2) Papuan activists rejoice after completing prison sentences for treason
3) COVID-19 only kills 1% of people in remote Papuan village with limited resources
4) Viability of PNG cable project uncertain
5) Drones to help patrol PNG border
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(A google translate. Be-aware google translate can be a bit erratic)Video footage
(Note Video footage in article)
1) Egianus Kogoya claims to have captured the ammunition of the Indonesian National Police in Nduga
May 29, 2020 12:15 am Reporter: Victor Mambor
Papua No. 1 News Portal | Jubi
Egianus Kogoya's group shows ammunition and items seized during the attack on Alguru - Jubi / IST
Jayapura, Jubi - Egianus Kogoya, Commander of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) Kodap Ndugama claimed to have attacked four TNI Polri Posts in Alguru, Nduga Regency. The attack carried out on May 23, said Egianus, succeeded in seizing the ammunition and equipment of the Indonesian security forces on duty at the four posts.
On 23 May 2020 our troops attacked 4 TNI-Polri Emergency Posts in Papua's Nduga Regency. Precisely in Alguru. We managed to seize several items belonging to the Indonesian National Police, "Egianus Kogoya told Jubi, Thursday (05/28/2020). The items seized according to Egianus, among others, were 77 magazines and 2,310 bullets, 30 backpacks, 12 cellphones, 6 Handy Talkies, 2 satellite phones and 30 million cash, in addition to clothes, clothes, pants and tarpaulin there are at these posts.
Egianus added that until May 27, 4 helicopters landed at the Kenyenam airfield, the capital of Nduga Regency. This helicopter, according to him, carries around 100 members of the Indonesian National Police. “They went straight to Alguru to look for four of their missing members on 23 May," Egianus explained.
Head of Papua Police Public Relations Kombes Pol Drs. Ahmad Musthofa Kamal, SH, through a press release said there were no reports of attacks, as claimed by Egianus Kogoya. Even the group led by Egianus Kogoya according to the Head of Public Relations continued to provoke and spread news or information that caused panic among residents in Papua, especially in Nduga Regency.
"We have never received a report from the rank and file police related to the incident. What happened was the persecution and seizure of firearms belonging to members of the National Police who were at Poliai Pol 99 Police Station on Friday, 15 May 2020, "Kamal wrote. Also read Five Bishops of the Land of Papua urged to voice Papuan human rights In addition to the seizure of 3 weapons at Pospol 99, the group referred to by the police as the Armed Criminal Group (KKB) also carried out actions in several areas namely the shooting of non-employees at Mile 61 Freeport Area in Mimika Regency on Thursday, May 21, 2020 and carried out the shooting of two medical officers in Intan Jaya on Friday, May 22, which caused one medical officer to die while carrying out humanitarian tasks in the Wandai District of Intan Jaya Regency. But Egianus said he had evidence of the spoils from the four posts he attacked in the form of photos and videos. Egianus also denied the statement of the Indonesian security forces who said he was terrorizing residents of the Nduga Regency community. "We know the rules in conflict areas. Civilians have nothing to do with the armed conflict between the TPNPB and the Indonesian National Police, "Egianus said. (*)
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2) Papuan activists rejoice after completing prison sentences for treason
Rizki Fachriansyah
The Jakarta Post Jakarta / Thu, May 28, 2020 / 07:22 pm
The activists – Surya Anta, Ambrosius Mulait, Dano Tabuni, Charles Kossay and Ariana Elopere – embraced each other after leaving prison and reaffirmed their commitment to voice the political aspirations of their fellow Papuans.
Ariana was released on Wednesday, while the other four activists left prison on Tuesday.
Mike Hilman, a member of the legal team representing the activists, said the five conveyed their moral support to the Papuan activists still serving prison time after being convicted of similar charges.
“The criminalization of Papuan activists for voicing their concerns over Papua by charging them under laws on treason, as well as the Electronic Information and Transactions Law [UU ITE], reflects a regression in democracy,” Hilman said in a statement on Wednesday.
