This is the 51st 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.
Low "Human Security"
Could Render Papuans a Minority in Their Own Land
On July 7, the London-based human rights NGO
TAPOL distributed the following revealing editorial by R.
van de Pas, medical coordinator for Médecins du Monde (MDM),
regarding conditions in West Papua. It appears in a
publication of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
The editorial, entitled "The effects of low human security
on the health status of a struggling population. Do health
indicators matter?" discussed humanitarian conditions in
Sudan and in West Papua. It concludes that inadequate health
care available to Papuans could help render them a minority
within West Papua by 2011. The following excerpts portions
of that editorial which address conditions in West Papua:
Even in an area without overt conflict,
socioeconomic inequalities might leave groups
impoverished and in low human security. (Human security
is a term used within the UN framework that combines
economic, food, health, environmental, personal,
community and political security. It is a concept that
comprehensively addresses both ‘freedom from fear’ and
‘freedom from want’.)
This is the case with the Indonesian
province of Papua and is illustrated by its disparity
with the country’s capital, Jakarta. In Jakarta 3·4% of
the population is poor, while about half of Papua’s
population lives below the poverty line. In addition to
low local human resource and geographical constraints,
distrust between different parties hinders services in
the villages. Availability of health data is limited.
Médecins du Monde works in the remote highlands of Papua
to strengthen primary healthcare and access to basic
services. The native Papuan inhabitants are slowly being
outnumbered by immigrants from the rest of Indonesia and
face the same fate as the aboriginals in Australia, that
of becoming a marginalized minority group. Demographic
data indicates that Papuan indigenous groups comprised
96% of the population in 1971; this had fallen to 59% by
2005. Using the estimated growth rates for the Papuan
and non-Papuan populations, 1.7% and 10.5% respectively,
by 2011 the population will be 3.7 million, and Papuans
will be a minority of 47·5%.
Public health indicators, although
incomplete, suggest that the general health of Papuans
is poor. Malaria, upper respiratory tract infections and
dysentery are major causes of childhood morbidity, with
infant mortality ranging from 70 to 200 per 1,000 live
births a year. More than 50% of children under the age
of five are undernourished, and immunisation rates are
low. Maternal mortality is three times the rate of women
in other parts of Indonesia. A generalised HIV/AIDS
epidemic is unfolding in the province. The cumulative
AIDS case rate in Papua of 60.9 per 100,000 inhabitants
is 15·4 times higher than the national average.
Prevalence of HIV among ethnic Papuans is almost twice
as high as the prevalence among non-ethnic Papuans – 2.8
percent compared with 1.5 percent.
A health system is a reflection of its
society. Healthcare is only one of the multiple
variables that influence the health outcomes of a
population. Mass displacement in Darfur and
socioeconomic inequalities in Papua are among the main
causes of ill health. Comprehensive primary healthcare
is the basis for sustainable health services. This
concept, described in the Alma Ata declaration in 1978,
is currently being rehabilitated by the World Health
Organisation as the key to qualitative long-term public
health outcomes. Comprehensive primary healthcare
encourages communities to define their own strategies
for improving health. It links healthcare with social
and economic development. The possibility to strengthen
healthcare while at the same time actively promoting
human rights has been demonstrated by the US physician
and anthropologist Paul Farmer, whose work in central
Haiti is groundbreaking. The combined epidemic of
tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in Haiti’s impoverished rural
population resembles the current outbreak in Papua. One
of the differences is that Haiti is much more densely
populated than Papua, hence the spread of the epidemic
in Papua is slower.
Health indicators are used as service
monitors and provide data about the health status of a
population. Colleagues argue that ‘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 programs, 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.’
My belief is that without durable peace
and social equality, gains in health status already
achieved can easily be lost. Health indicators can be
used as an advocacy tool in the political arena to
defend the right to health for all. This is the weapon
health professionals should use worldwide to assist our
cause.
Peaceful Papuan
Demonstrators Beaten and Arrested in Fakfak West Papua
On July 19 Indonesian policed assaulted a
group of over 40 Papuan citizens who had assembled
peacefully to stage a protest. Several of the Papuans
unfurled the "Morning Star" flag, a Papuan symbol with
cultural and political significance. For many years in West
Papua, the display of the flag has prompted arrests and
beatings by Indonesian security authorities. In the Fakfak
demonstration, police eventually released 37 of a reported
46 Papuans who were detained but then on July 23 arrested
five more Papuans purportedly involved in the demonstration.
