Hoofdstuk 9

From WPAT report 65:

Ones Pahabol, the Chief government official in Yahukimo District in West Papua has confirmed to Indonesian and international media that famine continues to devastate the population in the Papuan hinterland. The extreme shortages of basic food staples, especially sweet potato has continued in the region since January.

Reflecting its inattention to the crisis, the central government has yet to determine the extent of the famine,but the Christian Foundation for Community Social Services which works in the affected area reported 92 famine deaths in early September [ http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/09/05/starvation-no-food-shortage-yes-local-official.html ].The Asian Human Rights Commission, citing local contacts, puts the death toll at 113 and notes that the famine has affected 26 sub-districts.

On 14 September 2009, the central government sent food aid of 100 tons of rice, sweet potatoes and other foodstuffs, including noodles, to the affected area. Although the government has admitted the villagers suffered from various diseases, medical aid, as of late September, has not yet reached the villagers. District Chief Pahabol has proposed a vast relocation scheme that would move the several hundred thousand affected Papuans nearer the District capital. The plan, which would be completed over a period of 15 years, would not address the immediate emergency.

The central government has consistently maintained, moreover, that any deaths in the area were due to disease and not to starvation. The Asian Human Right Commission has sharply criticized this government reaction:  “The denial, by the
government, of a proper investigation into this situation and a lack of professional knowledge is irresponsible.” The Commission added that: “along with the government’s denial of starvation deaths, they are reluctant to detail exact information of the deceased villagers.”

The ongoing famine is particularly dangerous for children, who are more vulnerable to malnutrition and resulting disease, as well as slowed intellectual development due to inadequate nutrition. These consequences require urgent medical attention which has been lacking in the government response.

A comprehensive remedial economic development program is equally essential inasmuch as famine has afflicted the region in the past. Inadequate infrastructure such as roads or public transportation for local commerce and access to markets in the region contributes to the chronic food insecurity.

As the Asian Human Rights Commission statement, notes, a similar harvest failure caused at least 55 deaths in 2005.  Government failure to address underlying food deficiency in this remote area is clear.  Previously, in 2006, 34 agricultural advisers were present  throughout 17 of the affected sub-districts. They assisted local farmers in assuring an adequate production of key staples, notably tubers. However, the government has withdrawn support for these advisors.

As the Asian Human Rights Commission points out, “the right to food is a fundamental right.” As a state party of International Covenant of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the  Indonesian government has an obligation to take steps with a view to achieving progressively the full realization of the rights in ICESCR, including right to adequate food as enshrined  in Article 11 paragraph 1.

Moreover, the central government’s failure to act to address persistent humanitarian need in West Papua is a violation of Indonesian law.  Indonesian law, specifically the Act Number 7 of 1996 on Food  < http://www.foodjustice.net/jurisprudence/indonesia> provides for “sufficient
availability of safe, nutritious and quality food.”

The crisis underscores the reality that the central Government’s “Special Autonomy” policies continue to fall short of meeting basic needs of Papuans.  Essential services, including health care, education, and job creation through sustainable economic development remain out of reach for  many Papuans, particularly in rural areas.

(WPAT COMMENT: The government’s inaction in the face of the protracted and recurring crisis constitutes a fundamental violation of human rights and contributes specifically to an approach of malign neglect that has led WPAT and other observers to describe central government policies toward West Papua as genocidal in their effect.)

(see AHRC statement http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2009/3260/ )

Engineering Demographic Change in West Papua: Is it Genocide?

Dr. Richard Chauvel, prominent Australian academic writing for Inside Indonesia (“Genocide and demographic transformation in Papua,” http://insideindonesia.org/content/view/1236/47/) offered an analysis of a recent public debate between respected observers Jim Elmslie (“Not Just Another Disaster,” http://insideindonesia.org/content/view/1234/47/) and Stuart Upton (“A Disaster Not a Genocide,” http://insideindonesia.org/content/view/1235/47/) regarding charges of genocide and demographic transformation in West Papua. Chauvel in the first of a two-part analysis writes that:

The articles by Jim Elmslie and Stuart Upton have much in common. They both agree that: Papua has experienced a large scale demographic transformation since 1963 the modern economy is dominated by Indonesian settlers and Papuans are marginalized. Papuans suffer disadvantage in education, employment and health there have been significant human rights abuses by the Indonesian security forces. In short, Indonesian immigration in Papua is understood to be a consequence of the territory’s incorporation into Indonesia. Given that in the eyes of many Papuans their incorporation into Indonesia occurred without their participation or agreement, the Indonesian migration that followed is likewise highly contested.”

Chauvel also usefully notes that the Dutch, in the latter years of their control of West Papua, had sought to set Papuans on the course of self-rule:

“Not only did many in the Papuan elite find the idea of an independent nation more attractive than incorporation in Indonesia, but during the last years of the Dutch administration they had been the beneficiaries of Dutch policies of ‘Papuanisation’ of the bureaucracy. As Stuart Upton notes, many of the early Indonesian migrants were those who assumed senior government positions, taking over not only positions previously held by the Dutch, but also those occupied by Papuans.”

Chauvel agrees with Elmslie that Papuan opinions and experiences deserve to be “taken seriously” but adds that “putting a figure on the loss of life is problematic.”  In this regard Chauvel notes that the figure of 100,000 Papuans killed is widely cited but that the figure is not possible to confirm.  He cites a 2007 study by Human Rights Watch, “Out of Sight: Endemic Abuse and Impunity in Papua’s Central Highlands” (July 2007, http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2007/07/04/out-sight), which he notes “illustrates some of the difficulties faced when investigating violence and human rights abuses in one of the most tightly controlled and conflict-ridden regions in Papua.” Chauvel explains that, “working without the cooperation of the Indonesian authorities, the researchers found that the Indonesian security forces “…continue to engage in largely indiscriminate village ‘sweeping’ operations in pursuit of suspected militants, using excessive, often brutal, and at times lethal force against civilians.”

Chauvel concludes: “… this carefully documented Human Rights Watch report does not provide evidence that there has been systematic killing of large numbers of Papuans. Rather it provides insights into how systemic violence pervades relations between the security forces and Papuan communities…. We should respect Papuans’ discussions of the demographic transformation of their society and endeavour to understand the experience they are describing. However, I suspect that the use of the term genocide obstructs our comprehension of the endemic nature of state violence against Indonesian citizens in Papua and makes the necessary institutional reform and cultural transformation of the Indonesian security forces more difficult.”

WPAT notes that a 2004 study ( http://www.law.yale.edu/documents/pdf/Intellectual_Life/West_Papua_final_report.pdf ) by the Alfred K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at the Yale University Law School which did not offer a definitive conclusion about whether genocide had occurred, did find that “on the available evidence, a strong indication [exists] that the Indonesian government has committed genocide against West Papuans.  Moreover, even if the actions described… were not carried out with the intent to destroy the West Papuans as a group, a necessary element of the crime of genocide, many of the actions clearly constitute crimes against humanity under international law.”

Papuans Continue to Press for Dialogue with Jakarta

Radio New Zealand International on October 1 reported that thousands of West Papuans turned out in rallies in West Papua demanding international help in mediating a political settlement between Jakarta and a new “West Papua Transitional Authority.” Rallies in Sorong, Manokwari and Jayapura drew between 5,000 and 10,000 people.

The demonstrators reportedly specifically called on Australia to facilitate dialogue over human rights abuse and Papuan dissatisfaction with Special Autonomy.

Papuans from all walks of life for several years have been calling for an internationally mediated senior level dialogue between Jakarta and Papuans. Some proponents of the dialogue have pointed to the Jakarta-Aceh dialogue which significantly reduced long-standing tensions there. Recently the prominent Jakarta-based Indonesia Institute of Sciences (LIPI) has sought to advance the concept of such a dialogue as part of “Papua Roadmap” toward addressing abuses and reducing tensions in West Papua.

Demonstrators Urge Release of Peaceful Activists and Call for Dialogue

The Cenderawasih Pos on September 17 reported that demonstrators gathered in Abepura and outside the district court in Jayapura September 14 to urge the court to review sentencing of Buchtar Tabuni and Sebby Sembom. The two Papuan human rights advocates currently are serving prison terms for peacefully demonstrating in support of the International Parliamentarians for West Papua launched in London one year ago.

The demonstrators were prevented from entering the district court building. Police did, however, assist them with transport from that court to the high court. At the high court the demonstrators presented their demands which were:

“First, for the government and the international community to solve the West Papuan problem by means of  dialogue. Second, to open up democratic space in West Papua. Third, for the court to review the convictions for rebellion of Tabuni and Sembom, and to release them.”

Fransiskus Lopi, deputy head of the high court, who met with the demonstrators promised to convey their demands to the authorities.

Meanwhile, reliable Papuan sources report additional targeting of Papuan civil society leaders and activists: Yan Christian Warinussy of LP3BH reports that in mid-September police in Sorong arrested Johan Wenda, an alleged spokesman of the Papuan armed resistance the TPN/OPM. Following transfer to the police headquarters he was subjected to interrogation without the presence of a lawyer.  In Manokwari, chief of police for West Papua has instructed the Manokwari chief of police to pursue charges of rebellion against Barnabas Mandacan and Yohan Warijo and to arrest the two activists.

Massive Assault on Papuan Rain Forest Planned

LG International group, a trading affiliate of South Korea’s LG Group, announced September 27 that it had secured one million hectares of forest land in Merauke as a source for wood chips. The deal was completed through cooperation with the Indonesian MedcoEnergi and will focus on the production of wood chips and wood pellets of the local acacia and eucalyptus trees.

The massive destruction of pristine Papuan rain forest and its impact on local people is not addressed in the LG Group announcement and there is no indication of Papuan involvement in discussions leading to completion of the deal.

“International Betrayal” of Papuans

Indonesian correspondent for the Seoul Times, John M. Gorrindo in late September filed a comprehensive report which focuses on the historical plight of the Papuan people. He concludes the first part of his two-part analysis with the following regarding the “Act of Free Choice,” the indisputably fraudulent electoral process which facilitated Jakarta’s annexation of West Papua: “In the ‘Act of Free Choice,’ the international community had betrayed the only opportunity Papua has yet to have in becoming an independent state. Not a single nation protested the sham elections. Nor did the UN. And to have the greatest democratic force in the world, the United States, be the determinate factor behind the betrayal fully exacerbated the treachery. Realpolitik had determined the victor and the vanquished.” The full article can be found at http://theseoultimes.com/ST/?url=/ST/db/read.php?idx=8849.

Photographic Evidence of Civilian Casualties in Continuing TNI Sweeps

Australian human rights activist Nick Chesterfield placed online new evidence of the human cost of Indonesian military sweeps in the Puncak Jaya region, reported in recenteditions of the West Papua Report.  Chesterfield notes that the photographs reveal the brutal extrajudicial murder of civilians in Mulia, Puncak Jaya regency during a sweep by a joint Indonesian military (TNI) and BRIMOB police patrol.  He elaborated that the bodies of victims were deliberately mutilated, burnt and hidden to prevent identification.
Continued Confusion over Prosecutions in Freeport Shootings

In the continuing saga of violence surrounding the Freeport Mining concession, the Papua Police Office has handed over to the Timika Prosecutor’s Office dossiers of seven people accused of being involved in a riot at the U.S-mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia that claimed the lives of at least two workers.The police office Spokesman, Senior Commander Agus Rianto told the media that the seven suspects would later would be tried at Timika  District Court to prove their roles in the ambush murders of the Freeport security workers and the one of the firm’s bus. “Meanwhile, we keep on hunting for the killer of Australian worker Nicholas Grant,” Rianto said.

As in the matter of Papuans arrested and subsequently convicted for an attack near the mine in 2002 which killed two American citizens and one Indonesian, it appears increasingly clear that the arrested Papuans are simply scapegoats.  The fact that attacks on Freeport transport and security escorts have continued reveals that the authorities either have detained the wrong people or have in custody only minor players in the attacks. Further confusion arises in the contradictory statements of senior Indonesian security officials. Some have alleged the attacks to be the work of the armed Papuan opposition the Free Papua Movement (OPM). Meanwhile, Army Chief of Staff General Agustadi Sasongko Purnomo has told the media that the Freeport shooting incidents was the work of “criminal” OPM.

http://www.etan.org/issues/wpapua/0910wpap.htm

 

WPAT report 66,  November 2009 behandelt de volgende punten:

Contents

* TNI Misses Deadline to Divest Its Business Empire Much of Which Is in West Papua

* Continuing Attacks at Freeport Point to Injustice of July Arrests

* Local Papuans Proceed with Lawsuit against Freeport McMoran

* Papuan Democratic Activists Continue to Face Pressure

* President Yudhoyono’s New Cabinet Includes Papuan and a General with Troubling Past in West Papua

* More Violence in The Papuan Central Highlands

* HIV/AIDS Reach “Generalized Epidemic” Stage Among Papuans Bereft Of Government Health Services

* Carmel Budiardjo on “West Papuan Issues and The Prospects for Dialogue”

TNI Misses Deadline to Divest Its Business Empire Much of Which Is in West Papua

The Indonesian military (TNI) has evaded what the Wall Street Journal on October 17 described as a “long-anticipated deadline to withdraw from its many lucrative but controversial business activities.”  The legal mandate on the TNI to divest derives from a legal obligation imposed by the Indonesian parliament in 2004.  Many of those TNI businesses are illegal, as detailed in a 2006 Human Rights Watch report, and many are centered in West Papua.  They range from mining and logging, to extortion and prostitution, the latter extending to people trafficking.

Emphasizing the West Papua angle, the Wall Street Journal article noted that in 2005, President Yudhoyono ordered a “crackdown” on illegal logging in Indonesia’s remote Papua province.  The Journal elaborated, however, that while 186 people were arrested “only a handful of people were convicted, all of them low-level operators, and the suspected ringleaders, including a military police officer suspected of involvement, were acquitted.”

In furtherance of these activities, particularly in West Papua, the TNI has pursued tactics of intimidation, often terrorizing and uprooting local populations to clear the way for logging or other land use in service of its businesses or those of clients.

As the deadline for closure of the TNI business empire approached, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono issued a decree ordering the armed forces to transfer its official foundations and cooperatives, valued at over $240 million, to Indonesia’s civilian-led Defense Ministry, which is to operate them and receive any profits. But his decree failed to set a date for this turnover.  Moreover, the Defense Ministry, while civilian-led, is dominated by active-duty or retired military leaders.  In October 2008, a Government task force recommended that the state sell or liquidate the TNI.  The task force recommended that by bringing the assets under civilian control the Government could demonstrate its commitment to real military reform and the principle of civilian control of the military.  The Chairman of that task force has expressed his disappointment with the new Yudhoyono decree.

Continuing Attacks at Freeport Point to Injustice of July Arrests

The injustice of arrests of Papuans in July, purportedly for attacks on Freeport personnel, was underscored since then by a continuation of those attacks. Despite police arrest of seven Papuans in July, two more Freeport personnel and one solider were wounded in attacks in October as they travelled on the road connecting Timika and the mine site at Tembagapura.  Such attacks have continued every few weeks since the July arrests.

Media reports noted that two miners were wounded October 20 when three security-escorted buses were ambushed between mile 41 and mile 42 of a road leading to the Grasberg mine, the world’s largest gold and copper mine.  In addition a soldier was wounded when a joint patrol unit was ambushed by gunmen in Kali Kopi on the Timika-Tembagapura road on October 21.

As pointed out in an article in an October 23 Bintang Papua, the shooting incidents have taken place within a relatively small area in which as many as 1,320 Indonesian security personnel have been deployed. Moreover, the TNI and police have established joint command posts along the Timika-Tembagapura road on which the attacks are taking place.

Anastasia Tegeke, a member of Commission A of the DPRP-Mimika, noted that the authorities had arrested dozens of local Papuans in July, purportedly because of their involvement in the shootings. The incidents have nonetheless continued. Drawing attention to the failure of the beefed-up security forces to stop the incidents, Tegeke added: “many thousands of personnel were now operating in the area, using much of the money that has been allocated to development in the region.”  His comment added to speculation that the chronic security problem served to provide extra income to the extra Indonesian security forces deployed to the region.

Meanwhile, local Papuan resistance leader Kelly Kwalik in a meeting with State security officials categorically denied that Papuan pro-independence fighters were behind the attacks.  His denial of responsibility has been supported by police officials who have countered initial claims by military officials that the attacks were the work of the pro-independence fighters.

Also during the third week of October there was growing popular anger at Freeport as families of Papuan workers at Freeport demonstrated to demand better security for workers.  They marched to the Regional Legislative Council office in Mimika and staged a rally.  Although the police declared the demonstration illegal, they refrained from making arrests when the Council agreed to meet with the demonstrators.  Some workers reportedly have decided to strike Freeport operations pending provision of adequate security.

Local Papuans Proceed with Lawsuit against Freeport McMoran

At an October 7 press conference in Jakarta, Titus Natkime, a lawyer representing the Amungme people announced the initiation of their lawsuit against the U.S.-based goldmine firm Freeport-McMoran. According to Natkime, the Amungme tribe is suing PT Freeport Indonesia for USD 30 billion, claiming environmental destruction and violation of land rights (USD 20 billion) and violation of human rights (USD 10 billion). Natkime claimed that Freeport operations have damaged the environment and that the Amungme people have been subject to discrimination, including physical abuse by Freeport security personnel. The launch of the suit follows what Natkime described as the failure of Freeport to engage in mediation talks mandated by earlier Indonesian court action.

In addition the lawsuit, on 15 September the tribe submitted a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) calling on the SEC to suspend trading of Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. shares until the judicial process is finalized.

Indonesia Friends of the Earth, which sponsored the October 7 press conference, noted that Freeport mines up to 10 million tons annually, and has dumped around 2.5 billion tons of toxic tailing in the region.  The tailings have completely inundated the Ajkwa river system. Tailings have even extended to the shores of the Arafura sea where tidal action is now inundating and killing shore vegetation.

In the late 1990’s an Amungme lawsuit against Freeport was scuttled in part because Indonesian authorities, with the knowledge of the U.S. Government, prevented the U.S. citizen lawyer from travelling into Indonesia to meet with his Amungme clients according to a former U.S. diplomat who worked at the Embassy.

Papuan Democratic Activists Continue to Face Pressure

Two young Papuan democratic activists were targeted in October for their political activism.  One, Victor Yeimo, was involved in peaceful demonstrations welcoming the formation of the International Parliamentarians for West Papua in October 2008. Meanwhile, Yoab Syatfle has gone into hiding following repeated death threats.

Yeimo’s fate may well be that of Papuan activists Buchtar Tabuni and Sebby Sambom, who also were involved in the October 2008 welcoming of the formation of the International Parliamentarians for West Papua. They currently are serving sentences of three years in Abepura prison. Security authorities indicated Yeimo may also be involved in additional incidents in 2009. Public relations police officer, Agus Rianto told the media that in addition to the October 2008 demonstration, Yeimo could also face charges for an attack on the Abepura police command post in April 2009.  The authorities indicated that Yeimo might face charges of treason as well as “incitement.” The treason charges would be filed under Article 106 of the Criminal Code which carries a possible sentence of twenty years to life. Article 106 dates to the colonial era and was regularly employed by Dictator Suharto against his critics.

