REPORTER: Mark Davis
The situation in West Papua is always dire but on March 17, in Jayapura, it took a dramatic turn for the worse. Papuan students have embarked on a dangerous protest against Indonesian authorities. Troops are brought in and open fire. In the melee that follows, five Indonesian police are stoned and beaten to death. The reprisals begin that night.
Anyone young and black are set upon in the streets of Jayapura. Soldiers attack the university, searching for young Papuan highlanders in particular. Many are severely beaten, it's claimed that more than a dozen have been murdered, others have simply disappeared.
The only immediate refuge for hundreds of students and other young Papuan highlanders, is the jungle beyond Jayapura, where many remain today. But they are being hunted there as well.
Their only hope is to get out of the country, over the mountains and into Papua New Guinea. This border region is now full of Indonesian troops and West Papuan independence fighters. PNG and Australian troops are nearby. This is the hot spot where the students are heading. Some have made it across the border into PNG, where I pick up with them and Joshua, their contact man, who helped plan their escape.
There are a number of secret camps like this in PNG near the border - staging posts for their ultimate destination. And for most of the 20 people in this camp, that destination is Australia.
JOSHUA, (Translation): You will stay here while we organise things. We will do this in stages. So then, once everything is safe here we will arrange the trip.
The refugees are neither entirely safe, nor welcome here. Arguments about them have broken out in the surrounding villages. Some don't want them to go they'll make good recruits for upcoming battles. Others are tiring of feeding them. But it's better than where they were, being hunted by Indonesian troops.
STUDENT (Translation): We definitely think, that if we are arrested we will be killed because they have been pursuing young men who were at the scene of the incident and even those who werent there.
But today they are not being chased by Indonesians but by Papuans, a faction war amongst the guerrilla independence movement, the OPM, has broken out around them. There is an argument about which group they should be answering to. The knives literally come out and my camera goes down.
Another boatload of young refugees is due today on this beach in PNG. 22 students fled Jayapura in the middle of the night. The plan is for Joshua to meet them here and help arrange the next part of their journey - to Australia.
REPORTER: Should they be here by now?
JOSHUA: Yeah, I don't know what is happening. But we'll see. If not today...
He's been here half the night but, as dawn breaks, Joshua knows something has gone very wrong.
REPORTER: And how many are coming?
JOSHUA: Today...there is about 20 of them will arrive here today.
Joshua drives to the border, searching the beaches as he goes, and trying to make phone contact with Jayapura.
JOSHUA: That is the Jayapura city. Side of this cliff, you see that? That's the town. To the left and you come to Papua New Guinea.
REPORTER: Any reception?
JOSHUA: Yep.
REPORTER: The boat was meant to arrive at dawn this morning. We know that they left at 4:00 from Jayapura, which is just over the hill. Joshua is now extremely worried and he is trying to make contact with Jayapura to see what has gone wrong. He fears that they might have been captured.
All he can establish is that at least one is dead and one has been arrested, others are still missing and the survivors are desperately trying hide themselves. At great risk to himself, Joshua slips back into Indonesia to try and find them and the picture becomes clearer in the following days.
JOSHUA: One is dead and two missing, one in the hospital now. And then the rest is hiding somewhere in Jayapura.
REPORTER: Alright, and what is the mood of the people? Are they scared now or do they still want to come?
JOSHUA: They are still contacting me, they're still trying to get me. And they're saying, "Brother, you have to help us get out from here."
With the waterways now being patrolled, the only way out is through the forest, avoiding the Indonesian Army, and trying to meet up with the West Papuan guerrilla movement, the OPM.
JOSHUA: It is very dangerous but, you know, I will asking assistance from the OPM men. They know the way to escape, the bush way, you know.
But the OPM are having trouble of their own.
PATRICK, (Translation): Our friends, the Papuan fighters, have given their lives for us to rescue us from the hands of the Indonesians. We will meet again at Gods side. We will meet again in the grave.
This village near the border is mourning the death of an OPM leader after a battle with the Indonesian army. To Indonesia he was a terrorist and a murderer. To West Papuan students, he was their champion and defender.
