 | Papua: Indonesia's silent war - 29 May 2008 Indonesia's eastern-most province of Papua is rich in natural resources, but its people remain the poorest in the country. For decades Papua was the scene of a low-level independence struggle, but years after the fighting ended, tens of thousands of Indonesian soldiers remain deployed in the province. Al Jazeera correspondent Step Vaessen reports from a region where many residents still live in a state of fear. |
 | Papua New Guinea Lake Hargy Expedition Lake Hargy Expedition reveals the unspoilt beauty of the region surrounding the lake. A land forgotten in time, New Britain, Papua New Guinea |
 | Kosovo. Precedent. E.T.A. (Basque Region). January 2008 Kosovo: A possible precedent for Europe and the World ____________________ ETA toma a Kosovo como un referente para la independencia de 'Euskal Herria' ____________________ The Basque separatist group ETA will base its calls for independence on the example set by Kosovo ____________________ En español: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/01/05/espana/1199496686.html ____________________ Because after ETA's announcement, it's probable that other independent movements -- peaceful or not -- in countries like Romania or Belgium, will feel the legitimacy in forcing politicial sessions ____________________ This will create a dangerous precedent whereby the international community backs the right of an ethnic minority to undermine the sovereignty of a recognized state. At the same time, it is interesting to follow the West's hypocrisy on another burning issue ____________________ The West supports independence for the Albanian-majority territory, but insists it would not set a precedent. Other breakaway regions around the world disagree. Following are a few that might look with interest at the Kosovo case: TRANSDNIESTRIA - Moldova ** A tiny sliver of land on the Dniestr river, Transdniestria broke away from Moldova in September 1990. A brief war killed hundreds before Russian troops intervened. The region of 550,000 people is dominated by Russian-speaking Slavs, who pressed for independence fearing Moldova's Romanian-speaking majority would one day join Romania to the south. Around 1,200 Russian troops remain. Transdniestria covers one eighth of Moldovan territory but is home to the bulk of Moldova's industrial base. ABKHAZIA AND SOUTH OSSETIA - Georgia ** Home to 200,000 people, Abkhazia is sandwiched between the Black Sea and the Caucasus mountains and was once a renowned tourist destination. It fought a 1992-3 war against Georgia and effectively rules itself. It was isolated for years after the war but has since forged closer ties with Russia, which has given Abkhaz residents passports and pensions. South Ossetia fought to throw off Georgian rule in the early 1990s. A ceasefire was signed but the violence has threatened to reignite. Russia has peacekeepers in both regions. NAGORNO-KARABAKH - Azerbaijan ** Sporadic clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh between Azeri and local ethnic Armenian irregulars began in 1998, escalating by 1992 into full-scale hostilities between Azeri forces and troops from Armenia. About 35,000 people died and hundreds of thousands fled before a ceasefire was signed in 1994. The territory remains part of Azerbaijan but is controlled by Armenian forces. A major BP-led pipeline linking Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea oil fields to world markets passes a few kilometres from the conflict zone. PAPUA - Indonesia ** In the remote eastern Papua province, activists have led a campaign for more than 30 years to break away from Indonesia, while a low-level armed rebellion has been rumbling for decades. Critics say military abuses and dissatisfaction over Jakarta's distribution of wealth generated by the mineral- and gas-rich province has fuelled grievances. A 30-year insurgency in Aceh province, killing 15,000 people, ended in a European Union-monitored peace accord in 2005. BASQUE COUNTRY - Spain ** Basque separatist movement ETA has spent the past four decades fighting for an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southwestern France, killing more than 800 people. The semi-autonomous Basque region in northern Spain is home to 2.1 million people. More than 750 suspected members have been detained since 2000. ETA declared a ceasefire last year, but the Spanish government scrapped peace talks in December 2006 after ETA bombed Madrid airport, killing two people. THE KURDS - Turkey/Iraq/Syria/Iran ** Around 20 million Kurds are scattered between northern Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey, describing themselves as the world's largest stateless minority. Most live in southeastern Turkey, where Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerrillas have fought an insurgency since 1984 in which more than 30,000 people have died. A ceasefire was called in 1999, but fighting resumed in 2004. Turkey fears that Kurds in northern Iraq plan to set up their own state, stirring tensions among Turkish Kurds. WESTERN SAHARA - Morocco ** The Polisario movement of Western Sahara fought a low-level war for independence after Morocco annexed the desert territory with the pullout of colonial power Spain in 1975. U.N. troops have monitored an uneasy peace since 1991. It is Africa's oldest territorial dispute, over land the size of Britain, inhabited by 260,000 people. A U.N. ceasefire agreement in 1991 promised a referendum on the fate of the territory, but it never took place and Morocco now rules it out, saying autonomy is the most it will offer. (SOURCE: Reuters Factiva) |
