fPcN interCultural:

friends of Peoples close to Nature

1st December 2004 Indonesian Embassy, London - As darkness fell over London a group of Papuan supporters held a candle lit vigil outside the Indonesian Embassy in Grosvenor Square. The Morning Star flag was raised in solidarity with our West Papuan brothers and sisters in their struggle to establish an independent free and just homeland. A letter concerning the current situation in the Puncak Jaya District of West Papua was officially handed to an embassy representative.

Letter of protest is delivered to Indonesian Embassy

Mr. Eddy Pratomo,
Deputy Chief of Mission,
Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia,
38, Grosvenor Square,
LONDON. W1X 9AD
Fax: 020 7491 4993
Tel: 020 7499 7661

URGENT

Oxford, 28th November 2004

RE: WEST PAPUA : PUNCAK JAYA

Dear Sir,

We are writing to express our deep concern at the current situation in the Puncak Jaya District of West Papua:
We have received extremely disturbing reports from West Papua that; "15,000 village people have been herded into the mountains by the TNI using machine guns from helicopters - and now the people are starving. Their gardens have been destroyed and their animals killed and sold by the TNI who deny access to these internal refugees - even the church people are not allowed through the cordon the military has created."

"Things are getting worse as more and more activists on the ground are now receiving threats from the security forces."

We would be very grateful if you could inform us as a matter of urgency that the Government of Indonesia is implementing immediate measures: enabling the 15,000 refugees to return safely to their villages, supplying food, medical supplies, clothes and other necessities of life to the refugees, allowing free access to the region (without intimidation) to Papuan church leaders, human rights investigators and foreign journalists (the BBC's Rachel Harvey has let us know that she is keen to report what is happening), and ordering an immediate withdrawal of the TNI back to barracks.

We thank you for your attention to this very serious situation and look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Region

• Melanesia

Tags

• Protest