David Robie also blogs at Café Pacific: A veteran journalist known for covering rights abuses in Indonesia’s militarised Papua region says a bomb exploded outside his home yesterday and a journalists group has called it an act of “intimidation” threatening press freedom.
A tragic day of mourning. Thousands thronged the West Papuan funeral cortège for human rights leader Filep Karma as the banned Morning Star led the way in defiance of the Indonesian military.
Where were the hard media questions in Suva — whether “western or Pacific-style” — about West Papua and Indonesian human rights abuses against a Melanesian neighbour? Surely here was a prime case in favour of doorstopping with a fresh outbreak of violations by Indonesian security forces – an estimated 21,000 troops are now deployed in Papua and West Papua provinces — in the news coinciding with the Forum unfolding last week.
The Pacific year has closed with growing tensions over sovereignty and self-determination issues and growing stress over the ravages of covid-19 pandemic in a region that was largely virus-free in 2020.
From Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau in Aotearoa New Zealand to Paris, France, and from Wellington Te Whanganui-a-Tara to Jayapura and far beyond, thousands of people across the world today raised the Morning Star flag — banned by Indonesian authorities — in simple acts of defiance and solidarity with West Papuans.
A Frontline investigative journalism article on the politics behind the decade-long Bougainville war leading up to the overwhelming vote for independence is among articles in the latest Pacific Journalism Review. The journal also features ground-breaking research on the current state of journalism across the Pacific
Just three months ago I wrote about this issue in my “Dear editor” article exposing the disinformation campaign. There was silence for a while but now the fake letters to the editor – and other media outlets – have started again in earnest.
Yamin Kogoya: “These crimes against Papuans hardly get resolved, and perpetrators walk free while victims get punished. This inhumane treatment brings to mind the tragic killing of George Floyd.”
TAPOL is still today very much as Carmel Budiardjo set it up — a small organisation/network of committed staff, volunteers and collaborators, all aiming for a big impact on human rights issues for Aceh, Indonesia and West Papua.
A West Papuan envoy who was gagged while addressing the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues two years ago has been blocked again while trying to speak out.