Dear Friend of West Papua!
The websites of several NGO groups campaigning for human rights in West Papua have been under a serious DDoS attack for most of this week, forcing them offline as their servers have been overloaded. In the UK press, the finger of suspicion is focusing on the Indonesian authorities.
Survival International, the Asian Human Rights Commission, Friends of People Close to Nature, Free West Papua Campaign and West Papua Media Alerts have seen their websites crippled in what is being described as a 'co-ordinated cyber terrorism act'. All these campaign groups hosted video footage showing Indonesian troops torturing West Papuans, which has heaped shame on the Muslim majority country .
Channel 4 News in the UK tonight broadcast a report which also included footage from a demo held in West Papua earlier today. Newspapers including the Guardian and Yorkshire Evening Post have published reports on the cyber attacks, with more expected tomorrow.
Toby Nicholas, a new media expert at Survival International, said "What they've done is remarkably effective and expensive – that's why we think it's linked to the Indonesian government or military authorities. There is no way this will stop our campaign for the tribespeople in West Papua. If anything it makes us more determined."
At the time of writing all the NGO websites remain down.
Links to news reports so far below. TV news report to follow:
Guardian newspaper:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/oct/28/survival-international-website-torture-video
Press Association:
Orange:
http://web.orange.co.uk/article/news/cyber_attack_on_rights_charity#newscomments
Yorkshire Evening Post:
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Cyber-attack-on-human-rights.6603648.jp