Amnesty International, on October 28, issued an “Action Alert” warning that “the life of Yoab Syatfle could be in danger.” The Alert explained that on 26 October Syatfle received six anonymous SMS messages threatening that he would be abducted and killed if he left his house. One of them warned: “you are one of the people we are looking for, we remember you, if you leave your house yard one more time, you will be killed.”  The death threats, according to Amnesty International appear related to Syatfle’s role in a demonstration scheduled for October 29 in the city of Sorong in West Papua. Amnesty concludes that Syatfle was targeted “because he is a prominent peaceful political activist in Papua.” (Syatfle is the Sorong Secretary of the Papua Traditional Council or Dewan Adat Papua which represents Indigenous communities in Papua. He is also Secretary of the Papua National Consensus Team, a non-violent group campaigning for a peaceful internationally mediated solution to the political problems in Papua. He has met with U.S. Congressional leaders in the past.)

Amnesty International notes in its alert: “The right to free expression, opinion and assembly is guaranteed under the Indonesian Constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Indonesia is a state party. However, members of human rights organizations in Papua have been harassed and intimidated because of their work, and many peaceful pro-independence political activists have been arrested and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.”

President Yudhoyono’s New Cabinet To Include One Papuan and One General with Mixed Record in West Papua

President Yudhoyono’s new cabinet includes a prominent Papuan, Freddy Numberi, who will be Minister of Transportation. Numberi served as governor of Papua from 2001 to 2003. He was Minister of Fisheries and Marine Affairs in the first Yudhoyono cabinet and Minister for Administrative Reform under President Abdurrahman Wahid. In 2004 President Yudhoyono asked the retired Indonesian navy admiral, as former Papuan Governor, to assist in resolving tensions between the Central Government and Papuans. Numberi was a strong advocate of “Special Autonomy.”

As Governor, he appointed Papuan political figure Theys Eluay to the Papuan Council, but then tried to have him removed when Eluay, who was subsequently chosen to chair the council, expressed support for Papuan independence.  Indonesian special forces (Kopassus) assassinated Eluay in 2001 while Numberi was still Papuan Governor.

Yudhoyono also chose General Sutanto to head the State Intelligence Agency (BIN). Sutanto was served as Chief of Police in West Papua during and following the June 2007 visit of senior UN official Hina Jilani to West Papua. For months after her visit, Papuans, including senior Papuan clergy, who had met with her faced harassment and threats. The intimidation drew criticism from Jilani in her subsequent report to the UN on human rights abuse in West Papua. Calls by international NGO’s to Sutanto to investigate the threats went unaddressed.

Sutanto also dismissed claims in a detailed July 2009 Human Rights Watch report of abuse of Papuans by security forces, contending publicly that the human rights environment in West Papua was improving.

Given the violations of human rights that transpired on his watch – as Police Chief in West Papua – his new, more powerful role as chief of an agency which has itself been repeatedly accused of violating rights in West Papua and elsewhere — including the assassination of Munir, Indonesia’s most prominent human rights activist — raises concerns.

More Violence in The Papuan Central Highlands

The Tingginambut area within the Papuan Central Highlands was again the scene of violence in October when one civilian worker was killed during an attack by unknown people on a work crew. The police reportedly questioned five witnesses to the attack which was carried out by approximately 15 men armed with guns and swords. The work crew was employed by PT Agung Karya and was conducting repair work on a bridge in the Kalome area in Tingginambut district.

The Tingginambut area as been the seen of attacks and security force reprisals against local civilians for six months.

HIV/AIDS Reach “Generalized Epidemic” Stage Among Papuans Bereft Of Government Health Services

The Antara News Agency, October 28, reported that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in West Papua has reached “the ‘generalized epidemic’ stage, according to World Vision Indonesia health program coordinator Dr. Ronald Gunawan. “HIV and AIDS in Papua are no longer exclusive to high-risk groups, but also common among the general public,” said Gunawan. Among the indigenous population, the prevalence rate had reached 2.8 percent, much higher than the rate of 1.5 percent among immigrants. Gunawan said the highest rate, 3.2 percent, was found in coastal and remote areas where health services were scarce.

Gunawan said the spread of HIV/AIDS could be checked if the public were made more aware and given adequate information. The government needed to improve the quality of education, particularly in remote areas of the province. He said the government also had to recruit doctors and health workers and post them around Papua to improve the quality and delivery of health services.

The failure of the Indonesian central government to provide a basic health (or education) infrastructure for Papuans after over 40 years of control of West Papua and despite over eight years of “special autonomy” (see the following piece for more detail on the inadequacy of basic services in West Papua) is one argument employed by critics of Indonesian policy who contend that decades of such neglect has had a genocidal impact on Papuans.

Carmel Budiardjo on “West Papuan Issues and The Prospects for Dialogue”

Carmel Budiardjo, founder and co-director of TAPOL, the London-based human rights organization, authored an Op-Ed which was published in the October 25 Jakarta Post.  Excerpts follow:

As Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono begins his second term as President, it is worth considering the prospects for dialogue to resolve Indonesia’s most intractable conflict.

The implementation of the 2001 Special Autonomy Law (Otsus) for West Papua has been woeful. While the exploitation of Papua’s natural resources earned huge revenues for Jakarta, West Papuans are among the poorest in Indonesia.

 

Without consulting the Majelis Rakyat Papua, the Papuan People’s Council, set up in compliance with Otsus (2001 Special Autonomy legislation), the central government split the territory into two provinces. Dozens of new districts have been created to facilitate access for people in remote areas, but they have gobbled up most of the funds allocated under the Otsus law to build new offices and pay new staff, most of whom are non-Papuan.

The Papuan people have enjoyed little improvement in health and education. LIPI (the Indonesian Institute of Sciences) concludes that education is worse today that when West Papua was still a Dutch colony. In Yahukimo district, there were only 331 teachers for 15,662 children.

The state of health is just as bad: malnutrition is widespread and there is hardly any access to clean water. There are only 12 government hospitals and six private hospitals, plus a few poorly equipped health centers. Ninety percent of Papuan villages have no access to clinics and the few that are located in the interior have only a midwife and a nurse, with no doctors in sight.

The (LIPI) researchers concluded that “the government fails to recognize the health situation as being a threat to the existence of the Papuan people.”

Papuans are unable to compete with Indonesians now doing business in West Papua. Whereas in 1959, outsiders accounted for 2 percent of the population, this rose to 35 percent in 2000, and 41 percent in 2005. By 2011, Papuans are likely to be out-numbered.

Although dialogue has been successful in Aceh, Jakarta fears that dialogue with West Papua will get bogged down over the issue of independence.

Papuans have experienced years of military operations and violence. While the perpetrators enjoy impunity, Papuan groups that organize demonstrations are accused of being anti-NKRI or “separatist”, with dire consequences. Even flying the Papuan flag, the Kejora, risks heavy punishment.

Recognizing that dialogue is fraught with difficulties, LIPI recommends an “incremental process” which would mean abandoning the armed struggle by the Papuans and the implementation of Otsus and demilitarization by Indonesia.

The suggested agenda would include: the history and political status of Papua; justice for human rights victims; the failure of development in Papua and the marginalization of the Papuans.

Jakarta needs to have the courage to approach Papua, learning from what has been achieved in Aceh. The LIPI recommendations deserve the government’s serious attention.
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Voor overzicht alle WPAT rapporten, vanaf 2004 t/m/ 2014 : klik op onderstaande link:

Back issues of West Papua Report

this report is online at http://www.etan.org/issues/wpapua/0911wpap.htm

 

West Papua Report  December 2009

Summary

Two U.S. Congressman, both sub-committees chairs, have written to President Yudhoyono to urge a dialogue between the Indonesian national government and leaders of West Papua. Among issues the U.S. represented as possible to resolve in such a dialogue were the “demographic shifts leaving many Papuans as minorities in their own land.” The Indonesian Government has announced plans to establish a new military command in West Papua. The move, which would significantly increase the military presence in West Papua has drawn opposition from Papuans and beyond. Human rights activists have publicly pressed the Indonesian Government to investigate and prosecute long-standing crimes, notably against Papuans. There is growing public condemnation of the detention and mistreatment of Papuans over their alleged involvement of shooting incidents in the Timika area. As the incidents have continued, it has become self evident that those arrested in July were innocent and that those behind the incidents have demonstrated the firepower, mobility and resources available only to Indonesia’s security forces. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for the release of Papuans accused of involvement in peaceful flag-raising demonstrations. Convictions of flag-raisers, HRW argues, violates the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which Indonesia ratified in 2006. Media reports are beginning to shed light on the abduction of Papuan children by the Indonesian military. The practice, entailing sending the young Papuans to Java, is reminiscent of military abductions of Timorese children during Indonesia’s long, brutal occupation of East Timor. There was late-November reporting of more physical abuse of Papuan detainees. This issue can be found online at http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/0912wpap.htm.

End summary

Contents

* Plans to Expand TNI Forces in West Papua Meets Resistance * Activists Press for Action on Stalled Human Rights Abuse Crimes * Injustice in Timika * Human Rights Watch Calls for Release of Papuan Flag-Raisers * Indonesian Military Reported Abducting Papuan Children * Mistreatment of Papuan Detainees Continued

U.S. Representatives Faleomavaega and Payne Call for Papuan-Indonesia Dialogue

The Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment, Rep. Eni Faleomavaega (D-AS), along with the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health, Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ) sent a joint letter to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono November 9 calling on him to create an internationally-mediated commission to establish a dialogue between the national government of Indonesia and the leaders of West Papua.

In the letter, the Congressmen noted that dozens of prominent leaders and organizations in West Papua, as well as key Indonesian leaders and intellectuals support such a dialogue, which would be analogous to one successfully held in Aceh province. The letter urges the Indonesian President “to seize the opportunity provided by these developments to establish a similar process for West Papua.”

“We believe that such a process would build on important steps Indonesia has taken in recent years, such as [Indonesia’s] accession to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In becoming a signatory to that agreement, Indonesia clearly expressed its commitment to establishing legal protections for indigenous citizens, including Papuans.” the letter states.

“A national dialogue initiated by an internationally-mediated commission could work to improve enforcement of that law and better the daily lives of average Papuans by, for example, increasing the availability of electricity and fresh water, enhancing public health programs to prevent malaria and other treatable diseases, and upgrading the public education system to levels found in most of the rest of Indonesia,” the letter continues.

“A national dialogue would also present an opportunity to resolve other important issues in West Papua long viewed with concern by Members of Congress and the international community. These include human rights abuses, demographic shifts leaving many Papuans as minorities in their own land, limits on freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, restrictions on the free movement of Papuans within Indonesia, and constraints on international journalists, researchers, and those in nongovernmental organizations seeking to visit or work in West Papua.”

“It is our sincere hope that you will establish an internationally-mediated commission to initiate a dialogue bringing together nationally-respected leaders of your government and of West Papua. We believe this is the moment to begin such a process. A serious national dialogue will enhance the welfare of the people of West Papua, demonstrate Indonesia’s commitment to democracy and justice for all its citizens, and enhance your country’s growing stature on the global stage,” the letter concludes.

Plans to Expand TNI Forces in West Papua Meets Resistance

The Jakarta Post, November 12, 2009, reported that the Indonesian military (TNI) has announced that new military commands are to be established in West Papua and Kalimantan. The report explained that the step was intended to “revitalize the much-criticized territorial function.” Over many decades the TNI has utilized the concept of the “territorial function” to exert influence over local political and economic matters.

There are currently 12 regional military commands across the country. A military command covers one or more provinces, oversees military offices in regencies and municipalities, districts and subdistricts and into remote areas. West Papua is currently is part of the Trikora Military Command

Following the popular overthrow of the dictator Suharto, a key element of reform of the military, the dictator’s power base, was to reduce the number of “military commands” from 20 to 12. The commands exercised their “territorial authority,” as the Jakarta Post notes “to abuse human rights and curtail democracy during the New Order era.”

The announcement of the new commands has drawn strong criticism: A November 26 Jakarta Globe report noted that an assembly of West Papua’s cultural leaders on November 24 rejected plans for a new military command. Yance Kayame, a member of the Papuan Peoples’ Assembly (MRP), said “Papua does not need two military commands,” Kayame said. “What the Armed Forces could do is optimize the one currently in place.” Two other members of the MRP, a group of Papuan tribal leaders also opposed the plan. Hana Hikoyabi, the assembly’s deputy chairman, said adding that an additional military command was not urgently needed in Papua and that programs addressing social issues of poverty and the overall development of the province were much more relevant. Jhon Rustan, another MRP member, said the military command in Jayapura was already suffering from a budget shortfall. “That problem has affected the way the military command has functioned in Papua,” Jhon said.

Meanwhile, outside West Papua there other dissenters. The executive director of the Indonesian Institute for Strategic and Defense Studies (Lesperssi), Rizal Darma Putra, said the expansion was not necessary because the country was not facing any serious external threat. Darma Putra, quoted in the Jakarta Post noted that “(T)he expansion will require the Defense Ministry to spend more money out of its already limited budget,” he said. He continued: “The Defense Ministry will be required to invest in unnecessary personnel, equipment, weapons, buildings and vehicles for the territorial expansion. I don’t think they are necessary. Why don’t they spend the money on improving soldiers’ social welfare?” he said.

The research coordinator of the Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (Imparsial), Al Araf, also was critical of the step noting said the expansion was not necessary because it would create a functional overlap with the police.

There was no indication that either Papuan officials or Papuan civil society leaders were consulted about the expansion of TNI forces in West Papua. For over a decade Papuans have urged the demilitarization of West Papua as a means of ending TNI human rights abuse, corruption and impunity before the law. In the past expansion of the TNI force presence in West Papua has been funded by tapping “Special Autonomy” funds supposedly intended for development in West Papua.

Activists Press for Action on Stalled Human Rights Abuse Crimes

On November 17, the Jakarta Globe reported growing pressure from rights activists on the Indonesian government to act on long-overdue human rights abuses cases. Specifically, the activists called on the government to push the police regarding long-stalled investigations of a number of human rights violations in Papua, particularly the murder of Opinus Tabuni, who was killed in August 2008 in Wamena, West Papua as he participated in a peaceful political ceremony which celebrated the United Nations International Day of the World’s Indigenous people.

The Globe reported that Haris Azhar, deputy chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said that nothing significant had been turned up in police investigations into the murder of Opinus, an investigation that is nearly one year old. “The government should take a stance in terms of legal enforcement in this case, and other human rights violations,” Haris said. Though an internal police inquiry is being conducted into the case, Haris said a criminal investigation was necessary.

An investigation team from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas-HAM) found that local military and intelligence officers were present at the incident. Ridha Saleh, deputy chairman of Komnas-HAM, said Komnas-HAM had already handed over results of its investigation into the Tabuni murder, along with the commission’s recommendations, to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the National Police.

Haris also said the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) had received reports of violence perpetrated by police officers against people holding peaceful demonstrations in Papua including a police attack on a peaceful demonstration of taxi operators and a local Legal Aid Institute in Bau Bau city, Papua. The October attack injured six protesters.

Making a broader point regarding impunity for security force abuse, Haris argued that “Papuans will always be targeted through such violent acts if the attacks are not seriously investigated by security agencies.”

Injustice in Timika

Jonathan Pearlman, writing November 21 in the Sydney Morning Herald, has revealed new insights into the detention of Papuans purportedly involved in the shooting of Drew Grant, an Australian, national near the Freeport-McMoran mine in West Papua. The report underscores how closely the case parallels the 2002 killings of U.S. and Indonesian citizens in the same area. As in the 2002 case, local Papuans have been rounded up, severely mistreated in police custody and made scapegoats in what increasingly appears to have been a security force operation.

Pearlman offers new details and updates the plight of the Papuan scapegoats following the July murder of the Australian (the following is an abbreviated version of the original report which can be read in full at http://www.smh.com.au/world/death-in-papua-political-intrigue-clouds-miners-murder-20091120-iqud.html .

In the aftermath (of the initial attack which killed Grant the Australian national), about 24 men were arrested.. Most were released without charge. But, according to a local lawyer, Eliezer Murafer, six men were kept in three police stations across the province and charged with the attacks. They are: Simon Beanal, 30, who apparently suffers a mentally disability, Eltinus Beanal, 26, Tommy Beanal, 25, Apius Uamang, 39 – all residents of Timika – and two employees of the mine, Dominikus Beanal, 25 and Amon Yawame, 30. Mr Murafer told the Herald that the four Timika residents were at home at the time of the shootings and the two Freeport employees were in their hotel.

The men insist they are innocent – scapegoats caught in the murky politics of one of the world’s most lucrative mines – and that they confessed after being beaten with rifle butts and threatened with shootings and electric shocks. On Tuesday (November 17), five of the men were apparently released: their lawyers say all six still face charges and are yet to be given a trial date.

”They were blindfolded and the police said if they did not confess they would be taken to the bush and shot,” Dackson Beanal, whose five family members were among the six in jail, said. ”There were other threats. They were beaten up … Simon and Apius were handcuffed for almost two months.”

Mr Grant’s murder was one of several military-style shootings and ambushes in the past four months around the Grasberg mine … (B)ut the shootings continued despite the six men’s detention.

Analysts say the attacks, which involved skilled marksmen and military-issue bullets, bear the hallmarks of the Indonesian military. Some say they are linked to a long-running dispute between the army and the police over the job of providing security for the mine. Others say they are linked to disputes over local business opportunities or are a warning to the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, to resist pressure to reform the military.

According to Indonesia’s Tempo magazine, the shooting of Grant – and each subsequent attack – occurred in areas around the mine with mobile phone coverage, which would suggest high levels of planning and co-ordination. The magazine reported sightings of a group of armed men dressed in black who were filmed on security cameras near the mine and stopped by guards the day after Mr Grant was killed. But the group has never been identified or arrested.

An expert on Papua at the Australian National University, Chris Ballard, said the suggestion the villagers could have carried out the attacks was ”farcical”. ”These people were obviously never involved,” he said. ”These recent shootings are far in excess of any of the attacks in the past. They would have required a well-resourced and well-trained unit or units of the security forces … It was never credible that the local community was responsible. … They stand to gain nothing from these attacks. The arrests were followed almost immediately by a string of further shootings … It should be a source of embarrassment to the Indonesian Government.”

A lecturer at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Clinton Fernandes, said the military was probably behind the shootings and was trying to justify its presence in Papua by raising the spectre of a separatist insurgency. ”The Indonesian military need to maintain its presence in Papua and want to ensure that the police no longer try to claim security of the mine area,” Dr Fernandes said. ”Without an insurgency, the army has to go back into the barracks and reduce its size and its budget and its influence. By staying in West Papua, the military gets access to funds and resources and arms and promotions.” (Note separate report in this issue regarding formation of new TNI Command in West Papua.)

see also WPAT: Impunity at the Freeport Gold & Copper Mine: Will Indonesian Security Forces Get Away with It Again?

Human Rights Watch Calls for Release of Papuan Flag-Raisers

Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a November 18 news release, called on the Indonesian Government to release from custody three Papuans convicted on November 12 for a peaceful political protest during which the Papuan morning star flag was raised. On November 12, a Manokwari district court convicted Roni Ruben Iba, Isak Iba, and Piter Iba, members of the Iba clan of makar (rebellion), for raising a pro-independence flag on January 1 outside the Bintuni Bay district government office near Manokwari, in West Papua province.

At their trial, HRW noted, the defendants said they had been mistreated during the arrest and at the Bintuni Bay police station. They said that police at the station kicked them, beat them, and used a rifle butt to strike them on their heads and bodies. The court sentenced Roni Ruben Iba, a hotel security officer, to three years in prison, while Isak Iba, a civil servant, and Piter Iba, a farmer, received two years each.

The HRW statement, which specifically called for President Yudhoyono to uphold free expression, noted that Indonesian courts have long treated the raising of flags associated with pro-independence sentiment as a symbol of sovereignty and, as such, a banned form of expression. Human Rights Watch said that the prosecutions violate internationally protected rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly codified in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Indonesia ratified in 2006.

