[Kabar-Irian] News: May 22-23 2006
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May 22-23 2006
KABAR IRIAN NEWS
TOPICS
* Academics fear shut-out after ban
* Indonesia backed on Papua
* Seeds of Papuan identity born of suffering
* Indonesia to regulate more closely money being spent in Papua
* Senator demands Govt help Papuan woman
* Men searching for Papuan woman's safe house
* Papuan woman seeking asylum
* Australia to include Papua in Indonesian treaty
* West Papuans in Torres Strait still imprisoned
* Labor seeks Papua treaty details
* Freeport's Work Contract Questionable
* West Papua supporters angry at treaty plan
* Indonesia lashes universities
- ---
The Age (Melbourne)
Monday, May 22, 2006
Academics fear shut-out after ban
By Tom Hyland
AN INDONESIAN Government ban on two Victorian universities has sent
jitters through Australian academic experts on Indonesia.
The threats against RMIT and Deakin universities have targeted two
weak points - universities' economic dependence on the lucrative
foreign student market, and the need for Australian academics to
obtain Indonesian visas to conduct field work.
Academics say the ban issued by the Indonesian Ministry of Higher
Education, urging all Indonesian universities to end co-operation
with
RMIT and Deakin, was an attempt to silence Australian academic
criticism of Jakarta over the West Papuan independence issue. They
say
it reflects deep and widespread sensitivity in Jakarta over perceived
Australian support for Papua and a fear of the potential
international
influence of Australian experts.
Already, some academics have been pulling their punches on human
rights issues for fear of jeopardising access to Indonesia, according
to Dr Clinton Fernandes, a lecturer at the University of New South
Wales who teaches strategic studies at the Australian Defence Force
Academy.
"They know that if you are an Indonesia specialist, access to
Indonesia to do field work is essential to your career," Dr Fernandes
says.
Dr Richard Chauvel, an expert on Papua at Victoria University,
believes the ban risks a revival of the uncertainty academics faced
during the Soeharto dictatorship, when bans were often imposed
without
a stated reason.
"There is an element of mere chance in this. What people do to cause
offence is not entirely predictable," Dr Chauvel says.
Dr Ed Aspinall of the Australian National University in Canberra was
banned from entering Indonesia last year over allegations that he
sympathised with the Aceh independence movement.
"I was surprised when I was banned because I didn't think I'd done
anything provocative," he says. "People who know my research wouldn't
have seen me as a sympathiser (of the Aceh separatist movement)."
He doubts the current ban will affect academic scholarship, but it
will make academics more cautious about what they say in the media
and
other public forums, he says.
Dr Greg Fealy, senior lecturer in Indonesian politics at ANU,
downplayed the implications of the ban for most academics.
"People will go ahead in commenting as they have in the past," Dr
Fealy says.
- ---
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19226132-2702,00.ht
ml
Indonesia backed on Papua
Mark Dodd
May 23, 2006
CANBERRA'S draft security treaty recognising Papua's integration into
Indonesia will assure
Indonesians of Australia's good intentions for its neighbour.
The Indonesian embassy yesterday welcomed Alexander Downer's promise
of "mutual recognition
of Indonesia's territorial integrity" to include "Papua's integration
into Indonesia."
The Foreign Minister gave the assurance to his Indonesian
counterpart, Hasan Wirajuda,
during a meeting last week in Singapore.
Relations with Indonesia plunged in March after 42 Papuan
asylum-seekers were given
temporary protection visas.
A foreign affairs spokeswoman said treaty negotiations were
continuing. No date had been set
for its ratification.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said: "However
important Australia's
relationship with Indonesia (is), it should not be at any price."
- ---
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/seeds-of-papuan-identity-born-of-su
ffering/2006/05/21/114
8150120018.html
Seeds of Papuan identity born of suffering
May 22, 2006
Criticism of nationalist sentiment as racist ignores a long history
of discrimination,
writes Chris Ballard.
THE Indonesian province of Papua has emerged as the biggest challenge
for relations between
Canberra and Jakarta since East Timor. Yet policy-makers and opinion
shapers in both
Canberra and Jakarta continue to operate in a near-vacuum of reliable
intelligence about the
western half of the island of New Guinea. A recent call by the
Immigration Minister, Amanda
Vanstone, for "increased understanding, not increased confusion" over
the thorny issue of
Papuan separatism is timely.
