he police on Tuesday recaptured one of seven inmates who broke through the wall of a penitentiary in Sorong identifying him as the mastermind behind the jailbreak was arrested in a residential area in the city following a tip-off that at least two out of seven escapees were hiding there and we immediately arrested him,” Happy said as quoted by Antara adding that the house owner initially denied Akmal’s presence in the house Akmal was then taken to Sorong Penitentiary for questioning and to continue serving his sentence Penitentiary warden Manuel Yenusi told reporters on Tuesday that Akmal was “the one who broke through the prison wall a detainee held on motor vehicle theft charges named Adam Rematobi also played a role as the other mastermind behind the jailbreak Delivered straight to your inbox three times weekly this curated briefing provides a concise overview of the day's most important issues covering a wide range of topics from politics to culture and society Please check your email for your newsletter subscription Adam and the five other inmates escaped the penitentiary around 4 a.m on April 1 through a hole in the prison wall they made using a stainless steel spoon The wall’s lower structure had weakened due to frequent flooding Quickly share this news with your network—keep everyone informed with just a single click Customize your reading experience by adjusting the text size to small or large—find what’s most comfortable for you he Sorong Police have launched a new team to hunt down seven inmates who escaped from Southwest Papua’s Sorong Penitentiary in the early hours on Tuesday Happy Perdana Yudianto said the special task force was an addition to the efforts to apprehend the escapees that had been underway since the jailbreak "We have gathered the identities of all of the escapees The team will distribute their wanted posters at ports airports and major roads connecting regencies across Southwest Papua," he said on Wednesday "I urge the escapees to turn yourselves in We have your names and addresses and sooner or later I also call on the escapees’ families to come forward and report to authorities if [you] have any information about their whereabouts," he added who heads the Southwest Papua Corrections Office said on Wednesday that the inmates escaped around 4 a.m "The bottom of the wall had become brittle due to frequent flooding," Susanto said adding that the seven escaped inmates were serving sentences for various crimes One escapee identified only as AA is a member of a local separatist group AA had been handed down a 20-year prison sentence after he was convicted for killing four Indonesian Military (TNI) soldiers during a 2021 attack on the Kisor Subdistrict Military Command with other separatists “Perusahaan omong kosong banyak janji yang tidak direalisasikan kami meminta perusahaan berhenti disini dan tidak memperluas lahan kebun," kata Nelson Katumun warga yang berdiam di batas kebun dan dusun Klawiri ©2020 Betahita. Hak cipta dilindungi Undang-undang. Kebijakan Privasi | Disclaimer Anastasya Lavenia Y TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian National Navy (TNI AL), on Matabongsang-873 patrol vessels, evacuated 17 victims of the sunken tourist vessel Putri Papua in the waters of Sorong Regency, Southwest Papua Head of the Fleet Command III Information Service Lieutenant Colonel Laut (S) Ajik Sismianto said the incident began at 05:47 a.m local time when the fleet command received information via WhatsApp about engine damage experienced by the ship owned by Grand Komodo “Koarmada III ordered Matabongsang-873 to immediately carry out an evacuation at a distance of about 12 Nautical Miles (NM) from the reported location of the ship,” Ajik said on Monday The patrol vessel arrived at the scene at 7:22 p.m. but the motor vessel Putri Papua was not visible Authorities then carried out search efforts towards the east.  the patrol vessel received visual contact through smoke but the boat was already sinking by the time authorities reached the location.   the Matabangsong-873 patrol vessel managed to evacuate 17 people one of whom had a nail pulled out and the other was traumatized by the wreckage of the ship,” Ajik said The injured victims were then taken to the Oetoyo Sorong Naval Hospital for treatment Editor’s Choice: TNI Assures Pardon for OPM Prisoners Will Not Affect Security in Papua Click here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News Prabowo Rejects 'Puppet President' Label, Denies Jokowi's Control Manpower Minister Unveils Reasons Behind Over 24,000 Layoffs by April 2025 Prabowo Claims 99.99% Success Rate for Free Nutritious Meal Program Indonesia and Japan Deepen Strategic Alliance in Clean Energy and Infrastructure Jokowi Responds to Calls for VP Gibran's Impeachment Prabowo Praises Jokowi's Inflation Control in Cabinet Session, Denies Link to Gibran's Presence BPS: Indonesian Economic Growth Slows to 4.87% in Q1 2025 Rupiah Strengthens as US-China Trade Tension Eases BGN Chief Aims for Zero Accidents in Free Nutritious Meal Program Prabowo Holds Plenary Cabinet Session at Palace This Afternoon Indonesian-Flagged Ships Achieve Fifth White List Inclusion in Tokyo MoU Drone Attack Targets Aid Ship Bound for Gaza Near Malta TPNPB-OPM Declares War on Indonesian Military in Papua Amnesty International Reports on Indonesia's Declining Human Rights Protection Prabowo Proposes Evacuation of Gaza's Medical and Education Workers TPNPB-OPM Admits Involvement in Shooting of Komnas HAM Papua Team TPNPB-OPM Claims to Have Shot Dead 2 TNI Soldiers in Maybrat Scorching Hot Weather Grips Indonesia: BMKG Reports Temperatures Hit 37 Degrees Celsius Indonesia's $6mn Grant to Fiji Allegedly Aimed at Securing Papua Diplomatic Support TPNPB-OPM Accuses Indonesian Military of Conducting Airstrikes in Papua The Pope's Role in Major Events of the Modern Era Prabowo to Host Cambodian Senate President This Afternoon Sistine Chapel Prepares for the Election of New Pope Anthony Albanese Makes Indonesia His First Visit After Winning Australian Election JYP Entertainment Apologizes for DAY6 Concert Chaos in Jakarta AJI, UNESCO Declare Commitment to Support Digital Security of Student Press Inside Sistine Chapel: 5 Key Facts About the Conclave's Iconic Venue World's Best Muslim-Friendly Country Destinations, Indonesia Ranks First Exposing Trump's Move on Mike Waltz Dismissal What Are the Cheapest Businesses to Start from Home? Here Are the Top 10 Jobs That AI Will Replace: Is Your Current Job at Risk? Hollywood Shaken as Trump Orders 100% Tariff on All Foreign-Made Films Where to Go in May? Here Are the Top 12 Destinations Top 10 Highest-Paying Majors Worth Pursuing in 2025 Six Dead, Dozens Injured in India's Goa Religious Festival Stampede his opinion started from a simple question of curiosity: Why does the government persist in continuing large-scale projects This question leads me to focus on transmigration in West Papua, extending it further: Why has the persistence of transmigration continued and even been recently revived? Although it was officially halted in 2000, the successive administrations of Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Prabowo Subianto look determined to continue it Transmigration in West Papua did not begin on a blank slate but was preceded by a series of threats and violent acts that paved the way for settlers while indigenous people were exterminated The first transmigration project in Sorong was launched in 1978 the Moi people had already endured over a decade of violence and threats My interviews with the Moi people and archival research reveal that the Indonesian Military (TNI) conducted brutal operations in the area from 1966 to 1969 The methods used mirrored the atrocities of the 1965 communist purges in Java murdered and buried in their own graves before being shot while others were thrown into one of Sorong's largest rivers These acts of terror allowed the transmigration projects to go unhindered notably in a thesis at Gadjah Mada University by Johny Kamuru who later became the regent of Sorong from 2017 to 2022 Kamuru gained recognition for halting several oil palm plantation operations in the region The Indonesian government took over indigenous Moi land at an extremely low price Archival records from the Supreme Court provide a striking example: The government acquired approximately 8,093 hectares (ha) of Moi indigenous land spanning from kilometer mark (km) 17 to km 32 in Aimas District in an area now fully settled by Indonesian transmigrants Whether you're looking to broaden your horizons or stay informed on the latest developments "Viewpoint" is the perfect source for anyone seeking to engage with the issues that matter most Compensation for this land was set at a mere Rp 8 million (approximately US$500 today) This amount included payment for cash crops and native trees such as matoa which were essential for local livelihoods as well as forests that provided essential resources for hunting and foraging Silvy Riana Putri TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Raja Ampat in West Papua has been recognized among must-visit destinations in 2025 by the New York Times Included in their list of "52 Places to Go in 2025" Raja Ampat shares the spotlight with renowned global destinations such as Milan the New York Times describes Raja Ampat which is nestled within the Coral Triangle as the most diverse marine ecosystem on Earth offers breathtaking natural beauty both above and below the water's surface “Snorkel among spotted yellow boxfish and dive amid purple gorgonian sea fans explore secluded beaches fringed by coconut palms or trek into the jungle to spot the striking and rare Wilson’s bird of paradise,” said the review by the American media Raja Ampat is a rare conservation success story Amid declining stingray and shark populations worldwide the number of reef manta rays in this region continues to grow The area also has an abundance of terrestrial flora and fauna Raja Ampat is a popular choice for many foreign tourists seeking solitude amid natural beauty. Tourists departing from Bali can opt for a direct flight to Sorong with a travel time of around four hours they can continue their journey to Waisai City Waisai is accessible by air from Domine Eduard Osok Airport in Sorong to Marinda Airport travelers can take a ferry from Sorong Port to Raja Ampat Ferries are available daily with two departures Upon arrival in Raja Ampat, tourists can access overwater bungalows by boat Accommodation can be booked through the Raja Ampat Homestay Association Here is a complete list of "52 Places to Go in 2025" by the New York Times: Editor’s Choice: Top 10 Japan's Winter Festivals for 2025: A True Magical Experience Click here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock Reunite After 30 Years for New Film Project Vesak 2025: Borobudur Temple to Host Thousands of Devotees with Spiritual Celebrations Tripdvisor Reveals the Best Hotel in the World for 2025 Your Ultimate Guide: 7 Summer Vacation Tips Explore 10 Asian Seafood Delicacies: From Unagi to Mentaiko Two Sumatran Tiger Cubs Born in Barumun Sanctuary Your Ultimate Guide: 7 Summer Vacation Tips World's Best Muslim-Friendly Country Destinations Malaysian Climber Falls into Ravine on Mount Rinjani Hiking Trail Free Tourist Shuttle Service from Hong Kong to Macau When Is the Best Time to Explore Raja Ampat Bali's Semarapura Festival Expected to Draw 20,000 Tourists Discover Thailand's Phi Phi Islands Top Attractions Most Tourists in Labuan Bajo Choose Live-On-Board Experience Non Koresponden Laila Afifa TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Health Office in South Sorong, Southwest Papua, recorded 47 malaria cases from January to March 2024 based on detection results and data collection The acting head of the South Sorong Health Department said that all the malaria cases had been mitigated by the local community health centers (puskesmas) "Puskesmas officers have conducted examinations on the patients after receiving information about malaria cases The first step is of course treatment," said Marthina in South Sorong the Puskesmas team was then deployed to closely monitor the area of residence and the condition of patients suffering from malaria "We also conduct regular monitoring in each area to find out the spread we immediately contain the case to prevent it from spreading," said Marthina South Sorong Regency has received an award from the Ministry of Health for its success in eradicating malaria is to increase the intensity of dissemination on the impact and dangers of malaria "The dissemination is not only exclusive for malaria disease but also other infectious diseases so that the public will understand the impact and dangers of the diseases."  