4) Pacific Islands Forum 2026: What Lowy’s Pacific team will be watching
Australian Greens Senator David Shoebridge hosted the inaugural meeting of the Australian chapter of International Parliamentarians for West Papua on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land in Australian Parliament House in Canberra on 17 August 2026, with a delegation present that included United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) president Benny Wenda, who was in from London.
Wenda and the rest of the West Papuan delegation from Naarm-Melbourne told members of the Australian Greens, federal Labor and the Coalition about the 60-odd years of Indonesian occupation that the West Papuan people have and continue to endure. And the ULMWP president called on parliamentarians to put pressure on the Australian government to take action.
Young West Papuan student voices further gave testimony about the ongoing displacement and murder of West Papuan villages in the highlands, due to Indonesian military aerial attacks. There are currently about 122,900 displaced locals, as a result of the ongoing attacks that have targeted people living in various regencies and commenced in Nduga, under the Jokowi government, in 2018.
These attacks on highland villages have been intensifying exponentially under the October 2024-installed government of Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto, who earned himself the reputation of being a murderous butcher-like war criminal, when he was a general leading Indonesian forces in East Timor and West Papua back in the Suharto era.
The United Nations gave Jakarta temporary administrative control over West Papua in 1963, as the former Netherlands colonisers were leaving the region, which was based on the proviso that the West Papuan people be granted the right to vote upon their own statehood later down the track. But a rigged vote was staged in 1969, which guaranteed that West Papua remained in Jakarta’s control.
“Happening to neighbours”
Shoebridge told the meeting that it was all about “truth-telling”. The Greens senator further explained that despite the good relationship that Australia maintains with Indonesia, it’s the duty of good friends to raise issue when the other has failed, especially in the area of human rights. And he underscored that West Papuans have a right to control their own destiny.
The recent meeting was made all the more vital by the fact that the Prabowo government has embarked upon the largest deforestation project on the planet. This is the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate Megaproject, located in South Papua province, and it is set to unleash stark environmental and economic damage upon the entire Melanesian region.
Sydney Criminal Lawyers spoke to Australian Greens Senator David Shoebridge about the lack of acknowledgement in respect of the plight of the West Papuan people on the part of Canberra, and the need for our government to broach the subject of the occupation with Jakarta during its diplomatic dealings with a nation that it is vital this country continues its good relationship with.
David, the Australian chapter of International Parliamentarians for West Papua held its first public meeting on Monday 17th August at Parliament House in Canberra. You hosted it.
So, can you tell us about the organisation and what the meeting involved?
This is a genuinely international grouping of politicians from democratic countries, who are consciously forming a global alliance to support basic freedom in West Papua.
This meeting of the IPWP in the national capital was the first time that we’ve had West Papuan leaders and members of the West Papuan diaspora inside Australian Parliament House to speak the truth about what’s occurring.
When you hear directly from West Papuans who have experienced military violence, dispossession and ecocide, and you realise that this is a human rights crisis literally on Australia’s doorstep, it’s hard to explain the decades of silence.
This is trying to break through those walls of silence, so that the Australia parliament and the Australian people can show solidarity with the struggle in West Papua.
So, this was seriously the first time that a delegation has been to Parliament House in Canberra to speak about the plight of the West Papuan people?
Yes. This was the first time a formal meeting took place within Australian Parliament House, with West Papuan leaders and members of the West Papuan diaspora, speaking directly to parliamentarians.
Of course, we would have always wanted more parliamentarians in the room. We did have representation from the Greens, and we also had a Labor MP and a Coalition MP in attendance, and this was also an important milestone.
A West Papuan delegation from Melbourne and London attended the meeting last week. This included the presence of United Liberation Movement for West Papua president Benny Wenda.
So, what did members of the West Papuan delegation tell you about the plight of the West Papuan people at present?
There have been repeated reports coming from West Papua about the nature of Indonesian state violence directed against West Papuans and the economic and political drivers behind that.
What we heard in Canberra was the human story: young West Papuans who’d seen their village destroyed, the army helicopters arriving, the displacement.
We heard directly about the scale of the ecocide, the deforestation and the climate impacts. We heard that directly from West Papuans – that had a distinct power to it.