But her own contribution to clarity has been to identify Papuan
nationalism as "racist
sentiment based on nothing more than hostility to people from other
parts of Indonesia". As
a Dutch medical officer on an early exploratory patrol into the
interior of what was then
Netherlands New Guinea observed: "If one should be careful in one's
assertions, it must be
concerning New Guinea, which is a country where, after all, everybody
is right!"
Confusion about Papua certainly reigns in Australia (as it does in
much of Indonesia).
Letter writers continue to refer to Papua as a "Christian" land and
to Papuans as "racially"
or, its common euphemism, "ethnically", distinct from other
Indonesians. Vanstone is correct
when she says there is no "single identifiable group of people in
Papua different from
another homogenous group called Indonesians". But her conclusions
about Papuan nationalism
are ill-advised and conveniently ignore other aspects of Papuan
history and life.
Claims that Papua is a "Christian" land are wide of the mark. The
earliest European
explorers of New Guinea noted the presence of Islamic preachers and
communities,
particularly along the coasts of the Bird's Head region at the
western end of the island.
Indigenous Islamic communities have thrived in Papua since at least
the 16th century, long
before the first Christian missions arrived. The simplistic
opposition of pro-Indonesian
Muslims and pro-independence Christians is similarly meaningless in
Papua, where there are
Christian and Muslim leaders on either side.
The simple truth is that there are no obvious physical or cultural
distinctions between
Papuans and many other eastern Indonesians. People have traded,
migrated and married across
the seas that separate Papua from the Maluku islands for thousands of
years. In many ways,
coastal Papuans more closely resemble Maluku islanders than they do
other Papuans from the
Highlands.
In one very important respect, however, Papuans do exist as a "race"
or an identifiable
group, and this is when they experience, collectively, the force of
racist sentiment and
discrimination at the hands of other Indonesians. Dutch government
employees and mission
teachers from central and eastern Indonesia commonly subscribed to
the stereotype of "Papua
bodoh", or the stupid Papuan. Little has changed since Netherlands
New Guinea was
incorporated within the republic of Indonesia. If anything, racist
stereotypes of Papuans
have been given a harder edge during the troubled years since
incorporation in 1963, with
Papuan claims for independence met repeatedly with severe military
responses.
The prominent Papuan thinker Dr Benny Giay has written of the
crushing effect of lives lived
under the constant weight of discrimination. Apparently
well-intentioned Indonesian
academics still write of Papuans as capable of "thinking in the
present tense only". At a
recent seminar involving senior regional military officers, an
Indonesian naval commander
insisted loudly that Papuans lacked the individual intelligence to
co-ordinate an
independence campaign without the support of foreign agents (to the
consternation of the
Papua New Guinea Defence Force major seated next to him).
While this casual racism is offensive enough, it is when it is
translated into
discriminatory practices - in the competition for jobs, the delivery
of government services,
and in the worst forms of human rights abuse - that the seeds of a
racial identity for
Papuan nationalism are born. Vanstone's criticism of Papuan
nationalists for adopting a
racial or ethnic foundation for their identity completely ignores the
foundations of this
way of thinking.
The irony of the Australian Government's present position has not
escaped Papuan observers,
who have been quick to point out that our strong stand on human
rights as the final
justification for going to war in Iraq sits poorly with the argument
that the human rights
of a minority in Papua are insignificant within the broader frame of
relations with our
largest neighbour.
In the war of words being waged between Indonesia and Australia, and
within both countries
on the letters pages, what is glaringly absent are Papuan voices,
articulating their
experience of discrimination and of abuse. Until Jakarta and Canberra
can summon the courage
to hear out these voices, and to address the very real concerns that
underpin their
complaints, the vicious cycle of calls for independence and military
repression will
persist.
The prominent Papuan thinker Dr Benny Giay has written of the
crushing effect of lives lived
under the constant weight of discrimination. Apparently
well-intentioned Indonesian
academics still write of Papuans as capable of "thinking in the
present tense only". At a
recent seminar involving senior regional military officers, an
Indonesian naval commander
insisted loudly that Papuans lacked the individual intelligence to
co-ordinate an
independence campaign without the support of foreign agents (to the
consternation of the
Papua New Guinea Defence Force major seated next to him).
