[Kabar-Irian] Irian News - 3/27/06 (Part 2 of 3)
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The Jakarta Post.com
Headline News
March 25, 2006
Students safe from reprisals: Papua Police
Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura
Papua Police have urged students who fled Cendrawasih University after
raids on dormitories to return, saying there will be no reprisals for the
deaths of five security personnel in Abepura last week.
"There is no need to be afraid ... there is a security guarantee (for
students) from Pak Kapolda (Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Tommy Jacobus),"
spokesman Sr. Comr. BHP Sitompul said Thursday.
Sitompul made the call as the police carried out repair work on
dormitories damaged when Police Mobile Brigade officers raided them on the
night of the killings.
An Air Force soldier and four police officers were killed near the
university on March 16 by protesters demonstrating against PT Freeport
Indonesia.
Of the 18 dormitories owned by the university administration and local
government, seven were damaged. Windows, television sets, tables and
chairs were destroyed during the raid.
"The repairs will start with the replacement of the windows and doors,
which will be followed by replacing the damaged furnishings," Sitompul
said.
The repairs were intended to demonstrate the police's responsibility and
their intention to reestablish positive relations with the students, he
said.
Before the start of the repairs, police had lunch with the dormitories'
remaining occupants.
Edwin Erawar, one of the few students who did not leave after the raids,
also urged his colleagues to return home.
The security guarantee and the repairs showed the police's good
intentions, he said.
An estimated 1,200 students fled after the police raid, many going to live
with relatives rather than risk staying on campus. "Several others
returned to their hometowns after hearing that classes had been canceled
for the next 10 days," Edwin said.
Some students had returned to their dormitories on the evening of the
raid, but had hurried back to relatives' homes elsewhere, he said.
"We have (detained) 15 suspects over the incident. There are others who
are on the run, and they are on our wanted list," National Police
spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam said in Jakarta on Friday.
"We will prioritize the search operation and prepare their cases later,"
he said.
Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Kartono Wangsadisastra said in Jayapura
the suspects included two men, Luis Gedi and Ferry Pakage, who had
admitted to stoning the police officers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Jakarta Post.com
National News
March 27, 2006
Papuan university to reopen after clashes
Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura
Papua's Cendrawasih University is set to resume activities Monday, almost
two weeks after five security personnel were killed in bloody clashes
between the police and protesters outside the university's campus.
The reopening was announced by the university's rector Bert Kambuaya on
Sunday. He also told The Jakarta Post that the campus was planning to hold
a graduation ceremony on Tuesday.
The ceremony was originally scheduled for March 22 but was postponed
following the March 16 incident.
The clash erupted during a protest against mining company PT Freeport
Indonesia.
Since the clash, in which 17 people, including six students, have been
named suspects by the police, over 1000 students have stayed away from
their dormitories in Abepura, fearing reprisals for the deaths.
About 1,200 students fled 18 dormitories, run by the Cendrawasih
University administration or local government, after Mobile Brigade
members raided them on the night of the killings.
"Our dormitory was spared but we were afraid to return because we heard
that police officers were coming," said Martha Diekmi.
The political science student, who resides in a dormitory for members of
the Amungme Kamoro tribe, said earlier she and 13 of her friends had hid
in the house of a relative but slept in the forest at night to avoid being
caught in more sweeps.
On Sunday Bert said students could return without fear.
He said the university was planning to conduct a reregistration of its
students to find out whether there were any who had not returned to
campus.
The university, he said, also planned to set up a fence around the campus
and strengthen security to ensure it was not entered by people who wanted
to use it for protests.
Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Tommy Jacobus also called on students to
return to their dormitories, saying Abepura had returned to normal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Letter from TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign:
Tony Blair MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA
26 March 2006
Dear Prime Minister,
Your visit to Indonesia: Concerns about West Papua
We are pleased to hear that you will be visiting Indonesia this week and
meeting President Yudhoyono. We hope that you will have the opportunity
to raise human rights concerns with the President, especially in relation
to the conflict in West Papua.
