This is the 43rd in a series of monthly
reports that focus on developments affecting Papuans This
series is produced by the non-profit West Papua Advocacy
Team (WPAT) drawing on media accounts, other NGO assessments
and analysis and reporting from sources within West Papua.
This report is co-published by the East Timor and Indonesian
Action Network (ETAN). Back issues are posted online
at
http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm Questions
regarding this report can be addressed to Edmund McWilliams
at edmcw@msn.com.
Summary
US Member of Congress
Eni Faleomavaega Visits West Papua
US Congressman Eni Faleomavaega visited West
Papua November 26-27. His visit was the first by a US member
of Congress. Earlier this year the Indonesian Government
prevented him from visiting the area (see July 2007 West
Papua Report). This visit included brief stops in Timika,
Biak and Manokwari for meetings with senior officials.
Indonesian security prevented hundreds of Papuans from
meeting with him, detaining some of those who sought to
greet him. Rep. Faleomavega, long the leading proponent in
Washington of Papuan rights and welfare, is well-known and
widely respected in West Papua Congressman Faleomavaega
traveled with the US Ambassador and two members of his staff,
Lisa Williams and Vili Lei.
Indonesian
Special Forces Threaten Papuan Social Workers
The Asian Human Rights Commission on
November 21 issued an "urgent action update" regarding
reports that Indonesian Army Special Forces (Kopassus) were
threatening social workers in an effort to learn the
whereabouts of a Papuan Church official, Catholic Priest
Johanes Djonga, who, has been targeted by the Indonesian
military
AHRC reports that Father Djonga went into
hiding following numerous threats against his life since
August 2007. The Indonesian military then began pressuring
his colleagues and friends in an effort to ascertain his
whereabouts.
Lieutenant Agus, Military Commander of Waris
District, has personally verbally threatened, among others,
a religious student close to Djonga, Gaspar May, Chief of the
Banda Tribe, and Theodorus Meho, a colleague of Djonga's.
Specifically, the senior military figure threatened to
"disappear" the latter two.
AHRC notes that people in the Waris District
are becoming increasingly frightened in the face of
continuing threats by Kopassus troops who demand information
about the whereabouts of Father Djonga. The continuing
threats to Father Djonga are strongly believed to be as a
result of his involvement in human rights work in addition
to the meeting with the UN Human Rights representative.
Several months ago, Djonga submitted a report to the
governor of Papua and the military commander in the city of
Jayapura which criticized the military action in the borders
of Waris and Papua New Guinea.
Papuan Perspective on
Removal of Abusive Indonesian Military from West Papua
An Op-Ed appearing in the November 6 Jakarta
Post offered a Papuan view on why Papuans call for the
withdrawal of Indonesian military forces from West
Papua. The writer, Father Neles Tebay is a lecturer at the
Fajar Timur School of Theology and Philosophy in Abepura.
Excerpts from the article follow. (Also, immediately
following this item see a public rebuttal by a senior TNI
official that contains implicit threats to Father Tebay):
In the wake of civil society's efforts
to transform Papua into a land of peace, the Indonesian
Military (TNI) has been growing both in strength and
numbers in the province, as reported by the
International Crisis Group in September last year
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Djoko Santoso
has already revealed a plan to base the third infantry
division of the Army's Strategic Reserves Command
(Kostrad) and more cavalry as well as engineering
battalions in Papua to protect the country's border and
conflict-prone areas (The Jakarta Post, Sept. 13, 2007).
Indigenous Papuans have repeatedly
expressed their opposition to the deployment of
thousands of reinforcement troops to their homeland.
The latest was voiced loudly on Oct. 19,
when local people in Arso (the capital of Keerom
regency, some 75 kilometers northeast of the provincial
capital of Jayapura) blockaded the road connecting
Keerom and Jayapura to vent their anger with military
troops after a soldier assaulted a district chief.
Why do Papuans reject the sending of
military reinforcements to the province?
Some cases below might be helpful in
understanding the reasons behind Papuans' aversion to
the military.
On Oct. 18, the head of Arso district,
Charles Tafor, was beaten by a member of the Army's
Special Forces (Kopassus), who was on duty at the border
with Papua New Guinea. Responding to the incident,
Papuans blockaded the main road in Arso and demanded the
withdrawal of all Kopassus troops posted in Keerom
regency. The military eventually removed the soldier.
Church leaders are among those on the
front line in the fight against human rights violations
in Papua, and as a result have been publicly linked to
the separatist movement.
Papuans are afraid of moving around,
going to their land or village because the presence of
the Kopassus troops intimidates them. They live in fear.