While this casual racism is offensive enough, it is when it is
translated into
discriminatory practices - in the competition for jobs, the delivery
of government services,
and in the worst forms of human rights abuse - that the seeds of a
racial identity for
Papuan nationalism are born. Vanstone's criticism of Papuan
nationalists for adopting a
racial or ethnic foundation for their identity completely ignores the
foundations of this
way of thinking.
The irony of the Australian Government's present position has not
escaped Papuan observers,
who have been quick to point out that our strong stand on human
rights as the final
justification for going to war in Iraq sits poorly with the argument
that the human rights
of a minority in Papua are insignificant within the broader frame of
relations with our
largest neighbour.
In the war of words being waged between Indonesia and Australia, and
within both countries
on the letters pages, what is glaringly absent are Papuan voices,
articulating their
experience of discrimination and of abuse. Until Jakarta and Canberra
can summon the courage
to hear out these voices, and to address the very real concerns that
underpin their
complaints, the vicious cycle of calls for independence and military
repression will
persist.
Chris Ballard is a historian at the Australian National University.
- ---
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/bulletins/rnzi/200605221325/144904f7
Indonesia to regulate more closely money being spent in Papua
Posted at 1:25pm on 22 May 2006
The Indonesian government plans to issue a new regulation to ensure
that the funding
entering the province of Papua under its special autonomy is being
spent properly,
The president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, says this will occur in the
form or a presidential
instruction and the regulation will target the development of
infrastructure, poverty
relief, heath care, and education.
The Jakarta Post reports that the president made the announcement
after meeting Papuan
leaders who are angry at what they see as years of neglect from the
central government.
Mr Yudhoyono says the decree would ensure the 1.37 billion U.S.
dollars of public money now
being spent annually in the province through state and regional
budgets, was being properly
accounted for.
He says the implementation of special autonomy had faltered in Papua
because of some key
problems.
Copyright © 2006 Radio New Zealand International
- ---
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1644786.htm
Senator demands Govt help Papuan woman
By PNG correspondent Steve Marshall
Greens Senator Kerry Nettle is calling on the Federal Government to
immediately offer help
to a Papuan woman who claims the Indonesian Government sent three men
to Papua New Guinea
(PNG) to locate her.
Siti Wainggai fled to PNG several weeks ago after her young daughter
received a temporary
bridging visa when she arrived in Australia by boat in January.
Ms Wainggai says the Indonesian military threatened to kill her
unless she demanded her
daughter be returned.
Two of the three men were detained by Papua New Guinea police in the
northern town of Weewak
late last week.
During interrogation they admitted that the Indonesian Government
sent them to find Siti
Wainggai.
Just a day earlier another man was escorted out of Weewak, he too
told police the same
story.
Greens Senator Kerry Nettle is calling upon the Australian Government
and immediately step
in and help Siti Wainggai.
"They're certainly not being pro-active at all about ensuring that
this woman's safety is
looked after," she said.
Senator Nettle says the Immigration Department is not doing enough
for her.
"They continue to fall back on the fact that she has not made any
request through their
formal channels to the Australian Government as a reason and a
rationale for them doing
nothing to help her," she said.
None of the three men, who say they were being paid by the Indonesian
Government, have been
arrested and they are no longer in Weewak.
Siti Wainggai's network of supporters say more Indonesians are on
their way.
- ---
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2006/s1644690.htm
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2006/s1644690.htm
Broadcast: 22/05/2006
Men searching for Papuan woman's safe house
Reporter: Steve Marshall
TONY JONES: Well, Lateline recently revealed the plight of the Papuan
woman, Siti Wainggai.
She'd claimed that when her estranged husband and daughter turned up
in Australia with a
boatload of fellow Papuan refugees in January, the Indonesian
intelligence officers
threatened to kill her if she didn't cooperate in calling for the
return of her daughter.
She made the plea on Indonesian television, and then she fled to
neighbouring Papua New
Guinea, where ABC's PNG correspondent Steve Marshall tracked her
down. In her interview with
Lateline, Ms Wainggai explained how she was sure Indonesia had sent
agents into Papua New
Guinea to look for her. Well we can now reveal that, in the past
week, three men, allegedly
in the pay of Indonesia, have been caught trying to locate Ms
Wainggai's safe house. Steve
Marshall reports from Papua New Guinea.
STEVE MARSHALL, PNG CORRESPONDENT: Nick Belagaize was picked up by
PNG police late last week
in Port Moresby and is now at the centre of what's alleged to be a
sinister plot.
