[Kabar-Irian] News: Dec 13-17 2007
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KABAR IRIAN NEWS
Dec 13-17 2007
TOPICS
* Respecting the rights of indigenous people
* RI needs 'political will' to combat torture and ill-treatment
* US Intelligence Personnel Tap Indonesian Phones
* Giving Voice to Aspirations
* West Papuans – action needed
* Govt bans, confiscates book on Papuan political struggle
* Political book banned and seized in Papua amid fear of unrest
* 3.5 Billion People Face Risk of Dengue by 2080, Warns UN Panel on
Climate Change
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/climate/index.php?menu=stories&detail=148
Wednesday, December 12, 2007 11:46:39 AM
Respecting the rights of indigenous people
NUSA DUA, Bali (JP): Never before has the development and the environment
discourse shifted so
dramatically as in the last six months.
Global recognition of the human contributions to climate change is leading
to unprecedented responses
from citizens, governments, and private corporations.
An important question is will these responses be too little too late? A
more immediate and urgent
question is who will be the winners and losers on the new climate change
mitigation and adaptation
playing field?
By many estimates, Indonesia is one of the world's leading emitters of
carbon dioxide, the most
prevalent of the global warming gases. This is due to the large amounts of
carbon that are released into
the atmosphere through peat and forestland logging and clearing for palm
oil and pulp wood plantations.
As the host of the 13th UN Conference of Parties to the Framework
Convention on Climate Change,
Indonesia is under pressure to demonstrate a real commitment to addressing
its land-based emissions
of greenhouse gases.
The first and least complicated way for Indonesia to show leadership and
significantly reduce land-
based emissions is to take steps to protect peat forests from conversion
to plantations. This will require a
change in Indonesia's development strategy that currently allows
plantation companies to convert forests
to establish new plantations.
The second and more complicated approach to reducing land-based emissions
is to significantly reduce
deforestation.
Keeping in mind the millions of easy dollars that flow from logging
operations and natural forest
conversion to agriculture, it is clear that this cannot be accomplished
without significant compensation to
those who forgo the opportunity and perhaps their right to log and convert
their forest areas. This is
particularly difficult since it is not legally clear just who has the
right to forego these opportunities.
Conventional wisdom (status quo) points directly to the central
government, forest and agricultural
industries and to a somewhat lesser extent, local governments as the
stakeholders who will require
compensation for the foregone opportunities. Should this prevail, once
again we will see millions of rural
Indonesians marginalized and under even greater threat of losing their land.
As the World Bank scrambles to take the lead in managing large
multilateral funds aimed at addressing
the climate crisis, and bilateral development assistance redefines
priorities and programs to fit into new
climate change mitigation and adaptation frameworks and the voluntary
carbon market expands, a
question that continues to be ignored is, will this impressive response
improve or threaten the lives of
local rural peoples?
The recently released UNDP report makes a convincing case of how without
serious attention and
commitment by the government of Indonesia, its poorest people will suffer
most as the climate changes.
The report highlights the large amount of investments that will be needed
to assist the poor to adapt.
What is missing in the presentation is discussion of the political
commitment that is required to ensure
that Indonesia's rural poor benefit rather than suffer from the financial
flows for avoiding deforestation,
and adapting to climate change, that will likely result from the post-Bali
scenarios.
The provinces of Papua and West Papua are at this time the best example.
They take the position that
the land and natural resources of the province are under the ownership of
Adat or indigenous
communities.
Like most provinces in the "outer islands" the majority of the provincial
territory is classified "forest
area". In the case of Papua and West Papua, the designated forest area is
more than 95 percent of the
land base. This classification, in accordance with the 1999 forest law,
falls under the authority of the
Ministry of Forestry to determine. The problem originates from what comes
next.
According to the same law, "forest area" does not mean "state forest
area". To be classified as a State
Forest Area, a given forest must be determined to have no rights existing
over the land. The law requires
a well-defined process to be implemented by the Ministry of Forestry to
determine whether or not any
such rights exist in a particular forest area.
Currently, only 10 percent of the 120 million hectares of forest area has
been fully gazetted as State
Forest Area, leaving the status of the remaining 90 percent of forests
undetermined.
An equally important provision of the forestry law allows for the
existence of "private forests".
