[Kabar-indonesia] 12 Years Jail Sought for Papuan Over Mine Unrest [+PNG rejects asylum seekers]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: PNG rejects Australian requests to take Papuan asylum seekers

Indonesian prosecutors seek 12-year jail term for Papuan over mine unrest

JAKARTA, June 29 (AFP) -- Indonesian prosecutors have asked judges to
sentence a Papuan to 12 years in jail for assaulting a policeman
during deadly protests over a mine run by US giant Freeport-McMoran, a
judge said Thursday.

Ferdinand Pakage is among 16 Papuans, mostly students, who stand
accused of stoking violence that saw hundreds of protestors clash with
security forces in Papua's Abepura in March, leaving five security
officers and a civilian dead.

Judge Morris Ginting, who heads a panel of judges at the Jayapura
district court, said that the prosecutor sought the lengthy term at a
hearing Wednesday.

"The prosecutors deemed that the defendant has been proven guilty of
grievously assaulting a policeman with a stone and knife during the
unrest, leading to the death of the policeman," Ginting told AFP.

Pakage is accused of initiating the attack but not actually killing
the policeman.

In two separate trials later the same day, prosecutors sought
four-year terms for each of five others among the 16, also for
assaulting police, Ginting added.

Pakage's trial will resume in two weeks while the other five have
fresh hearings in one week. Indictments are still being prepared for
the remaining 10 who are currently in detention.

Critics accuse Freeport-McMoRan of not giving enough to the people of
Papua in return for the mine and allege it causes pollution and is
responsible for human rights abuses via the military's protection of
the site.

At the time the violence fanned fears of further unrest in the
isolated province, some 3,000 kilometres (1,800 miles) east of
Jakarta, where Indonesia has grappled with a sporadic separatist
conflict for decades.

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PNG rejects Australian requests to take Papuan asylum seekers

By Lloyd Jones, Papua New Guinea Correspondent

PORT MORESBY, June 29 (AAP) - Papua New Guinea has turned down
Australian requests that it take in Indonesian Papuan asylum seekers
while their refugee applications are processed by Canberra.

Foreign Minister Rabbie Namaliu said an informal approach had been
made to him by Australian High Commissioner Michael Potts to
temporarily accommodate within the PNG community any Papuan asylum
seekers who had made it to Australia directly from Papua.

But the PNG government had problems with the proposal given its
relationship with neighbouring Indonesia, Namaliu told AAP.

The issue of Papuan asylum seekers is as sensitive for PNG as it is
for Australia, Namaliu said.

"Probably more so because we share a land border," he said.

Potts declined to comment today except to say Australia was in regular
discussion with PNG on a range of immigration matters.

Comment was being sought from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs.

Speaking on Australia's asylum seeker problem earlier this month, PNG
Prime Minister Michael Somare said he would not allow PNG to become "a
testing ground to overcome other people's problem".

PNG hosts thousands of Papuan refugees who have crossed the land
border over the years. Most are living in the East Awin settlement in
Western Province or in informal camps along the border.

Under the Australian government's so-called "Pacific Solution", asylum
seekers who made it to Australia were transferred to detention centres
on Nauru or on Manus Island in PNG.

The PNG centre is currently empty but it can be reactivated under an
agreement between the PNG and Australian governments.

However, Namaliu has said it would not be used for Papuan asylum seekers.

Relations between Australia and Indonesia were strained over recent
months following the granting of temporary protection visas to 42
Papuan asylum seekers who made it to Cape York in January.

In a bid to heal the diplomatic rift, the Australian government
proposed law changes to ensure all future boat arrivals would be
processed offshore but those changes have met opposition from within
the government's own ranks.

Canberra is looking to Nauru to continue to house asylum seekers in a
detention centre there.

At a meeting in Indonesia this week, Prime Minister John Howard and
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono agreed to put three
months of friction over the Papuan asylum seeker issue behind them.

Yudhoyono welcomed the return of three Papuans to PNG last week after
they were picked up in the Torres Strait in May.

The three were returned under a 2003 agreement in which PNG agreed to
readmit from Australia any third-country nationals who had been in PNG
for more than seven days but had failed to seek asylum there.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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