The respected Papuan human rights organization ELS-HAM,
drawing on first hand accounts, reported that the police
beat and kicked male participants and forced them to disrobe
on the street. Two of those detained sustained potentially
serious eye injuries. The police subsequently denied the
beatings or that the detainees were forced to disrobe in
public but said that claims of injuries would be
investigated.
The police have charged six of those
arrested with "subversion," a charge which carries a maximum
penalty of life imprisonment. The charge originates from the
colonial era criminal code and was frequently employed by
the dictator Suharto against his critics. In addition, the
Indonesian police charged three Papuans for arms possession.
Experts note that is common for males to carry weapons in
Papuan society.
The arrests have drawn protests from
respected human rights organizations around the world
including TAPOL and Human Rights Watch (HRW). The Tapol
report quoted extensively from a statement by leading Papuan
human rights defender Paula Makabory of the Institute for
Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights (ELS-HAM). Ms. Makabory said
in part: "The detainees should be released as it is not
credible for the Indonesian Police to charge these people on
that basis of 'subversion'. Performing a flag raising
ceremony and protesting against Indonesian authority is not
an act which could over throw the Government. The
demonstration was peaceful and such political expression
should be a democratic right in West Papua and Indonesia."
Placing the development in an historical context she
continued: "Public remembrance of the past injustice from
the Suharto period and the ongoing repression of Human
Rights, including the Right to 'self determination', is what
Indonesia Government agencies seek to subvert by arresting
these people. This demonstration is only a threat to the
status quo in West Papua because it shows the world the kind
of Indonesian domination which West Papuans face. "
HRW also condemned the Indonesian action. Elaine
Pearson, deputy Asia Director at HRW noted in part: “Once
again, the Indonesian authorities have stopped Papuans from
peacefully expressing their political views. The police
should not resort to violence to suppress political
activism…. Charging people with subversion, a crime
punishable by life imprisonment in Indonesia, is an
outrageous response to the peaceful political act of raising
a flag. The unlawful acts at the scene were by police
beating up protesters.” Human Rights Watch also urged the
authorities to drop the charges of arms possession.
Arrests for display of the Morning Star flag
have been increasing in recent months. In March of this year
police jailed nine Papuans for display of the flag. Their
trial under charges of subversion is currently proceeding.
The HRW statement noted that for many years,
it has called called on the Indonesian government to
immediately release all persons imprisoned for exercising
their rights to free expression, free association or
peaceful assembly. The group also continues to call for
amendment of the Indonesian criminal code to repeal
provisions that violate basic freedoms of expression,
assembly and association. HRW noted that “Indonesian
government continues to use outdated laws restricting free
expression to suppress peaceful dissent in far-flung
provinces.” The HRW Deputy Director added: "the government
should rewrite these laws, not use them against peaceful
protesters.” The internationally protected rights to freedom
of expression and peaceful assembly are codified in the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which
Indonesia ratified in 2006.
World Council of
Churches Say Papuans Traumatized and Subject to
Militarization
The following is drawn from a July 29 World
Council of Church's "news release" (see media@wcc-coe.org)
West Papuans have yet to recover from
the trauma of human rights violations. At the same time
continuing in-migration is threatening to marginalize
them in their resource-rich province, an ecumenical team
from the World Council of Churches (WCC) told top-level
Indonesian government officials.
Papuans appear to be traumatized because
of migration to their island, Rev. Prof. James Haire
told Indonesian social welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie
24 July.
At the root of the problem is a
transmigration program sponsored by the 1965-1998
Suharto government. It had encouraged other Indonesians
to migrate to West Papua in order to make the Papuans,
who had long been fighting for independence, a minority
in their own territory.
The post-Suharto government stopped the
transmigration programme, but it could not stop waves of
other Indonesians seeking to do business in West Papua,
again tilting the economic scale to the disadvantage of
less educated, largely illiterate Papuans.
With the continuing spontaneous
in-migration of mostly Muslim traders, the population
now is about 2.4 million, with about 1.4 to 1.5 million
West Papuans, most of whom belong to churches such as
the Christian Church of West Papua or the Indonesian
Christian Church (GKI), a WCC member.
Human rights violations in West Papua
were also denounced by the WCC before the United Nations
Human Rights Council in Geneva in March 2008. "Papuans
still are subject to torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary
arrests and unfair trials by the Indonesian
authorities," the UN body was told. The WCC oral
intervention blamed the "ongoing militarization" of the
island for this "pattern of intimidation" against
Papua's indigenous people.
