2) Indonesian police fire tear gas at pro-Papua demo
3) TNI Officer Killed by Armed Civilian Group in Papua: Spokesman
4) Indonesia’s Papua battles AIDS epidemic
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1) AJI: Police Target Foreign Journalists at Papuan Student Rally in Jakarta
By : Donny Andhika Mononimbar | on 12:30 AM December 02, 2015
Police detain a protester following a brief clash at a rally to commemorate a Papuan declaration of independence in 1961. (Reuters Photo/Darren Whiteside)
Jakarta. Two foreign journalists have reportedly become victims of police violence and intimidation in Jakarta on Tuesday while covering a rally by Papuan students.
Archicco Guilianno of ABC Australia dan Step Vaessen of Al Jazeera were covering the demonstration when police reportedly asked Archicco to erase his footage. When he didn't immediately comply, identifying himself as a journalist in the process, he was beaten by an officer.
An account of the incident was reported on the website of Indonesia's Independent Alliance of Journalists (AJI).
Vaessen recorded the incident but was also ordered to erase the images. Police at some point forcibly did so, the AJI account says.
The incident triggered an immediate condemnation from AJI, with its chief, Suwarjono, saying in a press release that officers had clearly violated the law.
AJI urged the National Police to investigate.
Issues surrounding Papua, the scene of a decades-long, low-level insurgency, remain very sensitive in Indonesia, despite promises by President Joko Widodo to open up the area to foreign journalists.
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Journalists at the scene saw demonstrators being put into police vehicles and driven away, but police did not confirm how many protesters had been detained.
- POSTED: 01 Dec 2015 19:27
JAKARTA: Police fired tear gas at a hundreds-strong crowd hurling rocks on Tuesday (Dec 1) during a protest in Jakarta against Indonesian rule over the eastern region of Papua, with a lawyer saying that over 100 demonstrators had been detained.
Several hundred protesters, mostly university students from Papua, took part in the demonstration to mark the anniversary of the region's declaration of independence in 1961, two years before Indonesia took control.
About 400 police in riot gear were standing guard at the protest by a roundabout in downtown Jakarta, which turned violent as demonstrators hurled rocks and police responded by firing tear gas and chasing protesters.
"They have no permit to stage a protest here, so we are dispersing them," said Central Jakarta police chief Hendro Pandowo, insisting the police had not used excessive force. Protest organisers insisted they had notified authorities.
Veronica Koman, lawyer from Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation, speaking on behalf of the protesters, said at least 114 had been detained by police, with some stopped before even reaching the site.
Journalists at the scene saw demonstrators being put into police vehicles and driven away. Police refused to confirm how many protesters had been detained.
The remaining demonstrators were later driven from the scene in buses and trucks, but said they were voluntarily going to join the detained protesters at police stations to show solidarity.
A low-level insurgency has simmered for decades in Papua, where local groups are fighting on behalf of the mostly Melanesian population, who are a different ethnicity from most Indonesians.
Jakarta took control of the region, which forms half of the island of New Guinea, in 1963 from former colonial power the Netherlands.
- AFP/ec
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3) TNI Officer Killed by Armed Civilian Group in Papua: Spokesman
By : Jakarta Globe | on 2:55 PM December 01, 2015
Jakarta. The Indonesian Miliary has confirmed that an armed Papuan civilian group known as Cosmas Makabori was responsible for the shooting death of a military officer in Namuni Kampong, Papua, on Monday.
The victim, Maj. Inf. Jhon E. de Fretes, was accompanied by 2nd. Crp. Simon Sopakua and 2nd. Crp. Afan to monitor the area ahead of the Dec. 9 simultaneous regional election, according to Indonesian Military (TNI) spokesman Maj. Gen. Tatang Sulaiman.
They were traveling by boat and "came under attack immediately after disembarking. Maj. Inf. Jhon was shot in the abdomen,” Tatang told CNN Indonesia on Tuesday.
The surviving officers claimed they were surrounded by about 20 armed civilians who opened fire. Jhon was shot four times as they attempted to escape. His body was left at the scene and evacuated by TNI officers on Tuesday morning, after the crowd had dispersed.
Jhon's body will be flown from Papua to Magelang, Central Java, for burial, Tatang said.
Afan and Simon both suffered minor injuries in the skirmish.
The TNI and National Police are currently working together to locate members of Cosmas Makabori.
Indonesia is set to hold its first simultaneous regional elections on Dec. 9, which will see residents of more than 250 districts, cities and provinces across the archipelago heading to the polls to choose their next regional leaders.
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4) Indonesia’s Papua battles AIDS epidemic
December 1, 2015
Fifteen-year-old Adina curls up in bed under a sheet, her body ravaged by AIDS, one of many caught up in an epidemic sweeping Indonesia’s eastern Papua region.
The teen, who only gave her first name, contracted HIV from an infected boyfriend and is one of 10 AIDS patients receiving free care at a hostel run by Agustinus Adil, a Catholic brother.
The patients include children and adults, with some whose cases are less advanced still able to walk around but others skeletal figures, who are almost blind and confined to bed.
Some ended up in the hostel in Waena village after being thrown out of home when their relatives found out they had HIV, as the virus still carries a strong stigma in deeply poor Papua, which has the highest prevalence of infections in Indonesia.
On World AIDS Day on Tuesday, activists said that government efforts to fight HIV / AIDS in Papua are inadequate, and small, private facilities such as the Waena hostel cannot alone tackle the epidemic.
"The approach to tackling HIV transmission is outdated," said Aditya Wardhana, from Indonesia AIDS Coalition, adding that official efforts focused on groups such as sex workers, but the virus had now spread through the whole population of Papua.
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which can lead to AIDS, is mostly spread through unsafe sex in Papua, in particular due to the growth of prostitution in major cities.
The prevalence of HIV in Papua is 2.3 percent of the population, compared to a national figure of 0.47 percent, health ministry data showed.
While the number of new HIV infections worldwide has fallen by 35 percent over the past 15 years, according to UN figures, in Papua the figure has remained stubbornly high.
Latest official figures show that around 18,000 cases of HIV have been reported in Papua, but activists believe the real number is far higher.
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