PATRICK, (Translation): He said I will fall first, you come after me. That was his message.
As the students were being attacked in Jayapura, the man being remembered today led an OPM attack from PNG on an Indonesian army base - personally killing two Indonesian soldiers and luring others out into OPM fire.
PATRICK, (Translation): He went in with his machete, his troops had guns. He knocked on the door and the commander opened it. He cut the commanders head off with his machete.
The details of this attack were gruesome enough but the shock for me was hearing his name - Petrus Tabuni. 2.5 years ago I made a film about Petrus Tabuni from tapes smuggled out of the highlands of West Papua. Then, resplendent in a fine suit and even finer hat, he was a consummate and moderate politician. Surrounded by OPM guerrillas, he was bravely calling on them to lay down their guns.
PETRUS TABUNI, (Translation): To prove to other nations of the world that independence is not always achieved by violence and bloodshed.
At this secret meeting, Tabuni convinced the OPM to lay down their weapons and asked Indonesia to do the same. He wrote to the UN, and specifically to John Howard, asking him to support and convey the cease-fire message. The only response came from Indonesia. They immediately captured and killed the co-author of his peace plan, OPM commander Justinus Murip, proudly posing his dead body as a trophy kill. Then they began to hunt down Tabuni and his family killing his nephew and others in the process, an event recalled at his funeral.
MAN, (Translation): At 2 in the morning they attacked, so the Indonesian soldiers shot six, including his nephew. This one they captured captured alive. They took him to Wamena and stabbed him.
REPORTER: Stabbed him? With a knife? With a bayonet? The boy, they killed the boy with a bayonet? Why?
MAN (Translation): I don't know.
PATRICK, (Translation): Today Im going in. Win or lose, today is mine.
Tabuni was calling for dialogue with Indonesia, what he ended up with was dead kids. Humiliated, he disappeared into the jungle on the border until a few weeks ago when the students of Jayapura came under attack.
PATRICK, (Translation): The second one came out and raised his arm. His arm was cut off and fell to the ground, then his head. After the two soldiers had fallen, our troops attacked. It was a direct attack, another four died on the spot.
This was the first direct attack by the OPM in years - a declaration of war that will not be ignored by the Indonesian military.
PATRICK, (Translation): Other people are still at the front.
The border area is now filling up with angry Indonesian soldiers, students trying to flee and an armed OPM unit under the command of another member of the Tabuni clan Lukas Tabuni. It is a region ready to blow. And Tabuni's next move could provide that spark.
PATRICK, (Translation): We dont know exactly where Tabuni and his troops are.
Finding the OPM, in the grey zone of the border region, is now a hard task. They're protected by a large network of supporters and a terrible network of roads. Like travelling anywhere in PNG, you stop when the road gives up and hit the bush tracks.
REPORTER: I'm travelling in to see Lukas Tabuni, one of the OPM commanders up on the border. He's been actively engaged with the Indonesian army over the last few weeks - there's been a number of clashes - And it's to him that many of the students are trying to flee, trying to get safe passage past the Indonesians, through the bush and into PNG.
Wary of Indonesian reprisals, Tabuni's fighters are moving constantly between Indonesia and PNG. The jungle on the PNG-side is broadly viewed as OPM country - rarely intruded upon by PNG police or army, nor by their Australian military advisors who are based nearby. And yet, this region is likely to soon become a serious flashpoint between Indonesia, PNG and Australia. Indonesian troops are starting to mass here and in no mood to tolerate PNG forests, harbouring the OPM.
OLD MAN, (Translation): There were soldiers in full kit up there, they all came down, so why do they come here in full kit?
This man lives virtually on the border and claims that large numbers of Indonesian troops are camped nearby. He is understandably nervous. His village has been attacked and destroyed in the past by Indonesian troops in pursuit of the OPM
After days of travel and delicate introductions, I find Lukas Tabuni's camp. Lukas was the commander of the recent attack on the Indonesian army post but allowed the elderly Petrus the honour of striking the first blow.