More than eight years ago, in July 1999,
four Catholic bishops from Papua highlighted, in their
report to then president Abdurrahman Wahid, the heavy
presence of troops in Papua. The religious leaders
blamed the military's arrogance as one of the causes of
anxiety among the Papuans.
The bitter experiences of the Arso
district head and the parish priest confirm the
situation has not improved.
The arrival of thousands of troops has
failed to create peace or tranquility in Papua because
the soldiers, including the Kopassus troops, serve as
the central government's way of dealing with indigenous
Papuans.
For the sake of peace, Papuans have
called on the government and the TNI commander to pull
out all Kopassus personnel from Keerom regency.
They know their request will be
unheeded, as has happened since 1963, but at least they
have the courage to speak up
TNI Rebuts and
Implicitly Threatens Father Tebay
Father Neles Tebay's plea for respect for
Papuan rights and demilitarization of West Papua provoked an
official response from the TNI that implicitly threatened the
priest.
Writing in the December 1 issue of the
Jakarta Post, Vice Marshall Sagom Tamboen, head of the "TNI
Information Center," said Tebay's op-ed "harmed the
institution of the TNI and negated Indonesian integrity."
The TNI spokesperson implied that Tebay was himself
associated with the armed opposition, alleging that the
Tebay article "serves as a juicy issue turned to the
advantage of those wishing to see Indonesia's
disintegration."
UN Envoy Finds
Torture Widespread in West Papua and Rest of Indonesia
Prisons
The Financial Times, November 26, published
comments by UN envoy Manfred Nowak regarding the
"widespread" use of torture in Indonesian prisons. The
official described his observations to a press conference in
which he reported on his two-week visit to a number of
prisons in Indonesia, including in West Papua. He singled
out abusive treatment in Wamena, West Papua as among the
worst among various prisons, noting that prisoners there
were too fearful to speak to the investigators but that they
bore scars indicating abuse. He noted that in various
prisons, shooting prisoners in the leg to extract
confessions was common. He also called attention to the
practice of locking up children as young as ten who were
frequently abused. Additional excerpts of the Times report
follow:
"In some cases, while we were inspecting the
facilities, torture was ongoing. People who were being
interrogated had been severely beaten. This is a sign of how
systematic torture is," Nowak, told a press conference.
High death rates of young prisoners in
Jakarta's overcrowded Cipinang prison were also highly
suspicious, said Mr. Nowak. He said the team was unable to
verify whether any of the 100 or so annual inmate deaths
were due to abuse because prison authorities are not
required to carry out autopsies...
The rapporteur called on Jakarta to outlaw
torture, to limit police custody to 48 hours prior to an
arrest, and to establish an independent national body which
could investigate allegations of torture by police and
officials in detention centres.
Transmigration to Resume in West Papua
Indonesian Forestry Minister Malam Sambat
Kaban on November 27 announced that his ministry and the
Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration were set to resume
transmigration, a widely criticized population engineering
scheme that has been in abeyance for 15 years. The Minister
said that plans called for moving 150,000 families to
Kalimantan, Sumatra and West Papua annually. In the past,
government resettlement plans have often targeted people who
were on land scheduled for development by powerful economic
players in Jakarta Conflict between "transmigrants" and the
indigenous inhabitants has been common leading to the death
of thousands. In West Papua transmigration and more recent "spontaneous
migration" supported by the central government has been a
key factor in the marginalization of the Papuan People.
Although "Special Autonomy" promised to Papuans by the
Indonesian central government included assurances that
Papuans would have authority over migration to West Papua,
there is no indication that Papuan officials have been
consulted regarding this new Jakarta scheme.
Indonesian Journalist Notes
Rich Resources
Do Not Benefit Papuan People
In a revealingly candid assessment by
Indonesian journalist Arief Oka, a November 21 Sinar Harapan
article (translated by TAPOL) describes the "curse" of
Papua's great natural resource wealth. The article, "Papua
and The Curse of Its Natural Resources," is excerpted
below:
If it is true that countries with abundant
natural resources are cursed, then Papua is the place in
Indonesia which has suffered by far the most because of
this curse. By rights, per capita income of the roughly
two million Papuan natives and the 700,000 migrants
should be the highest in Indonesia from their rich
natural resources. Are the inhabitants enjoying the
benefits from these natural resources which are being
exploited in the land where they live? Clearly they are
not.
The primary beneficiaries of Papua's
riches are the Indonesian government in Jakarta, the
foreign multinationals who have been granted concessions
to exploit copper (Freeport) and oil (BP), and non
Papuan inhabitants who are illegally exporting timber
and various other natural resources.