This wasn’t being filtered through the media. This was the lived experience of our closest neighbours.
The meeting in your office took place in the wake of our prime minister having signed the Australia–Indonesia Treaty on Common Security, also known as the Jakarta Treaty, on 6 February this year. This arrangement seeks to establish greater defence and investment cooperation between the two nations.
These developments, along with a long list of earlier such diplomatic dealings, took place without any mention of West Papua. However, Benny considers that this country, being the largest in the Pacific, has a moral obligation to safeguard West Papuans.
So, what are your thoughts on how the Australian government should be approaching West Papua in its diplomatic dealings with Jakarta?
It’s extraordinary how successive Australian governments have refused to look at what is occurring in West Papua and have also refused to take any significant action to support the rights of West Papuan people to live a life where they can celebrate their culture, speak their languages and be free from oppression.
This is a basic fundamental human right. There was a moment in 2019, when Australia together with 100 other nations around the world called for Indonesia to allow a UN human rights inspector into West Papua.
But there has been no action since 2019, and no pressure coming from Australia to allow that inspection to occur.
The Greens believe fundamentally that Australia and Indonesia should be good and close friends. We have a shared geographic destiny, and it is important that there be collaboration, but that can’t be collaboration at any cost.
Good friends tell each other hard truths. That has been missing in the Australia-Indonesia dialogues that have focused so much on external security threats and the perceived threats of China, while failing to even reference the human rights struggle that’s occurring in West Papua.
The Indonesian government has embarked upon the largest deforestation project on the planet, which is the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate Megaproject. This commenced in 2024 and it will produce sugarcane, rice, palm oil and other products.
This is occurring at a time when the planet is in climate crisis, and the West Papuan people have produced their own Green State Vision policy, which seeks to preserve their wilderness and that of the planet.
So, how do you consider this development appearing at this point in time? And what will it mean for the West Papuan people?
There is a climate bomb about to be set off in the middle of West Papua, with 1.2 million hectares of ancient virgin forest being cleared, which will release something in the order of 800 million tonnes of carbon dioxide unless it is stopped.
To Australia’s great shame, we have been silent about the climate risks of that. And of course, for the people on the ground in West Papua, the ecocide, the displacement and the cultural and economic destruction that is associated with that, is on an appalling scale.
When you look at what Australia has done in the face of this proposed project, we’ve seen Australian investment through the CSIRO and Australian government science grants.
So, we’ve not been part of the solution but part of the problem, as we’ve been investing in pest resistant cane sugar that makes part of this project economically viable.
We are still waiting for answers from the government on how it allowed public money to be used to make this extraordinary attack on both rights and the environment economically viable.
From the perspective of a Greens Senator, and just from the perspective of an Australian citizen, I can’t understand how we allowed Australian public money to subsidise this damage.
And lastly, David, under current Indonesian president Subianto Prabowo, Indonesian military assaults on West Papuan villages have been escalating and as we’ve just noted, the largest deforestation project on the planet is well underway.
So, what sort of immediate steps could the Australian government and others be taking to assist in the turning around of this situation? And what would you say regular people in this country could be doing to assist in the plight of the West Papuans?
I’d say to Australians, get informed and find out what’s happening. The distance between Australia and West Papua is about 250 kilometres, so it is closer than the drive from Sydney to Canberra.
This is happening to our neighbours in our neighbourhood.
The wall of silence from the Australian government also shields active complicity. Australia has a sordid history of training Indonesian military units that are then sent into West Papua to engage in violence and displacement.
The latest security treaty between Indonesia and Australia threatens to continue down that deeply unprincipled path.
These are things that Australia can fix. I urge Australia to yes be calling on Indonesia to show respect for the people of West Papua, but also to call on Australia, as the largest state in the Pacific, to start matching our actions with what I consider to be the Australian values of human rights and decency.
Main image of International Parliamentarians for West Papua Australia chapter meeting supplied by the United Liberation Movement of West Papua
Nduga District Head Yoas Beon said here Friday that the aid was prepared for residents across 32 subdistricts.
"Besides food, we are also addressing clean water needs, which have become a problem due to the current weather conditions," he said after the aid distribution.
