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West Papua Report
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| Edward E. Masters. Photo by USINDO. |
Former U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Edward
E. Masters died on March 21. The senior diplomat will be
remembered as the U.S. official who did more than any other
to shape the U.S. relationship with Indonesia. His ties to
the country extend back to 1964 when he was named Political
Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta. He served as U.S.
Ambassador in Jakarta from 1977 to 1981. While his official
relationship with Indonesia ended in 1981, Masters was a key
player in shaping U.S. policy towards Indonesia thereafter,
notably since1994 when he founded the U.S.-Indonesia Society
(USINDO), a powerful lobbying organization which functioned
as flack for the Suharto dictatorship and promoter of the
U.S. corporate interests which lavishly funded the
organization.
Masters was present at the creation of the three decade U.S.
partnership with
the Suharto dictatorship which entailed the U.S.
providing critical military, financial and diplomatic
support for the regime's repression of its own people, as
well as the 1975 invasion and occupation of neighboring East
Timor (now Timor-Leste). For the U.S., the unspoken terms of
that partnership obliged Washington to ignore Suharto's
extraordinary brutality. Suharto's seizure and consolidation
of power cost the lives of
hundreds of
thousands of Indonesians. The U.S. Embassy culpability
in the slaughter was direct. The U.S.
provided lists of
Suharto opponents, liberals and purported "communists" to
the Suharto regime, a fact that Masters, a senior Embassy
official at the time,
at one point
acknowledged but subsequently denied.
John Saltford in
"UN Involvement with the Act of Self Determination in West Irian 1968 to
1969" writes that Masters, then working at the U.S. State
Department. told a British diplomat in June 1969, "that Washington saw
little merit in getting involved in the 'niceties of ascertainment,' [of
West Papuan wishes concerning their political status] which might lose
them good will in Jakarta to no advantage."
Masters culpability in the horror that overtook East Timor following
the Indonesian invasion and occupation was substantial. The invasion was
launched on the heels of a visit to Jakarta by then President Gerald
Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger, who
green-lighted the
operation which was in final stages of preparation during their
visit. Masters became ambassador shortly thereafter in 1977 and played a
key role in Indonesia's bloody consolidation of its occupation. As
Ambassador, Masters was a central player in drawing up the U.S.
diplomatic strategy which defended the Suharto regime from U.S. public
and international opprobrium after the invasion. The U.S. position was
made especially awkward insofar as it contradicted the position of
Portugal, the former colonial power in East Timor, and a U.S. NATO ally.
Masters was key to U.S. administration efforts to deflect U.S. Congressional and media criticism of the Suharto regime over the invasion and famine which stalked the people of East Timor as a direct consequence of Indonesian occupation. He disputed well-established estimates of up to 200,000 Timorese deaths during the Indonesian consolidation, contending that the death toll was "only" about 30,000.
In early September 1978, Masters traveled to East Timor with nine other foreign ambassadors to view the Indonesia's "approach to the East Timor problem." Following the visit, Masters claimed that the Indonesia had reduced its military presence, refugees were taken care of, and movement was unrestricted. He added that Suharto and Indonesia were committed to the economic development of the “province.”
The corporate-endowed USINDO lavished funds on travel to Indonesia by Congressional staff who were feted and provided carefully choreographed visits intended to cast the dictatorship in a positive light. |
U.S. support for Suharto's illegal occupation of East
Timor was tangible. The U.S. provided the Indonesian military with the
weaponry needed to consolidate control. U.S. provided
OV-10 Broncos
counter-insurgency aircraft devastated the civilian population driving
them from their mountain hideouts into Indonesian camps. Broncos were
also used in West Papua where Indonesia's U.S.-backed annexation in 1969
was facing strong resistance from poorly armed but determined Papuan
freedom fighters. The death toll there among civilians was unknown but
was substantial.
Masters uncritical support for the Suharto regime in some ways was to
play an even more important role in the 1990's. In December 1991,
Suharto's military assaulted a peaceful march by Timorese students at
the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, the capital of occupied East
Timor. Hundreds were killed or wounded. Western journalists on the
scene, though beaten by Indonesian soldiers, were able to report the "Santa
Cruz massacre" to a horrified community.
In response, the U.S. Congress, groups like ETAN, and the public
demanded a cessation of military support for Suharto's military.
