[Kabar-Irian] News: May 24-26 2006
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May 24-26 2006
KABAR IRIAN NEWS
TOPICS
* Tribal Leader Renews Calls At UN For Self-Determination
* UNHCR 'barred' from Papua
* Quake jolts Indonesia's Jayapura, one dead
* Canberra Refuses Papuan Activist Wainggai's Asylum Bid
* W Papuan supporters protest
* Semi-naked Papuans lead asylum protest
* Democrats slam Papua asylum claim denial
* Indonesian MPs question Aust ambassador over Papua
* Amien Rais, Wiranto discuss Papua with regional representatives council
* Strong quake rocks Papua, causing panic
* Timor and the difficult art of nation building
* Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 5th Session: Benny Wenda
- ---
WEST PAPUA: Tribal Leader Renews Calls At UN For Self-Determination
Wednesday: May 24, 2006
(RNZI/PacNews) - The leader of the Koteka Tribal Assembly of West Papua,
Benny Wenda, is
reiterating calls for the United Nation to recognise Papuans right to self
determination,
Radio New Zealand International reports.
He said the U.N. should send a peacekeeping mission to the Indonesian
province of Papua.
Mr Wenda's statement was presented during the current session of the U.N's
Permanent Forum
on Indigenous Issues.
He said the forum should also asked the U.N. to carry out a review of the
so called 1969 Act
of Free Choice, hold a genuine referendum on the right to self
determination and place Papua
on Decolonisation list.
Mr Wenda said he is asking on behalf of all Papuans not to be forgotten and
that they should
have the right to determine their future.
Source: http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=24275
- ---
Last Update: Friday, May 26, 2006. 2:20pm (AEST)
UNHCR 'barred' from Papua
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1648283.htm
The United Nations refugee agency says it is concerned about reports of
human rights abuses
in the Indonesian province of Papua but its officials cannot gain access to
the region.
The UNHCR's regional representative, Neil Wright, has appeared before a
Senate inquiry into
Australia's planned immigration law changes.
Mr Wright told the hearing the UN has received an approach from Papuan
asylum seeker Siti
Wanggai, whose daughter has been given asylum in Australia.
Ms Wanggai, who is in hiding in Papua New Guinea, claims she was forced to
make an appeal to
have her daughter returned to Indonesia.
Mr Wright would not give further details of the case.
He says the UNHCR has been refused access to Papua.
"I can confirm that, despite repeated requests, the UNHCR has not been
given permission by
the Government in Jakarta to have access to West Papua," he said.
"We do not have direct information from there.
"We do, of course, have information coming from those who cross into Papua
New Guinea and
are interviewed by us."
- ---
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-05/25/content_4601185.htm
Quake jolts Indonesia's Jayapura, one dead
www.chinaview.cn 2006-05-25 23:12:10
JAKARTA, May 25 (Xinhua) -- A tectonic earthquake measuring 4.6 on the
Richter scale
jolted Indonesia's Papua provincial capital of Jayapura and Sarmi Wednesday
evening, causing
one dead and hundreds of people to flee to upland areas, the Antara news
agency reported
Thursday evening.
　　Syamsul, a rubbish truck driver in Sarmi regency, died of
heart
attack during the tremor,
which took place at 7:11 p.m. (12:11 GMT), and over 200 peoples in Mararena
village, Sarmi,
rushed to seek considered safer places in fear of tsunami. But they
returned to their home
Thursday morning.
Peoples living in lowland areas in Mararena fled in panic as the quake
shook the regency
because their areas are vulnerable to high tide following a quake, Antara
said.
All areas in Papua province, except Merauke regency, are vulnerable to
earthquakes and
storms, head of Jayapura Office of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency
(BMG) Erasmus
Kayadu said Thursday.
The Jayapura Office of the BMG has installed tsunami early warning
devices and
earthquake monitoring instruments in six locations, Merauke, Jayapura,
Sentani, Dosay,
Sorong and Ambon. Enditem
Editor: Luan Shanglin
- ---
Canberra Refuses Papuan Activist Wainggai's Asylum Bid
The Age (Melbourne)
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Canberra Refuses Bid for Asylum
By Jewel Topsfield, Canberra, and Penelope Debelle
WEST Papuan independence activist David Wainggai, one of 43 asylum seekers
who fled from Indonesia in January claiming persecution by the military,
has
been refused protection in Australia.
The Federal Government yesterday sidestepped the inflammatory issue of West
Papuan independence by refusing a visa for Mr Wainggai whose mothher
was
born in Japan on the grounds he had the right to live in Japan.