LUKAS, (Translation): He was ready to die, to take a machete and kill people. That is why we, Petrus and Lukas Tabuni, as part of the people from the interior, from the highlands, we turned our thoughts to war.
Lukas has spent a lot of time thinking about war he's been hiding and fighting in this forest for almost 30 years but had abided by a cease-fire for the last seven, since the fall of Suharto, to allow talks to proceed with Indonesia. Today, he knows that the talking has well and truly stopped as Indonesian troops mass around him.
LUKAS, (Translation): The military has been bringing in weapons and personnel, two battalions of troops. Two battalions have been dropped near the border. Obviously, theyre going to attack our headquarters. Thats all they aim to take our headquarters.
The Indonesians are planning to attack here, you say?
LUKAS, (Translation): They are planning to attack.
REPORTER: Won't they need the permission of PNG or do you think PNG will give them permission?
LUKAS, (Translation): Indonesia doesnt think about the PNG government.
Events here could escalate overnight, rapidly dragging PNG and Australia into a conflict to defend the border. But Lukas shows no sign of backing down.
REPORTER: Do you have weapons? I mean, how would you do this?
LUKAS, (Translation): Im ready to attack, Im not going to win because Im fully equipped with guns, Im going to win using our own weapons, bows, spears, machetes, axes. I have these ready.
But there is little doubt that he has a bit more than that at his disposal after his attack on the Indonesian military base.
LUKAS, (Translation): Of course they left their weapons behind, they ran away empty handed, at every post there are 50 soldiers.
50. 50 at each post, yeah? So how many weapons did you capture from them?
LUKAS, (Translation): Well we did get some, but I wont tell you how many, it is a military matter.
REPORTER: OK. Military issue, that's the issue. OK, OK.
News is coming into the camp about the 22 students whose boat was sunk. With their names listed in the newspaper there is little doubt they'll be trying to flee through the bush and Tabuni's men are waiting to help them. Lukas leads me to another one of his camps where the students are expected to come and where the men are itching for a fight.
MAN, (Translation): We will continue military attacks as long as we are able, we will retaliate if attacked. In the coming months and years we will continue our attacks, if we are attacked we will retaliate. We will continue to do that.
READS: "The Prime Minister of Australia, together the Cabinet and the national parliament, we need support from the Australian Government... We ask the government of Australia...
Undoubtedly thanks to my presence, Australia is the theme of the day. But in OPM territory, Australia does hold a very special place. They claim it was Australia that formally allowed the OPM to base themselves in these mountains by agreement made in the late 1960s before PNG's independence.
MAN, (Translation): Australia made an agreement with the OPM, to protect this headquarters, so the West Papuans could remain here and continue the fight for Papuan independence.
Whatever the nature of previous agreements, the current Prime Minister, John Howard, is certainly the man of the moment amongst the OPM.
MAN 2, (Translation): To the Australian government especially John Howard, we would like to convey our thanks and our full support, because he has given political asylum to Papuans who are still in Australia. I ask that the government of John Howard protect my people. In the future the 700 students who are being tortured, who are detained in cells or who have fled to the jungle, I will send them to Australia. John Howard, please welcome them with open arms. Please tell that to John Howard. That is the message from the OPM military.
How open-hearted John Howard is will soon be tested. A few days after I leave Tabuni's camp, Joshua makes it through the bush with four of the survivors of the sunken refugee boat.
REPORTER: Hello. You made it, huh? Well done. What's your name? Hi. What's your name?
PETEA: My name is Petea.
RUDI: My name is Rudi.
It has taken them more than a week to get past Indonesian troops and the rest of their immediate group are expected soon.
PETEA (Translation): There are three more who still havent arrived.
REPORTER: OK, alright, let's go. It is wet.
PETEA (Translation): We want to leave and go to the country of Australia.
REPORTER: You want to go to Australia, yeah?
ALL: Yes.
Together, with one other survivor from their boat who has made it into PNG, they recount the night they were chased by two Indonesian police boats.
PETEA (Translation): The boat sank because we could not bail the water out. We tried to save ourselves, it was every man for himself.
