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.
Summary
- The Indonesian military
(TNI) has resumed sweep operations in the Jamo (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 rainforest
and 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 of 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.
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 U.S. 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.
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 the
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 (matthew@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, the 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 severe torture of a man by the
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, the use of the term "mysterious,"
echoes its use to refer to similar killings two decades ago
by the 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 Acehenese
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) on
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 up plantation
development.
Governor Barnabus Suebu, according to McBeth, is taking the
lead in efforts 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 PapuansThe
Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights (IPAHR)
issued a media release August 24 that details a conspiracy
between the Indonesian military (TNI) and private companies 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, the
site 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 projects. “One non-Papuan employee of
Korindo, the Korean and Indonesian owned logging and oil
palm company, was reportedly killed and four Korindo company
trucks were found burnt after indigenous people from the
Muyu tribe and company employees clashed near the remote
town of Asiki, some 250 kilometers northwest of Australia’s
Torres Strait (in 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, the 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 has 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 IPAHR.
“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 are
the 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 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 change—e.g. 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. 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. 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. 283289