Unless there is a radical change in
policy, it is not difficult to predict what future
awaits the Papuans. The rape of Papuan resources will
proceed at an intensified rate, as a result of which,
one of the richest biological and cultural territories
in the world will be totally destroyed in less than a
century.
The native Papuans will become nothing
more than a footnote in history. Javanese, Buginese,
Chinese and other 'foreigners' who have colonised Papua
will start killing each other to gain control of the
100,000 hectares of remaining forest to transform them
into palm oil plantations.
Four measures needed
First, to declare a 50-year moratorium
which could be renewed with regard to new explorations
to exploit natural resources on a major scale.
Second, to halt the influx of new
migrants. There are already enough people in Papua to
protect the natural resources and sell other natural
resources on a continuing basis. This would also include
halting missionaries from whatever sect and allowing the
Papuans and non Papuans to adhere to whatever beliefs
they like without external interference.
Third, to set up a Trust Fund which
would receive 100 percent of the taxes, royalties and
other revenues from the existing concessionaires. The
trustees should be tasked with raising funds and
investing the funds wisely with various international
asset boards which have been globally successful. The
trustees would also be charged with supporting social
and cultural developments of the Papuan people, starting
with a voluntary scheme of free education for all up to
tertiary level. The Trust Fund would also be charged
with funding security forces to protect Papua from
intrusions for unlicensed natural resource exploitation
Fourth, to get rid of the two provincial
structures which are at present competing with each
other to exploit the natural resources in their regions,
and replace this with a single government structure for
Papua and West Papua.
This is not just about the fate of the
Papuan people, who are cursed with living among abundant
natural resources. This is a crime being perpetrated by
man against man that is happening before our very eyes
The Indonesian Government's Failure to
Address HIV/AIDS in West Papua
The secretary of Indonesia's National AIDS
Prevention Commission (KPA), Nafsiah Mboi, has lectured
Papuans regarding the explosion of HIV/AIDS infection in West
Papua, insisting that they not make the problem a "political
commodity." A report of her comments by the government news
agency Antara (November 22) does not elaborate her meaning.
But experts who have examined the HIV/AIDS crisis in West
Papua in the past have noted that the central government's
four decades of neglect in developing health and educational
services, and the role of the security forces in introducing
and promotion of prostitution in West Papua as significantly
responsible for the crisis. Mboi seemed intent on blunting
criticism of Jakarta.
Mboi indirectly acknowledged the Government's
responsibility for the failure to develop a health service
infrastructure. She noted that the high rate of HIV
infection in West Papua was due to shortage of information
about the disease or the fact that information had not
reached the people. "The Papuan people have no access to
information on what HIV/AIDS really is and how to prevent or
fight it. This condition is especially to be found in
mountainous regions or areas that are hard to reach," she
said. She further acknowledged that many Papuans lacked even
the most fundamental knowledge regarding prophylactic
measures, admitting that many Papuans did not know that
using condoms could minimize the risk of being infected with
the lethal virus.
Nationally, Papua is a province with the
third highest incidence of HIV/AIDS infection in the country
after Jakarta and West Java According to data collected by
KPA in Papua, as per September 30, 2007, the total number of
HIV/AIDS cases reached 3,434 -- 1,382 cases in Mimika, 934
in Merauke, 342 in Biak, 307 in Nabire and 205 in Jayapura.
Mboi implicitly identified the decades of
central government neglect of Papuans in her call for what
was needed in West Papua, i.e., "the continuous
dissemination of information on HIV/AIDS," (and adding) "all
the districts/cities must have health service centers that
provide blood test services and counseling to infected
persons." Failure of the central government to establish
such centers years into the crisis constitutes a indictment
of Jakarta's neglect of West Papua.
Papuan Human Rights
Defenders Tell of Their Struggle for Human Rights in West
Papua
The
Testimony Project - Papua, a new book now available in
English and Bahasa Indonesia tells the story of Papuans'
struggle for human rights and human dignity through the
words of 12 leading Papuan human rights activists. These
personal narratives detail the indignities and suffering of
Papuans over the past two generations. Dr. Charles Farhadian,
who edited the book, explains: "The goal in creating the
book is two-fold. First, it is crucial that Papuans get a
chance to speak for themselves, rather than being
reinterpreted or silenced for any number of reasons and by
any number of people. By speaking for themselves, Papuans
demonstrate they are actors in their own right. Second, it
is equally im[portant to provide an historical document that
records the lives of Papuans at the beginning of the 21st
century." (The book is available from amazon.com or
via
ETAN.)
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