[Kabar-Irian] News: Nov 16-dec 01 06
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KABAR IRIAN NEWS
Nov 12-Dec 1
TOPICS
* WPA AGM on Dec 10th!
* Truth, West Papua and Indonesia: 2 + 2 really can = 5
* Security agreement will boost mutual aid, trust
* Australia, Indonesia: Canberra's Standoff Engagement
* New records of pandanaceae found in Yapen island, Papua
* No need for cloaking effect with Indonesian ties
* NZ Government Invests in Environmental Destruction
* Plane carrying 12 people missing in Indonesia's Papua
* Helicopter goes missing in Papua
* Papua's Independence Day Disturbed by Provocation
* Banned Papua flag flies in PNG
* Papuan tribes ask Freeport for scraps to improve welfare
* Suru-Suru belongs to Asmat regency
* Timika officials tackling HIV/AIDS
* Plane Crash in Indonesia's Papua Kills 12
* Credibility gap too wide
* AIDS out of control in Indonesia
* A forgotten cause
* European MPs present paper calling for West Papuan independence referendum
* Vanuatu MPs mark 45th anniversary of Papuan self determination
* Two groups may have populated Australia: researcher
* Palau sea turtles travel as far as Indonesia
* Solidarity for West Papua in Aotearoa New Zealand on 1 December 2006
* West Papua: Independent Papua Flag Raised
* Twelve feared dead in Papua crash
* US State Dept Acts of terrorism list
* TENKE FUNGURUME PROJECT UPDATE
* U.S., Indonesia Agree to Target Illegal Logging
* Forbidding flag-raising a waste of time, Papuan leaders say
* Strangling West Papuan independence
* Howard's very foreign policies
* Two Indonesians, fishing illegally in PNG waters, drown
* Government Prioritizes Services for AIDS Sufferers
* Some Papuan still wave 'East Star flag' despite ban
* Indonesian bodies in Fly
* Uses of layered identities
*
West Papuan Flag Raising outside Indonesian Embassy
* Human Rights Training Program for Indigenous Advocates
* Bush's Big Indonesian Photo Op
* Freeport-McMoRan Buying Copper Giant
* On The Move
* A Second Look: the Phelps-Freeport Union
* Freeport Said To Catch BHP's Eye
---
From: "West Papua Action" <wpaction at iol.ie>
To: <wpaction at iol.ie>
Subject: WPA AGM on Dec 10th!
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2006 13:20:26 -0000
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0)
Dear Friends/Supporters/Colleagues,
West Papua Action AGM will take place on Sunday 10th December 2006 at 2.00pm
in the Central Hotel in Exchequer Street.
A date to write on your diary!!
We will have the opportunity to liaise with human rights defenders in West
Papua and discuss next year's strategy.
You are all welcome to join us. Light refreshments will be served after the
meeting.
Please pass on this email to all people that may be interested in coming to
the event.
I look forward to hearing from you soon,
Kind regards,
Marzia Baldassari
Coordinator
West Papua Action
134, Phibsborough Road
Dublin 7, Ireland
tel: +353 1 8603431
fax: +353 1 8827576
website: http://www.westpapuaaction.org
---
http://onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=5127
Truth, West Papua and Indonesia: 2 + 2 really can = 5
By Adam Henry - posted Thursday, 16 November 2006 Sign Up for free e-mail
updates!
The enigmatic Jakarta Lobby is “
an informal group of like-minded people
who regard Indonesia as a
special case”. It is not a clandestine conspiracy, but an alliance of
elites although some would deny the
group’s very existence.
The Jakarta Lobby operates from a position of privilege within the
Australian establishment. Pro-Jakarta
advocates have long recognised the dangerous potential for human rights
violations in West Papua to
become a major diplomatic issue. Fearful of being placed on the ethical
back foot, as they had been with
East Timor, such advocates have been emerging at regular intervals from
within the diplomatic
establishment to deliver their message.
The recent Lowy Institute report Pitfalls of Papua, and its endorsement by
Paul Kelly (The Australian,
October 7, 2006) are but the latest outcomes of the Pro-Jakarta PR campaign.
Cunningly intelligent Pro-Jakarta adherents must condemn the very notion
of West Papuan self-
determination, but also publicly refrain from asking the most basic human
rights questions over the
situation in West Papua.
One of the most significant examples of the Pro-Jakarta call-to-arms was a
speech made earlier in 2006
by the Australian Ambassador to the US, Dennis Richardson. Its
significance is all the more enhanced
when one realises that the very top echelons of the Department of Foreign
Affairs must have vetted its
contents.
I believe that the ambassador's speech outlined the tactics that would be
used to defend the
unrepresentative vision of Australian-Indonesian relations constructed by
the exclusive elites of the
Jakarta Lobby
The recent past - a call to arms
On March 8, 2006 the Ambassador Richardson who is a former
director–general of ASIO, addressed The
US-Indonesia Society: a group founded in 1994 to counter negative
perceptions after repeated TNI
(Indonesian National Defence Forces) human rights violations in East Timor.
The powerfully connected lobbyists of the US-Indonesia Society have been
described as Indonesia’s “
second Embassy in Washington”. The former director general of ASIO
ridiculed the existence of any
Australian Jakarta lobby. He said only “some Australian commentators”
maintain the existence of a
Jakarta Lobby “
who conspire together to pervert Australia’s national
interests (this includes) all
government officials who have either served in Indonesia, or who have
worked on Indonesia in Canberra.”
To deflect criticism over human rights and corruption concerns Richardson
placed Jakarta in the frontline
in the fight against terrorism and praised the transformation of Indonesia
into an apparently utopian
example of democratisation and cultural tolerance.
Indonesia, in some people’s view, becomes a philosophical ideal beyond the
cognitive capacity of critics.
Even the subtext of the word “Indonesia” becomes an unquantifiable virtue
“
beyond government”.
Therefore no matter what the situation in West Papua, or for that matter
other eastern islands of the
Indonesian archipelago, Richardson’s position means that our political
support should never “
be
allowed to be held hostage to issues such as (Indonesia’s) corruption and
(West) Papua.”
Richardson’s commitment to the values of democratic liberties struggling
to take root in Indonesia is
required to balance the negative “
voice of critics (which are) always
the loudest”. He implies that he,
and the audience, are the true oppositional grouping tasked with rescuing
Jakarta from policies diluted by
unsympathetic foreign policy critics.
In the audience was the Indonesian Ambassador to the US, Sudjadnan
Parnohadin-Ingrat, who was
previously the Ambassador to Australia. Sudjadnan was the secretary to the
Indonesian Task Force
during the 1999 United Nations independence ballot in East Timor.
Richardson’s pleas for unquestioning support for Indonesia are essential
given the manner in which
Indonesian elites such as Sudjadnan make use of the critical silence from
Australia.
Questioned by The Washington Diplomat on Indonesian human rights Sudjadnan
responded to an
estimate that the TNI “
may have killed up to 200,000 Timorese during
Indonesian rule”. Sudjadun made
no effort to dispute the figure seeing them as mere casualties of a
secessionist war. As he said “
If
(only) about 200,000 out of 220 million people (wanted to secede) I don’t
think this is very serious”.
I believe East Timor under Indonesian rule (1975-1999) is comparable to
the Killing Fields of Cambodia.
There can be no doubt that intelligent men like Richardson are not
ignorant of statistics. After
independence in 1999 a UN report concluded “
human rights violations were
massive, systematic and
widespread
starvation, arbitrary executions, routinely inflicted
horrific torture, and the organized sexual
enslavement and sexual torture of Timorese women were the hallmarks of the
Indonesian authority and
183,000 est. Timorese starved or died of illness as a consequence of
TNI-Kopassus actions during
Indonesian rule.”
When a powerful man like Richardson holds that nothing should hinder the
Indonesian dream, we like
Sudjadnan, possess enough understanding of the English language to
comprehend the underlining
significance i.e. issues like corruption and human rights are mere sideshows.
Richardson’s style of commitment to Indonesia ignores the validity of
human rights concerns over the
actions of the TNI. Instead of using his speech to separate himself from
Sudjadnan’s East Timor 2 + 2 = 5
proposition I believe that, maybe unwittingly, Richardson urges
unquestioning and principled support of
Jakarta Lobby policies. Many efforts are now being made to build on his
lead.
The present - the Jakarta lobby attacks
Paul Kelly wrote a characteristically expert opinion piece in The
Australian (See “A new diplomacy over
Papua”, October 7, 2006). Kelly enthusiastically endorsed the Lowy
Institute Report, The Pitfalls of Papua,
as the virtual final word on the West Papua debate.
The main purpose of the article would appear to have been to discredit
grass roots activists and ordinary
citizens motivated by the norms of international law, a concern for human
rights and the ethical quality of
Australian diplomacy.
According to Kelly these are the ignorant people who might be actually
moved to feel sympathy for the
plight of Papuans suffering Indonesian military oppression. As I read it
in Kelly’s assessment they are a
clear threat to the unquestioned goal of good relations with Jakarta.
He parrots Rodd McGibbon’s conclusion that genocide cannot be used to
describe policies employed by
the Indonesians against Papuans.
Despite Kelly’s ringing endorsement of the report it is interesting to
note what he failed to analyse. Rodd
McGibbon at least concedes that there has been a systematic pattern of
human rights violations by
Indonesian security forces since the 1960’s.
To place this into perspective Ed McWilliams, a retired US Senior Foreign
Service Officer, believes, “
a
death toll of 100,000 (in West Papua) is entirely consistent with the
savage record of this institution (TNI).
The murder rate was augmented in the 1970s by provision of OV-10 Bronco
aircraft, which were
employed against civilians in both East Timor and West Papua.” Even in the
absence of the smoking gun
of genocide, the Indonesian human rights record in that province is abysmal.
Kelly rightly points out there are differences between East Timor and West
Papua that deserve analysis,
but again fails to analyse his conclusions correctly.
Due to the presence of the Freeport Mine the scale of TNI corruption and
business interests in the
forestry sector is much greater than in East Timor. The two nationalist
movements also differ in structure,
unity and cohesiveness. The ethnic and linguistic diversity of Papuans is
a factor. In common though is
the reality of human rights violations. This commonality is not due to the
loud and unsympathetic critics,
but in my view to the inability of the TNI to not kill reluctant
Indonesian citizens in large numbers.
Rewriting the past - the need to forget
The Jakarta Lobby argued for 25 years of the unending benefits of an
Indonesian East Timor. Human
rights concerns were dismissed as exaggerations or just ignored. When Paul
Keating visited Jakarta in
1991 he praised the rise of Suharto’s “New Order” government as the most
beneficial event to Australian
security since World War II.The 1965 massacres that established the New
Order were then presumably
beneficial in much the same way as Kokoda.
In 1965 American embassy officials, with the help of the CIA, compiled
lists of suspected high-ranking
communists within Indonesia that were handed to the Indonesian army.
According to the CIA, 1965 was
one of greatest massacres and significant events of the second half of the
20th century to be compared
with Stalin’s purges, the mass murder of the Nazis during World War II and
the Maoists in the early
1950’s.
Such was the carnage that the US Embassy advised Washington that it did “
not know whether the real
figure is closer to 100,000 or 1 million (dead) but believed it wiser to
err on the side of lower estimates,
especially when questioned by the press”.
The US attitude toward the mass killings was indifferent. Howard
Federspiel formerly of the Bureau of
Intelligence & Research (US State Department) remembered that: “No one
cared, as long as they were
communists
No one was getting very worked up about it”.
Hundreds and thousands of political prisoners (Tapols) were also jailed in
the years after 1965-66.
Historian Gabriel Kolko compared 1965 with the Nazis during World War II,
and historian Peter Dale Scott
has argued that the communist coup myth rests on many sources with “
prominent CIA connections”.
At the end of the bloodletting the Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt
stated, “With 500,000 to a million
Communist sympathisers knocked off
I think it is safe to assume a
reorientation has taken place.” At
least this truthfully expressed the scale of death required to create the
preferred western political climate
of stability in Indonesia.
Keating’s speech made no reference to the historical realities of 1965,
but it may be speculated that
Suharto understood clearly. Journalist Glen Milne (The Australian, April
25, 1992) saw that “
Keating
had passed the first test of his leadership, successfully driving
Australian-Indonesian relations beyond the
policy straight jacket of East Timor”.
Australian journalists continued to be supportive of the regime but a year
later Suharto was overthrown by
a widespread citizen reform movement.
Political language - it’s logic Jim, but not as we know it
Critics of the Jakarta Lobby were labelled anti-Indonesian, ignorant or
just garden-variety racists. Such is
the Lobby group’s mentality that NGO’s, human rights activists, the
Catholic Church, critical media
reportage and even Portugal were roundly condemned by the group for the
violence perpetrated by the
Indonesian military throughout the 80’s and 90’s in Timor.
Two Dili massacres occurred in November 1991 and the commentaries of
Pro-Jakarta advocates just
demonstrated their extreme political language and mentality.
