U.S. NGO's
Call on Secretary Rice to Act on Arrests of
Papuans
The East Timor and Indonesia
Action Network (ETAN) and the West Papua
Advocacy Team (WPAT) have urged Secretary of
State Rice to act on behalf of Papuans detained
by Indonesian Security Forces in March arrests.
Those arrests were made under the "subversion"
law which the Indonesian Constitutional Court
declared unconstitutional on July 17, 2007.
An abbreviated version of that
letter
follows:
On March 13, Indonesian
police arrested twelve people in Manokwari,
West Papua, during a demonstration against a
2007 law banning the display of separatist
symbols, including the Morning Star Flag.
The demonstrations also called for a
referendum regarding the political status of
West Papua and expressed opposition to the
2001 Special Autonomy Law that they claim
has failed to bring improvement to the lives
of Papuan people. As Human Right Watch has
reported, one of the twelve arrested in
Manokwari is reported to be a 16-year-old
boy. As of March 25 there were reports that
he had been released from custody but he may
still face charges On March 19, Indonesian
security officials in Jayapura arrested four
more Papuans in a similarly peaceful
demonstration that opposed the same 2007
law. On March 25, security authorities
arrested Eli Kaiway in connection with the
peaceful demonstrations of March 13 and 19.
The 17 individuals appear
likely to face trial for breaching
Regulation 77/2007 and may also be charged
with makar, which translates into English as
"rebellion." In the past, Papuan activists
openly supporting separatism have been
sentenced to a 20-year prison term for the
peaceful expression of their political
views.
Indonesia's arrest and
detention of peaceful activists violates the
internationally recognized rights to freedom
of expression and assembly as set forth in
the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, which Indonesia ratified
in February 2006.
The West Papua Advocacy Team
(WPAT) and the East Timor and Indonesia
Action Network (ETAN) condemn Indonesia's
violation of the right of peaceful
self-expression and urges the U.S.
Government to press the Indonesian
government to drop all charges against these
peaceful demonstrators. WPAT and ETAN,
recalling the recent UN reporting regarding
severe mistreatment of those detained by
Indonesian security officials, also urge
that the U.S.. Government communicate to the
Indonesian government its concern for the
welfare of these detainees pending their
release
According to credible
reporting by international monitors, Papuan
and other journalists who have sought to
monitor developments associated with these
demonstrations and other recent peaceful
demonstrations have faced intimidation and
interference from security forces. This
security force conduct violates Indonesia's
commitments under international human rights
instruments to which it is party. WPAT and
ETAN urge the U.S. Government to remind the
Indonesian Government of its obligations in
this regard as well.
The full text of the letter can
be found
here.
UK
Government Calls on Jakarta to Begin Dialogue
with Papuans
Radio New Zealand International
on March 28 reported that the UK government had
called on the Indonesian Government to launch a
dialogue with Papuans. In its Human Rights
Report 2007 launched this week, the Foreign
Office stated that while peace was being
maintained in Aceh, Indonesia continues to
experience low level conflict in Papua.
The report, like the U.S. annual
human rights reporting on Indonesia (see report
below), expressed concern about the human rights
situation in Papua. The brief text on Papua
reads as follows:
"Nevertheless, low-level
conflict in the province of Papua continues.
We believe that the full implementation of
the special autonomy legislation (passed in
2001) would be an important step in
resolving the complex issues in Papua.
However, there are still obstacles, and
progress is slow. We continue to encourage
peaceful dialogue, and to urge all Papuan
groups and the Indonesian government to
engage constructively on this.
"Although the human rights
situation in Indonesia has improved
significantly over the past few years, we
continue to have concerns, which we raise,
about the situation in Papua, in particular
restrictions on access to Papua by NGOs and
journalists, allegations of violations by
the Indonesian armed forces, and regular
reports of threats against human rights
defenders."
United Kingdom Foreign &
Commonwealth Office Human Rights Annual Report
2007 is available at
http://tinyurl.com/344596
Annual
State Department Human Rights Reporting on West
Papua Lacks Crucial Context
The State Department's annual
human rights reporting on West Papua, contained
within reporting on Indonesia commendably notes
some major abuses but ignores context of Jakarta
polices that marginalize Papuans.
The report correctly observes that travel
restrictions and intimidation of human rights
advocates are common in Papua. The report fails
to note, however, that when visits are allowed,
they are frequently sharply curtailed or suffer
direct security force interference. Failure to
report this fact is particularly surprising in
so far as a U.S. congressman and the U.S.
Ambassador experience such interference
personally in late 2007 (see following report.)