A lawyer for Mr Wainggai, David Manne, angrily dismissed the decision as
"baseless in law and fact", saying there was no evidence that he would even
be allowed into Japan.
"He has no rights to Japanese nationality, he doesn't have the right to go
there,
he doesn't even have a valid passport," Mr Manne said.
While the other 42 West Papuans were granted temporary protection visas in
March, Mr Wainggai, 29, has remained in detention on Christmas Island while
the Immigration Department determined whether he could be owed protection
by Japan.
Mr Manne said Mr Wainggai's mother had renounced her Japanese citizenship
in the 1960s. "He is in an extremely precarious position with nowhere to
go,"
Mr Manne said.
"He is extremely distressed, the tyranny of distance and detention is
taking
its
toll. He intends to strenuously pursue all of his legal rights to appeal
this
decision."
In its finding, the Immigration Department said that Mr Wainggai, the son
of
a
founder of the Papuan independence movement, had a well-founded fear of
persecution on the grounds of his political opinions, if he was returned to
Papua.
The Immigration Minister, Amanda Vanstone, said the refusal of the visa was
not
a comment on his claim as a refugee.
Without naming Japan, she said the third country was a signatory nation to
the
UN Convention and offered him the right to re-enter and live there without
fear of
being returned to West Papua. "I can assure you the Government had
government-to-government discussions," Senator Vanstone said.
But Mr Manne said there had been concrete evidence for many years that
claims
were not properly processed by Japan, putting asylum seekers at serious
risk
of being returned to the place of persecution.
Mr Wainggai will have the right to appeal the decision to the Independent
Refugee Review Tribunal. He arrived by canoe at Cape York Peninsula on
January
18.
The grant of temporary protection visas to the other 42 West Papuans
angered
Indonesia and led to Australia shifting future refugee decisions offshore.
- ---
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19261683-29277,00.html
W Papuan supporters protest
From: AAP
May 26, 2006
SUPPORTERS of a West Papuan man denied a temporary protection visa will
deliver a protest
letter to immigration officials and hold a prayer service in Melbourne
today.
Forty-three West Papuan asylum seekers landed at Cape York in January. All
but one of them
were granted temporary protection visas (TPVs) by the Federal Government in
March, sparking
a diplomatic row with Indonesia.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said on Wednesday while the 43rd
Papuan, currently in
detention on Christmas Island, could appeal against the decision,
investigations had shown
he had not exhausted his options to live in another country.
The Government would not identify the man but his supporters say he is
David Wainggai, 29,
the son of a pro-independence movement leader who died as a political
prisoner in Indonesia.
It is believed Mr Wainggai's mother is a Japanese citizen living in
Jakarta.
Mr Wainggai's cousin, Herman Wainggai, will raise the West Papuan Morning
Star flag outside
the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) Melbourne
office at 10am
(AEST) as supporters look on.
He will then deliver the letter.
Herman Wainggai said he had been jailed in Indonesia for raising the flag
in West Papua, an
offence considered an act of treason.
"I thanking the Australian Government for giving me and my friends
protection visas. This
has saved our lives," he said.
"But I ask please also give a visa to David. He, just like us, needs
protection from
Indonesia government (sic)."
Supporters will then head to St Ignatius Catholic Church in Richmond at
noon, where Father
Peter Norden will lead prayers for West Papua and East Timor.
Many of the 42 Papuan TPV holders have found accommodation at St Ignatius
Church, which was
the focus for protests against last year's execution in Singapore of
convicted drug courier
Nguyen Tuong Van.
"We believe that David should have been able to join the rest of the group,
and the fact
that he is the son of a leader of the West Papuan independence movement
should certainly not
have influenced the Australian government's rejection of his claim," Father
Norden said.
Lawyers for Mr Wainggai appeared before the Federal Magistrates Court
earlier this month
seeking court orders compelling Senator Vanstone to make a decision on his
claim for asylum.
They claimed Australia was using the man as a pawn to improve its standing
with Indonesia,
which recalled its Canberra-based ambassador following the Government's
decision to grant
asylum to the other 42 Papuans.
- ---
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Seminaked-Papuans-lead-asylum-protes
t/2006/05/26/1148
524849299.html
Semi-naked Papuans lead asylum protest
May 26, 2006 - 8:34AM
Four semi-naked Papuans personally delivered a letter of protest to
Immigration Minister
Amanda Vanstone's Melbourne office.
City workers stopped and stared as the men, three wearing grass skirts and
one an
eye-popping penis gourd, danced and played traditional folk songs before
entering the halls
of power.
