14 Apr 2011

Seminar at Yale to examine Papua situation and genocide claims

1:46 pm on 14 April 2011

A seminar examining claims that genocide has taken place in Indonesia's Papua region will be held from tomorrow at Yale University in the US state of Connecticut.

Ed McWilliams of the US-based West Papua Advocacy Team says a number of international academics are expected to attend the two-day seminar.

"And it essentially is a counterpart to the [Yale] seminar back in 2002 which produced a thorough and very well researched report [The Alard Lowenstein report] that concluded that Indonesia had been guilty of crimes against humanity in West Papua and dealt with the issue of whether or not, and indeed it was guilty of genocide. This will be a follow-up to that conference, that will look at developments in West Papua since that time."

Ed McWilliams says there will be a West Papuan presence at the seminar as well representation from the Indonesian government.