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elevision news network Al-Jazeera English will broadcast an Australian documentary on the plight of Papuans that has already stirred some sensitivities within the Indonesian government regarding the troubled province.

Directed by Australian filmmaker Jono van Hest, Pride of Warriors is inspired by the story of 43 West Papuans who fled to Australia seeking refugee status in 2006. The case sparked tension between Canberra and Jakarta.

"Shocking, revealing and empowering, this film is disturbingly indicative of the current situation in West Papua," a press release sent by van Hest to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday said.

The documentary will air at 3:30 p.m. Jakarta time.

"These remarkable stories provide unparalleled access and a strikingly personal insight into the West Papuan resistance," it said.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah said he had not seen the film, but lamented Al-Jazeera for screening it. He said it could unfairly discredit the Indonesian government.

"Al-Jazeera is known as an alternative media network that leans toward developing countries and is not Western-centered. I am surprised," he said. It was not, he said, the first time though that an international media outlet had broadcast a documentary on Papua.

The documentary is said to have been made secretly without permits or content monitoring. One story detailed in the documentary is that of Yane Waromi, the daughter of separatist leader Edison Waromi from the West Papua National Authority. In her testimony, Yane alleges she was "kidnapped, injected with drugs and severely tortured".

"The attack was allegedly carried out to extract information about her father's activities. The family sees it as a targeted threat aimed at Mr Waromi to stop his political activities," the press release said.

Speaking on the sidelines of a seminar on Indonesian-Australian relations at the National University in Jakarta recently, an Australian expert on Indonesia from Wollongong University, Ron Witton, said while the East Timor issue was considered something of the past, Papua remained a concern to many Australians.

"There are Australians who are still concerned about human rights in Papua in the same way they are concerned about human rights in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Burma and in any country."

"It's not particularly because it's part of Indonesia. It's just a general concern about human rights in the same way that Indonesians would have concerns about Australian Aboriginals," he said.

The government has denied reports issued by US-based Human Rights Watch and Amnesty that claim the Indonesian military is oppressing Papuans.

The Foreign Ministry also claim some people still view Indonesia through an old paradigm, particularly when it comes to Papua.