We understand that one of the purposes of your visit is to encourage
Indonesian support for the international fight against terrorism. As you
know, terrorism takes many different forms and is committed by both state
and non-state actors. Just last week an editorial in The Jakarta Post
newspaper, referring to violent clashes on 16 March between Papuan student
demonstrators and the Indonesian police, suggested that the Papuans:
'.felt cheated by the government and no longer trusted it. They decided to
confront state-sanctioned violence and terrorism, risking their lives in
the process. If the Papuan students lose all trust and hope in the central
government, then the situation could become much more dangerous'.
The situation in West Papua is indeed in danger of escalating.
Regrettably, four policemen and an air force officer were killed and a
number of civilians were seriously injured during the violence on 16 March
in Abepura, near to West Papua's capital, Jayapura. A Papuan student,
Jeni Isage, died as a result of torture inflicted on him in police
custody. Up to 1,200 students are now reported to be hiding without food
and access to medical care, fearful of revenge attacks by members of the
Indonesian Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob).
Human rights in West Papua
The gravity of the general human rights situation in West Papua is
indicated by the US State Department Country Report on Indonesia for 2005.
'Security forces continued to commit unlawful killings of rebels,
suspected rebels, and civilians in areas of separatist activity,' while
the government 'largely failed to hold soldiers and police accountable for
such killings and other serious human rights abuses,' it says. At the
same time, 'Security forces continued to employ torture and other forms of
abuse', and 'police frequently and arbitrarily detained persons without
warrants, charges or court proceedings'. They also used 'excessive force
in controlling demonstrations'.
It is not unreasonable to conclude from this report that, despite
democratic advances in Indonesia and the achievement of peace in Aceh, the
security forces are still the main perpetrators of terror. That is an
intolerable state of affairs for a country which aspires to genuine
democracy. We ask you to bear this in mind in your discussions about
terrorism with the President.
Response to Abepura violence
Unfortunately, the climate of impunity that exists in Papua encourages a
response by the security forces that involves arbitrary reprisals against
local people. As well as being responsible for the death of a Papuan
student in custody, the police have shot at student dormitories around the
university and beaten Papuans they have detained.
The state intelligence agency, BIN, is accusing local human rights
organisations of being behind the violence making it difficult for them to
carry out their work.
The Foreign Office minister, Ian Pearson, has undertaken to ask the UK
embassy in Jakarta to monitor the situation in West Papua closely and to
urge the Indonesian authorities to exercise restraint. We have asked him
to explore the possibility of an EU Ambassadorial mission to West Papua
and an immediate visit by UK embassy officials to inquire into the
underlying causes of the violence. We urge you to kindly follow up on
these matters.
We would also ask you to press the Indonesian government:
-· not to allow arbitrary arrests and detentions of Papuan students and
others;
-· to fully respect the rights of detainees, including their right of
access to a lawyer;
-· to ensure that arbitrary reprisals are not taken against the students
currently in hiding and to take steps to ensure their safe return to their
residences;
-· to ensure that local human rights organisations are able to carry out
their normal activities free from threats and intimidation;
-· to lift any restrictions and other obstacles in the way of unhindered
access to West Papua by journalists, human rights monitors and
non-governmental organisations;
-· to set up a Independent Commission, comprising human rights experts, to
investigate the cause of the violence.
Freeport
The demonstration on 16 March was one of several in recent weeks against
the US-owned Freeport McMoran copper-and-gold mine in West Papua. Papuan
anger about Freeport, its destruction of the local ecology, its close
association with the abusive military, and its generation of huge profits
for the government in contrast to local poverty, has been mounting for
some time. The British company Rio Tinto is a joint venture partner with
the company so is also implicated in these problems.
We ask you to encourage the Indonesian government to enter into urgent
dialogue with representatives of the demonstrators and those affected by
the Freeport operations so that the situation can be resolved as soon as
possible by peaceful means.