Yoas said the local government must act quickly to ensure residents' basic needs are met as climate change affects the region.
"Addressing drought impacts requires more than aid distribution. It also needs coordination among agencies to comprehensively monitor residents' conditions," he said.
To support those efforts, the Nduga government has established a Climate Change Response Command Post in Kenyam to coordinate monitoring and aid distribution in affected areas.
"These measures help identify residents' actual needs so aid can match conditions on the ground. Drought can trigger cascading impacts, from limited water supplies to food shortages," he said.
Yoas said the Nduga government would continue assessing conditions in each district and adjust its response according to residents' needs.
"I urge residents to remain calm, protect water sources and use the aid provided appropriately," Nduga District Head Yoas Beon said.
Related news: Government prepared with strategy to address drought: Minister
Related news: Indonesia tackles drought across 1,229 locations amid strong El Nino
Translator: Qadri P, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Primayanti
Jayapura, Papua — Murky, brown-coloured water from the Hubay River flows downstream into Lake Sentani in Jayapura Regency, Papua.
The river originates at the foothills of the Cycloops Mountains, on the border between Jayapura Regency and Jayapura City. The area is a nature reserve known for its rich biodiversity.
But Lake Sentani is now under threat from sediment generated by illegal gold mining upstream.
From the river’s upper reaches to its mouth, large amounts of sand, gravel, rocks and mud have accumulated, causing the river to become increasingly shallow. The sediment has also spread into the lake, including around Bridge II near the mouth of the Hubay River, where the waterway has become narrower.
Anggi Rivaldo Ohee, a resident of Asei Kecil village in East Sentani district, said the river had been deteriorating for around a decade.
“The river flows muddy every day, and sometimes it carries sediment into the lake,” he said on July 25, 2026.
Mr Ohee said the sediment had polluted Lake Sentani from Bridge II to the villages of Telaga Maya, Telaga Ria and Yoka.
The pollution has made it increasingly difficult for local residents to catch fish. Diving, net fishing and angling have all become less productive.
“Before the mining started, it was easy to catch fish. Since the mining began upstream, those of us living around the lake have struggled, especially to find fish. The lake is getting shallower every day because of the mining sediment flowing into it,” Mr Ohee said.
Gold mining activities in the area have been operating since 1999. The mining site is located around the Bumi Perkemahan (Buper) Waena area in Heram district, Jayapura City.
The mining is reportedly operated independently by customary landowners, while Indigenous communities living downstream in Sentani are among those experiencing its impacts.
Lake Sentani is Papua’s second-largest lake, covering about 9,360 hectares. It stretches along the foothills of the Cycloops Mountains across Jayapura Regency and Jayapura City.
At least 24 villages around the lake depend on its natural resources for their livelihoods.
Mr Ohee said the water around the river mouth, near the border between Jayapura City and Jayapura Regency, was once clear and rich in fish.
Among the species commonly caught were carp, tilapia, eels, the invasive flowerhorn cichlid and kayou, the local name for snakehead fish.
As the lake’s water quality has deteriorated, Mr Ohee has had to take up work as a motorcycle taxi driver in addition to fishing.
He said fish that once lived around the river mouth had become increasingly difficult to find.
“Because it has become so shallow, there are no longer places for the fish to come up. We used to catch carp, tilapia and eels from the lake. Now they are difficult to find and very rare because it has become so shallow,” he said.
Hans Ohee, a member of the Sentani community, said the river at its mouth, near the border between Jayapura City and Jayapura Regency, was once clear and full of fish.
Mr Ohee lives in a traditional stilt house and has built a fish cage underneath it. The cage is located on the riverbank, where he previously took advantage of the river’s fast-flowing, clear water.
“Sometimes we catch fish in the lake for our own consumption. If we catch more than we need, we usually sell them. Now I’ve switched to using the fish cage for raising and breeding fish, but their growth has not been very good,” Mr Ohee said.
He said residents were now struggling to develop fish-farming businesses because of the polluted water.
“The fish used to be fat, but now they remain thin and underweight. There used to be plenty of snakehead fish around the river mouth too, but they have become rare because the water is muddy,” he said.
The fish cage has now become clogged with sediment.