In March, 42 Papuan refugee activists were given temporary protection by
the federal
government, with only one denied protection and detained on Christmas
Island.
Friday's protest outside the Department of Immigration and Multicultural
Affairs (DIMA) was
part of a bid to make Senator Vanstone rethink the government's decision to
refuse the 43rd
asylum seeker a temporary protection visa.
The protesters symbolically flew the West Papuan Morning Star flag - an act
which can lead
to imprisonment in Indonesia.
The Papuans say the 43rd asylum seeker is David Wainggai, whose father, the
founder of the
West Papua Independence movement, died in prison.
Mr Wainggai's cousin, Herman Wainggai, said the government's decision
saddened him.
He said as student activists, all the asylum seekers would be open to
persecution if they
were forcibly returned to Indonesia.
When asked what would happen to his cousin if he was returned to Indonesia,
Herman Wainggai
said he would go to jail.
"Not maybe, but one hour later, if you send him back to Indonesia," he
said.
Announcing the government's decision to deny the 43rd asylum seeker
protection on Wednesday,
Senator Vanstone said the person - who she has refused to identify - had
not exhausted all
avenues to reside elsewhere.
"This person does have the right to re-enter and live in another country,"
she said.
"The person has not yet exhausted their rights to re-enter and live in
another country."
The other Papuans believe the government want to send Mr Wainggai to Japan
because his
mother was born there.
But they say his mother denounced her Japanese citizenship some years ago
and currently
lives in Jakarta.
"David has no Japanese passport and his Indonesian passport is finished,"
Herman Wainggai
said in his letter on behalf of the asylum seekers to Senator Vanstone.
"We and all of David's family are very worried that if he is sent to Japan
... when his visa
finishes he will be forced to go back to Indonesia."
The protest was followed by a prayer service for David Wainggai at St
Ignatius Church in
Richmond.
In a moving service, which included more Papuan folk songs and communion,
Father Peter
Norden called on the government to rethink its decision.
"We particularly pray that the heart of the Australian government might
change so that David
Wainggai can join his community of West Papuans here in Melbourne," he
said.
A spokesman for Senator Vanstone was not immediately available for comment.
Mr Wainggai's lawyer, David Mann, from the Refugee and Immigration Legal
Centre, said his
client was considering all his legal options, and would apply to the
Refugee Review Tribunal
to have his case heard.
He said the decision was baseless, asserting his client had the right to go
to Japan, when
in fact, he does not.
"The minister's delegate has made specific findings that our client does
need protection
from being returned to West Papua or anywhere in Indonesia," Mr Mann said.
© 2006 AAP
- ---
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Democrats-slam-Papua-asylum-claim-de
nial/2006/05/24/1
148150318232.html
Democrats slam Papua asylum claim denial
May 24, 2006
The Australian Democrats condemned the government's decision not to grant a
visa to the last
of 43 West Papuan asylum seekers.
Forty-two other Papuans, who landed at Cape York in January, were granted
temporary
protection visas (TPVs) in March, sparking a diplomatic row with Indonesia.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said while the 43rd Papuan, currently
in detention on
Christmas Island, could appeal against the decision, investigations had
shown he had not
exhausted his options to live in another country.
The man is believed to be the 29-year-old son of a prominent
pro-independence movement
leader in Papua and his mother is understood to be a Japanese citizen
living in Jakarta.
Democrats foreign affairs spokeswoman Natasha Stott Despoja said the
government was simply
appeasing Indonesian concerns at the expense of human rights.
She said it was important Australia stood up for human rights in the
region.
Lawyers for the man appeared before the Federal Magistrates Court earlier
this month seeking
court orders compelling Senator Vanstone to make a decision on his claim
for asylum.
They claimed Australia was using the man as a pawn to improve its standing
with Indonesia,
which recalled its Canberra-based ambassador following the government's
decision to grant
asylum to the other 42 Papuans.
© 2006 AAP
- ---
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200605/s1645774.htm
Last Update: Wednesday, May 24, 2006. 6:13am (AEST)
Indonesian MPs question Aust ambassador over Papua
By Indonesia correspondent Geoff Thompson
Indonesian parliamentarians have told Australia's ambassador to Jakarta
they will be
watching closely to see how proposed changes to asylum laws work in
practice.
Bill Farmer told the Indonesian Parliamentary Commission responsible for
foreign affairs
that Australia opposes Papuan separatism.
Last night Mr Farmer appeared before Commission One of Indonesia's
Parliament and said that
Australia supported a united Indonesia and had no interest in the country's
fragmentation.