BP Tangguh project
We are concerned that similar problems affecting the rights and
livelihoods of local people could arise in relation to BP's new liquefied
natural gas project in Bintuni Bay, especially if the military becomes
involved in providing security. We would ask you to convey to the
President that the UK government will monitor this situation very closely.
West Irian Jaya, special autonomy and the MRP
Another key reason for the Papuans lack of trust in the government, is
Jakarta's failure to implement its own law on special autonomy and its
insistence on creating a new province of West Irian Jaya in contravention
of that law. The new province has been established despite widespread
popular opposition articulated by the newly-formed Papuan People's
Assembly (Majelis Rakyat Papua MRP). The MRP was itself set up as the
centerpiece of the special autonomy arrangement to represent the interests
of indigenous Papuans, but is now being ignored by the government with
potentially disastrous consequences. Many Papuans already regard the
autonomy package as useless and an empty promise.
A report published last week by the International Crisis Group, Papua: The
Dangers of Shutting Down Dialogue, warns that the marginalisation of the
MRP could fatally damage the institution, special autonomy, and the
prospects for genuine dialogue between the government and Papuan
representatives. Dialogue is key to the resolution of the problems of
West Papua.
We urge you to press Indonesia to enter into all-inclusive dialogue with
the MRP and other Papuan representatives to determine the future political
arrangements for the territory. Please also explore the possibility of
offering the services of the EU as a third-party mediator.
Militarisation
The prospects for dialogue and a political solution to the West Papua
conflict are also being undermined by a substantial build-up of troops and
the creation of new territorial commands. There is no military
justification for these measures, which are likely to lead to increasing
tensions and a further deterioration in the human rights situation.
We urge you to encourage the President to halt the military build-up and
to withdraw all non-organic troops currently based in West Papua.
In this connection, we remain deeply concerned about the deployment of
British-supplied water cannon vehicles to West Papua. They are being used
in a highly volatile political situation in which human rights are
routinely violated, and in which the security forces regularly enforce
public order with heavy-handed tactics and excessive force. We ask you to
press for the immediate withdrawal of the water cannons from West Papua.
Freedom of expression and assembly
It is common practice for Papuan activists to be imprisoned for peacefully
exercising their rights to freedom of expression and assembly, in
particular by raising the West Papuan 'Morning Star' flag. Last year two
Papuans, Filep Karma and Yusak Pakage were sentenced to 15 and 10 years
imprisonment respectively for organizing peaceful celebrations of West
Papua's national day on 1 December 2004 and for raising the flag. We urge
you to press for the release of the two Papuans and others imprisoned for
their political beliefs and activities.
We are grateful to you for considering these matters and we trust that you
will be able to contribute to the promotion of human rights in West Papua
during your visit.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Barber
Cc: Jack Straw MP, Foreign Secretary
Ian Pearson MP, Foreign Office Minister
Grace Cassy, Private Secretary, Prime Minister's Office
Margaret Tongue, Head of Indonesia and Timor-Leste team, Foreign
Office
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Age (Melbourne)
Cry freedom: West Papua's plea to the world
March 25, 2006
-- The Age's Indonesia correspondent, Mark Forbes, gained rare access to
the province of West Papua, a new powderkeg on Australia's doorstep.
They appear from palm and bamboo thickets, tribal warriors armed with
traditional spears and giant bows. Some wear cassowary feather
headdresses; most boast beaded armbands bearing the red, white and blue
morning star flag, symbol of the struggle for West Papuan independence.
At least 40 warriors, some members of the OPM — the ragtag guerilla
movement that has resisted Indonesian rule of Papua for nearly 40 years —
have not seen our approach to their hideout on the outskirts of Timika,
adjacent to Freeport, the massive mine that has extracted more than $100
billion in gold from Papua's resource-rich soil.
"Wah! Wah! Wah! Wah!" one of the surrounding Dani tribesman chants
incessantly — a traditional greeting — until I hesitantly stretch out a
hand and am enveloped in an embrace and the thick odour of jungle sweat.