Mr Ohee said the problem became worse during heavy rain, when large amounts of mud and other material were carried downstream, causing the river to overflow into nearby homes.
Residents have reported floodwaters reaching knee height.
“They are trying to make money and earn a living. But they also need to remember that there are people downstream who bear the risks,” he said in frustration.
Both Hans Ohee and Rivaldo Ohee have urged the government and security authorities to take action against mining operations in the upper reaches of the Cycloops Mountains.
They warned that if mining continues for another 10 to 20 years, sediment could spread further towards the middle of Lake Sentani.
“The mining is also a threat to the lake. We hope the government will stop the gold panning activities upstream, so people living along the river can continue to fish in the lake without facing these difficulties,” Mr Rivaldo Ohee said.
Heavy metal contamination linked to mining
An identification and assessment by environmental organisation Walhi Papua in November 2025 found extensive gold mining activity in the Buper Waena area of Jayapura City.
The operations reportedly use heavy machinery, including excavators, as well as dompeng machines — high-powered water pumps similar to alkon pumps.
Waste and sediment from the mining operations are then carried downstream through the river system.
“If heavy machinery is being used, mercury is still used as well because the two go together. Mercury is used to separate gold from rock, sand and water,” Walhi Papua director Maikel Primus Peuki said on July 27, 2026.
He said communities living along the river, around its mouth and near the lake had already lost access to clean water.
He also warned that mining waste could damage habitats and ecosystems within Lake Sentani.
“For example, native fish and other species in Lake Sentani, including gastor, tilapia and nila, are at risk of disappearing or declining because of waste discharge,” he said.
The most visible impact, he said, was sedimentation.
“Unfortunately, the less visible impact of mining activities involving mercury is what will happen to the fish living in Lake Sentani,” Mr Peuki said.
Henderite L. Ohee, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences at Cenderawasih University, said the condition of Lake Sentani was significantly different from what it was in the 1990s.
He identified three major changes: habitat degradation, declining environmental quality and the introduction of non-native fish species into the lake.
“Lake Sentani has gradually narrowed, or lost part of its surface area, because of sedimentation and the accumulation of material around the lake,” he said.
He attributed the changes to erosion upstream, which has caused waterways and parts of the lake to become covered by sediment, as well as infrastructure development.
In 2025, researchers from Cenderawasih University conducted a study examining the ecological and human health risks associated with heavy metal contamination in Lake Sentani.
They tested six heavy metals — mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) — at 11 locations, including the mouth of the river near Bridge II.
The study also examined six freshwater fish species, including both native and introduced species: Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), bonylip barb (Osteochilus vittatus), red devil cichlid (Amphilophus citrinellus), catfish (Arius velutinus), striped rainbowfish (Chilatherina fasciata) and red rainbowfish (Glossolepis incisus).
“The research showed that cadmium levels exceeded the threshold at all locations, while lead and copper concentrations remained below the threshold. Mercury, nickel and zinc were above the threshold at several locations,” the study found.
Although levels of mercury, lead, nickel, copper and zinc in sediment did not indicate an ecological risk at the time of the assessment, the ecological risk index indicated potential risks ranging from low to significant.
The study also found that some fish samples contained lead, cadmium, nickel and zinc above permitted thresholds.
“The metal pollution index was very high, indicating an accumulation of heavy metals, while the bioaccumulation factor ranged from moderate to high,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers said the risk was not present across all areas. However, the hazard index for heavy metals indicated that some fish species could pose a potential non-carcinogenic health risk to people who consume them.
Some fish samples were classified as presenting a significant risk associated with nickel and cadmium, indicating potential carcinogenic exposure risks for humans, particularly around the mouth of the Kampwolker River.
Referring to the study, Mr Henderite said that while mercury levels detected in fish were relatively low, regular exposure could still have implications for ecosystems and human health.
“Mercury is a particularly dangerous type of heavy metal. If people regularly consume fish containing mercury or other heavy metals, even at low levels, they can accumulate in the body over time. This can contribute to diseases, including cancer, which can be caused not only by mercury but also by other heavy metals,” he said.
Many people depend on Lake Sentani for their livelihoods. The lake serves important ecological, economic, tourism and transportation functions for communities living around it.