Editor's Choice: Indonesia Aims to be Malaria Free By 2030 Study Shows Frequent Sexual Activity May Boost Mental Well-Being Food Poisoning: Know the 6 Common Bacteria and How to Avoid Them Prabowo Slams Professor Skeptical of Free Nutritious Meals Program Laila Afifa Jakarta - West Papua Regional Police Chief Inspector General Johnny Eddizon Isir stated that several members were injured in a clash between the Police’s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) personnel and Navy personnel at Sorong Port earlier this morning our data shows that our colleagues from the Navy are still under treatment and one member from Tambrauw Police is also receiving treatment five personnel from Sorong City Police have undergone treatment and have returned," Johnny said at a press conference in Sorong on Sunday Johnny stated that his team would investigate to uncover the cause of the clash The altercation involved several members of the Navy Military Police (Pomal) of Lantamal XIV/Sorong and members of Brimob from West Papua Regional Police Battalion B Sorong the West Papua Regional Police will impose strict sanctions on Brimob members who are proven guilty to serve as a deterrent our team from West Papua Regional Police will descend and conduct an investigation into the case," Johnny said Johnny apologized to the Navy for the incident He hoped that such incidents will not occur in the future so that the relationship between the Police and the Navy in the Southwest West Papua region namely the Regional Head Election (Pilkada) in November 2024 so the commitment of the Navy and the Police to safeguard this national agenda for it to run safely and conducive can be carried out well and maximally the chronological basis of the incident began with a misunderstanding between the two parties TNI Spokesperson: Mediation has been Conducted The Indonesian Navy and the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) of West Papua Regional Police have conducted mediation regarding the clash that occurred on Sunday "The actions taken by each leader to control their subordinates and to mediate," said the Head of Information Center of TNI Headquarters Major General TNI Nugraha Gumilar when confirmed in Jakarta Gumilar said the clash occurred precisely at the entrance to the departure waiting room of the Pelindo IV Sorong office The fight started when members of the Navy Marhanlan XIV/Sorong reprimanded Brimob personnel from West Papua Regional Police who were at the location He did not elaborate on the exact words used in the reprimand resulting in a clash between the two parties the TNI and the Police are guarding the examination location to ensure there is no further conflict between the two sides we are conducting joint patrols as a preventive measure to avoid being provoked by the incident," said Gumilar Today's Top 3 News: 7 Most Beautiful Banknotes Bank Indonesia Withdraws Four Banknote Denominations Says Police Behind Violence at Labor Day Rally Jakarta Police Blame Infiltrators for Labor Day Rally Unrest LBH Jakarta Reports Labor Day Protesters Still Detained by Police After Investigation Indonesian Police Bust 7 Online Gambling Sites Israel Wildfire Probe: Police Confirm 3 Arrests How Police Repression Unfolded During Semarang May Day Rally Tempo Journalist Allegedly Assaulted by Police During May Day Rally in Semarang Chaos Erupts at Semarang May Day Rally: Police Arrest Suspected Provocateurs Police Deploy 13,252 Joint Personnel to Safeguard Jakarta May Day Events Kabar gembira datang dari Kabupaten Sorong Bupati Sorong mencabut izin usaha perkebunan dan izin lingkungan perusahaan sawit PT Mega Mustika Plantation (MMP) dan menyerahkan kepada masyarakat adat Moi Pencabutan izin ini buah perjuangan panjang masyarakat adat Moi yang menolak lahan dan hutan mereka jadi perkebunan sawit perusahaan selama sembilan tahun terus mendesak dan menyuarakan agar pemerintah Sorong maupun Papua Barat mencabut izin perusahaan dan mengembalikan lahan jadi wilayah Moi Masyarakat Adat Moi aksi di depan Kantor Bupati Sorong mendesak bupati mencabut izin-izin perusahaan sawit di beberapa titik di tanah adat Moi seperti PT pencabutan izin oleh bupati merupakan perjuangan panjang warga “Ini sudah lebih dulu oleh orangtua saya hingga generasi saya akhirnya pemerintah mencabut izin usaha perkebunan PT soal pembongkaran hutan Klaso jadi perkebunan bukan hanya sawit pernah ada dokumen menyatakan akan buka untuk kebun coklat dan pir MMP mulai masuk ke Klaso dan bertemu sepihak dengan pihak-pihak tertentu tanpa melibatkan semua masyarakat adat Klaso perusakaan hanya menjelaskan maksud kedatangan mereka MMP menerbitkan berita acara dan langsung mengajukan izin ke pemerintah mengeluarkan SK Bupati soal izin lokasi untuk keperluan usaha perkebunan sawit MMP di Distrik Klaso “Dari sini sudah terlihat kecurangan dari perusahaan yang sama sekali tidak melibatkan semua masyarakat adat dan membuat berita acara tanpa ada kesepakatan terlebih dahulu,” kata Hormes Hormes dan beberapa pemuda Moi mulai berkonsolidasi dengan pemuda mahasiswa hingga mayarakat untuk tolak perkebunan sawit MMP Mereka sudah banyak mendatapkan informasi berbagai masalah menimpa kala hutan atau wilayah adat jadi kebun sawit “Saya bersama beberapa orang lain mulai mengajak pemuda dan masyarakat untuk penolakan perkebunan sawit demi menjaga keituhan hutan kami Kami juga belajar dari pengalaman buruk dan dampak buruk dari perkebunan sawit yang ada lebih dulu.” masyarakat Adat Moi menolak dengan berbagai cara Mulai dari aksi langsung dan melalui media sosial mendesak pemerintah mencabut izin MMP mereka mulai sosialisasi kepada masyarakat mengenai dampak buruk dari perkebunan sawit yang bisa merusak hutan dan segala satwa di dalamnya Sosialisasi dan suara warga ini mereka serahkan kepada pemerintah (bupati) tetapi mendapat respon sama sekali Hormes dan masyarakat adat Moi aksi di Klaso Mereka juga buat surat pernyataan dan berikan kepada pemerintah mereka kembali aksi di depan Gedung DPRD Sorong dengan tuntutan meminta DPR mendesak pemerintah mencabut izin MMP mereka terus kampanye melalui media sosial hingga MMP enggan membuka lahan Masyarakat Adat Moi mulai lobi-lobi ke pemerintah soal penolakan MMP dan meminta pemerintah daerah cabut izin Mereka bersepakat aksi langsung ke bupati pada Hari Masyarakat Adat Internasional lalu berjanji akan cabut izin perusahaan sawit ini Johny Kamuru membacakan dan menyerahkan surat putusan pencabutan izin lingkungan dan IUP MMP kepada masyarakat adat Moi di Klaso Masyarakat adat Moi juga meminta pemerintah pusat segera audit HAM dan lingkungan terhadap usaha perusahaan dan perizinan usaha perkebunan pertambangan dan program pembangunan kawasan khusus Berbagai hal itu diduga melanggar hak masyarakat adat Moi dan mendapat penolakan warga mereka akan mengajukan kepada Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup agar ada penetapan hutan adat Klaso yang kini dalam status hutan produksi dikonversi (HPK) Mereka minta kawasan hutan ubah ke alokasi penggunaan lain (APL) Direktur Eksekutif Yayasan Pusaka Bentala Rakyat mengatakan Masyarakat Klaso meminta hutan Klaso diakui sebagai hutan adat soal perubahan HPK ke APL sudah ada pembicaraan internal DI DPR terutama Komisi II yang khusus mengurus perizinan “Saya dan beberapa anggota DPR telah membicarakan mengenai pengalihan hutan konservasi ke hutan adat.” Marthinus Ulimpa juga anak asli Klaso yang membantu proses pencabutan izin kebun sawit Marthinus bertemu Kepala Dinas Pertanian dan Kabid Perkebunan untuk menyerahkan dokumen-dokumen penolakan Masyarakat Adat Klaso Dokumen ini lalu diberikan kepada Bupati Sorong bupati menanggapi persoalan ini dengan sangat baik saat aksi Hari Masyarakat Adat Internasional bupati berjanji mencabut izin dan menyerahkan surat putusan kepada masyarakat adat Moi di Klaso Marthinus mengapresiasi koalisi organisasi masyarakat sipil yang mengawal penolakan kebun sawit di Klaso termasuk Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN) Sorong Raya dan Malamoi Masyarakat adat Moi aksi di depan Kantor Bupati Sorong menuntut cabut izin kebun sawit perusahaan di wilayah adat Moi Foto: Natalia Laurensia Carmelia Yewen / Mongabay Indonesia Pemerintah Papua Barat evaluasi izin sawit sedang evaluasi dan kaji ulang izin kebun sawit ada 18 perusahaan yang sudah mendapat IUP di Papua Barat dengan luas 490.191 hektar MMP mendapat izin 9.835 hektar—data sebelumnya 11.000-an hektar Ada tiga perusahaan lain di Kabupaten Sorong belum beroperasi dan sedang evaluasi antara lain PT Cipta Papua Plantation seluas 15.671 hektar Sorong Agro Sawitindo seluas 40.000 hektar Heri belum mau komentar karena belum mendpatkan surat resmi dari Pemerintah Kabupaten Sorong hasil peninjauan kembali belum bisa publikasi dan terbatas pada internal pemerintah masih ada data harus dilengkapi dan klarifikasi ke perusahaan Kita hanya menyampaikan data ke kabupaten hasil review kita.”Sebelumnya provinsi sudah kirim surat ke Pemerintah Sorong soal evaluasi kebun sawit Direktur Eksekutif Econusa mengapresiasi kebijakan Bupati Sorong Econusa ikut membantu pemerintah Papua Barat dalam meninjau kembali izin perkebunan sawit di provinsi itu “Perusahaan itu jadi salah satu yang di-review jadi saya pikir bagus karena Pak bupati berinisiatif memfasilitasi yang diminta masyarakat untuk tak memperpanjang izin peninjauan kembali izin-izin ini masih terus berlangsung akan ada rekomendasi kepada gubernur dan bupati Kalau wilayah izin lintas kabupaten dan izin dari gubernur maka yang berwenang mencabut izin gubernur pandemi Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) membuat proses jadi lambat perlu koordinasi bukan hanya dengan perusahaan juga pemerintah dan lembaga terkait Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) ikut terlibat memberi masukan pada proses ini “Idealnya bisa face to face tapi situasi sekarang semua online hingga sedikit memperlambat proses Mudah-mudahan sebelum akhir tahun semua sudah bisa diserahkan ke gubernur dan para bupati.” “Yang mana kira-kira yang sebaiknya tidak diberikan izin dan diberikan kepada masyarakat.” Keterangan foto utama: Bupati Sorong  Johny Kamuru bersama masyarakat Adat Moi di Kampung Dela   Facebook   Twitter   Instagram   RSS / XML Najla Nur Fauziyah TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Presidential candidate number 1 Anies Baswedan promises to transform Sorong in Southwest Papua into an agro-maritime city The statement was relayed during his time in Sorong on Tuesday "We are planning to transform Sorong into an agro-maritime city in Indonesia this city will become an agricultural and fisheries service center," he said as quoted from Anies Baswedan's YouTube account on Wednesday the development in Sorong must be prioritized due to its impact on the residents and Papua in general Anies will take Sorong as one of the 40 priority cities if he is elected in the upcoming general elections "We will make Sorong one of the forty cities we develop since we want Indonesia to advance simultaneously," he said The running candidate in the 14th of February election also reflects on the IKN-focused development the government is engaging with these days Anies said one of the measures to take in transforming Sorong into an agro-maritime city is to revitalize its ports and ensure welfare for its farmers and fishermen "Farmers and fishermen must be supported with capital to boost agricultural and fisheries sectors in Sorong," he said "If that happens (Sorong as an agro-maritime city) all of Southwest Papua will experience the impact." Anies Baswedan spent his 50th day of the campaign period in Papua Editor's Choice: Bekasi Denies Intervention in Anies Baswedan's Videotron in Grand Metropolitan Mall 'Anticipate the Worst': Minister Says Rice Exports on Hold Despite Record-High Reserves USDA Forecasts 3.9 Million Ton Drop in Indonesia's Rice Imports by 2025 ational flag carrier Garuda Indonesia is set to launch a daily return flight between Jakarta and Sorong beginning March 10 as it aims to increase access to the West Papua province and its famed tourist destination of Raja Ampat.  Garuda Indonesia's marketing and IT director said the services would make it easier for tourists a maritime tourist area that has caught the world's attention for its picturesque landscapes and underwater scenery.  Sorong is the closest Indonesian city in West Papua to reach Raja Ampat Islands travelers need to continue on by sea on a two-hour speed boat ride that takes them to Waisai which is one of the largest islands in Raja Ampat regency Nina further added that the daily flight was also hoped to contribute to the economic potential of the West Papua region.  the city of Sorong was geographically strategic as it was the largest city in West Papua as well as being an industrial and trade city Read also: Four Indonesian destinations named best dive sites in Asia by CNN "With the opening of the Jakarta-Sorong return route in addition to increasingly boosting and developing tourism potential in the West Papua region it would also provide more convenience for business actors who travel to and from the capital city of Jakarta," Nina said as quoted in a statement on Friday The Jakarta-Sorong route uses a Boeing 737-800 Next Generation that has a capacity of 162 passengers with 12 business class seats and 150 economy class.  Flight GA 682 from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang Banten is scheduled to depart at 12:20 a.m local time and arrives at Sorong's Domine Eduard Osok Airport at 6:35 a.m Sorong is two hours ahead of Jakarta.  Flight GA 683 leaving Sorong is scheduled to depart at 7:25 a.m Garuda Indonesia had already served flights to Sorong via several other cities in Indonesia Manado in North Sulawesi and Ambon in Maluku The daily return route flies with a Bombardier CRJ-1000 Next Generation with all-economy class seating JAKARTA — A campaign calling for the protection of Indigenous peoples’ customary forests in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua has gone viral with the campaign’s poster shared nearly 3 million times on Instagram The poster contains a link into an online petition that calls for the revocation of an oil palm concession threatening to clear the ancestral forests of the Awyu tribe (also spelled Auyu) the petition has garnered more than 225,000 signatures exceeding the campaigners’ initial goal of 200,000 signatures and nearing the new goal of 300,000 https://www.tiktok.com/@wespeakuporg/video/7374034516425411846 The Papua campaign aims to raise awareness of the risk to tribal forests from clear-cutting inside four oil palm concessions in Boven Digoel and Sorong districts The four companies plan to establish more than 140,000 hectares (346,000 acres) of plantations — an area twice the size of the Indonesian capital Jakarta — that will overlap with the tribes’ lands Three of the concessions are in Boven Digoel district where they form part of the Tanah Merah mega plantation project; the concession holders are the companies PT Megakarya Jaya Raya (MJR) PT Kartika Cipta Pratama (KCP) and PT Indo Asiana Lestari (IAL) In addition to issues with corporate secrecy the Tanah Merah project has also been plagued with irregularities in its licensing process A 2018 investigation by Mongabay and The Gecko Project found that some permits were signed by a local politician while he was in jail for corruption A follow-up investigation found that other permits appeared to have been falsified, with an official’s signature said to have been forged on key documents Development has begun on some of the concessions but the three companies have been facing legal hurdles are at risk of losing their permits after a government evaluation found they’d failed to cultivate much of their concessions the Ministry of Environment and Forestry included both MJR and KCP on its list of concessions to be revoked only to scrap that move and instruct the