They maintain that one of their friends, Benidiktus Dimi, was murdered in the water by Indonesian police.
STUDENT, (Translation): He was swimming too slowly, in the end the police saw him, they stabbed one of us to death right there. The rest of us escaped. He was screaming I want to swim.
Indonesia denies the claim and say Benidiktus drowned and police retrieved his lifeless body which has since been buried. It was in the middle of the night and what two witnesses saw may be questionable but, based on what each of them heard, Benidiktus was alive and screaming as he was pulled into the Indonesian boat. They also maintain 17 students have been murdered in Jayapura over the past month.
STUDENT, (Translation): They have been shot, cut up and stabbed. If we go back to Papua, we dont stand a chance, we will be arrested and killed. Australia is the strongest nation in the Pacific region. We are not going there because we want to get rich, we may have fuzzy hair, they may have different skin and different builds. But it is an established nation and its the biggest. So we hope for help from the people there.
Each of them are determined to stick to their original plan to head for Australia.
REPORTER: You may spend one year, two year in an desert prison or on Nauru. Are you willing to do this?
STUDENT, (Translation): The idea of us being put in jail Im confused. We want to go there to talk about we want to seek protection.
REPORTER: Many refugees, many people that come to Australia, they end up in prison for one year, two years. Did you know this? Well, how will you feel? Are you ready for this?
STUDENT, (Translation): No we did not know this but we are ready. We are dead if we go back, so we are ready.
Undeterred, they move on, boarding the same kind of boat they nearly drowned in for the next leg of their journey around PNG.
REPORTER: Alright, well Selamat Jalan and good luck.
STUDENT, (Translation): Goodbye.
They can't stay here, they can't go back. What lies ahead in getting to Australia doesn't seem like a great option but it's the best one they have got.
REPORTER/CAMERA: Mark Davis
EDITORS: Nick OBrien, Wayne Love, Rowan Tucker-Evans, Sue Bell
SUBTITLING: Robyn Fallick, Ricky Onggokusumo
EP: Mike Carey
The situation in West Papua is always dire but on March 17, in Jayapura, it took a dramatic turn for the worse. Papuan students have embarked on a dangerous protest against Indonesian authorities. Troops are brought in and open fire. In the melee that follows, five Indonesian police are stoned and beaten to death. The reprisals begin that night.
Anyone young and black are set upon in the streets of Jayapura. Soldiers attack the university, searching for young Papuan highlanders in particular. Many are severely beaten, it's claimed that more than a dozen have been murdered, others have simply disappeared.
The only immediate refuge for hundreds of students and other young Papuan highlanders, is the jungle beyond Jayapura, where many remain today. But they are being hunted there as well.
Their only hope is to get out of the country, over the mountains and into Papua New Guinea. This border region is now full of Indonesian troops and West Papuan independence fighters. PNG and Australian troops are nearby. This is the hot spot where the students are heading. Some have made it across the border into PNG, where I pick up with them and Joshua, their contact man, who helped plan their escape.
There are a number of secret camps like this in PNG near the border - staging posts for their ultimate destination. And for most of the 20 people in this camp, that destination is Australia.
JOSHUA, (Translation): You will stay here while we organise things. We will do this in stages. So then, once everything is safe here we will arrange the trip.
The refugees are neither entirely safe, nor welcome here. Arguments about them have broken out in the surrounding villages. Some don't want them to go they'll make good recruits for upcoming battles. Others are tiring of feeding them. But it's better than where they were, being hunted by Indonesian troops.
STUDENT (Translation): We definitely think, that if we are arrested we will be killed because they have been pursuing young men who were at the scene of the incident and even those who werent there.
But today they are not being chased by Indonesians but by Papuans, a faction war amongst the guerrilla independence movement, the OPM, has broken out around them. There is an argument about which group they should be answering to. The knives literally come out and my camera goes down.
Another boatload of young refugees is due today on this beach in PNG. 22 students fled Jayapura in the middle of the night. The plan is for Joshua to meet them here and help arrange the next part of their journey - to Australia.
