The Wire

This morning a red, white and blue flag was raised in the Sydney suburb of Petersham, with several West Papuans and local councillors looking on. There’s a good chance that the same flag is also being flown somewhere in West Papua today, but there, the consequences may be deadly. On the first of December West Papuans celebrate the anniversary of the first time their flag of independence was flown in 1961, but the province remains firmly under the control of Indonesia, with not even the red cross allowed in to monitor the tense situation. I went along to the very peaceful flag raising ceremony in Petersham this morning.