companies to stop clearing forests This allowed both companies to continue cultivating the lands they’d already cleared spanning a combined 8,828 hectares (21,814 acres) but also required them to preserve the remaining 65,415 hectares (161,644 acres) of rainforest in their concessions who’d raised fears about losing their forests to MJR and KCP totaling 660 billion rupiah ($40.5 million) In September 2023, the court rejected the lawsuits. The companies filed an appeal, and in February 2024 a higher court ruled in their favor That ruling annulled both the previous court’s ruling and the ministry’s order for the companies to curb their expansion Both the ministry and the Awyu tribe have since mounted an appeal at the Supreme Court members of the Awyu tribe made the more than seven-hour flight from Tanah Merah to Jakarta to demand the Supreme Court issue a ruling that protects their forests they carried out a ritual while voicing their aspirations for the Supreme Court justices “I don’t have other sources of livelihoods, other than the ones in the place where I live, my land, the nature, and the forest,” said Rikarda Maa I don’t want my land to be grabbed or taken away by the company.” Besides MJR and KCP, another Tanah Merah concession holder, IAL, is also embroiled in a legal battle with the Awyu tribe which requires the government to involve Indigenous peoples in the permit issuance process the Jayapura court rejected the lawsuit despite a wealth of evidence and expert testimonies that all pointed to irregularities in the issuance of IAL’s permits The ruling essentially gave IAL the green light to clear 26,326 hectares (65,053 acres) of primary forest The Awyu mounted an appeal with a higher court in Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province, only for that court to reject the appeal based on technicalities The tribe subsequently brought its case to the Supreme Court in March 2024 At the demonstration outside the court in May pleaded to the court to listen to the Indigenous Papuans’ concerns “Our place is being threatened by palm oil companies We are victims of human rights violation,” he said at the demonstration The Awyu forest is home to rare species such as iconic birds-of-paradise as well as many tree species that the community members depend on for various purposes We want to live without money,” Hendrikus said are also fighting a legal battle against a palm oil company which isn’t part of the Tanah Merah project SAS used to hold licenses to a 40,000-hectare (99,000-acre) concession in Sorong district. But in 2021, the district head of Sorong revoked two of those permits: the location permit and environmental permit The district head argued that the concession had been left uncultivated and abandoned for years after SAS failed to obtain a right-to-cultivate permit the last in a series of licenses that oil palm companies must obtain before being allowed to start planting The district head’s decision was followed in 2022 by the central government which revoked two more of SAS’s permits: a forest conversion permit which would allow it to clear-cut rainforest SAS then challenged those revocations at a court in Jakarta in 2023, and in January 2024 won a ruling in its favor the Moi tribe filed an appeal against that ruling at the Supreme Court saying they fear SAS will proceed with clearing their forests now that its forest conversion permit has been reinstated There are 18,160 hectares (44,874 acres) of ancestral forests remaining in SAS’s concession If SAS and IAL proceed with their respective expansion plans the ensuing deforestation could release 25 million metric tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere members of the Moi tribe joined the Awyu at the May demonstration outside the Supreme Court “Ancestral forests are our place for hunting and gathering sago All our needs are there in the forests,” said Fiktor Klafiu “The presence of SAS harms us Indigenous peoples representatives of the Awyu and Moi Indigenous Peoples from West Papua visit the Supreme Court building in Jakarta in traditional dress Image courtesy of © Jurnasyanto Sukarno / Greenpeace FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […] Dewi Elvia Muthiariny Petir Garda Bhwana TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Floods struck Sorong City West Papua following heavy rains from Monday until early today Roads and thousands of houses in the city were inundated by floodwater the floods had not yet receded and slowed down community activities The city’s disaster mitigation agency (BPBD) head confirmed the hydrometeorological hazard on Tuesday The victims were a 35-year-old mother and her eight-year-old son They had been rushed to the Navy Hospital and would be returned to Salatiga “There were three people in the landslide-hit house who survived the disaster,” Herlin explained He added that the Sorong BPBD in collaboration with the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas) and the National Police continued to monitor the flood situation in the city “People who need help and see their homes damaged by landslides can report to the Sorong BPBD office,” Herlin said Click here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News Coastal Flood Submerges Neighborhood Unit in North Jakarta: BPBD TNI Refutes TPNPB-OPM's Allegation of Using Children in Espionage Reasons Why TPNPB-OPM Justifies Killing Gold Miners Yogyakarta Flood Causes Underground River at Pantai Baron to Overflow and Turn Brown 27 Houses Destroyed as Massive Fire Erupts in Indonesian Village Near Lake Toba TPNPB-OPM Warns Gov't to Evacuate Teachers Medics from Conflict Zone Before Next Attack TPNPB-OPM Denies Child Soldiers Recruitment in Papua Heavy Rainfall Forecasted Across Saudi Arabia Until Eid al-Fitr 2025 OPM Attack in Yahukimo: TNI Confirms One Teacher Killed Heavy Rainfall Triggers Widespread Flooding in Manado City Cari English Working on Raja Ampat, Pelita Flying Directly Jakarta-Sorong TEKS › English›Working on Raja Ampat Pelita Flying Directly Jakarta-Sorong We hope that this flight model from Pelita can multiply the number of tourists visiting Raja Ampat the more likely it is that the local economy will develop Audio Berita This article has been translated using AI. See Original Please note that this article was automatically translated using Microsoft Azure AI, Open AI, and Google Translation AI. We cannot ensure that the entire content is translated accurately. If you spot any errors or inconsistencies, contact us at hotline@kompas.id and we'll make every effort to address them TEKS The following article was translated using both Microsoft Azure Open AI and Google Translation AI. The original article can be found in Garap Raja Ampat, Pelita Terbang Langsung Jakarta-Sorong An aircraft belonging to Pelita Air was parked at the apron of Terminal 3 Soekarno-Hatta Airport in Tangerang Starting Wednesday (6/12/2023), the airline Pelita Air Service is making an interesting breakthrough This airline has opened direct flights on the Jakarta-Sorong-Jakarta route This flight takes place seven days a week with an Airbus 320-200 aircraft This breakthrough is an effort to boost tourism in Raja Ampat Raja Ampat is one of the favorite tourist destinations in Indonesia which is increasingly popular in the world dozens of domestic and foreign tourists visit the island region located in the west part of the bird's head peninsula of Papua Island They come through Domine Eduard Osok Sorong Airport which is the only air gateway to Raja Ampat From the capital of Southwest Papua Province they use fast boats or other sailing vessels to reach Raja Ampat According to data from the Central Statistics Agency of Raja Ampat Regency the number of tourists visiting Raja Ampat was highest in 2019 with a total of 46,375 people This includes 24,090 foreign tourists and 22,285 domestic tourists An airplane belonging to Pelita Air Service airline was at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang the number of tourists decreased sharply to only 8,253 people consisting of 7,439 foreign tourists and 814 domestic tourists the number of visitors dropped even further due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic that hit the world consisting of 697 foreign tourists and 1,533 domestic tourists the number of visits to Raja Ampat began to increase again amounting to 5,725 people including 4,973 foreign tourists and 752 domestic tourists for the period of January to July 2023 alone This means that tourism in Raja Ampat is booming again Traveling to Raja Ampat is not inexpensive to reach this area you can only rely on air transportation to Sorong and then continue on a fast boat The cost incurred is definitely not insignificant Each person can spend IDR 30 million to IDR 40 million The cost for foreign tourists is even higher The beauty of Wayag Island in Raja Ampat regency is a prime destination for adventurous tourists who seek to enjoy the stunning views from a height of about 150 meters above the beach Why are people willing to spend such a large amount just to visit Raja Ampat What is the strength of Raja Ampat that is able to attract thousands of tourists located on the "Bird's Head" of Papua Island consists of 1,846 islands covering 4.5 million hectares According to reports from The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International approximately 75 percent of the world's coral species are found in these islands Approximately 75 percent of the world's coral species are found in these islands These islands are located in the heart of the world's coral triangle Strong ocean currents bring a lot of nutrients to these waters to nourish mangrove forests That is why the waters of Raja Ampat are considered a paradise for divers many have claimed that this area ranks second in the world for diving destinations the waters of Raja Ampat also boast enchanting white sandy beaches There are a number of uninhabited coral islands that have high cliffs of various shapes and sizes These islands are also a special attraction that always draws in travelers This situation becomes even more charming due to unique local traditions such as traditional arts and dances as well as Sinole cuisine made from sago in some villages like Sawinggrai and Saporkrein local residents always invite tourists to see the Cenderawasih bird up close The Cenderawasih bird is a rare and beautiful bird that is typical of Papua and often referred to as the bird of paradise considering that it is not easy to see the bird nowadays airlines serving the Sorong route include Garuda Indonesia Flights are usually from Jakarta with one layover at Sultan Hasanuddin Makassar Airport There is one airline with two layovers at Juanda Surabaya Airport and Sultan Hasanuddin Airport the Jakarta-Sorong flight or vice versa takes at least 6 hours This condition certainly makes tourists who want to visit Raja Ampat uncomfortable Because the principle for those who want to travel to a region within the same country is to arrive at their destination quickly A shorter travel time will prevent physical fatigue Unexpected costs won't be significantly drained Pelita Air Service management made a bold move by operating a plane that flies directly from Jakarta to Sorong and back The plane used is an Airbus 320-200 with a capacity of 180 seats This plane flew from Soekarno Hatta International Airport in Jakarta at 00:50 AM It flew back from Sorong at 07:40 AM WIT and arrived in Jakarta at 09:35 AM WIB A fast boat sailed away from the pier of Falaya Port 2023 on the Jakarta-Sorong route reached 73 percent Passengers receive several benefits from direct flights tourists can continue their journey to Raja Ampat on the same morning passengers are not too tired upon arrival at their destination for passengers arriving in Jakarta in the morning it is possible to complete several errands on the same day foreign tourists can continue their flights to other countries in the afternoon or evening We hope that Pelita's flight model can multiply the number of visitors to Raja Ampat the more opportunities there will be for local economies to develop This indirectly also contributes to the growth of the national economy Because tourism always serves as a locomotive that can attract many other sectors All the passengers and crew of the Putri Papua liveaboard vessel were rescued by the Indonesian Navy after the ship sank this week off the coast of Sorong The vessel had experienced engine failure and messaged for help via WhatsApp By the time Indonesian naval ships had arrived on scene the Putri Papua had sunk and everyone aboard — eight crew members and nine passengers three Indonesians and six foreign nationals — had evacuated to life rafts The 53-meter/174-foot Putri Papua operated year-round in the Raja Ampat region of Indonesia offering dive cruises ranging from seven to 10 nights Itineraries included diving in some of Raja Ampat’s most celebrated areas The Putri Papua was well-equipped for divers dedicated camera setup and charging areas as well as shower facilities on the dive platform The boat also offered a mix of European and Indonesian cuisine ensuring guests enjoy a variety of delicious meals throughout their journey DeeperBlue.com is the World’s Largest Community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving, Ocean Advocacy, and Diving Travel We’ve been dedicated to bringing you the freshest news and discussions from around the underwater world since 1996 Contact us: hello@deeperblue.com Cari English Sesna River, Coastal Community Transportation Route in South Sorong TEKS › English›Sesna River Coastal Community Transportation Route in South Sorong Sesna River in Teminabuan is a transportation route for villagers in coastal areas The clear water is also used by local residents for bathing purposes Audio Berita This article has been translated using AI. See Original TEKS The following article was translated using both Microsoft Azure Open AI and Google Translation AI The atmosphere of Kali Sesna in Teminabuan The river serves as a transportation route for village residents on the coast to sell marine products such as fish and shrimp Their owners are waiting for the river water level to rise again to return to the coastal villages A boat prepared to leave Kali Sesna in Teminabuan heading towards the coastal area on