These are areas where land rights over the forest area exist. In the case
of Papua, the provincial
government clearly states that they view indigenous communities as having
land rights over the territories
that the Ministry of Forestry has classified as forest areas. As a result,
local Papuan communities, by
law should have a full say over anything and everything that is planned
within their territories. This
includes timber concessions, timber plantations, agribusiness such as palm
oil estates, and any
arrangements that are made to maintain forests through avoided
deforestation mechanisms.
A post-Bali challenge for Indonesia will be to legally define and
recognize the rights of the end
users/beneficiaries, in this case referring to benefits flows derived from
reduced emissions from
degradation and deforestation (REDD).
Without a legally consistent and verifiable system of benefits flows, any
kind of REDD scheme will fail.
This will require the recognition of communities who have proprietary
rights over the areas in question.
While the evolving legal and policy analysis continues to support the
position of local peoples' rights over
their natural resources, particularly land, the resistance from Jakarta
remains formidable. This is where
a significant change in government policy is required. It is legally
consistent and appropriate for the
government to devolve responsibility for land titling to the Land
Administration Agency (BPN) and the
protection of forest functions (biodiversity, hydrology, production, etc)
to the Ministry of Forestry.
As REDD funds begin to flow, the question of communal title becomes
critical. This deals with the
fundamental question of who are the final beneficiaries in the chain.
Unless this question is dealt with,
the risk of only causing greater conflict over land will increase.
Another question is whether, in the short term, the Indonesian government
can manage a working
administrative and judicial system that will validate the legal basis for
communal title in areas where it
matters most.
Only then can financial flows aimed at mitigating and adapting local land
use in the context of carbon
management be effective and socially just. (Avi Mahaningtyas and Chip Fay)
Avi Mahaningtyas is National Coordinator GEF SGP Indonesia and can be
reached at avi@indo.net.id.
Chip Fay is Senior Policy Analyst with the Southeast Asia office of the
World Agroforestry Center in
Bogor, Indonesia and can be contacted at cfay@cgiar.org. The opinion
expressed is personal.
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20071212.G04&irec=3
RI needs 'political will' to combat torture and ill-treatment
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or
punishment, Manfred Nowak, recently made a two-week visit to Indonesia on
invitation from the
Indonesian government. The Jakarta Post's Lovelli Ariesti interviewed Nowak.
Question: What did you expect to find in relation to torture and
ill-treatment in Indonesia before arriving
here?
Answer: I should say in the beginning I had the feeling that most cases of
torture and ill-treatment would
actually be related to conflict areas, like Aceh, Poso and Papua. But my
findings are the opposite.
Particularly in Papua -- those who were engaged in political activities,
like raising the flag, and
sentenced for treason, as well as other political suspects, are better
treated than ordinary criminal
suspects. I only found a few cases (involving) allegations of torture that
could be corroborated by
medical evidence in Papua.
But in general I would say that the conditions in Abepura and Waimena
prisons are extremely liberal.
They are very open prisons, even for the so-called political detainees. I
could speak to them openly and
they could communicate with the outside world. They all had mobile phones
and they could even leave
the prison and come back. That's what I mean by a liberal system.
In Jakarta, the (number of) prisoners are two to three times the prison's
capacity. About 3,500 prisoners
are crammed into small prisons. The new arrivals are kept in huge rooms
for weeks, even months, sitting
together under very bad conditions. They are also subjected to
disciplinary punishments and locked up
in small isolation cells made for one person. There's no fresh air and not
much light. I could only call this
(kind of) treatment inhuman. So you have really, really big differences.
My main point is there are not enough leading safeguards to prevent or
combat torture. We can't bring
perpetrators of torture to justice and that creates a very broad range of
discretion for the respective
police chiefs or prison directors.
Indonesia has a judicial system that is not yet independent, and this
hampers legal approaches to
resolving human rights violations. What do you think about this?
We also received many allegations that the judicial system in general, the
administration of criminal
justice, is very corrupt. And we could directly testify to that. The
Cipinang Prison, for instance, is so
corrupt that the detainees have to pay the prison guards for everything.
Sometimes even only for being
allowed to sleep there, although they are required to sleep there. And we
heard the same allegations in
relation to prosecutors and judges.
So the general theme that you're always going to encounter is that if you
have money you can find your
way. So of course, that system of corruption leads to strong
discrimination of the poor. There's no
question about that.