Last month, the Central Jakarta District Court found the five activists, along with another activist named Isay Wenda, guilty of treason for holding a protest in support of Papuan independence in front of the Presidential Palace in Jakarta in August 2019.
The five activists were sentenced to nine months in prison. Isay was given eight months in prison. The court found them in violation of Article 110 in relation to Article 106 of the Criminal Code (KUHP) for conspiring to promote secession.
Hilman argued that the activists had staged the protest to voice their concerns about a racist attack against Papuan students in Surabaya, East Java. The racial conflict resulted in the arrest of 57 Papuan political activists in seven cities across the country, according to Hilman.
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Inilah momen ketika Arina Elopere berkumpul dengan mantan tapol yang lain siang ini.
Setelah adanya keputusan politik untuk mencegah dibebaskannya para tapol Papua di Jakarta hampir tiga minggu yang lalu, akhirnya hari ini semua bebas.
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The government must immediately put an end to […] repressive and racist attitudes toward Papuans,” he said.
Human rights lawyer Veronica Koman noted in a Facebook post that 62 other activists similarly convicted of treason were still behind bars.
“It must be emphasized that [the five activists] were released after completing their prison sentences, not out of Jakarta’s concern,” she wrote in the post, alongside photos of the reunited activists.
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3) COVID-19 only kills 1% of people in remote Papuan village with limited resources
By Sally Robertson, B.Sc.May 27 2020
A researcher from
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and a tropical medicine expert who lives in Wamena, Indonesia have published a unique account of a village in the Papuan highlands of Indonesia that has experienced
what was presumed to be an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
“A major caveat is that PCR testing for COVID-19 was not possible due to the lack of tests,” write the researchers.
The report describes the outbreak pattern of suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as it spread across the entire village over the course of five weeks.
A key finding of the study was that the overall death rate was only 1%, despite limited healthcare provision and a lack of mitigating measures.
The authors say the low death rate be attributable to the young age of the village’s population, which is an average of just 21.7 years, and that this may also be the case in similarly remote areas.
A pre-print version of the paper can be accessed in the server
medRxiv* while the article undergoes peer review.
The challenges facing low- and middle-resource countries
Although the COVID-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to all countries, low- and middle-resource countries face even greater difficulties due to their often limited resources and lack of medical facilities, even under normal circumstances.
One example is Indonesia, with its compromised health infrastructure, making it difficult to approach the management of COVID-19 in remote rural areas, where the spread of SARS-CoV-2 had been expected to have a severe adverse health effect on communities.
Now, Elco van Burg and colleague Wijnanda van Burg-Verhage have described the spread of what was presumed to be COVID-19 across a remote Papuan highlands village, referred to here as M20 for patient data protection purposes.
About the village
At an altitude of 6,700 feet, this isolated village is served only by small aircraft or people walking in from nearby villages. Around half of the population is aged under 12 years. The rest is comprised of four to six matriarchs, young adults, and adults aged 30 to 50 years. The nearest health facility takes about three hours to walk to, but no trained healthcare workers are usually present.
Instead, a daily basic medical health service is provided by lay healthcare workers. The current report was based on patient care records kept by these health workers before and after the outbreak and on the input of medical doctors who replied to online requests for help.
The researchers report that between 20th February and 31st March, the dense social structure of the village meant the rapidly spreading outbreak affected almost all (90 to 95%) of the 200 people estimated to be living in the village.
“Physical distancing and isolation measures were used, but probably implemented suboptimal and too late, and their effect on the illness course was unclear,” writes the team.
Timeline of disease spread
The first patient presenting with what was suspected to be COVID-19 sought care on 20th February. The researchers say this patient may have been the first to infect the village since he had visited a nearby area where similar symptoms had been reported.
Two weeks later, many villagers experienced a sore throat and stomach complaints, followed by fever and fatigue lasting up to five days.
Severe fever (above 40 °C), shortness of breath, and chest pain generally started after day five of illness.
