At 10:30 a.m. today activists blockaded a petrol station in Moss Side, Manchester, as an act of solidarity with the people of West Papua. Two scaffolding tripods were erected at the entrance and exit of the petrol station, and an activists was suspended in a hammock hanging from one of the tripods. Other activists handed leaflets to passers-by explaining about the situation in West Papua. At 2:15 p.m. the activists left of their own accord and no-one was arrested.

West Papua has been under millitary occupation by Indonesia since 1963. The natural gas extraction project that BP has planned for West Papua in 2006 will be the largest single source of tax revenue for the Indonesian government. The project will affect a huge area of pristine rainforest and seven tribes, which so far have had little or no contact with outside cultures, will face the loss of their homes, ecological devastation, and brutal millitary repression at the hands of the Indonesian millitary, in collusion with BP.

This action was part of an ongoing national campaign targetting companies that commit environmental and human rights abuses in West Papua. You can read more about it at: