2) Indonesia evacuates villagers after shootings near Freeport mine
3) Some flee Papua villages in standoff with Indonesia forces
4) Papua police demand release of 1,300 civilian hostages
5) Renewed Papuan independence call amid alleged ‘hostage’ standoff
6) PAPUA GOVERNOR: NEGOTIATE WITH INDONESIA STATE IN REGARD OF INDEPENDENCE
7) JAYAWIJAYA HAS YET TO PASS HEALTH MINIMUM SERVICE STANDARD
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Note comment from Press Council re reporting on so called hostage crises.
The Press Council was asked to investigate media hostage reporting hostage taking in Papua
"We see that a number of major media such as television, online / digital, and print still often declare the event is a hostage," said Ade Wahyudin of LBH Press in the press release.
He continued, the hostage phrase used by some of the media against the above events is excessive and can lead to new conflicts. The word meaning of hostage taking, according to KBBI is an act of captivating people to be guaranteed.
"The fact is as revealed by Police Chief Mimika and Public Relations Papua Police that there is no hostage and people can still move," said Ade.
full article
http://awpasydneynews.blogspot.com.au/2017/11/the-press-council-was-asked-to.html
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1) Some 346 civilian hostages in Papua released amid crossfire
Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian police and military personnel have released a total of 346 civilians taken hostage by the armed criminal group in Papua province amid crossfire on Friday, Papua police chief said.
"Crossfire occurred during the evacuation process, causing (some) security personnel and evacuees sustained injuries," Inspector General Boy Rafli Amar, chief of the Papua Provincial Police, said.
Amar, however, did not elaborate the number of security personnel assigned to free the hostages from the armed criminal group, that sustained injuries.
The security officers released the 346 civilians from Kimbeli kampongs, Tembagapura Sub-District, Mimika District, Papua Province.
Of the 346 hostages, 23 were children, he said, adding that the evacuation process was carried out on foot for about four hours heading to the Tembagapura police office.
According to him, the armed criminal group (KKB) kept shooting from the height during the evacuation process.
Meanwhile, Amar on Thursday demanded the KKB to release some 1,300 civilians that it had taken hostages in Banti and Kimbeli kampongs for more than two weeks.
In the meantime, the indigenous Papuans living in Banti are reluctant to be evacuated and want to remain in their villages.
Reported by Evarukdijati
(T.SYS/A/B003/B/F001)
"Crossfire occurred during the evacuation process, causing (some) security personnel and evacuees sustained injuries," Inspector General Boy Rafli Amar, chief of the Papua Provincial Police, said.
Amar, however, did not elaborate the number of security personnel assigned to free the hostages from the armed criminal group, that sustained injuries.
The security officers released the 346 civilians from Kimbeli kampongs, Tembagapura Sub-District, Mimika District, Papua Province.
Of the 346 hostages, 23 were children, he said, adding that the evacuation process was carried out on foot for about four hours heading to the Tembagapura police office.
According to him, the armed criminal group (KKB) kept shooting from the height during the evacuation process.
Meanwhile, Amar on Thursday demanded the KKB to release some 1,300 civilians that it had taken hostages in Banti and Kimbeli kampongs for more than two weeks.
In the meantime, the indigenous Papuans living in Banti are reluctant to be evacuated and want to remain in their villages.
Reported by Evarukdijati
(T.SYS/A/B003/B/F001)
-----------------------
2) Indonesia evacuates villagers after shootings near Freeport mine
Sam Wanda, Fergus Jensen
JAKARTA/TIMIKA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesia on Friday began evacuating villages that authorities said had been occupied by armed separatists after a string of shootings near the giant Grasberg copper mine operated by Freeport McMoRan Inc in the eastern province of Papua.
Two police have been killed and at least 12 people have been wounded by gunfire in the area since mid-August. Police have blamed an “armed criminal group”, but others have said the gunmen were linked to separatist rebels.
According to police reports, the armed group occupied the villages of Banti and Kimbely near the mining town of Tembagapura, and had prevented an estimated 1,300 residents from leaving the area, leading to food shortages.
Police and military leaders said they have urged the gunmen to surrender, but have also warned that tough measures could follow if their “persuasive” approach fails.
Residents were being evacuated to a sports hall in Tembagapura, according to a source at Freeport.
Mimika Deputy Regent Yohanes Bassang asked families in Timika to accommodate relatives being evacuated from the villages “to avoid further problems”.
Bassang said many of the villagers were from the east Indonesian island of Sulawesi and had come to the area to pan for gold.
