief summary of our trip and our time at an OPM (the West Papuan guerilla force) training camp in the XXX region.

At the 'car wash'...modernity and traditional culture collide in the Baliem Valley.

The "car wash" in the remote Baliem Valley of Indonesia's Papua region is not as innocent as it seems at first glance, and just decades ago anything like it would have been inconceivable.

A fertile basin gouged out of jagged mountains, the valley has been in contact with the outside world only since the end of World War II. Everything, from clothing to metal, money and medicine is new here.

At the "car wash" on a quiet intersection in Wamena town, homeless men and boys from the villages squat by the roadside in the midday sun, drinking and waiting for cars and motorcycles to roll up.

Washing the cars brings in some money, but the real money comes from sex with the drivers. Seeing a camera, the workers point and laugh at friends lying drunk and unconscious on the ground.

This is the 55th in a series of monthly reports that focus on developments affecting Papuans. This series is produced by the non-profit West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) drawing on media accounts, other NGO assessments, and analysis and reporting from sources within West Papua. This report is co-published with the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) Back issues are posted online at http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm Questions regarding this report can be addressed to Edmund McWilliams at edmcw@msn.com.

Contents:
* Thousands of Papuans Demonstrate Peacefully, Calling for Independence
* Papuan Academics call for a Human Rights Court and Reconciliation Commission for West Papua
* Papuans Peacefully Demonstrate against Militarism
* Secession Threats Raised in West Papua and Elsewhere over Passage of Islamic Law-Based Legislation
* Papuan Governor Suebu to Launch Anti-HIV/AIDS Campaign as the Disease Spreads Explosively in West Papua
* Papuan Governor Suebu Describes "Special Autonomy" Implementation as "Chaotic"
* National Seminar Discusses "Marginalization" of Papuans; Racism Cited as An Underlying Cause

ETAN Responds to the Wall Street Journal

by John M. Miller (National Coordinator, ETAN)

A recent Wall Street Journal Asia editorial urged its readers to watch the “low-profile” but important issue of the U. S. military relationship with Indonesia. The Journal (“Obama's Indonesia Test,” Nov. 20) repeated the widely-discredited case that re-engagement with the largely-unreformed and unrepentant Indonesian military was the best way to promote reform and human rights. It called on President-elect Barack Obama “to stand down liberal Senators and interest groups” like the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) and Amnesty International for seeking conditions on military assistance to Indonesia.

The editorial acknowledges the obvious, stating “Indonesia's military has certainly had human-rights problems in the past,” but urges the incoming administration to forget about them in the name of building an alliance on the “global war on terror.” We have certainly seen what ignoring international human rights concerns during the Bush years has accomplished (Guantanamo, torture, “extraordinary rendition,” etc…).

This is the 54th in a series of monthly reports that focus on developments affecting Papuans This series is produced by the non-profit West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) drawing on media accounts, other NGO assessments and analysis and reporting from sources within West Papua. This report is co-published by the East Timor and Indonesian Action Network (ETAN) Back issues are posted online at http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm Questions regarding this report can be addressed to Edmund McWilliams at edmcw@msn.com.

Summary:
* International Parliamentarian Group (IPWP) Concerned about West Papua Convenes in London
* Peaceful Papuans Beaten, Detained for Welcoming Launch of IPWP; Indonesian Parliamentarians Protest Launch
* Papuan Religious Leaders Call for Dialogue between Papuans and Jakarta over Fraudulent 1969 "Act of Free Choice"
* Greenpeace Calls for Moratorium on Logging in West Papua*
* The Failure of TNI "Reform"
* U.S. Academic Testimony to US Congress Regarding Impact of Freeport Operations on The Papuan People

ress Release: for immediate release & circulation
INTERNATIONAL PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR WEST PAPUA

At the Houses of Commons, London on 15th October 2008 at 3pm, will be the launch event for a historical international gathering of Parliamentarians, in support of self determination for the native people of West Papua.

Exiled West Papuan independence leader Benny Wenda will be joined by Melanesians & Parliamentarians from across the world for the launch of 'International Parliamentarians for West Papua'.

Please assemble in Parliament Square for 2pm.

The Lani Singers will be special guests on BBC Radio 3 this Saturday 27th September, when they make an appearance on the World Routes show.
Deeply emotive and compelling, their songs are rooted in the sacred rituals of the Lani tribe – a tribe whose way of living has remained largely unchanged since the Stone Age. But their music has also come to embody a powerful modern day message - the struggle that their fellow people endure under a brutal and illegal Indonesian occupation.

Two hundred and ninety one Papuan tribal people have died from cholera since April this year in West Papua, Indonesia, according to local church officials, sparking fears of a major epidemic.

In 1961, a global cholera pandemic began in Indonesia. It spread rapidly to other countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and finally, in 1991, to Latin America. There were nearly 400,000 cases and over 4,000 deaths from cholera in the Americas that year.

This is the 52st in a series of monthly reports that focus on developments affecting Papuans This series is produced by the non-profit West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) drawing on media accounts, other NGO assessments and analysis and reporting from sources within West Papua. This report is co-published by the East Timor and Indonesian Action Network (ETAN) Back issues are posted online at http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm Questions regarding this report can be addressed to Edmund McWilliams at edmcw@msn.com.

Summary:
* 40 Members of US Congress Force Look at Justice in West Papua in the Cases of AI Prisoners of Conscience Filip Kamra and Yusuf Pakage
* New Report Reveals Evidence of TNI Role in 2002 Murder of U. S. and Indonesian Civilians and US Government Cover-up
* Indicted War Criminal Removed from Post in West Papua... and Promoted
* Police Killing of Peaceful Papuan Protester Draws International Protest and Calls for Investigation
* Human Rights Victims' Families in West Papua Meet to Discuss Absence of Justice
* Papuan Tribal Chief to Sue Freeport over Environmental Pollution
* US Court Action Regarding Exxon-Mobil Collusion with TNI Could Expose Freeport to Court Action in U. S.
* UK Environmental Justice Urges UK Government to Press for Ecological Justice and Human Rights Protection in West Papua
* Local Papuan Community Points to Central Government's Violation of "Special Autonomy" in Awarding Mining Contracts

This is the 51st in a series of monthly reports that focus on developments affecting Papuans. This series is produced by the non-profit West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) drawing on media accounts, other NGO assessments and analysis and reporting from sources within West Papua. This report is co-published by the East Timor and Indonesian Action Network (ETAN) Back issues are posted online at http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm Questions regarding this report can be addressed to Edmund McWilliams at edmcw@msn.com .

SUMMARY:
*A Respected International Medical Officer Describes Inadequate Health Care and Migration as Likely to Make Papuans a Minority in Their Own Land by 2011
*International Community Calls for Release of Peaceful Papuans Demonstrators Beaten and Arrested by the Police
* World Council of Churches Say Papuans Traumatized and Subject to Militarization
*A WPAT Member Who Visited the Tailings Wasteland Created by Freeport-McMoran Mine Rebuts the Operation's Propaganda about Successful "Reclamation" Efforts"
*A WPAT Alum Writes about the Need to Ensure a Role for Local Communities in Advocacy for the Environment
*Papuans Call for Halt on Development Schemes until Papuans Obtain Rights to Consider their Impact
*Forestry Firms Provide Little to Local Papuan Communities as They Destroy West Papua's Natural Resources
*Indonesian National Human Rights Commission to Investigate Abuses in West Papua Despite Government Opposition