So my recommendations would be, of course, to strengthen the independence
of judges and to provide
prisoners with more direct access to lawyers. I think we have to reduce
the high number of pre-trial
detainees by speeding up the judicial process.
Indonesia has a long history of human rights violations. Do you have any
suggestions for how Indonesia
could resolve these past human rights violations?
I think Indonesia has come a long way already, since 1998, in overcoming
the legacy of the Soeharto
regime. And by developing a well-functioning democracy in a country like
Indonesia with so many huge
differences, so many different ethnic communities, so many different
religions, this is a big task, a big
challenge. And I think Indonesia has done very well.
Many reforms in relation to the law and human rights have been achieved
already. The 2004 Law on
Domestic Violence Against Women is a very good example. But it needs to be
better implemented. I
think it's important to have such a law. But what really hasn't been done
yet is (the creation of) a
particular law for torture in the criminal code with adequate sanctions.
The criminal procedure code needs to be amended, in order to introduce the
idea of habeas corpus, in
order to reduce police custody, in order to establish the possibility of
criminal complaints, to make sure
that confessions extracted by torture are not used in the criminal trial
against the defendant.
We have a long list and I will state that very clearly in my
recommendations, what actions can be taken.
Many of those actions do not cost much money, it just (requires) the
political will to do it.
Other (measures) cost money, and I am happy to facilitate technical
cooperation, financial assistance
by the international donor community, both the UNDP, the European Union
and bilateral donor agencies
... one of my major recommendations is to ratify the actions protocol in
the convention against torture,
and set up a truly independent and affective national preventive
mechanism, which could be the National
Commission on Human Rights or other (body).
Do you think Indonesia can overcome its culture of impunity for those in
power, having no success in
bringing members of the military or police to court for their involvement
in torture and ill-treatment of
humans?
Of course, the military is a different question. Military officials are
only brought before a military court,
irrespective of whether the victim is from the military or is a civilian.
In every case, whether its murder,
theft, or torture, they can only be judged by a military court. And of
course, as you know, military courts
are never truly independent. And I have my doubts they will really be
tough on soldiers and military
officers who have been found practicing torture.
On the other hand, much has been done to demilitarize the country, to
deprive the military of certain
privileges, and I have been told the military is not holding any more
civilian detainees. I have not
received any recent allegations of the military holding a person for more
than 24 hours.
What do you think are the major threats and challenges in implementing the
Convention against Torture
in Indonesia?
I think, first, it's just the political will. I think this will is there
in certain parts of the government, but of
course, powerful bodies like the National Police and the military might be
opposed to the very far
reaching message of investigating tortures within their areas. If you
ratify the optional protocol in the
Convention against Torture, then it is really a major effort.
The government should see this as a major chance to see that both the UN
sub-committee on the
prevention against torture and the national preventive mechanism are
actually allies in preventing torture.
The government has also to over think it's policy if it really wants to
have this independent mechanism.
The independent body should give them the maximum possibility of freedom
of inquiry and full access to
places of detention, without subjecting them to any kind of control.
How would you compare the situation in Indonesia to that of other Asian
countries?
Within Asia, Indonesia is one of the most democratic countries. It is a
country with a functioning
democracy. And Indonesia has shown that within less than 10 years after
the end of the Soeharto era, it
has come a very, very long way. So I have full trust that Indonesia might
become a kind of a pioneer in
this region, if they really ratify the optional protocol. This is a big step.
Show other countries you can take affirmative action in eradicating
torture ... the present legal situation
indicates much has improved. There's freedom of expression, freedom of
assembly, freedom of the
media, etc. They are really fully functioning in the democratic spirit. I
think you have a very critical
media, which is the basis of how the criticism can actually flourish.
What is much more difficult is to really change institutions, such as the
police, where torture for many,
many years has been structurally applied.
If people really get 10 years imprisonment for torture, they would think
twice and others would be
reluctant to do it. But, as I said, we have no cases so far, not one
police officer has ever been brought
before a court and sentenced for ill-treatment. And I think this really
has to change.
---
http://www.newsc.blogspot.com:80/
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Breaking News: US Intelligence Personnel Tap Indonesian Phones. British
Also Involved. Detachment
88, Kopassus Get Covert US Aid.
News and Comment, http://www.newsc.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, December 12, 2007 9:21 AM US Eastern time)
By Allan Nairn
US intelligence officers in Jakarta are secretly tapping the cell phones
and reading the SMS text
messages of Indonesian civilians.