The separatist West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM), a group linked to the Free Papua Movement, has claimed responsibility for the shootings and declared war against the military, police and Freeport, but denied it was holding villagers hostage.
According to several residents interviewed by Reuters, military and police officers were preventing them from getting food from Tembagapura, where food aid was delivered in a cargo container on Saturday.
“The atmosphere has really heated up,” one resident said, referring to the shootings and concerns over food supplies and safety.
Reporting by Sam Wanda in TIMIKA and Fergus Jensen in JAKARTA; Editing by John Chalmers and Nick Macfie
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3) Some flee Papua villages in standoff with Indonesia forces
TEMBAGAPURA, Indonesia – Indonesian police say they have helped evacuate about 400 people from villages in easternmost Papua that are at the center of a standoff between security forces and separatists. Papua police spokesman Ahmad Musthofa Kamal said Friday about three quarters of those who have left are migrants from other regions and the remainder indigenous Papuan women and children. He says there was gunfire from hills surrounding one village that was hampering police and military efforts to move people. Tensions in the region near the U.S.-owned Grasberg gold and copper mine have flared in the past month. A series of attacks by suspected separatists have killed two policemen. Members of the National Liberation Army of West Papua last month declared an area near the mine a battlefield with Indonesian security forces.
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4) Papua police demand release of 1,300 civilian hostages
Pewarta: Aditia Maruli Radja 7 hours ago
Timika, Papua (ANTARA News) - Inspector General Boy Rafli Amar, chief of the Papua Provincial Police, has demanded an armed criminal group (KKB) to release some 1,300 civilians that it had taken hostages in Banti and Kimbeli kampongs, Tembagapura sub-district, Mimika District, Papua Province, since more than two weeks ago.
The Papua Police had asked the help of prominent traditional and religious figures to persuade the group to release the hostages, or to allow anyone wanting to go out of the villages for medical treatment and to get food, Amar told the press here on Thursday.
"The people there are currently oppressed and intimidated because the group has banned them from leaving their villages. Indeed, they are not being held in one room, but they are very much oppressed. Communication is also restricted," he stated.
Amar described the hostage-taking incident as a violation of human rights because the villagers have been intimidated and held at gun point.
Some 150 babies and infants are facing food shortage because their mothers could no longer breastfeed them. Some villagers have fallen ill as food stock is depleting.
Since late October 2017, Waa-Banti Hospital, run by Amungme and Kamoro Community Development Institution, has ceased operations.
Doctors, nurses, and other paramedics of the Waa-Banti Hospital had earlier been moved to safer area following a gun shooting incident committed by the group, targeting the hospital`s ambulance.
Amar hoped that the group would allow everyone being taken hostages to leave their villages, and the police would send vehicles to pick them up.
So far, the group had allowed just two persons to leave the village, namely a pregnant woman who was about to deliver a baby, and a 51-year-old traditional miner from Blitar, East Java, who is seriously ill.
The Police and the Tembagapura sub-district administration have provided food in Tembagapura police office, but the armed criminal group has prevented no any villager from picking up the food.
Several villagers, in fact, managed to escape and collect the food, but the group members later seized the food.
The Papua Police had asked the help of prominent traditional and religious figures to persuade the group to release the hostages, or to allow anyone wanting to go out of the villages for medical treatment and to get food, Amar told the press here on Thursday.
"The people there are currently oppressed and intimidated because the group has banned them from leaving their villages. Indeed, they are not being held in one room, but they are very much oppressed. Communication is also restricted," he stated.
Amar described the hostage-taking incident as a violation of human rights because the villagers have been intimidated and held at gun point.
Some 150 babies and infants are facing food shortage because their mothers could no longer breastfeed them. Some villagers have fallen ill as food stock is depleting.
Since late October 2017, Waa-Banti Hospital, run by Amungme and Kamoro Community Development Institution, has ceased operations.
Doctors, nurses, and other paramedics of the Waa-Banti Hospital had earlier been moved to safer area following a gun shooting incident committed by the group, targeting the hospital`s ambulance.
Amar hoped that the group would allow everyone being taken hostages to leave their villages, and the police would send vehicles to pick them up.
So far, the group had allowed just two persons to leave the village, namely a pregnant woman who was about to deliver a baby, and a 51-year-old traditional miner from Blitar, East Java, who is seriously ill.
The Police and the Tembagapura sub-district administration have provided food in Tembagapura police office, but the armed criminal group has prevented no any villager from picking up the food.
Several villagers, in fact, managed to escape and collect the food, but the group members later seized the food.
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