REPORTER: Mr Belagaize, what were you doing in Wewak?
NICK BELAGAIZE: I just went to visit my family. That's all. I don't
want to talk.
STEVE MARSHALL: The day before he was taken into custody, Belagaize
had been kicked out of
Wewak, on PNG's North Coast, for asking questions about a woman named
Siti Wainggai, a
refugee from the Indonesian province of Papua.
REPORTER: Are you working for the Indonesian Government?
NICK BELAGAIZE: No, I'm not.
STEVE MARSHALL: Siti Wainggai is the Papuan woman who revealed two
weeks ago on Lateline
that she feared the Indonesian intelligence service wanted to kill
her. When her estranged
husband, Yunos Wainggai, and her daughter, Anike, arrived in
Australia by boat seeking
refugee status in January this year, Ms Wainggai says she was forced
by Indonesian
intelligence officers to make a false appeal for her daughter to be
returned to her in the
Indonesian Province of Papua. Soon after, she fled across the border
to Papua New Guinea.
SITI WAINGGAI, PAPUAN ASYLUM SEEKER (TRANSLATION): I was forced to do
certain things they
wanted me to do.
STEVE MARSHALL: Ms Wainggai also told Lateline that she lived in fear
of being hunted down
by the Indonesians.
SITI WAINGGAI (TRANSLATION): They are sending their own people to
look for me.
STEVE MARSHALL: Nick Belagaize's appearance in Port Moresby for
questioning was the first
inkling that Ms Wainggai's fears were well-founded. According to
sources within PNG
intelligence, Belagaize admitted that the Indonesian Government
bought his plane ticket to
Wewak, gave him spending money, and promised him a lump sum should he
succeed in locating
Siti Wainggai. On the same day that Belagaize was experiencing the
inside of Port Moresby's
Police HQ, two other agents of the Indonesian Government were being
picked up in Wewak.
PHILEMON NUMBERI (TRANSLATION): I came not to take her back, no - I
want to meet her and
talk first.
STEVE MARSHALL: Philemon Numberi and Erwind Age claim they work for
the Indonesian Consulate
in Vanimo, a small PNG town near the Indonesian border. They were
picked up by in Wewak by a
network of locals who protect Siti Wainggai, including PNG police and
defence personnel,
after attempting to find her safe house. Philemon Numberi's
involvement is particularly
suspicious, according to the people looking after Ms Wainggai. When
they interrogated
Numberi, they say he claimed to be a relative of Freddie Numberi,
Indonesia's current
Minister for Fishing, and the only Papuan in President Yudhoyono's
Cabinet.
PHILEMON NUMBERI (TRANSLATION): If I don't obey the boss who said,
"Do that," - I do.
Because if I don't do that he will not give me the money.
STEVE MARSHALL: Though protected by her network of supporters, Siti
Wainggai says she cannot
afford to be complacent.
SITI WAINGGAI (TRANSLATION): I feel certain there will be others to
come. That is why I am
asking to get out of here within a short period of time. I don't want
to stay here too long
because of the way the Indonesians play their game. Not only that - I
am certain there will
be others.
STEVE MARSHALL: Fearing further attempts to get Siti Wainggai back to
Papua, those
protecting her have moved her to another location. They say that
they've received word from
their informants that up to eight men working for the Indonesian
Intelligence Service have
left Indonesia and are on their way to Wewak to locate Siti Wainggai.
According to her
protective network, Siti Wainggai is clearly a woman in danger. They
are appealing to the
Australian Government and the United Nations' Human Rights Commission
for Refugees to aid Ms
Wainggai in her hour of need. At this point, none of the three men
sent to find her have
been charged. Steve Marshall, Lateline.
TONY JONES: And attempts this evening to contact the Indonesian
Foreign Ministry in Jakarta
for comment on that story have, so far, been unsuccessful.
- ---
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19227744-29277,00.h
tml
Papuan woman seeking asylum
May 23, 2006
A PAPUAN woman who fled to PNG after Indonesian intelligence officers
allegedly forced her
to plead for her daughter's return from asylum in Australia is living
in fear and is seeking
help from Australia.
Siti Wainggai is being protected by a network of supporters at a
safehouse in PNG, but she
said she needs to get out of the country as soon as possible before
she is tracked down by
Indonesian authorities.