 | Aid distribution from Girua airfield A group of very important people visited Oro province to view damage and see the progress made in relief efforts after floods devastated villages when cyclone Guba hit the northern region of Papua New Guinea (PNG). Mr Chris Moraitas, the Australian High Commissioner to PNG, was joined by Group Captain Tim Innes, Commander of Joint Task Force 636, Colonel Francis Agwi, Chief Intelligence with the Papua New Guinean Defence Forces, Dame Carol Kidu, Minister for Community Development and Ms Margaret Thomas, Coordinator of AusAID in PNG, surveyed the damage to the region before landing at the operations centre at Girua airfield. The dignitaries then moved to the village of Popondetta, where disaster coordination was taking place and discussed the operation before meeting some of the locals, displaced by the flooding. Ms Margaret Thomas speaks about the coordinated relief effort. Colonel Francis Agwi, Chief of Defence Intelligence with the Papua New Guinea Defence Force |
 | The Okapa Connection - Part II "The Okapa Connection" follows the journey of organic, fair-trade coffee from the growers in the Purosa region of Papua New Guinea, to the coffee shops of Australia. |
 | Pygmy Possum Scientists believe they have found a new undocumented mammal -- a pygmy possum -- in the jungles of a remote mountain range in Indonesia's Papua province, a conservation group said. During an expedition to Papua's Foja Mountains in June, Conservation International (CI) and Indonesian scientists documented the Cercartetus pygmy possum, one of the world's smallest marsupials, and a Mallomys giant rat, the conservation group said in a statement. Both mammals are currently under study and are apparently new to science, it said. Scientists from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences and CI discovered dozens of new plants and animals on their first trip to the region, described as a "Lost World", in late 2005. The Foja Wilderness is part of the great Mamberamo Basin, the largest unroaded tropical forest in the Asia Pacific region. With 42 million hectares (104 million acres) of tropical forests and some of the richest bio-diversity in the world, Papua is considered the country's last rainforest frontier. But it is under threat from increased cutting and clearing for palm oil plantations as well as rampant illegal logging. |
 | Protecting forests, saving the climate Following a three-day protest by Greenpeace activists aboard a logging ship in Papua New Guinea's Aiai River, a logging company in the region has finally promised to review the logging agreement for a site covering 1.7 million hectares. Read the full story at http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/news-and-events/news/deforestation/we-ve-stopped-an-illegal-loggi See how you can take action: http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/issues/deforestation/take-action |
 | Malaysia and The Malay Archipelago This video is to remind US(especially Ramli) about the World Around US and how wonderful that Malaysia was a major part of what we called The Malay Archipelago. With the Global Focus in this 21st Century,we must think GloKal (ie.Global Outlook,Local Origins) Malaysia can be a Global Power in Business,Culture,Sports,Entertainment and Politics if we realize the existence of this brotherly nations of our Malay Archipelago and how best with can Work Together in a Win-Win Relationship that the Malay Archipelago provides to all her inhabitants. Actually,the 21st Century have no borders it will soon be a "state of the mind" only what is important is to "Reach out and Care For Everyone" and that needs Caring,Sharing and Love for ALL. Who can do that ? YOU and all of US beginning in Malaysia and nations in The Malay Archipelago. Wassallam,Ramli Abu Hassan e-mail:revolusiaksi@yahoo.com.my In this video,you will see: Meaning of Malaysia M=Malay Archipelago A=Abundance of natural resources L= Life is Good A= A Place for All Y= Year Round Celebrations S= Singapore is just Nextdoor I= I am Proud to be a Malaysian A= A Great Place To Call Home ! Below is the Reference from Wikipedia on The Malay Archipelago: The Malay Archipelago is a vast archipelago located between mainland Southeastern Asia (Indochina) and Australia. Straddling the Indian and Pacific Oceans, this group of some 20,000 islands, the world's largest archipelago by area, constitutes the territories of Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, East Timor, and most of Papua New Guinea. There are, however, arguments for excluding the last-named country for cultural and geographical reasons: Papua New Guinea is culturally quite different from the other countries in the region, and the island of New Guinea itself is geologically not part of the continent of Asia, as the islands of the Sunda Shelf are (see Australia (continent)). The archipelago is sometimes also known as the East Indies, but some authorities apply a much broader meaning to this term by including Indochina, the Indian subcontinent, and even areas as far west as Iranian Baluchistan. The Malay Archipelago encompasses many groups which may be considered archipelagoes in their own right. The major ones are: * The Sunda Islands o The Greater Sunda Islands o The Lesser Sunda Islands * The Maluku Islands * The Philippines The archipelago's area is more than 2 million km², and its total population is more than 300,000,000+. The biggest islands in the archipelago are New Guinea (if included), Borneo, and Sumatra. The most heavily populated island is Java. Geologically the archipelago is very interesting, being one of the most active volcanic regions in the world. Geological uplifts in the region have also produced some impressive mountains, culminating in Mount Kinabalu in Sabah with a height of 4 101 m (or Puncak Jaya in Papua at 4 884 m, if New Guinea is included). The climate throughout the archipelago, owing to its position astride the equator, is tropical. It is notably rainier in the west than in the east, however. The region known as Maritime Southeast Asia is more or less coextensive with the Malay Archipelago. Notes on Malaysia: The name "Malaysia" was adopted in 1963 when the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo and Sarawak formed a 14-state federation. Yet, the name itself had been vaguely used to refer to unspecified areas in Southeast Asia. A map published in 1914 in Chicago has the word Malaysia printed on it referring to certain territories within the Malay Archipelago.The Philippines once contemplated to name their state "Malaysia" but Malaysia adopted the name first in 1963 before the Philippines could act further on the matter. Other names were contemplated for the 1963 federation. Among them was Langkasuka; Langkasuka was an old kingdom located at the upper section of the Malay Peninsula in the first millennium of the common era. Malaysia as established in 1963 comprised Peninsular Malaysia(West Malaysia) and Sarawak and Sabah (East Malaysia)- (as part of the Borneo Island) Even farther into history, English ethnologist George Samuel Windsor Earl in volume IV of Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia in 1850 proposed to name the islands of Indonesia as Melayunesia or Indunesia though he favored the former. |
 | Bob Brozman - Songs Of The Volcano - Trailer I filmed Songs Of The Volcano during two trips in 2003 and 2004. Accompanied by Denis Crowdy from the Department of Contemporary Music Studies at Sydney's Macquarie University, and screenwriter Rory McCourt, we undertook a field trip to Rabaul in Papua New Guinea's East New Britain Province, to work with five local stringbands on a collaborative album featuring different stringband styles from that region. Under extreme conditions of humidity, torrential rain and falling ash from the erupting volcano Tavurvur, we recorded local Tolai musicians in a collaboration with world renowned master guitarist and ethnomusicologist Bob Brozman, as part of his work at Macquarie as an Adjunct Professor. Runs 7 mins 26 secs Contact me for copies of the Documentary and CD package AU$30 including postage. philmdon@optusnet.com.au |
 | Eden Coffee Fair Trade Story (Part 1 of 2) See how choosing to buy Fair Trade coffee benefits the local growers and communities in the Purosa Region of Papua New Guinea. Eden coffee is proud to support Fair Trade and organic where possible. Try our great fair Trade/Organic coffee blend "Tribal" available today by ordering online @ http://www.edencoffee.co.nz |
 | Eden Coffee Fair Trade Story (Part 2 of 2) See how choosing to buy Fair Trade coffee benefits the local growers and communities in the Purosa Region of Papua New Guinea. Eden coffee is proud to support Fair Trade and Organic growers where possible. Try our great fair Trade/Organic coffee blend "Tribal" available today by ordering online @ http://www.edencoffee.co.nz |
 | headliNE NEWS WITH DBICKFORDTRUTHTV! LATEST EARTHQUAKES! ALL THE LIARS/EVIL/MURDERERS IN THE US GOVERNMENT KNOW THE TRUTH! OBAMA,MCCCAIN,PAUL,KUCINICH,BUSH,RICE,CHENEY,SENATE,GOVERNORS AND CONGRESS KNOW! 503-995-0567! MAG UTC DATE-TIME y/m/d h:m:s LAT deg LON deg DEPTH km Region MAP 5.1 2008/09/28 13:42:57 -6.321 130.150 138.1 BANDA SEA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAP 6.1 2008/09/27 03:09:14 13.402 120.476 77.1 MINDORO, PHILIPPINES MAP 5.6 2008/09/27 03:05:01 13.387 120.494 82.0 MINDORO, PHILIPPINES -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAP 5.3 2008/09/26 23:10:05 -5.688 130.712 109.2 BANDA SEA MAP 5.4 2008/09/26 18:46:19 3.106 65.431 10.0 CARLSBERG RIDGE MAP 5.0 2008/09/26 15:52:25 27.684 56.683 35.0 SOUTHERN IRAN -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAP 5.9 2008/09/25 01:47:12 30.827 83.464 10.0 WESTERN XIZANG -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAP 5.1 2008/09/24 22:40:42 -42.198 173.984 15.5 SOUTH ISLAND OF NEW ZEALAND MAP 5.2 2008/09/24 17:59:33 36.213 71.172 96.9 HINDU KUSH REGION, AFGHANISTAN MAP 5.4 2008/09/24 17:12:16 -22.686 -12.771 10.0 SOUTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE MAP 5.1 2008/09/24 06:00:51 -10.223 161.381 92.4 SOLOMON ISLANDS MAP 6.4 2008/09/24 02:33:05 17.635 -105.520 10.0 OFF THE COAST OF COLIMA, MEXICO -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAP 5.3 2008/09/22 20:20:59 -23.445 -179.574 540.1 SOUTH OF THE FIJI ISLANDS MAP 5.4 2008/09/22 13:30:38 15.563 96.112 35.0 NEAR THE SOUTH COAST OF MYANMAR MAP 5.2 2008/09/22 08:17:24 -5.999 151.005 34.1 NEW BRITAIN REGION, PAPUA NEW GUINEA MAP 5.7 2008/09/22 07:31:59 41.603 140.457 147.3 HOKKAIDO, JAPAN REGION -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAP 5.2 2008/09/21 18:50:18 -31.363 -179.996 340.1 KERMADEC ISLANDS REGION |
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