Data from Papua’s Fisheries and Marine Affairs Agency showed that in 2023, there were 892 capture fishers operating on Lake Sentani, across the western, central and eastern parts of the lake.
The annual catch was estimated at about 1,823.52 tonnes, compared with the lake’s total potential of 8,922.8 tonnes per year.
The lake is also one of Papua’s major centres for aquaculture.
Illegal mining allowed to continue?
Salmon Telenggen, head of the Jayapura Regency Environmental Agency, said the mining operations in Buper had not been designated as a People’s Mining Area (Wilayah Pertambangan Rakyat, or WPR) and did not have a People’s Mining Permit (Surat Izin Pertambangan Rakyat, or SIPRD) from the Papua provincial government.
As a result, the mining operations are considered illegal.
However, the site has reportedly been operating since around 1998, with customary landowners carrying out traditional mining activities.
Jayapura Regent Yunus Wonda has also said there are eight unlicensed mining operations in Jayapura Regency that do not contribute to local government revenue and will be subject to enforcement action.
“The mining operation in Buper is classified as unlicensed. Even though it is managed by customary landowners and has been operating for a long time, it does not have a permit,” Mr Telenggen said on August 6, 2026.
The Buper mining site is located near the buffer zone of the Cycloops Mountains Nature Reserve, an area where mining activities are heavily restricted and, under environmental regulations, prohibited.
Mining waste and sediment, along with soil erosion from excavation, mud, sand and land clearing upstream, are carried by rainwater into the river system and eventually into the lake.
Mr Telenggen said this posed a serious and immediate threat, with water quality declining significantly and pollution making the lake water unsuitable as a source of clean water.
Lake Sentani has effectively become a “giant holding tank” for waste, he said, with pollutants flowing into the lake. The lake has only one relatively narrow outlet, the Jaifuri River, while sedimentation continues to worsen.
“Severe sedimentation caused by mud and sand deposits from mining and upstream areas is reducing the lake’s depth and its capacity to hold water. Flooding is becoming more frequent in settlements around the lake,” he said.
He also warned of health risks for communities that bathe, wash clothes or consume lake water, saying they could be exposed to skin and gastrointestinal illnesses as a result of bacteria and hazardous substances from mining waste.
Mr Telenggen said the government would take action to control sources of pollution upstream, including enforcing restrictions on mining and land clearing in the Cycloops protected area and rehabilitating forest in the buffer zone to reduce erosion and sedimentation.
“The government, together with law enforcement agencies, must take action and impose penalties that deter those responsible, so that the 2019 flash floods are not repeated. Jayapura Regency is a disaster-prone area, and the Cycloops Mountains provide a source of life for people in both Jayapura City and Jayapura Regency,” he said.
But Mr Peuki of Walhi Papua said the government’s current efforts amounted to little more than talk because there had been no meaningful enforcement or monitoring.
He accused authorities of allowing the illegal mining activities to continue for too long.
“The mining area is getting larger over time and is moving towards the mountains, closer to the buffer zone of the Cycloops Nature Reserve. If this is allowed to continue, it is effectively a violation,” he said.
Mr Henderite said customary landowners should consider the future of Lake Sentani and the generations that would depend on it.
“If you care about your children, your relatives and your descendants, the mining should be closed. It is not only creating a threat through contaminated fish but could also eventually turn this lake into dry land,” he said.
“If erosion and material from mining continue to enter the lake, slowly but surely, this lake could become land.
“We cannot say it will happen in one or two years, but it could happen over the next five, 10 or 20 years. I understand that closing the mines would reduce people’s income, but if we think wisely about protecting the lake, then the best step is simply to close the mines.”
Hans Ohee said he was concerned that within 20 years, sedimentation could make the lake shallow across much of its area, including towards the middle.
He said local communities did not have the power to stop the process themselves and called on the government to protect the lake.
“The government needs to care about this situation. If the mining continues, the lake will continue to become shallower,” he said. (*)
This article was first published by Mongabay Indonesia.
https://mongabay.co.id/2026/08/27/ancaman-tambang-emas-ilegal-di-hulu-danau-sentani/
Sorong, Southwest Papua — Sulaiman Mubalen, a member of the Papua Southwest Provincial People’s Assembly (MRP), has raised concerns about disparities in public services in Maladumes District, Sorong City, Southwest Papua Province.
