Mela Arnani – Every year February 9 is commemorated as National Press Day which, it is hoped, will be an impetus to improve press freedom in Indonesia.

Jakarta – West Papua National Committee (KNPB) spokesperson Ones Suhuniap says that security forces arrested 132 people during the commemoration of International Human Rights Day in West Papua on Tuesday December 10. Ninety people were arrested in Timika and another 42 in Merauke.

Bastian Tebai, Semarang – The Papuan Student Alliance (AMP) and the Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-WP) have called on all Papuan students through their city committees in Java and Bali to declare that the 1962 New York Agreement was illegal.

Ramadhan, Winna Wijaya, Jakarta – On December 1 several groups held protest actions commemorating the declaration of West Papua’s independence and the anniversary of the Free Papua Movement (OPM).

Indonesian youth and Papuan students have protested in several cities condemning the fatal shootings in Deiyai, West Papua. The Deiyai shootings occurred on August 1 when a joint unit of Mobile Brigade (Brimob) paramilitary police shot into a crowed of civilians in Oneibo village, South Tigi, Deiyai.

Mehulika Sitepu, Indonesia – Police used water cannons to disperse a rally by Papuan near the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta on Thursday December 1.

Surya Anta – Increasingly broad mobilisations by the Papuan people in recent years shows that there must be a new assessment of West Papuan as an entity. An entity that should be, must be, recognised as a nation.

Arnold Belau, Jayapura – The Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) reports that 63 people have been arrested over the last nine days in West Papua. Most of those arrested are activists from the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) and the Regional People Parliament (PRD).

Arnold Belau, Jayapura – The West Papua National Committee (KNPB) reports that on April 12 district police arrested 15 KNPB activists and vandalised the KNPB secretariat in Kaimana district, West Papua.

Jayapura – The call by the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) chairperson to boycott the July 9 presidential election in Papua has become a threat for Indonesia and West Papua.

Jakarta – The Australian government does not have the authority to stop its citizen from sailing out of Australian ports as long as it is legal. However Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr confirmed that the Indonesian government has the authority to deal with the matter if the ships enter Indonesia illegally.

Yogyakarta – Hundreds of demonstrators from the Papua Student Alliance (AMP) in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta held a peaceful action and free speech forum today, Monday July 15.

Jakarta – Economic growth, which reached 6.4 percent in the second quarter of 2012, is largely being enjoyed by the middle- and upper-class, because it is not quality growth.

Jayapura – A number of political parties in Papua have established a tariff for anyone wishing to nominate themselves as a regent, deputy-regent, mayor or deputy-mayor. The provision is an internal party matter so the amount of the tariff will vary, as there are no precise regulations on the illegal collection of money by political parties.

On Saturday April 25, hundreds of people from the Liberation Front against the Oppression of Papua (Front Pembebasan Penindasan Papua, FP3) went to the Papuan Provisional Parliament in the provincial capital of Jayapura where they held an action calling for a resolution to the human rights violations in Wamena and Wasior.

Jakarta, Kompas – Even though Aceh problem has yet to be resolved, the Indonesian military (TNI) is now categorising the province of Papua as a trouble spot [because of efforts] to separate the province from the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.

Jakarta -– The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) has formed a Human Rights Investigation Team in [West] Papua.