Summary:

A WPAT member spoke before a U.S. Congressional panel about threats to the environment and to human rights in West Papua. U.S.-based human rights groups ETAN and WPAT urged the U.S. Government to move beyond the failed formula of "special autonomy" to address the growing human rights crisis in West Papua. Their appeal came in response to Secretary of State Clinton's call at a Congressional hearing for a "degree of autonomy" for Papuans.  April saw a marked increase in violence and repressive action by security forces in West Papua.  The report offers a brief chronology of the violence.  Several U.S. human rights organizations signed a public letter to leading U.S. legislators urging an investigation of the violence and U.S. support for an internationally facilitated dialogue on West Papua.  That call echoed a similar appeal for an investigation of the violence by Papuan church and civil society leaders.  The Indonesian government has expelled the International Committee of The Red Cross (ICRC) from West Papua.  The expulsion came following an ICRC visit to Papuan political prisoners, though the Indonesian Foreign Ministry maintained that was not the reason for the expulsion.

 

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http://etan.org/news/default.htm