Earlier this month Ms Wainggai said she was summonsed to the city of
Jayapura in the
Indonesian province of Papua, where intelligence officers forced her
to sign a prepared
statement demanding the return of her daughter.
Her young daughter Anike and the child's father, Herman Wainggai,
were among a boatload of
43 Papuans who arrived at Cape York in January from Papua seeking
refugee status.
Ms Wainggai, who is separated from her husband, appeared on
Indonesian television stating
her daughter was taken to Australia against her will and she should
be returned to Papua.
But she later said she was forced to sign a prepared statement
demanding her daughter's
return and would be killed if she didn't.
Ms Wainggai fled by boat to PNG, where she has been in hiding and
fearful of retribution by
Indonesian authorities.
"They are sending their own people to look for me," Ms Wainggai said.
"I feel certain there will be others to come; that is why I am asking
to get out of here
within a short period of time."
In the past week three men, allegedly in the pay of the Indonesian
government, have been
caught trying to locate Siti Wainggai.
One of the men, Philemon Numberi, who says he works for the
Indonesian consulate in PNG and
is related to Indonesian Fisheries Minister Freddie Numberi, said he
wanted only to talk to
Ms Wainggai.
"I came not to take her back, no," Mr Numberi said. "I want to meet
her and talk first."
None of the three men have been charged.
Ms Wainggai's supporters are appealing to Australian government and
the United Nations Human
Rights Commission for Refugees to help Ms Wainggai.
- ---
http://news.scotsman.com/latest_international.cfm?id=755212006
Australia to include Papua in Indonesian treaty
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia is prepared to recognise Indonesian rule
over troubled Papua
province in a security treaty being planned by the two nations,
Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer said on Sunday.
Relations between the neighbours have been severely strained by
Canberra's decision in March
to grant 42 Papuans asylum after they arrived by boat. Jakarta
recalled its ambassador in
protest.
Leaders of Australia and Indonesia, facing their most serious
disruption in relations since
Australia led a U.N. force to end bloodshed in East Timor after its
1999 independence, plan
to meet soon to discuss the dispute.
Downer told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television that both sides
were working on a new
security agreement that would recognise each nation's territorial
integrity.
"We've always said in the drafts we've provided, there should be a
mutual recognition of
each other's territorial integrity. And that, of course, would
include a recognition of
Papua's integration into Indonesia," Downer said.
"We would be very happy with a provision where Australia formally
recognises Indonesia's
territorial integrity."
The Papua issue is highly sensitive in Indonesia, an island
archipelago which has for
decades fought secessionist movements.
Papuan independence activists have campaigned for more than 30 years
to split from
Indonesia, while a low-level rebellion has also simmered. Human
rights groups accuse Jakarta
of widespread abuses there, and the 42 Papuans who sought asylum said
they feared becoming
victims of genocide. Jakarta denies such charges.
Australia's decision to grant refugee status to the Papuans led to
Jakarta accusing Canberra
of supporting Papua's independence movement.
Talks between foreign ministers from both nations last week eased
tensions, with Downer
again publicly stressing Australia recognised Indonesian rule over
Papua.
The last security deal between Australia and Indonesia was ripped up
when Australia led the
U.N.-backed force into East Timor.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said on Saturday the new
security pact was
expected to guarantee Australia will not interfere in Indonesian
affairs.
He said a draft being worked on included a clause expressing
Australia's commitment to
Indonesian territorial integrity.
Wirajuda said Indonesia's ambassador should return before Australian
Prime Minister John
Howard and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono meet.
He declined to say when and where the talks would be held.
- ---
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0605/S00432.htm
West Papuans in Torres Strait still imprisoned
Monday, 22 May 2006, 8:07 pm
Press Release: Australian Green Party
West Papuans in Torres Strait still imprisoned after 14 days: face
return or imprisonment on
Nauru
Greens Immigration Spokesperson, Senator Kerry Nettle, today
established through questions
in the Senate estimates process that three West Papuan men are still
being detained in the
Torres Strait by the Department of Immigration and face imprisonment
on Nauru if they cannot
be returned to Papua New Guinea.
Departmental officials confirmed that three men are being held in a
hotel in the Torres
Strait Islands guarded by GSL officers; they have made a claim for
asylum in Australia but
have not and may not have that claim assessed.