The concerns were raised by residents during a meeting with Mr Mubalen on Thursday, August 27, where they outlined issues affecting their daily lives and questioned whether Papua’s Special Autonomy (Otsus) funding was being properly planned, allocated and spent to address community needs at district and village level.
Mr Mubalen said the concerns were not simply requests for government assistance, but involved basic needs and the future of Indigenous Papuans.
“People have shared the problems they face in their daily lives, and these issues must be taken seriously by the government. People should not only be listened to when officials are collecting community feedback, only for there to be no follow-up afterwards,” Mr Mubalen said.
One issue raised was the availability of markets for Papuan women traders. Residents called on the government not only to provide spaces for them to sell their goods, but also to protect economic opportunities for Indigenous Papuans.
Mr Mubalen said the government needed clear regulations to ensure local products such as betel nut, sago, taro, sweet potatoes and other traditional foods remained a strong source of income for Papuan communities.
Residents also called for a regional regulation limiting the sale of betel nut and other local foods, arguing that these products should not increasingly be sold by non-Papuans.
Mr Mubalen said the issue needed to be taken seriously by local authorities.
He said the proposal was not intended to prevent particular groups from earning a living, but to ensure Indigenous Papuan business operators received appropriate protection and support, particularly those who rely on locally grown food to support their families.
“If non-Papuans come to trade, there should be regulations. Economic opportunities should not simply be left completely open without any consideration for Indigenous Papuans. Papuan local food should be a source of economic strength for Papuan people,” he said.
Another issue raised at the meeting was the implementation of the government’s Free Nutritious Meals (MBG) program.
Residents said the program had not been distributed evenly among schoolchildren in Maladumes.
Mr Mubalen said some schoolchildren in the district, most of whom are Indigenous Papuans, had not yet benefited from the program.
He said the government should not focus only on implementing the program in central urban areas.
“Children in the districts deserve the same attention,” he said.
The government was urged to review the program’s implementation to address disparities in services between children attending schools in the city centre and those in district areas.
“The government needs to go into the districts and see the conditions children are facing. If there are problems with distribution, budgeting or implementation, they need to be fixed immediately,” Mr Mubalen said.
Residents also raised concerns about transport for schoolchildren and called for the provision of school buses.
They said reliable transport was important for ensuring children could access education safely and affordably.
” If transport is becoming an obstacle, the government needs to step in and find a solution,” Mr Mubalen said.
Mr Mubalen also called for greater support for young people in Maladumes District.
He said many young people were interested in sports, particularly football, but a lack of facilities was preventing their potential from developing.
“If the district government cannot build major facilities yet, at least provide footballs and equipment, or build a decent playing field,” he said.
Mr Mubalen said sport could play an important role in protecting young people from various negative influences.
He said the concerns raised by Maladumes residents should be incorporated into development planning and budgeting, including decisions about the use of Special Autonomy funding.
He called on the government to ensure budget policies directly addressed the needs of Indigenous communities and Indigenous Papuans.
Mr Mubalen also urged the Sorong City Government and the Southwest Papua Provincial Government not to focus development solely on central urban areas.
He said government performance should also be measured by its ability to reach communities that feel they have not received fair access to public services.
He urged local governments to review policies that had failed to address the practical needs of Indigenous communities.
Meanwhile, Maladumes District Head Antonia Iek said the concerns raised by residents were important because governments needed direct information from communities to understand the problems they were actually experiencing.
“These community concerns need to be taken seriously. What residents have raised reflects the conditions they face in their daily lives. We hope the government will follow up,” Ms Iek said.
She said coordination between the district, city and provincial governments and Indigenous community representative institutions was important to ensure issues at district level could be addressed more effectively.
“The government needs to see the conditions of communities directly so that the programs it develops genuinely reflect the needs on the ground,” she said. (*)
4) Pacific Islands Forum 2026: What Lowy’s Pacific team will be watching
The China challenge, climate crisis, Taiwan ties, West Papua – these are the fault lines, but there are opportunities too.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.