REPORTER: Should they be here by now?
JOSHUA: Yeah, I don't know what is happening. But we'll see. If not today...
He's been here half the night but, as dawn breaks, Joshua knows something has gone very wrong.
REPORTER: And how many are coming?
JOSHUA: Today...there is about 20 of them will arrive here today.
Joshua drives to the border, searching the beaches as he goes, and trying to make phone contact with Jayapura.
JOSHUA: That is the Jayapura city. Side of this cliff, you see that? That's the town. To the left and you come to Papua New Guinea.
REPORTER: Any reception?
JOSHUA: Yep.
REPORTER: The boat was meant to arrive at dawn this morning. We know that they left at 4:00 from Jayapura, which is just over the hill. Joshua is now extremely worried and he is trying to make contact with Jayapura to see what has gone wrong. He fears that they might have been captured.
All he can establish is that at least one is dead and one has been arrested, others are still missing and the survivors are desperately trying hide themselves. At great risk to himself, Joshua slips back into Indonesia to try and find them and the picture becomes clearer in the following days.
JOSHUA: One is dead and two missing, one in the hospital now. And then the rest is hiding somewhere in Jayapura.
REPORTER: Alright, and what is the mood of the people? Are they scared now or do they still want to come?
JOSHUA: They are still contacting me, they're still trying to get me. And they're saying, "Brother, you have to help us get out from here."
With the waterways now being patrolled, the only way out is through the forest, avoiding the Indonesian Army, and trying to meet up with the West Papuan guerrilla movement, the OPM.
JOSHUA: It is very dangerous but, you know, I will asking assistance from the OPM men. They know the way to escape, the bush way, you know.
But the OPM are having trouble of their own.
PATRICK, (Translation): Our friends, the Papuan fighters, have given their lives for us to rescue us from the hands of the Indonesians. We will meet again at Gods side. We will meet again in the grave.
This village near the border is mourning the death of an OPM leader after a battle with the Indonesian army. To Indonesia he was a terrorist and a murderer. To West Papuan students, he was their champion and defender.
PATRICK, (Translation): He said I will fall first, you come after me. That was his message.
As the students were being attacked in Jayapura, the man being remembered today led an OPM attack from PNG on an Indonesian army base - personally killing two Indonesian soldiers and luring others out into OPM fire.
PATRICK, (Translation): He went in with his machete, his troops had guns. He knocked on the door and the commander opened it. He cut the commanders head off with his machete.
The details of this attack were gruesome enough but the shock for me was hearing his name - Petrus Tabuni. 2.5 years ago I made a film about Petrus Tabuni from tapes smuggled out of the highlands of West Papua. Then, resplendent in a fine suit and even finer hat, he was a consummate and moderate politician. Surrounded by OPM guerrillas, he was bravely calling on them to lay down their guns.
PETRUS TABUNI, (Translation): To prove to other nations of the world that independence is not always achieved by violence and bloodshed.
At this secret meeting, Tabuni convinced the OPM to lay down their weapons and asked Indonesia to do the same. He wrote to the UN, and specifically to John Howard, asking him to support and convey the cease-fire message. The only response came from Indonesia. They immediately captured and killed the co-author of his peace plan, OPM commander Justinus Murip, proudly posing his dead body as a trophy kill. Then they began to hunt down Tabuni and his family killing his nephew and others in the process, an event recalled at his funeral.
MAN, (Translation): At 2 in the morning they attacked, so the Indonesian soldiers shot six, including his nephew. This one they captured captured alive. They took him to Wamena and stabbed him.
REPORTER: Stabbed him? With a knife? With a bayonet? The boy, they killed the boy with a bayonet? Why?
MAN (Translation): I don't know.
PATRICK, (Translation): Today Im going in. Win or lose, today is mine.
Tabuni was calling for dialogue with Indonesia, what he ended up with was dead kids. Humiliated, he disappeared into the jungle on the border until a few weeks ago when the students of Jayapura came under attack.
PATRICK, (Translation): The second one came out and raised his arm. His arm was cut off and fell to the ground, then his head. After the two soldiers had fallen, our troops attacked. It was a direct attack, another four died on the spot.
This was the first direct attack by the OPM in years - a declaration of war that will not be ignored by the Indonesian military.
PATRICK, (Translation): Other people are still at the front.
The border area is now filling up with angry Indonesian soldiers, students trying to flee and an armed OPM unit under the command of another member of the Tabuni clan Lukas Tabuni. It is a region ready to blow. And Tabuni's next move could provide that spark.
PATRICK, (Translation): We dont know exactly where Tabuni and his troops are.
Finding the OPM, in the grey zone of the border region, is now a hard task. They're protected by a large network of supporters and a terrible network of roads. Like travelling anywhere in PNG, you stop when the road gives up and hit the bush tracks.
REPORTER: I'm travelling in to see Lukas Tabuni, one of the OPM commanders up on the border. He's been actively engaged with the Indonesian army over the last few weeks - there's been a number of clashes - And it's to him that many of the students are trying to flee, trying to get safe passage past the Indonesians, through the bush and into PNG.
Wary of Indonesian reprisals, Tabuni's fighters are moving constantly between Indonesia and PNG. The jungle on the PNG-side is broadly viewed as OPM country - rarely intruded upon by PNG police or army, nor by their Australian military advisors who are based nearby. And yet, this region is likely to soon become a serious flashpoint between Indonesia, PNG and Australia. Indonesian troops are starting to mass here and in no mood to tolerate PNG forests, harbouring the OPM.
OLD MAN, (Translation): There were soldiers in full kit up there, they all came down, so why do they come here in full kit?
This man lives virtually on the border and claims that large numbers of Indonesian troops are camped nearby. He is understandably nervous. His village has been attacked and destroyed in the past by Indonesian troops in pursuit of the OPM
After days of travel and delicate introductions, I find Lukas Tabuni's camp. Lukas was the commander of the recent attack on the Indonesian army post but allowed the elderly Petrus the honour of striking the first blow.
LUKAS, (Translation): He was ready to die, to take a machete and kill people. That is why we, Petrus and Lukas Tabuni, as part of the people from the interior, from the highlands, we turned our thoughts to war.
Lukas has spent a lot of time thinking about war he's been hiding and fighting in this forest for almost 30 years but had abided by a cease-fire for the last seven, since the fall of Suharto, to allow talks to proceed with Indonesia. Today, he knows that the talking has well and truly stopped as Indonesian troops mass around him.
LUKAS, (Translation): The military has been bringing in weapons and personnel, two battalions of troops. Two battalions have been dropped near the border. Obviously, theyre going to attack our headquarters. Thats all they aim to take our headquarters.
The Indonesians are planning to attack here, you say?
LUKAS, (Translation): They are planning to attack.
REPORTER: Won't they need the permission of PNG or do you think PNG will give them permission?
LUKAS, (Translation): Indonesia doesnt think about the PNG government.
Events here could escalate overnight, rapidly dragging PNG and Australia into a conflict to defend the border. But Lukas shows no sign of backing down.
REPORTER: Do you have weapons? I mean, how would you do this?
LUKAS, (Translation): Im ready to attack, Im not going to win because Im fully equipped with guns, Im going to win using our own weapons, bows, spears, machetes, axes. I have these ready.
But there is little doubt that he has a bit more than that at his disposal after his attack on the Indonesian military base.
LUKAS, (Translation): Of course they left their weapons behind, they ran away empty handed, at every post there are 50 soldiers.
50. 50 at each post, yeah? So how many weapons did you capture from them?
LUKAS, (Translation): Well we did get some, but I wont tell you how many, it is a military matter.
REPORTER: OK. Military issue, that's the issue. OK, OK.
News is coming into the camp about the 22 students whose boat was sunk. With their names listed in the newspaper there is little doubt they'll be trying to flee through the bush and Tabuni's men are waiting to help them. Lukas leads me to another one of his camps where the students are expected to come and where the men are itching for a fight.