The department has not yet been able to arrange their return to Papua
New Guinea under the
terms of the 2003 MOU. Departmental head Andrew
Metcalfe confirmed that if continuing attempts to have them returned
to PNG fail they will
be sent to Nauru.
"These men are experiencing the cruel policy of the Howard government
that refuses to deal
with asylum claims instead ejecting potential refugees back to Papua
New Guinea or exile on
Nauru," Senator Nettle said.
"These men should be brought to mainland Australia and have their
claims assessed. Anything
less is cruelly weaselling out of Australia's international
obligations toward refugees.
"The fact is that some West Papuans still face danger in Papua New
Guinea and could be under threat if returned.
"The government is willing to ruin these three lives in order to
appease Indonesia"
- ---
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19215730-1702,00.html?from=rss
Labor seeks Papua treaty details
From: AAP
May 22, 2006
LABOR is demanding to see the fine print of a proposed security
treaty with Indonesia being
negotiated by the Federal Government.
Australia is on the verge of formally recognising Indonesia's control
over West Papua in the
proposed treaty.
Jakarta wants the document to contain a clause where the Australian
Government rejects West
Papuan claims for independence.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said the Government had no
issue with including the
clause in the proposed treaty, which had been agreed upon in a
closed-door meeting with his
Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirajuda in Singapore.
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said the Government
was "all over the place"
when it came to its relationship with Indonesia and the sovereignty
of West Papua.
"It's fair to say that Indonesia for a long period of time has
questioned whether Australia
is fair dinkum about the sovereignty of Jakarta over West Papua," Mr
Rudd said.
"But in terms of what is currently on the table, these are major
matters and I haven't seen
anything in black and white yet from either Mr Downer or the
Indonesian Government.
"I want to do that before I respond to any abstract proposal from our
fearless foreign
minister."
Mr Rudd criticised Mr Downer's recent negotiations with Indonesia as
"thought-bubbles" on
the run.
He also said he would be taking up the issue with the Indonesian
embassy in Australia.
With Australia anxious to help Jakarta battle Islamic terrorism, the
treaty will lay out a
framework for a new era of co-operation between the Australian
Defence Force and the
powerful Indonesian military.
- ---
http://www.tempointeraktif.com/hg/nasional/2006/05/19/brk,20060519-777
06,uk.html
Freeport's Work Contract Questionable
Friday, 19 May, 2006 | 14:06 WIB
TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) assumes
the composition of PT
Freeport Indonesia's work contract is inaccurate so Freeport has the
potential to put the
state at a loss.
"Review Freeport's royalty payment and regular deposit," Baharuddin
Aritonang, a BPK member,
told Tempo yesterday.
The result from BPK's audit on the management of the non-tax state
revenue at the Department
of Energy and Mineral Resources and Freeport budget year 2004 and the
first half of 2005
reveals that Indonesia has not yet received an optimal profit from
the work contract of the
copper and gold mining project in Papua.
Regarding royalty payment, for example, the government may lose
revenues amounting to
US$2.23 million. The state also has the potential to lose revenues
amounting to US$14.4
million because the Department of Energy and Mineral Resources has
been inaccurate in
arranging the work contract. The state auditors also conclude that
Freeport's royalty
payments from 2003 and 2004 was in arrears US$ 369,490.
Baharudin said, the government and the DPR Commission for Mining,
especially the Freeport
Working Committee, must follow up the findings.
Baharuddin said, if this is not followed up, whether the shortfall of
Freeport's deposit and
royalty were intentional or not, will never be known. "Mistakes can
be made by either
Freeport or the government (Department of Energy and Mineral
Resources)."
Baharuddin continued, the government must also ask Freeport to pay
the deficit. "It is part
of Freeport's debt to the state."
According to Baharuddin, BPK findings can be important input for the
government to improve
the work contract with Freeport.
The urgency for the government to revise the work contract with
Freeport was strengthening
these last months. The trigger is the Papuans being dissatisfied with
the US mining
company's existence. This dissatisfaction resulted in rioting in
Abepura and then in
Jakarta. Several communities urged the government to audit Freeport
and revise its work
contract. The DPR then responded by forming the Freeport Working
Committee.
Freeport's spokesperson, Siddharta Moersjid, when asked for
confirmation yesterday admitted
having heard recently about BPK findings. However, he said Freeport's
management is prepared
to clarify if there is anything from the audit results that needs to
be straightened out.