These men helped blockade Freeport last month, closing it for four days
after a shoot-out with security forces evicting tribesmen panning for
traces of gold in the mine's tailings. Eleven days ago they stormed and
ransacked Timika's Sheraton Hotel, angry that an inspection by local
politicians of the US-owned mine had not included activist opponents.
The conflicts at Timika sparked an outpouring of protests against the
mine, inflaming Papuan resentment of Indonesia and culminating in a bloody
riot in the provincial capital, Jayapura, when four police and one
intelligence officer fell, stabbed and
battered, outside the university campus.
Concerned Indonesian leaders, including President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, warn of a conspiracy to ferment a revolt for West Papuan
independence — his intelligence chief even suggested Australian activists
could be involved.
Papuan leaders admit deeper tensions underpin the Freeport protests,
dating back to the 1969 "act of free choice" when 1022 Papuans handpicked
by Indonesia voted to accept its rule.
Indonesia's recent compromise of special autonomy for the province has
been a failure, they say, warning that locals will again raise the morning
star flag and "cry for freedom" if their grievances are not addressed.
A meeting of Papuan leaders this week called on Dr Yudhoyono to hold an
internationally monitored dialogue and settlement with the province,
similar to the process that brought peace to Aceh last year. They want
Australia to be part of the monitoring team.
January's arrival of a boatload of 43 Papuan asylum seekers off Cape York
drew Australia further into the debate.
Yesterday Jakarta condemned Canberra's decision to grant the Papuans
temporary protection, stating it was baseless, it harmed attempts to
resolve West Papua's problems and justified speculation that elements in
Australia support the separatist movement.
Indonesia is paranoid at the prospect of a repeat of East Timor's 2002
succession and had banned Western journalists from the province for nearly
two years, until The Age was granted permission to visit Jayapura and
Timika last week. In West Papua, the gap between local aspirations and
Jakarta's expectations is widening, inviting the spectre of bloodier
conflict.
On Timika's outskirts, the warriors lead the way to a jungle clearing.
Here the leading activist behind the clashes in Timika and Jayapura, Jefri
Pagawak, vows the protests and the violence will continue unless
Freeport's contract is renegotiated. Activists' demands include that it
stop polluting and that it redirect more of its revenues to Papuans. Some
want it closed altogether.
The focus may be the world's largest gold mine, which tips more than $1
billion a year into the national coffers, but Mr Pagawak argues Freeport's
contract with Indonesia was signed in 1967, two years before Indonesia
formally took over Papua from the Dutch and an interim United Nations
administration. The mine's riches drove the US to collude to "trap Papua
into Indonesia", he says.
"Since Papua was integrated into Indonesia, military and the police
treated Papuans badly and we are traumatised. We will not step back until
the Government can think democratically. We will move forward even
stronger if the Government does not open doors of dialogue. We will stage
protests, if the Government acts brutally the people, in self-defence,
will attack back."
In Jayapura it was the protesters who acted brutally, using rocks, sticks
and spears to break down an attempt by the police riot squad to remove
barricades blocking the main road outside the university.
Student organiser Henny Lani watched one policeman being beaten. Just four
metres away, she pleaded for his life through her megaphone. "I said,
'people, please remain calm, we should not be provoked' … But the masses
were just angry, no one listened."
But Ms Lani blames police: "I am upset because security officers did not
respect our effort for negotiation. To me, the death of four officers is
incomparable to the death of thousands of Papuans slaughtered since
Freeport existed in Papua."
Burying their dead, police in Jayapura were angry with churches and human
rights groups for focusing on their alleged reprisals, rather than the
slayings. Spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra concedes authorities had
struggled to contain the urge for revenge.
No protesters were shot on Thursday, but three bystanders were hit by
gunfire during aggressive police sweeps for student suspects the next day.