Some training was quickly
restricted. In 1994, Masters formed USINDO which worked closely with
major U.S. corporations and key players within the U.S. Government to
try to rebuild the U.S. partnership with Suharto. The
corporate-endowed USINDO lavished
funds on travel to Indonesia by Congressional staff who were feted and
provided carefully choreographed visits intended to cast the
dictatorship in a positive light. The group also worked assiduously to
court the U.S. media. In the 1990s, USINDO success was limited. Under
congressional and other pressure, the U.S. continued to restrict
security assistance and the East Asia financial crisis fatally
undermined Suharto's rule.
In 1999, following the popular overthrow of the Suharto regime, the East
Timorese voted for independence in a UN organized referendum. The
Indonesia's scorched earth campaign after the vote resulted in a
complete suspension of U.S.
support for the Indonesian military. The assistance has only gradually
been restored, thanks in large measure to persistent lobbying by USINDO.
Throughout the Cold War, the U.S. partnered with many dictators, who
postured as allies in a struggle purportedly in pursuit of democratic
freedoms. This hypocrisy was never more apparent than in Indonesia. The
U.S. backing of Suharto became especially difficult to defend in the
post-cold war period when the realpolitik cold war exigencies no
longer obtained.
But for Ambassador Masters, who publicly rejected "confrontation" with
Suharto and his military over human rights concerns and democratic
progress, the defense of U.S. corporate interests in Indonesia was
always paramount. His legacy is a painful and shameful one which
continues to burden U.S. relations with a now democratizing Indonesia.
* Ed McWilliams is a former foreign service officer and editor of the West Papua Report and John M. Miller is National Coordinator of the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
What the State
Department Human Rights Report Missed in West
Papua
In March, the West Papua
Report reviewed the
U.S. Department of State's report on human rights developments in
Indonesia, specifically it coverage of West Papua. The following
assessment addresses some developments that were missed in the State
Department Report (SDR).
The Indonesian government postponed a scheduled January 2103 visit to Indonesia by UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression Frank LaRue because of his request to visit West Papua, where freedom of expression concerns are particularly acute. The Indonesian government had invited La Rue to visit during the UN Human Rights Council's periodic review of human rights in Indonesia in May 2012. The SDR should have noted that LaRue's visit has now been delayed for more than a year.
The State Dept. continues largely to ignore the Indonesian government's long term failure to provide essential health, education and other vital services to the Papuan population. |
While the latest SDR does address the general impact of mining and logging on indigenous communities and the government failure "to prevent companies, often in collusion with the local military and police, from encroaching on indigenous peoples’ land," the SDR fails to detail the consequences of these activities for the health and economic survival of the Papuan people.
In its discussion of labor rights, the SDR fails to discuss the chronic tensions between workers and the management of Freeport McMoran. Worker safety and remuneration have been at the center of the ongoing disputes. Similarly, there is no specific discussion of strife arising from the implementation of the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (see below). Tensions between local residents and MIFEE development have included corporate intimidation targeting local peoples.
The SDR ignores child trafficking of Papuan children
as documented by Fairfax newspaper's Michael Bachelard (see West Papua
Reports for March 2014 and
July 2013). The reality that
those involved in this trafficking have close personal and official ties
to the Indonesian central government renders this omission in the SDR
particularly significant.
Finally, as noted in the West Papua Report's analysis of the
2012 State Department Report,
the latest SDR continues largely to ignore the Indonesian government's
long term failure to provide essential health, education and other vital
services to the Papuan population. As a consequence of this policy of
malign neglect, and government encouragement of migration to West Papua
with official and unofficial inducements for migrants, West Papuans have
become a marginalized, persecuted minority in their own lands.
For decades, the Indonesian government has engaged in policies and
actions which, taken as a whole, constitute ethnic cleansing targeting
the Papuan people. Those policies and actions include:
- neglect and marginalization of Papuans, and support for and inducements to an expanding migrant population;
- manifest failure to protect fundamental human rights such as the freedom of assembly and right of peaceful political protest;
- continued impunity accorded security force personnel who routinely abuse Papuans' human rights;
- government collusion in corporate destruction of Papua's natural resources and tolerance and even encouragement of local government corruption.
Despite the SDR's criticism of human rights conditions in West Papua, the report continues to evade this central reality of ongoing genocide in West Papua.
see also ETAN and WPAT: Comments on the U.S. Department of State's Annual Country Report on Human Rights for 2012 Concerning Indonesia/West Papua
Development Threatens Papuan Mangrove Forests
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| Mangrove forest. Photo from Jubi.. |
A U.S. Agency For International
Development (USAID) specialist has warned about the threat
to Papuan mangrove forests posed by "development." He
claimed that so-called development in the lowland areas
around Timika was fueling deforestation and specifically
threatening mangrove forests. He said that the process of
deforestation increased the impact of climate change.