Human Rights Watch said such arrests are likely to intensify around December 1. In 1961, under Dutch rule, an elected council consisting mostly of indigenous Papuans commissioned the creation of a national anthem and flag. On December 1, 1961, the Morning Star flag was flown beside the Dutch tricolor for the first time. Indonesia took control over Papua with United Nations recognition in 1969.

Indonesian Military Reported Abducting Papuan Children

News of a program to remove Papuan children from West Papua to Java is beginning to receive limited media attention. According to Okezione.com, approximately 200 children may have been removed from the central highlands town of Wamena.

One case cites a 12 year old boy, who was placed in an orphanage in Bintaro, a Jakarta suburb, by police in November 2009.

He reportedly was taken from Wamena in 2002 aboard a military cargo plane and now works as a beggar-street child in Bintaro area in Tangerang. Police arrested him for stealing.

According to Fauzan, he was initially sent to an Islamic boarding school in Bogor, but later transferred to one in Jombang, near Bintaro. He ran away from the school in 2007. Fauzan is currently one of nine Papuan children now living on the street. Reportedly, seven of them ran away from school.

Similar accounts have surfaced from time to time, notably by reliable sources associated with the Papuan “Kingmi” church. These reports often portrayed the Indonesian military as involved with several Muslim clerics who have sought to send these children to Java for “education.”

The Indonesian military routinely abducted Timorese children from East Timor during the military’s long bloody rule there. Some of these abducted children were trained to serve military intelligence interests and subsequently reinserted into East Timor.

New Mistreatment of Papuan Prisoners

Reliable sources have provided information regarding new violence directed at detained political prisoners. In Jayapura, four prisoners beat Buchtar Tabuni, a political prisoner, on November 26. Tabuni reportedly bled from wounds to face, head and mouth. Tabuni was not afforded medical treatment for his wounds. Buchtar Tabuni told international media that the four prisoners who attacked him included Samsul Bactri, Yansen Korwa and Robby. They are incarcerated soldiers. The other prisoner is a police officer named David Ongge. The four prisoners are “tampin” or “prisoners assigned to help prison guards.” The security officers are jailed for petty crimes.

In a separate incident, a November 24 protest outside of the Doyo Baru prison in West Papua by local people demanded compensation for land purportedly taken from them by prison officials. During the protest, three prisoners escaped.

This prompted prison guards to lock all gates in the building. In addition, Angki Madou, a prison guard, beat three prisoners from Papua New Guinea. He used a chair to beat John Kris, John Alfons and Raimon Moses. He also smashed their heads into a wall.

_______________________________________

 

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Winners: John Rumbiak Human Rights Defender Award for 2009

WPAT report 68: January 2010  :  Dood van Kelly Kwalik

Summary

 

The police killing of renowned pro-independence leader Kelly Kwalik is reminiscent of the Kopassus murder of Papuan leader Theys Eluay and has prompted calls for an investigation of police conduct.

The death of former President Abdurrahman Wahid, whose Presidency was brought to an end by an undemocratic show of force by the military, is widely mourned, especially in West Papua.

A formal rendering of the history of Indonesia’s annexation of West Papua published by the U.S. State Department is significantly flawed.

A Papuan forestry official has warned that Indonesian decentralization/autonomy policies threaten West Papua’s forests.

A senior Papuan official condemns the Indonesian Government’s failure to protect the rights of Papuan women who fall victim to development schemers and their Indonesian military enforcers.

West Papua is the epicenter of an HIV/AIDS crisis.

 

Contents

* Extra-judical Killing of Papuan Patriot Kelly Kwalik

* Former President Abdurahman Wahid, A Friend of Papuans, Couped by The Military, Dies

* U.S. State Department Distorts West Papua’s History

* Jakarta’s “Autonomy” Policies for West Papua Jeopardizes Papuan Forests

* The Indonesian Government Fails to Protect Papuan Women’s Rights

* West Papua Suffers Highest Rate of HIV/AIDS

 

Extra-judical Killing of Papuan Patriot Kelly Kwalik

 

On December 16, 2009 Indonesian police shot Kelly Kwalik. He died shortly later due to a thigh wound. The Indonesian security force team that shot Kwalik was composed of members of the notorious Mobile Brigade (BRIMOB) and the U.S.-funded Detachment 88. That much is clear.

 

The rest is subject to intense discussion and dispute. Kwalik died of his wound shortly later, apparently due to blood loss. It is not clear that police took necessary medical action to address, i.e., to tourniquet, the wound. As a consequence of this apparent inaction the wound proved mortal. Equally unclear are the circumstances that brought this leading pro-independence figure into reach of Indonesian security authorities. Less than two months earlier he had met cordially with senior Indonesian security authorities at their behest. That meeting has prompted speculation that Indonesian security authorities lured Kwalik into a trap on the pretense of another friendly meeting. It was just such subterfuge which lured another renowned Papuan, Theys Eluay, to his murder at the hands of Kopassus in 2001.

 

The immediate police commentary regarding their killing of Kwalik lends support to those who suspect a police conspiracy to murder Kwalik. Police spokesmen pronounced Kwalik guilty of orchestrating the months of violence that have jeopardized the operations of the Freeport-McMoran mine. This claim, offered in apparent defense of the police killing of Kwalik, contradicted Kwalik’s profession of innocence and, more troublingly for the police, the police’s earlier public acknowledgement that Kwalik was not involved in the crime. Police claims that the dead Papuan leader also was responsible for the killing of U.S. and Indonesian citizens in a 2002 shooting incident in the same area similarly lack credibility. Initial police statements at the time and subsequent exhaustive investigation by independent researchers (see http://skyhighway.com/~ebenkirksey/writing/Kirksey-Harsono_Timika.pdf) demonstrated that the Indonesian military orchestrated those killings.

 

The killing of Kwalik was all the more tragic because for many years Kwalik had honored the appeal of Papuan human rights leaders such as John Rumbiak who have urged to seek redress of Papuan grievances through peaceful means.

 

The killing of Kwalik, like the 2001 murder of Papuan leader Theys Eluay by the Indonesian military (Kopassus) forces has prompted strong criticism from many quarters. The following December 29 statement by the Indonesian Human Rights Network, translated in abridged form by Tapol, underscores the injustice of this killing and the urgency of action by Indonesian President Yudhoyono to address rogue security force actions in West Papua.

 

Bintang Papua, 29 December 2009

 

Human Rights Network Questions Kelly Kwalik’s Involvement

 

The lack of any firm evidence of the involvement of General Kelly Kwalik in a series of recent terrorist actions in Timika, Papua has led the Network of Human Rights Defenders in Papua to call on the President of Indonesia to take action against members of the security forces.

 

In a press release issued by Poengky Indarti of Imparsial, Andreas Harsono of Yayasan Pantau, Muridan Widjojo of LIPI, Amiruddin Ar Rahab of Activists Concerned about Papua, Markus Haluk of AMPTPI, Miryam Nainggolan of PPRP and Suryadi Radjab of PBHI, they called on the President of Indonesia to instruct the Chief of Police of Indonesia, the Commander of the Armed Forces, the Attorney General and the Minister for Law and Human Rights to take firm action against all those members of the security forces who perpetrate acts of violence in Papua.

 

The Network also called on the Chairman of the Constitutional Court to take firm action against those who continue to try and sentence Papuans for giving expression to their basic rights. The government should also repeal Government Regulation No 77, 2007 [banning the use of symbols] which is in violation of Law 21, 2001 on Special Autonomy for Papua.

 

They also questioned allegations of the involvement of Kelly Kwalik which had resulted in his murder on the grounds that he had offered resistance to the police when they raided the place where he was staying, because this was in violation of the law and human rights which the police are required to uphold.

 

The Network also said that the case has been further complicated by police allegations that Kelly Kwalik was responsible for a series of incidents in the vicinity of PT Freeport between July and October 2009, although such allegations had been rejected by police-commissioner FX Bagus Ekodanto. who was the chief of police at the time.

 

The district police chief said at the time that the OPM was not responsible for the acts of violence in the vicinity of Freeport, and that there was no clear evidence implicating Kelly Kwalik.

 

The members of the Network were deeply concerned that all this has led to fears among Papuans that acts of state violence could victimise anyone in Papua, who could be branded with the stigma of separatism and the OPM.

 

These allegations also represented a violation of the Papuan people’s right to freedom of expression: they included the dispersal of people taking part in peaceful actions, the banning of books, the arrest, detention and incrimination of Papuans, including the murder of Papuans in the name of the OPM stigma. Such things must stop, they said. These actions not only violate the rule of law and human rights but also perpetuate the culture of violence and enhanced the authoritarian nature of the security forces, which was comparable to what happened during the New Order of Suharto.

 

Such developments were taking Papua further and further away from an atmosphere of peace and the desire of Papuan people to make Papua a Land of Peace.

 

see also ETAN/WPAT: Statement on Killing of Papuan Leader Kelly Kwalik

Contact: Ed McWilliams, West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT), +1-401-568-5845; edmcw@msn.com
John M. Miller, East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), +1-718-596-7668; etan@etan.org

In the wake of this killing, will the Indonesian Government finally respond to efforts by Papuans to launch an internationally facilitated dialogue to address critical issues, including security force brutality and legal impunity, marginalization of Papuans in their own land and environmental destruction?

December 19 – The December 16 killing of pro-Papuan independence leader Kelly Kwalik by Indonesian police risks further alienation of Papuans and is likely to seriously undermine Papuan efforts to begin an internationally-mediated dialogue with the Indonesian government. Simultaneous police allegations that Kwalik was involved in lethal attacks in the Timika area in this year and in 2002 are not credible. Making Kwalik a scapegoat only serves to mask the failure of Indonesian authorities to credibly resolve these cases.

The evidence clearly points to Indonesian military involvement in the 2002 attacks, which resulted in the deaths of three teachers, including two Americans, at the Freeport mine. Recently, Kwalik in a meeting with security officials categorically denied that Papuan pro-independence fighters were behind this year’s attacks near the mine. His denial of responsibility was supported by police officials, who countered initial claims by military officials that the attacks were the work of the pro-independence fighters.

Kwalik has in recent years endorsed a Papua-wide effort to seek a negotiated settlement with Jakarta by creating a Zone of Peace in the region.

Violent protests by Papuans angered over the killing of yet another Papuan leader underscore how distrustful Papuans are of Indonesian security authorities. The killing could lead to further hardening of Papuan attitudes toward cooperation with Jakarta.

Beyond these consequences, there are immediate questions:

Pallbearers carry Kelly Kwalik’s coffin, commander in the Free Papua Movement (OPM), at the parliament building in Timika, West Papua December 19, 2009. REUTERS/ Muhammad Yamin

Was Kwalik’s presence a result of police subterfuge?  Was he lured from his jungle stronghold by police offer of discussion along the lines of a meeting with the chief of police several months earlier?

What is the fate of those arrested at the time of the shooting of Kwalik, including that of the ten year old boy among those detained?

Was appropriate, timely, medical attention afforded to the wounded Kwalik after he was shot?

In the wake of this killing, will the Indonesian Government finally respond to efforts by Papuans to launch an internationally facilitated dialogue to address critical issues, including security force brutality and legal impunity, marginalization of Papuans in their own land and environmental destruction?

see update in January 2010 West Papua Report

Former President Abdurahman Wahid, A Friend of Papuans, Couped by The Military, Dies

Abdurrahman Wahid, better known as Gus Dur, died on December 30. Gus Dur was unique among Indonesian leaders, personally generous, self-effacing and prepared to act on behalf of those who were victims of the policies of the Suharto dictatorship and its military. Though long a member of Indonesia’s political elite, he mocked it for its self pretention and corruption. He was also courageous. During his presidency (October 1999 to July 2001) he sought to reduce the power of the military over Indonesia’s political life. He fired the military chief General Wiranto who was later indicted by a UN-supported panel in East Timor for war crimes for his leadership role in the massacres which the military and its militias carried out in East Timor. The military exacted its revenge: in 2001, seizing the opportunity afforded it by a political crisis between the Parliament and President Wahid over corruption allegations (never proven), the military ringed the Presidential palace with tanks, guns facing inward. The President fired then Security Minister Yudhoyono for refusing to declare a state of emergency, but to no avail. President Wahid became the second president after President Sukarno to fall to the pressure of the Indonesian military.

Papuans will remember Gus Dur as the only senior Indonesian political figure to befrend them. In a highly symbolic gesture, he celebrated the new millennium, the 21st century, in West Papua. After meeting with West Papuan leaders, including Theys Eluay and Tom Beanal, the President issued a formal decree changing the official name of the province from “Irian Jaya” to “Papua.” Irian Jaya was the name Suharto imposed after the Indonesia’s coercive annexation of the region. The following June, President Wahid acknowledged the right of Papuans to use their traditional symbols including their flag, the Morning Star/Kejora flag, insisting only that it be flown in conjunction with the Indonesian flag. In a gesture that had both symbolic and real meaning, he made a substantial, personal financial contribution to the Second Papuan Conference which convened May-June 2000. That meeting, attended by thousands of Papuans, set in motion the current peaceful struggle by Papuans for their fundamental human rights. As a private citizen, Gus Dur also gave support to Papuans’ calls for a dialogue with Jakarta over Papuans many outstanding grievances.

More than any other Indonesian political figure Gus Dur bequeathed to the people of the archipelago the vision of a future in which democracy reigns and human rights are respected.

U.S. State Department Distorts West Papua History

In its periodic series of “Background Notes” regarding Indonesia, the U.S. Department of State in October 2009 provided a deficient and incorrect account of the Indonesian Government’s long-troubled course in West Papua ( http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2748.htm). The flawed document also ignored other key developments in Indonesian history including the military’s role in the murder of hundreds of thousands of Indonesian citizens in the late 1960’s and Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor.

In a December analysis by the West Papua Advocacy Team and the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network offered corrections to the flawed account. The review, the full text of which is available at http://www.etan.org/news/2009/12bnotes.htm, observed inter-alia that the “Notes” inaccurately portrayed the electoral fraud through which Indonesia annexed West Papua in 1969 and the killing of tens of thousands of Papuans by Indonesian security forces from the Indonesian assumption of administrative control in 1963 to the present.

 

Jakarta’s “Autonomy” Policies for West Papua Jeopardizes Papuan Forests

 

A December 14 article by Nethy Dharma Somba appearing in the Jakarta Post ( http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/12/14/decentralization-jeopardizes-forest-papua.html ) underscored the threat to the environment in West Papua posed by the current Indonesian government’s approach to “decentralization.” The analysis argues that Jakarta’s decentralization policies, and specifically its autonomy initiative in West Papua (‘special autonomy”), pose a direct threat to Papuan forests. The article cites Papua Forestry Office head Marthen Kayoi as warning that “(t)he forested areas currently available would unlikely still be there five to 10 years from now if regional autonomy continues as it would lead to physical development.”

The Papuan official added that while the current area of intact Papuan forests totaled 31.5 million hectares, only 24 million hectares would remain based on the current autonomy approach which entails the rapid designation of new administrative districts and development of infrastructure. In addition to normal development, there is, the official noted, the constant threat of illegal logging. (WPAT note: Much of this illegal logging is carried out by the Indonesian military or under its protection.)

The Papuan official called special attention to the Lorentz National Park which, despite its national park status, hosts operations by the Freeport-McMoran copper and gold mining operation. (WPAT comment: Freeport-McMoran gold mining operations not only extend into the Lorentz. The devastating consequences of its mining operations in the Timika district also extend to the Lorentz by virtue of its tailing disposal which spread to the Lorentz through Ajkwa river system which serves as Freeport’s tailings sewer system into the Afura sea).

The Indonesian Government Fails to Protect Papuan Women’s Rights

The leader of the Papuan People’s Assembly, Hana Hikoyabi, has bluntly criticized the role of the military in exploiting and victimizing Papuan women.

In a December 2 Jakarta Globe report, ( http://thejakartaglobe.com/news/women-in-papua-continue-to-suffer/345155 ) Hikoyabi noted that women are forced to leave their homes due to pressures from developers often backed by the military. “It hurts them so much because they depend on the land to live and eat, find materials for housing and to cook for their families,” Hikoyabi said, adding that military officers conducting the land clearing activities had been known to sexually assault Papuan women who refused to move out of their homes. “They are raped by the military personnel and suffer deep trauma, which is not easily healed,” Hana said. “The government has failed to provide either trauma support or legal aid for these victims of violence and has not done enough to investigate the cases and punish the perpetrators” she added. “Women’s rights remain abandoned in Papua,” Hikoyabi concluded.

West Papua Suffers Highest Rate of HIV/AIDS

A December 2 Tempo Interactive report [ http://www.tempointeractive.com/hg/nasional/2009/12/02/brk,20091202-211504,uk.html ] notes that West Papua continues to suffer the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS. The Indonesian National AIDS Commission said Papua island still holds the highest HIV/AIDS rate – at 2.4 percent – compared to any other regions within the archipelago. Constant Karma head of the commission’s office in Papua Province told media representatives (2/12) that the number of people with HIV/AIDS in Papua and West Papua Province as of March 2009 was 6,245. Papua province has 4,745 with HIV/AIDS while West Papua has 1,500. Timika, the seat of Mimika Regency where the Freepot McMoran’s gold mine complex lies, ranked number four among the cities with highest transmission rate after Bandung (West Java), Jakarta, and Denpasar. Constant said over 90 percent of HIV/AIDS spreadings in the region were transmitted through sexual relations, with male sufferers become the main source of transmission.

(WPAT Comment: The Tempo Interactive report fails to note that prostitution rings, often run by or protected by security authorities, have been an important factor in the transmission of HIV/AIDS in West Papua. The high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Timika can in part be explained by the large number of non-Papuan workers brought to the site by the Freeport McMoran mine, most of whom are not accompanied by spouses. Freeport’s failure to address this problem, a direct consequence of its employment practices entailing migration of non-Papuans to West Papua, is only one aspect of the painful Freeport legacy. The widely noted failure of the Indonesian Government to provide a minimally adequate health infrastructure in West Papua exacerbates the explosion of HIV/AIDS in West Papua.)

 

—————————————-

From WPAT report 69:
Contents

Papuans Rally in Support of Referendum and International Support Groups

Illegal Logging Remains A Key Source of Funds for The Indonesian Military

New Armed Attack on Freeport Personnel

Indonesian activists: “Human rights protection in Papua declined in 2009”

Human Right Watch Report Describes Rights Abuses in West Papua

Kopassus Officer Named to Head Military in West Papua

Kwalik Replacement Pledges Continued Pursuit of Peace Initiative

Police Honored for Killing Kwalik

Indonesian Government Plans More Book Bans

The Indonesian Government “Food Estate” Plan to Expropriate Papuan Lands

 

 

WPAT report 70)

Summary:

The West Papua Advocacy Team urges President Obama to use his March visit to Indonesia to call on the Indonesian Government to implement fundamental changes in West Papua where human rights violations and impunity for security force crimes persist. Reporting from the central highlands in West Papua indicate an increased presence of security force and abusive and corrupt behaviour of these forces.  Papuans have peacefully demonstrated in large numbers to press demands for the release of political prisoners, respect for human rights, investigation and prosecution of the killing of a peaceful demonstrator, and for demilitarization of West Papua. Papuans also have protested an Indonesian Government plan to seize vast tracts of land for “development” and displace many Papuans. The Indonesian government has failed to provide urgent health care for Filep Karma, a Papuan political prisoner.  An Indonesian Minister has protested that Freeport McMoran, the giant U.S. mining operation, is operating illegally.  Papuans have rejected plans by the Provincial government of West Java and the national government to send migrants to West Papua.  It is feared that the transmigrants will use generous government subsidies to out-compete and marginalize local Papuans as has happened repeatedly in the past in West Papua.

