June 12, p1

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono downplayed the tensions in Papua on Tuesday by calling the recent deadly shootings “small-scale incidents compared to those in the Middle East”.

“The recent incidents in Papua can be considered small, with a limited number of victims. They are hardly as severe as the violence in the Middle East, where we have witnessed deadly attacks with many fatalities almost everyday,” he said.

Your comments:

It is hard to say how many Papuans have really been killed by the police and military.

In Syria, UN observers and journalists can report the violence, but in Papua, international NGOs and journalists are banned and the flow of information out of remote regions is limited.

A lot of incidents are only reported from one point of view, i.e. official statements by the security forces scapegoating “unid...