Some of the Americans work out of the Jakarta headquarters of Detachment
88, a US-trained and
funded para-military unit whose mission is described as antiterrorism, but
that was recently involved in
the arrest of a West Papuan human rights lawyer.
The Papuan lawyer, Iwangin Sabar Olif, was seized by police and Detachment
88 on the street and later
charged with "incitement and insulting the head of state" after he
forwarded SMS text messages that
criticized the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), as well as the President of
Indonesia, Gen. Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono. (West Papua is a restricted-access region where
Indonesian forces have been
implicated in rapes, tortures, kidnappings, assassinations, mass
surveillance and intimidation.)
The information on the US surveillance program is provided by three
sources, including an individual
who has worked frequently with the Indonesian security forces and who says
he has met and formally
discussed their work with some of the American phone tappers, as well as
by two Indonesian officials
who work inside Detachment 88.
The first source says that the he was told that the Americans are
employees of the US CIA (Central
Intelligence Agency), but it could not be confirmed whether they work for
the CIA or other US agencies.
He says that through his work he has observed that these US intelligence
specialists help run a
sophisticated wiretapping network that uses much new US equipment.
He says the US operation includes the real-time monitoring of text
messages, as well as mapping contact
"networks," ie. tracing who is calling or texting whom.
This individual deals frequently with Detachment 88, but says that he has
not inquired about the seizure
of the Papuan human rights lawyer, Iwangin .
He said that Detachment 88 units are also present in other outlying zones
including Solo, Ambon, and
Poso, the later two of which have been the scene of TNI - POLRI (the
Indonesian National Police, who
formally oversee Detachment 88) "provokasi" operations that have helped to
spur deadly fighting
between poor Muslim and Christian villagers.
This source also says that US intelligence is providing covert
intelligence aid to Kopassus, the
Indonesian army's red beret special forces famed for abduction, torture,
and assassination.
Classified Kopassus manuals discuss the "tactic and technique" of "terror"
and "kidnapping" (see "Buku
Petunjuk tentang Sandi Yudha TNI AD, Nomor: 43-B-01").
Kopassus has, in the past, been heavily trained by US Green Berets and
other forces, in topics that
included "Demolitions," "Air Assault," "Close Quarters Combat," "Special
Reconnaissance," "PSYOP"(s)
and "Advanced Sniper Techniques" (all of these during the Clinton
administration, under a program
called JCET -- Joint Combined Exchange Training).
But after this training was exposed and after the TNI - POLRI Timor
massacres of 1999 (which followed
a UN - supervised independence vote, and in which Kopassus was
implicated), many in Congress were
under the impression that they had succeeded in stopping US aid to Kopassus.
(Congress is due to decide within days on a new lethal aid bill for
Indonesia).
The American presence inside Detachment 88 was confirmed by an Indonesian
Detachment 88 official
who said that a team of Americans did telecommunications work in the
"Intel Section," along with an
individual whom they believed to be a British national.
A second Detachment 88 official also confirmed the US presence, but said
he did not know the name of
the American team leader. Like the first Detachment 88 official, he gave
the name of the operative whom
he said was British, but that named individual could not be reached for
comment.
Asked for comment on December 12, during the late afternoon, local time,
Stafford A. Ward, a
spokesman for the US Embassy in Jakarta at first said he was not familiar
with such a US program and
did not know what Kopassus was.
An hour later Ward read out a statement that said that "there are no
Americans in either Detachment 88
or Kopassus." When asked if there was any kind of US assistance to those
units he said: "The US is not
involved with either of those organizations. I can confirm to you that the
US has no involvement with
either Detachment 88 or Kopassus."
In fact, though, that US Embassy statement appeared to contradict the
public record. US officials have
frequently spoken on the record about their involvement with Detachment
88, including to the press and
in meetings with and testimony to the US Congress.
Twenty minutes after issuing that denial, Embassy spokesman Ward sent the
following email: "I
misspoke earlier when you called me a second time today. The U.S.
government works with Indonesia to
bolster its counterterrorism capabilities. For example, the Department of
State Bureau of Diplomatic
Security's Office of Antiterrorism Assistance has trained Indonesian
Antiterrorist Units."