Autonomy has recently been granted to
Papuans. However, trained bureaucrats and public
servants still often come from outside the island, again
unintentionally tending to disadvantage the position of
the Papuans, noted Haire.
"All these emerging marginalization
trends plus the serious concerns for education,
healthcare, and economic livelihoods need to be
addressed," he added.
The Truth About
"Reclamation" in The Freeport Wasteland
In its Sunday July 27 edition the Jakarta
Post carried a report about butterfly breeding at a
reclamation site (the Maurujaya Reclamation Center) located
adjacent to the vast tailings delta created by over 40 years
of operations at the Freeport-McMoran mine in the Timika-Tembagapura
area of West Papua.
A WPAT team member writes that the piece,
entitled "Butterflies breathe new life into Freeport's
wasteland," conveys the false notion that the tailings
desert in the middle of Papuan rain forest can be and is
being "reclaimed." Noris Pangemanan, chief of the center
which is run by Freeport-McMoran told the Post that the
"farm" is lined with local fruit trees and a fish pond --
all of them on "reclaimed" mining waste. Pangemanan, in the
employ of Freeport, told the post that "in the mining waste
deposits -- contrary to what many people think -- there are
still water sources and fertile soil."
The "farm" is located at the edge of the
wasteland created by tailings from the Freeport mine which
has submerged vast stretches of tropical rainforest,
inundating the Ajkwa River basin. It forms a massive delta,
in places tens of meters deep, that extends to the Arafura
Sea where tidal currents have transported the tailings east
and west along the coast destroying miles of mangrove
forest.
Having visited the small "farm" described in
the article, one is struck by the difference between this
manufactured island and the sea of nearly lifeless,
sand-like tailings that engulfs it. The lush little paradise
flourishes not on the life-stealing tailings but on the vast
amounts of new soil and fertilizers brought in to the site
to create this potemkin garden. A three-hour trek on the
adjoining tailings delta revealed a starker reality.
Virtually lifeless, except for one thin-bladed grass
variety, the delta appears to be an ocean beach without a
shoreline, or more simply, a desert without birds, game or
even insects.
The delta offers up periodic wide
depressions at the center of which is quicksand. Miles of
sago palm, a key traditional food source for Papuans, stand
dead and spear-like lining the edges of tailings delta.
Periodic breaks in the miles-long, poorly maintained dike
system created by Freeport-McMoran to control the tailings
flow within the Ajkwa river channel allow the tailings-laden
water to inundate and smother these trees and all other
vegetation in their wake.The vast and expanding dead zone is
and will be a far more lasting legacy of the
Freeport-McMoran operation than the butterflies attracted to
its tiny farm center.
Ensuring A Role
for The Local Community in Conservation Advocacy
In her essay, "Conservation Through
Different Lenses: Reflection, Responsibility, and the
Politics of Participation in Conservation Advocacy,
published recently by Springer Science and Business Media,
WPAT alumna Abigail Abrash Walton discusses the role of the
international community in conservation advocacy. In a
portion of the piece reflecting on her own experience
addressing conservation and human rights in West Papua, she
notes:
For some of us, conservation might mean
setting aside parkland or ensuring the continued
survival of a particular species. For local communities
in many of the world’s most environmentally sensitive
areas, the definition of conservation often is quite
different.
In speaking about his people’s struggle
to survive the onslaught created by Freeport McMoRan
Copper & Gold, Inc., on lands forcibly expropriated from
the Amungme people, Amungme leader Tom Beanal put it
this way: ‘‘When we say that the environment for us is
our ‘mother,’ we mean that human beings are an integral
part of the environment and therefore each one of us has
to be mindful of and accountable to the limitations of
the environment." Beanal notes that ‘‘Modern people do
not recognize the special relationship of indigenous
people to the environment. But for the indigenous
people, their view of their natural surroundings teaches
them ecologically sound principles to care for the
environment in a sustainable way. For the indigenous
people, destroying the environment means damaging the
lives of human beings.’’
This strong connection to and sense of
place is pervasive among many indigenous, traditional,
or local communities throughout the world, along with
the fundamentally practical acknowledgement of human
communities’ utter reliance on the ecosystems in which
they live. Although it is crucial not to idealize local
communities, we can actively seek to understand and
promote the effective management practices that they
have developed and to strengthen communities’ positions
as central decision makers in the political processes
that determine how their traditional lands and resources
will be treated.