Wednesday afternoon (26/7/2023) Coastal villagers sell seafood such as fish and shrimp they buy staple goods in Teminabuan such as rice and cooking oil A boat crossed the Sesna River in Teminabuan the river also serves as a transportation route for coastal village residents to sell their sea products A resident and his child are waiting for other family members at Kali Sesna They usually return to their village in the coastal area in the afternoon Children enjoy swimming in the clear water of the Sesna River in Teminabuan Cari English Ports in Papua are competing to become hubs for Eastern Indonesia TEKS › English›Ports in Papua are competing.. Iklan Ports in Papua are competing to become hubs for Eastern Indonesia A number of ports in Papua are undergoing improvements to container terminal management This opens up the opportunity for the port to become a hub for eastern Indonesia the risk of corruption could be an obstacle Audio Berita This article has been translated using AI. See Original TEKS The following article was translated using both Microsoft Azure Open AI and Google Translation AI. The original article can be found in Pelabuhan-pelabuhan di Papua Berlomba Jadi Hub Kawasan Timur Indonesia The bustling atmosphere of loading and unloading activities could be seen at the Jayapura Container Terminal on Wednesday (4/10/2023) Kompas/Yosepha Debrina R Pusparisa 4/10/2023 After the merger of four state-owned port service companies various efforts to increase the efficiency of loading and unloading goods continue to be carried out The merger in question is a mandate from Government Regulation Number 101 of 2021 concerning the Merger of the Company Company (PERSERO) PT Pelabuhan Indonesia I the Company Company (PERSERO) PT Pelabuhan Indonesia III and the Company Company (PERSERO) PT Pelabuhan Indonesia IV into a Company Company (PERSERO ) PT Pelabuhan Indonesia II The duration of the ship's berth is getting shorter The quantity of containers that can be loaded and unloaded is also increasing TPK Jayapura data shows that the number of containers unloaded and loaded at TPK Jayapura in one hour (box ship hour/BSH) has more than doubled in the last year in the same period this year it rose to 37 containers per hour Also read: Absence of Industry Hampers Jayapura Container Terminal the number of containers that can be unloaded/loaded by cranes or box crane hours or BCH also increased the figure will increase slightly to 29 containers per hour The goods that were unloaded are then distributed to 14 regencies and 1 city in four provinces The types of goods that enter are basic necessities A trailer truck driver was transporting a container belonging to PT Temas Shipping at the Terminal Peti Kemas in Sorong Kompas/Yosepha Debrina R Pusparisa 5/10/2023 stated on Monday (2/10/2023) that goods entering into Papua Province are still consumptive in nature the growth of population will also be followed by an increase in the level of community consumption BSH's figure was only 17 containers per hour the figure is an average of 25 containers per hour The duration of the ship's port stay is also reduced We only worked with what we had once the ship docked There was no system in place," said the Head of Sorong TPK Also read: Without Industrialization, Papua Depends on Shipping Consumer Goods data on loading and unloading containers and their placement was still done manually The expedition party or agent who handles the delivery and receipt of goods (freight forwarder) does not receive data directly agents have to manually locate the container based on the location coordinates provided the container he was looking for was not suitable ships spend only 15 hours for loading and unloading processes Digitization and the enhancement of TPK officer competencies have been implemented explained the new system to maritime observer at the TPK Sorong office in Southwest Papua on Thursday (5/10/2023) aim to improve the efficiency of the loading and unloading process of goods at the Port of Sorong The improvements made by TPK have given hope that the port can become a hub for the eastern region of Indonesia The increasingly efficient loading and unloading process can be the initial capital for the formation of the hub Head of the Sorong Port Authority's Harbor Master Office (KSOP) stated on Thursday (10/5/2023) that Sorong Port has the potential to become a hub for the eastern region of Indonesia This is due to the fact that at least 16 ships dock there every month with faster loading and unloading activities ships will benefit from its quick access to various destinations KSOP Jayapura Samuel Yabes expressed a similar thing. He said that the government, through the Ministry of Transportation, is preparing the port in Depapre District Also read: Sea Highway Program Still Overshadowed by Problems The port under the Ministry of Transportation (Kemenhub) has been passed by a sea toll route that connects Papua and West Papua The port was built from 2015 to 2020 with an investment sourced from the State Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBN) worth Rp 175 billion The land area required reached 74 hectares with 15.7 hectares of reclamation work Located in the Tanah Merah Bay facing the Pacific Ocean the government has chosen Depapre as the hub for eastern Indonesia The hope is that this port can expand international trade opportunities in the Asia Pacific Head of the Port Authority Harbor Master's Office (KSOP) Sorong answered questions from journalists in her office in Sorong She assessed that sea tolls are effective in reducing price disparities Depapre can be a choice because it can accommodate all the roles of a port both for loading and unloading goods and passenger transportation This port can be an alternative to Jayapura Port as there are still many areas for expansion and development the project has temporarily stopped due to several obstacles One of them being the corruption in the construction of the Depapre road and the development of the area has not been fully optimized Also read: Empowered Communities, Utilize Waste with Economic Value Samuel added that the industrial area in the Depapre region has not yet been formed in order to support its surrounding development The local government (pemda) must participate in creating the area in order to support the empty container loads when they return to the initial port The absence of industry in Jayapura results in a disparity between incoming (unload) and outgoing (load) goods The majority of goods sent are only for consumer consumption resulting in empty containers being brought to the port initially The cost incurred is also increasingly higher to cover these expenses ships return carrying containers containing raw and semi-finished materials containers from outside Jayapura can carry up to 100 percent of logistics only one-fifth of containers were filled when they returned to their original port (Kompas.id an official who took part in monitoring the loading and unloading process at the Jayapura Container Terminal (JCT) in Papua Depapre connects several districts and cities in the Papua region the port needs to be supported by access facilities the logistics cost is high due to damaged roads Container trucks can't go through if the elevation is too high This requires a large budget and expense," he said Also read: Firmness in Sea Toll Regulations Needed to Reduce Price Disparity Depapre and Jayapura are approximately 61 kilometers apart The Sentani Airport is located between these two areas The distance from the airport to Depapre is about 27 km a journey by land takes more than 1.5 hours due to the severely damaged road conditions This is different from the TPK Jayapura which is closer to the government center Depapre Port is directed to become a major hub for the Asia Pacific region Depapre can be a back door if seen from the west the area can be a front gate in the Asia Pacific The atmosphere at the Sorong Container Terminal (TPK) was quiet on Friday (6/10/2023) The unloading capacity (for incoming goods) reached 98 percent while the loading capacity (for outgoing goods) was only 29 percent The lack of filled containers from Sorong is due to the absence of industrialization in the area which tends to receive consumer goods for the community Kompas/Yosepha Debrina R Pusparisa 6/10/2023 Indonesia is capable of building regional port hubs there are several challenges that need to be resolved in order for the constructed ports to play an optimal role According to a ship and port observer from the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS) the connectivity requirements of all terminals followed by facilities the delivery orientation will be towards Papua New Guinea he estimates that shipment orientation will be directed towards Papua New Guinea and Papua New Guinea have low demand for goods He estimates that the total demand for containers from these countries is only around 200 thousand 20-foot or 6.1-meter (TEU) containers per year the total is only around 300 thousand TEUs per year annual container shipments to Europe and East Asia can reach 5-10 million TEUs Loading and unloading activities of containers at the Container Terminal (TPK) in Sorong Port Sorong TPK is planned to become a center of container activities in the eastern region of Indonesia with a potential container flow of up to 243,000 TEUs Sorong TPK will serve as a link to several other ports in Jayapura But to have geographical strength it must be comparable with Singapore speed and security must be a big effort," said Saut when contacted from Jakarta The issue of customary land remains a recurring challenge faced by various regions in Papua this sentiment has been expressed by Acting Mayor of Jayapura Frans Pekey this situation has not yielded an ideal investment climate He believes that Sorong has the potential to become a regional hub because it connects Maluku she believes that Sorong has the potential to become a regional hub as it connects Maluku This also does not rule out the possibility of connecting with Australia and New Zealand Its position is suitable for connecting domestic and international routes “So the problem in Papua is always a matter of the legality of land so it has its own approach and perspective to move the hinterland region," said Saut An officer will lift a container belonging to the cargo transportation service company PT Salam Pacific Indonesia Lines (SPIL) at the Container Terminal (TPK) in Jayapura SPIL has the largest market share of up to 60 percent in Jayapura as well as advantageous shipping services and ports for cargo owners need to be taken into account Indonesia does not have a large and adequate cargo ship with a maximum capacity of only 10,000 TEUs foreign ships can reach around 30 thousand TEUs the length of the dock and the depth of the sea for mooring still need to be taken into consideration Also read: Put forward dialogue to resolve the conflict in Papua Saut encourages Pelindo to invest and focus on utilizing international cargoes for the benefit of Indonesia Another way is for the government to provide support by providing incentives such as reducing the tax burden related to ship fuel tax such as shipping services PT Salam Pacific Indonesia Lines (Spil) have an interest in improving the shipping climate from the size of ships from short haul to medium haul (medium distance) "The government's efforts (to reduce taxes) may involve some sacrifices (potential loss of revenue) it can create job opportunities and investments so the approach must be uniform," said Saut Cari English Hundreds of Children in Southwest Papua Drop Out of School TEKS › English›Hundreds of Children in.. Iklan Hundreds of Children in Southwest Papua Drop Out of School The results of research by the University of Papua reveal that there are hundreds of children in South Sorong The lack of parental support and the limited number of teachers are the causes of this condition Audio Berita This article has been translated using AI. See Original TEKS The following article was translated using both Microsoft Azure Open AI and Google Translation AI. The original article can be found in Ratusan Anak di Papua Barat Daya Putus Sekolah The results of a study conducted by the University of Papua regarding school-age participation in South Sorong Regency were presented in Sorong City KOMPAS - Papua University conducted a study on the education situation in South Sorong Regency supported by the South Sorong Regency Government revealed that there are hundreds of elementary to high school-aged children who drop out of school due to lack of parental support and a shortage of teachers The research results were presented by a representative of the research team from Papua University in a guided group discussion or FGD entitled "School Age Participation and Development of Education Models in South Sorong Regency" The event was held in Sorong City on Wednesday (20/9/2023) Agus stated that research on school age participation was carried out by 23 faculty members from the University of Papua and involved 45 students from Universitas Werisar in June-August 2023 The research was conducted in 15 districts or sub-districts consisting of 120 villages and 2 urban areas He explained that there were 3,652 respondents for the study or about 20% of the total number of families in 15 districts in South Sorong The research results showed that 381 out of 1,517 elementary school-aged residents did not complete their education 126 out of 757 junior high school-aged residents did not complete their education 74 out of 594 high school-aged residents also did not finish their studies "There are several factors that cause many school-aged residents in South Sorong to not complete their education in the elementary These factors include the lack of parental support for their children's education and the unavailability of teachers in those areas," said Agus Also read: Trillions of Rupiah Education Budget, 68,988 West Papuan Children Not Going to School Agus stated that the research also revealed many teachers who were suspected of not being at their duty stations Based on the Education Basic Data (Dapodik) in South Sorong the number of elementary school teachers reached 619 the research team only found 377 elementary school teachers such as establishing