This revised Embassy statement did not repeat the denials of the earlier
statement, nor did it deny the
presence of US personnel inside Detachment 88, nor did it deny the
existence of covert US intelligence
aid to Kopassus.
US officials have never acknowledged on the record the presence of US
intelligence wiretappers inside
Jakarta's security forces, nor have they acknowledged on the record the
provision of intelligence
assistance to Kopassus.
The initial Embassy denial, phrased in the present tense, came less than
24 hours after the US
Congress, in Washington, made private inquiries to the US Executive Branch
about whether the US was
aiding or planning to aid Kopassus.
These Congressional inquiries came after this blog reported on December 7
that "the State Department
this week was putting out urgent queries around Washington that make it
sound as if they are planning
to openly aid Kopassus," and after people in a position to know privately
declined to deny that report.
It is not known whether the Congressional inquiries included the question
of Detachment 88.
But in a call to the Detachment 88 office hours before today's initial
carefully-phrased Embassy denial,
the Indonesian officer who answered the phone said that the Americans had
not come in to work today
and that, as far as he knew, the British staffer there was on vacation.
Detachment 88 has been mentored by veteran CIA and State Department
official Cofer Black, who was
one of the architects of the US invasion of Afghanistan.
Detachment 88 is publicized as being aimed at violent jihadists, like the
groups implicated in the
bombings in Bali and Jakarta that killed more than 200 civilians.
But the US wiretapping program provides a capacity to target any kind of
phone user in Indonesia, an
issue of concern in a country where the security forces -- often
US-assisted -- have killed many
hundreds of thousands of civilian dissidents.
@2007 by Allan Nairn, News and Comment, http://www.newsc.blogspot.com/
---
http://66.114.70.144/cgi-bin/terjem.rex?ST_by_McBeth__Giving_Voice_to_Papua_s_Aspirations-
71213001
The Straits Times (Singapore)
Friday, December 14, 2007
Giving Voice to Aspirations
by John McBeth, Senior Writer
IN BALI - AMERICAN-SAMOAN congressman Eni Faleomavaega is built
like a rugby prop, with a taste for ice cream, and has a sunny
South Pacific disposition and a broad smile to match.
But the chairman of the US House foreign relations subcommittee
for Asia-Pacific and the global environment lost some of that
smile after a recent pioneering visit to Papua - a three-day
trip that did not meet his expectations and almost turned into a
disaster.
While he may be a non-voting member of Congress, Mr
Faleomavaega, until recently, had been a vocal and long-standing
supporter of Papua independence.
Indonesian officials are well aware of that, particularly
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who personally signed off on
the congressman's visit last month after he had been denied
entry to Papua last July.
Yet the Papua province's capital of Jayapura was cut from his
agenda, he failed to meet many ordinary Papuans and, during the
course of a whirlwind stop in Manokwari, the capital of West
Papua, protesters pursued him to the airport and nearly swamped
his plane.
Later in Bali, where he was attending the United Nations climate
change conference, he did not disguise his unhappiness.
'To tell you frankly, while I appreciated the visit, there was
no opening,' he told The Straits Times. 'Since I did not go to
Jayapura, as far as I'm concerned I have not visited Papua.'
Mr Faleomavaega softened his stand on independence after his
much-publicised July meeting with Dr Yudhoyono, during which the
President outlined his plans to develop the province and urged
him to give the 2001 Special Autonomy Law a chance.
He was barred from Papua then because of security concerns
linked to the Papua Traditional Council, which was holding its
second congress. The authorities apparently feared his visit
would give independence activists an ideal stage to press their
demands for self-determination.
While he got the green light this time, he was only permitted to
meet Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu on the island of Biak, off
Papua's northern coast. The two-hour session, he complained, was
all too short.
Hundreds of people waiting to greet Mr Faleomavaega saw little
of him before he was whisked away, forcing even Papua People's
Council Speaker Agus Alue Alua to make the hour's walk to the
welcoming ceremony.
Little wonder then that when his turn came to speak, Mr Alua hit
out at the unsatisfactory implementation of the special autonomy
law and Jakarta's failure to give the Papua and West Papua
regional governments more authority.
Papua Traditional Council member Tom Beanal - who was initially
prevented from attending the dialogue - was just as blunt,
urging Mr Faleomavaega to pay attention to the aspirations of a
people who, he said, had never been allowed a voice in their own
destiny.