The full essay is available online at:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00267-008-9175-6
Papuans Demand No
New Forestry or Plantation Deals until Special Autonomy
Regulations Protect Indigenous Rights and Interests
Papuans, meeting in Jakarta in late June,
called for a halt to all new forestry and plantations deals
until the region’s Special Autonomy Law affords real
protection of indigenous rights. A coalition of local
organizations, including over 20 indigenous, community,
church and non-governmental groups from across Papua made
the demand at a meeting in Jakarta following presentations
from government representatives on Papuan forestry and land
use policies.
The demand comes in the context of growing
threat to Papuan resources by major oil palm, biofuels and
pulp plantations, as well as the impact of legal and illegal
logging, much of it run by or protected by the Indonesian
military. An additional concern is Trans Papua highway
slated to extend over 800 miles along which development will
proceed unchecked. Indonesia has the highest deforestation
rate, one of the worst illegal logging problems, and is now
the biggest producer of oil palm in the world. At least 3
million hectares of forests in Papua have been slated for
conversion to oil palm. The majority of Papuans still rely
on forests for their daily needs. Indigenous Papuans also
fear problems such as demographic change from
government-organized migration, the loss of livelihoods from
forest resources and the spread of HIV/AIDS will only
increase in the wake of "development" along lines dictated
from Jakarta.
Under Papua’s Special Autonomy status within
Indonesia, a provincial regulation, called a Perdasi, is
required to define and implement rules guaranteeing
community based forest management rights. However, this
cannot be passed until a Special Regulation called a
Perdasus is passed to formally protect native Papuan’s
rights over all natural resources. The failure to pass these
regulations reportedly has enabled investors and other
actors to work with elites in Papua to exploit the people’s
forests within a legal grey area.
Forestry Firms in
West Papua Devastating Papuan Forests and Ill-serving Local
Communities
The Jakarta Post (July 16) reports that
Greenomics Indonesia, an environmental NGO, has issued a
report contending that 60.42 percent of forestry companies
in West Papua are failing to deliver on promises of local
community empowerment and investment in sustainable forest
development. According to Greenomics coordinator Vanda Mutia
Dewi, an evaluation of forest concession holders in West
Papua also demonstrated very poor financial performance. The
study also revealed that 75 percent of forestry companies
harvested their forests in contravention of the legal
requirements on selective cutting. Specifically, forestry
companies performed poorly in practicing selective cutting
based on wood volume, forest size and forest types. The NGO
warned: "Rapid action is needed, or the two provinces will
be deforested and abandoned, while local people living in
and near these areas will remain poor." The NGO's
spokesperson called for urgent action: ""Central and
provincial governments and an independent evaluation team
should conduct a field visit and comprehensive evaluation.
Poorly performing forestry companies should suffer the
revocation of their concessions, argued the NGO
spokesperson.
The Papuan People’s Assembly chairman, Agus
Alue Alua, has charged Indonesian President Yudhoyono of
violating the 2001 special autonomy for West Papua by
issuing a decree that would amend the law. In a July 6
interview with the Jakarta Post, Alua contended that it was
not within the President's prerogative to revise the law.
Alua noted that it was the exclusive right of Papuans to
amend the law, as set forth in Article 77.
The revision was first presented by Vice
President Kalla in February but that was rejected by the
People’s Assembly, the governor and the Papua legislature.
However, they later agreed to implement the revisions
through a government ordinance. That action transpired
however, without public approval, either through a
referendum or Papuan legislative action.
Government Human
Rights Body to Investigate Human Rights Abuse in West Papua
According to a July 25 report in the Jakarta
Post, the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights
(Komnas HAM) plans to initiate an investigation into human
rights violations in Papua. The Government body will pursue
the investigation despite protests from the Attorney
General's Office.
The commission's deputy chairman, Ridha
Saleh, told the Jakarta Post the rights body was completing
preliminary research into cases of atrocities that took
place between 1963 and 2002. He said the result of the study
would be presented at a plenary meeting next month to decide
whether a field investigation was warranted.
Saleh described the investigation as
"urgent." UN reports, as well as those by governments and
both Indonesian and international human rights organizations
have for years documented reports of arbitrary arrest,
kidnapping, torture and murder, usually perpetrated by the
Indonesian security forces. The Indonesian military has
repeatedly conducted "sweeps" resulting in the displacement
of Papuan civilians from their homes, leading to their
suffering and death to disease and starvation.
Government sponsored migration from other
parts of Indonesia has marginalized Papuans and the failure
of the Government to provide basic services has left many
Papuans poorly educated, unemployed, in deep poverty and in
precarious health.
Ridha told the Jakarta Post that once
established, the ad hoc team would focus on widely reported
human rights crimes in Timika and Biak