fPcN interCultural:

friends of Peoples close to Nature

The Lani Singers interview and music that went out on BBC Radio 3, in September 2008

A humanitarian crisis is emerging in the Punjak Jaya region of West Papua. Local human rights workers report that thousands of people fled the regions of Tingginabbut, Yamu, Illu and Mulia Ambat in mid-December and have gone into the jungle. No figures are available at this stage, but it is believed thousands of people have been displaced.

A LOW FOG ENVELOPES the steep and remote valleys of southwestern Uganda most mornings, as birds found only in this small corner of the continent rise in chorus and the great apes drink from clear streams. Days in the dense montane forest are quiet and steamy. Nights are an exaltation of insects and primate howling. For thousands of years the Batwa people thrived in this soundscape, in such close harmony with the forest that early-twentieth-century wildlife biologists who studied the flora and fauna of the region barely noticed their existence.

Hundreds of Ogiek of Enoosupukia (near Narok / Kenya), who had been camping at the catholic mission Enoosupukia following the 28th February 2005 evictions have been left completely stranded after the camp was reduced to ashes. More than 200 Armed Police officers have been deployed in the area. Children and women are left homeless after the camp they sought refuge was demolished by the police. The exercise has been dubbed as "saving the forests and the environment". The people affected are mainly the Ogiek who have resided and lived there since time immemorial.

NEWS JUST IN: 15,000 village people have been herded into the mountains by army - machine-guns from helicopters - and now are starving. Their gardens destroyed, animals killed and sold by the army who deny access to these internal refugees - even the church people are not alowwed through the cordon they army has created.

His Excellency Prime Minister of Vanuatu, In relation to the plan of PNG government to remove West Papuan Refugees 2000 to Kiunga, East Awin, PNG, at the moment we are continuously refusing it as there are so many problems related to the processes of the removal. The only reason is the the Papuans do not want to move, as they know already that Kiunga is the hell for them. Whoever sent there have never come back alive. That is the open prison for anyone from this Papua Soil.

We would like to hereby declare that we are not going anywhere inside PNG territory, except to remain in Vanimo, PNG, according to the following agreement in a meeting between the villagers and the refugees. If there is any plan, because of being paid by colonial power of Indonesia, then there is no way we are going anywhere inside PNG territory, EXCEPT, we are removed from Papua Land, and go to the Republic of Vanuatu.