 

End summary

Content:

*WPAT Letter to President Obama on The Eve of His Visit to Indonesia

*Indonesian Security Forces Ramping up Operations in Central Highlands

*Papuans Demonstrate to Peacefully Voice Demands

*Indonesian State Pursues “Land Grab” Targeting Papuans in Merauke Area

*Indonesian Government Fails to Provide Urgent Health Care to Incarcerated Prisoner of Conscience

*Freeport Operating Illegally According to Indonesian Minister

*Papuans Reject Plans for Expansion of “Transmigration”

WPAT Letter to President Obama on The Eve of His Visit to Indonesia

The West Papua Advocacy Team welcomes your upcoming visit to Indonesia as an opportunity to deepen U.S.-Indonesian ties and to encourage further democratization of Indonesia. Indonesia’s democratic progress in the decade since the overthrow of the Suharto dictatorship has been
impressive and has facilitated the expansion of U.S. cooperation with this important nation. Critical to Indonesia’s democratization is the expansion of respect for human rights. Respect for human rights and the process of democratization generally continue to face threats from the Indonesian military which continues to evade full civilian control and remains largely unaccountable before Indonesia’s flawed judicial system.
It is imperative that the United States employ its not inconsiderable influence to work for the full subordination of the Indonesian military to civilian control and accountability before the law.

Nowhere in the Indonesian archipelago is military insubordination, corruption and abusive behaviour more on display than in West Papua, where the military continues to operate in a manner that reflects the rules and practices fostered under the Suharto dictatorship.

Your visit affords an opportunity to press for genuine reforms and further democratization in Indonesia and specifically in West Papua where human rights abuse, injustice and security force corruption is endemic.
Special Autonomy has not resolved the issues and is no final solution.
Papuan human rights activists remain subject to intimidation, arrest and even death.

In your meetings with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono we urge you to pursue real reforms that reflect the agenda of issues raised by human rights advocates in West Papua. These include:

… an end to military human rights violations, especially including an end to military “sweeping operations” by Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus) and others which regularly displace thousands of Papuans;

… replacing the culture of impunity with genuine accountability of military and police personnel before the courts for past and ongoing human rights crimes and corruption;

… an end to resort to force by military and police to address peaceful protest by Papuans to include their employment of flags and banners;

… release of Papuan political prisoners and prisoners of conscience to include all those who have been detained for such peaceful protest;

… cessation of the practice of conflating political protest with “separatist” activity, a practice which enables security forces and Indonesian courts to address such peaceful protest as “terrorist”
activity under the Indonesian governments functional definition of terrorism;

… demilitarization of West Papua and an end to military protection of and operation of business operations, many of which have had a devastating impact on Papuan natural resources;

… an end to restrictions on access to and travel within West Papua now imposed on international journalists, researchers, humanitarian workers and diplomats and in that regard to permit the return of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to its offices in West Papua;

We also urge that you encourage the Indonesian President and government to respond positively to long-standing calls by the Papuan civil society and Papuan officials for

… a senior-level, internationally mediated dialogue between the  Indonesian government and Papuan civil society, building on the success of the earlier dialogue in Aceh and responding to calls from Papuans and also from prominent voices within Indonesian civil society;

… steps to address persistent Papuan concerns including policies such as “transmigration” and “special autonomy” which marginalize Papuans in their own land;

.. the creation of a demilitarized “zone of peace” in West Papua.

The United States played a central role in the process that saw West Papua annexed by Indonesia in the 1960s, a process that transparently failed to afford Papuans an opportunity to exercise genuine self determination. The period since then has seen continuing, extensive human rights problems. Democratization in Indonesia since 1998, and now your visit to that country, provide an opportunity for United States involvement in support of civil society efforts to solve some of the subsequent human rights problems.

Indonesian Security Forces Ramping up Operations in Central Highlands

Reports from reliable sources within the Papuan central highlands reveal a significant expansion of Indonesian military force deployment, particularly by the U.S.-funded “Detachment 88” which has constructed two new, apparently permanent posts. The military inter alia, is reported to be targeting largely unarmed guerrillas associated with the aging Papuan leader Thadeus Yogi.  Papuan parliamentarians reporting are seeking to intervene to preclude new conflict by negotiating an agreement that would provide for “rehabilitation” for the aged rebel leader.

Separately, there are also reports that the Indonesian military is targeting rebel forces led by Goliath Tabuni in the Punjak Jaya area.  Indonesian military officials have justified such an offensive on the recent killing of a Brimob (militarized policed) officer, found dead on February 15.  The military claims of a rebel role in that killing have been disputed by Lukas Enembe, the local Bupati (the government official heading the administrative regency in which the killing took place).

Over several months local officials have sought to secure the removal of Indonesian state security personnel from the Mulia area, also in the central highlands.  These personnel include troops from Battalions 754 and 756 based in Timika and Wamena.  Among the problems these troops have generated is inflation of the number of personnel (claiming 150 when in fact there are 120 personnel) in order to extract additional funds to support their deployment.  In addition to these battalions the 753 Battalion remains in Nabire.

These newly arriving military personnel have also busied them selves with constructions of new traffic control points – frequently used to shake down local travellers. Meanwhile, police forces have constructed three new road-control posts at which they interrogate civilian who are bearded or who carry bows and arrows which is a traditional practice of the local Mee culture.

Indonesian military personnel are also reported to be creating problems elsewhere in the Central Highlands. Kopassus and other military personnel in Mulia, the capitol of Puncak Jaya are engaged  in Ojek (motorcycle transportation) business as well as the illegal sale of alcohol.  Huge profits are made through mark ups of 600 percent of vodka in Mulia as compared with the price in Jayapura.

Papuans Demonstrate to Peacefully Voice Demands

The February 23 Cenderawasih Pos reports that a large peaceful demonstration by Papuans in Jayapura called for an end to repression. The demonstrators demands reflected longstanding concerns of Papuans who have for decades suffered discrimination and marginalization at the hands of a distant Indonesian Government which relies on an abusive military to enforce its will.

The demonstrators demands included:

– an immediate and unconditional release of all political detainees and convicted political prisoners;

– investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the killing of Opinus Tabuni who was killed by fire from security forces at a peaceful August 2008;

– demilitarization of West Papua and for the withdrawal of “non-organic” troops (troops not native to West Papua,
assigned to augment indigenous troops);

– opposition to plans announced in Jakarta to create a new West Papua-based military command (Kodam);

– and an end to extra-judicial killings.

The demonstration took place outside the Papua Legislative Assembly and was organized by several Papuan groups in the capitol.  Repeated police efforts to stop the demonstration failed.

Indonesian State Pursues “Land Grab” Targeting Papuans in Merauke Area

The Indonesian Government plans to take control of vast tracts of land near Merauke in West Papua, much of it already owned and farmed by Papuans.

The planned Merauke food estate will comprise a 1.6 million hectare integrated food production zone where companies will grow, process and package their products in one location. The project, part of President Yudhoyono’s fast-track development” 100-day program,” is aimed at developing food estates in eastern Indonesia.  The plan entails an expansion of Merauke’s population of some 175,000 people to up to 800,000. That potentially disruptive population growth will likely involve a massive, state-supported inflow of non-Papuans along the lines of decades of “transmigration policies” that have sown ethnic conflict in West Papua, Borneo and Sumatra. That conflict has arisen as local populations are marginalized in their own homelands as Government support programs favor the internal migrants to the disadvantage of locals.

As noted in the February West Papua Report, there is growing opposition to the scheme from small-scale Papuan farmers who say they fear their traditional livelihoods will be threatened by the large-scale, state-subsidized commercialization of agriculture. “We reject the concept of the food estate. For us, food estates are another kind of land grabbing scheme. It’s like going back to the era of feudalism,” Indonesian Farmers Union official Kartini Samon told the Jakarta Post. “The regular farmers’ land will be taken by big companies and the farmers will be left with nothing,” she said.

The plan is only the latest in a history of Indonesian state expropriation of land which has displaced and disadvantaged Papuans which began in 1967, when Papuan lands were still nominally under a UN mandate. In that year, the Suharto regime seized land in the Timika-Tembagapura area in order to facilitate the development of the Freeport McMoran copper and gold mine. The succeeding decades saw the displacement of thousands of Papuans (Amungme and Kamoro) and the destruction of tens of thousands of acres of productive land and fisheries.

The Yudhoyono plan also concerns potential investors. In addition to the local protests reported above and in the February “West Papua Report,” an Indonesian Chamber of Commerce official told the Jakarta Globe that “legal uncertainty” will discourage investment. That “uncertainty” arises from a melange of Indonesian laws and regulations on land usage, including the Forestry Law, the Spatial Management Law, and the Law on “Special Autonomy.”

Indonesian Government Fails to Provide Urgent Health Care to Incarcerated Prisoner of Conscience

Information developed by reputable human rights advocates documents inhumane treatment of those incarcerated in Indonesian prison facilities, including those convicted of peaceful political dissent. In this instance, the inhumane treatment concerns the failure of the Government to address urgent, persistent health needs of individuals such as Filep Karma identified by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience.

Filep Karma was arrested in 2004, following his involvement in peacefully raising the Morning Star flag on 1 December 2004. He was later convicted, together with a colleague Yusak Pakage. He received a 15-year sentence while Pakage was sentenced to ten years.

Since August 5, 2009, imprisoned Papuan activist Filep Karma has faced painful health problems, specifically he has endured great difficulty urinating and felt acute pain. His appeals for medical treatment for this condition have gone largely unanswered.  On August 6, he attend the clinic at the prison and was told that no medicine was available. A nurse advised him to lie on his back and raise his legs to the wall at 90 degrees while massaging his abdomen. He was not examined nor was he given anything to relieve the pain.

On 18 August, he was taken to DOK II Hospital and put into intensive care. On 5 October, he received a letter from the director of the Cikiini hospital in Jakarta stating he required treatment at the Urological Surgery Department at the Cikini Hospital. The Director of the hospital in Jayapura concurred.

However, on 8 October, the prison Director said that the prison can only provide each prisoner the sum of Rp 15,000 (less that $2.00) each year for medical purposes.  He added that the prison has no funds to cover the costs of travel to Jakarta.

After extended discussions with officials of the provincial government it agreed to provide funds to cover only for transportation (including transport of prison and other guard officials).

(The above information is sourced to Solidaritas Korban Pelanggaran HAM Papua, Solidarity with the Victims of Human Rights Violations in Papua.  It was received and forwarded by TAPOL. )

Freeport Operating Illegally According to Indonesian Minister

The February 23 Jakarta Globe reports that the Ministry of Forestry has publicly criticized the U.S.-based Freeport McMoran copper and gold mine in the Tembagapura-Timika area of West Papua for its “illegal” activity. Forestry Minister Zulkifli Hasan told lawmakers he had sent Freeport an initial warning regarding its illegal activities on August 7, but had received no response in the intervening five months.

Speaking on February 22, before a hearing with the House of Representatives Commission IV which has responsibility for forestry and agriculture the minister explained that a 2004 government regulation in lieu of law (“perppu”) required a permit from the ministry to be issued for mining in protected areas. The forestry law prevents forest areas from being mined, but the 2004 perppu provided exceptions to 13 miners, including Freeport, provided they acquire “borrow-use permits” from the ministry. Freeport has no such permit, Zulkifli said.

“Under the forestry [law] it is illegal, that’s why we sent the second warning,” Zulkifli said, adding that his ministry did not have authority to revoke the license for non-compliance.

Budiman Moerdiat, the communications manager of Freeport, claimed to media that Freeport had “followed the rules that were set in our mining contract of work.”  The Freeport official claimed that the company has “lex specialis rights,” i.e., a legal stipulation that the terms and conditions of the contracts would not be affected by any general Indonesian laws. The “right” to operate outside the law was extended to Freeport by the massively corrupt Suharto regime in 1988 and was extended in 1991 for a 30 year period.  Suharto and his family, as well as the military, benefited from a huge flow of payments and subsidies.  Freeport funds continue to flow to the military.

The Freeport official did not explain why the company had ignored the Ministry’s August message.

Papuans Reject Plans for Expansion of “Transmigration”

The Papua Customary Council as well as Papuan civil society organizations have rejected new plans for expanded “transmigration” as announced by the Governor of West Java.

The new plan arises from discussions between the West Java Governor and Papuan officials, sponsored by the Ministry of Transmigration, which lay the groundwork for the sending of 700 family heads to West Papua from West Java on an annual basis. The scheme targets an area of 5,870,642 hectares of what the Minister of Transmigration described as “potential placement locations for transmigrants.” The Minister noted plans to assist the transmigrants beyond levels in past years. Specifically, transmigrants would receive training in agribusiness and trade as well as development of facilities and infrastructure.

It is precisely such assistance, now to be provided at an increased level, that has facilitated the marginalization of Papuans who are easily out-competed by the newcomers in part due to Government assistance.

http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/2010/1003wpap.htm
WPAT report 71)

Summary

The lightly-armed Papuan resistance organization (OPM) expressed public support for an internationally mediated dialogue between Papuans and the Indonesian government. The announcement indicates broad unity among Papuans for a peaceful approach to resolving Papuans’ myriad problems with Jakarta. In late March, Papuan demonstrators in various Papuan cities met a mixed response from police who at times used repression against the uniformly peaceful protests. The trial of Victor Yiemo began. The activist stands accused of “rebellion” under Indonesia’s infamous Article 106. The Indonesian military announced plans, not yet approved by the civilian government, to significantly augment its presence in West Papua. The plan stands in stark contrast to broad Papuan calls for demilitarizing their homeland. Environmentalists have pointed to new problems with government plans to develop a massive food estate in the area of Merauke. In its annual assessment of human rights in Indonesia in 2009, the U.S. Department of State chronicles many of the cases of rights abuse, usually at the hands of the security forces, but inexplicably ignores a key June 2009 Human Rights Watch report which detailed extensive Kopassus abuse of Papuans, as well as decades of Indonesian government failure to extend health, education and other basic services to Papuans. The International Crisis Group (ICG) issued a report on West Papua which seeks to assign blame for growing violence to individual Papuan groups rather than acknowledge deteriorating human rights and humanitarian conditions. Some media reports of the analysis, abetted by an ICG official’s comments, mischaracterize the report’s assessment of who is to blame for recent violence in the area of the Freeport-McMoRan mine. A recent violent incident in the Puncak Jaya region has local people on edge.

 

End summary

Contents

OPM Calls for Internationally Mediated Dialogue between Papuans and Indonesian Government

The military wing of the Free Papua Movement (TPN-OPM) announced on March 13 that it would support internationally mediated dialogue (preferably by the UN) between Papuans and the Indonesian central government. The statement specifically offered support for plans proposed separately by Papuan Catholic Priest Neles Tebay and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).

In commenting on the new position, the leader of the military wing, General Thadius Jhoni Kimema Jopari Magai Yogi, explained that Papuan leader Theys Eluay had always supported peaceful resolution of outstanding issues between Jakarta and Papuans. The rebels only again took up arms after the 2001 torture murder of Theys Eluay by Indonesian special forces (Kopassus), after a “conducive period” during the tenure of late president Abdurrahman Wahid.

In the statement the rebels said: “We will magnanimously accept any outcome of such a dialogue. If such a dialogue takes place, the most important problem to discuss is the flawed integration, not special autonomy, development, money or formation of new regions which will create new conflicts. TPN-OPM members who have long resided in the jungles, valleys, coasts and mountains, affirm that if any Papuan participates in talks when the mediator is [former Indonesian Vice President] Jusuf Kalla they will be deemed traitors to our cause.”

(Comment: Kalla who has been rumored for a role in a dialogue was a central player in the 2005 agreement between GAM, the Aceh independence movement, and the Indonesian Government. That agreement, which was internationally mediated, has been incompletely implemented with the Indonesian Government failing to set up a human rights court or a truth and reconciliation commission as required by the 2005 final agreement.)

Police Interfere with One Demonstration, Allow Others to Proceed

On March 22 the Indonesian police used force to break up a rally in Jayapura sponsored by the West Papua National Committee (KNPB). It was the second protest KNPB had organized within a week and was aimed at communicating Papuan concerns to President Obama before his visit to Indonesia, now set for June. Demonstrations were also held in several other cities, including Sorong, Manokwari, Wamena and Serui. All the demonstrations were peaceful. Organizers in Jayapura had obtained a permit but police there fired their weapons to disperse the crowd and arrested 15 Papuans.

All but two of the peaceful demonstrators detained by the police in Jayapura were released. Mara Koyoga and Linus Pagawe were formally charged for alleged possession of “sharp implements.” The two will face charges under Law 12/1951 regarding possession of weapons. They face a maximum of 20 years in prison.

All the demonstrations were coordinated by the KNPB. Buchtar Tabuni, chair of the KNPB, is serving a three-and-a-half year sentence in Abepura Prison. He reportedly said that the peaceful demonstration had taken place according to the organization’s intentions. “They are taking place according to my directives. If the police need any clarifications, they should ask me,” he said.

At least one Papuan official, the deputy chairman of the provincial legislative assembly (DPRP) Yehuda Gobay S.Th, condemned the detentions and arrests in Jayapura. He noted that security officials frequently round people up during peaceful demonstrations and fire shots in the midst of demonstrators. He described this as unacceptable in an era of democracy and called for the unconditional release of all those arrested.

Also on March 22, hundreds of Papuans demonstrated peacefully without police interference in Manokwari . The coordinator of this action, Zeth Wambrauw, welcomed the prospective visit of President Obama and urged local officials to arrange a meeting of Papuans with him. This demonstration, as did the others, called on the Indonesian Government to withdraw organic and non-organic troops from Papua. The demonstrators, including students from the University of Papua (UNIPA), rejected calls for a Papua-Jakarta dialogue unless there is an international mediator, especially the UN. The demonstrators also called for closing of the massive Freeport McMoRan copper and gold mine and for a review of the so called “Act of Free Choice.”

Although some of the demonstrators tried and failed to meet members of the local Parliament (DPRP), some did meet the secretary of Commission A, Yulius Moniaga, and someone from Commission B. Moniaga urged the police not to use violence towards those arrested. He was also quoted as saying that when people are arrested and put onto trucks, what usually happened was that they were immediately beaten.

A demonstrator named Mako Tabuni was quoted as saying that similar demonstrations had been held in other parts of the territory since 18 March where the demonstrators had been calling for proper legal procedures to be used. “These are not anarchistic actions but people calling for the principle of democracy to be respected,” he said. One of their demands was for Memorandum of Understanding to be reached regarding the way people can struggle for their aspirations.

The harsh police action against the demonstrators in Jayapura coincided with publicity surrounding a flawed report by the International Crisis Group (ICG) which alleged that the KNPB (which organized these demonstrations) was a separatist organization which was prepared to employ violence to advance its aims. (WPAT among others has criticized the report, see item below for summary of the ICG report and WPAT’s critique.)

Victor Yeimo Trial Begins

The respected UK-based Indonesian human rights organization Tapol has translated a report about the opening of the trial of Papuan activist Victor F. Yeimo on March 11. Yeimo, a leading figure in the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) is charged with rebellion (makar) under Article 106 of the Criminal Code for allegedly seeking secession. The prosecutors charge that in a speech at a peaceful rally on March 10, 2009, Yeimo “demanded independence for West Papua, rejected special autonomy, and called for a referendum, and a review of the 1969 Act of Free Choice He also called for the release of all political prisoners, both those tried as well as those not yet tried.”