Moreover, the report frequently
fails to observe in the Papuan context that
security force violations of rights, many
documented within the report, rarely result in
criminal prosecution of the perpetrators.
The report does address a
fundamental Papuan human rights concern, the
ongoing policy of "transmigration" whereby
"settlers" from other islands in the archipelago
are sent by the Indonesia government to West
Papua where they compete with and frequently
displace existing Papuan populations. The
policy, developed and implemented most
aggressively during the Suharto dictatorship,
has had the effect of ethnically cleansing most
Papuan towns and many valuable rural Papuan
lands. However, the condemnation of the policy
is presented as having been voiced by "local
residents" rather than by numerous international
human rights organizations or by the report
itself. The report's failure to highlight and
specifically condemn this policy ignores the
cautionary reality that transmigration
elsewhere, notably in West Kalimantan, has led
to widespread civil conflict
The report acknowledges that
security forces have played the lead role in
restricting legitimate, peaceful political
activity by Papuans. Nevertheless, it offers a
summary judgment that "the law provides citizens
with the right to change their government
peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in
practice (through elections)." This
characterization ignores both the undermining by
the central government of the autonomy law to
undermine the authority of the locally-elected
government, as well as persistent actions by the
central government's security forces to preclude
Papuan self-determination. Those actions have
constituted the basis for much of the violations
of human rights by the security force in the
Papuan context.
The report acknowledges that
Papuan religious leaders have been the target of
security force abuse but fails to note that
historically the brutal repression of all Papuan
political dissent, has led to the emergence of
clergy as the principal avenue for the
expression of Papuan rights.
Finally, the State Department's
annual human rights global reporting exercise,
by focusing on civil and political rights, has
consistently failed to address the abuse of
human rights in the social, cultural and
economic spheres as set forth in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. This inadequate
focus on this broad category of rights is
particularly consequential in West Papua where
decades of central government neglect has
deprived Papuans of their fundamental rights to
education, health care, employment and
self-realization through cultural development.
It is in part because of such neglect that
charges of genocide against Papuans have been
raised by international human rights observers.
A longer critique of the
Indonesia chapter of the Country Reports on
Human Rights by WPAT and ETAN can be found at
http://www.etan.org/news/2008/03statehr.htm.
Senior U.S.
Members of Congress Call on Indonesian President
to End "unreasonable restrictions on
International Access to West Papua"
In a letter dated March 5, 2008
to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, Congressman Eni Faleomavaega,
Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs'
Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and the
Global Environment, and Congressman Donald
Payne, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Africa
and Global Health, joined forces in calling upon
Indonesia to end unreasonable restrictions on
international access to West Papua. The complete
text of their letter follows:
Dear Mr. President:
In 2005, at your request, we
suspended our support for West Papua's right
to self-determination in order to give you
time to implement the Special Autonomy
legislation passed by the Indonesian
Parliament in 2001. We welcomed the promise
of this legislation and your personal
assurances that your government would
finally accord the Papuan people a fair
share of the great wealth derived from
Papuan resources. However, after three
years, we note that the people of Papua,
through the voices of Papuan religious and
civil society leaders as well in broad
public demonstrations, have declared Special
Autonomy a failure.
We are also disappointed
that your government has not made
substantial progress in implementing Special
Autonomy While your administration has
designated Special Autonomy funds for Papuan
development, these funds have not reached
the Papuan people who, after over four
decades, still lack even rudimentary health
and educational services. As you will agree,
effective distribution and utilization of
these funds require trained Papuan cadre and
an infrastructure with the capacity to
disburse these funds efficiently and
honestly, and this means there is a critical
need to develop Papuan cadre and
infrastructure. This need can only be met by
a concerted effort involving your government
and international agencies such as USAID.
This is why we have
repeatedly asked that you work with the U.S.
Congress and the United Nations, to develop
a plan that assures effective implementation
of Special Autonomy In no way do we believe
that throwing money at the people of Papua
for the next 15 or 20 years relieves Jakarta
of its responsibility to educate the people
of Papua and help them build the capacity
they need to effectively manage their
affairs.
In fact, to leave an
uneducated populace without the tools it
needs to rebuild itself is to promote social
and cultural genocide, and this is not
right, especially if Indonesia is intent on
the United States supporting its territorial
integrity. If Indonesia is intent on the
U.S. supporting its territorial integrity,
in turn, Indonesia must be intent on doing
right by the people of Papua Doing right by
Papua means: a) implementing a plan of
success; b) opening your doors to allow
Members of the U.S. Congress, United Nations
personnel, and non-government agencies
access to Jayapura and the rest of the
province; and c) demilitarizing your
approach. Indonesia's reliance on force for
the maintenance of control is
counterproductive, and long-standing abuses
by security forces have galvanized
independence sentiments among majority
Papuans.
