‘Doorstops’ at the Pacific Forum – why no tough questions on West Papua?

Bodies of civilians being evacuated after an attack by an armed group
at Nogolaid Village, Kenyam District, Nduga Regency, Papua,
last Saturday. IMAGE: Jubi

By DAVID ROBIE

A LIVELY 43sec video clip surfaced during last week’s Pacific Islands Forum in the Fiji capital of Suva — the first live leaders’ forum in three years since Tuvalu, due to the covid pandemic.

Posted on Twitter by Guardian Australia’s Pacific Project editor Kate Lyons it showed the doorstopping of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare by a melee of mainly Australian journalists.

An aloof Sogavare was being tracked over questions about security and China’s possible military designs for the Melanesian nation.

• READ MORE: The full 2022 Pacific Islands Forum communique
• Australia and New Zealand’s ‘deafening silence’ on Pacific democracy and human right
• Advocacy group condemns failure to address West Papua at Pacific Forum
• Media freedom defenders criticise China, other Pacific info ‘threats’
• Yamin Kogoya: Fatal disconnect between Jakarta and West Papua
• ‘Talanoa journalism’ in the Pacific
• PIF and West Papua – a timeline

 

A doorstop on security and China greets Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh
Sogavare (in blue shirt) at the Pacific islands Forum in Suva last week.
IMAGE: Twitter screenshot @MsKateLyons

 
But Lyons made a comment directed more at questioning journalists themselves about their newsgathering style:

“Australian media attempt to get a response from PM Sogavare, who has refused to answer questions from international media since the signing of the China security deal, on his way to a bilateral with PM Albanese. He stayed smilingly silent.”

Carmel Budiardjo - TAPOL founder, human rights defender, Papuan champion and beloved mentor

Human rights defender Carmel Budiardjo ... many lives "touched - and sometimes transformed
- by her passionate and determined campaigning for human rights, justice and democracy
in Indonesia, East Timor, Aceh and West Papua". IMAGE: TAPOL

By Asia Pacific Report

BRITISH and Indonesian human rights defender Carmel Budiardjo, founder of TAPOL watchdog and the movement’s driving force for many decades, has died peacefully aged 96.

TAPOL said in an announcement that she had died on Saturday and would be greatly missed by an extensive network of people whose lives had been “touched — and sometimes transformed — by her passionate and determined campaigning for human rights, justice and democracy in Indonesia, East Timor, Aceh and West Papua”.

For many, she had been a great mentor as well as a beloved friend, TAPOL said.

• WATCH: Carmel Burdiadjo and the story of TAPOL
• Surviving Indonesia’s Gulag: A Western Woman Tells Her Story
• Carmel Budiardjo: rights defender who shone a light on Papua

TAPOL stands for “tahanan politik” or “political prisoners” in Indonesian.

Bloody aftermath of Paniai massacre in West Papua captured on video

The four-minute video, shot by citizen journalists and released publicly for the first time today, includes first-hand testimony from survivors of the Paniai massacre in West Papua and graphic footage taken in the immediate aftermath. Video: Minority Rights Group International

NEW VIDEO footage showing the bloody aftermath of the Paniai massacre in West Papua highlights the urgent need for Indonesia to hold an independent and transparent investigation into the tragedy, says Minority Rights Group International (MRG).

A still from the MRG video.

In December 2014 four unarmed Papuan teenagers were killed and 17 more Papuans were injured when the Indonesian army and police opened fire on a group of peaceful protesters in Paniai.

They had gathered to protest an earlier incident of violence by the Indonesian security forces.

The four-minute video, shot by citizen journalists and released publicly for the first time today, includes first-hand testimony from survivors of the massacre as well as graphic footage taken in the immediate aftermath.

"This film gives a disturbing insight into the Indonesian military’s casual disregard for the lives of Indigenous Papuans,’ said TAPOL's Esther Cann.