Outside the court house after the hearing, witness Marcho Tabuni, told journalists on behalf of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) that Yeimo’s arrest and “detention had taken place without any proof…. He said that Article 28 of the Indonesian Constitution upholds the right to freedom of expression. He called for greater space in West Papua for basic freedoms, for the withdrawal of the military,” and the unconditional release of all Papuan political prisoners.

Article 106 of the Indonesian criminal code which criminalizes peaceful political speech is regularly employed by prosecutors to target dissenters. Article 106 is fundamentally inconsistent with Indonesian obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Articles 19 and 21) which Indonesia signed in 2006 as well as the under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Articles 19 and 20).

TNI Announces Plan to Augment Troops in West Papua

The Indonesian military (TNI) March 23 announced plans to deploy thousands of additional troops to West Papua. Papuan officials, echoing public calls by demonstrating students and other Papuans, have repeatedly called for the removal of TNI personnel from West Papua. There is no indication that the central government has discussed the troop increase with Papuan officials.

Rear Marshal Sagom Tamboen said up to four battalions, approximately 4000 troops, from a “Rapid Reaction Strike Force” division based in Jakarta could be sent to the province to “maintain the territory’s unity within eastern Indonesia.” Experts assess that there are already at least 10,000 troops in West Papua plus addition unknown numbers of military personnel associated with the special forces (Kopassus), military intelligence personnel and other special units.

Rear Marshal Tamboen said the planned deployment, which has not yet been approved by the government, had nothing to do with recent shootings targeting police and employees of U.S. mining giant Freeport McMoRan. Despite deployment of additional security personnel to the region in 2009, violence there has continued.

The proposed deployment appears unrelated to any conceivable foreign threat and the lightly armed, small-in-number armed resistance poses no significant military threat. It appears that the principal purpose of the proposed deployment would be to intimidate Papuans who are increasingly vocal in peacefully advocating for their human and political rights. The troops would also be in position to increase the flow of cash into TNI coffers through extortion of local businesses, enforcement for “developers” attempting to push Papuans off their lands, human trafficking, and illegal logging.

New Complications for Food Estate Project in Merauke

Greenomics Indonesia, an environmental NGO, has expressed concern about the Government’s agricultural estate development plan for Merauke (see WPAT reports for February and March regarding this plan). According to the March 24 Jakarta Post, Greenomics Indonesia predicted most of the planned 1.6 million of hectares to be transformed into food estates would consume virgin forested areas. An assessment of forestry data by Greenomics said there were only 300,000 hectares of production forest (i.e., non-virgin forest). This area of production forest is too scattered and not large enough to accommodate so vast an area of food estates.

“The area is not large scale; they are scattered and the permit should be issued by the Forestry Ministry,” Greenomics Executive Director Elfian Effendi said. He also said that developers should also seek approval from the House of Representatives.

The Indonesian environmental group Walhi called the project a land grab and warned that the estate would threaten the ecosystem. “Large-scale land conversions in Merauke, which consists of predominantly low-lying land and marshes, could cause it to lose its land areas,” Walhi said in a statement. “The decrease in forest and water catchment areas could result in a faster intrusion of sea water to the land.”

The issues raised by Greenomics and Walhi add to previously voiced concerns over land tenure rights and the impact of a large influx of non-Papuans into the region to be employed in the agricultural development.

(WPAT Comment: A similar government plan to convert a massive area in South Kalimantan to agricultural use in the latter years of the Suharto dictatorship led to disastrous results when brackish water inundated the area being prepared for agriculture rendering it useless for any purpose.)

U.S. State Department Finds Extensive Human Rights Abuse in West Papua

The annual U.S. Department of State annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, included a detailed account of human rights abuse in West Papua, especially by Indonesian security forces (see Indonesia report at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/eap/135992.htm)

There were important omissions despite the extensive coverage. The report completely ignored the widely cited June 2009 report by Human Rights Watch, “What Did I Do Wrong?” which documented in great detail abuse of Papuans by Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus) personnel. Observers speculate that the omission might have been intentional with the purpose of diverting attention from the notorious unit which is under consideration for U.S. training and other assistance for the first time in 12 years. The U.S. Congress has long barred assistance to units like Kopassus because of their exceptionally notorious record of human rights violations, many of them committed in West Papua, East Timor, Aceh, and elsewhere.

The Report also fails to note the fundamental inconsistency between Indonesia’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (signed by Indonesia in 2006) and the persistence of Article 106 in the Indonesian criminal code, which criminalizes as treason or rebellion peaceful, political speech. Article 106 is a common weapon used by Indonesian authorities to punish peaceful dissent, especially in West Papua.

As in past years the State Department report fails to note the failure over many decades of the Indonesian Government to provide minimally adequate services to Papuans, especially those in rural areas. The infrastructure for health care and education are insufficient and account for some of the worst rates of infant mortality and other health indices in Asia. The report errs in not acknowledging the Indonesian Governments utter failure to address such basic human needs as required by the International Covenants on Social, Cultural and Economic rights to which Indonesia is party.

The following highlights key description in the State Department report for the year 2009 regarding government policies and practices which have negative implications for human rights protection in West Papua. The report also contains specific reports of human rights violations:

In some parts of the country, particularly in Kalimantan and Papua, residents believed that government-sponsored transmigration programs, which move households from more densely populated areas to less populated regions, interfered with their traditional ways of life, land usage, and economic opportunities. Although the number of new persons in transmigration was significantly less than in previous years, the government continued to support financially approximately 6,756 households moved in 2008 from overpopulated areas to isolated and less-developed areas in 21 provinces.

The government used its authority, and at times intimidation, to expropriate land for development projects, often without fair compensation. In other cases state-owned companies were accused of endangering resources upon which citizens’ livelihood depended. A presidential decree on land acquisition for public use allows the government to acquire land for private development projects even if landowners have not agreed on the amount of compensation. A number of NGOs argued that the decree served the interests of wealthy developers at the expense of the poor.

***

Human rights activists asserted that the government-sponsored transmigration program transplanting poor families from overcrowded Java and Madura to less populated islands violated the rights of indigenous people, bred social resentment, and encouraged the exploitation and degradation of natural resources on which many indigenous persons relied. In some areas, such as parts of Sulawesi, the Malukus, Kalimantan, Aceh, and Papua, relations between transmigrants and indigenous people were poor.

***

Based on recent statistics the authorities arrested at least 30 persons for raising separatist flags in Papua. Although the Papua Special Autonomy Law permits flying a flag symbolizing Papua’s cultural identity, a government regulation prohibits the display of the Morning Star flag in Papua, the RMS flag in Maluku, and the Crescent Moon flag in Aceh.

***

The government continued to restrict foreign journalists, NGOs, and government officials from travelling to the provinces of Papua and West Papua by requiring them to request permission to travel through the Foreign Ministry or an Indonesian embassy. The government approved some requests and denied others. Some journalists travelled to Papua without permission….

***

NGOs in Papua continued to report widespread monitoring of their activities by intelligence officials as well as threats and intimidation. Activists reported that intelligence officers took their pictures surreptitiously and sometimes questioned their friends and family members regarding their whereabouts and activities.

***

During the year indigenous persons, most notably in Papua, remained subject to widespread discrimination, and there was little improvement in respect for their traditional land rights. Mining and logging activities, many of them illegal, posed significant social, economic, and logistical problems to indigenous communities. The government failed to prevent domestic and multinational companies, often in collusion with the local military and police, from encroaching on indigenous peoples’ land. In Papua tensions continued between indigenous Papuans and migrants from other provinces, between residents of coastal and inland communities, and among indigenous tribes.

A more detailed critique of the State Department report by WPAT and the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) will be released shortly (check www.etan.org).

International Crisis Group Accused of Misrepresenting Causes of Violence in West Papua

A March 11 report by the International Crisis Group (ICG), ” Indonesia: Radicalization and Dialogue in Papua, claimed that several Papuan groups were behind rising tension and violence in West Papua. Some media and senior ICG officials misrepresented elements of the report to suggest, incorrectly, that it had assigned blame to Papuan rebels for recent violence in the area of the Freeport McMoRan mine. The Report had described the rebels as more likely to be responsible, but said “there are no conclusive answers.” The ICG report usefully criticized the Indonesian government for its restrictions on access to West Papua by journalists, researchers and others and also urged the Indonesian Government to desist from attempting to portray all Papuan critics and dissenters as “separatist.”  ICG also usefully encouraged efforts supported by Papuans and some Indonesians to launch a dialogue between Jakarta and West Papua.

The West Papua Advocacy Team, among others, expressed serious objections to the report’s analysis, methodology and conclusions (see http://www.etan.org/news/2010/03wpatigc.htm ). WPAT noted, in part, that Indonesian actions in West Papua, including its “security approach” to problems and its assault on human rights there were the leading causes of tension and violence.

Incident in the Puncak Jaya

The Antara news agency reported on March 23 that Indonesian troops and a group it labelled “separatist” were involved in an exchange of gunfire in the troubled Mulia District in the central highlands regency of Puncak Jaya. The incident reportedly began when an armed group fired on a military vehicle as it was returning to its base in the Puncak Senyum area.

Local officials said that no civilians were hurt and there appear to have been no casualties among the 13 TNI personnel in the vehicle or their alleged attackers.

WPAT sources in the area report that some villagers have already fled their homes fearing onset of military operations.

Back issues of West Papua Report

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

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WPAT report  72: May 2010

Summary

Indonesia’s Special Forces (Kopassus) and U.S.-backed Detachment 88 troops joined in an assault on peaceful demonstrators in Manokwari. It is unclear if any of those initial detained remain in custody. The Jakarta Post reports chronic malnutrition among Amungme and Kamoro children who live in the shadow of the massive Freeport McMoran copper and gold mine. A prominent leader of PDI-P has called for creation of truth and reconciliation commissions for Aceh and West Papua. Pressure appears to be building for a military response to dissent in West Papua, including the targeting of NGOs. Leading human rights organizations and churches have called for an end to mistreatment of political prisoners in West Papua and an investigation of security force killing of activists. Indonesian intelligence and Special Forces are attempting to create a false front organization in Biak to replace a legitimate one established by the local people.

 

End summary

Contents

Security Forces Attack Peaceful Demonstrators in Manokwari

Sources in West Papua reported on the latest security force assault on peaceful demonstrators. The U.S.-organized and -funded Detachment 88 attacked peaceful protesters in Manokwari on April 22. The attacking force also included BRIMOB (militarized police) and Dalmas (a special security unit). Video of the attack revealed plainclothes officials also assaulting the demonstrators. (The plainclothes officials may have been Kopassus or military intelligence (BIN) which often works out of uniform.)

According to a report from the scene, at least 17 of the estimated 700 protesters were arrested. Most of this number, which included women and youths, were subsequently released though there is some indication that some of these were re-arrested, notably Mark Yenu, the leader of the Manokwari contingent of the West Papua National Authority.

Video of the incident noted that demonstrators carried a banner calling for a referendum for West Papua and rejecting dialogue as a means of resolving the Papuan crisis.

Rally speaker Reverend Yoku called for the immediate release of those “political prisoners” detained at the demonstration. The President of the National Congress of the West Papua National Authority added, “What is democracy if you can’t have a rally? Where is Yudhoyono? Why doesn’t he pull back his security forces?”

“As a recognized leader in West Papua, I call on the US and the Netherlands, Australia and the 84 UN-member countries that recognized the Act of No Choice in 1969 to take responsibility for the decision they made. Let me say this, because 816,896 West Papuans were never asked whether they wanted the Indonesian occupation. Forty-seven years later, we still don’t want them.”

Freeport Ignores Childhood Malnutrition at Its Doorstep

An April 9 Jakarta Post article describes the inauguration of a program to provide supplemental food for schoolchildren in the Timika area. The “Provision of Food Supplement to Schoolchildren” project is intended to address chronic malnutrition among schoolchildren that contributes to poor learning and equally chronic illiteracy.

Local education official Benny Tsenawatne said the Kamoro and Amungme tribal communities generally lacked access to schools or health clinics, and suffered from low human resource development.

The Post alludes to but does not explore the savage irony that this malnourishment is a chronic concern in a community which serves as the base for the Freeport McMoran gold mining enterprise which has channelled billions of dollars to the U.S. corporation and to the Indonesian government. The Kamoro and Amungme peoples whose land was expropriated by the mining operation have long protested the devastation of their natural resources by the mining operation and the human rights violations meted out by Indonesian security forces acting in service of the mining giant.

To this litany of grievances can be added the plight of the local Papuan’s children. Freeport has ignored the Kamoro and Amungme children suffering chronic malnutrition on its doorstep for decades. (On April 21 Reuters noted that Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc had reported a twenty-fold jump in first-quarter earnings and that it was doubling its dividend as global demand for metals has soared.)

Call for Truth and Reconciliation Commission in West Papua

Indonesia’s Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) has publicly called for creation of a truth and reconciliation commission to address the violation of human rights in Aceh and West Papua. Karimun Usman, the chairman of the Aceh branch of the PDI-P, told the media April 22 that the proposal was intended to address the government’s reluctance to deal with past human rights violations.

The 2005 internationally-mediated Helsinki agreement  [PDF] which ended conflict between the Indonesian military and the Acehnese independence organization (GAM) required the Indonesian Government to establish both a “human rights court” and a truth and reconciliation commission. The failure of Jakarta to take these steps underscores the continued unwillingness of the central government to confront the powerful Indonesian military which operate with impunity before Indonesia’s deeply flawed judicial system.

The call for a truth and reconciliation commission for West Papua to deal with decades of ongoing security abuses and criminality targeting Papuans is a notable acknowledgement by a non-Papuan official of the need for an official review of security force performance in West Papua. The call for such a commission for West Papua provides tacit support for an internationally-mediated dialogue between Jakarta and Papuans. That proposal, which has drawn broad Papuan support as well as some backing from Indonesian academics and political leaders, is aimed in part at addressing decades of military abuse and criminality.

Pressure Grows For Military Response to Political Dissent in West Papua

In recent weeks an apparently orchestrated effort has emerged aimed at building support for increased military action to address growing peaceful, political dissent in West Papua. Targets for a repressive “security approach” to political problems are not simply the small armed resistance, the “OPM,” but also civilian political dissenters and human rights defenders. Concern about military-on-civilian violence has been prompted in part by Puncak Jaya District Chief Lukas Enembe who has called publicly for government action against unnamed NGOs, “domestic as well as foreign,” whom he alleged have been involved in recent attacks in the district by armed groups. He claimed the activity amounted to efforts to “undermine the Republic.”

The District Chief resorted to the central government’s rhetoric of labelling critics as separatists, contending without evidence that the OPM was “supported by NGOs and individuals who are in favour of a Free Papua.” He also sought to raise fears about a strengthening OPM, contending, again without evidence that OPM personnel were equipped with modern automatic rifles.

The remarks made by district chief Enembe alleging that NGOs are supporting the separatist OPM have been challenged by the NGO community. Budi Setyanto, Director of the Institute for Civil Strengthening told the media that in fact the NGO community is dedicated to non-violence. He noted that NGOs had long been accused of supporting OPM activity in the Puncak Jaya and challenged those like Enembe who make such false claims: “If there is any evidence that NGOs have supported the OPM, please say which NGOs are involved and who it is within these NGOs who are involved. If what they have done amounts to a criminal act, then the persons should be charged in court. He explained further that the government itself often established NGOs which lacked the ‘common vision of the NGO movement.” (Note item below which describes just such Government efforts in Biak during April.)

The District Chief’s comments coincided with what appeared to be propaganda efforts to increase tensions, including especially ethnic tensions between migrants and Papuans. Sources in West Papua have reported posting of fliers in and around the Papuan capital and main airport at Sentani that proclaim OPM a “terrorist” and “criminal” organization. Curiously, the fliers bear information indicating they were produced by two NGO’s in Jayapura, both of which stoutly deny any involvement in the propaganda.

Assessing these efforts to increase tensions using false claims and clandestine propaganda, a respected analyst believes that the effort is the work of the Indonesian military, particularly those such as the special forces, Kopassus, and the military intelligence, BIN, which engages in intelligence and covert operations. That analyst notes that Kopassus has around 1,000 soldiers operating in civilian clothes and stationed throughout Papua’s more than 30 regencies (districts). BIN personnel tend to be positioned in West Papua’s cities.

Indications that groundwork is being laid for a broad security force crackdown is also reflected in aggressive security force actions against peaceful demonstrations such as those in Manokwari, April 22, where film shot of security forces clearly reveal beating of unarmed protesters. ( See report on that incident above.

 

 

Rights Groups Decry Mistreatment of Political Prisoners and Failure to Investigate Killing of Activists

International human rights defenders in an April 22 press conference appealed to the Indonesian Government to end discrimination targeting Papuans. The appeal, offered by the Indonesian NGOs Kontras (the Commission for The Disappeared and Victims of Violence) and Imparsial (the Indonesian Human Rights Monitor) as well as the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch among others was published by CathNews Asia.

The CathNews report follows:

Rights groups and churchmen have urged the Indonesia government to cease what they call its discriminatory treatment of Papuan nationalists.

“We see the government and law enforcement officials still stigmatize and single out those who allegedly favour Papuan independence, including political prisoners,” several rights groups said in statement issued at an April 22 press conference, UCA News reports.

The groups included the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (Imparsial), and Human Rights Watch.

 

Peaceful dialogue involving all social and governmental elements is the solution to overcoming disagreements in Indonesia’s largest province, they said. The groups also questioned what they called lack of government action over the death of Yawan Wayeni, a Papuan political activist. Wayeni was shot dead by local police in a sweep against nationalist activists in Serui on Yapen Island.

The groups also raised the lack of medical treatment for Filep Karma, a Papuan political prisoner who suffers from severe prostate problems. They urged the Department of Justice and Human Rights to allow Karma to undergo surgery at a Protestant-run hospital in Jakarta. “Law Number 12/1995 of the penal code stipulates the directorate general of the department is responsible for the healthcare of all prisoners in jails across Indonesia,” they said.

They revealed that 68 political activists are being held in different jails in Papua. “But they are not treated properly. They face discriminatory and violent treatment including beatings,” they said.

 

During the press conference, Reverend Benny Giay, a Papuan Protestant pastor, said such discrimination was the result of a belief that most Papuans want independence. He said many churches and NGOs in Papua come under scrutiny because of their vocal defence of human rights. “We hope that rights groups outside Papua, especially Jakarta, will support us in speaking out against human rights abuses in Papua,” he said.

Speaking with UCA News, Dorus Wakum, a Papuan human rights activist, agreed that human rights activists were often seen as separatists. “Being labelled a separatist is a character killer,” he said.

Indonesian Intelligence and Special Forces Seek to Create a Stooge Traditional Council in Biak

According to a report translated and released by TAPOL from an April 7 BiakNewsreport, efforts are underway in Biak to create a false front organization to replace the East Biak Traditional Council.

BiakNews reports that the Indonesian State intelligence organization (BIN), the notorious Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus), and the local military command (Korem) are orchestrating the effort. The initial effort to organize a stooge East Biak Traditional Council was launched at an April 7 meeting held at Kopassus Post 08 in Biak Papua. The meeting was closed to the public.

Back issues of West Papua Report here: http://www.etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm

West Papua Report, 73
June 2010

This is the 73rd in a series of monthly reports that focus on developments affecting Papuans. This series is produced by the non-profit West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) drawing on media accounts, other NGO assessments, and analysis and reporting from sources within West Papua. This report is co-published with the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) Back issues are posted online at http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm Questions regarding this report can be addressed to Edmund McWilliams at edmcw@msn.com.