In this latter regard, the
January 28 UN report by UN Special
Representative Hina Jilani documents
continuing intimidation and abuse of human
rights advocates by an Indonesian military
that remains largely unaccountable before
Indonesian courts. Our letter to you on
December 13, 2007, which is enclosed for
your information, also specifically
addressed the Indonesian military's use of
undue force. Because you never replied to
the letter, we can only assume that you did
not receive it or that the concerns
expressed were of no interest to you at the
time of your receipt. However, given that
Congress is now contemplating increasing
funding to train your security forces,
including KOPASSUS and BRIMOB, we are
hopeful that you will now address the
concerns expressed in that letter.
Also, we are enclosing
photographs and a DVD which show one
Member's experience with your military while
in Biak and Manokwari. Prior to Congress
taking further action to increase funding
for your military, we are sending copies of
these photos and this DVD to U.S. Secretary
of Defense Robert M. Gates, U.S. Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice, House and Senate
appropriators, Members of the Congressional
Black Caucus, and Members of the House and
Senate Foreign Affairs' Committees. We are
also enclosing our December 13, 2007 letter
because we believe it is important for our
Administration and colleagues to know that
your government denied a Member of the U.S.
Congress access to Jayapura.
While the photos and DVD do
not fully capture your military's overuse of
force during Congressman Faleomavaega's
visit, we believe that they clearly show a
pattern of your military's misuse of force.
Although your military stated that this use
of force was for the Congressman's
protection, we believe you will agree that
no Member of Congress should need hundreds
of military personnel in full riot gear to
protect him or her in provinces you say are
safe Ultimately, Papuans are no threat to
Members of Congress. Papuans are the same as
you. They want to be heard. They want to be
educated. They want to live freely and
happily. They do not want to be herded like
animals, kept behind police barricades, and
silenced at gunpoint.
Therefore, we are hopeful
that you will work with us to make the
situation for Papuans more tolerable. We are
also hopeful that given our goodwill and
your past assurances that you will grant us
immediate access to Jayapura.
Congressmen Faleomavaega and
Payne concluded their letter by stating,
"Continued refusal by your military to allow our
access to Jayapura and other parts of Indonesia
will inevitably call into question the
seriousness of your government's assurances to
us regarding your intent to implement Special
Autonomy and to end unreasonable restrictions on
international access to West Papua."
Papuan
Governor Resists Jakarta Pressure to Relent on
Green Initiative
The March 27 Jakarta Post
reported that Papuan Governor Barnebus Suebu
will not revise his decree on sustainable forest
management that bans export of unprocessed logs.
The determination to maintain the decree, which
has been praised by Greenpeace and other
environmental organizations, ignores an appeal
by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
to void the decree.
For its part, Greenpeace
observed that "The central government should
support the regulation to keep Papua's forests
breathing as one of the world's lungs. The
deforestation rate in Papua should be decreased
gradually down to zero in a well-planned program
with consideration for Papuan people's welfare."
A Suebu deputy noted that in
addition to its pro-environment impact, the new
policy banning export of unprocessed logs was
made to accelerate the development of the
forestry industry and empower local communities.
"With the new policy, all logs are required to
be processed locally to create added value for
the province's economy and generate jobs for
locals," he said. Governor Suebu has invited
national investors to build processing plants in
West Papua.
In the past, hundreds of
thousands of cubic meters of logs were believed
to have been stolen every month from the
provinces, allegedly smuggled to Singapore and
Malaysia with the help of local security
authorities. Several local police and military
officers have been jailed for their involvement
in illegal logging and smuggling.
Indonesian
Navy Constructing Base Near BP Gas Complex
A respected Papuan human rights
NGO has reported construction is underway for a
new naval base in Bintuni Bay, site of the BP
gas complex known as Tangguh.
The new base will be called
Naval Base of the Republic of Indonesia -
Eastern Zone - Naval Operation Base in Bintuni
Bay, Hadi Kemon Street, No 4, Bintuni
The base covers an area of more
than one hectare and is located about three
kilometers from the town of Bintuni. The project
includes a number of houses which have been
under construction since 2004.
The new military presence will
provide a basis for military influence in the
area and could facilitate military extortion of
the BP complex along the lines of the military's
extortion of funds from the Freeport McMoran
complex in Timika-Tembagapura.