regulations for compulsory education programs by local leaders providing early childhood education in every village and ensuring that every school has a sufficient number of qualified and professional teachers Please note that this article does not contain any forbidden words "Full-day school is a learning activity from morning to afternoon aimed at improving children's abilities the school provides breakfast to lunch for the students The South Sorong Regency plans to implement this method from October to December this year as a trial," Agus explained He added that this research is an initiative by the South Sorong Regency Government to capture the education conditions in its region "This activity is the first of its kind to be carried out in Papua The South Sorong Regency Government has collaborated with academics to obtain data that is based on facts from the field," he said Also read: Education and the Will to Compete Are Obstacles in Papua There are several factors that cause many school-age residents in South Sorong to not complete their education at the elementary South Sorong Regent Samsudin Anggiluli said that he requested assistance from the University of Papua to obtain valid data related to education issues in South Sorong such as the number of school dropouts and the shortage of teachers Samsudin stated that the results of the study conducted by Papua University will serve as a reference for the South Sorong Regency government in planning educational programs This effort aims to produce a competent younger generation when Indonesia enters its Golden Age in 2045 Massa Demonstrasi Penolakan DOB Dibubarkan Polisi SORONG, KOMPAS.com - Polisi terpaksa membubarkan aksi demonstrasi penolakan daerah otonomi baru (DOB) di Kantor DPRD Kota Sorong,Papua Barat massa meminta Ketua DPRD Kota Sorong Petronela Kambuaya menemui mereka Baca juga: Demo Tolak DOB di Sorong, Polisi Amankan Bendera Bintang Kejora Massa kemudian marah dan membakar ban bekas di halaman Kantor DPRD Kota Sorong polisi membubarkan massa dengan tembakan gas air mata Kabag Ops Polres Sorong Kota Kompol Moch Nur Makmur mengatakan tindakan pengamanan demonstrasi sudah sesuai prosedur dari awal sampai titik akhir "Kami sudah menghimbau kepada korlap apabila ada api kita akan bubarkan namun mereka (massa) yang awali semua sehingga kami melakukan tindakan tegas bubarkan," ujar Makmur di Kota Sorong setelah tak bertemu Ketua DPRD Kota Sorong massa bernegosiasi untuk meminta bertemu perwakilan anggota DPRD massa kembali tak bisa menemui anggota dewan.  aksi demo penolakan DOB dilakukan secara serentak di sejumlah daerah di Provinsi Papua dan Papua Barat Juru bicara Petisi Rakyat Papua Seluruh Sorong Raya Deky Pagawak mengatakan pihaknya menolak pemekaran DOB yang dibahas di DPR RI Baca juga: Ambil Bola Terjatuh, 2 Anak Kecil di Sorong Malah Temukan Mayat di Drainase "Ada tiga tuntutan yang disampaikan oleh massa yakni menolak pembentukan daerah otonom baru menolak otonomi khusus dan meminta pemerintah melakukan referendum," ujar Pagawak Setelah massa demonstrasi penolakan DOB dibubarkan polisi Kompas Cyber Media (Kompas Gramedia Digital Group) Baca juga: '+json_baca_juga.items[i].title+' Indonesia — An Indigenous clan in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua has had its rights to its ancestral lands and forests recognized by the local government a key step toward acknowledgment at the national level Sorong district head Johny Kamuru issued a decree recognizing the rights of the Gelek Malak Kalawilis Pasa clan members to their lands and forests which span an area of 3,247 hectares (8,023 acres) The decree is the first of its kind in Sorong and it pushes the Indigenous clan a step closer to having its rights officially recognized by the central government the rights of the Indigenous peoples will be better protected and they will be able to manage their lands and forests to improve their welfare “Don’t take this rights recognition for granted,” he said a member of the West Papuan People’s Assembly an official state institution comprising tribal chiefs tasked with arbitration and speaking on behalf of Papuan tribal customs said he appreciated the Sorong district head’s decision to issue the decree “Indigenous peoples have to have sovereignty on their own lands,” he said the umbrella organization for Indigenous communities in Sorong [Indigenous] peoples will be stronger in protecting their ancestral lands and forests,” said Silas Kalami the chief of the Indigenous Malamoi peoples under the LMA “If lands and forests are no longer [there] then [we] can no longer be called Indigenous peoples.” an NGO that advocates for the rights of Indigenous Papuans said the decree is important because the lands of the Kalawilis clan have long been coveted for commercial exploitation obtained a concession spanning 330,000 hectares (815,400 acres) near the Kalawilis clan’s area Part of the logging concession was eventually turned into an oil palm concession Henrison currently manages plantations west of the Kalawilis lands and forests To prevent their territories from being given away to concessions by the government the Kalawilis clan members mapped their territory with the assistance from Pusaka The mapping process involves documenting the history of the clan as well as its customs The mapping then serves as the basis for the decree that recognizes their rights “This is just one clan that has received recognition because the mapping is already clear,” Johny said “The government will keep supporting and pushing other clans to map [their territories].” Franky said a neighboring clan called the Gelek Gilik had also mapped its territory the clan members haven’t reached a consensus to submit their maps to the local government There are an estimated 10.56 million hectares (26 million acres) of ancestral forests in Indonesia inhabited by 833 Indigenous communities across the country However, the central government has recognized just 59,442 hectares (146,884 acres) of ancestral forests for 80 communities nationwide as of July this year Decrees by local governments in Indonesia are a first step for Indigenous communities to obtain collective titles to their lands They must be followed by formal recognitions issued by the central government in this case the Ministry of Environment and Forestry no formal recognition has been granted by the ministry for ancestral forests in the Papua region and the process to gain this legal recognition is usually a costly and time-consuming one Franky said he planned to submit a request to the environment ministry to get the Kalawilis clan’s decree strengthened by a formal recognition by the ministry he said the ministry had told him the clan’s ancestral forests are designated as production forest zone which is usually reserved for logging concessions “The Indigenous peoples don’t want this,” Franky told Mongabay said he hoped the local decree will be an example for other clans on how to protect their lands and forests The clan use some of their land to cultivate food crops and they also gather and hunt from their forests “We Gelek Malak have proved that we can protect [our] customary lands and forests,” he said Banner image: Sorong district head Johny Kamuru poses with members of Gelek Malak Kalawilis Pasa clan in Sorong A fight between two rival gangs in the West Papua capital of Sorong killed at least 12 people after the angry mob set a karaoke house on fire early on Tuesday Police said 11 people were found dead inside the burned Double O Karaoke House on Jalan Sungai Maruni and one person died from stab wounds The mob also burned a number of vehicles parked at the scene during the fight "We thought everyone inside the karaoke house had evacuated when police came to the scene to help rescue people when fire workers arrived to put out the flame they found 11 bodies in one room," Sorong Metropolitan Police Chief Grand Commissioner Attendant Ary Nyoto Setiawan said at the scene "We don’t know with certainty the number of casualties as the investigation is underway but the fire department pulled 11 bodies from a room in the karaoke house and another victim who died from stab wounds has been evacuated earlier," he added but also a variety of fruit trees like durian Audio Berita By FRANSISKUS PATI HERIN TATANG MULYANA SINAGA · 5 minutes read TEKS The Sira Forest in South Sorong Residents of Sira Village in Saifi District The Knasaimos traditional community was relieved when the government decided in 2014 to declare Manggroholo-Sira Forest as a village forest As the community has authority over its forest it can ensure that the forest is protected for all time Three youths walked quickly through the forest of Manggroholo-Sira village in South Sorong Dim sunlight penetrated the open spaces amid the dense vegetation they passed through The chirps of birds accompanied their steps Arfak Parotia Attracts Visitors to Papuan Highlands white and red damar trees lined the footpath God has arranged damar to grow in this forest,” said Vinsen Sermere several logs of merbau or ironwood lay on the ground The wood was then cut into planks and blocks The rule allows cutting down trees to build houses but it is banned for sale,” explained Nikson Kladit The area was filled with towering merbau trees Four members of the Kompas team estimated the diameter of one tree by circling the tree with outstretched arms “In the middle of the forest there is a tree as big as eight people encircling it,” said Nikson The three youths are residents of Sira village which holds the communal right to the forest The residents of Manggroholo village also hold the right to the same forest The residents have therefore named the forest Manggroholo-Sira sat in the shade of a sago palm while he tapped its 3-meter trunk which he used to tap the trunk repeatedly to turn it into powder Part of the harvested sago is made into porridge for daily consumption while another part is used to make cakes or noodles Costa harvests two bags of powdered sago that weigh 15 kilograms each bag produces around 2 kilograms of sago which sell for between Rp 150,000 and Rp 200.000 per kilogram “[Our] daily needs have been fulfilled by sago so far With the income he makes from selling sago Costa can pay for his children’s education His second and third children have graduated senior high school The communal forest has been planted with not only sago the residents harvest the fruits and sell them at the market to increase their income Traditional communities in Papua liken the forest to a mother forest products have adequately supported our family,” said Costa Had the forest been turned into a concession area it would have been cut down and replanted with oil palms Investors have been targeting the forest areas in South Sorong since the early 2000s Costa said his and several other clans had once received an offer from representatives of a company to sell the forest prioritizing the future continuity of life How will our [descendants] live?” he remarked But after their plan to invest in oil palm became known the coordinator of the Manggroholo-Sira village forest The investors approached the regional administration and then met with the customary village leaders “It is known that oil palm investment [projects] in several parts of Papua have destroyed the environment there the sago plants were all destroyed,” said Arkilaus In order to ensure that their forest remained protected Arkilaus and several nongovernmental organizations proposed to the central government that Manggroholo-Sira forest be established as a village forest eight years after they submitted the proposal in 2006 the Environment and Forestry Ministry declared Manggraholo-Sira forest as a village forest that spanned 3,545 hectares The beautiful forest surrounds a residential area in Sira Village who heads the South Sorong Forest Production Management Unit said Manggroholo-Sira forest was the first village forest in Papua “Community ownership in forest management has been the least known so far In declaring [Manggroholo-Sira] as a village forest the residents have legal certainty for managing the forest and this is recognized by the state,” said Reynold the South Sorong coordinator at Conservation International Indonesia said traditional communities would be threatened with absolute poverty if the forests they relied on for their daily needs were converted into an oil palm estate or other extractive business The communities would only receive compensation for the forest and lose their source of livelihood With the declaration of Manggroholo-Sira forest as a village forest the local community has at least ensured that their “mother” would be protected forever (This article was translated by Aris Prawira) Jakarta - Many would already familiar with Berlin wall in Germany that used to divide the country into West and East Germany But do you know that there is another “Berlin wall” existing in Sorong the Berlin Wall in Papua is not as sturdy as the real Berlin wall in Germany The 2-meter high wall separates the land and the sea No body knows who is the first to call the wall ‘Berlin wall’ but the name has long been sticking on the wall Sorong’s ‘Berlin wall’ stretches along 2-kilometer distance from Sorong harbor The 50-meter wide ground between the wall and the road is paved with gravels and sand Tens of people visit the wall everyday to wait for the dusk up to hundreds of people and mostly youngsters food vendors are offering seafood and snacks the area turns into a center for culinary experience Most of the vendors are migrants from Java or Sulawesi Best time to come to the wall is around afternoon when people usually find spots to seat on the wall or even hop on to the beach when the tide is low it is better to stay away from the wall because the wave could crash on or over the wall The Berlin wall of Sorong was apparently built to block the sea wave from getting into the land the wall serves as nice gathering place for people in Sorong Even after the real Berlin wall was took down Sorong’s Berlin wall still standing tall to serve its purpose and more Indonesia Targets 249,000 Arrivals from Middle East in 2025 Thailand Invites Singapore to Join "Six Countries Uzbekistan Launches Golden Visa Scheme to Boost Economy Jakarta's Plan for Cat Island Tourist Spot Underway Why This Japanese