Summary

The West Papua Advocacy Team editorially notes that Papuans are welcoming the June visit of President Obama to Indonesia with the hope that the administration will seek to build a new U.S.-Indonesian relationship not based on military and commercial interests but rather founded on common respect for human rights and democracy.

That hope fuels Papuan beliefs that such a transformation in the U.S. perspective could bring about fundamental change in their plight, an increasingly desperate situation in which the U.S. is historically complicit.

A military ultimatum to a rebel leader in the Papuan central highlands and thus far small scale military operations there are raising fears of a massive “sweeping operation” when the ultimatum expires in June. Initial reports indicate that operations may have begun ramping up at the end of May.

In the past such operations have uprooted thousands of civilians and led to many civilian deaths. Leading U.S. legislators have strongly cautioned the U.S. administration against resuming training and other assistance to the Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus).

Those forces are among the most prominent violators of human rights, especially in West Papua. Also in the U.S. Congress, Congressman Patrick Kennedy has launched a resolution in the U.S. Congress which expresses the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the human crisis facing Papuans.

The resolution, now gaining support in the U.S. House of Representatives, calls on the Government of Indonesia to address human rights concerns, including the abuse of detainees. An editorial by a senior official in Human Rights Watch has again called attention to extraordinary abuse of prisoners in West Papua and decried the unaccountability of the abusers.

Indonesian authorities have again prevented international journalists from documenting peaceful civil dissent in West Papua.

An Amnesty International report is strongly critical of the Indonesian government’s continued repression of dissent noting in particular the use of torture against peaceful demonstrators. The Indonesian government is moving forward with plans for a massive “food estate” in the Merauke area of West Papua. The plan has drawn strong criticism from Papuan and international observers concerned that the government-organized in-migration of very large numbers of non-Papuans to work in the estate will further marginalize Papuans, amounting to what could be described as creeping genocide. Environmentalists have also voiced concern about the destruction of vast stretches of forest and peatland which will significantly increase carbon emissions.

End summary

Contents

* Editorial – West Papua Advocacy Team: The Audacity of Hope in West Papua
* New Bloodshed in Papuan Central Highlands
* Prominent U.S. Senators and Congresspersons Urge No Assistance to Kopassus
* New Congressional Resolution on “Crisis in Papua and West Papua” Gaining Support
*  Leading International Human Rights Voice Decries Thuggery in Indonesian Prison
* Press Freedom Again Under Assault in West Papua
* Amnesty International Annual Report
* “Food Estates” in West Papua Raise Fears of Systematic Marginalization

Editorial – West Papua Advocacy Team
The Audacity of Hope In West Papua

President Obama’s upcoming visit to Indonesia presents an opportunity for the American leader to inaugurate a new U.S.-Indonesian relationship, heralding what could be a key Asian Pacific partnership. But such a transformation of a long-troubled relationship will require a fundamentally new basis for that relationship. Through the administrations of nine U.S. Presidents, the U.S.-Indonesian relationship has been shaped by the self-serving ambitions of U.S. strategic defence planners and U.S. corporations. U.S. military planners and corporate interests, for decades, allied with a brutal dictator and his corrupt entourage in an amoral bargain that traded U.S. political and military support for Indonesian allegiance to the West in the Cold War and Indonesian willingness to serve as a platform for corporate exploitation of its vast natural resources.

A people’s campaign demanding “reformasi” succeeded in 1998 in ousting the brutal Suharto dictatorship, but failed to reform the corrupt elite-based system, backed by an abusive military which continues in power. The incompleteness of “reformasi” is reflected in today’s Indonesia, where a powerful and unaccountable military continues to play the role of enforcer for a corrupt elite which colludes with international corporate interests for profit. U.S. government/corporate political and economic support for the old corrupt elite and especially for the ousted dictator’s military have been an important constraint on democratic progress in Indonesia.

Nevertheless, the popular democratic reform movement, despite intimidation, has scored important gains. Largely democratic elections have empowered Presidential administrations which have broadened freedoms and given vocal if not always substantive support to popular calls for respect for human rights and military reform and accountability.

This progress is strikingly absent in one part of the Indonesian archipelago. In West Papua, the old Suharto Dictatorship rules still apply. Security forces rampage through rural areas in purported search of armed militants but in the process displacing thousands of civilians. Popular dissent in West Papua is met with the “security approach” through which security forces use Dutch colonial and Suharto era laws and regulations to criminalize free speech and peaceful dissent. Peaceful demonstrators are imprisoned for years on charges of “subversion” or “treason” for peacefully displaying the Papuan “Morningstar” flag or for challenging the 1969 “Act of Free Choice” annexation of West Papua, widely viewed abroad as coerced and undemocratic. Critics of the central Government’s policies are labelled as “separatists” and subjected to extra-legal security force intimidation or incarceration in facilities which the UN and other human rights monitors have described as health and even life threatening. The Suharto era policy of “transmigration,” through which millions of Indonesians were transferred from one archipelago island to another, creating generations of social conflict between the migrants and local peoples, has been re-initiated in West Papua. As in the past, people on the receiving end of these policies suffer the unreimbursed seizure of property and economic and political marginalization. New oil palm and food “estates” pose the prospect of accelerated destruction of forests and, ultimately, transformation of Papuans into a powerless minority within their own homeland.

Papuans see in the visit of President Obama, an innovative leader who is himself a member of a racial minority, hope for change in what has been over four decades of privation and abuse. They are keenly aware that the U.S. conspired in the transfer of their homeland to Indonesian control under the aegis of the infamous 1969 “Act of Free Choice.” They are also aware that U.S. corporations have been among the most destructive of their natural resources and that the U.S. long backed some of the most abusive elements of the Indonesian military, notably the special forces or “Kopassus.”

Their hope that President Obama, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, might bring fundamental change to their plight rests on the simple but powerful expectation that this President will seek to establish a new relationship with Indonesia, based on respect for human rights and genuine democratization. It is an audacious hope.

New Bloodshed in Papuan Central Highlands

Tensions are again intensifying in Mulia area in the Papuan Central Highlands region of Puncak Jaya. On May 21, unknown personnel attacked Indonesian military (TNI) near Yambi, 75 kms from Mulia. That attack followed a May 17 TNI attack on a purported base of the Papuan Independence Organization (OPM) near Goburuk village in which one alleged local leader was killed. The spokesperson for the police, Senior Commander Agus Rianto, claimed that the victim was shot while trying to escape. Although Rianto claimed the victim had been involved in an earlier OPM attack, the police spokesperson appeared to contradict himself by noting that the body of the victim was being held for identification.

This violence follows the killing of three construction workers in April, purportedly carried out by the OPM. Separately, Papuan human rights defenders have reported that the Indonesian military have been launching sweep operations during the third week of May in the Tingginambut district. According to the report, homes in three villages have been burnt, two people killed, one woman raped, and all livestock in the three villages killed by Indonesian military.

Indonesian security authorities have given the local OPM commander Goliat Tabuni until June 28 to surrender to authorities. Papuans in the area have expressed fear that the Indonesian military (TNI) will launch broader “sweep operations” on or soon after that date on the pretext of searching for Tabuni’s OPM personnel. In the past such sweep operations have forced civilians to abandon their villages and seek shelter either with relatives or in the surrounding jungles where food shortages and lack of medical care have led to illness and death. Such sweep operations often continue for months, disrupting local trade and preventing villagers from tending local gardens. Despite desperate circumstances, security forces have also prohibited humanitarian relief operations from reaching the besieged civilian populations.

Local officials, without offering evidence, speculated that “intellectual activists” could have inspired the alleged OPM attacks. Puncak Jaya District Chief (“Regent”) Lukas Enembe claimed that government efforts to win the support of the local community against the pro-independence forces had been unsuccessful because “activists” had “provoked” the community. Such claims, in the past, have been used to justify military pressure on NGO, church and other personnel in the area.

Note: As this report was being finalized there were reports from West Papua of Indonesian military attacks in Jambi, Sinak Ilu and Tingginambut districts in the Puncak Jaya. Although details in this initial reporting are lacking, the accounts from West Papua indicate that seven people have been killed in these military operations which include military use of rockets, bazookas and grenades.

Prominent U.S. Senators and Congresspersons Urge No Assistance to Kopassus

Thirteen U.S. Congressional leaders, including Chairs of the Senate and House Foreign Affairs Committees, have written to Secretary of State Clinton and Secretary of Defence Gates strongly urging caution with regard to purported Administration plans to resume U.S. cooperation with the Indonesian Special Forces or “Kopassus.” The May 13 letter stated plainly: “we do have serious concerns with the Administration’s intention to reengage with Unit 81 of the Indonesian Special Forces, known as Kopassus.” The letter questioned the Indonesian military’s “willingness to cooperate with the United States and Indonesian civilian justice institutions in permanently removing human rights violators from military ranks and in holding senior officers accountable for past abuses.” The senior legislators also expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the “vetting process” which allegedly would screen out individual human rights violators from any U.S. programs.

The letter called into question Indonesian government assurances regarding Kopassus reform and insisted that the Administration engage with the Congress before any final decision is taken. It called for “prior consultation with Congress before engagement with Kopassus and an annual review … to ensure that our assistance meets the requirements of U.S. law and fulfills our broader interests.”

The unusually strong Congressional reaction to the prospect of U.S. military assistance to Kopassus coincides with persistent criticism of the proposal from U.S. and Indonesian NGOs who, inter alia, have noted the June 2009 Human Rights Watch report “ What Did I Do Wrong”  which detailed Kopassus abuse of Papuan civilians. The letter also has prompted a statement from Papuan elders that strongly commends the U.S. Congress for its May 16 letter.

Sign the petition opposing U.S. cooperation with Kopassus

 

New Congressional Resolution on “Crisis in Papua and West Papua” Gaining Support

Congressman Patrick Kennedy has launched a resolution in the U.S. Congress expressing the sense of the U.S. House of Representatives regarding the “Human Rights Crisis in Papua and West Papua. The resolution, now working its way through Congress, calls on the Government of Indonesia to report to the international community specific progress made regarding:

(A) the end of abuse of those detained by authorities in Papua and West Papua and prosecution of those guilty of that abuse;

(B) actions taken by the Government of Indonesia to improve conditions of incarceration, especially in Papua and West Papua;

(C) measures taken to protect the right of its citizens to peaceful assembly and association as well as the freedom of speech and specifically symbolic speech, such as raising banners or flags;

(D) compatibility of Indonesian law that criminalizes peaceful political dissent and conflicting Indonesian commitments concerning the rights to freedom of speech and assembly guaranteed by international covenants to which Indonesia is a party, to include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and

(E) provision to or access to detention facilities in West Papua by recognized human rights monitoring institutions, including the International Committee of The Red Cross; and

 

(2) the Government of Indonesia should allow an independent, third party human rights organization to review prison conditions with special attention to Papuan inmates and on the basis of that review, formulate a series of recommendations to the Government of Indonesia that would facilitate prison and legal reforms especially to

(A) address deficits in facilities, personnel training, and procedures for the purpose of improving the humanitarian treatment of those detained;

(B) formulating procedures, including judicial reform and legal remedies to ensure that prison authorities face appropriate punishment for mistreatment of those detained; and

(C) encourage reform of the Indonesian criminal code and sentencing procedures to ensure that they reflect Indonesia’s commitments under international undertakings and Indonesia’s own legal obligations to protect fundamental human rights, including the rights to freedom of speech and peaceful assembly and association.

Leading International Human Rights Voice Decries Thuggery in Indonesian Prison

In a May 18 piece appearing in the Jakarta Globe, Elaine Pearson, Human Rights Watch’s Asia chief, wrote a scathing commentary that focused on the brutality that persists in Indonesia’s prisons. Pearson drew specifically on a recent rampage by guards at a prison in West Papua. In early May, a government move to replace the widely condemned brutal Abepura (West Papua) prison warden Ayorbaba led to a rampage by prison guards who severely beat prisoners. HRW and others had specifically condemned Ayorbaba for his failure to control prison guards who have beaten prisoners, in some instances causing permanent injury. In a widely condemned incident, Ayorbaba has prevented prisoner of conscience from obtaining urgently needed medical attention.

Ayorbaba’s much delayed removal was finally prompted by a recommendation by the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (Komnas Ham). Pearson emphasized that while welcome, Ayorbaba’s removal was insufficient to address the gravity of the crimes that have transpired under his watch. He and others who have violated human rights – and Indonesian law – should be prosecuted. Pearson also called for the Indonesian government to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to resume its visits to prisons in West Papua. The Government expelled the ICRC from West Papua in April 2009.

Human Rights Watch has been a perceptive and persistent observer of the human rights environment in West Papua. Its fact-based analyses and recommendations have an important audience in Washington and internationally.

Press Freedom Again Under Assault in West Papua

The Indonesian Government has detained and expelled two French journalists from West Papua. The two were detained May 26 while filming a peaceful political protest in the Papuan capital, Jayapura (aka Port Numbay). Indonesian authorities said neither of the two journalists had the special permits required for foreign journalists to work in West Papua. Indonesia prohibits foreign journalists from working in West Papua without a special permit. The practice has been roundly criticized internationally, including by members of the U.S. Congress, human rights organizations and others.

One of the French journalists, Baudoin Koenig, protested the Indonesian action noting, “I completely complied with all the rules and have all the necessary documents,” he said, adding that he had a valid journalist visa and a foreign journalist press card issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Indonesian journalists have joined in criticism of this latest example of constraints on press freedom in West Papua. Victor Mambor, chairman of the Papua chapter of the Independent Journalist Alliance (AJI), said the government had crossed the line. “We are condemning the government move to keep the journalists from doing their work. There should not be any limitation to what the reporters can or cannot cover as long as it does not violate press laws,” he said.

Indonesian efforts to obscure the behaviour of its officials, notably its security officials, have also extended to diplomats, who must notify the government of plans to go to West Papua. The Indonesian government, in April 2009, expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross from West Papua, after that Nobel Peace Prize laureate visited a prison in West Papua.

Amnesty International Report

Amnesty International’s annual report shed light on continued violence and discrimination targeting Indonesia’s minority and religious groups. The report  included an account of police excesses in West Papua where, it said, “Police torture was widespread during a series of arrests, interrogations and detentions.” It also noted in West Papua, “Security forces also allegedly committed unlawful killings.”

According to the report, the Indonesian government continued to repress basic democratic rights, and Indonesia has limited freedom of expression detaining 114 people in 2009 (throughout Indonesia) for public statements or demonstrations of dissent. The Amnesty report assessed: “The overwhelming majority [of those detained] were peaceful political activists who were sentenced to terms of imprisonment for raising prohibited pro-independence flags in Maluku or Papua.”

Amnesty International also noted that those who sought to defend the rights of others were often themselves the targets of abuse. It reported that the government continued to intimidate and harass human rights activists and that “at least seven [human rights defenders] faced criminal defamation charges.” It concluded that “most past human rights violations against [human rights defenders], including torture, murder and disappearances, have remained unsolved and those responsible have not been brought to justice.”

“Food Estates” in West Papua Raise Fears of Systematic Marginalization

A study compiled and released by Septer Manufandu of Papua NGOs Cooperation FORUM includes a highly sceptical review of plans for a “food estates” to be created in the area of Merauke. The report, only the latest of a series of negative reviews, underscores the consequences for Papuans of a migration of vast numbers of non-Papuans into the area to work the estates.

The fate of Papuans who now inhabit and work the targeted land according to the report is dire with expectations that they will be pushed aside to make way for newcomers and “development,” as had been the plight of Papuans in the past. The Government itself has estimated that as a consequence of the “estate” project in Merauke, the local population could grow from a current figure of 175,000 to 800,000, most of these presumably non-Papuan migrants. Reputable Papuan NGO’s have calculated inflows of migrants as a result of central government-planned ‘development” projects in West Papua will grow to millions, easily overwhelming the Papuan population of approximately two million. Papuan Governor Suebu has spoken of his concern about uncontrolled migration into Papuan territory and has urged the local Parliament to explore legislation that would impose some degree of control over the influx.

The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) is but the first of seven such food-producing estates being planned for West Papua. It will encompass an area of 1.6 million hectares. Thus far, 32 companies have expressed an interest in investing in the project, and six of these have already been granted licenses.

The Estate was also the subject of sharp criticism by the Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN) which delivered a statement April 23 to the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples in New York. The statement, endorsed by 26 Indonesian and international NGOs, noted in part:

“This kind of large-scale business in Indigenous Territories, without their Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) will only exacerbate the human rights situation, leading to forced evictions and other human rights violations.” The statement included several recommendations, among these that “the Government of Indonesia invite the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Indigenous Peoples and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights to Food, to visit and to make a report concerning the situation of Indigenous Peoples in Merauke and West Papua in general, affected by MIFEE and other business development.”

Although the Forestry Ministry has said the project would utilize “idle forestlands in Merauke,” environmentalists worry that the projects would add to massive deforestation and harm efforts to cut carbon emissions. In this context, the estates could jeopardize an international agreement between Indonesia and Norway intended to protect forestlands. The Governments of Norway and Indonesia in late May signed an agreement that requires Indonesia to desist from destruction of forests and peatland in exchange for a $1 billion grant from the Norwegian government.

WPAT Comment: WPAT fears that these planned food estates will deprive Papuans of their traditional resources for hunting and fishing and destroy the very basis of their livelihoods. This would follow the pattern of other such “development’ schemes, most notoriously the Freeport McMoRan copper and gold mine, which has displaced thousands of Papuans and has destroyed vast stretches of pristine forest. The mine has transformed an entire river system, the Ajkwa, into a disposal system for mine tailings, in the process destroying vast stretches of trees and polluting the riverine environment.

The massive influx of government-organized, non-Papuan migrants to this “estate” in Merauke, and to other planned “development” projects could fundamentally alter the Papuan-migrant balance in West Papua. Considering the massive migration envisioned in the government planning, the projects could hasten the impact of past government policies and actions that have had the effect of a creeping genocide that relegates Papuans to a politically and economically disempowered minority status in their own homeland. Investors, particularly foreign investors, complicit in this planning could incur significant responsibility for such an outcome.

 

 

Rapport 74 WPAT:  – Juli 2010    :  Lees onderstaande rapporten over razzia’s in de Puncak Jaya, de weigering van de speciale autonomie door de Papoea Raad en het mensenrechten rapport over de behandeling van politieke gevangenen. Ook Vanuatu laat weer van zich horen!

 

Contents:

 

Rapport 75 WPAT:  Augustus 2010  : 50 V.N. Congresleden schreven een brief aan president Obama over de onderdrukking en genocide praktijken tegen

Papoea’s, vastgesteld door mensenrechten organisaties en scholieren. Ook congreslid Patrick Kennedy ondertekende de brief.

Een internationaal gerechtshof verleende Kosovo het recht op onafhankelijkheid en dit zou ook impliceren dat Papoea’s recht hebben op zelfbeschikking.

Lees de rapporten!