More was to follow. When he flew on to Manokwari, the
congressman found that West Papua Governor Abraham Atururi was
away in China and he had to settle for a brief meeting with
Deputy Governor Rahimin Katjong and what he called 'a
three-minute speech'.
Already behind schedule and with night approaching, officials
cancelled a meeting with local residents and rushed the
congressman on a circuitous route back to the airport, trying to
avoid roving bands of disappointed locals.
Once there, a thin line of policemen struggled desperately to
hold back people besieging the terminal. Mr Faleomavaega was
hustled on board his small chartered plane and just made it into
the air before they broke through the fence and spilled out on
the runway.
'It was a nightmare,' Mr Faleomavaega said. 'I think it was a
total waste of time for me to just be there and then say, 'I've
got to go'. If the purpose was to intimidate me...it made me
more irate because I don't think this is what the government or
the President wanted. It is obvious the military is a problem.'
Still, the Manokwari incident demonstrates the government's
predicament. Aware of past violence in often-volatile Jayapura,
officials fear prominent foreign visitors like Mr Faleomavaega
will become a catalyst for large-scale demonstrations that could
easily get out of hand.
Jakarta knows what a public relations catastrophe that would be.
However, refusing access to Western journalists leaves Jakarta
open to suspicions that it has something to hide and that the
15,000 soldiers and police across the territory are still
committing human rights abuses.
Mr Faleomavaega was not persuaded either way. 'They didn't like
the idea of thousands of West Papuans meeting me,' he said.
'The military is still obsessed with the idea that my presence
might trigger incidents or give encouragement to those
classified as separatists.
'So, I told my Indonesian friends, 'Look - even showing the
(independence) flag, the military immediately gets so concerned,
as if the world was coming to an end'. My gosh, we've got Nazi
flags flying all over America. I think Jakarta tends to
overreact, making a mountain out of a molehill.'
He went on: 'It's my sense, talking to the Papuan leaders, that
they want to implement the provisions of the special autonomy,
they want their civil rights, they want to be treated fairly and
not to be so intimidated by the military.'
He said he told Dr Yudhoyono that Indonesia 'has done such a
lousy job in the treatment of the West Papuans, you might as
well give them their independence', adding: 'All they want is to
be respected, to be treated decently and not have the military
constantly on their backs.'
Mr Faleomavaega's keen interest in Papua stems partly from the
fact that he has a personal connection to the province. He has
relatives buried in Manokwari, Samoan missionaries who went
there in the late 1800s and never returned home. Cutting short
the visit meant he could not visit their graves.
'The Congressional Black Caucus is very, very sensitive on
issues affecting black people all over the world,' he noted.
'African issues are right there at the forefront. But as far as
I'm concerned, Vanuatu, the Solomon islands, Papua and West
Papua, that's all part of their history.'
Mr Faleomavaega's basic concern does not centre on how much
money is flowing into Papua, which is now considerable in any
event, but whether the autonomy law is actually seen to be
working - even if the province does suffer from a chronic
shortage of human resources.
'I think Jakarta can take more responsibility, not just throw
out money and expect the Papuans to succeed when they don't have
the resources and they don't have enough engineers, doctors,
lawyers to form the nucleus of an autonomous government,' he
said.
'Things are kind of floating.'
He also said that while he appreciated Dr Yudhoyono
appropriating more than US$2 billion (S$2.8 billion) for
infrastructure development in Papua, 'I would rather see
something that would make Papuans better educated. You cannot
eat autonomy'.
One real test of the legislation has come with the recent joint
agreement by governors Suebu and Atururi to ban the export of
logs to domestic and overseas markets, which has quite literally
put them at loggerheads with the Department of Forestry.
The governors point out that, under special autonomy, Jakarta
retains control over only foreign affairs, defence, finance, the
legal system and religion. The future of 42 million ha of
standing rainforest, they say, is for Papua to determine.
In a speech - Forest Crimes To Forests For Life - Mr Suebu
hammered that point home at a packed side-event at the UN
climate change conference, saying that if Papua's poor are to
benefit, the only way forward is through sustainable forest
management and value-added wood industries.
The newly assertive governors are unimpressed with Indonesia's
Forestry Minister Malam Sambat Kaban's claims that their
policies on forest conservation are not in accordance with the
1999 Forestry Law. For them, special autonomy trumps all and
they are not about to let it be eroded.