City Is Using 'Ninjas' to Encourage Tourists to Follow Local Rules Indonesia's Prabowo Meets Russian Deputy PM in Jakarta to Discuss Bilateral Agreements Blue Origin's NS-31 Mission to Launch 6 Women into Space Labuan Bajo to Ban Use of Plastic Bottled Water Jakarta - The runway at Sorong's Domine Eduard Osok Airport (DEO) in West Papua is due to get an upgrade - with its length expected to be extended to 2,500 metres from its' current 2,060 metre narrow-bodied twin jets to land in the airport said in Sorong on Wednesday that preliminary works have already begun and is expected to be completed by the end of the year larger twin jets such as the Boeing 737-900 could land - which will increase passenger capacity and drive down ticket prices to the benefit of lower-to-middle class passengers," he said Paryono said that he is committed to improve Sorong Airport's facility to ensure that it is at least on par with other airports in more developed He added that the new terminal at DEO is already operational to help improve connectivity in the region - despite the fact that it has yet to be inaugurated by President Joko Widodo will be demolished to make way for passenger drop-off and parking by mid-January DEO airport's departure and arrival terminal is touted to be the largest and most expansive airport structure across existing airports in Papua and West Papua List of Top 10 Countries with the Most Airports in 2024 Aviation Industry 'Hit Hard' by Rupiah Depreciation Air Transportation DG Opens Up About New Airline Surya Airways INACA: Aviation Industry 80% Recovers from COVID-19 Pandemic Garuda Indonesia Boss Suggests Ticket Price Ceiling Rules be Lifted Christmas and New Year Holiday; Govt Asks Airport's Operational Time Be Extended Aviation Industry Is Backbone of Indonesian Transportation: Minister Singapore Most Popular Destinations from Soekarno-Hatta Airport Bali Opens Two International Flights from Philippines At least 3 people have died in floods and landslides in West Papua Province on New Guinea Island while flooding in provinces of Sumatra Island has affected over 35,000 people Torrential rain from 21 August 2022 caused flooding and landslides in several sub-districts of Sorong City in West Papua Province Almost 600 mm of rain fell in the city from 21 to 24 August 2022 with 90 mm falling in just 3 hours on 23 August Disaster authorities reported 3 people died when a house was buried by a landslide in Sorong City Six people were seriously injured and four people suffered minor injuries Around 2,000 people have evacuated their homes and moved to relief camps and or to stay with friends or relatives disaster authorities including the Sorong City Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) were still evacuating some residents working on clean-up operations and carrying out damage assessments from 17 August 2022 causing floods and landslides Affected areas included Bengkulu City in Bengkulu Province and Deli Serdang and Asahan Regencies and Binjai and Medan cities in North Sumatra Province As much as 154 mm of rain fell in 24 hours to 20 August in Bengkulu City causing floods which affected over 5,000 people on the same day flooding struck areas of Asahan Regency and Binjai City in North Sumatra Province Earlier flooding struck parts of Medan City on 18 August damaging over 6,000 buildings and affecting over 25,000 residents Around the same time flooding was also reported in Deli Serdang Regency Richard Davies is the founder of floodlist.com and reports on flooding news Cookies | Privacy | Contacts © Copyright 2025 FloodList Just one day after President Prabowo Subianto's inauguration a minister announced plans to resume the transmigration program in eastern Indonesia saying it was needed for enhancing unity and providing locals with welfare Transmigration is the process of moving people from densely populated regions to less densely populated ones in Indonesia The ministry intends to revitalise 10 zones in Papua potentially using local relocation rather than bringing in outsiders The program will resume after it was officially paused in Papua 23 years ago "We want Papua to be fully united as part of Indonesia in terms of welfare national unity and beyond," Muhammad Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara said during a handover ceremony on 21 October Iftitah promised strict evaluations focusing on community welfare rather than on relocation numbers the plan drew an outcry from indigenous Papuans who cited social and economic concerns with its people enduring decades of alleged military abuse and human rights violations under Indonesian rule was accused of rights abuses in his military career including in East Timor (Timor-Leste) during a then-separatist insurgency against Jakarta rule highlighted the negative impacts of transmigration efforts in Papua under dictator Suharto's New Order during the 1960s and the indigenous Malind people now speak Javanese better than their native language," he told BenarNews The Papuan Church Council stressed that locals desperately needed services health services and welfare - not transmigration that only further marginalizes landowners," Rev Dorman Wandikbo Transmigration into Papua has sparked protests over concerns about reduced job opportunities for indigenous people along with broader political and economic impacts who joined a recent demonstration in South Sorong stating that "this policy affects both political and economic aspects of Papua." human rights advocate Theo Hasegem criticised the government's plans arguing that human rights issues are ignored and non-Papuans could be endangered because separatist groups often target newcomers "Do the president and vice president guarantee the safety of those relocated from Java," Hasegem told BenarNews has continued through various administrations under the guise of promoting development and unity Indonesia's policy resumed post-independence on 12 December 1950 who sought to foster prosperity and equitable development It also aimed to promote social unity by relocating citizens across regions Transmigration involving 78,000 families occurred in Papua from 1964 to 1999 according to statistics from the Papua provincial government That would equal between 312,000 and 390,000 people settling in Papua from other parts of the country assuming the average Indonesian family has 4 to 5 people The program paused in 2001 after a Special Autonomy Law required regional regulations to be followed Papuan legislator John N R Gobay questioned the role of Papua's six new autonomous regional governments in the transmigration process which mandates that transmigration proceed only with gubernatorial consent and regulatory backing transmigration lacks a strong legal foundation and could conflict with special autonomy rules He also pointed to a 2008 Papuan regulation stating that transmigration should proceed only after the Indigenous Papuan population reaches 20 million the population across six provinces of Papua was about 6.25 million according to Indonesia's Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Gobay suggested prioritising local transmigration to better support indigenous development in their own region chairman of the International Parliamentarians for West Papua noting its role in drastic demographic shifts and structural discrimination in education "Transmigration has entrenched inequality rather than promoting prosperity," Sobel told BenarNews adding that it has contributed to Papua remaining Indonesia's poorest regions welcomed the idea of restarting the program viewing it as positive for the region's growth A former transmigrant who has served as a local representative Pramono said transmigration had increased local knowledge in agriculture research has shown that longstanding social issues including tensions from cultural differences have marginalized indigenous Papuans and fostered resentment toward non-locals Papua also faces a humanitarian crisis because of conflicts between Indonesian forces and separatist groups United Nations data shows between 60,000 and 100,000 Papuans were displaced between and 2022 human rights advocates estimate 79,000 Papuans remain displaced even as Indonesia denies UN officials access to the region Pizaro Gozali Idrus in Jakarta contributed to this report -This article was first published by BenarNews Pacific RSS Follow RNZ News Five hours before the opening of the West Papuan waria beauty pageant the salon of the Sorong community elders was busy with preparations Among 10 to 15 waria – Indonesian male-bodied individuals who feel like women and often claim to have the soul of a woman – an indigenous Papuan waria whom I call Sakti was getting ready for the long-awaited night another creating spectacular make-up for all the contestants The few intense hours of checking facial expressions in front of mirrors putting on glamorous dresses and practicing walking in high heels were eased with jokes and mimicry Sakti looked at herself in the mirror, struck a pose and announced in English: ‘Leila Lopes from America!’, imitating the voice of an MC on an imaginary stage. The fact that in 2011 the annual Miss Universe pageant crowned Miss Angola, 25-year-old Leila Lopes, the winner is well known among waria of Sorong a thriving coastal city at the tip of the Bird’s Head Peninsula of West Papua She asked another waria to apply a light powder on her upper back but checking herself in front of the mirror again she still asserted with dismay: ‘Chocolate’ When I first met Sakti during my ethnographic fieldwork with waria in various parts of Indonesia she used to be one of the very few indigenous waria in the Sorong community She was often labelled as the ‘Miss Angola’ by others for her relatively darker skin but she rather strived for the title of ‘Miss Mexico’ Her dream was to open her own hair salon but in the meantime she financed her life with transactional sex Compared to most other regions in Indonesia with long histories of gender transgressive practices and identities the emergence of waria in Papua is a fairly recent phenomenon It counts as one of the effects of making Papua more ‘Indonesian’ since its incorporation into the state in the 1960s followed by the government-initiated mass migration into the area waria from neighbouring islands have moved to Papua seeking life experience and better economic prospects have recently attracted an increasing number of indigenous Papuan waria to the community The latter is also the case with Sakti who had run away from home in Biak at the age of 19 because her step-father was beating her ‘Since childhood I have really wanted to become [a waria],’ Sakti recounted Waria across the archipelago often use the term ‘the world of waria’ (dunia waria) when describing the social and imaginary lifeworld of waria As a response to their limited social acceptance ‘the world of waria’ forges a sense of belonging and equips waria with various attributes from ways of dressing and the knowledge to navigate cultural activities such as beauty pageants this ‘world’ has been fostered by the more experienced migrant waria who usually arrive from regions that have longer traditions of active community work and possess more experience in salon work as well as in street nightlife that frequently includes sex work These migrants largely set the context in which indigenous Papuan waria forge a lifestyle and construct their sense of self A couple of years after leaving home Sakti had become a central figure in Papua’s waria community She had won the second prize at the beauty pageant and worked in a salon as often as she could alongside her exuberant nightlife activities using whitening products and protecting herself from the sun – like many other Indonesians waria and men – and she was able to look back at the time when she was in her own words ‘hitam sekali’ Sakti was also far from being the only indigenous Papuan on the scene Coming from the rural area where she was persecuted she had found comfort in the waria world of Sorong trajectories and activities on her own journey of becoming ‘The world of waria’ was the locus of becoming for her and at once a community to belong to the quest for belonging also shapes the perceptions of embodied beauty Against the backdrop of the dif­ferences in appearance between indigenous Papuans of Melanesian origin with their relatively darker skin and the migrant population characterised by the smaller Malay body type and straight hair indi­genous Papuan waria such as Sakti crave for the kinds of beauty tied to lighter skin colour and straight hair This is aligned with the dominant Indone­sian ideals of beauty making the waria community in Papua an interesting case through which to reflect on Indonesia’s racialised notions of beauty and their effect on actual lives At present the migrant population has considerably outnumbered the indigenous population in many regions The continuous economic and social dominance of the settlers and the standards of beauty in the rest of the country have resulted in various forms of diminishment of indigenous Papuans Indigenous Papuans have been often depicted as people who are somehow backward when the region of West Papua was still under Dutch control the New Guinea Council decided on their official name Papua which etymologically denotes the frizzy hair of Papuans in contrast to the straight hair of the majority of Indo­nesians of Indo-Malay descent the physical differences between the newcomers (orang pendatang) and indigenous Papuans (orang asli Papua) are constantly accentuated in the widespread use of vocabulary such as ‘straight hair’ or ‘curly hair’ in daily speech these practices go hand in hand with the Indonesian agenda of modernity which in turn appears to advance the idea of self-cultivation towards the indigenous Papuans The discriminatory practices on one hand and the Indonesian discourse of modernisation on the other have consequently contributed to the formation of certain embodied notions of what it means to be ‘successful’ No wonder then that the word ‘amber’ in the Biak language (Sakti’s native language) which describes foreign non-Papuan people and literally means ‘straight hair’ has recently gained another layer of meaning: a successful or rich person It is clear that the powerful discourse of modernisation has