[Kabar-Irian] News: Special Addition (July 24)

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<http://www.pen.org.au/docs/Q125.pdf>http://www.pen.org.au/docs/Q125.pdf


Sydney PEN June Quarterly

HEADER: Words are Dangerous
INTRO: Denise Leith explains why Jakarta won’t let go of West Papua

Words were dangerous in Suharto’s Indonesia: books were banned, newspapers
closed and journalists and writers were threatened, imprisoned and
murdered by the government. Today the Suharto dictatorship is long gone
and a former military general, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is a reformist
president of a functioning democracy where press freedoms abound. That is,
until the word Papua is mentioned.

While the “loss” of East Timor was a national humiliation, Papua is of far
greater political, economic and ideological significance. Formerly part of
the Dutch East Indies, it is considered by Jakarta to be an integral part
of the republic so that its loss, unlike that of East Timor, would be seen
as threatening the legitimacy and unity of the Indonesian state.

A land rich in natural resources, Papua is home to Indonesia’s biggest
taxpayer and an essential source of revenue to a cash-strapped economy:
the giant Freeport gold and copper mine. Most importantly, because Jakarta
has always relied on the Indonesian military (TNI) to maintain unity
across the disparate republic and because it has only ever been able to
finance 30% of its budget, TNI has been encouraged to participate in
business, both legal and illegal. Today, in Papua, the Indonesian military
is involved in virtually every economic enterprise, including illegal
logging, gold panning and prostitution, while continuing its intimidation
and stand-over tactics to source funds.

Quite simply, Papua is Jakarta’s treasure chest and the military and
meddlesome foreigners cannot be allowed to trifle with it.
Yet Papua is also a land of Melanesians who have struggled from the
beginning against what they consider to be a violent and illegal
occupation by masters who are a cultural and spiritual world away.

According to the West Papua Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy
(ELSHAM) Indonesia’s security forces have been responsible for more
100,000 extrajudicial killings in Papua, cautioning that this figure does
not include individuals who have disappeared, been tortured or raped.
Although these numbers have been contested by Jakarta it does agree that
for decades Papuans have suffered at the hands of its military. Yet no
high-ranking officer has ever been found guilty of human rights violations
or held accountable for his men’s actions in the province.

On November 10, 2001, West Papua’s first democratically-elected leader and
outspoken independence advocate, Theys Hiyo Eluay, was invited to dinner
with the commanders of Kopassus, the military brigade with a violent
reputation stationed in Papua since the mid-90s. At some point during the
evening Eluay was strangled by his hosts and his body dumped. The murder,
as intended, was taken as a warning to all those advocating independence.
Only after sustained international pressure were a number of military
personnel taken to trial. Seven low-ranking soldiers were sentenced to
between three and three and a half years for Eluay’s assassination. Their
commanding officer was acquitted. At the time Major-General Sriyanto, the
Kopassus commander in Papua, described having to “contain himself” after
hearing of the convictions for he was, “saddened that some of my men 
had
become victims.” The commander of Kostrad (also stationed in Papua to
maintain law and order) declared, “I don't know, people say they did
wrong, they broke the law. What law? 
 For me, they are heroes because the
person they killed was a rebel leader.” However, the murder and the
military’s responses only served to inflame tensions on the island.

For years Papua was the “forgotten province” with little information
reaching a largely disinterested international community. In 1995,
however, the first report detailing systematic violations of human rights
by TNI was released by the Australian Council for Overseas Aid (ACFOA) and
investigated and confirmed by Allan Taylor, the Australian ambassador to
Indonesia at the time. Since that time ELSHAM staff have operated under
constant surveillance and intimidation. During his investigation into
Eluay’s murder in 2002, John Rumbiak, the West Papuan author of the ACFOA
report and ELSHAM supervisor, was forced to live in exile because of death
threats from Kopassus.

While newspapers and the publishing industry are flourishing in Indonesia
today, books on Papuan culture and history remain banned. The latest of
these is the book by Papuan historian and theologian, Reverend Dr Benny
Giay on the Eluay murder: The Events Surrounding the Kidnapping and Murder
of Theys Eluay 10th November 2001. According to Dr Giay and his
associates, not only has he been repeatedly terrorised by the military but
those who stock his book do so under threats and intimidation.

Since its incorporation into the republic, Jakarta has always tried to
limit the free flow of information from the province and for the past two
years has banned foreign journalists. The official reason for the ban is
that by reporting on Papuan resistance western journalists encourage calls
for independence. In a letter to President Yudhoyono, Human Rights Watch
warned, perhaps belatedly, that this policy would create a climate of
impunity where the armed forces and police could “commit abuses,
unreported and away from the public eye.”

Jakarta has for some time been highly sensitive to discussions within
Australia on Papuan issues, complaining about the writings and activities
of a number of individuals and groups. It has also encouraged Canberra to
list the Papuan nationalist group, the OPM, as a terrorist organisation, a
move that might make it difficult for Australians and Papuans who advocate
a peaceful settlement to the Papuan issue to continue to speak publicly.
Indonesia’s sensitivity intensified, however, after Canberra granted
temporary protection visas to 42 West Papuans. In response the Indonesian
intelligence agency, BIN, which is linked to TNI, together with the
country’s Foreign Affairs Commission, released their “enemy list”
detailing “prominent” Australians and organisations accused of supporting
Papuan independence.

Included in the list are senators Bob Brown and Natasha Stott Despoja,
Prof. Stuart Rees, director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies
at Sydney University, and Sister Susan Connolly from the Mary MacKillop
Institute.

Many of those on the list speak about human rights violations in Papua,
not independence. The two issues, however, are morally and politically
linked. Succeeding in silencing those who speak about independence for
Papua will effectively silence those who speak about human rights
violations.

After the “enemy list” was made public the Indonesian Department of
Education instructed academics and institutions to cease contact with
Deakin University. While Deakin was not included on the list, according to
Damien Kingsbury, Jakarta was unhappy with articles written by a number of
its academics, including himself.

Recent events are not the first time, however, that freedom of expression
in Australia over the issue of Papua has come under attack from Jakarta.
In 2003 RMIT bowed to pressure from the Indonesian ambassador, Imran
Cotan, to cancel a scheduled conference on Papua organised by RMIT’s
Globalism Institute and New Internationalist magazine. At the new venue,
Trades Hall, senators Bob Brown and Andrew Bartlett noted that they had
also received personal representations not to attend from Ambassador
Cotan. According to the organisers, the Indonesian Embassy was invited to
send an official and to present a paper but refused. Instead, a man who
introduced himself as a student but was later identified by conference
organisers as Muhammad Baruhan, second secretary from the Indonesian
Embassy in Canberra and an Indonesia Protective Security Intelligence
officer, filibustered every question time.

In April this year, to appease Indonesian anger and to support Yudhoyono’s
reformist government, Prime Minister Howard moved the processing of
Papuans offshore while cautioning Australians who advocated independence
for Papua, or those who might encourage asylum-seekers, that they were
“out of step” with Australian sentiments and that their words and actions
were “not helpful”.

This month (June), Theo Sambuaga of the Indonesian Foreign Affairs
Commission is expected to lead a cross-party delegation of
parliamentarians to Australia to raise the asylum-seeker question with the
Prime Minister and to discuss the thorny matter of public discussion
within Australian over Papuan issues.

Sydney and International PEN take attempts to suppress the freedom of
expression and intimidation of writers seriously. We are monitoring these
issues closely in both Australia and Papua.