 

Summary:

Fifty members of the U.S. Congress, under the leadership of House Foreign Affairs sub-committee chairs Faleomavaega and Payne, have written to President Obama to express their deep concern about West Papua, noting indications of Indonesian “slow-motion genocide” against Papuans. The Representatives strongly urged President Obama to give West Papua a high priority in U.S. policy towards Indonesia and also called on him to meet with Papuans in his scheduled November visit to Indonesia. The Obama Administration has announced it will open contact with the infamous Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus), notwithstanding a decade old Congressional consensus against ties with that group unless and until that unit undergoes fundamental reforms. Papuan Political Prisoner Filep Karma told international media that U.S. support for Kopassus would only increase that units capacity to repress Papuans. An International Court of Justice opinion granting Kosovo the right to declare its independence would appear to have implications for Papuans pursuit of self-determination. Indonesian analysts assess that Indonesian central government unwillingness to dialogue with Papuans inevitably leads Jakarta to resort to its repressive “security approach.” Reports of abuse of Papuan prisoners in Indonesian prisons by their Indonesian guards continue. The Indonesian Seafarers Association has revealed Navy and Fisheries Ministry collusion with foreign fishing vessels illegally fishing in Papuan waters. The report also notes the role of foreign fishermen in the transmission of HIV/AIDS in Papuan ports of call.

 

End summary

Contents

  • Fifty Members of U.S. Congress Write to President Obama over “Strong Indications” of Indonesian Genocide in West Papua
  • U.S. Government Resumes Collaboration with Military Unit Long Associated with Human Rights Abuse in West Papua
  • International Court of Justice Ruling of Kosovo Independence May Have Relevance for West Papua
  • Jakarta’s Unwillingness to Dialogue with Papuans Endangers Peaceful Resolution of Papuan Claims
  • More Reports of Prisoner Abuse in West Papua
  • Indonesian Navy and Fisheries Ministry Collude with Illegal Foreign Fishing Vessels

Fifty Members of U.S. Congress Write to President Obama over “Strong Indications” of Indonesian Genocide in West Papua

The Chairs of the U.S. Congressional Subcommittees on Asia, the Pacific and the Global Environment, Rep. Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, and Chairman Donald M. Payne of the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health have spearheaded an effort in Congress calling upon President Obama to “make West Papua one of the highest priorities of the Administration.”

As a result of their efforts, 50 members of the U.S. Congress signed a letter to the President stating that there is strong indication that the Indonesian government is committing genocide against Papuans. Many of those who signed the letter are members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The signatories include men and women who fought for civil rights in America in the 1960s. In addition to the Congressional Black Caucus, many others who are long-time advocates of human rights joined this request to the President of the United States, including members of the Hispanic Caucus. The last remaining member of the Kennedy family in Congress, Rep. Patrick Kennedy from Rhode Island, also joined the letter to President Obama.

An August 1 press release from Representative Faleomavaega’s office notes that the letter to the President “suggests that slow motion genocide has been taking place in West Papua and reviews findings by human rights organizations and scholars who have conducted extensive research about crimes against humanity and genocide by Indonesian security forces.”

The press release also observes that “according to international agreements, other nations are legally obligated to intervene when a genocide is in process and Members of Congress remain hopeful that President Obama and the U.S. State Department will hold Indonesia accountable.”

Members concluded their letter by encouraging the President to meet with the Team of 100 from West Papua during his upcoming visit, noting that President Obama has the opportunity to bring lasting change to this part of the world. While Papuan leaders have repeatedly tried to engage in dialogue with the Indonesian government, dialogues have failed to produce concrete results and Papuan leaders are now calling for an International Dialogue. In this context, signatories of the letter have asked President Obama to meet with the people of West Papua during his upcoming trip to Indonesia in November.

 

16.8.2010: Papoea’s willen onafhankelijkheid.

In onderstaand bericht in de Neue Züricher Zeitung wordt weergegeven dat de Papoea’s weer willen gaan voor onafhankelijkheid.

In Juli demonstreerden 10 duizenden Papoea’s, maar Jakarta denkt er niet over deze schatkamer met de grootste goudmijn ter wereld op te geven.

De speciale autonomie van 2001 kwam er maar niet en ook de dialoog met de Papoea’s werd niet aangegaan.

Lees onderstaand bericht van Watch Indonesia, waarin duidelijk wordt aangegeven hoe Indonesië omgaat met de mensenrechten, de rechtspraak, hoe West Papua wordt afgegrendeld en heel veel zaken niet naar buiten worden gebracht.

 

Pressespiegel:  Neue Züricher Zeitung, 16.August 2010

Indonesiens Papua wollen die Unabhängigkeit.  Kein Ende des Konflikts zwischen der Melanesischen Bevölkerung und Jakarta in Sicht.
Die Ureinwohner von Papua haben den Kampf für Ihre Unabhängigkeit wiederaufgenommen. Im Juli sind Zehntausende auf die Strasse gegangen.

Doch Jakarta denkt nicht daran, seine Schatzkammer mit der grössten Goldmine der Welt aufzugeben.  (Nicole Meier, Jakarta)

Mit “Alhamdulillah!”( Gelobt sei Gott) hat der Indonesische Präsident Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono seine Rede begonnen. Er freue sich auf die verstärkte Zusammenarbeit seines Landes mit der Schweiz.

Yudhoyono stand an einem kleinen Rednerpult in seinem Palast- zu seiner Rechten Bundespräsident Doris Leuthard und einen Kronleuchter entfernt eine Schar Indonesicher sowie eine Handvoll Schweizer Journalisten.

Leuthard ihrerseits lobte den ersten vom Volk direkt gewählten Präsidenten des Staates mit der grössten muslimischen Bevölkerung der Welt dafür, dass er Indonesiën zu mehr Frieden und Stabilität geführt habe.

Erzwungener Anschluss

Das war am 7. Juli. Nur einen Tag nach dem Staatsbesuch gescha etwas, was nicht ins Bild des Staates passt, der sich dem Westen gerne als stabile Demokratie en Lukrativen Handelspartner präsentiert.

In Papua, der :ostlichsten Provinz des Archipels, gingen Tausende von Ureinwohnern auf die Strasse. Sie protestierten gegen die Sonderautonomie, die Ihnen die Regierung in Jakarta 2001 gegeben hatte.

Diese Autonomie habe versagt und ihnen keine besseren Lebensbedingungen gebracht, kritisierten sie.

Die Menschenmenge besetzte das Gelände des Provinzparlaments in Papuas Hauptstadt Jayapura und forderten einen Dialog über den Status Papuas unter internationaler Mediaton- und letzlich die Unabhängigkeit von Indonesien.
Die Melanischen (dunkelhäutigen) Ureinwohner Papuas fühlen sich von Jakarta geknechtet und um ihre Rechte betrogen. Dieses Gefühl würzelt im Jahr 1969, das bei den Ureinwohnern ein Kollektives Trauma hinterlassen hat.

In der sogennannten Act of free choice sollten sie über die Zunkunft der ehemaligigen Niederländischen Kilonie bestimmen. Das Resultat war deutlich end stellte Papua unter indonesische Herrschaft.

Doch der Entscheid war alles andere als frei: Laut Kritikern wurde die 1000 handverlesenen Wahlmänner bestochen und bedroht.

Die Uno anerkannte das Resultat gleichwohl.

Seither iist Papua nie zur Ruhe gekommen. Seit Jahren herrscht ein undurchsichtiger Konflikt um die Ausbeutung natürlicher Ressourcen, die Einwanderung von Indonesiern aus anderen Landesteilen und die Frage der Unabhängigkeit.

Zehntausende von Papua sind dabei gewaltsam ums Leben gekommen. Polizei und Militär sind stark präsent, für Menschenrechtsverletzungen berüchtigt, und sie operieren im Vergleich zu  anderen

Landesteilen weitgehend unkontrolliert. Abseits der Weltöffenltlichkeit.

Indonesien hat nicht das geringste Interesse daran, Papua aufzugeben: Es würde seine Schatzkammer verlieren und die nationale Einheit preisgeben.

Auf die bedrohung seiner territorialen Einheit reagiert das Land noch sensibler, seit Osttimor 2002 nach militärischer Intervention durch Australien unabhängig wurde, eine Schmag sondergleich.

Deshalb-und das der Papua-Konflikt nicht ins Bild der modernen Demokratie passt, das Jakarta gerne zeichnet-sollen möglichst keine Informationen über den Konflikt nach aussen gelangen.

So verwehrt Indonesien westlichen Journalisten seit Jahren konsequent den Zugang zur Insel.

Medienschaffende, die mit einem Touristenvisum einreisen, werden umgehend deportiert. Der jüngste Fall betrifft zwei französische TV-Journalisten, die Ende Mai einen Dokumentarfilm

drehen wollten.

Für Einheimische kann Hartnäckigkeit mitunter tödlich enden. Am 30. Juli wurde in Merauke im Südosten Papuas die Leiche eines Journalisten des lokkalen TV-Senders entdeckt. Er lag nackt und gefesselt in einem Fluss.

Wer hinter dem Tod steckt, ist unklar. Doch Journalisten- und Nichtregierungsorganisationen vermuten den Grund für seinen Tod in seinen Recherchen zu einem riesigen Project für eine Palmölplantage.

Auch für internationale Organisationen ist Papua ein hartes Pflaster. Das internationale Komitee vom Roten Kreuz (IKRK) musste im April auf Befehl des Aussenministeriums sein Büro in Jayapura schliessen.

Dass die IKRK-Delegierten Häftlinge besuchten, die Indonesien für Separatisten hält, wurde nicht länger goutiert. Auch Organisationen wie Human Rights Watch dürfen nicht in Papua arbeiten.

Willkür und Bespitzelung.

Seit 2004 vor Ort ist Peace Brigades International (PBI) eine Organisation, die unbewaffnete Schutzbegleitungen für bedrohte Menschenrechtsverteidiger und Friedenserziehung anbietet.

Obwohl PBI keine Berichte verfasst und Menschenrechtsverletzungen nicht öffentlich anprängert, sind auch ihre Freiwilligen vor Willkür und Einschüchterungsversuchen nicht geschützt.

Nutzen sie ihren Spielraum in den Augen der Sicherheitskräfte zu stark aus, wird die bürokratische Schraube angezogen: Plötzlich gilt beispielsweise die Reiseerlaubnis nur noch für eine Woche statt für

einen Monat, was eine Organisation de facto lahmlegt.

Bespitzelungen durch Geheimdienstler der verschiedenen Polzei- und Militäreinheiten sind an der Tagesordnung. Und es kann vorkommen, dass eines Morgens unangemeldet der

Geheimdienstchef der Polizei vor der Tür steht und verkundet: Die Volontäre haben den falschen Visumtyp, damit dürfen sie hier nicht arbeiten.

Um solche Attacken zu parieren, dazu braucht es viel Verhandlungsgeschick und die richtigen Kontakte.

 

Alle gegen die Grasberg-Mine

Der Stein des Anstosses in der Unruheprovinz schlechthin is die Freeport-Mine. Von der Weltöffentlichkeit kaum wahrgenommen, betreibt das Amerikanische Bergbauunternehmen Freeport-McMoRan in Papua die grösste Gold- und drittgrösster Kupfermine der Welt, die Grasberg-Mine.

Freeport gilt als der grösste Steurzahler Indonesiens, und die Ureinwohnern beklagen, dass sie von diesem Reichtum nichts sehen. Auch anderen ist die Mine ein Dorn im Auge.

Die separatistische Organisation Freies Papua (OPM) betrachtet sie als Symbol der vorherrschaft Jakartas, und Nichtregierungsorganisationen prangern Freeport an, Gesetze zu missachten und Seen und Flüsse  zu verschmutzen.

Die Mondlandschaft, die sich dem Betrachter beim Landesanflug auf Timika unweit der Mine zeigt, spottet in der Tat jeder Beschreibung.

Ausser grauern Schlamm ist nichts zu sehen, soweit das Auge reicht. Laut Schätzungen spült Freeport täglich 115000 Tonnen Abraum der Mine in die Flüsse.

Das Bergwerk selbst ist Sperrgebiet und wird vom Militär strengstens bewacht.
Die Mine zu besichtigen ist ein Ding der Unmöglichkeit. Am dichtesten heran kommt man über Google Earth. Wer um ein Treffen mit Freeport-Verantwortlichen ersucht, wird von freundlichen jungen Amerikanerinnen

im Hotel Sheraton in Timika enpfangen- und in einem klimatisierten Kenferenzraum mit Powerpoint-Präsentationen über Freeports Socialprogramme abgespeist.
Fahnenhissen als Hochverrat

Das Bergwerk mit seiner Symbolkraft ist den Papua ein Symbol fremder Dominanz-genau so wie jeder mehr oder weniger offen von einem freien Papua

träumt. Den bewaffneten Kampf führt jedoch nur die OPM – schwach bewaffnet und wenig organisiert, im bergigen Dschungel teilweise gar mit

Pfeil und Bogen. Im Umgang mit Rebellen und vor allem auch mit angeblichen Sympathisanten kennt Indonesien kein Pardon.

Allein schon das Hissen der Morgensternflagge, des Symbols für ein freies Papua, gilt als Hochverrat und wird mit mehrjährigen Haftstrafen geahndet;

Zuwiderhandelnde sind zuweilen auf der Stelle erschossen worden, wenn gerade keine Beobachter in Hinblick auf die Einhaltung der Menschenrechte

zugegen waren.

Zum ersten Mal in der Geschichte hat Präsident Yudhoyono am 7. Juli- am Tag von Leuthards Staatsbesuch-einen politischen Gefangenen begnadigt.

Yusak Pakage war 2004 wegen Fahnenhissens zu zehn Jahren Haft verurteilt worden und hat nun ein Begnadigungsgesuch gestellt.

Diesen Schritt verweigern die meisten politischen Gefangenen jedoch, weil sie sich für unschuldig halten. Und das, obwohl die Haftbedingungen in Papua

schlecht sind: Laut dem Anti-Folter-Komitee ist Folter an der Tagesordnung.

Auch dem Eidgenössischen Departement für auswärtige Angelegenheiten ist die Lage in Papua bekannt.

Auf Anfrage teilt es mit, “es verfolge die Situation in Papua, wo es immer wieder zu politischen Spannungen kommt” aufmerksam.

Indonsesien habe in den letzten Jahren in der Akzeptanz und der Umsetzung der Menschenrechte Fortschritte erzielt. Trotzdem bleibe die Situation

der Menschenrechte “weiterhin verbesserungsfähig – unter anderem in den Bereichen Gerichtswesen und Strafvollzug.”

Die Autorin ist Redaktorin der Nachrichtenagentur SDA. Sie war 2006 ein Jahr für Peace Brigades International in Papuas Hauptstadt Jayapura im Einsatz.
WPAT report 76: September 2010



Summary:

More than a score of international non-governmental organizations called on President Yudhoyono to release Papuan Political Prisoners in commemoration of Indonesia’s August 17 Independence Day. Although the President did release and reduce sentences for convicted terrorists and common criminals on the national day, he did not respond to the appeal regarding political prisoners. The Indonesian Government has banned activities by Cordaid, a Dutch humanitarian organization that has aided poor Papuans for over three decades. The action is reminiscent of the Indonesian Government’s banning of International Committee of The Red Cross in West Papua in 2009. The Indonesian Commission on Human Rights and Papuan churches have urged the Indonesian government to reconsider  its security approach in the Puncak Jaya region and address the growing violence there, including attacks on churches. The Indonesian government is under growing pressure to investigate the mysterious murder of a journalist in Merauke. Local police claim he committed suicide. The murdered journalist had built a reputation on investigation of illegal military businesses. The murder comes at a time of growing tension in the area as corporate interests seek to develop a massive food plantation. A video circulating widely on YouTube reveals the final moments of a Papuan bayoneted while in custody as he is taunted by the police.

 

End summary

Contents:

* International NGOs Call on President Yudhoyono to Release Papuan Political Prisoners
* The Indonesian Government Blocks the Operations of International Humanitarian Aid Group in West

Papua
* Komnas HAM  Speaks out Against Security Forces Operations in Puncak Jaya
* Churches Call for an Investigation of Attacks on Churches in Puncak Jaya
* Government under Growing Pressure to Seriously Investigate Journalist’s Murder
* The Reality of Security Force Brutality in West Papua

International NGOs Call on President Yudhoyono to Release Papuan Political Prisoners

Twenty five international non-governmental organizations have urged President Yudhoyono to release Papuan Political Prisoners. The August 16 letter  (see end of this report) which on the President to announce the release in the context of August 17 Independence Day celebrations. The letter also urged him to amend the Indonesian Criminal Code which criminalizes peaceful political protest and to investigate and prosecute prison warders guilty of abuse of these prisoners.
The NGO appeal noted that Indonesia’s incarceration of peaceful political dissenters violates Indonesia’s commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which Indonesia ratified in 2006. Indonesian authorities also have incarcerated Moluccans and others engaged in peaceful protest. There continue to be credible reports that political prisoners are being mistreated in custody.

President Yudhoyono has failed to respond to the NGO appeal though he did announce release of criminal prisoners, including those convicted of crimes of violence.

(See here to view full text of the August 16 letter and list of 25 signatories or at the end of this report)

The Indonesian Government Blocks Operations of International Humanitarian Group in West Papua

The Jakarta Post, August 6, reported that the Indonesian government has banned Cordaid, a Dutch funding agency, from operating in West Papua. Cordaid has operated in West Papua for over three decades, assisting Papuan NGOs and the Papuan people more generally with a focus on social development and economic empowerment for the poor.

The ban came in the form of a refusal by the Ministry of Social Affairs to extend an existing Memorandum of Understanding that had expired in April of this year. The Government announcement that Cordaid must end its activities came in the form of a July 23 letter from the Social Affairs Ministry that  responding to the standard request for an extension.

In rejecting the extension the Ministry, according to the Post, voiced suspicions regarding Cordaid’s exchange program between Papua and Mindanao, a restive region in southern Philippines –the program promoted participation of women in development from a faith-based and women’s perspective. The Government suspicions included purported Cordaid support for separatist elements.

In her written response to the Ministry, Cordaid sector manager Margriet Nieuwenhuis strongly denied that Cordaid helped Papua separatists.  “The participants met only with Mindanao community groups and women leaders, not with political actors,” Nieuwenhuis said, adding that the program had been stopped.

The Jakarta Post reported that the July 23 letter also alleged that Cordaid had violated a “principle provision” in the memorandum of agreement with the Indonesian government. The letter claimed that “Cordaid has been involved in commercial and political activities by being a shareholder of Bank Andara and sponsoring the participation of a community group in the “Initiatives for International Dialog (IID).”   The Indonesian ministry contended that IID supported secessionist movements in southern Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines and Indonesia.” The government requested that Cordaid hand over ongoing projects to its local partners and neither expand the scope of the projects nor extend deadlines.

While adhering to the ban, Cordaid said its share in Bank Andara was less than 10 percent and that its participation in the program was directed toward support of microfinance institutions, particularly those with a strong focus on poverty reduction, helping clients who are considered too poor by other financial institutions to get loans.

The government’s policy to ban Cordaid was criticized by prominent human rights lawyer Totdung Mulya Lubis who said the decision was taken “too hastily” and without sufficient evidence. “It could set a bad precedent and lead outsiders to believe Indonesia is isolating Papua,” he said. Lubis pointed out that the government needed foreign donors to help develop Papua, one of Indonesia’s poorest regions. The Post quoted Lubis as observing that “to stop foreign social funding is akin to killing off NGOs in Papua, which almost entirely depend on overseas funding.

WPAT Comment:  The decision to close the Cordaid office in West Papua parallels the decision to close down operations there by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2009. Cordaid, like the ICRC, is seeking to negotiate its return to West Papua quietly. Shutting down the operation of these respected humanitarian organizations is consistent with the Jakarta policy to limit international assistance to Papuans who for decades have suffered from a dearth of basic humanitarian services and respect for human rights, areas of need that Cordaid and the ICRC respectively were manifestly addressing.  The decision also is consistent with Jakarta’s long standing campaign to limit international awareness of Papuan suffering. Finally, it is noteworthy that closing the operation of these two organizations which have done so much good  for Papuans was a decision taken exclusively by Jakarta with no involvement of Papuans. These two episodes underscore that the promise of  “special autonomy” is hollow.