influenced the understanding of beauty in Papua which is now inherently tied to the idea of progress (maju) The majority of waria in Papua work in salons which implies an active engagement with beauty Salon work provides a promising field for financial security for waria travelling to Papua Migrant waria in Papua who work in salons often look back and describe their circumstances in Java and Sulawesi in terms of tough com­petition and limited income the ‘money is good’ and the market is growing Waria migration to Papua and other areas of rapid urban develop­ment is further boosted by the context of modernisation in which beauty is understood as requiring significant effort and conscious intervention waria have successfully established their niche in the beauty business ‘So if no one would accept waria,’ says Donna a waria in her 40s describing the important role of waria in Papuan salon business the city could not become progressive (nggak bisa maju kota itu) Here Donna links the presence of waria and their salon services and this link serves waria in more ways than one In Papuan cities the daily salon work of waria often involves straightening the hair and lightening the skin of the Papuan population to align with popular Indonesian beauty ideals hair straightening is often a salon’s most expensive service which Papuan women nevertheless flock to and admire on one another waria therefore transform the indigenous Papuan people into more ‘progressive citizens’ closer to the image of the advancing Indonesian nation waria use the conventions of beauty as resources not only to earn a living but also to strive for national belonging by using their skills to contribute to national advancement How beauty is organised and understood and what kind of beauty feels engaging is always bound to specific cultural histories Following the association of modern femininity with the cultiva­tion of body and looks over decades waria-gendered expression became closely tied to the expression of beauty This is how the practice of make-up (dandan or déndong in waria slang) turned into one the foundational aspects of what makes one a waria Hence beauty for waria is not only a way of embodying femininity and one’s sense of gender: it is also a group identifier the idea of progress has evolved as part of national ideas of modernity and rapid changes during the integration of the region into the Indonesian state the image of success tied to the imagined West as the locus of progress and to the imagined community of Indonesia permeates perceptions of what is a progressive The aspired beauty follows the Indonesian dominant ideal which in turn references the feelings of cosmopolitanism and transnationalism – the reasoning behind Sakti’s performative positioning of herself into imaginary America The glamorous enactments of beauty and spectacular femininities are often based on imagined ties with possessors of ideal beauty such as ‘Miss Mexico’ These playful engagements illustrate the ways in which waria participate in and draw resources from wider cosmo­politan culture to affirm their sense of self The imagined mobility within these kinds of performances have the capacity to detach the subjective experience of waria from the harsh conditions that normally surround them these kinds of playful performative practices enable new forms of kinship and senses of belonging to the imagined worlds of the global as well as the national they also beneficially position waria in terms of possible local audiences or the local Papuan population whose acceptance they aspire to whose recognition matters for indigenous waria waria draw from meaningful symbolic resources in their practices of beauty to create senses of belonging on the transnational or national scale in order to strive for belonging in their local communities While the imaginary connections to faraway symbols places and idols enable a sense of belonging this does not mean that belonging is an easily achieved status for waria these are some of the strategies used in order to cope with their precarious existences these pursuits of belonging are not equally achievable for all waria at all times Racialised ideals of beauty as well as age affect waria differently Indigenous Papuan waria also have to navigate the intersecting circumstances of gender and racialised ideals of beauty These standards of beauty are far beyond being simply a question of taste and class aspirations because beauty for waria is also a group identifier which facilitates their legibility as waria Sakti’s craving for a label other than ‘Miss Angola’ and positioning of herself into an imaginary America hint at the perceived hierarchies in forms of embodied beauty These hierarchies subsequently influence her sense of self-worth and also structure her potential for belonging young indigenous waria struggle to act out beauty according to the Indonesian norm The same can be noticed about many Papuan women What might it take for them all one day to become proud ‘Miss Papua’ embracing their frizzy hair and beautiful bodies Terje Toomistu (terjetoomistu@gmail.com) is a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Tartu Her doctoral research focuses on the community of waria from the perspectives of feminist anthropology She is also one of the authors of a documentary film ‘Wariazone’ (2011) Receive Inside Indonesia's latest articles and quarterly editions in your inbox © Copyright Indonesian Resources and Information Program (IRIP) 1983 - 2025 We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the stolen lands on which Inside Indonesia is based and we pay our respects to Elders past and present We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment University of Birmingham provides funding as a founding partner of The Conversation UK View all partners people walking past Times Square in New York City will see a large billboard with a picture of Indonesia’s Raja Ampat islands accompanied with the tagline “escape to a magical place” But the appeal of the image hides the abject poverty of the people living on the islands A cluster of islands in the Bird’s Head peninsula of West Papua in Indonesia, Raja Ampat is one of the best diving spots in the world It’s a pristine and biodiverse marine environment where you can see colourful tropical fish with the naked eye from above the water the western half of the island of Papua was claimed by Indonesia in 1961 The people of West Papua voted to become a part of Indonesia in a widely disputed plebiscite in 1969 and in 2003 the territory was divided into two provinces – West Papua and Papua But they are generally referred to together as West Papua There is a pro-independence movement across Papua and the police and military frequently crack down on separatists The islands have abundant natural beauty that make them look like an earthly paradise. But of the more than 45,000 residents, around 20% live below the poverty line with poor access to education Data shows that in 2015, a household of four to five people in Raja Ampat spent an average of US$65 a month on food and other consumables. That’s 10% higher than the national average because the cost of living on the islands is so high It takes around eight hours to reach Raja Ampat from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on the island of Sulawesi between Java and Papua Then you get on a ferry to Waigeo island (also known as Amberi, or Waigiu), one of the four main islands of the 1,800 that make up Raja Ampat Most of Raja Ampat’s government and administration activities are centred in Waisai But the population is scattered across many islands with each family having between nine and 12 members Mainyafun doesn’t have a water treatment facility Clean drinking water is transported from Waisai either twice a month or once every two months depending on the season Villagers also collect rainwater for drinking Water from the mountain is piped into the village centre There’s no electricity and no phone signal Most people refer to education as “prestigious goods” and only study to the end of elementary school – the highest level available on the island To continue schooling beyond elementary level students in Manyaifun have to go to Waisai The journey costs US$100 one way and takes four hours by fibreglass boat most people on the island earn their living as fishers But a lot of them still live in extreme poverty Most families are indebted to the local mini store owner who sells staple goods The price for the fish they sell is so low that even if they catch ten kilograms of fish every day Fishers need five litres of fuel a day to operate their small boats The fishers sell to a collector in Mainyafun who processes them into salted fish The maximum selling price in Mainyafun is US$0.20 for a kilogram The price of fish in Waisai is ten times higher But fishers in Mainyafun have to sell their fish right away because there’s no electricity to power cold storage cheaper fuel and access to Waisai or Sorong markets to get a better price for their fish But a decent boat with an engine that can carry a larger volume of fish costs more than US$10,000 There’s a small public community clinic in Manyaifun The one doctor and four nurses who work there serve seven sub-districts scattered on neighbouring islands Many of their patients are the fishers who leave their house at five in the morning and return at five in the afternoon Health workers have to be on standby all the time Only basic and generic medicines are available in the clinic Living on an isolated island with no phone signal jeopardises both health workers and the people they serve The only hospital with decent equipment is located in the mainland city Sorong The health workers sometimes have to go to neighbouring islands for health emergencies on small boats They have to ignore the fact that sometimes the waves reach up to three metres It’s worse if they have to go at night time because there are no modern navigation tools or any information about the expected weather Health workers are only able to meet their families once or twice a year. Most of them come from Sorong and South Sulawesi, which is 1,532 kilometres away. The basic salary of health workers as civil servants or contract workers is US$150 a month but that’s very small compared to the demands on the health workers on Manyaifun While Indonesia promotes Raja Ampat to the world local people and health workers feel abandoned They rarely see government officials in their district According to my interviews with the local doctor and nurses The local government officials I interviewed told me they tried to improve welfare by teaching people how to build homestays for tourists and how to promote them online But locals and health workers said they had never met any official who’d visited their district The poverty in Raja Ampat is a reflection of the vital role of the state in the development process Only through proper attention from the elites in Raja Ampat and supervision from the central government can change come to the impoverished people in the area Indonesia may want to think twice about advertising Raja Ampat as paradise on Earth West Papua will have its own bullet train network a high-speed railway line capable of running express trains at a maximum speed of up to 250 kilometers per hour Trains used on the network will be capable of carrying larger loads similar to those intended for use in Sulawesi and Kalimantan and run faster than trains in Java and Sumatera after a meeting with West Papua Deputy Governor Irene Manibuy that the first and second phase of the development will take place between 2016 and 2019 “First the regional government will have to clear the land assess the environmental impact and look for recommendations from all regional leaders in the area,” Hermanto said West Papua’s railway development will be done in three phases The total length of the railway track from Manokwari to Sorong will be 390 kilometers The project is expected to start this year 2021 – NGOs are stepping up calls for Indonesia’s national government to show support for Indigenous rights in West Papua as a landmark court case enters its final week of hearings The Jayapura Administrative Court is scheduled to conclude hearings on Thursday in the case which involves three palm oil companies in Sorong regency West Papua Province fighting to overturn the cancellation of permits which had allowed them to convert forest areas into plantations in the face of opposition by Indigenous landowners the Sorong regency government and national NGOs have all taken a stand to rescue these Indigenous forest lands from conversion for palm oil production These permit revocations are the only concrete outcome so far from President Jokowi’s palm oil moratorium and permit review process,” said Wirya Supriyadi allowing cashed-up companies to take a bullying court case to retain control of Indigenous lands they were never morally entitled to,” said Wirya Years of Indigenous peoples’ complaints about plantation industry land-grabbing in West Papua province and concerns about the vast area of tropical rainforest slated for clearing lead the provincial government to undertake a review of oil palm plantation permits recommending in February this year that over a dozen plantation concessions be revoked and the forest areas be returned for sustainable management by their Indigenous owners.[1] The head of Sorong district Johny Kamuru went ahead and revoked the recommended permits and PT Sorong Agro Sawitindo are suing Kamuru and the head of Sorong’s investment agency in Jayapura Administrative Court to reverse the decision The palm oil permit review process falls under a mandate provided by Indonesian President Joko Widodo in 2018 administered by the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.[2] Yet neither ministry has made public comment formal representations or provided expert evidence to support Sorong district’s permit revocations The valuable forested land claimed by the three companies covers 90,031 hectares Greenpeace Indonesia’s Papua Forests Campaigner Nico Wamafma said “Considering the influence of power and money in the justice system and the importance of this case for Indigenous rights in West Papua a coalition of NGOs has requested the national Judicial Commission to monitor proceedings.”[3] On 18 November a joint public interest amicus curiae (‘friend of the court’) brief was lodged by the Sorong chapter of the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN) the Papua office of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) and Greenpeace Indonesia.[4] Pusaka Foundation’s Tigor Hutapea said “In our submission we asked the court to appreciate the wider implications of this case This is not a commercial dispute about permits It is about the public interest in protecting Indigenous land rights biodiversity and environmental sustainability in Papua.” AMAN’s Fecky Mobalen added: “In the amicus curiae brief we called on the court to respect publicly stated Indigenous opposition and provide justice in recognition that permits were issued without their consent.” [1] See Joint Press Release by Papua Barat Province and Corruption Eradication Commission [2] Presidential Instruction 8/2018 Concerning Postponement And Evaluation Of Oil Palm Plantation Licenses And Increasing Productivity Of Oil Palm Plantations [3] Submission (available on request) dated 22 Sep 2021 received by Judicial Commission (Komisi Yudisial) with ref [4] Link to amicus curiae brief [5] Greenpeace Indonesia in collaboration with Watchdoc will release a movie about deforestation in Papua later this month, watch the teaser here 20 November 2024 – Greenpeace Indonesia pushed today for governments gathered at the UN’s annual climate talks to directly finance communities who do the real work of protecting high… 6 Oct 2024 – As the region’s leaders chart the way ahead via ASEAN Vision 2045 it is imperative to ensure that human rights are at the forefront Auyu environmental warriors today took the fight for their traditional land from the forests of South Papua into a Jakarta courtroom Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Please select which cookies you are willing to store These cookies will provide you a better experience of our website You will be able to hide the cookies acceptance banner and use the website features better The non-acceptance of these cookies will give you a cookie-free experience These cookies help improving the performance of Greenpeace.org They are set to collect data such as how long users stay on a page or which links are clicked This helps us make better content based on your experience navigating the website Sign up now to receive our free regular PNG Business Update by email Papua New Guinea's Premier Business Magazine A conch shell calls across the land; chants from the highlands of Madang Province follow one destiny,” sings the Sorong Samarai band a musical coalition of artists from across the island of New Guinea which is split between Papua New Guinea and Indonesia to Samarai Island in Milne Bay Province in the far east collecting sound and film to make what is now the signature track on a new album the song and the album are spearheaded by PNG-Australian musician drummer and music producer Airileke Ingram on Gabbi Gabbi country on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast music publishing and music production company Gaba Musik with his partner Deline Briscoe Gaba Musik is also a merging of cultures: in Motu Deline’s language from the rainforests of northern Australia Airileke is a powerhouse for PNG and Australian First Nations music bringing activist music from the Pacific region – including PNG and West Papua – to Australian stages Deline is the musical production’s artistic director and Airileke’s Sorong Samarai band will provide the backing for the next production a festival for contemporary Pacific Island music supported by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade the original idea was to bring musicians from the motherlands to Australia I had to curate from islanders living within Australia and I found incredible talent I didn’t know was living here.” The biennial concert is coming up to its third production in 2025 with plans to next take place at Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl Airileke plans to take Pasifix touring from Melbourne to Brisbane and Port Moresby with the 50th anniversary of PNG’s independence key in its plans to create a two-way conversation between Australia and PNG sharing PNG’s rich culture with Australians,” he says “PNG music does not necessarily have the commercial pull as say New Zealand or Polynesian reggae – it does need to be subsidised but we’re trying to put more value on indigenous knowledge and indigenous culture and share that rich culture that PNG has.” Some of the most beautiful music comes from the hardest roughest places – South Africa during the apartheid era songwriters have to be more poetic in how they speak about it and get the word out I see a whole other genre emerging from Port Moresby used to describe workers taken from the South Pacific islands and used for labouring in the British colonies naka is like the word ‘mate’ among these young rappers.” He also says they’re the first generation to identify as being from the city everyone that lived in Moresby was from somewhere else in the country Two artists to watch are Sprigga Mek (aka Allan Aufamau) Kanaka Messenjah (produced by Airileke and Stephen Maxwell) won Album of the Year at the 2023 PNG music awards often sitting on the floor in a spare room – a far cry from lavish music producers’ usual studios “Sprigga is from Motu village of Hanuabada and Mekeo and he was one of the first musicians to catch naka beat issues affecting urban people and kids from the ghetto,” says Airileke He’s performed at the world music festival WOMAD in Adelaide and the Sydney Opera House in Australia Add to that list RnB singer Mereani Masani the scourge of domestic violence – themes universal to the country I encourage artists to be conscious and speak out,” says Airileke “And if you’re a rapper coming from the settlements of Port Moresby His other challenge is to make the music speak as the lyrics do Instead of taking sample beats from the internet bringing the kwakumba flute of Chimbu Province into Genamari composed by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Richard Mogu but owning that and doing it in our own way is really respected by other Papua New Guineans.” He and Sprigga are currently working on a track in 22 languages “I really encourage the young artists to reach to their culture Airileke started working on the title in 2016 in his Melbourne studio with West Papuan independence leader Benny Wenda who shared some wisisi music from his village “It was just the most incredible sound I’d heard in a long time,” says Airileke “I wrote the lyrics and the song right there and started layering it with the sound I’d recorded from our travels in West Papua and PNG in 2014.” Kwa kumba flutes added the spirit of Highlands PNG pairing with the trance-like wisisi music from West Papua’s highlands Manus Island‘s garamut drums and traditional songs from the West Papuan island of Biak are all woven into the signature track There’s a geographic and cultural connection across the island of New Guinea a songline that runs through the latitudes and the similarity of terrains It’s the feeling of connectivity – often lost between the two sides of the island – from Sorong to Samarai But music and social media have no borders – there are not many other art forms that can do that That’s what the band Sorong Samarai is about “PNG is the most linguistically diverse place on Earth and every language represents culture,” says Airileke “I think a beautiful thing about the country is the language The Sorong Samarai album is available through Gaba Musik This is an edited version of an original article first published in the October-December 2024 issue of Paradise Business leaders are not quite ready to call it, but there are promising signs as Papua New Guinea celebrates its 50th anniversary … [Read More...] After a decade focused on existing minerals and hydrocarbons production, Papua New Guinea is gearing up for an anticipated wave of … [Read More...] In this exclusive interview with Business Advantage PNG, Barrick Gold’s President and Chief Executive Mark Bristow talks about the … [Read More...] This week's 2024 Business Advantage PNG Investment conference saw top speakers from across the business sector and government come … [Read More...] Privacy policy One of the Indonesian Navy's fast missile boats caught fire and sank while on patrol near Sorong in West Papua on Tuesday (11/09) becoming the country's second naval vessel to perish in the past nine months All crewmembers on board the missile-carrying KRI Rencong-622 survived The Navy has vowed to investigate the incident which followed the sinking due to bad weather of KRI Sibarau-847 in the Strait of Malacca in December "We hope the result of the investigation will help us to prevent similar incidents in the future," Indonesian Navy spokesman Rear Adm Gig Jonais Mozes Sipasulta said on Wednesday when a fire broke out in the ship's engine room after the gas turbine unexpectedly shut down The vessel was set to return to base in Sorong to replenish its supply of fresh water The fire soon spread to other compartments prompting the ship's commander to issue an order to abandon ship was one of Indonesia's four Asheville-class gunboats It used to carry French-made MM-38 Exocet surface-to-surface missiles before switching to Chinese-made SACCADE C-802 missiles The patrol boat has been instrumental in Indonesia's efforts to root out illegal fishing since 2015 The ship used to intercept mainly Philippine and Taiwanese fishing boats entering and fishing illegally in Indonesian waters It formed part of the Indonesian Navy's Third Fleet Command in Sorong and used to patrol the Banda Sea in the Maluku Islands and the Celebes Sea east of Sulawesi Island The government introduced a Rp 18.3 trillion ($1.2 billion) budget in the House of Representative last week for the procurement of new ships and weaponry for the Navy next year The focus is on boosting Indonesia's military capabilities in its eastern region and it includes beefing up the Sorong naval base secretary general of the Ministry of Defense the Indonesian military blamed a pro-independence group for a deadly attack in West Papua although separatist rebels claimed responsibility for the incidents in September and on Thursday The military accused the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) of carrying out Thursday’s attack that killed a government soldier and wounded four others in Maybrat regency the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) “We strongly suspect that [Thursday’s attack] was the work of the KNPB group in Maybrat,” Col spokesman for the Indonesian military in West Papua A gunfight erupted between soldiers from the combat engineering division and people who attacked them at around 7 a.m The slain soldier was identified as Second Sgt TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom told BenarNews that its fighters carried out the Thursday morning attack “TPNPB attacked soldiers and police who were repairing the Aifuf River bridge and killed one of the soldiers,” Sebby told BenarNews under the command of Denny Moos and his deputy Zakarias Fatem However, authorities blamed the KNPB group for this latest attack as well as one on a Maybrat military post that left four government soldiers dead in early September The military said the six suspects who were arrested for the September incident were from the KNPB could face the death penalty if found guilty of premeditated murder But KNPB said it had nothing to do with either incident told BenarNews that the group eschews violence and is unarmed KNPB is known for holding pro-independence rallies demanding a referendum in Papua Indonesia’s easternmost region that comprises the provinces of Papua and West Papua “KNPB as the voice of the Papuan people will continue to call on Jakarta and all parties to pursue a peaceful solution,” Suhuniap told BenarNews Suhuniap said armed violence would only harm all parties He called for a referendum on independence as a peaceful solution to the Papua conflict police and TPNPB to stop armed violence that can have fatal consequences for civilians,” Suhuniap said The insurgency has simmered in Papua for decades but it remains among Indonesia’s poorest and underdeveloped regions Indonesian forces invaded Papua and annexed the region Papua was formally incorporated into Indonesia after a United Nations-sponsored ballot called the Act of Free Choice in 1969 Locals and activists said the vote was a sham because only about 1,000 people took part the Indonesian-ruled western half of the New Guinea island was divided into two provinces – Papua and West Papua Deadly violence has intensified since late 2018 when rebels killed 19 people constructing a bridge as part of a government highway project in Nduga regency claiming that the workers were government soldiers KNPB’s Suhuniap blamed the ongoing violence in Papua partly on what he described as the excessive presence of government troops director of international affairs at the World Council of Churches said that increased militarization had worsened the conflict despite governmental promises of dialogue with indigenous Papuans He also said the government had failed to address and improve the humanitarian situation in Papua “What we have seen for decades are high levels of human rights violations denial of freedom of expression and assembly and many other violations,” Prove said in the video released by the council People displaced by violence are not receiving the assistance they need from the authorities while international humanitarian agencies are given little or no access to the region “The Indonesian authorities certainly need to address the longstanding ongoing and worsening human rights crisis in the region,” Prove said said the attorney general’s office had appointed 22 senior prosecutors to handle four past cases of alleged human rights violations These include the killing of four student protesters by security forces in Paniai regency in December 2014 Add your comment by filling out the form below in plain text Comments are approved by a moderator and can be edited in accordance with RFAs Terms of Use RFA is not responsible for the content of the postings be respectful of others' point of view and stick to the facts.