Police in West Papua arrested eight seminarians, six Franciscans and two Augustinians, who were participating in a peaceful rally in front of Abepura‘s Good Shepherd Catholic Church on 8 October. They were released after being held and interrogated for 90 minutes. The demonstrators were calling on Indonesian President Joko Widodo to investigate the unresolved December Read more
Indonesian police and army units have conducted heavily armed security sweeps across Jayapura ahead of planned mass demonstrations by civil society organizations, including the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Indonesia’s annexation of West Papua. The raids began at 3am local time on April 30, after the new Papuan Governor Lukas Read more
Prime Minister John Key has expressed alarm over a video showing two men being beaten by Fiji police. Key said the New Zealand government was taking reports of the attack seriously. “And we expect the Fijian authorities to deal with them appropriately and hold those people who have undertaken those beatings to account,” Key said. Read more
Four days after Pope Benedict left Cuba, 43 dissidents have been detained in Cuba in a new wave of repression. Former political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer and his wife, Belkis Cantillo, a member of the Women in White, were among those arrested. “We have been able to confirm that 43 dissidents have been detained – Read more
The leader of Papua’s Baptist church says about one-thousand representatives of Papua’s 250 tribes were gathered at Cenderawasih University for the third West Papua National Congress. On Wednesday, the Reverend Socratez Sofyan Yoman says the university was surrounded by about two-and-a-half thousand Indonesian security personnel, both hidden and in cars. “Round the congress is police Read more
Restrictions on religion are on the rise according to the new Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life study. Increased restraints on religious activity were now more noticeable in 23 countries, however restrictions were released in another 12 countries, the study showed. The study also shows intolerant countries growing more hostile to religious freedom, and Read more
Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands have fared poorly in the Amnesty International report on human rights for 2010. The report claims Thousands of people in the Pacific are being denied social and economic opportunity Human rights defenders have been threatened, imprisoned and tortured, and gender based violence is still a major issue in the Read more