Freeport's management, Siddharta explained, has not received the
government's request
regarding the shortfall of royalty payment and other deposits. He is
certain that Freeport
will coordinate with the related officials in Jakarta.
Agus Supriyanto, Budiriza, and Padjar
- ---
The Age (Melbourne)
Monday, May 22, 2006
West Papua supporters angry at treaty plan
By Andra Jackson
A PROPOSED security treaty guaranteeing Australia would not interfere
in
Indonesian affairs has been condemned, with human rights activists
saying violence
in West Papua has claimed the lives of two more civilians in the past
week.
A 65-year-old man was shot in the head and a 47-year-old man died of
multiple
gunshot wounds during a protest last week, according to Indonesian
human
rights organisation Elsham.
The planned treaty is expected to include a clause that will ensure
Australia
does not intervene in Indonesian affairs, a move aimed at reassuring
Indonesia that the Federal Government will not back independence
movements in West
Papua.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the Government had no problem
including the clause in the treaty, which was agreed on at a meeting
in Singapore with
his Indonesian counterpart, Hassan Wirajuda.
"A component of (the treaty), we've always said in the drafts we've
provided,
should be a mutual recognition of each other's territorial
integrity," Mr
Downer told ABC television. "That, of course, would include a
recognition of
Papua's integration into Indonesia."
Mr Downer said he expected Prime Minister John Howard and Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to meet in Indonesia in the next
few weeks.
The Australian Greens and Papuan independence supporters have
condemned the
treaty. Australia West Papua Association spokesman Joe Collins said
Australia
should not be negotiating a security agreement to restore military
relations
with Indonesia "while West Papuans are continuing to be killed".
West Papuan Baptist minister Sofyan Yoman said he had seen evidence
that
Indonesian police had tortured and killed student Danny Weny, whose
body was found
on March 26. -- With AAP
- ---
The Age (Melbourne)
Monday, May 22, 2006
Indonesia lashes universities
By Sarah Smiles, David Rood and Adam Morton.
Accused of supporting West Papuan independence, two Victorian
universities may lose their Indonesian students.
photo: RMIT intends to raise the matter of withdrawing students with
the Indonesian consul-general. Erin Jonasson
THOUSANDS of students stand to suffer from a fallout over West Papuan
independence which threatens to stem the flow of Indonesian students
to Australian institutions.
The Indonesian Ministry of National Education has frozen ties with
RMIT and Deakin University and is considering suspending the
accreditation of Indonesian students taking courses at the two
institutions.
There are more than 3000 Indonesian students studying at Victorian
universities, with a total of 7551 nationally.
Indonesia has accused two Indonesian specialists at Deakin, Damien
Kingsbury and Scott Burchill, of promoting separatism in West Papua.
It also black-listed RMIT, saying the Papuan Morning Star flag of
independence was unfurled on its campus, and accusing it of
supporting
West Papuan separatists.
RMIT has said it is unaware of any flag being raised on its campuses,
and vice-chancellor Margaret Gardner plans to raise the matter with
the Indonesian consul-general.
"All we can do is ask on what basis this has occurred and to point
out
we do not officially hold a position," Professor Gardner said.
Leading international expert Simon Marginson has warned that the
disputes "cast a shadow" over other Australian institutions,
threatening enrolments.
"Students are going to worry if the Indonesian Government is going to
ban somewhere else next," he said.
A spokesman for the Indonesian embassy in Canberra said the majority
of Indonesian students in Australia study at RMIT and Deakin.
RMIT has about 900 Indonesian students. Deakin would not reveal its
Indonesian student numbers.
A letter outlining the charges, obtained by The Age, said that
details
about the flag being flown at RMIT were reported to the Indonesian
embassy by its consulate in Melbourne.
An embassy spokesman defended the right of Jakarta to cut ties with
both universities.
"Deakin University reaps advantages from Indonesia, and if we
co-operate with Deakin we should have advantages," he said. "If
that's
unbalanced, then why should this co-operation go on further?"
The dispute between Jakarta and the universities follows Australia's
decision to grant protection visas to 42 Papuan asylum seekers who
arrived in January. This led to an uproar in Jakarta, which withdrew
its ambassador to Australia in protest.
President of the National Tertiary Education Union, Carolyn Allport,
said the dispute would be raised at a forthcoming international
university union meeting to press Indonesia over academic freedom.
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