Dirk Vlasblom

(Rotterdam, 1952) studied anthropology, planning and management at Utrecht University. Since then he works mainly as a journalist and writer. In 1990 he became NRC Handelsblad’s foreign correspondent in Jakarta. In 1997 he was awarded the Prize for Daily Paper Journalism for his articles on the Papua’s in Irian Jaya. In 2004 his book Papoea, een geschiedenis (Papua, a history) was published, the first integral historical look at West New Guinea. Other books that Vlasblom has had published about Indonesia are Jakarta, Jakarta – Reportages uit Indonesië (1993) (Jakarta, Jakarta - reports form Indonesia) and In een warung aan de Zuidzee – Verhalen uit Indonesië (In a snackstall by the South Sea, stories from Indonesia) (1998). In these books he describes his experiences of everyday life there, and especially the last book gives a glimpse behind the scenes of being a foreign correspondent. In 2005 he returned to The Netherlands, and now works as a journalist for NRC Handelsblad.