Freedom Flotilla claims ceremonial exchange

RAW VISION: Activists from Freedom Flotilla say they've held a ceremonial exchange with West Papuan separatists in a secret boat meet up near the PNG-Indonesian border . Vision courtesy of Freedom Flotilla.

JAKARTA: One Freedom Flotilla protest vessel has completed its ceremonial mission, meeting activists from West Papua in secret and under the noses of the Indonesian armed forces, while another acted as a decoy, organisers have claimed.

Australian organisers of the pro-West Papuan separatist protest have released a statement saying one "tiny" boat from either country met "near the Australian-Indonesian border" to exchange symbolic items — water from Lake Eyre, and ash from the fires of Aboriginal tent embassies around Australia.

The Australians are protesting against Indonesian actions in West Papua. A group of protesters - including at least one indigenous West Papuan man who was accepted as a refugee in Australia in 2006 — had earlier planned to make landfall on the Indonesian territory.

Australian organisers of a pro-West Papuan separatist protest say boats from either country met 'near the Australian-Indonesian border' to exchange symbolic items.

Australian organisers of a pro-West Papuan separatist campaign say boats from both countries met 'near the Australian-Indonesian border' to exchange symbolic items.

However, Flotilla member Ronny Kareni said they had decided against it in light of Indonesian military threats.

"Evading the Indonesian navy, two tiny boats met near the Australia-Indonesia border to ceremonially reconnect the indigenous peoples of Australia and West Papua," the group said in a press statement.

"While the Freedom Flotilla's flagship the Pog sailed towards West Papua, the world watched its progress via a live satellite tracker onboard the vessel, providing a much needed distraction for the clandestine ceremony to take place in an undisclosed location off the south coast of Papua."

Photographs provided by organisers shows some participants' faces blurred out, but also land in the background.

Mr Kareni later clarified that "the meeting took place near the PNG-West Papua border, on the PNG side," citing a fear of Indonesian patrol boats as a reason for not crossing the territorial waters. "This had to be done in a clandestine manner.

"We know the ashes and the sacred water will arrive in West Papua," he said.

However, Mr Kareni said the decoy vessel, the Pog, would not give up trying to make landfall in West Papua. His group is trying to contact Indonesian military figures in Papua to "arrange safe passage to the controversial territory".

Indonesian navy spokesman Untung Surapati had earlier said armed forces headquarters in Jakarta had issued an instruction: "Don't let the Freedom Flotilla enter Indonesia".

- with Colin Cosier