Komnas HAM  Speaks out against Security Forces Operations in Puncak Jaya

The Papuan branch of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) urged the Indonesian police and military to cease their military operations in Puncak Jaya district, in an August 11 statement by Mathius Murib, deputy chair of the organization in Jayapura. The public appeal came on the heels of a visit to the area by a  Komnas HAM team to investigate recent incidents. The team, which Murib led, urged senior police officials in Puncak Jaya to initiate legal proceedings against all those persons or groups involved in the Puncak Jaya case from 2004 rather than simply employ armed force.

Murib noted that from 17 August 2004 up to August 2010 the inhabitants of Puncak Jaya have lived in a constant state of trauma because of reports that dozens of civilians as well as members of the security forces have been killed in Puncak Jaya. Murib urged that the police and the military immediately stop all operations to hunt people down in Puncak Jaya district  and consider instead other ways of resolving the problems there. “We believe that force of arms or other forms of violence will never resolve these problems and will only lead to yet more problems and more casualties,” he said.

He also urged the civilian population in the area to remain calm, work together, and avoid being provoked by irresponsible elements. Murib said that Komnas HAM will be urging the district chief of Puncak Jaya as well as civil society, in particular the church, to draft a comprehensive account of developments during the current year.  Murib explained that the role of the church in particular was important.

Churches Call for an Investigation of Attacks on Churches in Puncak Jaya

Church leaders in the Puncak Jaya region on August 18 called for an investigation of shootings which have targeted churches in Puncak Jaya since 2004. Rev. Socrates Yoman, President of the Fellowship of Baptist Churches in Papua, called for creation of an “independent team” to investigate the attacks.

The Jakarta Post reported that Yoman’s call has been echoed by other Papuan religious leaders including the Indonesia Christian Churches (GKI) of Papua, Indonesia Bible Churches, the Kingmi Synod of Papua, the Catholic Diocese of Jayapura. All specifically call for an independent investigation of the attacks.

For its part, the Fellowship of Baptist Churches of Papua urged the provincial council and the Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP) to immediately invite the Governor and police and military chiefs to explain about the violence to the public and appealed to people to remain calm.

Government under Growing Pressure to Investigate Journalist’s Murder Seriously

The July 30 murder of journalist Ardiansyah Matra’is in Merauke and the failure of the Indonesian police to seriously investigate the crime has drawn growing criticism.

A police autopsy of the victim revealed that Matra’is was struck by several blows before falling into the water and drowning in Maro River, Merauke. The Indonesian police spokesman in Jakarta acknowledged that several of Matra’is teeth were missing and that there was swelling in several parts of his body, wounds likely to have resulted from his having been struck with a blunt implement. The Merauke police, however, rejected the announcement in Jakarta, saying that Matra’is had probably committed suicide.

Nezar Patria, the chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) stated that the police should immediately investigate who murdered Matra’is, adding that it had sent a representative to visit Jayapura and trying to arrange a meeting in Jakarta with the national police.

Forkorus Yoboisembut, the chairman of the Papuan Customary Council, suggested President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to set up an independent team to investigate the murder of Matra’is as well as Ridwan Salamun, a Sun TV stringer in Tual, Kei Island, on August 21.

Yoboisembut told the Voice of Human Rights radio that many parties have interest in not having the police to seriously investigate the Matra’is  murder. “I think if the case is investigated, many parties will be implicated, prompting the investigation to be delayed up to now, a month after the murder.”

Matra’is is the son of a Javanese transmigrant in Merauke. He worked mostly as a freelancer, including his latest work for the Tabloid Jubi website. He is survived by his wife and two children.

 

WPAT  bericht nr. 76: September 2010   

Contents:

* International NGOs Call on President Yudhoyono to Release Papuan Political Prisoners
* The Indonesian Government Blocks the Operations of International Humanitarian Aid Group in West

Papua
* Komnas HAM  Speaks out Against Security Forces Operations in Puncak Jaya
* Churches Call for an Investigation of Attacks on Churches in Puncak Jaya
* Government under Growing Pressure to Seriously Investigate Journalist’s Murder
* The Reality of Security Force Brutality in West Papua

International NGOs Call on President Yudhoyono to Release Papuan Political Prisoners

Twenty five international non-governmental organizations have urged President Yudhoyono to release Papuan Political Prisoners. The August 16 letter  (see end of this report) which on the President to announce the release in the context of August 17 Independence Day celebrations. The letter also urged him to amend the Indonesian Criminal Code which criminalizes peaceful political protest and to investigate and prosecute prison warders guilty of abuse of these prisoners.
The NGO appeal noted that Indonesia’s incarceration of peaceful political dissenters violates Indonesia’s commitments under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which Indonesia ratified in 2006. Indonesian authorities also have incarcerated Moluccans and others engaged in peaceful protest. There continue to be credible reports that political prisoners are being mistreated in custody.

President Yudhoyono has failed to respond to the NGO appeal though he did announce release of criminal prisoners, including those convicted of crimes of violence.

(See here to view full text of the August 16 letter and list of 25 signatories or at the end of this report)

The Indonesian Government Blocks Operations of International Humanitarian Group in West Papua

The Jakarta Post, August 6, reported that the Indonesian government has banned Cordaid, a Dutch funding agency, from operating in West Papua. Cordaid has operated in West Papua for over three decades, assisting Papuan NGOs and the Papuan people more generally with a focus on social development and economic empowerment for the poor.

The ban came in the form of a refusal by the Ministry of Social Affairs to extend an existing Memorandum of Understanding that had expired in April of this year. The Government announcement that Cordaid must end its activities came in the form of a July 23 letter from the Social Affairs Ministry that  responding to the standard request for an extension.

In rejecting the extension the Ministry, according to the Post, voiced suspicions regarding Cordaid’s exchange program between Papua and Mindanao, a restive region in southern Philippines –the program promoted participation of women in development from a faith-based and women’s perspective. The Government suspicions included purported Cordaid support for separatist elements.

In her written response to the Ministry, Cordaid sector manager Margriet Nieuwenhuis strongly denied that Cordaid helped Papua separatists.  “The participants met only with Mindanao community groups and women leaders, not with political actors,” Nieuwenhuis said, adding that the program had been stopped.

The Jakarta Post reported that the July 23 letter also alleged that Cordaid had violated a “principle provision” in the memorandum of agreement with the Indonesian government. The letter claimed that “Cordaid has been involved in commercial and political activities by being a shareholder of Bank Andara and sponsoring the participation of a community group in the “Initiatives for International Dialog (IID).”   The Indonesian ministry contended that IID supported secessionist movements in southern Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines and Indonesia.” The government requested that Cordaid hand over ongoing projects to its local partners and neither expand the scope of the projects nor extend deadlines.

While adhering to the ban, Cordaid said its share in Bank Andara was less than 10 percent and that its participation in the program was directed toward support of microfinance institutions, particularly those with a strong focus on poverty reduction, helping clients who are considered too poor by other financial institutions to get loans.

The government’s policy to ban Cordaid was criticized by prominent human rights lawyer Totdung Mulya Lubis who said the decision was taken “too hastily” and without sufficient evidence. “It could set a bad precedent and lead outsiders to believe Indonesia is isolating Papua,” he said. Lubis pointed out that the government needed foreign donors to help develop Papua, one of Indonesia’s poorest regions. The Post quoted Lubis as observing that “to stop foreign social funding is akin to killing off NGOs in Papua, which almost entirely depend on overseas funding.

WPAT Comment:  The decision to close the Cordaid office in West Papua parallels the decision to close down operations there by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2009. Cordaid, like the ICRC, is seeking to negotiate its return to West Papua quietly. Shutting down the operation of these respected humanitarian organizations is consistent with the Jakarta policy to limit international assistance to Papuans who for decades have suffered from a dearth of basic humanitarian services and respect for human rights, areas of need that Cordaid and the ICRC respectively were manifestly addressing.  The decision also is consistent with Jakarta’s long standing campaign to limit international awareness of Papuan suffering. Finally, it is noteworthy that closing the operation of these two organizations which have done so much good  for Papuans was a decision taken exclusively by Jakarta with no involvement of Papuans. These two episodes underscore that the promise of  “special autonomy” is hollow.

Komnas HAM  Speaks out against Security Forces Operations in Puncak Jaya

The Papuan branch of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) urged the Indonesian police and military to cease their military operations in Puncak Jaya district, in an August 11 statement by Mathius Murib, deputy chair of the organization in Jayapura. The public appeal came on the heels of a visit to the area by a  Komnas HAM team to investigate recent incidents. The team, which Murib led, urged senior police officials in Puncak Jaya to initiate legal proceedings against all those persons or groups involved in the Puncak Jaya case from 2004 rather than simply employ armed force.

Murib noted that from 17 August 2004 up to August 2010 the inhabitants of Puncak Jaya have lived in a constant state of trauma because of reports that dozens of civilians as well as members of the security forces have been killed in Puncak Jaya. Murib urged that the police and the military immediately stop all operations to hunt people down in Puncak Jaya district  and consider instead other ways of resolving the problems there. “We believe that force of arms or other forms of violence will never resolve these problems and will only lead to yet more problems and more casualties,” he said.

He also urged the civilian population in the area to remain calm, work together, and avoid being provoked by irresponsible elements. Murib said that Komnas HAM will be urging the district chief of Puncak Jaya as well as civil society, in particular the church, to draft a comprehensive account of developments during the current year.  Murib explained that the role of the church in particular was important.

Churches Call for an Investigation of Attacks on Churches in Puncak Jaya

Church leaders in the Puncak Jaya region on August 18 called for an investigation of shootings which have targeted churches in Puncak Jaya since 2004. Rev. Socrates Yoman, President of the Fellowship of Baptist Churches in Papua, called for creation of an “independent team” to investigate the attacks.

The Jakarta Post reported that Yoman’s call has been echoed by other Papuan religious leaders including the Indonesia Christian Churches (GKI) of Papua, Indonesia Bible Churches, the Kingmi Synod of Papua, the Catholic Diocese of Jayapura. All specifically call for an independent investigation of the attacks.

For its part, the Fellowship of Baptist Churches of Papua urged the provincial council and the Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP) to immediately invite the Governor and police and military chiefs to explain about the violence to the public and appealed to people to remain calm.

Government under Growing Pressure to Investigate Journalist’s Murder Seriously

The July 30 murder of journalist Ardiansyah Matra’is in Merauke and the failure of the Indonesian police to seriously investigate the crime has drawn growing criticism.

A police autopsy of the victim revealed that Matra’is was struck by several blows before falling into the water and drowning in Maro River, Merauke. The Indonesian police spokesman in Jakarta acknowledged that several of Matra’is teeth were missing and that there was swelling in several parts of his body, wounds likely to have resulted from his having been struck with a blunt implement. The Merauke police, however, rejected the announcement in Jakarta, saying that Matra’is had probably committed suicide.

Nezar Patria, the chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) stated that the police should immediately investigate who murdered Matra’is, adding that it had sent a representative to visit Jayapura and trying to arrange a meeting in Jakarta with the national police.

Forkorus Yoboisembut, the chairman of the Papuan Customary Council, suggested President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to set up an independent team to investigate the murder of Matra’is as well as Ridwan Salamun, a Sun TV stringer in Tual, Kei Island, on August 21.

Yoboisembut told the Voice of Human Rights radio that many parties have interest in not having the police to seriously investigate the Matra’is  murder. “I think if the case is investigated, many parties will be implicated, prompting the investigation to be delayed up to now, a month after the murder.”

Matra’is is the son of a Javanese transmigrant in Merauke. He worked mostly as a freelancer, including his latest work for the Tabloid Jubi website. He is survived by his wife and two children.

The Voice of Human Rights reported that Matra’is had earlier written reports on illegal logging around Jayapura as well as military businesses in Merauke. The killing transpired at a time of growing tension in the Merauke area associated with a plan backed by the local government and Jakarta to create a massive plantation. The “development” plan would severely impact local Papuans who rely on the forest and other lands that would be consumed by the project. Local opposition and local media coverage of that protest has been under growing pressure from local authorities. Some journalists received threatening text messages in the week during which Matra’is was murdered.

Complicating any effort to understand or resolve this crime is the infiltration of intelligence personnel into the ranks of journalists. The Voice of Human Rights named two men who had allegedly worked for the intelligence and infiltrated the Tabloid Jubi website.  One of them is a Javanese man who originates from Rangkas Bitung, West Java, but went to college in Yogjakarta, who claimed that he is an NGO activist but also a car workshop owner, a crocodile skin trader and a political analyst. His writing revealed his Indonesian military-styled analysis about the failures of local elites in post-Helsinki Aceh and in Sarmi, Papua. He has disappeared from Papua after the Matra’is murder.

see also

The Reality of Security Force Brutality in West Papua

Through much of August a video depicting the reality of Indonesian state security force brutality in West Papua has circulated widely on the internet.  The stark YouTube video presents the last minutes of a Papuan man captured and then bayoneted by the Indonesian police (Brimob).  In the video, as the man lies dying with his intestines spilling onto the ground, his head propped against a log, he is taunted and tormented by his murderers.  “Oh God!” Yawan Wayeni cries a few times in pain. Instead of treating him, the policemen seen on the video continue to question and taunt him.  The scene is reminiscent of the killing of Papuan resistance leader Kelly Kwalik several months later who bled to death from an untreated bullet wound to his thigh while in police custody.

See Al-Jazeera report on video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxHTpQho5es&feature=channell

The torture-murder of Yawan transpired in early August 2009 but the video of his final moments surfaced only in late July 2010. During the intervening 11 months the police failed to investigate the incident. Only in the wake of the surfacing of the tape and growing international outrage did the police move to investigate.  But even that tardy explanation has been inappropriate with police threats and intimidation aimed at any potential witnesses including Yawan’s wife and young family. The evidence the police have sought to suppress incriminates Yawan’s captors:  Yawan was seized without a weapon and was hobbled by a bullet wound to the calf.  He was secure in police custody at the time a bayonet was thrust into his abdomen.

Yawan was no stranger to the Indonesian authorities and was on a police blacklist. He was the personal bodyguard of the Chairperson of the Serui Traditional Board, Yusuf Tanawani, a vocal critic of Indonesian policy. Yawan, 39, was also a member of the “Team of 100” Papuan civil society leaders who in 1999 met with President B.J. Habibie at the Palace to demand independence for Papua.  It was this group that 50 U.S. members of Congress proposed that President Obama meet with during his anticipated November 2010 visit to Indonesia.

At the time of his capture, as he breakfasted at dawn with his family in a potato patch on Yapen Waropen islands, Yawan was also a wanted man.  He had who escaped from Serui prison months earlier where was serving a nine-year jail sentence for state-alleged involvement in an armed raid against the employees of PT Artha Makmur Permai and the military post at Saubeba, Serui. According to the report of the Commission for Missing Persons & Victims of Violence (Kontras), during the raid the  police found only Yawan’s wife and children in the hut. Yawan’s widow has stated that Yawan did not have a weapon. He had fled the breakfast site at their approach but returned when his children began crying in the presence of the heavily armed police at their garden hut.  As he returned to the site of his distressed family he was shot in the calf and seized.

Chairman of the National Commission for Human Rights, Ifdhal Kasim has joined in a wide public outcry in Indonesia over the incident, insisting the “Police must investigate Yawan’s death and protect his family.”

_________________

Groups Call on President of Indonesia to Release Papuan Political Prisoners, Change Law

c/o PO Box 21873
Brooklyn, NY 11202 USA
etan@etan.org

August 16, 2010

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
President
Republic of Indonesia
Istana Merdeka
Jakarta Pusat 10110 Indonesia
Via Fax, E-mail

Dear President Yudhoyono:

As Indonesia’s National Day on 17 August approaches, we the undersigned non-governmental organizations engaged in the defense of human rights in Indonesia are deeply concerned that dozens of Papuans are incarcerated in prisons in Papua and West Papua simply for having been involved in non-violent demonstrations or expressions of opinion.

In most cases, these prisoners have been sentenced under Criminal Code Articles 106 and 110 regarding “rebellion.” These articles are a legacy from the Dutch colonial era and are in violation of the Indonesian Constitution, Articles 28(e) and 28(f) which respectively afford “the right to the freedom of association and expression of opinion,” and “the right to communicate and obtain information for the development of his/her personal life and his/her social environment, and shall have the right to seek, acquire, possess, keep, process and convey information by using all available channels.”

Moreover, Articles 106 and 110 are inconsistent with your country’s international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which Indonesia ratified in 2006. While the ICCPR (article 19) notes that these rights are subject to certain restrictions “for the protection of national security and of public order or public health or morals,” the 1995 Johannesburg Principles on National Security, Freedom of Expression, and Access to Information identify clear standards for application of national security restrictions. These Principles provide that persons should not be restrained for expressing their opinions. Governments should only take action against such expression of views on the grounds of national security if they can demonstrate that they would incite acts of imminent violence. The prosecution of the aforementioned Papuan political prisoners has offered no evidence of any such threat of imminent violence in association with their physical or verbal actions.

While we strongly believe that none of these prisoners should have been prosecuted in the first place, we are also deeply concerned about the disproportionately harsh sentences imposed on these political prisoners given their non-violent acts. One prisoner arrested in 2004 and charged under these articles is serving a 15-year sentence while others have been given sentences of three or four years. Moreover, there have been alarming reports of maltreatment of the prisoners by prison warders and the lack of essential medical facilities. In one case, a prisoner with a serious prostate disorder had to wait eight months before being allowed to travel to Jakarta for essential treatment recommended by the local doctor. Severe Beatings of prisoners and detainees are frequently and credibly reported.

We the undersigned have on a number of occasions welcomed the democratic progress in Indonesian since the fall of the Suharto dictatorship, inspired by the Indonesian people. We recognize that this progress had been achieved despite frequent threats by the as yet unreformed Indonesian security forces.

In view of the tradition to mark Indonesia’s National Day on 17 August by announcing the release of prisoners and bearing in mind the restriction on essential freedoms such as those contained in Articles 106 and 110 of the Criminal Code we respectfully call on you to mark this year’s celebrations by:

  • releasing all Papuan political prisoners, including those already convicted and those waiting trial;
  • securing the deletion of Articles 106 and 110 of the Criminal Code;
  • ordering an immediate investigation into conditions in the prisons where the prisoners are being held and ensure the punishment of all prison personnel held responsible for maltreatment.

We look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Aliansi Nasional Timor Leste Ba Tribunal Internasional (ANTI)/ Timor-Leste National Alliance for an International Tribunal
Australia West Papua Association Adelaide
Australia West Papua Association Brisbane
Australia West Papua Association Melbourne
Australia West Papua Association Newcastle
Australia West Papua Association Sydney
East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) (U.S.)
Foundation Akar (The Netherlands)
Foundation Manusia Papua (The Netherlands)
Foundation of Papuan Women (The Netherlands)
Foundation Pro Papua (The Netherlands)
Free West Papua Campaign UK
Freunde der Naturvolker e.V./FdN (fPcN) (Germany)
Human Rights Watch (U.S.)
KontraS (Indonesia)
Land is Life (U.S.)
La’o Hamutuk (Timor-Leste)
Perkumpulan HAK (HAK Association) (Timor Leste)
Tapol (Britain)
West Papua Advocacy Team (U.S.)
West Papua Network (Germany)

Indonesia Human Rights Committee (New Zealand)
Maluku Masa Depan (The Netherlands)
Papua Cultural Heritage Foundation (The Netherlands)
Usdatara (The Netherlands)