---
The National PNG
Editorial 14 Dec. 2007
West Papuans – action needed
THERE are many in our community who sympathise with the plight of the West
Papuans camped at the
Boroko police station.
They have ended up at the NCD headquarters of the
RPNG Constabulary as a means of protecting themselves against any attacks
from aggrieved clansmen
of a senior PNG court magistrate allegedly killed by some of their number.
On the other hand, there is growing public concern for the embattled
police who are tasked with
administering Port Moresby’s biggest and busiest police station.
It is plainly wrong that close to 100 of these people have been squatting
there for the past two months.
Now the Port Moresby police chief has said that the people responsible for
the West Papuans should
find alternative accommodation for them.
Supt Fred Yakasa has made the point that the police have legally completed
their task of protecting the
West Papuans.
Four of them face allegations of murdering Senior Magistrate Ivo Cappo and
the case is now before the
courts.
It is ridiculous that these people should be crammed into a tiny space
between the police cells and the
adjoining Telikom property.
In the long run, it may also prove dangerous; it is inappropriate to have
a small community camped
within the confines of the NCD police headquarters.
It is clearly wrong that our police, particularly in the capital, should
be shackled with this extra burden.
The public should be fully aware of the demanding task faced by the RPNG
Constabulary, particularly in
maintaining law and order in the capital during the Christmas festive season.
Which organisation accepts the final responsibility for these people?
Will they become as permanent a feature of the Port Moresby scene as the
unfortunate Moroccan who
spent almost a decade here before anyone was prepared to organise his
travel to his home country?
It is right and proper that organisations such as the Ombudsman Commission
should keep an eye on the
West Papuans and ensure that they receive adequate support from the State.
But where does that
responsibility and support end?
Surely the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Port Moresby
must play some role in the
future of these people.
It is easy to forget that they were uprooted from a settlement they had
created outside the capital.
True, they were squatting illegally on land clearly owned by a prominent
Papua New Guinean, but many
good citizens felt some concern for the speed and bluntness of their removal.
Then came the unexpected death of Mr Cappo and much resentment was
understandably generated. All
of these developments underline the need for Papua New Guinea to devise
its own policy towards those
self-described as refugees.
We continue to handle these cases on an ad hoc basis.
Sometimes so called aliens are slammed into jail or shuttled onto outgoing
aircraft with unfeeling haste.
On other occasions, we adopt these people and they become valued and
integral parts of the
community.
There is a clear attitude of defending PNG’s borders against all comers
displayed in certain sections of
the Government.
While nobody wishes to see our country flooded with unwanted foreigners,
neither do we wish to be
known as a heartless and aggressive people who turn a deaf ear to all and
sundry who come knocking
at our gates.
We need to remind ourselves that a previous PNG government had no
difficulty in accepting Australia’s
rejected aliens and setting up a facility in Manus that attracted almost
universal condemnation.
Certain substantial benefits accrued to PNG as a result, yet that was an
action many Papua New
Guineans regarded as completely out of keeping with our reputation and our
nature as a friendly South
Pacific people.
The issue of the West Papuans must be solved as quickly as possible and by
the right authorities.
This marooned group of almost 100 people cannot continue to live in the
backyard of a police station
and those responsible for their well-being and safety need to attack the
problem with energy and
determination.
At the same time we commend the Boroko-based officers, policemen and women
for their efforts to
cope with an impossible situation.
Their actions have not gone unnoticed by the public.
----
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20071215.A06
Govt bans, confiscates book on Papuan political struggle
National News - December 15, 2007
Angela Maria Flassy, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura, Papua
State prosecutors seized Friday 60 copies of a book they say could divide
Papua politically, while critics
have accused them of robbing local people of their freedom of expression.
The 244-page book, titled
Tenggelamnya Rumpun Melanesia, Pertarungan Politik di Papua Barat (The
Sinking of the Melanesian
Race: The Political Struggle in West Papua) was written by a local
academic, Sendius Wonda. "The
book is misleading, it could spark unrest and divide the Papuan
community," said Rudi Hartono, the
intelligence chief at the provincial prosecutors' office. The 60 copies of
the book printed by local
publishing house Deiyai were confiscated from a Gramedia bookstore in
Jayapura.