The death toll was actively minimised while the second massacre was
ignored. Greg Sheridan and
Richard Woolcott, a former Ambassador to Indonesia, actually blamed
Portugal for provoking the atrocity.
Former ANU Economics Professor Heinz Arndt lamented in The Australian, “
that the massacre was a
tragedy, not because of the loss of life but because it inflamed
anti-Indonesian hate campaigns in
Australia”.
Such commentaries seemingly implied that the unarmed dead were an extreme
anti-Indonesian stunt by
Timorese, who selfishly placed themselves in the path of innocent
Indonesian automatic gunfire. The
entire event of course staged solely for the domestic benefit of those
meddlesome Australian do gooders
who sympathised with the plight of the East Timorese.
In regard to 1965, Aceh, East Timor and now West Papua, the Jakarta Lobby
lack the moral courage in
their ethical position to acknowledge that one must accept murder and
atrocity so long as it brings about a
potential climate of advantageous diplomatic relations with Jakarta.
To be unquestioning of the merits of the Jakarta Lobby approach to
Indonesia is to suspend belief in logic
and to obscure human suffering. To be critical of the Indonesian military
for its documented and appalling
human rights record is not anti-Indonesian. Its urgent reform is required
as much for ordinary
Indonesians, and their fledgling democracy, as is for the future of human
rights in the eastern Indonesian
islands.
When George Orwell noted “Political language
is designed to make lies
sound truthful and murder
respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind” he
highlighted the ethical blackhole of the
so-called necessary or noble lies used to pursue short-term political gain.
People who support such tactics demonstrate the ongoing wisdom of Orwell’s
philosophical insights.
Adam Hughes Henry is an independent historian from Canberra who has just
completed his thesis 'Pro-
Imperial Collapse, Diplomatic Reconstruction and its influence on early
Australian support for Indonesian
nationalism'.
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20061116.A03&irec=2
Security agreement will boost mutual aid, trust
Australia and Indonesia on Monday signed a historic bilateral agreement on
a framework for security
cooperation. Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda gave an interview to The
Jakarta Post's Abdul Khalik
about the document's benefits and implications for Indonesia. The
following are excerpts of the interview:
Question: Indonesian and Australian officials described the agreement as a
historic step in bilateral
relations between the two countries. How will the agreement benefit
Indonesia?
Answer: We have experienced many difficult moments in our long historical
relations with Australia. The
problems range from refugees or illegal migrants from other countries who
passed through Indonesia on
their way to Australia and accusations that Indonesia is a training ground
for terrorists, to the recent
Papuan asylum seekers. Politicians in Australia exploited the issues
during the election period to attack
Indonesia. So, it is easy for such situational problems to ruin our
relations with Australia.
Most of the difficulties also arise from public misperceptions in both
countries. Our public has accused
Australia of meddling in our domestic affairs, becoming a threat to our
country or helping separatist
movements. On the other hand, Australians also have a perception that
Indonesia is a threat. The
misperceptions can only be eliminated through cooperation, dialog and
transparency between us.
Can you provide examples of more tangible benefits?
The agreement covers a wide range of cooperation. It includes 10 areas
covering defense, counter-
terrorism, intelligence, maritime, aviation safety and security,
proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, emergency cooperation and community understanding and
people-to-people cooperation.
The agreement will open doors for Australia to help us with its expertise,
capital and equipment, which we
are lacking in many cases, in all these areas.
I think we have a good synergy with Australia, and they are eager to help
us. While they have expertise
and funds, we have a long and good reach in the region. We can say to
Australia that if they really want
to help then they can, for instance, assist with funding or build
facilities or send equipment for concrete
purposes, including fighting terrorism or bird flu, rather than just make
political statements.
For instance, right after the 9/11 attacks, I extended an offer to Prime
Minister John Howard to sign an
agreement on anti-terror cooperation. Although at first he was hesitant,
several days later we signed the
agreement. And it turned out that the agreement was very helpful when the
Bali bombings occurred. So,
we could turn a potential bilateral conflict -- because of the issue of
terrorism and the bombings -- into
useful cooperation.
The Australian media has criticized the agreement, saying it is only to
appease Indonesia, with no benefit
for Australia. What's your opinion?
No, that is not true. Take, for instance, the illegal migrants problem.
Without our cooperation, if we let
them pass to Australia then they will have to deal with thousands more
illegal migrants every period.
Another is terrorism. With our capability -- of course with their help --
of cracking down on terrorists here,
they can sleep soundly there. To raise more understanding and eliminate
suspicions, we put in provisions
to enhance community understanding and people-to-people cooperation.
Can the agreement be sidelined by objections from the Australian people?
If the agreement has been ratified then it will become part of Australian
law that can't be sidelined just like
that.
The commitment to solving disputes or conflicts in peaceful ways means
Indonesia and Australia are
moving toward a security community.
Will this agreement be used as an example for building a regional security
community?
This agreement is the first of its kind. There are thoughts of using the
agreement as a model for more
countries in East Asia. South Korea has already proposed establishing a
forum for security dialog in East
Asia. So, many countries have seen the need for more security discussions
in the region.
---
http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=280653
Australia, Indonesia: Canberra's Standoff Engagement
November 15, 2006 23 55 GMT
Summary
Australia and Indonesia officially signed a new security agreement Nov.
13, replacing their long-defunct
1995 pact. The agreement, which has been in the works for some time,
cements an arrangement that
benefits both countries, though Australian security is the real winner.
Analysis
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and his Indonesian
counterpart, Hassan Wirajuda, formally
endorsed a new security agreement Nov. 13. Ratification by each country's
parliament is likely but not
assured.
Nevertheless, the signing marks Indonesia's recovery from the downturn
caused by former President
Suharto's fall in 1998. Indonesia was fraught with instability after
Suharto's military, political and economic
control crumbled. At that point, the 1995 security agreement between
Jakarta and Canberra was
essentially voided, although it formally stood for another year until
Jakarta withdrew to protest Canberra's
intervention in East Timor. The new agreement is good news for both
Indonesia and Australia, but it will
most significantly impact Canberra's regional influence and Australian
security.
Indonesia is inherently weak. A montage of religious, ethnic and national
loyalties, the country is a
ridiculously artificial construct of some 17,500 islands. Suharto's fall
catalyzed Indonesia's decline.
Jakarta -- once the center of gravity for the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations -- was forced to shift
its attention away from larger regional issues and focus on the internal
strife that took down its dictator.
Now, Australia's objective for Indonesia is not so much to create a strong
Jakarta as it is to make Jakarta
less weak.
One of the keys to Canberra's continued influence -- not just in
Indonesia, but from Sumatra all the way to
Fiji -- is the aid it gives to its periphery states. Though its recipients
commonly accuse Australia of
colonialism, the country's support is essential to their continued
survival. Conversely, Canberra's financial
assistance is an enormous negotiating tool it uses to control its
periphery, which is plagued by internal
strife and weak governments.
>From Papua New Guinea to East Timor and the Solomon Islands, Australia has
a tendency to deploy
troops to neighboring countries for peacekeeping missions. To maintain
regional stability, Canberra has
adopted a policy of proactive, pre-emptive action. This strategy gives it
a much more tangible position
than that of China and Taiwan, which have used "checkbook diplomacy."
While Chinese money has built
many public buildings in Papua New Guinea, for instance, it also has
encouraged corruption and
perpetuated a well-established kleptocracy, leaving China with little more
than a handful of loyal criminals.
Australia's new security arrangement with Indonesia will codify its policy
toward its northern neighbor.
For Indonesia, the promise of Australian military sales is compelling.
Jakarta has been sidelined for so
long that it is having trouble keeping even its C-130 transports in the
air. Should it choose to, Australia is
well-positioned to sell its older hardware to Indonesia, especially since
it is about to acquire more
advanced U.S. equipment through deals that are currently in the works.
This will give Australia another
avenue of influence, as it will use equipment sales to guide the direction
of the Indonesian military by
offering the country only equipment relevant to internal security and
limiting sales of long-range offensive
munitions. For example, Australia is unlikely to sell Indonesia its
FB-111G Aardvark theater bombers, even
after it retires them. But while Indonesia wants offensive military
equipment, its focus necessarily centers
on maintaining internal security.
Nevertheless, Australia's periphery shields Canberra -- both
geographically and politically -- from other
regional powers, giving it the standoff distance to engage surrounding
powers without risking much.
Furthermore, Australia's regional ambitions pale in comparison to those of
China and Japan; Australia is
interested in Indonesia not because it wants to become a regional hegemon
but because it seeks to
preserve its own fundamental security.
This has little to do with the incorrect but popular Australian concern
that hundreds of thousands of
refugees fleeing an unstable Indonesia are waiting to pour into Australia.
Aside from the more than 100
nautical miles between the countries at their closest point, and the great
white sharks and saltwater
alligators that populate the passage, potential refugees are faced with
enormous swaths of vast Australian
desert. Even if such a mass exodus did occur, it would be a relatively
manageable problem given the
geographical realities.
Maintaining Indonesia's territorial integrity is just as important to
Canberra as it is to Jakarta -- in fact, it is
one of Australia's top security priorities. While Indonesia serves as a
nice buffer between Australia and
the rest of the world (read: China), a divided Indonesia poses much more
serious security concerns. Any
real fragmentation of Indonesia would create a massive security mess for
Australia; different factions
vying for the upper hand are likely to ally with nearly anyone, from China
to al Qaeda, potentially bringing
Australia's enemies into its own backyard. Then there is the issue of
international shipping. Australian and
international shipping lanes weave in and out of Indonesia, and the very
nature of the archipelago leaves
plenty of opportunities for piracy and interdiction, even assuming a
unified Indonesia.
These concerns over regional vulnerability have led Australia to shift
from a policy of "fortress Australia" to
a policy of "standoff engagement."
Yet, as Canberra steps forward to play a more prominent role in regional
and world affairs -- a role it
considers its right and privilege -- it does so from a comfortable
position of geographic insulation. Thus,
its goal is to exercise a compelling influence in Jakarta in order to
maintain this position.
With the new security agreement with Indonesia in place, Australia is
poised to pursue its political ends in
the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Micronesia and the rest of the
region. As this continues, Australia
will soon bump up against the southward advance of Japanese interests.
Though there will inevitably be
frictions, Tokyo is a natural economic ally of Canberra, as Japan imports
massive amounts of raw
materials. This eventual meeting of Australian and Japanese influence,
probably in the vicinity of Vietnam,
will also cement a U.S. strategic security triangle with coverage across
the region -- a development that is
equally valuable to Canberra.
---
http://www.antara.co.id/en/seenws/?id=23442
New records of pandanaceae found in Yapen island, Papua
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) in
collaboration with the Indonesian
Biodiversity Foundation in a food crop exploration in Serui, Papua, in
September-October 2006 found
new food crops that are important to secure food for the community of Papua.
Eventhough the exploration is designed to identify the potentials of local
food crops such as sago, tubers
and bananas, the team also discovered 14 taxa from the Pandan family
(Pandanaceae). These taxa are
mostly new in the Pandan diversity in Indonesia.
"We were surprised to see the diversity of Pandanaceae in Yapen," Dr Y.
Purwanto, a researcher from
Herbarium LIPI who discovered these new records, said here on Thursday.
"Since there has never been any research focused on Pandanaceae in Yapen
Island, almost all taxa are
new species, except Sararanga sinuosa that was partially reported by
Beccari in 1875. Moreover, there
are two taxa that are possibly new species, both from the genus of
Freycinetia," he said.
To date, Papua is known as the origin of "buah merah" (Pandanus Conoideus)
known for its effectivness
in healing various ailments, and as a health supplement. Finding other 14
taxa of Pandan in Yapen Island
opens the opportunity for further research work and development of food,
fruit and medicinal resources to
support food security of the community in Papua and also the development
of agriculture, pharmaceutical
and other industries in Indonesia. (*)
---
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/no-need-for-cloking-effect-of-a-security-blanket-shared-
withindonesia/2006/11/16/1163266709779.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
No need for cloaking effect with Indonesian ties
Duncan Campbell
November 17, 2006
INDONESIA is of vital strategic importance to Australia. That much is
generally agreed. How we should
deal with that reality is not. In making another security arrangement - a
second attempt - with Indonesia,
the Howard Government has erred. Indonesia scrapped the first security
arrangement when we stepped
into the East Timor crisis.
That first arrangement became the monument to Paul Keating's boast that
his was an irreplaceable
relationship with a previous Indonesian president, Soeharto. Subsequently,
we have co-operated to
counter terrorism and to augment our mutual capabilities to do so, to
combat drug and people trafficking,
and to respect our sovereign rights.
What, then, will we gain in the new agreement, and what is in it for
Indonesia? The new text contains no
less than four references to territorial integrity and separatism, which
are preoccupations uniquely of
Indonesia. There is no reference to human rights.