Speaking in Timika March 17, USAID Indonesia Forest of
Climate Support (IFACS), Prianto Wibowo, said "We see a
serious threat to the lowland areas because many protected
areas are already being converted into development areas."
He noted for example that the opening of mangrove forest
areas to development would have an negative impact on
peat-land forests.
Deputy Chief of Party of USAID IFACS, Neville Kemp, noted
that the mangrove forest in the areas of Mimika and Asmat is
the second largest such forest in the world after
Bangladesh's Sundarbans. He explained that the Mimika and
Asmat areas must be protected from "investors."
WPAT Comment: Mangrove forests play a critical
buffer role in stabilizing the shoreline and protecting shore
populations from storms and storm surges. This is particularly important
at a time of rising sea levels and coastal erosion. In addition to
serving as highly-effective carbon stores. Mangrove helps sustain local
people by providing a breeding ground and nursery for important ocean
fauna including shrimp, crab and fish. Mangrove forests also furnish
lumber, firewood and fiber. They can also sustain native bee populations
affording local people honey. Among the threats posed to mangroves in
the Timika region is the flow of tailing sludge and other toxic sediment
from the Freeport mine, which in addition to killing the sago palm that
is essential to local Papuan populations, is also killing mangroves. The
tailings are spread along the Mangrove forest covered shores of the
Arafura sea by tidal action.
Papuans Should Unite
The daily Jubi
reported on a March 22 public discussion organized by the Papua
Student Association of the Central Mountains (AMPTPI) in Mimika, West
Papua on "Fighting for Just and Peaceful Democracy that Stands for
Papuan People."
Jubi quoted prominent human rights defender and winner of the
Goldman Prize Mama Yosepha Alomang as urging unity among Papuans. She
told the gathering that many pro-independence Papuans tended to work by
themselves and deceive one another. She cited recent strife in Timika
noting: "The conflict in Timika is actually only for the benefit of
others such as the Indonesian government, regents, Freeport, the
military and police. As a result, the community is the victim, brothers
kill brothers." The outspoken Papuan leader urged "every one to get
together for Papua Independence."
At the same discussion, Esther Haluk accused the
"Papuan elite within the bureaucracy" of being "allergic to protesters
and criticism." She accused them of "collaborat[ing] with the security
forces in dealing with various forms of terror, threats and
intimidation."
Papuan police often refuse to issue permits for peaceful protests
against government policies. A Memorandum of Understanding between the
campus and Papua police allows detention and arrest of students.
Indonesian central government policies continue to limit democratic
space, she said. "It means freedom of association and expression become
taboo, if those freedoms are exercised by an organization that is not
registered in Political and National Unity office," she said.
She highlighted the Anti-Terrorism Act No. 15 of 2003 which "empowers the military to act against those whom intelligence agencies label as 'separatists.'" The Act allows the military the right to operate against civilians.
Buchtar Tabuni Asks Protection from International Community
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| Buchtar Tabuni in court Photo from buchtartabuni.wordpress.com/ .. |
Buchtar Tabuni has asked for protection
from the international community. Security forces are
searching for Tabuni because he has organized demonstrations
calling for a referendum to determine West Papua's political
future.
Security forces
disrupted a peaceful pro-referendum protest on November
26, 2013, organized by the West Papua National Committee
(Komite Nasional Papua Barat, KNPB). Following the protest,
the Police Chief of Jayapura City summoned Tabuni for
questioning. One week later police placed Tabuni on a wanted
list for ignoring the summons.
Victor Yeimo, a KNPB leader currently in prison,
told the Papuan daily Jubi that Tabuni has been
hiding in the jungle for five months. Yeimo described Tabuni
as on the run and facing difficulties in getting food and
medicine.
U.S. Augments TNI Capacity with
F16's
Indonesia Air Force Chief of Staff Air Marshal Ida Bagus
Putu Dunia
told ANTARA (March 19) that the first group of F-16
fighting jets, a grant from the United States, is expected
to arrive in Indonesia in October. He added that the F-16
jets will arrive in Indonesia in stages. "In the initial
phase, eight planes will be delivered," he said. Indonesia
currently has only one squadron F-16s.
