[Kabar-Irian] News: Sept 3 - 10 07
Admin-Editors Kabar-Irian
editors at kabar-irian.info
Sun Sep 9 19:03:35 MDT 2007
KABAR IRIAN NEWS
Sep 3-10
TOPICS
* Galanita Papua to represent RI at Asian champiponship
* Howard should raise the issue of West Papua
* A prominent Australian businessman says...
* New Papua chief prosecutor named
* Heeding the call to prayer in a region that reveres the pig
* Buying $12 Billion Worth of Russian Weapons
* Lesson from history: Soviets told to fight
* The smell of burning books
* THIS is the first picture of Wa-Wa...
* Russia signs billion-dollar defense deal with Indonesia
* Leaders want new province established in Papua
* The West Papua Report - September 2007
* Melanesian Spearhead Group leaders should grant observer status
* Twin babies found dead at Biak landfill, Papua
---
http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/9/3/galanita-papua-to-represent-ri-at-asian-champiponship/
09/03/07 13:30
Galanita Papua to represent RI at Asian champiponship
Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA News) - The women`s football team of Papua
(Galanita Papua) will
represent Indonesia at the Asian Woman Football Champiosnhip to be held in
Myanmar on September
6-15.
"The Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) named Galanita Papua after the
team after it won the
Kartini Cup twice," secretary of the local PSSI Office Usman Fakaubun said
on Monday.
The PSSI had also indicated that the team would be sent to the SEA Games
2007 in Thailand if it wins
the event in Myanmar, he added.
The 28-member team left Jayapura for Jakarta on Monday and was to fly
Myanmar later. (*)
Copyright © 2007 ANTARA
---
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0709/S00120.htm
West Papua, a Topic for APEC?
Wednesday, 5 September 2007, 1:29 pm
Press Release: Australia West Papua Association
Howard should raise the issue of West Papua with Indonesian President at APEC
The Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) calls on Prime Minister Howard
to raise the issue of
West Papua with the Indonesian President at APEC.
AWPA believes that West Papua will be one of our most pressing foreign
policy issues in the future.
Joe Collins of AWPA said that “the situation in West Papua is
deteriorating and that there is a
systematic campaign by the military and police to intimidate any
individual or organisation whom they
(the military and police) deem to be separatists. These acts of
intimidation by the security forces appear
to be a return to the hard-line policy of the Suharto years and is causing
increasing tension and
instability in West Papua which could eventually lead to instability in
the region”.
APEC is the perfect opportunity for the Prime Minister to discuss West
Papua with the Indonesian
President. He should raise concerns about the ongoing human rights abuses
in West Papua and urge
President Yudhoyono to dialogue with the West Papuan leadership to
peacefully solve the many issues
of concern in the territory.
The issue of West Papua will not disappear. It will only become the pebble
in our shoe if it is ignored,
Collins said.
---
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=34930
Radio New Zealand International
The Voice of New Zealand, Broadcasting to the Pacific
Te Reo Irirangi O Aotearoa, O Te Moana-Nui-A-Kiwa
Australian politicians urged to stand up for Papua
Posted at 03:22 on 06 September, 2007 UTC
A prominent Australian businessman says Australia must stand up to the
Indonesian military over its
activities in Papua.
Ian Melrose of the Optical Superstore says successive governments in
Australia have all ignored reports
of human rights abuses and mass murders in the Indonesian province.
He is paying for television commercials highlighting this point running
ahead of the Australian elections
due later this year.
Mr Melrose, who says previous campaigns he has run raising concerns over
Canberra’s mistreatment of
East Timor were successful, wants the Australian government to push for
human rights monitoring in
Papua.
“The Indonesian military are committing atrocities in West Papua and
all that would be required is for
international media to have access to West Papua and to film some of the
things that are going on and
have gone on, and bring that to the world, and all of a sudden the
Indonesian military would stop doing
what it is doing because the publicity would be such that the rest of the
world would not tolerate what the
Indonesian military is up to.”
The Liberal Government had not comment on the call while Labor says it
wants access for foreign
journalists.
---
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070908.H07&irec=6
New Papua chief prosecutor named
JAKARTA: The Attorney General's Office (AGO) said it has decided who will
replace Papua Provincial
Prosecutor's Office chief Lorenz Serworwora, who was dismissed recently
for violating an AGO order
around a court case.
"We already have a name to replace Lorenz, but we can't mention it yet,"
Deputy Attorney General
Muchtar Arifin said here Friday.
The AGO also removed six of Lorenz's subordinates for their alleged
mishandling of the illegal fishing
case.
"We have removed them, but we have yet to find out whether bribery was
involved during the
prosecutors' investigation."
Lorenz and the six lower prosecutors allegedly disobeyed the AGO's order
to charge two suspects
involved with the illegal fishing case with a four-year jail term and a
fine of Rp 1 billion. They instead
demanded a fine of Rp 500 million.-- JP/13
---
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/heeding-the-call-to-prayer-in-a-region-that-reveres-the-
pig/2007/09/07/1188783496490.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
Heeding the call to prayer in a region that reveres the pig
September 8, 2007
Islam is taking root in Melanesia, writes Ben Bohane. The question is:
will it be a transplanted faith - or
can it take on a distinctly Pacific identity?
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Those who think the Pacific Islands and Christianity are forever entwined
need to think again.
Christianity has reached its high-tide mark in the region, and other
faiths, including Baha'ism,
Buddhism, Jewish cults and traditional beliefs, are making inroads.
But by far the most significant new religious movement in the region is
Islam, and nowhere is the growth
of Islam more visible than in Melanesia, which has a culture of religious
dynamism and experimentation,
where kastom (custom) rules, and where cargo cult and Christian movements
continue to evolve, blend,
mutate, syncretise and spawn new belief systems. Islam can now be added to
the mix and its effect on
local beliefs, national politics and regional security can no longer be
overlooked.
Although there are no official figures and few academic studies, it is
believed there have been more than
1000 indigenous converts to Islam in recent years in Papua New Guinea, the
Solomon Islands, Vanuatu
and Fiji. Other Melanesian territories including East Timor, Maluku and
West Papua have much older
links to Islam, with communities existing there for centuries comprising
indigenous and settler Muslims.
New Caledonia also has a large number of Muslims who have settled there
from all over the
Francophone world over the past 100 years.
For Mohammed Seddiq, a ni-Vanuatu Muslim who provided land and a small
building which houses
Vanuatu's first mosque, conversion to Islam did not happen overnight, but
over many years, until he felt
that "Allah had truly called me".
"I was a Pentecostal Christian before but I didn't feel in control of my
life and I had a problem with
alcohol," he says. "Islam is straightforward and disciplined and this is
what I needed to be a better
person in the eyes of Allah. You know, the Bible is only full of stories,
but I found that the Koran gives
direction to life."
Today there are between 100 and 200 ni-Vanuatu converts to Islam, and
mosques are springing up in
the outer islands of the archipelago. Chiefs are often the target of
proselytising African Muslims, on the
often correct assumption that if they convert then their extended
families, clans and other islanders are
likely to follow suit. Islam is taking root through a curiosity factor,
its anti-imperial rhetoric and, most
importantly, its similarities to local cultures and belief systems.
First among these similarities is the fact that Islam developed from a
tribal Arabic culture and maintains
decision-making bodies like Melanesian chiefly councils. The notion of
"payback" or "an eye for an eye"
is one that resonates strongly in Melanesian tradition. Although Christian
influence is strong, Jesus's
exhortation to turn the other cheek has not been largely adopted by
Melanesians, who are often
frustrated that Western law does not compensate victims, unlike
traditional Melanesian and Islamic law.
Polygamy and gender separation (such as men's houses and women's houses in
Melanesia) are
common to both cultures. Seddiq in Vanuatu even suggests that since his
people traditionally sat on
mats, mosques feel more natural to them than churches with pews.
Islam offers a way of life that incorporates the social, political,
spiritual and economic spheres. Before
European contact, Pacific islanders lived in theocratic states, where the
whole structure of daily life and
political decision-making revolved around the spirit world.
Part of the problem Western observers have in understanding the region is
that they tend to have a
secular outlook and place primacy of their analysis on the role of the
state (for example, issues of good
governance, corruption, service delivery and unemployment) when the world
view of Melanesians is
virtually the opposite - their daily lives remain governed by kastom,
community obligations and
subsistence agriculture.
They place little emphasis on the role of the state since it is an
introduced concept, heavily centralised in
the capital cities with usually little impact on daily lives in rural and
remote areas.
Scott Flower, a PhD student at the Crawford School of Pacific Policy at
the Australian National
University in Canberra, is watching the growth of Islam in Melanesia
closely. "Melanesian people
generally do not comprehend or desire the separation of religion and the
state," he says. "The centrality
of religion in their daily life is very important."
Flower argues that Muslim communities in each country will continue to
grow in size and number
because, like Christianity, Islam and its associated organisations provide
islanders with public good
(such as health and education), a moral and spiritual system, access to
global networks, and
opportunities, prestige and alternative paths to social and political power.
Many Pacific Islanders would argue that if governments or Christian
missions cannot provide basic
services, particularly in health and education, then they are happy to
take them from wherever they are
offered. Families from poor squatter settlements in Port Moresby, Port
Vila and other urban centres are
sending their children for the free education at Islamic schools in
Malaysia, Yemen, Fiji and Saudi
Arabia.
Twenty-eight local Muslims from Vanuatu are studying in Islamic colleges
in Fiji, Malaysia, New Zealand,
Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan. Given that Vanuatu is the smallest
country in Melanesia, it is likely that
at any one time hundreds of Pacific Muslims are in schools throughout the
Islamic world.
Foreign and local missionaries often suggest that what Muslim missionaries
offer is not conversion, but
reversion - that is, by embracing Islam, islanders are returning to kastom
and ancestral ways.
But with so much of kastom relating to pork-eating, betel nut-chewing,
kava-drinking, courtship dancing
and ancestor worship - all not halal for those who truly embrace Islam -
the question is: what kastom is
left? Can Pacific kastom find a place within orthodox Islam?
This goes to the heart of one of the central questions facing Islam
globally: can Islam separate its faith
and philosophy from Arabic cultural practices?
There is also the issue of Pacific Islanders not being fully aware of the
breadth of the faith, from the
tolerant, mystical Sufi tradition, to orthodox Sunni and Shia beliefs, to
militant Wahabiism, to explicitly
non-violent sects such as the Ahmadiyyah.
Pigs are going to be an issue when it comes to spreading Islam in the
Pacific. For most islanders, pigs
are more than just domestic animals that clean up the scraps. They are
revered as symbols of wealth
and as important commodities for gift exchange, marriage, reconciliation
ceremonies and
compensation. Some communities even have mystical pig cults. Chiefs in
Vanuatu often wear circular
pig tusks as a sign of their status. A tusk adorns the country's flag.
How will Islam deal with this? It seems Muslims are taking their cue from
Christians such as Seventh Day
Adventists, who view pigs as unclean. In Adventist communities, islanders
can own pigs and give them in
ceremonies, without ever having to touch or eat them.
Already there is debate at the Hohola Mosque in Port Moresby on what kind
of Islam is most suitable for
this part of the world. Regular exchanges with members of Papua New
Guinea's Catholic, Anglican,
Baha'i and Buddhist clergy are a cause for optimism that communal tensions
can be kept in check. But
given that much of the mosque's funding has come from Saudi and Malaysian
sources, and the fact that
its imam is a Nigerian steeped in Wahabiism (a puritanical Muslim
ideology) many ask if this the most
appropriate form of Islam for PNG and the region.
Yaqub Amaki, the general secretary for the PNG Muslim Association, says:
"I can say that we have
already had some very robust discussions on this issue. Some of us think
that a more moderate
interpretation, found in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, will be
more appropriate for the umma
[community] here. We are still finding our way here and while there are no
real divisions in Islam, there
are different paths and we need to be open to debate.
"Since the Saudis and Malaysians were here in the beginning to assist us,
it is only natural that we
should follow their lead, but I am confident that Islam here will
gradually take on a more PNG style over
time."
While Islam is being quietly and peacefully absorbed into central and
eastern Melanesian nations and
most parts of the Pacific, the same cannot be said for those in western
Melanesia, particularly those
regions under Indonesian rule.
Here, jihadi groups flourish and sectarian conflict periodically explodes.
In Ambon and Maluku more
than 10,000 people died in sectarian conflict between Christians and
Muslims in the late 1990s.
In West Papua, the OPM (Free West Papua Movement) has for years warned
that militant groups such
as Jemaah Islamiah and Laskar Jihad are operating there to suppress the
independence movement,
springboarding across unpatrolled borders into neighbouring PNG, Australia
and other Pacific islands.
The OPM commander, John Koknak, says there are more than a dozen jihad
training camps in West
Papua. "I have been warning Australia and PNG for some time, but they
prefer to trust the generals in
Jakarta," he says.
"You know, Islam in the Pacific is nothing new; JI is using the same
networks as the Libyan Mataban
groups who came here in the 1980s to set up cells and support Pacific
liberation groups."
His assessment is supported by "Robert", a PNG intelligence operative with
responsibility for border
security, who complains of regular infiltration by militant groups and
people smugglers across the
unmonitored 800-kilometre border with Indonesia. Like other members of the
defence force, he believes
Australia's and the US's pro-Jakarta policy is undermining regional security.
"By refusing to talk to OPM or acknowledge the West Papuan struggle,
Australia is missing out on
valuable intelligence that OPM can provide on jihadi groups," he says.
The regional security analyst Rohan Gunaratna also believes West Papua is
home to several militant
Islamic groups. "If militant Islamic groups maintain their presence in
West Papua then certainly their
influence will spread into the Pacific; it is only a matter of time," he
says.
"That is why it is time for Australia to change its Java-centric focus and
concentrate more on eastern
Indonesia."
So is there a serious Islamist terrorist threat in the Pacific?
Says Flower: "While the more alarmist government and media scenarios of
terrorist threats in the
Pacific are undoubtedly inflated, the other perspective of a completely
benign security environment is
also likely to be incorrect."
As Islam spreads it will be intriguing to see just how well the Pacific
way can blend with the teachings of
an Arabian prophet whose desert visions are now settling over the
scattered islands of a faraway sea.
---
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/indones/articles/20070909.aspx
Buying $12 Billion Worth of Russian Weapons
September 9, 2007: The government finalized a billion dollar arms purchase
from Russia. Easy payment
terms (fifteen years) were provided. The Russians are eager to please, as
this is expected to be but the
first installment of a larger arms deal that could add up to $12 billion
or more. This massive sale would
give Indonesia dozens of Su-27/30 aircraft and ten Kilo class submarines,
as well as armored vehicles,
helicopters, warships and a wide array of military equipment. Indonesia
has no enemies in the region,
although there is some hostility towards Australia (for being richer, more
powerful and part of the
"West"). The new weapons don't really change the balance of power in the
region. It will take years of
practice for the Indonesian pilots and sailors to master their new
equipment. And that assumes that the
government would spend the large amounts of money needed to pay for fuel
and spare parts to keep the
planes in the air, and the ships at sea, for that training. Meanwhile,
Australia already has more advanced
subs, and equally capable aircraft. Australia is getting more capable F-35
fighters. But, basically,
Indonesian fighters and subs really don't have anyone to fight, which is
why it's likely politicians will find
other things to do with the money their pilots and sailors want for training.
September 6, 2007: A side effect of the recent massive arms purchase from
Russia, are a number of
non-military deals. One involves setting up a satellite launching
operation in Indonesian Papua.
Launching some types of satellites from near the equator is cheaper.
Russia will use air launched
satellites (a large solid fuel rocket is shoved out the back of a large
transport), and the operation will be
based at an air port in Papua. Preparations will take about three years.
September 2, 2007: In Aceh, the ruling party tried to use mob violence
and other illegal tactics to
prevent newly elected officials from an opposition party, from taking
power in the southeast. A riot at a
swearing in ceremony left 26 injured and twelve arrested. The new
provincial government in Aceh is
dominated by former separatist rebels, but they are also tempted by
traditional, and unsavory, political
practices.
---
http://www.smh.com.au/news/apec/lesson-from-history-soviets-told-to-
fight/2007/09/07/1188783496437.html
Lesson from history: Soviets told to fight
Hamish McDonald
September 8, 2007
Latest related coverage
AS THE Russian President, Vladimir Putin, visited Indonesia this week to
sign a $1.2 billion deal for the
sale of submarines, tanks and helicopters, new details emerged about the
last time Moscow was the
main arms supplier for the Indonesian military.
During an attempt by the late president Soekarno to wrest Western New
Guinea (now Papua) from
Dutch control in 1962, Soviet officers - training crews aboard newly
acquired warships, submarines and
aircraft - were ordered to fight if conflict broke out.
The Dutch defence of New Guinea was watched with great sympathy by the
Australian government of
Sir Robert Menzies, who was persuaded by his own diplomats and lack of
American interest not to help.
But the flow of Soviet arms led him to order the F-111 strike bomber as a
counter-threat.
The revelation is contained in a nostalgic article this week on the
Novosti news service by Alexei Drugov,
now a professor of Indonesian at Moscow's Oriental Studies University. In
1961-64 he was an interpreter
for the Soviet military aid mission in Indonesia.
The Dutch had withheld the New Guinea territory from the transfer of its
former East Indies possessions
to the new Indonesian republic in 1949, and were trying to guide its
mostly Melanesian people to
separate independence, while Soekarno insisted "West Irian" was an
integral part of the multi-ethnic
Indonesian nation.
Because the United States and other Western suppliers refused to sell arms
that might be used against
a NATO ally, Soekarno turned to the Soviet Union.
Moscow obliged with a heavy cruiser, 12 submarines, six destroyers, patrol
boats, MiG-21 fighters,
Ilyushin 28 and Tupolev 16 bombers, amphibious tanks and anti-aircraft
missiles, and a $US1 billion
credit line.
Dr Drugov helped train thousands of Indonesians at navy bases in
Vladivostok and Sevastopol, and then
joined Soviet military trainers at bases in Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and
Madiun.
"It is now possible to reveal that when a military solution was mooted for
Western Irian, the Soviet
officers and other servicemen in Indonesia were ordered to act on
Indonesia's side," Dr Drugov wrote
this week.
"In
1962, deputy defence minister Marshal Vershinin arrived in Indonesia
and told us that if hostilities
were to develop, we were to act as if defending our own borders. Although
our submarines
were
ordered into battle positions
things did not come to actual fighting
Of course, the military presence
factor had played a decisive role."
After many debt moratoriums, Indonesia repaid the last of the $US1 billion
credit in 1990, two years
before the Soviet Union collapsed.
---
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6321
The smell of burning books
By Cameron Forbes - posted Monday, 10 September 2007 Sign Up for free
e-mail updates!
In springtime Germany in 1933, the air smelled sweet to Nazis. Books were
burning, ideas were being
reduced to ashes and wickedness was going up in smoke.
Students marched in torch-lit parades and tossed books on bonfires to
stirring songs, cheers and the
brassy encouragement of bands. The destruction - the Action against the
Un-German Spirit - was
synchronised by Joseph Goebbels whose portfolio was called, with no sense
of irony, Popular
Enlightenment and Propaganda.
They burnt books on communism, Jewish intellectualism, history, arguments
for equality,
psychoanalytical theory and political thought. They burnt calls for
freedom. Into the flames went Brecht,
Marx, Lenin, Freud, HG Wells, Helen Keller, Thomas Mann and Jack London
(though not his adventure
stories). They burnt Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, with its negativism
on warfare.
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The smell of burning books is the sign of a sick government, one that does
not want its people to know
their history.
Books are being burned in Indonesia now, by President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono’s administration.
The Attorney-General, Abdul Rahmen Saleh, ordered the confiscation of
thousands of school text books,
which, his office argues, challenge “accepted truths” of Indonesia’s history.
What they do challenge is the military/administration version of the
brutal events of September 30, 1965,
and their bloody aftermath. The truth is that six generals were killed on
that night but what remains
unclear is the role of the PKI, the Indonesian Communist Party, in what
has been presented as a coup
attempt. The further truth is that the military was deeply involved in the
holocaust that followed.
The West, with America and Australia in particular, cheering from the
sidelines, had no doubt about the
dynamics and about the military’s role. On October 5, 1965, American
Ambassador Marshall Green
cabled Washington: “Army in control, and it has important instruments of
power such as press, radio
and TV
Army now has opportunity to move against PKI if it acts quickly
Despite all its
shortcomings we believe odds are that army will act to pin blame for
recent events on PKI and its allies.
Much remains in doubt, but it seems certain that agony of ridding
Indonesia of effects of Sukarno has
begun.”
There was agony indeed, as men, women and children were slaughtered,
though Australia’s Prime
Minister, Harold Holt, managed to hide his horror when he spoke to a
gathering of the Australian
American Association at New York’s swank River Club. “With 500,000 to a
million communist
sympathisers knocked off,” Holt said, “I think it is safe to assume a
reorientation has taken place”.
The CIA later put this “reorientation” into perspective, reporting that
“in terms of the numbers killed the
anti-PKI massacres rank as one of the worst mass murders of the 20th
century, along with the Soviet
purges of the 1930s, the Nazi mass murders during the Second World War and
the Maoist bloodbaths
of the 1950s”.
In Bali, the momentum built slowly, until the military arrived. Then the
island, called by Pandit Nehru, “the
morning of the world”, had its midnight. Teams from Suharto’s Operations
Command to Restore Security
and Order moved through the beautiful countryside urging villagers on,
telling them there was no such
thing as a neutral position.
A prominent Balinese I spoke to decades later, Dr AAM Djelantik recalled
that for hours every night his
family had been kept awake by the roar of army-provided trucks driving
past with loads of the doomed.
They were delivered to a professional butcher who beheaded them with a
Japanese samurai sword.
In charge of the army operation was Sawro Edhi, head of the para-commando
regiment. Edhi, who went
on to organise the farcical “Act of Free Choice” in Irian Jaya, would
become father-in-law of another
high-ranked army man, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, now President of Indonesia.
For the millions of relatives of the dead, the pain of loss was
accompanied by continued suffering: many
were imprisoned; most were discriminated against. There has been no
justice. For these Indonesians,
“accepted truths” are half truths or blatant lies.
In 2000, a group of them formed the Indonesian Institute for the Study of
the 1965-1966 Massacre
(YPKP). YPKP’s first project was to exhume graves in Situkpup forest in
the Wonosobo region of
Central Java. There, where the peace of the forest had been so terribly
disturbed in 1966, the forensic
team unearthed 26 skeletons, which were sent to a hospital in Jogjakarta
for identification.
Seven families in the area had told YPKP that they wanted to reclaim their
dead and rebury them
according to custom and with proper rituals, to place them side by side
with other dead family members.
The other skeletons were to be reburied on land provided by Irawan
Mangunkusomo, who had been
head of the local village of Kaloran and member of the House of
Representatives before being caught up
in the post-coup dragnet and sent to the prison-island of Nusa-Kambangan.
Two days before the planned reburial in March 2001, the organisers met
with local officials who warned
them that the ceremony should not become “too demonstrative”. So YPKP
arranged a low-key event,
multi-faith, with prayers said by Muslim, Christian and Buddhist priests.
It did not happen. Early in the morning, Mangunkusumo’s house was
surrounded by members of an
Islamic group vowing to stop the reburial. A vehicle was burnt and the
house damaged. Later, two
vehicles attempted to leave with the seven bodies to be given a family
reburial. They were attacked. One
got through, but the five coffins in the other vehicle were dragged out,
broken into, and the bones strewn
on the ground.
After the desecration, the mob around Mangunkusumo’s house built up to
several thousand. They circled
it, brandishing parangs and knives and shouting “Death to Irawan” and
“Irawan PKI”.
Ugly forces breed in the dark.
All nations need to face their histories. Post-war Germany did, though
there is still denial in Japan - and
for that matter, a reluctance in Australia to acknowledge the present day
consequences of the
dispossession of the Aborigines.
By burning books the Indonesia Government is playing with fire.
---
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/pumpedup-cops-are-stepping-over-the-thin-blue-
line/2007/09/08/1188783556546.html?page=2
THIS is the first picture of Wa-Wa, the West Papuan orphan threatened with
being eaten by cannibals,
since he was rescued from his remote jungle village last year.
Almost exactly 12 months after an abortive attempt by former Channel Seven
Today Tonight host Naomi
Robson to save Wa-Wa, now seven, from cannibals of the Korowai tribe, he
is pictured (front right) in
his new home in the Papuan capital Jayapura.
Wa-Wa lives with the family of Kornelius Kembaren (rear) the Papuan tour
guide who alerted the world
to Wa-Wa's plight, and another boy, Yetun, 14 (front left), rescued from a
tribe that accused him of
being a male witch, or khakhua.
A family friend who asked not to be named said: "Wa-Wa is a bright kid and
loves school . . . He's
hardly recognisable from the terrified kid in the jungle."
Wa-Wa, the subject last year of an ugly tug of war between channels Nine
and Seven, had been
suspected by his tribe of sorcery after both his parents died.
Robson's career took a nosedive after she and her crew were detained by
Indonesian authorities as
they tried to rescue Wa-Wa, and controversy erupted among anthropologists
over whether or not
cannibals still exist.
The lonely, frightened orphan was forgotten in the vitriol that consumed
the tale, but it seems his story
may have a happy ending.
An anonymous Australian benefactor has even promised to pay his way
through high school and
university.
---
http://english.pravda.ru/news/russia/06-09-2007/96792-russia_indonesia-0
Russia signs billion-dollar defense deal with Indonesia
09/06/2007 03:19
Russia's defense industry may celebrate another landmark
achievement. Vladimir Putin is set to sign
a $1billion deal with Indonesia to sell dozens of helicopters, tanks and
submarines to the Asian nation.
Russia and Indonesia strengthen their economic and defense ties to
counterbalance USA's growing
influence in the world, specialists say.
Russia will provide Indonesia with a billion-dollar loan, which will
be repayable over the next 15
years. All necessary documents are to be signed today during Putin's
one-day visit to the most populous
Muslim nation on the globe. As a result, Indonesia will receive 15
helicopters, 20 tanks, and two
submarines, said Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono.
"Part of this is to reduce our dependency on the United States,"
which was formerly the country's
largest supplier of weaponry, he said.
Putin's visit is the first by a Russian or Soviet leader to
Indonesia in nearly five decades. It comes
amid chilling relations with the United States, which has criticized
Russia's democracy record. Moscow,
in turn, distrusts Washington's growing influence in global politics and
has courted allies with similar
deals.
It held joint military exercises with China - the first ever on
Russian soil - several weeks ago and has
negotiated agreements with Malaysia and other countries across the region
to buy fighter jets. Putin said
he was especially eager to strengthen ties with Indonesia, a sprawling
nation with more than 200 million
Muslims. A series of other energy deals worth billions of dollars also
will be clinched on Thursday.
"We are ready to enhance cooperation with all interested parties to
building an equitable world
order, ensuring stability and security at both global and regional
levels," the Russian leader wrote in an
opinion piece that appeared Thursday in The Jakarta Post.
He stopped in Jakarta on his way to the Asia Pacific Economic
Cooperation forum summit in
Australia. Indonesia has been looking for other sources of arms since
Washington cut military ties in
1999 over human rights concerns. The ban was lifted in 2005, but Jakarta
continues to look elsewhere
for affordable military hardware.
It has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Russian
fighter jets. Russia also will sign
agreements Thursday that will help Indonesia revamp its aging mining and
oil facilities, said government
spokesman Dino Pati Djalal.
Indonesian mining company Aneka Tambang will sign a US$3 billion
deal with Russian aluminum
giant United Company Rusal, while state-owned oil company Pertamina plans
to sign a US$1 billion
agreement with one of Russia's biggest oil companies, Lukoil, he said.
Several memorandums of understanding also will be signed, including
on combatting terrorism and
protecting the environment
---
Leaders want new province established in Papua
National News - Thursday, September 06, 2007
Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A group of Papuan public figures has called on the government to
restart discussions on the
establishment of Central Papua province in order to speed up development
programs and address
poverty in the region.
"We are coming to Jakarta to ask the government and the House of
Representatives to re-deliberate
the establishment of Central Papua province, whose establishment, along
with that of West Papua
province and several other new regencies, was stipulated in Law No.
45/1999," the chairman of the
Team for the Reactivation of Central Papua Province, Norbert Mote, said in
a meeting with the House's
Commission II on home affairs here Wednesday.
Norbert said the team had lobbied the Home Ministry and prepared
facilities and infrastructure,
including land and buildings in Nabire, which they want to be the capital
of the province.
He said the 2003 Constitutional Court verdict endorsing West Papua
province and neglecting
Central Papua was regrettable.
Central Papua lacked an effective government at the time, he said.
"From all economic, political and territorial perspectives, Central
Papua is feasible for development
into a new province and it looks unfair if only the existence of West
Papua province is accepted," he
said.
Besides West Papua and Central Papua, the Papuan people have also
proposed the establishment
of South Papua and Southeast Papua provinces under the 2001 Special
Autonomy Law to speed up
economic and social development programs in the country's easternmost region.
Meanwhile, commission chairman E.E. Mangindaan said the commission
understood the Papuan
people's demands and would discuss them with newly appointed Home Minister
Mardiyanto.
"We will discuss this matter with the home minister ... and what the
Papuan people demand is
acceptable in line with the increasing calls for the division of Papua
into several new provinces," he said.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070906.H04&irec=3
---
*The West Papua Report - September 2007*
This is the 40th in a series of monthly reports that focus on developments
affecting Papuans. This
reporting series is produced by the West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT)
drawing on media accounts,
other NGO assessments and analysis and reporting from sources within West
Papua. The West Papua
Advocacy Team is a non-profit organization. Questions regarding this
report can be addressed to
Edmund McWilliams at edmcw at msn.com
Summary: The Indonesian military (TNI) has resumed sweep operation in the
Jamo (also Yamo) area
of West Papua's central highlands. The operations, which began in the
first week of August, have
already caused civilian casualties. As in the past, the TNI claims to be
chasing armed opposition
elements. TNI sweeps in the same area less than two years ago displaced
thousands and led to the
death of scores of civilians. Human rights organizations, journalists and
academics report a rise in the
number of killings of Papuans in recent months. The use of torture,
kidnapping and killing resemble
tactics employed by Indonesian security forces in the past in Aceh, East
Timor and elsewhere in the
archipelago to intimidate the central government's critics and those
asserting their rights. West Papua
Governor Barnabus Suebu reportedly is resisting central government plans
to launch massive new oil
palm plantations in West Papua which would destroy millions of acres of
pristine rain forest and also
attract hundreds of thousands of migrant workers that would permanently
marginalize the indigenous
Papuans. A detailed report by the Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human
Rights makes clear that
the Indonesian military will serve as enforcers for the unscrupulous
developers. It details violence in one
such oil palm plantation now being developed in the southeast. President
Yudhoyono's agenda for
development in West Papua includes a number of urgent priorities but the
plan, developed without input
from Papuan civil society and ordinary Papuans, ignores longstanding
Papuan demands for an end to
security force repression and impunity for security forces personnel who
violate Papuan human rights.
The UK Health Journal The Lancet, in its August 25 - 31 issue provided a
devastating critique of human
rights and health conditions in West Papua. The Lancet report, which draws
heavily on a recent report
by Human Rights Watch, notes that restrictions on gathering of data
imposed in West Papua by the
central government obscures the extent of problems there. End Summary.
*Indonesian Military Resume Operations Displacing and Endangering Papuan
Civilians*
The Indonesian military (TNI) has resumed operations in the Yamo area of
the Papuan Central
Highlands. These operations repeat military sweeps in the same area in
2004-2006 which forced
several thousands from their homes and led to the death of scores of
civilians. The TNI has undertaken
months-long sweep operations periodically in West Papua purportedly to
suppress an armed opposition
that State Department reporting suggests number less than 200 armed
personnel.
In such operations, the authorities typically prohibit humanitarian
assistance to those displaced. TNI
forces in the past have destroyed homes, churches and gardens which are
essential to the life of
Papuans in these rural areas. The TNI also usually prohibits civilians
from tending their gardens and
animals and disrupts inter-village commerce, creating severe hardships for
the local people.
A report by the Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights on the latest
operations follows:
Indonesian Military Operation in Jamo Valley causes starvation and
displacement
Reports from Human Rights workers confirm that the Indonesian military
(TNI) and police launched a
new military offensive in the Jamo (also spelt Yamo) Valley in the remote
Puncak Jaya region of West
Papua, in the first week of August 2007. These sources said that a mother
and two children died from
starvation when they were hiding in the forest after fleeing the military
operations.
Local people are reported to have been beaten by Indonesian security
forces and many people have
fled to the surrounding forests and mountains to hide.
Human rights workers say that the affected area includes the villages of
Wundu and Propalo. The only
way in and out of this rugged area is by walking or light aircraft or
helicopter.
The troops involved in the operation were reported to be from TNI
Battalion 756 in Wamena and
Battalion 752 Nabire and the paramilitary Mobile Police Brigade (Brimob)
from Jayapura.
One source said that the military operations began when the TNI and police
came from Mulia to
surround a hideout of the OPM/TPN guerrilla leader Goliat Tabuni. It was
reported that this military
operation was unsuccessful.
Another report said that the entire population of young people (men and
women) in some villages had
fled into the forests and mountains in fear of reprisals from the
Indonesian security forces. The
Indonesian security forces are said to have accused the villagers of
supporting Goliat Tabuni and the
OPM/TPN guerrillas. This source also said that only young children and
old people are left in Wundu
and Propalo villages and that they are traumatized.
"The security forces surrounded our church, forced us out of church and
beat us. They destroyed our
houses, pigs, and food gardens. We villagers become the victims, caught
between the TPN/OPM on one
side and the Indonesian military on the other. That is why people have
fled their villages" said a source
from the area who did not want to be named.
The Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights (IPAHR) is deeply
concerned about the welfare
and security of local people in the Jamo valley in Puncak Jaya.
"Over the past year the people in this region have been repeatedly been
displaced from their homes by
military operations. The repeated military offensives and ongoing
occupation of this region by the
Indonesian security forces makes the lives of the people very difficult
and means that people have had
to flee their homes, pigs and food gardens and live from the little they
can find in the mountain forests,"
said Paula Makabory representing Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human
Rights.
"The capacity of local human rights and church workers to assist is also
severely constrained by the
Indonesian security forces and the Goliat Tabuni's OPM/TPN group."
"The Indonesian Government ban on international media & humanitarian
organisations in West Papua
means that international community cannot assess of the situation or
provide humanitarian assistance in
the Jamo valley."
For more information contact: Matthew Jamieson Institute for Papuan
Advocacy & Human Rights<
mailto:matthew at hr.minihub.org>matthew at hr.minihub.org
*Growing Concern over Political Killings in Papua*
International human rights organizations and journalists report a spike in
political killings in West Papua
in recent weeks. The modus operandi and identity of those targeted
strongly suggest Indonesian
security forces are resorting to Soeharto-era tactics to intimidate Papuan
human rights defenders and
more generally terrorize Papuan civilians. An August Human Rights Watch
report noted killings of
Papuans in recent years have been particularly common in West Papua's
central highlands.
Meanwhile, spokesperson for the Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human
Rights (IPAHR), Matthew
Jamieson noted other recent killings. "In the past two months there has
been increased threats to
human rights defenders." Jamieson noted a report of the killing by police
of three public servants in the
Star Mountains region, shootings of Papuans by military personnel in
Jayapura and the case of the
server torture of a man by military near Tanah Merah." He also cited
reports of torture of Papuan
activists at the hands of security forces.
Tom Hyland, writing in the Australian "Sunday Age" (August 26) noted that
Indonesian security forces
were suspected in a "steady trickle of Papuan killings." Two August
killings in Nabire are part of the
pattern. In August Matius Bunai and Ones Keiya were found in the streets,
badly beaten and cut. Bunai
was found dead and Keiya died shortly after being discovered bleeding in
the street. Both had smashed
foreheads. Bunai was active in the Kingmi church which itself has been
the target of growing pressure
by security forces (see August and July WPAT reports). Keiya was also a
Kingmi church member and
like Bunai, a member of the Mee tribe.
Hyland notes that the killings were described as "mysterious," a code for
security force killings. As
Hyland explains, use of the term "mysterious," echoes use of the term to
refer to similar killings two
decades ago by Indonesian military and police. In the mid-1980's,
especially in Java, Soeharto security
forces killed thousands whom the regime claimed to be criminal suspects.
Soeharto himself later
described the deliberately authorized campaign as "shock therapy." The
current use of state terror in
West Papua has been accompanied by exceptionally harsh public rhetoric by
senior military and other
officials who pledge to "crush" dissidents and who boast that they are not
afraid of human rights
charges. (See West Papua Report for August.)
The Soeharto regime, employing the infamous Indonesian special forces,
Kopassus, similarly sought to
intimidate its political opponents in 1997-98, kidnapping, torturing and
murdering young dissidents
especially in Sumatra and Java. Such tactics were also used against
Timorese dissidents for decades
and especially in 1999. Indonesian security elements kidnapped, tortured
and murdered Achenese
dissidents as recently as 2004. Melbourne academic and Papuan expert
Richard Chauvel, characterizes
the anti-Papuan killings as "systemic and strategic." He explains to
Hyland that the killings are "systemic
in the sense that it is an integral part of how the security forces
interact with many sections of Papuan
society,and strategic insofar as it is intended "to create a certain
atmosphere ... of varying degrees of
intimidation."
*Papuan Governor Fights to Defend West Papua's Resources*
John McBeth, writing in The Straits Times (Singapore), August 21, 2007,
reported on efforts by Papuan
Governor Barnabas Suebu to halt plans by the Indonesian central government
to massively expand palm
oil plantations in West Papua. A similar program carried out in collusion
with unscrupulous developers,
backed by Indonesian security forces, in Kalimantan destroyed vast
stretches of rain forest and
displaced the indigenous Dayak.
As In Kalimantan, the plan for West Papua, McBeth notes, would transform
the demographic balance in
West Papua by attracting waves of migrants from other parts of Indonesia
to establish and work the
plantations. McBeth underscores that such action "raise(s) the specter of
widespread land disputes and
a reinvigorated independence movement."
The plan entails the creation of four million hectares of plantations
concentrated in the south-eastern
districts of Merauke, Boven Digoel and Mappi. According to McBeth, about
90 per cent of the area
designated for conversion to palm oil plantation is primary forest that
has never been logged.
McBeth cites resistance to the mammoth plan from local critics who oppose
such massive projects.
Conservationists charge that the plantation plan will lead to rampant
logging in the country's last great
stands of tropical rainforest. On the other hand, if the pattern of
destruction in Kalimantan were to be
repeated, valuable hardwoods might simply be burned to speed plantation
development.
Governor Barnabus Suebu, according to McBeth, is taking the lead in effort
so stave off the plantation
plan in favor of preservation of the forests, inter alia as a way of
winning for West Papua, a stake in an
international global market for carbon credit avoidance. In a recent
interview with the Asian Wall Street
Journal, the Governor said he has been under pressure from Jakarta to
create more plantations, based
on a plan formulated before he was elected governor in July last year.
McBeth, a respected journalist with decades of reporting experience
regarding Indonesia and the region
notes: "For the past three decades, the central government has been
accused of plundering Papua's
vast store of resources and giving nothing back. Even now, with the
province awash in cash as a result
of its special autonomy status, Jakarta is still seen to be falling short
in showing more respect for the
Papuans and their culture." He adds that "vast new areas of plantation
would widen the resentment
among indigenous communities, with the influx of hundreds of thousands of
outside workers from other
job-starved parts of Indonesia dwarfing former president Soeharto's
controversial transmigration
program."
In that regard, the latest report on West Papua by the International
Crisis Group (ICG) highlights already
significant tensions among tribal groups, and between indigenous Papuans
and non-Papuan settlers, as
well as competition over political power and access to spoils at the
regency and sub-district levels.
McBeth cites Governor Suebu's aides as describing the Governor as of the
view that because the 2001
Special Autonomy Law stipulates that only foreign affairs, defense,
justice, religion and fiscal affairs are
the responsibility of the central government, "Papua's forests belong to
the Papuans." (Note: The
following report offers an example of violence associated with oil palm
plantation development.)
*Indonesian Military Conspires with Oil Palm Developers against Local
Papuans*
The Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights (IPAHR) issued a media
release August 24 that
details a conspiracy between the Indonesian military (TNI) and developers
seeking to develop an oil
palm plantation out of pristine forest. The conspiracy has targeted local
Papuans who have rallied to
oppose the development. Allied with the TNI is Korindo, a
Korean-Indonesian timber and oil palm firm.
IPAHR, relying on local sources in southern West Papua, cite of the
violence, reports both military
violence and an attack by traditional Papuan landowners on the personnel
and property of Korean and
Indonesian owned logging and oil palm plantation project. “One non-Papuan
employee of Korindo the
Korean and Indonesian owned logging and oil palm company, was reportedly
killed and four Korindo
company trucks burnt after indigenous people from the Muyu tribe and
company employees clashed
near the remote town of Asiki, 250 kilometers north-west of
[UTF-8?]Australia’s Torres Strait (in [UTF-
8?]mid-August).” IPAHR also reports that the TNI killed at least one local
Papuan on August 20.
According to IPAHR, the TNI has accused the Papuan resistance (OPM/TPN
guerrillas) of the attacks. It
appears, however, that the TNI is using the "pretext" of an OPM/TPN attack
"to act against local people
in what is a land rights and industrial resource development issue."
IPAHR explains however that
Bernard Mawen regional commander of the OPM/TPN ,and also from the Muyu
tribal group, is
supportive of non violent struggle to promote Human Rights and Self
Determination in West Papua.
IPAHR notes however, that the OPM/TPN under command of Bernard Mawen have
not engaged in
military action for many years.
IPAHR offers the following background placing the above violence in
context: The recent violence
reported at the Korindo operation appears to be as a result of
longstanding dispute over land rights
between Korindo and local indigenous traditional landowners, not just the
Muyu but also the Auyu,
Mandobo, and Marind from other parts of southern West Papua who are also
effected by Korindo's
operations. In addition there has been a very long history of violence by
Indonesian security forces in
this region. At times the TNI (Indonesian military) and police work to
protect Korindo's interests and at
other times they have launched brutal and indiscriminate military
operations against the civilian
population and small bands of West Papuan guerilla fighters.”
The recent incident attack on Korindo's operations in Asiki by the members
of the Muyu can also be
seen within a context of increased military repression in West Papua which
appears to be coordinated
by the military command in West Papua. It would appear to serve the
interests of the military to
generate conflict with the local people. The military can justify the
increase in repression which in turn
stops any effective voice of local opposition to the Korindo timber and
oil palm operations.” said Matthew
Jamieson of the Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights.
Ultimately the conflict over the expansion of oil palms is driven by
international demand for bio-fuel. The
Indonesian government appears to be intent on a massive expansion in oil
palm plantations as a source
of bio-fuel. This will involve the destruction of millions of hectares of
rainforest and with it the indigenous
populations who have lived in and managed these forests for thousands of
years.”
*Top-Down Development in West Papua Excludes Papuans*
An August 30 Jakarta Post Op-Ed by Papuan Priest Neles Tebay exposes the
Indonesian central
government's deliberate exclusion of Papuan civil society and citizens in
government planning for West
Papua's development. The administration of President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono has assembled a
team of senior government officials to begin to address at long last the
absence of basic services in
West Papua for Papuans. A May 16 presidential decree highlighted some
priorities in the central
government plan, including food security, poverty reduction, education,
healthcare, infrastructure and
affirmative action programs aimed at empowering indigenous Papuans.
While these priorities reflect genuine needs among Papuans, they were
decided neither by the Papuans
nor in consultation with them, but solely by the central government. They
exclude other urgent needs,
including issues of justice and an end to Indonesian military and police
brutality and impunity for human
rights crimes. This latest example of Jakarta's unwillingness to dialog
with Papuans about decades of
human rights abuse by security forces, marginalization and the central
government's malign neglect with
regards to health and educational services will likely harden already
broad Papuan rejection of "special
autonomy."
*Respected UK Health Journal Condemns Abysmal Conditions in West Papua*
The UK Health Journal The Lancet, in its August 25 - 31 issue provided a
devastating critique of human
rights and health conditions in West Papua. The following excerpts
principal conclusions from the report
written by Susan Rees and Derrick Silove.
The recent Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, Out of Sight, alerted the
international community to the
hidden human-rights abuses in West Papua, Indonesia's most easterly
province. The effect of the crisis
on the health and wellbeing of the indigenous population of West Papua is
an issue that has attracted
little attention in contemporary medical publications.
Both restrictions on data gathering by foreigners and the inaccessible
terrain create major obstacles to
undertaking research in West Papua. The HRW report therefore is invaluable
because it provides
documentation of systematic abuses, including torture, rape, and
extrajudicial killings directed against
militants and the civilian population. Police and military personnel who
are accused of violations seem to
be immune from prosecution. 1 Refugees fleeing persecution have sought
asylum in Papua New Guinea
and in developed countries, such as the UK and Australia. A participant in
our mental health project of
Australian-based refugees, John (an alias), recounted a story that is
consistent not only with the major
human-rights and legal reports from West Papua, [1] and [2] but also with
stories from other participants
in the project. As a child, John witnessed the burning of his village and
the brutal public rape, torture,
and murder of his family. The military apprehended his uncle as he fled to
the border, tearing his finger
and toenails off before forcing him to dig his own grave and shooting him
in public. John suffers from
multiple musculoskeletal complaints and nightmares arising from his
torture. Furthermore, he lives in
constant fear for the safety of his remaining family left in West Papua.
Indonesian rule has brought about major changes to the demography,
ecology, and traditional way of
life in West Papua. [3] and [4] Mining operations that are poorly
regulated are polluting major rivers,
while extensive illegal logging is destroying natural habitats that are
crucial to a traditional land-based
culture. [3] and [4] Indonesia's transmigration policy has relocated more
than three-quarters of a million
ethnically distinct settlers to West Papua, which is an immense social
transformation that threatens to
marginalise the indigenous people, whose numbers are further threatened by
a falling fertility rate. 3
Indigenous Papuans have been displaced to areas where traditional crops
are difficult to grow and the
prevalence of communicable diseases is high. Questions have been raised
about whether these
fundamental disruptions to the traditional way of life constitute an
insidious form of cultural genocide. 1
Public-health indicators, although incomplete, suggest that the general
health of Papuans is poor. [5]
and [6] Malaria, upper respiratory tract infections, and dysentery are
major causes of childhood
morbidity, with infant mortality ranging from 70 to 200 per 1000. 5 More
than 50% of children younger
than 5 years are undernourished, and immunisation rates are low. [5] and
[6] Maternal mortality is three
times the rate of women in other parts of Indonesia. 5 HIV/AIDS rates are
40 times the national average,
7 and the epidemic is being fuelled by a burgeoning sex trade, low levels
of literacy, and inadequate
services for prevention and treatment of this disease. [7] and [3] In
2000, Indonesia acknowledged the
parlous state of health in West Papua, committing [UTF-8?]US$2•25 billion
to enhance services. 6
However, critics continue to comment about the gross inadequacy of the
medical system in relation to
human resources, access, and quality. [2], [3] and [7]
In response to international criticisms, Indonesia has offered West
Papuans a special autonomy plan to
increase participation of indigenous people in governance. 1 The HRW
report suggests, however, that
the political changes have not led to an improvement in human rights.
Vested interests, the remoteness
of the territory, and marginalisation of indigenous people are obstacles
to genuine political change.
Nevertheless, international pressures have prompted improvements in human
rights in other conflict-
affected areas of Indonesia, specifically in East Timor and Aceh. The
international medical profession
can play a part in bringing about [UTF-8?]change—eg, by engaging with and
supporting progressive
Papuan health professionals in their efforts to improve services,
establish training programmes, and
improve standards of care in the region. Furthermore, gathering more
comprehensive data that focuses
on the public-health results of conflict and socioeconomic neglect is
essential. By maintaining a close
scrutiny of health outcomes in West Papua, medical professionals can have
a key role in breaking the
prevailing silence about one of the world's least publicised human-rights
crises. References
1 Human Rights Watch, Out of sight: endemic abuse and impunity in Papua's
central highlands, Human
Rights Watch 19 (2007), pp. [UTF-8?]181.
2 E Brundige, W King and P Vahali et al., Indonesian human rights abuses
in West Papua: application
of the law of genocide to the history of Indonesian control. In: K Allard,
Editor, Lowenstein International
Human Rights Clinic, Yale Law School, New Haven (2004).
3 J Wing and P King, Genocide in West Papua? The role of the Indonesian
state apparatus and a
current assessment of the Papuan people, West Papua Project at the Centre
for Peace and Conflict
Studies, Sydney and Jayapura (2005).
4 Environmental Investigation Agency and Telapak, The last frontier:
illegal logging in Papua and China's
massive timber theft, Environmental Investigation Agency and Telapak,
London and Jakarta (2005), pp.
[UTF-8?]127.
5 D Blair and D Phillips, Indonesia Commission: peace and progress in
Papua, Council of Foreign
Relations, New York (2003), p. 76.
6 H Diani, Health: a specter for Irian Jaya, Jakarta Post (Aug 21, 2000),
p. 5.
7 L Butt, G Numbery and J Morin, The smokescreeen of culture: AIDS and the
Indigenous in Papua,
Indonesia. In: R Jones and SA Finau, Editors, Pacific health dialogue:
Guam and health transition in the
Pacific 9, Resource Books, Waimauku (2002), pp. [UTF-8?]283289.
---
Australia West Papua Association (Sydney)
Press release 10 September 2007
Melanesian Spearhead Group leaders should grant observer status to the
people of West Papua.
In an open letter to leaders of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), the
Australia West Papua
Association (AWPA) has called on the leaders of the MSG countries to grant
observer status to the the
Melanesian people of West Papua.
Joe Collins of AWPA said that one of the MSG’s founding principals was “to
promote co-operation
among independent Melanesian nations and to assist other Melanesian states
that are not yet free”.
AWPA is encouraged by this statement and believe all of Melanesia should
support the people of West
Papua in their struggle for self-determination.
The MSG has accorded Observer status to the people of Kanaky (New
Caledonia) represented by the
Front de Libération National Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS). We believe its
timely that the Melanesian
people of West Papua be also granted similar status.
The issue of West Papua will not disappear and AWPA believes that regional
organisations such as the
MSG can play an important role in helping facilitate dialogue between the
West Papuan leadership and
the Indonesian Government. For many years the West Papuan people have been
calling on the
international community to support such dialogue as a way of solving the
grave issues of concern in
West Papua.
We urge the MSG to grant observer status to the Melanesian people of West
Papua at its meeting in
September 2007.
Info. Joe Collins. Mob. 04077 857 97
-----------------------------------
Open letter to leaders of the Melanesian Spearhead Group
Dear Prime Minister,
On behalf of the Australia West Papua Association (Sydney), I am writing
to you concerning the issue
of West Papua . We would first like to congratulate the Melanesian
Spearhead Group (MSG) on its
historical meeting in Vanuatu in March, for the signing of the Melanesian
Spearhead Group’s
Constitution and on the decision to build a new MSG Secretariat in Port
Vila, Vanuatu. AWPA would
also like to thank you as a leader of a Pacific Islands Forum country for
your support for the West
Papuan people in the past, including at last years Pacific Islands Forum
in Nadi, Fiji where West Papua
was mentioned in the official Communiqué.
In relation to the MSG, we note in a report in the Diplomat magazine in
August that the officer in charge
of the MSG Secretariat, Johnny Koanapo, confirmed that “a future MSG
“family” would likely include
East Timor and West Papua” and that “The MSG’s founding principal was
“to promote co-operation
among independent Melanesian nations and to assist other Melanesian states
that are not yet free”.
We are encouraged by this statement and believe all of all Melanesian
should support the people of
West Papua in their struggle for self-determination. We note that observer
status is accorded to the
people of Kanaky (New Caledonia) at the MSG, represented by the Front de
Libération National Kanak
et Socialiste (FLNKS). We believe the time is now right for the Melanesian
people of West Papua to be
also granted observer status at the MSG.
AWPA believes the situation in West Papua is deteriorating and that there
is a systematic campaign by
the military and police to intimidate any individual or organisation whom
they (the military and police)
deem to be separatists. This intimidation has increased since Col.
Burhanuddin Siagian who is
commander of the Jayapura sub-regional military command (Korem 172) in
Papua, stated that “If I
meet anyone who has enjoyed the facilities that belong to the state, but
who still betrays the nation, I
honestly will destroy him”. Col. Siagian has been indicted twice for
crimes against humanity in East
Timor. There has been a call from human rights organisations from around
the world for his removal.
These acts of intimidation by the security forces appear to be a return to
the hard-line policy of the
Suharto years and is causing increasing tension and instability in West
Papua which could eventually
lead to instability in the region.
The issue of West Papua will not disappear and AWPA believes that regional
organisations such as the
MSG can play an important role in helping facilitate dialogue between the
West Papuan leadership and
the Indonesian Government. The West Papuan people have been calling on the
international community
for years to support such dialogue as a way of solving the many issues of
concern in West Papua.
We urge the MSG at its upcoming meeting in September in Vanuatu to grant
observer status to the
Melanesian people of West Papua, as it has to the Melanesian people of
Kanaky (New Caledonia).
We also urge the MSG to raise concerns about the ongoing human rights
abuses in West Papua with
the Indonesian government and to urge the Indonesian government to
dialogue with the West Papuan
leadership to peacefully solve the many issues of concern in the territory.
Yours sincerely
Joe Collins
AWPA (Sydney)
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http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2007/9/4/twin-babies-found-dead-at-biak-landfill-papua/
National
09/04/07 14:03
Twin babies found dead at Biak landfill, Papua
Biak, Papua Province (ANTARA News) - Two male twin babies were found dead
at a landfill in Biak
Numfor District, Papua Province, on Tuesday.
The twins were believed to have been dumped by their parent at the
landfill near a Biak market on
Monday evening.
The babies had straight black hair and were each 46 centimeters long and
weighed 2.2 kilograms.
"We don`t exactly know how they died but they were already dead when the
police brought them to the
hospital," Marike Rumbiak, a nurse at the Biak Hospital`s morgue said here
on Tuesday.
Biak police would investigate the case to find the parents of the babies
whose bodies were still linked to
their umbilical cords. (*)
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