Up to 1000 students are still hiding in the mountains, some planning to
flee to Australia.
Early this week the night market bustled, with tribal women squatting on
cardboard with meagre offerings of fruit and beetlenut, while in stalls
behind them migrants from Indonesia — 1 million of Papua's 2.5 million
population arrived under a Government transmigration program — sold more
lucrative products. Most traditional Papuans see little of the wealth
generated by Freeport — 40 per cent live under the poverty line, surviving
on less than $6 a week.
Most of the mine's profits flow back to the US, but Freeport contributes
$40 million a year to a community development fund, much of it benefiting
the primary landowner, the Amungme tribe.
The huge open pit slices deep into Papuan soil, its crushed tailings weave
a muddy scar through the forest, choking the Ajkwa River. A scar deeper
than Freeport's pit slices into Papuan hearts, a collective dream of
independence darkened by claims of 44 years of injustice and abuses.
Head of Papua's provincial parliament Komarudin Watubun says last week's
clash "is linked to the unsolved, accumulated problem in Papua".
Although the provincial Government is meant to receive three-quarters of
Freeport's taxes, he believes they get far less. Mr Komarudin has lost
faith with Dr Yudhoyono's pledge to resolve the Papuan issue and his
promises to implement special autonomy. In violation of the special
autonomy law, Jakarta created a new province to the east, West Irian Jaya,
which held elections for a separate governor this month.
Among the groups claiming to represent the aspirations of Papuans, it is
Papua Presidium fermenting the independence struggle. Gone underground
since the murder of leader Theys Eluay, the Presidium has since placed its
members in key roles in regional bodies.
Presidium's secretary-general, Thaha Al Hamid, says its strategy, via
links to tribal leaders, students, aid groups and the armed OPM, is "to
get independence. Indonesia has to leave Papua, has to leave this land.
Our platform is peaceful struggle, that everything should go through
dialogue, although Jakarta always keeps its door shut. We have two
approaches: weapons and dialogue."
Agus Alua is head of the Papuan Peoples Council — formed under the new
autonomy law to protect Papua's culture and resources via consultation
with the national administration.
He is also a senior member of the Presidium. He tells The Age that
Jakarta's violations of its own autonomy law mean "Papua's trust to
Jakarta comes to zero".
The new West Irian Jaya province must be abandoned and Freeport closed, he
says, demanding talks with Jakarta.
"If not, cry for freedom, raise the flag and ask the international
community to help West Papua. We don't have hope for life on our land."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Weekend Australian
Lost at sea in political storm
Carmel Egan
March 25, 2006
Relying on nothing more than the word of a good friend and their faith in
God, the West Papuan 43 turned their dugout canoe south and made for
Australia.
It was January 13 and the five families of 37 adults and six children were
heading, literally and politically, into a storm.
Instead of the six to eight hours they had been told it would take to
cross from the southernmost point of Irian Jaya to Weipa on the tip of
Cape York, the group were lost at sea for four days.
They had originally left from Jayapura on the north coast of Irian Jaya,
and used the canoe, powered by an outboard motor, to hop between coastal
villages and towns until they reached Merauke.
It was there they were told Australia was just hours away.
"Nobody helped us," said Henock Nawiea, a spokesman for 10 of the group
now receiving medical treatment in Perth.
"Our friend, an activist in Merauke, he said it would be six to eight hours.
"We lost the way in the middle of the ocean and we were in the ocean four
days after that, because we don't know the way from Merauke to Australia
and there was bad weather and we didn't bring our food and drink.
"We were thirsty and hungry and very scared and it make us weak and we had
some people sick."
The canoe had been made by the father of Herman Wainggai, who organised
the group's flight.
Mr Wainggai, who remains on Christmas Island with 33 of the group, last
night thanked the Australian Government for accepting their plea for
asylum.
"We wish to express our respectful thanks for this decision to the
Australian Government, the Department of Immigration and also I wish to
thank the people of Australia who have helped and welcomed us.