WPAT COMMENT: Like the U.S. approval of provision of
Apache attack
helicopters to the Indonesian military, the increase of
F-16's in the TNI arsenal will augment its capacity to
conduct operations in West Papua. The F-16's sophisticated
avionics give this aircraft the capacity to operate in
all-weather and night-time air to ground assault operations.
This capacity renders the F-16 a powerful weapons system in
the tropical mountains of West Papua.
Continued Inadequate Government
Health Care in West Papua
A four-month
survey revealed that health workers in Walma District in Yahukimo
have been largely absent from their posts, preferring to live in the
towns of Wamena and Jayapura rather than tend patients in their areas of
assignment. The Indonesian central government tolerates such behavior.
Media coverage notes deficits in maternal and child health care in West
Papua.
CHRONICLE
A report by IRIN details the tension and conflict generated by corporate agribusiness interests in the Merauke area of West Papua. According to the report, inter-tribal strife has been stoked by disagreements over the sale of land to agribusinesses and police brutality. The report states that during the past four years more than 160 people have been killed in the area of the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) due to infighting between communities.
Sophie Grig of Survival International told IRIN that the displacement caused by the plantation projects "creates serious problems for any community."
The military is brought in to
"protect the project [which] leads to human rights violations," she
added. "These incursions in West Papua generally also involve the
presence of the military to protect the project [which] leads to human
rights violations."
According to Leonardus Maklew, a Baad resident who has been representing
nine Malind villages in negotiations concerning an Indonesian sugar cane
plantation, at least 74 people have died in his village alone.
Vanuatu PM Calls for UN to Support Human Rights in West Papua
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| Moana Kalosil Carcasses, Prime Minister of the Republic of Vanuatu. UN Photo. |
Speaking before the UN's Human Rights Council, he urged the body to "consider adopting a resolution to establish a country mandate on the situation of human rights in West Papua. The mandate should include investigation of the alleged human rights violation in West Papua and provide recommendations on a peaceful political solution in West Papua."
Late last year, Kalosil raised
the plight of the people of West Papua at the Commonwealth Heads of
Government meeting in Sri Lanka. In September,
he spoke about West Papua
before the UN General Assembly.
The full text of the speech is
here. Video of the speech can be found
here.
Is a UN Resolution on
Papua Impossible?
Prominent academic
Budi Hernawan reflected on Kalosil's speech and its call for a UN
resolution in an op-ed in the March 21 Jakarta Post. Hernawan
puts the speech in the context of Vanuatu politics, the
sham Melanesian Spearhead Group visit
to West Papua, and UN politics. He observes in part:
"Surely, Vanuatu can argue that it is acting on the principle of responsibility to protect (R2P) principle, which was recently endorsed by the UN. Grounded in Article 24 of the UN Charter, the principle redefines the essence of state sovereignty as a responsibility, rather than simply immunity from public scrutiny.
"The state holds the primary responsibility for the protection of its people. Where a population is suffering serious harm, such as a genocide, crimes against humanity, an internal war, insurgency or state failure, and the state in question is unwilling or unable to fulfill its responsibility, the principle yields to the international responsibility to protect.
"As Kalosil emphasizes, Papua has long suffered not only from crimes against humanity committed by Indonesian state actors but also from the negligence of the international community to act. It is arguable, therefore, that the R2P is applicable for Papua."
Hernawan is not optimistic of significant international action in the near term, calling the speech "just the beginning."
Members of European Parliament Write on West Papua
In late March,
members of the European Parliament wrote to Catherine Ashton, the
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and
Security Policy on human rights in West Papua. They were following up on
a hearing held in January and a vote
on a cooperation agreement with Indonesia in February. The letter urges
Ashton to call for release of West Papuan political prisoners, opening
the region to "independent observers," and dialogue between Jakarta and
West Papuans. The letter also supports "reforms in Indonesia that will
ensure that the security forces personnel responsible for human rights
violations can be held accountable in independent courts." Finally, it
urges Ashton to "ensure that arms delivered by the EU member states to
Indonesia are not used against civilians."
ETAN Election
Backgrounder
The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) has published
the backgrounds of some of the possible candidates for Indonesia's
president or vice president with problem human rights records, including
retired Generals Prabowo and Wiranto. Read
Indonesia's Militarized
Democracy: Candidates bring proven records of violating human rights
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Support Unconditional Release of West Papua Political Prisoners |
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Link to this issue: http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/2014/1404wpap.htm
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