Rallies in West Papua called for the 13 October banned by the security forces

AWPA has written to Foreign Minister Julie Bishop concerning the banning of rallies in West Papua called for the 13 October (Letter below).

The purposes of the rallies are to call on the Indonesian government to free the two French journalists Valentine Bourrat and Thomas Dandois who were arrested on the 6th of August in Wamena and remain detained in Jayapura. They could face up to five years in prison

Joe Collins said “AWPA is concerned that there may be a crackdown on any rallies that are held by the civil society groups as the police have refused to give a permit to allow the rallies to go ahead. They police claim that the organisations are not correctly registered in West Papua and demonstrators may use the symbol of the Morning Star flag on banners or posters which is banned by Indonesia. In the past year the security forces have regularly cracked down on peaceful demonstrators in the territory beating and arresting many”.

“We are urging the Foreign Minister to raise our concerns with the Indonesian Government, President Yudhoyono and President-elect Joko Widodo asking that they inform the authorities in the territory that peaceful rallies are a democratic right and should be allowed to go ahead without interference by the security forces”.

• Reports of the arrest of 29 KNPB members below. AWPA wrote to Julie Bishop yesterday re concerns about crackdown on rallies to be held today. We encourage people to write along similar lines with updated information re arrests.

Letter to foreign minister:

http://awpasydneynews.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/media-release-rallies-in-west-papua.html

Jo Collins and Anne Noonan, Australia West Papua Association (Sydney)