"We also wish to thank God."
The Indonesian Government has said none of the 43 were being persecuted or
sought by authorities when they left Irian Jaya and their safety was
guaranteed if they return.
But the group last night rejected the assurances saying "Indonesian talk"
was not to be trusted.
Mr Nawiea claimed that 300 West Papuan villagers who fled to Papua New
Guinea in 2002 were encouraged to return with promises of improved welfare
and housing, only to be imprisoned, tortured or killed.
"We don't want to go back. We know the Indonesian talk," he said.
Mr Nawiea, an IT student and political activist, said he was imprisoned
and beaten in Timika, on the central south coast, for several days in 2002
before fleeing into the mountains and hiding from the authorities.
"My situation in West Papua was unsafe," he said. "Sometimes they come
looking for me and some of my friends, so our life there was very
uncomfortable.
"In Timika people not live proper like other people, like in Java. They
can't talk in Timika. They get angry to us if we make demonstrations."
Mr Nawiea brought his 21-year-old sister and 12-year-old nephew with him
to Australia. The boy's father, who is active in the West Papua freedom
movement, has been missing for about a week in Jayapura.
The West Papua 43 are expected to be transferred from detention on
Christmas Island to freedom in Melbourne next week.
Those in Perth are being treated for symptoms of TB, stomach complaints
and one for a leg injury. But the group remains fearful for the safety of
their friends and families and for the future of the province under
Indonesian rule.
"Many people are killed already and they are going to kill and torture
many of the people there," Mr Nawiea said.
Life in exile will require a lot of adjustment, according to Australian
West Papuan community matriarch Anto Rumwaropen.
"They will be very traumatised, especially the children," Ms Rumwaropen
said of the newest members of the 4000-strong Australian-West Papuan
community.
"I know what it is like to try to find somewhere to live away from the
oppression, away from the Indonesian military, but to find also a place
where you can continue the struggle for our country to be free," she said.
She was four years old when Indonesia began its takeover of West Papua on
May 1, 1963. At 20 when she fled with her political songwriter husband
Augustus and his reggae band, the Black Brothers, in 1979.
Lawyer's representing the group expect the 43rd member to be granted
asylum in the coming weeks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Nation (Bangkok, Thailand)
Editorial
Mon, March 27, 2006 : Last updated 21:13 pm (Thai local time)
Jakarta called to action in Papua
-- The recently set up tribal council must be nurtured as a forum for
dialogue on the province's problems
Indonesia has to move quickly before the tension between the Papua
province and Jakarta gets any worse and takes its toll on a tribal council
set up last year.
In a recently released report by the Brussels-based International Crisis
Group (ICG), there is serious concern that the recently established Papuan
People's Council (MRP) could fall apart just months after it came into
being.
MRP was the centrepiece of an autonomy package aimed at curbing a
low-level separatist insurgency in the resource-rich province. It was
supposed to be the most meaningful representative body to emerge in Papua
since it came under Jakarta's rule in the 1960s.
Unfortunately, because of the half-hearted attitude of some politicians in
Jakarta who felt that the MRP could serve as a vehicle to boost the
separatist ideology, the body was never really given the chance to take
constructive action, ICG argued.
In particular, the MRP failed to take action following riots over the
giant Freeport-McMoRan gold and copper mine that rocked Papua last week,
leaving five security officers dead.
"The anti-Freeport violence was a way of venting frustration over
long-running grievances, from a lack of justice for past abuses to poverty
and corruption to the role of the military in the province," ICG analyst
Francesca Lawe-Davies said in a statement accompanying the report.
For it to work, Jakarta is going to have to acknowledge the importance of
the MRP.
Jakarta has shown that it has the capacity and will to make necessary
concessions and compromises, as seen in the peace deal with the Acehnese.
So there is no reason why the central government should be unable to do
the same in Papua.
But it takes two to tango. For its part, the MRP is going to have to move
beyond non-negotiable demands and offer realistic policy options to make
autonomy work.