MAN, (Translation): We will continue military attacks as long as we are able, we will retaliate if attacked. In the coming months and years we will continue our attacks, if we are attacked we will retaliate. We will continue to do that.
READS: "The Prime Minister of Australia, together the Cabinet and the national parliament, we need support from the Australian Government... We ask the government of Australia...
Undoubtedly thanks to my presence, Australia is the theme of the day. But in OPM territory, Australia does hold a very special place. They claim it was Australia that formally allowed the OPM to base themselves in these mountains by agreement made in the late 1960s before PNG's independence.
MAN, (Translation): Australia made an agreement with the OPM, to protect this headquarters, so the West Papuans could remain here and continue the fight for Papuan independence.
Whatever the nature of previous agreements, the current Prime Minister, John Howard, is certainly the man of the moment amongst the OPM.
MAN 2, (Translation): To the Australian government especially John Howard, we would like to convey our thanks and our full support, because he has given political asylum to Papuans who are still in Australia. I ask that the government of John Howard protect my people. In the future the 700 students who are being tortured, who are detained in cells or who have fled to the jungle, I will send them to Australia. John Howard, please welcome them with open arms. Please tell that to John Howard. That is the message from the OPM military.
How open-hearted John Howard is will soon be tested. A few days after I leave Tabuni's camp, Joshua makes it through the bush with four of the survivors of the sunken refugee boat.
REPORTER: Hello. You made it, huh? Well done. What's your name? Hi. What's your name?
PETEA: My name is Petea.
RUDI: My name is Rudi.
It has taken them more than a week to get past Indonesian troops and the rest of their immediate group are expected soon.
PETEA (Translation): There are three more who still havent arrived.
REPORTER: OK, alright, let's go. It is wet.
PETEA (Translation): We want to leave and go to the country of Australia.
REPORTER: You want to go to Australia, yeah?
ALL: Yes.
Together, with one other survivor from their boat who has made it into PNG, they recount the night they were chased by two Indonesian police boats.
PETEA (Translation): The boat sank because we could not bail the water out. We tried to save ourselves, it was every man for himself.
They maintain that one of their friends, Benidiktus Dimi, was murdered in the water by Indonesian police.
STUDENT, (Translation): He was swimming too slowly, in the end the police saw him, they stabbed one of us to death right there. The rest of us escaped. He was screaming I want to swim.
Indonesia denies the claim and say Benidiktus drowned and police retrieved his lifeless body which has since been buried. It was in the middle of the night and what two witnesses saw may be questionable but, based on what each of them heard, Benidiktus was alive and screaming as he was pulled into the Indonesian boat. They also maintain 17 students have been murdered in Jayapura over the past month.
STUDENT, (Translation): They have been shot, cut up and stabbed. If we go back to Papua, we dont stand a chance, we will be arrested and killed. Australia is the strongest nation in the Pacific region. We are not going there because we want to get rich, we may have fuzzy hair, they may have different skin and different builds. But it is an established nation and its the biggest. So we hope for help from the people there.
Each of them are determined to stick to their original plan to head for Australia.
REPORTER: You may spend one year, two year in an desert prison or on Nauru. Are you willing to do this?
STUDENT, (Translation): The idea of us being put in jail Im confused. We want to go there to talk about we want to seek protection.
REPORTER: Many refugees, many people that come to Australia, they end up in prison for one year, two years. Did you know this? Well, how will you feel? Are you ready for this?
STUDENT, (Translation): No we did not know this but we are ready. We are dead if we go back, so we are ready.
Undeterred, they move on, boarding the same kind of boat they nearly drowned in for the next leg of their journey around PNG.
REPORTER: Alright, well Selamat Jalan and good luck.
STUDENT, (Translation): Goodbye.
They can't stay here, they can't go back. What lies ahead in getting to Australia doesn't seem like a great option but it's the best one they have got.
REPORTER/CAMERA: Mark Davis
EDITORS: Nick OBrien, Wayne Love, Rowan Tucker-Evans, Sue Bell
SUBTITLING: Robyn Fallick, Ricky Onggokusumo
EP: Mike Carey