But there is a gratuitous reference to non-interference in the internal
affairs of the other. If we had to
resort to it again, as we did in East Timor, this second agreement would
already have gone out the window
like its predecessor. Yes, there's a lot on counter-terrorism, but then
again existing levels of co-operation
are high and productive, without the addition of the agreement.
The UN Security Council does not score a mention but then the Indonesians
are understandably
concerned with the possibility of insurrection and insecurity particularly
in and around Ambon and West
Papua.
On the other hand, if one were asked to identify where, in the arc of
instability to our north, our interests
might in the foreseeable future be most painfully engaged, it probably
would be in Indonesian West
Papua. What, then, are we signing up for? Some species of underlying
non-aggression pact, a part of
which now clearly involves our immutable commitment to Indonesian
domination of the Papuans, no matter
what?
The new agreement will likely introduce more tension and resentment into
our bilateral relationship with
Indonesia than provide relief at what is bound to become a pressure point.
Do John Howard and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have to share a
security blanket just
because Keating and Soeharto did?
Until the demise of Soeharto and the electoral defeat of Keating, we
sought to over-attain in and with
Indonesia, looking always to achieve more than we should ever have aimed
for or attempted. It has been
an infantile failing and remains to be remedied. The late treaty between
Keating and Soeharto was part of
it.
Our relations with Indonesia need to be measured not by some notion of
their magnitude but by how
effectively we join bilaterally in anticipating friction of a serious
nature. The ingredient essential to success
will be early detection of problems and preparedness to take them on, even
when that means accepting,
as it will, some immediate aggravation to prevent the aggregation of
damage to a point where relations are
seriously, perhaps even permanently, harmed.
Our overall relations with Indonesia are so much more important than the
Papuan part of them, which is
not the same thing as saying the fate of the Papuans is not our concern.
We must not let West Papua be
handled as we handled East Timor.
If we try to evade this issue, if we legislate it off the bilateral agenda
as the new security agreement will
do, we will end up backing ourselves into a corner. The last thing we
should be doing is making West
Papua a no-go zone in our relations with Indonesia and in our bilateral
discussion of local sources of
instability.
The Howard Government began its dealings with Indonesia with an air of
studied indifference designed to
show a clear differentiation with the regional diplomacy of the Keating
government. By the time of the
Boxing Day tsunami in 2004, the Prime Minister was looking more infatuated
than indifferent.
In the meantime, he had finally bitten on the bullet in East Timor. Our
exposure to Indonesian-grown
terrorism was yet to be fully manifested, and the potential divisiveness
of our differing legal systems yet to
be felt politically in the two countries.
Measured over the 10 years of the Howard Government, a combination of
miscalculation and mischance
has produced an unsettling oscillation in our relations with Indonesia.
The tendency has grown to handle
problems through prime minister-to-president contact. But with summitry
there must be heavy publicity,
politically stage-managed for two sets of domestic consumption and if
things go wrong, it is difficult to
remit the mess to another level.
Howard has been lured, like Keating, into mistaken reliance on personal
contact with a president. Now he
has also duplicated the pursuit of a security pact, which is more likely
to become hostage to difficulties in
our dealings with Indonesia than to help in handling them.
The essential ingredient to successful Australian-Indonesian relations is
to succeed in exposing the
development of Indonesian West Papua to improved international scrutiny,
and we are turning away from
that prospect.
Duncan Campbell is a former deputy secretary of the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade.
---
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0611/S00204.htm
NZ Government Invests in Environmental Destruction
Tuesday, 14 November 2006, 3:17 pm
Press Release: Wellington West Papua Rights Group
Media Release - For Immediate Release
14 November 2006
NZ Government Invests in Environmental Destruction and Human Rights
Abuses
The New Zealand Superannuation Fund is investing in US mining giant
Freeport McMoRan despite questions over the company's human rights and
environmental record in West Papua.
The Wellington West Papua Rights Group questions how the NZ public can
take the Government's stated commitments to human rights and
environmental sustainability seriously, when this investment clearly
runs against their policy on ethical investment.
"The New Zealand public has a right to know where its funds are going
and what they are supporting. Are environmental destruction and the
suppression of the human rights now government policy?" said Wellington
West Papua Rights Group member George Darroch.
Freeport McRoRan continues to be a significant supporter of the
Indonesian government's occupation of West Papua, despite well
documented and ongoing human rights abuses. The subsidiary mining
company PT Freeport Indonesia has been implicated in supporting directly
the Indonesian military (TNI) with significant financial assistance, and
use of equipment, even as the military suppresses indigenous populations
with violence. The company has not been held to account for its role
in human rights abuses.
WAHLI, Indonesia's leading environmental organisation, has documented
the environmental destruction caused by the operations of the mining
company. The most serious is the daily discharge of over 200,000 tonnes
of toxic tailings into the Ajkwa River, which have very severe impacts
on the river, wildlife, and Arafura Sea. The company has been sued in
the past, and is being threatened with legal action by the Indonesian
Government for its illegal environmental destruction.
The Wellington West Papua Rights Group says the New Zealand Government
should take their stated commitments to human rights and environmental
sustainability seriously, and maintain a policy of ethical investment.
"This has been done by some of the world's largest pension funds,
including those of the Governments of South Africa and Norway, and there
is nothing stopping it happening here" said George Darroch.
---
http://english.people.com.cn/200611/17/eng20061117_322619.html
Plane carrying 12 people missing in Indonesia's Papua
A chartered plane with 12 people onboard went missing in Indonesia's
easternmost province of Papua
Friday.
The Twin Otter plane belonging to Trigana Air Service lost contact with
the airport when making a short trip
in the mountainous regency of Puncak Jaya.
The local airport lost contact with the plane 15 minutes after it departed
from Mulia, the capital of Puncak
Jaya, at 08:00 local time, Papua police spokesman Kartono was quoted by
the Detikcom news website as
saying.
A helicopter has been combing the area to search the plane, he said.
Kartono said the plane was chartered by the Puncak Jaya government,
carrying nine passengers and
three crews.
Source: Xinhua
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20061130.G07&irec=6
Helicopter goes missing in Papua
JAYAPURA, Papua: A BO-105 helicopter with two people on board went missing
Tuesday on a flight from
Manokwari to Nabire, West Irian Jaya, an official said Wednesday.
Nabire Airport head Darmadji said the helicopter belonging to aviation
company PT Aviastar Mandiri was
being flown by pilot Ferdinand and technician Rustam Hadi.
"Officers at the Rendani Airport control tower in Manokwari lost contact
with the helicopter six minutes
after takeoff. It cannot be contracted and its whereabouts is unknown," he
said.
"The helicopter was scheduled to replace another chopper belonging to
Aviastar," Darmadji said.
The missing aircraft was chartered by private companies and government
agencies to reach remote areas
that are inaccessible overland.
A search and rescue team from Biak using a Twin Otter plane has not yet
found the helicopter.
"The search will be continued up to Wasior, the capital of Teluk Wondama
regency," team head Frans
Ayomi said. -- JP
---
http://www.tempointeractive.com/hg/nasional/2006/11/28/brk,20061128-88601,uk.html
Papua's Independence Day Disturbed by Provocation
Tuesday, 28 November, 2006 | 17:07 WIB
TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Police personnel can sense the indication of
agitation and provocation to
inhabitants in Papua's Independence Day that will fall on 1 December 2006.
“The day is considered like
the liberation day of Papuans,” said Commander of Jayapura Police
Department Deputy Chief
Commissioner Robert Djoenso Tuesday (11/28).
According to Robert, Papua's security must still be conducive so that
investors are not afraid of coming to
the area. “Investors should agree to invest in Papua if the area's
security allows it ,” he said.
He explained that there are not yet any groups or organizations that
suggest a notification letter
concerning plans for commemorating Papua's Independence Day.
Commander of the Trikora Military Area Command Major General Zamroni has
affirmed that there are no
additional troops planned for the commemoration. Up until today, he said,
the overall situation in Papua
and other regions is secure.
Cunding Levi
---
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/banned-papua-flag-flies-in-png/2006/11/27/1164476118767.html
Banned Papua flag flies in PNG
Port Moresby
November 27, 2006 - 3:20PM
A flag banned from being raised in Indonesia flew in Port Moresby today as
activists called on Australia
and other nations to support the province of Papua's independence from
Jakarta.
Around 120 people gathered in the Papua New Guinea capital for the raising
of the Morning Star flag of
Papua to commemorate a 1997 proclamation of independence by activists
opposed to the region being
part of Indonesia.
They also heard a message from West Papua New Guinea National Congress
president Michael Kareth,
now living in exile in the Netherlands.
Kareth made the independence proclamation on November 27, 1997, in the
offices of the president of the
European Parliament in Brussels.
The raising of the Morning Star flag is banned in Indonesian Papua, which
became part of Indonesia in
1969 following a US-backed "Act of Free Choice" later approved by the
United Nations.
Those opposed to Indonesian control say the Melanesian people were never
given the right to choose
independence for the former Dutch colony.
At today's ceremony, three Papuan youths dressed in white raised the flag
as the gathering sang the
Papuan anthem and then stood in silence to remember Papuans killed in the
independence struggle.
A statement from Kareth was also read out calling on the US, the European
Union, Australia and New
Zealand to support independence for Papua because the "special autonomy"
promised by Indonesia was
not working for Papuans.
Speakers said Papuans had suffered years of brutality, suppression and
intimidation under Indonesian
military and police rule and it was time for the independence issue to be
addressed by the United Nations.
A former PNG provincial governor, John Tekwie, said his new Indigenous
People's Party would take the
issue of Papuan independence to the PNG electorate during next year's
general election.
He noted that 43 Papuan asylum seekers "created a big explosion in
Australia" after they landed on Cape
York in January.
"We must light the fire and chase our enemies out of Papua."
Tekwie said that as long as Papua was not independent, there would be the
threat of terrorism from the
region.
"They are breeding cell groups in the mosques all over West Papua."
West PNG National Congress member Sylvester Uako said Indonesian
authorities were expected to act
against anyone who today raised the Morning Star flag in Papua, where such
pro-independence activities
are banned.
AAP
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20061129.G09
Papuan tribes ask Freeport for scraps to improve welfare
National News - November 29, 2006
Markus Makur, The Jakarta Post, Timika
Hundreds of Amungme and Kamoro tribespeople in Mimika, Papua, held a
protest Tuesday to demand
giant gold mining company PT Freeport Indonesia give them its old
machinery, vehicles and scrap
materials.
The protesters marched to Freeport's office in Kuala Kencana to speak with
company management about
the request.
Agustinus Anggaibak, the organizer of the rally, said that as the original
owners of PT Freeport's land, the
tribes had asked the company to give them old or outdated equipment.
Anggaibak said the one percent of Freeport's profits supposed to go to
local communities was not being
properly disbursed.
"Instead of improving people's welfare, the money frequently causes
conflicts," he said.
Anggaibak accused local leaders of embezzling the money.
Representatives of the tribes called on Freeport to train locals so they
could hold strategic positions in the
company.
Freeport had never employed tribespeople in mining jobs, they said.
Mimika Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Jantje Jimmy Tuilan said the protesters
had held the rally without
obtaining a permit from the police, required for demonstrations outside
the Freeport mine or company
buildings.
The protesters dispersed peacefully after being reminded about the need
for a permit.
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20061128.D10
Suru-Suru belongs to Asmat regency
National News - November 28, 2006
TIMIKA, Papua: A dispute between Yahukimo and Asmat regencies in Papua
over the ownership of Suru
-Suru kampong has ended peacefully with the kampong being entrusted to Asmat.
The decision was made by Papua Governor Bas Suebu late last week in a
meeting between the governor
and representatives of the traditional community of Asmat regency.
To follow up his decision, the governor will summon Yahukimo officials and
brief them, along with
Amandus Anakat, deputy chairman of the Asmat Traditional People's Institute.
Anakat said the dispute started in 2002, when Yahukimo officials ordered
the construction of a community
health center and a school building in Suru-Suru.
Asmat regency officials then filed a complaints and the Papua provincial
administration set up a team to
study the matter.
Anakat said that because the kampong was much closer to Asmat, Yahukimo's
claim over Suru-Suru was
baseless.
He added that historically, Suru-Suru is part of Asmat. -- JP
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/yesterdaydetail.asp?fileid=20061127.G10
Timika officials tackling HIV/AIDS
National News - November 27, 2006
TIMIKA, Papua: A health official said Thursday there had been more than
1,000 reported cases of
HIV/AIDS in Timika regency, Papua, most the result of sexual contact.
Timika Health and Family Planning Office head Erens Meokbun told The
Jakarta Post his office was
working to educate residents about how to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.
"The government is coordinating with related agencies to slow the spread
of the virus .... Even religious
and community figures have been involved to educate residents about the
issue," he said.
He said his office was also working with private clinics to give them the
capability to perform HIV/AIDS
tests. -- JP
---
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n99910
Plane Crash in Indonesia's Papua Kills 12
19 November 2006 | 12:54 | FOCUS News Agency
Jakarta. All 12 people on board a small twin-engine passenger plane that
crashed in Indonesia's remote
eastern province of Papua were killed, officials said on Sunday cited by
Reuters. The Twin Otter plane
with nine passengers and three crew went missing on Friday morning and its
wreckage was spotted from
the air in a hard-to-reach area on Saturday.
"Looking at the condition of the crashed plane, we can say that all 12
people died in the accident but
haven't been able to be evacuated as the weather was bad," Papua police
spokesman Kartono
Wangsadisastra said on Sunday.
The plane had reportedly been chartered by a local government body to
transport officials. All on board
were Indonesians.
---
http://www.theage.com.au/news/tv--radio/credibility-gap-too-wide/2006/11/28/1164476211828.html
Credibility gap too wide
NICOLE BRADY
November 30, 2006
* Naomi names her worst moment
SO, AFTER Wa-Wa, Naomi says ta-ta. Who would have thought that credibility
counts in the vicious world
of tabloid television? Yet it must, or Seven would not be allowing its
long-time presenter of Today Tonight
to bail from the show.
On one analysis, Robson's departure is a surprise. TT has had a bumper
ratings year and finishes as
Australia's top-rating current affairs program.
Since Ray Martin ended his second stint as host of A Current Affair late
last year, and then Nine took the
flawed decision not to run the show over summer, Today Tonight has had an
edge.
It finishes the year with an average national lead of 166,000 viewers a
night, an increase of 2 per cent on
2005. So if more viewers are tuning in, why is it ta-ta for Naomi?
Credibility. As she acknowledged in her "major announcement" to viewers on
Monday evening, "certainly,
this hasn't been my easiest year but I have to say the good has always
outweighed the bad ... and I can't
thank you enough for your letters, cards and emails when I've got into a
scrape".
Robson's "scrapes" this year have been both self-inflicted and the fault
of others.
Whoever allowed her to go to air outside Australia Zoo in a khaki shirt
with a lizard on her shoulder after
Steve Irwin's death should have known better. Ditto whoever decided it
would be a good idea to buy her
some credibility by sending her on assignment to the apparently
cannibal-infested wilds of West Papua.
But only Robson can be blamed for her response to the media contingent
greeting her return to Australia:
when asked what she and her crew planned to do for Wa-Wa she needed her
producer's intervention to
answer the question.
Saddled with a current affairs host who could not conduct a live
interview, those at Seven who are serious
about current affairs will rejoice at Robson's decision "to explore other
areas of television".
It is a graceful (and familiar) exit strategy that allows all those
involved to save face. Whether or not it
achieves for Robson's television career what she could not for Wa-Wa
remains to be seen.
---
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=21131
AIDS out of control in Indonesia
Disease/Infection News
Published: Wednesday, 29-Nov-2006
The World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned about the AIDS situation
in Indonesia and says it is
out of control there.
The warning comes as the Indonesian government has predicted that up to a
million people may be
infected by 2010.
The WHO is also concerned about the increasing number of infections among
intravenous drug users,
sex workers, and heterosexuals in the eastern province of Papua.
Georg Petersen, the WHO's country representative, says when compared to
neighbours Thailand and
Cambodia, where rates of infection appear to be stabilizing, Indonesia
shows a trend that it is still not
under control.
As a response to concerns voiced earlier, the Indonesian government
established a National AIDS
Commission in July that apparently reports directly to President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono.
The aim of the AIDS Commission is to "prevent having one million infected
people by 2010," says
secretary Nafsiah Ben Mboi.
The world's 4th most populous nation already has an estimated 169,000 to
216,000 infected with
HIV/AIDS in a nation of 220 million.
The Health Ministry has projected there will be half a million infected
Indonesians by 2010 which could
reach 1 million unless there is significant intervention.
Raising public awareness is the next big challenge, as regardless of the
risks many Indonesians still
engage in unsafe sex and drug users share needles because of limited or no
access to clean syringes.
According to the Health Ministry more than half of the country's AIDS
cases are among intravenous drugs
users, while a third have contracted it through heterosexual sexual contact.
---
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/peter_tatchell/2006/11/genocide_in_west_papua.html
A forgotten cause
Friday marks independence day for West Papua. But, since 1961, it has been
occupied by Indonesia - to
the eternal shame of the UN.
Peter Tatchell
November 30, 2006 04:45 PM |
In one of the most shameful decisions in its history, the United Nations
in 1969 sanctioned the Indonesian
annexation of West Papua, the western half of New Guinea, against the
wishes of 80% of the indigenous
people who wanted independence.
Nearly four decades later, the West Papuans are still suffering under the
yoke of Indonesian imperialism.
Despite the end of decades of military-backed dictatorship in Jakarta, the
supposedly democratic
government of Indonesia continues the same old policy of ethnic persecution.
Unlike the Indonesians, who are Asian, West Papuans are black Melanesians,
like the people of Papua
New Guinea and Fiji. Indonesia is a racist state. Its racism against West
Papuans makes the vile BNP
look moderate and respectable.
Jakarta is hell-bent on destroying the West Papuans, culturally and, if
necessary, physically. Over
100,000 indigenous people have been killed (one-tenth of the entire
population at the time of annexation).
In 1977, while I was trekking in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, word
spread of the presence of a
white man wandering in the mountains. Through some villagers I befriended,
a note was delivered to me in
the middle of the night. It read: "Dear Peter Tatchell, Please help us. We
are refugees from the killings in
West Papua." I was instructed to rendezvous at a distant church. On my
arrival, I interviewed massacre
survivors. They had witnessed Indonesian soldiers burning whole villages
and executing all the menfolk.
Others told me of family members being locked in metal crates and being
dumped in rivers to drown.
These killings are fuelled and legitimated by an ethos of Indonesian
supremacism. West Papuans are
routinely denounced as "savages" and "barbarians". Their culture and
beliefs are ridiculed and despised.
Indonesia's conquest of West Papua is based on a two-pronged strategy:
violent suppression and
colonisation. Jakarta has given financial incentives to encourage hundreds
of thousands of migrants from
Java, with the deliberate aim of making West Papuans a minority in their
own land. The capital, which the
Indonesians call Jayapura, used to be almost 100% black Melanesian. Now,
it is populated mostly by
Indonesian settlers: a classic colonial settler state, similar in some
ways to Ulster, Rhodesia and Israel.
To further erode West Papuan identity and culture, Islam is being
vigorously promoted in a bid to overturn
the dominance of Christian and animist beliefs among the West Papuans. The
pressure to covert to Islam
is immense.
The Indonesian occupation also works in more subtle, sinister ways. Tens
of thousands of tribal peoples
have been forced down from the highlands into coastal settlements, so that
the Indonesians can police
them more easily. These "resettled" people are then subjected to Jakarta's
secret weapon of
extermination: malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Highlanders have no resistance
to malaria, which is endemic
in the lowlands. They die in large numbers, which is a covert way for
Jakarta to reduce the West Papuan
population, without having to shoot people and stand directly accused of
human rights abuses.
The Indonesian imperialists are aided by their western counterparts. For
years, the US and the UK have
sold Jakarta many of the weapons it uses to enforce its bloody occupation.
Western multinationals are
heavily involved, too. West Papua is rich in natural resources: oil,
copper, nickel and timber. British
corporations like Rio Tinto and BP have West Papuan blood on their hands.
This Friday, December 1, is West Papuan independence day, when the people
of West Papua celebrate
their aspiration for self-determination and freedom from Indonesian
domination. In London, there will be a
protest outside the Indonesian Embassy. It will be addressed by West
Papuan independence leader,
Benny Wenda. He told me:
December 1 is a day written in every West Papuan's heart. It's the day
in 1961 when the Dutch (the
former colonial power) gave us our flag, national anthem and parliament,
and promised us independence
in 1970. Two years later the Indonesians invaded and 43 years of
occupation and killing began for my
people. We call 1st December our Independence Day because we have never
given up our hope of
freedom.
The London protest will raise the West Papuan flag - the Morning Star. The
display of this flag is banned
by the Indonesians as an act of "rebellion against the state". Our
flag-raising will be in solidarity with Filep
Karma and Yusak Pakage, two West Papuans who were jailed by the
Indonesians for 15 and 10 years
respectively. Their crime? They flew the Morning Star flag on independence
day 2004.
Sadly, the anti-imperialist left will not be joining us. They don't
support the West Papuan freedom struggle.
The Indonesian killers are the wrong race, the wrong nationality and the
wrong religion. In other words,
they are not white Christian American killers.
This strikes me as a tad hypocritical. If any western nation was
massacring 10% of a country's people,
imposing on them an alien religion and swamping them with colonial
settlers, the left would protest non-
stop. The left's silence and inaction with regard to the killing fields of
West Papua indicates that a once
great humanitarian movement has lost its moral and political bearings.
What happened to the socialist values of universal human rights and
international solidarity? And what
happened to the left's once clear commitment to the right of nations to
self-determination?
---
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/bulletins/rnzi/200612011634/european_mps_present_paper_calling_for_we
st_papuan_independence_referendum
European MPs present paper calling for West Papuan independence referendum
Posted at 4:34pm on 01 Dec 2006
European MPs are presenting a written declaration calling for a referendum
on independence for
Papuans living under Indonesia rule.
The written declaration - the European Parliament's equivalent of an Early
Day Motion in the House of
Commons - is being launched today to coincide with West Papua Independence
Day, December 1st.
It includes a call for the European Union to intervene in forcing
Indonesia to respect human rights in
Papua province, and grant the province a free and fair referendum on
independence.
One of the Declaration's sponsors, South East England MP Caroline Lucas,
says Papuans were promised
a referendum on independence when the Dutch former colonial rulers
withdrew from the country four
decades ago, and they are still waiting.
The Written Declaration needs to attract the support of half the European
parliament's 732 members to
become official policy.
December 1st is the anniversary of the 1961 West Papuan Declaration of
Independence from Dutch
colonial rule.
Demonstrations have been planned to mark the anniversary in London outside
the Indonesian Embassy
and the headquarters of both Rio Tinto and BP.
Copyright © 2006 Radio New Zealand International
---
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/bulletins/rnzi/200612011634/vanuatu_mps_mark_45th_anniversary_of_pap
uan_self_determination
Vanuatu MPs mark 45th anniversary of Papuan self determination
Posted at 4:34pm on 01 Dec 2006
Vanuatu's Parliament has paid respect for the 45th National Day of West
Papua by way of 1-minute
silence this morning.
West Papua Independence Day, December 1st, is being marked around the
world by advocates for
Papuan self-determination.
However while many of the ceremonies involve raising of the Morning Star
flag, this is a crime in
Indonesia for which people have been jailed up to fifteen years.
Vanuatu's parliament motion was moved by the Deputy Leader of Opposition,
Moana Carcasses, and
seconded by the Prime Mnister Ham Lini and supported unanimously.
Copyright © 2006 Radio New Zealand International
---
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s1801572.htm
Last Update: Thursday, November 30, 2006. 10:33pm (AEDT)
Dr van Holst Pellekaan analysed mitochondrial DNA from Aboriginal people
in western NSW and Central
Australia.
Two groups may have populated Australia: researcher
New genetic evidence suggests Australia may have been populated by two
separate groups of humans -
one arriving via Papua New Guinea, the other via Indonesia, a researcher
says.
But more work is needed to confirm the idea. And not all scientists agree
that these latest results shed new
light on the long-standing debate on how humans colonised Australia.
Dr Sheila van Holst Pellekaan, a molecular anthropologist from the
University of New South Wales in
Sydney, will present her research at a Australian Archaeological
Association conference in Melbourne
next month.
Previous genetic analysis shows that modern humans took two migration
routes out of Africa 100,000 to
150,000 years ago, she says.
One group went north into Europe and Northern Eurasia, the other along the
coast via Saudi Arabia, India
and South-East Asia.
Dr van Holst Pellekaan analysed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from Aboriginal
people in western New
South Wales and Central Australia.
She says she found evidence of two ancient genetic groups that appear to
be linked to these two
migration routes.
Dr van Holst Pellekaan says some archaeologists argue there was more than
one founding population of
Australia, and her research is the first genetic evidence that could be
used to support this.
It is possible that some Australians came in from the north via Papua New
Guinea and the other took a
more southerly route via Indonesia, she says.
Different views
Archaeologist Dr Colin Pardoe, who is speaking at the conference on a
related topic, disagrees.
He believes the diversity of early Australians could have arisen from one
group that came in from South-
East Asia and then diversified as it adapted to different environments.
DR Pardoe is not convinced Dr van Holst Pellekaan has identified two
founding groups.
"Are these two totally distinct groups that came in or are they
representatives of one major group that
came in that has all that diversity within it?" he asks.
This is a possibility that Dr van Holst Pellekaan accepts.
"The idea of two founding populations is speculative," she says. "I can't
prove it either way."
Dr Pardoe says more DNA samples from other places such as the Indonesian
islands and Papua New
Guinea would need to be analysed.
"We need to understand the pattern of variation in these large groupings
to see where Australians are
coming from," he says.
Professor Peter Brown of the University of New England in Armidale also
says further data is required,
including studies of Y chromosome DNA, as mtDNA only reflects the maternal
line.
Dr van Holst Pellekaan says some Y-chromosome studies of Aboriginal people
from Central Australia have
found a connection with India, but there have been no comprehensive
studies of this type.
Long Aboriginal history
Dr Van Holst Pellekaan says despite the links with the global lineages
that came out of Africa, the
Australian groups are quite different from those shown in samples from
Papua New Guinea, the Andaman
and Nicobar Islands and Malaysia.
"[People] have to have been in Australia for a very long time for that
diversity to generate. We're saying at
least 40,000 years," she says.
Dr Van Holst Pellekaan accepts the idea of tracing Aboriginal people back
to Africa can clash with some
cultural beliefs, which she respects.
"I simply present it to them as a scientist's way of seeing how the
language groups might have related to
each other," she says.
"I can only give them the information I come up with. I don't ask them to
believe it."
---
http://www.cdnn.info/news/science/sc061123.html
Palau sea turtles travel as far as Indonesia
Powered by CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
PALAU (23 Nov 2006) -- Palau's sea turtles travel as far as Indonesia or
perhaps even farther according
to the latest report from local conservationists who had been using
satellite transmitters that are mounted
into the carapace (shell) of the endangered species to track their
movements and habitat.
For the first time since this experiment was launched by the Palau Marine
Turtle Conservation and
Monitoring Program, a green turtle that nested on Merir Island swam over
370 miles in less than 12 days,
from Merir in Sonsorol State to the coastal waters of Irian Jaya, Indonesia.
The report noted that it was on November 1 that PMTCMP Coordinator Joshua
Eberdong mounted the
transmitter on a nesting green turtle on the wild and mosquito-infested
island of Merir through the help of
Sonsorol Governor Damien Alvis, Lieutenant Governor William Carlos,
Conservation Officer Ishmael
Varnando, and Jordan Antonio.
They named the turtles as Fini Melieli, which means Lady of Merir in local
dialect Sonsorolese.
Data provided by the PMTCMP showed that the turtle has a maximum carapace
length of 104 cm (~3 ft, 5
in) and a curved carapace width of 101.5 cm (~3 ft, 4 in).
The PMTCMP said that this is just close to the average size of measured
green turtles that nest on Merir
and Helen Islands.
"Every year, green turtles lay thousands of eggs in hundreds of nests on
the beaches of Merir, a remote
island that is slightly more than a mile long and about a quarter of a
mile wide, 250 miles southwest of
Koror. This is the first evidence of a green turtle that nested in Palau
swimming to Indonesian waters,
presumably to forage," the PMTCMP reported.
It said that sea turtles all over the world have been tracked with
satellite transmitters and they often swim
hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles between nesting beaches and
feeding grounds.
Sea turtle
The turtle program said that this is the first time that local
conservationists tracked a turtle via the satellite
transmitter that swam from a nesting beach in Palau to the waters of
another country.
"Simply protecting nesting females and eggs in Palau is not enough to
ensure the future of this species.
International management is necessary to ensure the survival of sea
turtles," the PMTCMP noted in its
report.
It said that this tracking program highlights the need for international
management of highly migratory
endangered species including green turtles.
It said that by signing the Convention on Migratory Species, Palau has
made progress to align its
management of migratory species with that of other signatory countries.
"As for Fini Melieli, the turtle program office will keep you posted on
her international travels," the
PMTCMP assured.
---
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0611/S00451.htm
Solidarity for West Papua on 1 December 2006
Thursday, 30 November 2006, 4:48 pm
Press Release: Peace Movement
From: Peace Movement Aotearoa
Solidarity for West Papua in Aotearoa New Zealand on 1 December 2006
30 November 2006
Kia ora,
This message has four sections: about West Papua; about 1 December, West
Papua Independence Day;
'Messages of solidarity' - something you can do wherever you are to add
your voice to those who are
calling for justice, peace and self-determination for the people of West
Papua; and details of the solidarity
events in Auckland and Wellington on Friday.
Since 1963 West Papua has been occupied by the Indonesian armed forces.
For the past forty-three
years, the people of West Papua have been subjected to gross human rights
violations including rape,
torture, cultural genocide, murder and massacre - more than 100,000 West
Papuans have been killed.
More than 15,000 West Papuans are currently living in camps in Papua New
Guinea; and others are
forced to live in exile around the world because it is not safe for them
to go home.
Multi-national corporations in cahoots with the Indonesian authorities
have exploited West Papua's natural
resources to an extraordinary degree. This has caused massive social
dislocation, devastation of rain
forests, and pollution of streams and rivers on which the local people
depend for their survival.
There have been repeated ongoing calls from West Papuan leaders for
dialogue to turn West Papua into
a 'land of peace', but these have been ignored by the Indonesian
authorities. The number of Indonesian
troops in West Papua continues to increase; plans announced in 2005 to
deploy an additional 20,000
combat-ready troops to West Papua will take the total up to around 50,000
- one soldier for every 44
civilians.
As well as the direct violent repression by Indonesian armed forces, they
are creating armed militias,
similar to what they did in East Timor.
• About 1 December, West Papua Independence Day
1 December is the anniversary of the 1961 West Papuan Declaration of
Independence from Dutch
colonial rule and is observed by people in West Papua and by solidarity
groups around the world.
In West Papua people mark the day in a variety of ways, including raising
the 'Morning Star' (the West
Papuan flag) - in previous years the Indonesian military and police have
responded with increased violent
oppression around this day, arresting and killing those they perceive as
pro-independence activists.
On 1 December 2004, among the West Papuans arrested were Filep Karma and
Yusak Pakage who
organised peaceful celebrations and raised the Morning Star flag in
Jayapura. On 26 May 2005, an
Indonesian court sentenced Philip to fifteen years imprisonment and Yusak
to ten years.
More information about West Papua, and what has happened on Independence
Day in previous years, is
available on the 'West Papua: the forgotten Pacific country' web page at
http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/wpapua.htm
• Messages of solidarity for the people of West Papua
You are invited to add your voice to those of people around the world who
are calling for justice, peace
and self-determination for the people of West Papua; 'Messages of
solidarity' is an ongoing initiative that
was launched on 1 December 2004.
If you would like your message included on the 'Messages of solidarity'
web page please send your name,
address*, occupation / position and organisation (optional), and message
to email pma at xtra.co.nz [* only
the town / city part of your address will be put on the web page, not your
full address.]
If you can help distribute 'Messages of solidarity' forms from stalls, or
in newsletters or other mail outs,
you can either follow the link on the web page at
http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/wpsol.htm to the
printable form, or email pma at xtra.co.nz with your postal address and a
note saying how many forms you
require, or if you would prefer us to send you the artwork so you can copy
the form as needed. Thank
you.
• West Papua solidarity events on Friday, 1 December 2006
• Auckland - 12 noon: December 1 marks the 45th anniversary of the date on
which the newly formed
West New Guinea Council voted to rename their territory West Papua and
affirmed their own flag and
national anthem. At that time the Dutch colonial power was preparing the
territory for independence.
Tragically, the people of West Papua were then denied their promised right
to self-determination . They
have now endured repressive Indonesian military control for more than 4
decades. More than 100,000
people have died in the course of a conflict which has seen West Papua
become a closed-off, poverty-
stricken and fearful place. In West Papua it is illegal to raise the
Morning Star flag, and those who do so
risk lengthy prison terms. Join us to raise the flag in Queen Elizabeth
Square on Friday December 1 at 12
noon in Downtown Square, corner Customs and Queen Streets, Auckland City.
The demonstration will
conclude with a march to the offices of the NZ Super Fund which invests in
the Freeport McMoran Mine -
heedless of its that company's devastating environmental and human rights
record. Organised by the
Indonesia Human Rights Committee, for more information contact email
maire at clear.net.nz or tel (09)
815 9000.
* Wellington - 1pm: Gathering in solidarity with the people of West Papua
- join us to fly the 'Morning Star'
flag, with the opportunity to write a personal message in support of
justice, peace and self-determination
for West Papua if you wish; 1pm in parliament grounds.
Ends
---
http://www.unpo.org/article.php?id=5916
West Papua: Independent Papua Flag Raised
2006-11-28
Below is an extract from an article published on the Sunday Morning Herald
Website:
A flag banned from being raised in Indonesia flew in Port Moresby today as
activists called on Australia
and other nations to support the province of Papua's independence from
Jakarta.
Around 120 people gathered in the Papua New Guinea capital for the raising
of the Morning Star flag of
Papua to commemorate a 1997 proclamation of independence by activists
opposed to the region being
part of Indonesia.
They also heard a message from West Papua New Guinea National Congress
president Michael Kareth,
now living in exile in the Netherlands.
Kareth made the independence proclamation on November 27, 1997, in the
offices of the president of the
European Parliament in Brussels.
The raising of the Morning Star flag is banned in Indonesian Papua, which
became part of Indonesia in
1969 following a US-backed "Act of Free Choice" later approved by the
United Nations.
Those opposed to Indonesian control say the Melanesian people were never
given the right to choose
independence for the former Dutch colony.
At today's ceremony, three Papuan youths dressed in white raised the flag
as the gathering sang the
Papuan anthem and then stood in silence to remember Papuans killed in the
independence struggle.
A statement from Kareth was also read out calling on the US, the European
Union, Australia and New
Zealand to support independence for Papua because the "special autonomy"
promised by Indonesia was
not working for Papuans.[
]
---
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/twelve-feared-dead-in-papua-crash/2006/11/18/1163266832309.html
Twelve feared dead in Papua crash
November 18, 2006 - 9:33PM
Twelve people are feared dead in an aircraft crash in the mountains of the
remote Indonesian province of
Papua.
The flight lost contact seven minutes before it was scheduled to land in
Ilaga, at 8.07am (1007 AEDT)
yesterday a Trigana Air Service employee in Jakarta said today.
"A search and rescue team coordinated by the regional military is ongoing,
but the evacuation is still
unsuccessful due to bad weather," said the employee, who identified
himself as Lalu.
The aircraft was found this morning at "an altitude of 3,180 metres near
the district of Ilaga," John Retok,
an official from the nearby Timika transportation office told ElShinta
news radio.
The twin-engine turboprop carrying nine passengers and three crew was
flying from the Puncakjaya
district capital of Mulia to Ilaga when it went missing, said Lalu.
The weather was reported clear at the time it took off, but "in Papua,
especially in the mountains, the
weather can change within minutes", Retok said.
"Airline accidents are quite high in Papua, mostly caused by the
topography and weather conditions. Only
last month another Trigana aircraft crashed. This is the fourth time we
had airline accidents in Papua this
year," he said.
Rescuers were attempting to reach the crash site but the difficult terrain
and unpredictable weather meant
they were not optimistic about finding any survivors, he said.
AFP
---
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/pubs/fs/5902.htm
We include the link only FYI. It includes the OPM kidnapping in the
Lorentz Park as a terrorist event.
---
http://www.freemarketnews.com/Press-Release.asp?nid=11934
TENKE FUNGURUME PROJECT UPDATE
Press Release - TENKE MINING CORP. Quotes:( TNK )
Tuesday, November 21, 2006 7:58:00 AM EST
November 20, 2006 (TNK – TSX) ... Tenke Mining Corp. (“Tenke” or the
“Company”) is pleased to provide
the following update on the Tenke Fungurume copper/cobalt project in
Katanga Province, Democratic
Republic of Congo (“DRC”). The project is advancing under the direction of
project operator Phelps
Dodge Corporation through its wholly owned subsidiary Phelps Dodge Katanga
Corporation (“Phelps
Dodge”). Final feasibility study, environmental impact assessment work and
implementation of local social
programs have progressed significantly over the past quarter. In addition,
significant pre-construction
activities have advanced on site to maintain a target of first copper
cathode production at Tenke
Fungurume towards the end of 2008.
Feasibility study work being performed by GRD Minproc is advancing towards
a fourth quarter 2006
completion. As a result of project drilling and Kwatebala ore reserve
modeling success, enhancements
were recently made to the feasibility study criteria and the initial
facility capacity for purposes of the
feasibility study was increased to more than 100,000 tonnes of copper and
a nominal 8,000 tonnes of
cobalt production. Infill ore reserve, step out and condemnation drilling
progressed well during the past
quarter and drill rigs are being added to further explore three new
mineralized zones just to the west of the
Kwatebala ore body.
Pilot plant process test work continued at Hazen Laboratories in Colorado
and basic design work in Perth
by GRD Minproc is well advanced. To further progress the project schedule,
major long delivery items
including mining equipment, acid plant and the grinding mill have been
tendered. Bids will be in hand and
evaluated to facilitate major equipment awards in the fourth quarter 2006.
The largest piece of mining
equipment, a continuous miner, has been purchased and delivered to
Fungurume for use in site work
construction and pre-stripping. Earthworks and steel supply contracts were
also sent out to tender during
the past quarter with the intent to award prior to year end.
Project staffing increased with both expatriate and local staff added in
Lubumbashi and at Fungurume.
Current full time staffing in the DRC is about 275 personnel, with more
than 600 additional local personnel
retained on contract for road construction, site clearing, housing
erection and other pre-construction
activities. A large number of local workers were contracted for road
rebuilding of 40 kilometers of the
national highway in the vicinity of the Tenke Fungurume concessions. Total
full time and contract
employment facilitated by the project will soon reach 1,000 local jobs,
providing a new major source of
employment in the region.
Environmental impact assessments, community consultation and social
programs remain a high priority on
the project. Construction of two schools to accommodate 600 children is
occurring, teachers have been
hired and classroom furniture and supplies purchased. The first of the
schools went into operation in
October, and the second school is expected to be in operation prior to
year end. Rebuilding of the former
Gecamines school will commence following completion of the other two new
schools in Tenke and
Fungurume villages.
Agricultural activities being advanced by the project in the Tenke
Fungurume concession area continued,
including provision of seeds, crop purchase and oxen husbandry programs. A
fresh water well drilling
program is in progress through funding from the Lundin for Africa
Foundation providing fresh water to 10
communities who are located in remote locations in the area.
To promote micro-enterprise development, small business training and
starter funding is being given to
local entrepreneurs to stimulate employment through 24 micro-enterprise
initiatives with products from
these new businesses supplying the project with bricks, fencing, and other
local goods. Social and
employment programs are being conducted with the guidance of PACT Congo, a
non-governmental
organization (“NGO”) well established in Katanga, who in turn are
directing specialist NGOs for
agricultural, school and other specific social programs. Community and
regional support for the project is
high. The project is being developed under the Equator Principles,
Voluntary Principles for Security and
Human Rights, OECD and applicable IFC guidelines and Phelps Dodge’s high
corporate standards.
Debt financing initiatives led by Phelps Dodge and the project’s financial
advisor Rothschild Inc. are
advancing. It is expected that a significant level of debt will be
available for the project. Prior to debt
drawdown being available, project activities are being funded with partner
advances. To contribute to a
rapid advancement of pre-construction capital works ahead of formal Phelps
Dodge board approvals for
the project, in the third quarter Tenke agreed to contribute funding to
early capital works estimated at
$24.5 million, of which Tenke is committed to fund up to 30% prior to year
end.
Within the DRC, a historic milestone has been achieved, with the DRC
people accomplishing their first
democratic elections in 40 years, a remarkable success given the
logistical challenges and large diverse
population of the country. A new elected government is anticipated to be
in place by year end, providing a
supportive framework for advancement of Tenke Fungurume in the year ahead.
The potential acquisition of Phelps Dodge by Freeport-McMoRan Copper &
Gold, Inc. (“Freeport”)
announced today is expected to be very positive for the project. Freeport
successfully pioneered the
enormous Ertsberg/Grasberg mine in a remote region in Papua, Indonesia
(formerly Irian Jaya),
mastering the technical, political and geographic challenges at Grasberg
to make it one of the largest,
most successful copper/gold mines in the world.
On behalf of the Board
Paul K. Conibear
President
---
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2006/2006-11-20-04.asp
U.S., Indonesia Agree to Target Illegal Logging
WASHINGTON, DC, November 20, 2006 (ENS) - A new agreement to fight illegal
logging in Indonesia
signed last week by U.S. and Indonesian officials was praised today by the
leaders of both nations.
After their six hour meeting at Indonesia's Bogor Palace today, President
George W. Bush and President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono applauded the memo of agreement that is intended
to combat illegal logging
and trade in illegally logged wood.
President Bush said, "Our two nations continue to build strong trade and
investment relationships. We're
determined to grow our economies in a way that are sustainable."
"Last week, we signed an agreement to help Indonesia conserve its forests.
Together, our nations will fight
illegal logging while promoting trade in forest products that does not
threaten the region's environmental
quality," Bush said.
leaders
U.S. President George W. Bush and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of
Indonesia shake hands
today at the Presidential Palace in Bogor, Indonesia. (Photo by Eric
Draper courtesy The White House)
In a joint statement, the two leaders also praised the resumption of
cooperation and capacity building
activities between the U.S. Forest Service and the Indonesian Ministry of
Forestry.
The memo of agreement was signed Thursday on the margins of the Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation
meetings in Hanoi under the U.S.-ASEAN Trade and Investment Framework
Arrangement.
The two nations have agreed to exchange information on the trade in
illegally harvested forest products
and cooperate on law enforcement.
The $1 million the United States has committed immediately will fund
remote sensing of illegal logging
activities and enhancing partnerships with nongovernmental organizations
and the private sector.
President Yudhoyono said the United States also had made commitments to
help Indonesia develop
biofuels and eradicate bird flu.
President Bush today returns to the United States from a five day trip to
Southeast Asia. He visited
Singapore and then attended the 14th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
Leaders' Meeting on November
18 and 19 in Hanoi, Vietnam. He will spend tonight at a military base in
Hawaii and fly on to Washington
on Tuesday.
In Indonesia, a largely Muslim nation, thousands of protesters took to the
streets to express their
displeasure with the Bush administration's war in Iraq and support of Israel.
World Wildlife Fund, WWF, today praised the agreement to fight illicit
logging. "This agreement
represents a promising step towards preventing illegal logging, protecting
endangered species and
habitats throughout Indonesia and securing markets for legally-grown
Indonesian wood and wood
products," said Carter Roberts, president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund
based in Washington, DC.
cut
Logger cuts a tree in an Indonesian forest. (Photo courtesy EIA)
"WWF is eager to support the U.S. and Indonesian governments in this
promising initiative because it
complements much of our ongoing work to prevent illegal logging and
enhance trade in sustainable forest
products," said Roberts.
According to a June report from the nonprofit Environmental Investigation
Agency, EIA, an international
environmental group, the U.S. imports over $700 million each year in
timber and wood products from
Indonesia.
In some areas, like the remote province of Irian Jaya on the island of New
Guinea, as much as 80
percent of timber is illegally harvested according to the EIA report.
Over $1 billion in losses are incurred each year by the U.S. timber
industry due to illegal logging abroad,
WWF says.
logs
Illegally cut logs ready for transport in Indonesia (Photo courtesy
WWF-Indonesia)
"Through our extensive field projects and our comprehensive efforts to
positively impact policy and trade
affecting the tropical forests of Indonesia, WWF is well placed to help
ensure that this initiative succeeds,"
Roberts said.
While Indonesia has the most extensive rainforest cover in Asia, its
forests are rapidly being reduced by
illegal logging, even in national parks.
Between 1990 and 2005 the country lost more than 28 million hectares of
forest, including 21.7 million
hectares of virgin forest, according to data from the United Nations.
Logging concessions have been
linked to the illegal wildlife trade as well.
United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab and Indonesia’s Minister
of Trade Mari E. Pangestu
and Minister of Forestry M.S. Kaban signed the bilateral agreement.
"A core part of our international trade agenda must be combating illegal
trade, including protecting
endangered species. Today’s agreement with Indonesia constitutes a new
model for international
engagement in this area," said Ambassador Schwab.
This agreement is the first of its kind for both countries, said Schwab.
It will help ensure that Indonesia’s
legally produced timber and wood products have continued access to U.S.
and other international
markets.
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20061201.G02&irec=1
Forbidding flag-raising a waste of time, Papuan leaders say
Nethy Dharma Somba and Markus Makur, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura, Timika
Police and soldiers are tightening security in Papuan cities Thursday
ahead of the Dec. 1
commemoration of Papuan independence, despite an assurance by community
leaders there will be no
attempt to raise the outlawed Bintang Kejora, or Morning Star, flag.
Papuan Presidium Council secretary general Taha Al Hamid said there would
be no hoisting of the flag on
the 45th anniversary.
The event would be observed with a low-key prayer at the home of the
council's late chairman, Theys Hiyo
Eluay, in Sentani, Jayapura. Theys, a prominent independence activist, was
abducted and murdered in
2002 in Papua. Many people here believe his killers were members of the
security forces but none have
ever been found or brought to trial.
"There will be no Bintang Kejora flag hoisting. If there's such an
incident, it will not be conducted by the
council but others. We are just planning to pray at Theys' home," Taha said.
"He (Theys) said the commemoration should not be taken as a threat to the
country's sovereignty. It is the
government's improper handling of people's problems that could break the
country apart," he said.
Many development programs in the province have not gone well and the
special autonomy status for
Papua during the past five years hasn't benefited Papuans, Taha said.
"If situation remains like this, people will lose trust in the government
and this might threaten the country.
So there is no need to overact on the Dec. 1 commemoration."
Papuan Tribal Governance Council secretary Fadal Al Hamid said his group
would also meet at They's
house.
Prohibiting the flag raising was an irrelevant gesture by the central
government, which would do better to
sit down and talk with Papuan leaders, he said.
"Why can the government have a dialog with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in
Aceh but the same thing
can't be done with Papuans," he said.
Papua Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Max D. Aer and Trikora Military
Commander Maj. Gen. Zamroni
have warned Papuans they will be arrested if they raise the flag.
Police and military in Timika, the nearest city to PT Freeport Indonesia's
giant copper and gold mine, are
on high alert to anticipate a massive protest on Friday.
Dec. 1 was declared West Papua Independence Day by separatists in 1961
after the Dutch government
recognized the new country's flag and anthem on Nov. 18 of that year. The
move was part of the colony's
10-year transition period to total independence from the Netherlands,
which was supposed to end in 1971.
Indonesia took effective control of Papuan territory in 1962. Since then,
Free Papua Movement
separatists have sporadically waged a low-level guerrilla revolt in the
province.
---
http://www.cpa.org.au/garchve06/1300edit.html
The Guardian 22 November, 2006
Editorial
Strangling West Papuan independence
Two weeks ago Australia and Indonesia signed a new Treaty called the
"Framework for Security
Cooperation". It replaces a similar Treaty entered into secretly by Paul
Keating when he was Prime
Minister and the then military fascist dictatorship of Suharto. This
Treaty was torn up by Indonesia when
Australia supported the independence of East Timor which had been seized
and militarily occupied by
Indonesia in 1975.
One of the immediate and direct consequences of the new Treaty will be to
imprison the indigenous
people of West Papua in a naval and military embrace with joint naval
patrols to prevent any West Papuan
freedom fighters from seeking refuge in Australia. It will see the
continuation of the savage military
occupation by the Indonesian army similar to that imposed on East Timor.
West Papua has vast mineral resources of copper and gold some of which are
exploited by the US
Corporation, Westernport. It has huge timber forests, a prime target as
forests elsewhere are being cut
down and the countryside devastated.
Rex Rumakiek, the Decolonisation Officer of the Pacific Concerns Resource
Centre and a West Papuan,
when commenting on the new Treaty quotes the communiqué issued by the 2006
Pacific Island Forum:
"Leaders expressed concern about reports of violence in Papua and called
on all parties to protect and
uphold human rights of all residents in Papua and to work to address the
root causes of such conflicts by
peaceful means. They also urged Indonesian authorities to bring to justice
the perpetrators of serious
crimes in the Province of Papua."
The root causes of the independence struggle taking place in West Papua
arise from the military
occupation of the province and the savage repression of the independence
movement.
Australia signed this communiqué but in typical fashion has simply ignored
the commitments it made in
doing so.
Rex Rumakiek says that the signing of the Treaty with Indonesia "violates
the spirit and decision of the
Pacific Island Forum Leaders especially when respect for the rule of law
and international human rights
standards is very much wanting in West Papua". He goes on, "Howard is
paying lip-service to the Pacific
region and his intention to advance the issues in the Leaders Communiqué
is purely nominal".
The new Treaty specifically says that Australia and Indonesia "should not
in any manner support or
participate in activities by any person or entity which constitutes a
threat to the stability, sovereignty or
territorial integrity of the other Party, including by those who seek to
use its territory for encouraging or
committing such activities, including separatism, in the territory of the
other Party".
This is aimed at silencing and suppressing the national liberation
movement of the
West Papuans and could also be used against those who support their
struggle in Australia.
But there is much more behind this Treaty which is totally concentrated on
the "common security" of the
two countries and their "national security". It is about "defence
cooperation", "law enforcement
cooperation", "counter-terrorism cooperation", "intelligence cooperation",
"aviation safety and security",
"maritime security" and, of course, the "war against terrorism".
There is not a single word in the Treaty about alleviation of poverty,
climate change, trade, health care,
democratic rights, etc. These issues have no priority in the thinking of
the leaders.
For some time the Australian Government has been attempting to lure
Indonesia back into the American
camp and away from its natural partners in the Association of SE Asian
Nations (ASEAN) and the Muslim
world, recognising that Islam is the predominant religion in Indonesia.
It is no coincidence that following the Australian-Indonesian Treaty, that
President Bush will go on to
Indonesia to follow up and continue the pressure. The tactics will have
been thoroughly spelt out in the
several conversations that Howard has had with Bush at the APEC meeting.
It may seem perverse but Australia’s role in East Timor was not because of
some belated sympathy for
East Timor’s independence but to provide an advance base for Australian
and US naval and military
forces which would enable them to put pressure on Indonesia to follow the
course that Australia and the
US have carved out for Indonesia.
Whether the Indonesian leaders are prepared to bend the knee and become a
modern-day neo-colony
remains to be seen.
---
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=5222
Howard's very foreign policies
By Gary Brown - posted Wednesday, 29 November 2006 Sign Up for free
e-mail updates!
The Howard Government’s foreign policy in several key areas and on several
levels is in serious disarray.
There have been significant policy failures, leading in some cases to a
deterioration in relations with
regional states. But of course the worst failures are to be found in
tormented Iraq.
Iraq
Despite the ongoing slaughter - no other word seems appropriate, given the
appalling level of civilian
casualties - in Iraq, it does not appear to have dawned on the government
that the presence of its troops
there is not part of the solution but of the problem.
The situation Bush, Blair and Howard created by their invasion and
occupation of Iraq has been exploited
by al-Qaida, by Sunni and Shia extremists, by Saddam loyalists and others,
to the point where scores die
violently (some by torture) every week, where basic services like power
are still not available 24-7 even in
the capital and where no one is secure outside the fortified enclave in
central Baghdad.
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Now, with the scale of the failure too great to be plausibly ignored, the
thieves have begun to fall out as our
still purblind PM disputes Blair’s belated admission that Iraq is a
“disaster”. This doubtless explains why
the British are now talking about exit plans and schedules - something a
bit too realistic for John Howard.
I harbour no illusions that the departure of foreign troops will herald a
new era of peace, democracy and
prosperity in Iraq. More likely, it will be the signal for another
traditional ethnic (and religious) cleansing
war or wars, where the major interest groups slug it out to see who gets
to lord it over the rest and steal
the oil revenue. The likely outcomes of that include an Iraq governed by
some kind of authoritarian
regime, possibly a Shia theocracy allied to and dependent on Iran, or a
fragmentation of the country into
de facto independent and probably warring regions.
Some might think this prospect reason enough to stay, but after nearly
four years it is clear that the
occupation regime has failed. Consider the differences with Germany and
Japan by 1949, four years
after their occupation by the victorious powers. True, Germany was divided
- but by the Cold War only -
the West German democracy was ready to begin work, and both Germanys were
at least places where
people were personally secure (with the obvious authoritarian exceptions
in the East) and basic services
were again available.
By 1949 Japan too was well on the way to recovering its sovereignty under
a US-imposed democratic
constitution which, whatever its failures, helped Japan achieve
prosperity, stability and more in the way of
democracy than it ever had before. It is noteworthy, too, that the
successful occupiers of Japan were at
least as much out of cultural context there (as alien to the locals) as
are those presently failing in Iraq.
In Iraq, however, the US-led war of conquest has been succeeded by two
concurrent conflicts - first,
between the occupiers and largely anti-US forces, and second, between the
major religious groups with a
potential ethnic conflict (the Kurds) as well.
It is this dual postwar threat more than anything else which has tripped
up the occupiers: their withdrawal
now will only end the first war, and perhaps remove a goad prodding some
groups into militant action. The
second war was probably inevitable once Saddam’s regime fell - however it
fell: consider the chaos in ex
-Yugoslavia and parts of the ex-USSR once the strong authoritarian regimes
there failed. Bush, Blair and
Howard created the conditions for this second war, and their continued
occupation of Iraq only prolongs
the first as well.
The Oil-for-Food scandals
Something the government did not bargain on when it joined the clamour
about Saddam’s weapons of
mass destruction (WMD - remember them?) was being hoist on its own petard.
The pre-war UN sanctions
were intended to prevent Saddam developing WMD (obviously, they did), but
of course they led directly to
the now infamous Oil-for-Food program and the Australian involvement in
huge wheat sale kickbacks to
that same Saddam regime we were excoriating daily.
Now there are revelations involving imports of Iraqi oil by at least one
company, and six further “matters”
are under Australian Federal Police investigation. The damaging political
fallout from these scandals is the
price Howard pays for his sanctimonious hypocrisy over the reasons for
going to war. Unfortunately our
wheat farmers, already beset by a once-in-centuries drought, get to pay
the dollar costs.
It would now seem that the duplicity many suspected Howard was practising
in the lead-up to the invasion
of Iraq was duplicity indeed. New documents from the AWB (Cole) inquiry
apparently show that Howard
had taken his pro-war decision about a year before the war, and long
before he told the people he made
it. Honest John - never ever a GST - strikes again.
Relations with Indonesia
Managing relations with Jakarta is no easy task for any Australian
government. It is in fact so difficult that
the foreign policy establishment gave up trying years ago, and fell back
on the deceptively easy course of
appeasement.
All through the bleak Suharto years a bipartisan succession of Australian
foreign ministers pursued this
policy: even the rape of East Timor was not enough to force their hands.
Not until the Suharto regime,
rotting from within, began to lose its grip did Australia perform its
backflip over East Timor.
But of course Jakarta also has its West Papua problem. I have discussed
this before, but after 40 West
Papuans fleeing the oppression of the Indonesian military successfully
gained asylum here, Jakarta
embarked on a course of noise and bluster, successfully intimidating a
supine Howard Government to
accept an Indonesian-dictated revision of our asylum laws.
The year thus far was capped by the signing of a fresh treaty with
Indonesia - the previous 1995
agreement, the crowning achievement of years of grovelling by Hawke,
Hayden, Keating and Gareth
Evans, was dumped in a huff by Jakarta over East Timor.
That treaty was basically a collection of meaningless platitudes with no
substantive provisions; so is the
new one: only the content of the platitudes is different. Both treaties
boil down to: we recognise each
other’s borders, and we will consult and co-operate when it suits us both.
Meanwhile several terrorists (involved in the Bali bombings) and
Australian drug smugglers (caught in the
Bali Nine sting) are on death row in Indonesia awaiting execution by
firing squad. Australia has a
bipartisan policy against the use of capital punishment; where will this
policy lead us in these cases? Do
we ask Jakarta to spare Amrozi and his ilk to try and save the drug
smugglers? Certainly any
inconsistencies in our position will be gleefully seized upon by those
countries who still think that judicial
killings are a good thing.
Relations with the Pacific
In 2000 the then Solomons Island Government requested assistance from
Australia. It wanted troops to
help head off a coup and stabilise the country. In its wisdom, the Howard
Government declined the
request. The feared coup duly took place, the country slid into chaos,
numbers of people died violently
and we eventually had to cobble together RAMSI (Regional Assistance
Mission to the Solomon Islands) to
try and clean up the mess to which Howard’s earlier neglect had
contributed. The rest, as they say, is
history and now we are confronted with a complete failure of policy in
relations with the Solomons.
This has had spillover effects in relations with Papua New Guinea because
of its involvement in the flight of
the wanted Solomons minister, Julian Moti, from PNG to escape extradition
to Australia. The government is
of course right to be outraged at what appears to have an illegal act
under both PNG and Australian law,
but banning the PNG prime minister from visiting Australia hardly seems a
constructive or even
appropriate response.
Fiji is showing renewed signs of instability this year, with important
issues only shelved. The Fiji military
has been pursuing an anti-Australian line of rhetoric, including unfounded
accusations of covert illegal
shipments of personnel and equipment. This caps off a sorry year in our
overall relations with Melanesia,
which may yet get worse as corrupt and failing regimes resort to bluster
and false indignation to fend off
pressure for reform.
Tonga is Polynesian, not Melanesian, but its long-established monarchical
regime is under pressure from
a pro-democracy movement. Recent serious rioting has led to the despatch
of a force led by New Zealand
and including Australian military and police to restore order but, one
hopes, not to help the monarchy
suppress its pro-democracy opponents.
Wider international issues
If ever ideology blinded a government to a vital issue, it did so with
this government to climate change. The
refusal to ratify Kyoto, the niggardly allocations to alternative
sustainable energy research and
developments, the devotion to fossil fuels while simultaneously throwing
the nuclear dead fish into the ring
(safe clean nuclear energy? Don’t make me laugh - unless fusion power is
ever realised, that is), all these
things show clearly where this government’s sympathies, preoccupations and
fundamental mindset lie.
Being the only major western Kyoto holdouts, Australia and the US have
suspect environmental
credentials, which probably didn’t help us fight the Japanese and Nordic
whalers at the International
Whaling Commission. Moreover, our refusal to accept the new realities only
delays the day when real
global action is taken to protect the climate. Let’s hope the blindness of
the conservatives hasn’t cost us
too much time.
The case of David Hicks is a national disgrace which has now been taken up
by Amnesty International,
which used to have to lobby for the freedom of people like Alexander
Solzhenitsyn, who spent years in
Soviet gulags. Whatever Hicks has done, it is clear (on the government’s
own admission) that he has
broken no Australian law. Yet he has been held without trial on a US base
in (at least) questionable
conditions for nearly five years with no prospect of anything better than
a military tribunal where normal
standards of proof and rules of evidence do not apply.
I thought such things happened in Saddam’s Iraq, China or the ex-USSR, not
in the democratic US with
the full support of our own government. No wonder they don’t criticise the
Chinese anymore. Even Tony
Blair had the gumption to get his citizens out of the Guantanamo gulag.
Nor is Hicks’ case the only Australian departure from civilised
international human rights standards. Our
post-Tampa immigration policies have been condemned by a wide range of
national and international legal
authorities, and have led to such excesses as the illegal detention of
Australian citizens by our own
immigration authorities and, incredibly, the forcible deportation of a
citizen to the Philippines. And of
course John Howard’s mantra, “we decide who comes to Australia and how,”
sounds hollow indeed after
he allowed the Indonesians to dictate revised asylum-seeker entry procedures.
We are fortunate that - alarmist breast beatings from a security
establishment on the lookout for more
funds notwithstanding - we are one of the most secure countries in the
world. We are threatened
principally by terrorists, and for the foreseeable future need not fear
military attack, invasion or attempted
conquest. But though our immediate region holds few threats other than
terror cells, it does present many
problems.
Until an Australian government recognises that adventures like Iraq, as
with Vietnam, are lethal quagmires,
and that - with the exception of wider co-operation against terrorism -
our security priorities lie mainly in
our region, we play our regional role with one hand tied behind our backs.
Until June 2002 Gary Brown was a Defence Advisor with the Parliamentary
Information and Research
Service at Parliament House, Canberra, where he provided confidential
advice and research at request to
members and staffs of all parties and Parliamentary committees, and
produced regular publications on a
wide range of defence issues. Many are available at here.
---
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/bulletins/rnzi/200611302139/two_indonesians,_fishing_illegally_in_png_wat
ers,_drown
Two Indonesians, fishing illegally in PNG waters, drown
Posted at 9:39pm on 30 Nov 2006
The bodies of two Indonesian fishermen were found floating in the Fly
River in Papua New Guinea's
Western Province earlier this week.
Their vessel is believed to have capsized.
The sole survivor, who managed to swim ashore, was taken in by local
villagers and handed over to Daru
police.
A total of 43 Indonesian fishermen have now been arrested for illegal
fishing this year in PNG's Sandaun
and Western Provinces.
Copyright © 2006 Radio New Zealand International
---
http://www.tempointeractive.com/hg/nasional/2006/11/29/brk,20061129-88666,uk.html
Government Prioritizes Services for AIDS Sufferers
Wednesday, 29 November, 2006 | 15:15 WIB
TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The government is prioritizing services for
AIDS sufferers on the
commemoration of the World AIDS Day on 1 December.
“Care will be aimed at attempts on prevention, support, treatment, and
medication as well as improvement
in anti-retroviral access,” Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said
yesterday (11/28).
Siti Fadilah has acknowledged that services for AIDS sufferers are yet to
be optimal because hospitals
tend to ignore them.
“I do not want to hear that there are hospitals refusing to provide AIDS
sufferers with medicine,” said Siti
Fadilah.
The Commission for Handling AIDS has recorded that as many as 6,987
persons were suffering from
AIDS up until the end of September 2006.
Around 1,651 of them are now deceased.
In addition, the Department of Health has in fact estimated that the
number of AIDS sufferers this year
amounts to 216,000.
Of this amount, 52.6 percent were infected through hypodermic needle; 37.2
percent were infected
through heterosexual intercourse; and 4.5 percent, through homosexual
intercourse.
However, the amount of reported HIV/AIDS sufferers is smaller than before.
The amount of AIDS sufferers spread through almost all existing provinces.
14 provinces of them—Papua,
DKI Jakarta, Riau, Bali, East Java, West Java, Riau Islands, West
Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, South
Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Moluccas, East Nusa Tenggara, and Noth
Sumatera—has showed a significant
increase.
In fact, the amount of AIDS sufferers increased by 5 percent per year in
Papua, DKI Jakarta, Riau, Bali,
East Java, and West Java.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that the six provinces have
entered a worrisome phase.
It is only West Sulawesi that is free from the deadly disease.
The Department of Health has estimated that 500,000 people will be
infected by HIV/AIDS in 2010.
“This number could increase to one million people if intervention is not
significant,” Siti Fadilah.
The expected intervention would be of anti-retroviral services, sincere
counseling tests as well as support
from families and relatives.
INDRA MANENDA ROSSI
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailgeneral.asp?fileid=20061201115209&irec=2
Some Papuan still wave 'East Star flag' despite ban
JAYAPURA, Papua province (Antara): A number of Papuan people waved the
East Star Flags Friday to
celebrate what they claimed as their independence day, police says.
Papua Police deputy chief Brig. Gen. Max D Aer said Friday those flags
were waving in a number of
cities including Jayapura, Timika, and Manokwari.
He said the police helped by the people had removed all those waving flags.
"Although they waved the flags, security is totally under control both in
Papua and West Irian Jaya
province," Max was quoted by Antara mews agency as saying. (**)
---
http://www.thenational.com.pg/113006/nation1.htm
Indonesian bodies in Fly
By AGNES PETER
THE bodies of two Indonesian fishermen were found floating in Fly River,
Western province by villagers
this week, after their vessel capsized in rough seas off Samuri Point. A
sole survivor, who managed to
swim ashore, was taken in by local villagers and handed over to Daru police.
Acting South Fly provincial police commander Inspector John Kerry said
local villagers sighted three
fishing vessels in the area and believe the three fishermen (including the
dead) were from one of the boat
that overturned.
“We do not know if the other two boats were still out there or how many
people were on board,” he said.
He said that because of logistics problem, police were unable to go into
the area and investigate the
sightings.
He said they were unable to get this information from the detained
fisherman because of language
difficulties, and were waiting for an interpreter to interview the survivor.
This is the fourth time Indonesian fishing vessels had been sighted
fishing illegally in Western province
this year and the fifth incident in the country where illegal foreign
fishermen had been caught including
those caught and killed in Vanimo, Sandaun province last August.
A total of 43 Indonesian fishermen have now been arrested for illegal
fishing this year at the sea borders
in Sandaun and Western province – 11 at Morehead Western province (April),
12 at Vanimo Sandaun
province (August); 12 at Kiwai Island, WP (September); seven at Dogleg
area, WP (September); and,
one at Sumari Point, WP (Nov).
Meanwhile, the 19 Indonesian fishermen who were arrested earlier in the
province are still detained at the
Daru police station after they were found guilty over their activities.
They were fined K3,500 each while the captain of the boat was fined K100,000.
The National understands the fishermen are waiting for the owners of the
fishing vessels to come from
Indonesia to pay their fines and repatriate them.
---
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20776119-7583,00.html
Noel Pearson: Uses of layered identities
OPINION
Noel Pearson
November 18, 2006
THE era of decolonisation is coming to an end. Western Sahara and
Palestine are the only two cases
where members of the international community support the creation of new
independent states. The
independence of Eritrea in 1991-93 was perhaps the last instance of a
significant change to international
borders.
In the Asia Pacific, it is likely that East Timor's independence will be
the last chapter in the decolonisation
process in our region.
The inviolability of the sovereignty of nation-states has been a
cornerstone of international law since the
17th century.
However porous national borders may have become, the prediction that
globalisation will dissolve the
concept of nation-states is proving false.
Parallel to the decolonisation process that is all but exhausted in Africa
and the Asia Pacific, and the
dismantlement of European communist states since 1989, support for the
principle of peoplehood has also
grown stronger. The idea that all peoples, including minority peoples who
do not have their own states,
have a right to self-determination is an irrepressible imperative in world
affairs. The relationship between
nation-states and peoples is the source of many of the world's abrasions
and conflicts.
Cultural diversity and the right to cultural continuity have become
recognised by global opinion as
important principles for a just world order. One expression of this
movement is the UN Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which will be put to a final vote in the
UN's General Assembly before the
end of the year.
Most of the world's governments are expected to support the declaration.
There is also considerable public
support for the right to self-determination. For example, 77 per cent of
Australians support independence
or autonomy for West Papua (see The Australian, April19, 2006).
International opinion judges regimes of sovereign states according to how
well they respect the collective
rights of ethnic groups. However, it is usually difficult for foreigners
to judge what is the correct
understanding of the cultural and ethno-political situation in another
country.
Many factors have contributed to shaping the world's ethnic geography:
common descent, language,
culture or religion, shared political history and acts of voluntary
association have all influenced people's
sense of identity. It is difficult for outsiders to judge which of these
factors are most important in particular
cases.
French writer Ernest Renan (1823-92) famously rejected the notion that
more or less objective criteria
such as language define a nation.
His definition of a nation was based on shared history and willingness to
share the future, rather than
ethnographic criteria.
Renan's caution towards the end of the 19th century -- the century of
nationalism -- was a sensible
moderation of the ethnographic notion of peoplehood. Taken to its extreme,
the romantic, ethnic notion of
peoplehood would lead to destructive fragmentation and irredentism.
However, it must also be
acknowledged that there is considerable tension between our current system
of sovereign states and the
legitimate aspirations of minority peoples. How does the world reconcile
peoples and nations?
There are three possibilities for dealing with the ongoing difficulties
inthe tensions between nation-states
and peoples:
* To allow further fragmentation through independence.
* To ignore the status of peoples and insist on the unitary nation-state.
* To recognise the status of peoples and to secure reconciliation within
the nation-state on the foundations
of freedom, democracy and development.
Activist movements in favour of the independence of territories such as
Tibet have considerable
international support. However, I do not think that we will see the
creation of more independent states. The
dangers to international stability are too great. Separatism and further
fragmentation is not a solution.
Internal divisions within a sovereign state are almost invariably
exploited by other states to further their
interests. Sovereign states resist the formation of new states because in
the present era such precedents
would be highly destabilising. It is in Australia's interests that all
states are confident that other powers
respect their territorial integrity.
On the other hand, ignoring the legitimate aspirations of non-sovereign
peoples and insisting on the
unitary nation-state is not sustainable. Suppression of justified demands
for recognition is the source of
unabating strife within nation-states that have not worked out their
relationship with and between distinct
peoples who live within their borders. Moreover, oppression of populations
such as the indigenous peoples
of West Papua is real and cannot be ignored.
The answer lies in coexistence and the reconciliation of the rights of
peoples with the preservation of the
existing sovereign states.
Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has made a valuable contribution
to the development of a
theory for the peaceful resolution of so-called ethnic conflicts. Sen
notes that one of the worst tendencies
in contemporary thinking is our impoverished conception of identity. We
labour under the reductionist
idea that each individual has one all-important identity. Sen calls this
fallacy "the illusion of singular
identity".
Following Sen, I have argued that the problem with the concept of
multiculturalism is that it does not dispel
the notion that each individual has one absolutely dominant identity.
Multiculturalism is in constant danger
of developing into plural monoculturalism, and arguably this is evident in
some Western countries today.
I have suggested that a better term for coexistence within nation states
than multiculturalism is layered
identities. The advantage with layered identities is that it makes clear
that there need not be any conflict
between citizenship of a nation-state and the cultural and religious
convictions and affiliations of minority
groups in that state.
Australia is facing two issues that have their origins in questions about
identity and peoplehood: domestic
reconciliation and Australia's relationship with countries that are
sensitive about external interference.
There is too little recognition that Australian reconciliation is an issue
about the rights of national
minorities.
The Australian debate has changed from recognising the right of
Australia's indigenous peoples to
recognition of their distinct identity (as well as the identities they
share with other Australians), to viewing
reconciliation as exclusively an issue of overcoming socio-economic
disadvantage.
It would be in Australia's interests to reach national settlements with
its indigenous minorities so that the
relationship between the nation and its indigenous peoples is reconciled.
Australia's best contribution to places such as West Papua and throughout
the Indonesian archipelago is
leadership by example in the policy area of constructive resolution of
peoplehood issues within the existing
sovereign states.
Noel Pearson is director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and
Leadership.
---
MEDIA RELEASE
Australia West Papua Association
West Papuan Flag Raising outside Indonesian Embassy, Canberra
West Papuan National Flag Day
12.30 - 1.30pm Friday 1st December
Indonesian Embassy, Canberra
8 Darwin Avenue, Yarralumla,
ACT 2600
Speakers from West Papuan include
David Haluk, Yenin Kogoya and Paula Makabory
(Elsham. Institute for Human
Rights Study and Advocacy).
Greens Senator Kerry Nettle will also speak
Members of the West Papuan community in Australia and their supporters will
raise the West Papuan
National Flag, The Morning Star, outside the
Indonesian Embassy in Canberra on Friday 1st December at
a peaceful rally to
draw attention to the human rights situation in West Papua.
There will be a call for the
release of the political prisoners , Filep
Karma and Yusak Pakage who received jail terms of 15 and 10
years
respectively, simply for participating in a peaceful flag-raising
ceremony where the West Papuan
National Flag was raised.
Free the political prisoners
Free West Papua
Info.
Joe Collins 04077 857 97
Australia West Papua Association
Background
Forty five years ago on the 1st of December 1961, the Morning Star flag was
flown for the first time
officially beside the Dutch Tricolor. At that
ceremony as the Morning Star flag was raised, Dutch and
Papuan military and
police saluted and accompanied by a marine band playing the national anthem,
³My
Land Papua². The Dutch were finally about to give the West Papuan people
their freedom. However it is
one of the great tragedies that at their moment
of freedom it was cruelly crushed and West Papua was
basically handed over
to Indonesia in 1963. After 6 years administration of the province,
Indonesia held a
sham referendum called the ³Act of Free Choice² under UN
supervision. Only 1025 handpicked voters,
one representative for every 800
West Papuans were allowed vote, and under coercion, voted to "remain
with
Indonesia. The Papuans call this the act of no choice.
---
From: "dtp" <dtp at unsw.edu.au>
To: "actiondtp" <actiondtp at unsw.edu.au>
Subject: Human Rights Training Program for Indigenous Advocates - Call for
Applications
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 13:48:56 +1100
Dear Friend,
The Diplomacy Training Program is seeking applicants for its next
regional Indigenous Peoples, Human Rights and Advocacy training program
to be run in the Northern Territory Australia from 14 - 23 April, 2007.
Please could you distribute the attached information to those you think
might be interested /on your listserves/ on your websites.
(Apologies for any cross posting).
Thank you for your assistance.
With best wishes,
Patrick Earle
Executive Director
Diplomacy Training Program
Faculty of Law
U.N.S.W
Sydney NSW 2052
AUSTRALIA
Tel: (02) 9385 3549
Fax: (02) 9385 1778
www.dtp.unsw.edu.au <http://www.dtp.unsw.edu.au/>
---
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?article_class=3&no=331892&rel_no=1
Bush's Big Indonesian Photo Op
[Analysis] Paving the way for further militarization and environmental
devastation
John M. Miller and Ben Terrall (jmmiller)
Published 2006-11-30 15:02 (KST)
On his return from last week's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)
summit in Vietnam, President
George W. Bush briefly touched down in Indonesia on Nov. 20. Protests
against the visit were held across
the archipelago, demonstrating popular outrage against the Bush
administration's wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq and U.S. backing for Israel's wars on Lebanon and Palestine. But the
Jakarta Post noted: "The Bush
couple need not worry [as] apart from the U.S. Secret Service, Indonesian
Military personnel -- who were
trained during the Suharto era to oppress not foreign enemies but the
Indonesian people -- will also be
deployed to guard Bogor."
The historic botanical gardens where Bush was scheduled to arrive to meet
Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono in Bogor, 40 kilometers south of Jakarta, were dug up to
build an enormous asphalt
landing pad for Bush's helicopter. In the end, Bush landed in a nearby
sports center instead of the
formerly pristine botanical gardens.
A group of 53 U.S. human rights, labor, religious and peace groups sent a
public letter to Bush in
advance of the visit condemning the failure to hold the Indonesian
military (TNI) accountable for years of
serious human rights abuses. The groups wrote: "Restrictions on U.S.
assistance to the Indonesian
military are essential to promote concrete, demonstrable progress in the
areas of military reform,
accountability and respect for human rights in Indonesia and Timor-Leste
[East Timor]." They urged Bush
"to maintain the best leverage the U.S. has -- withholding prestigious
U.S. military assistance, including
foreign military financing and training such as IMET and JCET -- to