Two men, aged over 40 years, who had an underlying chronic illness that was thought to be kidney-related, died on the 9th March, following two days of extreme shortness of breath.
The healthcare workers treated symptomatic people with paracetamol up to four times daily; measured temperatures daily and administered antibiotics and chloroquine to patients who seemed “very sick.”
What were the outcomes?
Overall, the healthcare workers treated 101 patients (approximately half the village).
Aside from the two men who died, all patients either recovered or were recovering at the time of the study.
Informal questioning across the population revealed that only about ten villagers did not report symptoms, giving a presumptive infection rate of 90 to 95%.
Twelve patients were aged older than 40 years, and aside from the two who died, another five were “very sick,” meaning 41% of this age group suffered a severe illness, and 17% died. The authors say this is roughly consistent with other reports.
The effect of age distribution
The overall death rate was only 1%, report the researchers, despite the lack of health facilities and mitigating measures.
“The relatively young population, with a majority of women, probably influenced the impact of the epidemic, resulting in only two deaths so far,” they write.
“This age distribution, common in Papuan highland villages, may reduce case fatality rate (CFR) in similarly remote areas since survival to old age is already very limited, and CFR among younger people is lower,” concludes the team.
*Important Notice
medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Written by
Sally has a Bachelor's Degree in Biomedical Sciences (B.Sc.). She is a specialist in reviewing and summarising the latest findings across all areas of medicine covered in major, high-impact, world-leading international medical journals, international press conferences and bulletins from governmental agencies and regulatory bodies. At News-Medical, Sally generates daily news features, life science articles and interview coverage.
TRANSCRIPT
Last week the contractor landed the cable at Arawa in Bougainville, the last of fifteen landing stations across the country.
Starting from Jayapura in Papua province of neighbouring Indonesia, the cable has landed at stations along PNG's north coast before linking up with towns in the Islands region.
State Enterprises Minister Sasindran Muthuvel says commercialising the asset is the big challenge now.
"Government has invested like 270-million dollars, which is like almost a billion kina. It's huge money to invest. And we want to make sure that asset, whichever time it has been initiated since 2015, becomes commercialised. Of course, if it is used correctly then definitely we should be able to monetise it."
But what rates will Papua New Guineans be charged to use the internet via this cable?
It's a country where people often face exorbitant costs for internet usage, mainly through their phones.
The minister says while Dataco manages the wholesale price, the price at which people buy their data is purely up to retailers.
With the state having borrowed heavily, the viability of the project is far from certain.
"It's not going to be easy for Dataco, as an organisation, it's not going to be that easy to say that they will be able to service the loan and all those things, which I have my own doubts. We definitely need for the national government to take it as one of the national infrastructure, rather than looking at commercial point of view."
The next phase will be to link the cable with the provincial network into PNG's Highlands.
But the project has wracked up hefty cost overruns, partly through disruptions such as damage from an earthquake in Morobe province last year.
Mr Muthuvel is weary about PNG being left to foot the entire bill after investing so much.
"And we want to see... how to repay the loan. The repay will cost maybe, I'm just saying approximately maybe 5000 million dollars or even more. Who will inherit that cost and how do we negotiate with that contractor to ensure that the costs are not passed on to us, and all those kind of challenges."
The minister says the government is still waiting on a report by the Australian government about the overall cost of the project, including the damages from the quake.
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5) Drones to help patrol PNG border
Aerial drones will soon be helping the Papua New Guinea defence force with border surveillance.
PNG's 800 km border with Indonesia was closed three months ago to prevent the spread of Covid-19 but people are continuing to cross.
The newspaper, the National, reported PNG is procuring 28 Phantom drones through Australia's military.
Major-General Gilbert Toropo said the drones would be used by long range reconnaissance units and for border and maritime surveillance.
He said the drones were among recent improvements to PNG’s military made possible by partnership with Australia.
The border between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea is in a heavily forested region where illegal logging operations have persisted for years. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades
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