"We will continue raiding bookstores in other places for the book," Rudi
added. Rudi said the
management of Deiyai would be summoned to the prosecutors' office for
questioning on Saturday. The
prosecutors said their legal basis for banning the book was a 2007
attorney general's circular about
banning printed materials that could "mislead the public" and "disturb
public order". They said they would
start looking for other copies of the book in towns throughout Papua next
week, but stopped short of
demanding people surrender their copies to the authorities.
Muridan S. Widodo, researcher with the Center for the Indonesian Political
Institute of Sciences,
described the sweep as a "threat to the freedom of expression". "The book
reflects the typical thoughts
of Papuan activists about the 'culture of terror' in the territory,"
Muridan said. He added that the author
bemoaned the Papuan's loss of their long-standing struggle for economic
and political leverage. Papua,
formerly called Irian Barat, or West Irian, has been in the international
spotlight due to a simmering
secession movement triggered by widely perceived injustices.
The military has been waging a low-level armed uprising. Muridan said that
instead of banning the book,
the government should have countered the intellectual work with a book of
its own. "Then invite those
who support Sendius Wonda's ideas to an open debate. This would have been
better," he said. He said
the government should nurture the budding intellectual tradition in Papua
rather than try to suppress it.
---
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=37077
Radio New Zealand International
The Voice of New Zealand, Broadcasting to the Pacific
Te Reo Irirangi O Aotearoa, O Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa
Political book banned and seized in Papua amid fear of unrest
Posted at 01:41 on 17 December, 2007 UTC
State prosecutors in Indonesia’s Papua region have seized 60 copies of a
book they say could divide
the region.
But the Jakarta Post reports that critics have accused them of robbing
local people of their freedom of
expression.
The book, called The Sinking of the Melanesian Race: The Political
Struggle in West Papua, was written
by a local academic, Sendius Wonda.
The intelligence chief at the provincial prosecutor’s office in Jayapura,
Rudi Hartono, says the book is
misleading and could spark division in the Papuan community.
The 60 copies were confiscated from a bookstore in Jayapura.
The prosecutors say their legal basis for banning the book is a 2007
attorney general’s circular about
banning printed materials that could mislead the public and disturb public
order.
---
http://www.medindia.net/news/35-Billion-People-Face-Risk-of-Dengue-by-2080-Warns-UN-Panel-on-
Climate-Change-30586-1.htm
3.5 Billion People Face Risk of Dengue by 2080, Warns UN Panel on Climate
Change
In an alarming projection, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) has warned that a
population of 1.5 billion to 3.5 billion people could face the risk of
being afflicted by dengue by 2080 as
a result of global warming. Besides, worldwide it is estimated that an
additional 220 to 400 million people
could be exposed to malaria.
The United Nations Human Development Report 2007-08, released in November
and based on the IPCC
projection, points out that dengue fever is already in evidence at higher
elevations in previously dengue-
free areas of Latin America. Likewise, in Indonesia warmer temperatures
have led to the mutation of the
dengue virus, leading to an increase in fatalities in the rainy season.
“While there is no proven evidence
that climate change is implicated, in the late 1990s El Nino an La Nina
events in the country were
associated with severe outbreaks of both dengue and malaria, with malaria
spreading to high elevations
in the highlands of Irian Jaya,” the report said.
<abridged for brevities brevity sake - see link for full article>
---
Radio New Zealand International
Papua human rights campaigner charged over SMS messages
Posted at 01:59 on 13 December, 2007 UTC
A
Papuan human rights campaigner has been formally charged with
insulting Indonesia’s president in a
series of mobile phone SMS
text messages.
Sabar Iwanggin, who works for the human rights organisation
Elsham,
was arrested in Jayapura in October by Indonesian police and was
held in police custody until
this week when charges were laid.
He is now being transferred to the community prison in Abepura to
await trial next year.
Elsham’s Paula Makabori says the content of the SMS messages
referred to the
alleged involvement of Jakarta in a recent wave of
reports of Papuans being food poisoned.
But she says
Mr Iwanggin is being unfairly singled out for messages
passed around thousands of Papuans.
“It’s like:
why don’t those thousands of people be put into the
jails together with Sabar? Because they all received
the same SMS
and for writing to their friends and families because of their
concern about human rights in
West Papua and the deteriorating
situation over there.”
Elsham’s Paula Makabori
============================================================================
KABAR IRIAN ("Irian/Papua News since 1994") www.kabar-irian.info -
www.kabar-irian.com
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