People will know that outside of LUV I have a couple of political groups I'm involved in. So as part of the appropriate mailing list, I'd like to invite interested people to a meeting with Louis Byrne of the West Papua Association. It'll be a small gathering (c20 people) so plenty of opportunities for in-depth questions and responses. The meeting will be held at the United Voice union offices at 117 Capel Street, North Melbourne - near the Victoria Street markets - on Saturday the 18th of May at 18.30 Yes, just after the LUV beginners workshop. So you can go to both! The following is the history of the last seventy years or so in a nutshell... After the second world war, the Netherlands eventually recognised Indonesian claims for independence, excluding Dutch New Guinea. In the latter a national parliament was elected in 1961. Indonesia, under Sukarno, engaged in military interventions in the region without success. But the possibility of a conflict lead to a UN agreement transferring authority to the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) and then to Indonesia in 1963. In 1969, the United Nations supervised an "Act of Free Choice", where Indonesian-military appointed elders agreed to be part of Indonesia. Since then the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) was established with the Republic of West Papua (1971) and has engaged in small-scale conflict, with several rebellions and riots. A major study conducted by Australian and local researchers published by Sydney University in 2005 concluded that security forces where the main source of instability, with an estimated one hundred thousand deaths resulting from the occupation process. Simple acts, such as displaying the "morning star" flag, are illegal in Indonesia. In 2000, the Wahid government granted West Papua "special autonomy", as a compromise between integration and separation, although there is little evidence of this in practise. In 2004 exiled West Papuan leader Benny Wenda initiated a campaign to encourage the UN to hold an independence referendum in West Papua. The campaign has growing international support from notable figures such as Noam Chomsky Desmond Tutu. Indonesian security forces which operate in West Papua are trained by the Australian Federal Police. Further Reading: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-27/human-rights-abuses-in-west-papua/4225... http://www.hrlc.org.au/files/Letter-to-UN-SRs-re-Australia-support-for-Detac... -- Lev Lafayette, mobile: 61 432 255 208 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt