Written testimony for the 9/22/10 Hearing on West Papua by the
Subcommittee on Asia, The Pacific and the Global Environment
offered by Edmund McWilliams , U.S. Senior Foreign Service (retired)
It is timely and entirely appropriate that the Congress through this hearing
undertakes to shed light on the complex and ominous developments affecting
security and the human rights environment in West Papua. Ongoing security
force repression of peaceful political dissent, military operations that
pose life threatening displacement of civilians and systematic abuse of
political prisoners combine to raise fundamental doubts about democracy in
West Papua and more broadly in Indonesia.
As the U.S. government pursues a comprehensive relationship with Indonesia,
it can no longer ignore the reality that policies and practices developed
under the Suharto dictatorship persist in this part of the Indonesian
archipelago. Papuan civilians who peacefully protest government policies
which marginalize them and abusive security force action which target them,
are routinely beaten and imprisoned under provisions contained in a criminal
code that dates to the colonial era and which were employed by the Suharto
military dictatorship to repress dissent. Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch have identified dozens of political prisoners and prisoners of
conscience. The U.S. Congress, particularly under the leadership of Patrick
Kennedy, has repeatedly raised concern about the plight of these prisoners.
In the remote central highlands of West Papua, periodic "sweeping
operations" destroy villages driving peaceful civilians into the forests and
mountains where many have died due to a lack of food, shelter and medical
care. The military's practice of routinely barring humanitarian assistance
to these displaced and desperate civilian populations has exacerbated their
suffering.
| |
The security forces also play a direct role in enforcing the government's
so-called "development" plans in West Papua which entail expropriation of
vast tract of virgin forest on which Papuan villagers depend for their
livelihoods.
|
The security forces also play a direct role in enforcing the government's
so-called "development" plans in West Papua which entail expropriation of
vast tract of virgin forest on which Papuan villagers depend for their
livelihoods. This so-called "development" which targets West Papua's vast
natural resources includes often-illegal logging organized or protected by
the military as well as fishing and mining operations that have had
devastating impact on the natural environment. These perverse development
schemes also entail the organized immigration of many thousands of
non-Papuans from other islands of the archipelago to provide personnel for
expansive plantations such as one now underway in the Merauke area. These
non-Papuans, known as "transmigrants," have over decades so marginalized
Papuans that these non-Papuans now constitute the majority in West Papua
towns and cities. This policy of "transmigration," and the decades of
systematic central government failure to provide Papuans adequate health and
education services, employment opportunity, or infrastructure support
amounts to ethnic cleansing, with genocidal implications.
The Indonesian government's malign neglect of Papuans, including extending
license to security forces to abuse the Papuan people without accountability
and encouraging Indonesian and international corporations to exploit West
Papuan resources absent benefit to the Papuan themselves, has for the past
decade proceeded under the rubric of a policy of "special autonomy" for West
Papua. Under this plan, the central government was to have ensured that a
significant proportion of the vast wealth flowing from West Papua into
government coffers would be returned to West Papua. In reality, most of the
funds directed to West Papua through "special autonomy" have been
expropriated by a corrupt, largely non-Papuan bureaucratic elite and even by
the military for its operations. As a consequence Papuans, in mass
demonstrations and in the form of formal resolutions by Papuan civic
organizations and the official Papuan People's Council have rejected
"special autonomy." Unfortunately, the U.S. Government, like many other
governments, has chosen to ignore the reality of broad and explicit Papuan
rejection of the Indonesian government's approach to West Papua's myriad and
growing problems.
The tragedy engulfing the Papuans remains largely unknown in the
international community due to the successful effort over decades reaching
back to the Suharto dictatorship to restrict access to West Papua by
journalists, diplomats as well as international research personnel from the
UN, human rights and humanitarian organizations and academia. Over the
past 18 months the Indonesian government has closed the offices of the
International Committee of the Red Cross and the the offices of a Dutch
charitable organization that had operated in West Papua for over three
decades. You yourself Mister Chairman experienced severe restrictions in a
visit to West Papua.
The current U.S. administration under President Obama is unfortunately
pursuing a broadened relationship with the Indonesian government, largely
oblivious to the suffering of the Papuan people and to the threats posed to
democratization in Indonesia generally by unreformed and unaccountable
Indonesian security forces. In so doing it is on a course set by previous
U.S. administrations for which democratization and human rights were only
tangential concerns. The 2009 failure of the Indonesian military to meet a
five-year legal deadline to divest itself of its vast empire of legal and
illegal businesses, a deadline which passed on the Obama Administration's
watch, will enable the military to continue to evade civilian control.
| |
In many ways the current U.S. Administration has demonstrated even less
concern for human rights as it has significantly ratcheted up
military-to-military relations with the Indonesian military.
|
In many ways the current U.S. Administration has demonstrated even less
concern for human rights as it has significantly ratcheted up
military-to-military relations with the Indonesian military. It recently
announced a resumption of ties even to the most abusive and unreformed
element of the Indonesian military, the
Indonesian "special forces" (Kopassus). For decades Kopassus troops
have taken the lead in terrorizing the Papuan people. Kopassus officers
were responsible for what Indonesian courts described as the
"torture-murder" of Papua's leading political figure, Theys Eluay in 2001.
The Kopassus officers and enlisted personnel who engaged in this crime
received a maximum sentence of 42 months, a sentence far lighter than
Papuans convicted of peaceful political dissent typically receive. A June
2009 Human Rights Report detailed Kopassus use of torture to intimidate
Papuan civilians in the Merauke area of West Papua. As is common in
Indonesia, none of the Kopassus personnel identified in the HRW report have
been held accountable for their crimes.
The U.S. is responsible for the 2003 creation of a special unit, "Detachment
88," which was initially intended to address terrorist activities in
Indonesia. The U.S. remains a key funder of this unit. Since its inception
this unit has been credibly accused of use of torture and other illegal
actions by reputable Indonesian and international human rights
organizations. In recent weeks its particularly brutal actions in the
Maluku islands have led the Indonesian government to restrict its area of
operations, though official's statements indicate it will continue to
operate in West Papua. in December of 2009 Detachment 88 personnel were
part of a security force that captured and killed Papuan pro-independence
figure Kelly Kwalik. Kwalik was allowed to bleed to death from a thigh
wound while in custody.
To its great credit, the U.S. Congress for many years has monitored and
raised concern about human rights abuses in West Papua. You Mr. Chairman
have been a particularly articulate and strong proponent of Papuan rights
and for accountability of abusive security forces there.
While the stated intention of the Obama Administration to develop a more
comprehensive relationship with a democratizing Indonesia is appropriate and
commendable, the United States must not ignore the threat to Indonesian
democracy and expanding abuse of human rights posed by rogue and
unaccountable security forces. Nowhere in the Indonesian archipelago is
that threat and those abuses more apparent than in West Papua.
Mr. Chairman: a June 2010 letter which
you and several score of your colleagues in the House addressed to President
Obama urged that he assign the "highest priority" to West Papua with regard
to U.S. foreign policy towards Indonesia. It is vital that the
Administration pay heed to this very timely advice.
see also West Papua Report