All sides are going to have to come to an agreement as to what they want
out of the MRP. A genuine forum that the Papuans could use to enter into
serious dialogue with Jakarta is not too much to ask for. In these
troubled times, it would be in the interest of the Jakarta government to
see to it that such a forum exists and withstands the test of time, crisis
or not. If the forum fails to stand on its own, the trust of the Papuan
public in the central government will also disappear.
The problem in Papua has spilled over into the diplomatic arena with
Jakarta's recall of its ambassador to Australia following a recent
decision to grant visas to all but one of the 43 Papuans who arrived in
the north of the country by boat in January.
The Papuans, who include pro-independence activists and their families,
have accused Jakarta of "genocide" in troubled Papua, a former Dutch
colony taken by Indonesia in the 1960s.
As the world's fourth-largest country by population and a nation with so
much potential, Indonesia could do more in terms of moral leadership.
Jakarta has been working hard to reinvent is armed forces and bring to a
close the tragic chapters of East Timor and Aceh, where tens of thousands
of innocent lives were lost. With a strong civil society, an outspoken and
free media, and a democratic government and institutions, Indonesia has
the makings of a great nation.
Many in Thailand and in Asean applauded Jakarta's decision to intervene in
Burma's political deadlock when it dispatched former foreign minister Ali
Alatas to Rangoon to talk some sense to the junta.
As the world's largest Muslim country, Indonesian religious leaders and
public figures have worked hard to ensure that Islam is not a threat to
democracy and that this religion, which is embraced by more than one
billion people worldwide, is in fact compatible with democracy.
But leadership does not come easy. Indonesia is going to have to clean up
its own house and show the world that it has the capability and
statesmanship to set a good example for the world community.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Weekend Australian
Papuan stand-off
-- Indonesia is irate we have accepted 42 asylum-seekers, writes Jakarta
correspondent Sian Powell
March 25, 2006
Hiding in a tattered hut in West Papua's dense jungle and existing on food
brought by sympathetic villagers, university student Everistus Kayep is
confused by the maelstrom that has engulfed his life.
Two weeks ago he was studying maths and management at Cendrawasih
University, on the outskirts of West Papua's provincial capital of
Jayapura.
A native Papuan, he had been monitoring the accelerating tension in
Indonesia's remote and resource-rich province. Demonstrations had erupted
in Java while hundreds of kilometres to the east, in West Papua, blockades
were manned by tribal locals armed with bows and arrows, skirmishes broke
out at the Sheraton Hotel in Timika and security guards employed by the
giant US-run Freeport gold and copper mine were attacked. Resentment was
building.
West Papuans believed they were being robbed of their wealth: profits from
their gold and copper, timber and gas were funnelled straight back to
Jakarta, leaving the province mired in poverty and disease. They feared
the often brutal Indonesian security forces and saw the collapse of their
hopes for autonomy and the forcible splitting of their province. The
five-month-old Papuan People's Council, or MRP, was on the verge of
collapse. Once seen by West Papuans as the shining hope of autonomy, the
council has simply been ignored by Jakarta.
West Papuans are oppressed, marginalised and sometimes tortured, according
to reputable judges, including the US Department of State. On Thursday,
independent assessors at Australia's Department of Immigration and
Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs said 42 of the 43 West Papuan
asylum-seekers who sought sanctuary would be offered visas, a decision
tantamount to conceding they had been persecuted and one that infuriated
Jakarta.
Thursday was a turning point for many West Papuans, a rare victory in a
campaign that has been riddled with violence and punctuated with world
leaders routinely and regularly denying support for the rebels. Yet in
Indonesia the denial is too often seen as support for the way West Papuan
troubles have been handled and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, despite
his 2004 election promises, has done little to ease the pain in the
benighted province.
Ten days ago Kayep joined a protest outside the university, which
disintegrated into a riot that left dead four police officers and one air
force officer.