"We have no interest in separatism, we oppose separatism," he said.
The commission's deputy chairman Amris Hassan welcomed Australia's "Pacific
Solution" for
future asylum seekers but said Australia's intervention in East Timor left
some in doubt.
"It is good in paper, it is good what we heard, but it has to be seen yet
how it is
implemented later on," he said.
Mr Farmer said Australia supports special autonomy for Papua.
- ---
Amien Rais, Wiranto discuss Papua with regional representatives council
Jakarta (ANTARA News)* - Former People`s Consultative Assembly (MPR)
chairman Amien Rais and former military chief Gen.(ret) Wiranto here
Tuesday discussed the Papua issue with a special committee of the
Regional Representatives Council (DPD).
In the discussion, Amien focused on the work contract of US-based giant
mining company PT Freeport in Papua province saying that the first
contract signed in 1967 had caused the state to suffer huge financial
loss because 90 percent of the company`s shares was owned by the US
company.
The second contract signed in 1995 for the next 30 years still did not
reflect fairness in the distribution of benefits where the US company
was still holding 90 percent of the stakes.
"After more than 30 years, our gold and copper deposits have been
exploited by the foreign company while we have let the wrong-doing
practice for the next 30 years," he said.
He predicted in the next 30 years all of the natural resources in Papua
would be depleted while Papuans would still be living as in the stone-age.
Therefore, he said, the government should be brave to make some
revisions to PT Freeport`s work contract.
Meanwhile, Wiranto focused on the internationalisation of the Papua
issue by some groups in some countries such as in Australia, Europe and
in the US.
The groups used such similar tricks when there was a movement to
separate East Timor province from Indonesia in the past time.
Therefore, he suggested for the national intelligent agency to sharpen
its operation in overseas in order to stem the efforts of some parties
for the Papua`s disintegration.
According to Wiranto, the Indonesian government should implement the Law
on Papua Special Autonomy consistently. (*)
May 23 20:44
Copyright © 2006 ANTARA
- ---
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19250280-401,00.html?from=rss
Strong quake rocks Papua, causing panic
From: Agence France-Presse
- From correspondents in Jakarta
May 25, 2006
A STRONG earthquake rocked parts of Indonesia's province of Papua, causing
panic among
residents, but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.
The 6.0-magnitude quake that struck at 8.11pm (AEST) last night was centred
about 190km west
of Papua's capital Jayapura, said Slamet Suyitno Rahardjo of the local
Meteorology and
Geophysics Agency.
He said the quake's epicentre was about 40km beneath the ground, and it had
strongly jolted
Sarmi, a coast district town, and Jayapura.
"Many residents in Sarmi had fled their houses in panic," Rahardjo said
from his office in
Jayapura, about 3800km northeast of Jakarta. "We hope they have returned
home because the
quake did not trigger any tsunami."
Sarmi, on the northern coast of the island, is about 250km northwest of
Jayapura.
Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval
due to its location
on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of volcanoes and fault
lines encircling the
Pacific Basin.
- ---
http://www.crikey.com.au/articles/2006/05/26-1444-7372.html
Politics
Timor and the difficult art of nation building
By Christian Kerr
Will this week's Timor intervention diminish the heat on the Government
over West Papua?
Date: 26 May 2006
The West Papua issue has already plunged relations between Australia and
Indonesia to their
lowest point since the 1999 independence referendum. The bilateral
relationship and the
rule of President Yudhoyono could be crippled by another schism with
our northern
neighbour.
There are terrible events occurring in West Papua but realpolitik may
give the Government
an out.
West Papua is different to East Timor. Indonesia's incorporation of West
Papua is recognised
by the United Nations and the international community. The former colonial
power, the
Netherlands, supports Indonesian sovereignty. The West Papuan independence
movement is not a
coherent force. There are not clear leaders of the type that emerged from
East Timor's
struggles. The territory is hopelessly divided into a myriad of language
groups.
And that's just for starters. We are seeing a terrible demonstration of the
difficulties of
nation building in East Timor. West Papua is even more lacking in the human
resources and
skills needed to build civil society and create liberal democracy.
Up to 40% of West Papua's population is the product of internal migration
from other parts
of the Indonesia archipelago. Independence could result in ethnic cleansing
with
infinitely greater and more prolonged violence than we are seeing in East
Timor.
Australia was slow to react when ethnic tensions in the Solomons first
appeared in the late
nineties. We mismanaged East Timor in 1999. Civil society in Papua New
Guinea is breaking
down.
