Preserving Papua`s Culture Through Lake Sentani Festival

Indonesia`s easternmost province of Papua will this year again organize a Lake Sentani Festival (FDS in a bid to preserve its unique and traditional arts.

The land of “Cendrawasih” (Bird of Paradise) is really blessed with an abundance of natural resources and unparalleled culture and traditional arts that have to be maintained.

Merpati plane crash in West Papua

Bad weather likely caused plane crash: Minister

Dina indrasafitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sun, 05/08/2011 9:30 AM | National

Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi said on Saturday that the crash of a Merpati plane in West Papua on Saturday was more likely caused by bad weather rather than technical glitches.

“Even if the plane is new, it’s no guarantee [that the flight will be accident free],” he said in Jakarta.

West Papua is a land of song

As an integral part of Indonesia and just like other islands in Indonesia, West Papua is a land of song . With more than 300 hundreds of different languages, biodiversity and creative arts, the land is sometimes called the Bird of Paradise. Christian missionaries disapproved of Papuan folk music throughout the colonial period of the country’s history. Even after independence, the outside world knew little of the diverse peoples’ traditional music genres. The first commercial release to see an international audience didn’t occur until 1991 (see 1991 in music), when Mickey Hart’s Voices of the Rainforest was released. Indonesian government is very supportive to creative arts and music to its people, however the political conflict in West Papua has brought a very distressful situation for musician, especially when their soul of song related to social and political critics to the New Order government. Most Indonesian musician who actively criticise the government are repressed

Today Indonesia is democracy, West Papua just like Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Lampung, Sumatra, and many other provinces can strongly build itself a s a land of song.

Sadly, some opportunist idler like Jay Griffiths, Dominic Brown and an escaped muderer like Benny Wenda are continuing to spread lies in the UK. Please be careful with their demonic propaganda to provoke bloody conflict in the peaceful land of Papua.

Source : Papua Story

West Papua Issue

West Papua issue was a bilateral matter between the Netherlands and Indonesia regarding an incomplete process of decolonization of the Netherlands East Indies. West Papua was neither a separate entity nor a non-self-governing territory detached from the Netherlands East Indies. The problem arose when the Netherlands insisted on maintaining its presence in the western half New Guinea . At the beginning, there was no international dimension to this problem until Indonesia brought the issue to the United Nations in 1954 after all bilateral means had been exhausted. Therefore, West Papua was an unresolved question of decolonization of Indonesian territory of what was once the Netherlands East Indies.

Source : Papua Story

Interpol WANTED: Benny Wenda

The leader of Tradition Community of Koteka Community/ Demmak, Benny Wenda who was born 36 years ago in Pyramid village, Baliem valley, upper land Papua is not others but a prisoner of Papua detained in Papua Polda on June 8, 2002 then escaped from Indonesia’s prison helped by Papua separatist activist and NGO from England through PNG boundary lane and went to England as asylum seeker until conducting campaign of freedom Papua movement.

On September 20, 2002, Supreme Judiciary of Jayapura issued the letter of accusation on Benny Wenda by indictment of having two state passports (Indonesia and PNG), organizing bleeding attack of Abepura on 6-7 December 2000,and organizing attack of police station and TNI in Papua. Since his escape from prison within detention process makes Benny Wenda to be hunted “WANTED” NCB of Indonesia Interpol due to murder case.

Source : Interpol

The Battle to Save Indonesia’s Disappearing Forests

Zubaidah Nazeer – Straits Times Indonesia | February 23, 2011

Imagine 400 football fields of trees disappearing during the duration of a soccer match. That was the rate of deforestation in Indonesia just a few years ago, between 2000 and 2006.

After bans by European countries on imports of illegally logged timber products, the rate of destruction has halved – to about 1 million hectares a year. But this is still considered high, and urgent action is needed, say researchers, analysts and environmental activists. If nothing is done, Indonesia’s unprotected natural forests will be depleted in about 35 years, said Bustar Maitar of Greenpeace Indonesia.

Papuans welcomes development acceleration plan

The government to make sure that the development acceleration in Papua well conducted.

Papuan community leader and city councilor Athanasius Allo Rafra has welcomed the government plan to establish a taskforce in March in a bid to accelerate development in Papua and West Papua provinces.

“I support the establishment of the taskforce because the development of Papua and West Papua has progressed at a snail’s pace,” said Allo Rafra on Wednesday.

Boediono to lead Papua meeting

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 02/14/2011 10:42 AM | National

Vice President Boediono will lead a meeting of 22 ministers in his office to discuss accelerating development in Papua on Monday.

In attendance are expected to be the National Education Minister, the Health Minister, the Home Affairs Minister, the Public Works Minister, the Industry Minister, the Trade Minister, the Law and Human Rights Minister, the Agriculture Minister and the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister.

“This follow-up meeting will discuss the concept and design of the presidential decree on the acceleration of development in Papua and West Papua,  Beodiono’s spokesman, Yopie Hidayat said, as reported by kompas.com news portal.

Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu and West Papua Governor Abraham O will not attend the meeting since the pair was at a meeting at the presidential office on the same subject in January.

Greenpeace Unveils Solar-Wind Hybrid Power System in West Papua, Indonesia

Greenpeace, a non-governmental environmental organization, has unveiled a solar-wind hybrid power system in West Papua, Indonesia. The organization requested the Indonesian government to utilize its abundant source of renewable energy.

The solar-wind hybrid power system has a capacity of one MW and it consists of solar panels producing 800 W of energy and a wind turbine generating 200 W of energy. The power system was constructed on Mansiman Island in Manokwari district.

US: Indonesia making progress on human rights

Indonesia’s military is largely moving in the right direction on human rights despite the videotaped torture of civilians in restive Papua, a senior US defense official said Tuesday.Robert Scher, the top Pentagon official handling Southeast Asia, reiterated US concerns that the 10-month sentences handed last month to three soldiers over the abuse in Papua were too lenient.

ASEAN chairmanship helps Indonesia bring peace in Papua

by Mangadar Situmorang*)

Having officially assumed the chairmanship of ASEAN, Indonesia brings forth an agenda of making ASEAN a people-centered community. This has proved that the widely held cynicism that views ASEAN as merely a forum for the Southeast Asia’s government elites is baseless.

But what does this new approach really mean? What then is the role played by the government elites and notably the ASEAN Secretariat? And, with a very specific interest, does will the new agenda have any impact on Papua?

PNG launches border crackdown operation

Papua New Guinea’s government has deployed a joint security operation to destroy alleged free West Papua activist training camps along the PNG-Indonesia border.

Authorities in Papua New Guinea have launched a massive operation to stop the illegal flow of people and goods across the country’s border with Indonesia.

Illegal activities in Vanimo along its side of the border pose a national security threat to its sovereignty.

Evil Propaganda by Dominic Brown

A young inexperienced film maker, Dominic Brown entered the social sphere of evil propaganda, controlling what people would see in West Papua. A propaganda film was made “forgotten bird of paradise” in 2009 with the expressed aim of “spreading lies about West Papua and trying to create conflict in the peaceful land of Papua”.

His visit and his film shows that Papua IS NOT CLOSED TO FOREIGNERS, he and hundreds of foreign journalists have visited the place. Indonesian people in West Papua from hundreds different ethnic groups are very wise because the evil propaganda style by Dominic Brown has no impact whatsoever in instigating conflict among the tribes.

Dominic tries to demonize Indonesia, especially the military to attract worldwide attention. However,  his cheap propaganda was so shallow, immoral and full of lies. So, it is normal if people will see his work as insignificant propaganda.

Source : Papua Story