"My task was to document it, I was taking photos," he says. "As I was
taking a photo of a police officer being mobbed, I was almost shot with a
rubber bullet." Police later said they found a car nearby full of rocks,
along with Molotov cocktails, knives and bows and arrows.
"We didn't do that; we students only prepared speeches, banners and
pamphlets," Kayep says from his hide-out. "We don't hate the police, we
are just struggling for the closure of Freeport."
He believes a double game was being played out. "That intelligence officer
from the air force [who was dressed in civilian clothes], he was doing the
provoking," he explains. "The evening before he was disturbing people,
riding a bike and shouting 'Oi'. The next day he came again and people saw
him throwing rocks at Brimob [Indonesia's brutal paramilitary police]."
Police have denied using provocateurs and have pointed to the fact no
protesters were killed.
It's true that although furious police officers beat up students, none
were killed, a laudable development in the history of Indonesian policing.
Hundreds of students remain in hiding in the jungles, hunted by the
police. "We are the children of the jungle, so we feel safe in the
jungle," Kayep says.
West Papua police spokesman Kartono Wangsa Disastra says it's certain the
university students took part in the violence, along with others, and he
sees the work of Papua's best-known separatists, the Free Papua
Organisation, or OPM, behind the scenes. The fear of rebels has fuelled an
increased deployment of troops, yet the activists are scattered, poorly
armed and in trouble.
While OPM is down to a few hundred members by all accounts, there are many
other movements spreading and shifting shape under the rebel umbrella.
Edison Waromi, law and politics director of the Papuan National Authority,
declines to say whether his group organised the protest, but he is happy
to take credit for the asylum-seekers' victory. He says he appointed
activist Herman Wanggai as the leader of the group on the voyage intended
to draw international attention to West Papua's plight.
The Indonesian navy is in the process of boosting and enlarging its bases
on the south coast of Papua, in tandem with an increased deployment of
security forces across the province.
"They fled because the situation was not safe and they were threatened,"
Waromi says. "We know there are international conventions that guarantee
the rights of asylum-seekers. We hope this will put up a portrait of Papua
during the last 40 years, a portrait of injustice in Papua. In this
climate, Jakarta must be sensitive to the fact that Papua's problems have
already become an international issue." He says he hopes an independent
nation of Papua will be part of the South Pacific group rather than
Southeast Asia.
This kind of talk drives a spike of fury deep into Indonesian hearts,
where the loss of the tiny half-island of East Timor still rankles.
Independence is not an option, not least because Papua's vast wealth is
essential to Indonesia's bleeding budget. Freeport is the nation's biggest
taxpayer, contributing $US1.1billion ($1.55 billion) in taxes and
royalties to Indonesia last year; only a tiny proportion found its way
back to Papua.
Many ordinary Indonesians still blame Australia and the UN for the loss of
East Timor. Now Australia has offered West Papuans asylum, and mounting
resentment in Jakarta makes it clear this is likely to be the biggest
blight on Australian-Indonesian relations since East Timor.
As with the East Timorese, Papuans consider themselves different from
other Indonesians. Largely Christian and Melanesian, they resent the
racist attitudes of mostly Muslim Indonesians and they see the Act of Free
Choice used to legitimate Indonesia's absorption of their homeland as a
monstrous deception. Yet all this could be dealt with if the economy
worked and Indonesia provided reasonable measures of autonomy.
Adriana Elizabeth, Papua research co-ordinator at the Indonesian Institute
of Sciences, says West Papuans endure human rights abuses and economic
deprivation. "Of course there are groups fighting for independence, but
they are only small," she says, adding that most West Papuans are simply
trying to get by, and the hardships of their lives have fuelled their
support for the rebels and their distrust of Jakarta.
"The problem is development. If the problems of the economy were dealt
with, I don't think there would be a dilemma for them. If not, the
asylum-seekers won't stop. The Government should think clearly how to
quickly foster development and build human rights in Papua."
-- Additional reporting: Emmy Zumaidar
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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