Can we risk the unravelling of Indonesia, the world's most populous Islamic
nation? Can we
risk the creation of a new state doomed to fail from birth on our doorstep?
East Timor and our Pacific commitments will be enough. Realpolitik will
ensure West Papua
remains part of Indonesia for now.
- ---
See: http://www.fpcn-global.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=175
United Nations
Economic and Social Council
Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
Fifth Session
New York, 15-26 May 2006
Item 4(b) of the Agenda
Human Rights
Dear Chair, Ancestral owners of the land we stand on, elders, leaders,
Government
representatives and ladies and gentlemen.
Today I must present the statement of Benny Wenda the leader of the Koteka
Tribal Assembly,
in West Papua. Benny has asked me to say to you how sorry he is that he
cannot be here today
but his visa application is still being processed. Benny has also asked me
to formally
acknowledge with heartfelt thanks the support offered to him by the United
Nations Voluntary
Fund.
We very much hope that Benny will be able to be at future meetings.
First, we wish to give our full backing to the joint statement from the
Pacific Caucus
This is Bennys statement:
My dear brothers and sisters, to all of you gathered in New York for the
Fifth Session of
the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues I send warm greetings - from my
own people, the
Lani of the Central Highlands of West Papua, and from the people of all 252
tribes which
together make up my country WEST PAPUA. It is very good to be able to
be able to send a
message to you and to share with you the story of our continuing struggle
to survive as
peoples.
This meeting is here to discuss many issues but especially the human rights
of indigenous
peoples. My brothers and sisters let me share with you what is happening
in Papua. In 1963
Indonesia invaded our land. The Papuan peoples resisted as best we could
with bows and
arrows against planes and tanks. Many, many of us died.
In 1969 the United Nations recognised that Papuans had a right to
self-determination. An Act
of Free Choice was held in Papua to determine Papuan future. We call it the
Act of NO
Choice? Why? Because we were terribly betrayed. There was no act of
self-determination, no
act of free choice. Out of a population of 800,000 people Indonesia picked
1025 individuals
and told them to vote in favour of West Papua becoming a part of the
Indonesia State. These
individuals were threatened with having their tongues cut out and
threatened with death if
they did not vote yes to joining with Indonesia.
Since the Indonesian invasion, successive regimes in Jakarta, from Sukarno
and Suharto to
Megawati and Yudhoyono, have pursued a policy of settling a million
Javanese in our lands
but West Papua is our land, it is the home of our ancestors and it is
sacred to us. For
thousands of years we have taken care of our mountains and rivers and
forests. We know that
we are not Masters of Nature but part of Nature. We know that the Earth is
our Mother
because she gives us everything we need to live. When we tend our gardens,
hunt or cut wood
for houses, we do it with utmost respect for our Mother.
We are tribal peoples with thousands of years of culture but Indonesia
treats us with
contempt and our human rights are violated every day. Hundreds of thousands
of Papuans have
been imprisoned, tortured or killed since the Indonesian invasion.
I ask you on behalf of all of Papuas, please do not forget us. We are among
the last peoples
on earth to be denied our right to self-determination. Article 1, the very
first article of
the United Nations Charter, speaks of self-determination as the basis of
peace.
Today, in the home of the United Nations, I ask you please to help us to
fulfil our right to
self-determination and to live peacefully and with friendly relations
towards all.
1. PLEASE ask the United Nations to carry out a review of the 1969 Act of
Free Choice.
2. PLEASE ask the United Nations to hold a genuine referendum, to give us,
the tribal
peoples of West Papua a real chance to exercise our right to
self-determination. That right
is guaranteed and supported by the UN charter, the resolutions of the UN
General Assembly,
the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights, the International
Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and so many other international
statements. All we ask
is the chance to exercise our fundamental right to determine freely our
political status and
to freely pursue our economic, social and cultural development.
3. PLEASE ask the General Assembly to send a Peace Keeping Mission to West
Papua.
4. I would also like to ask the Permanent Forum to formally request the
states in the
General Assembly to recommend West Papua be placed on the decolonisation
list.
My dear brothers and sisters despite our suffering, we, the Papuan peoples
remain strong and
united.
We know that we will be free because we know with all our heart that we are
Papuans and that
West Papua is our Land
given to our ancestors, to us and to our children
and grandchildren.
Thank you.
Benny Wenda
Chair of DeMMaK (The Koteka Tribal Assembly)
International Lobbyist in the UK for a Free West Papua
PO Box 656, Oxford OX3 3AP England UK
Mobile: +44 (0) 7791629782
Email: bwenda@infopapua.org
Web: http://www.infopapua.org
- ---
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