The new rules, now in draft form and expected to be approved by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, deal with arrangements for the country's first direct elections for regional administrations, including mayors, regents, and governors. The 2001 law on special autonomy for West Papua requires the Papua Legislative Council (DPRD) to seek the approval of the soon-to-be-established Papua People's Council (MRP) before inaugurating elected candidates. However, the proposed rule states that MRP approval is required only to determine that candidates are native Papuans. Moreover, the draft rule change also stipulates that the DPRD can inaugurate the elected governor of West Papua should the MRP fail to give its approval within seven days.

The Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO) and other nongovernmental organizations have filed for a judicial review of the draft rule changes in an effort to assure fair and impartial principles for regional elections. (Source: The Jakarta Post, February 7, 2005)

The new documentation reveal business relations between Anthonius Wamang, who was indicted as a perpetrator of the attack by a U.S. grand jury in June 2004, and the Indonesian military. The new information also details collaboration between Wamang and the Indonesian military in the months preceding the attack.

Wamang has admitted in a videotaped interview, televised in August 2004 by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, that he purchased bullets from the TNI. There is also evidence that the TNI paid for Wamang's travel and accommodations during a three-month visit to Java in early 2002.

ELSHAM Honored for Promoting Papuans' Rights and TNI Accountability

On 25 February, the West Papua-based Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy (ELSHAM) won the fifth annual Pacific Human Rights Award for the organization's contributions to human rights and justice in West Papua.

According to the Fiji Times, ELSHAM, which won first prize among a number of South Pacific regional groups, was honored "for its dedication and sacrifice in promoting the rights of people of West Papua and for monitoring human rights abuses by the Indonesian army." The awards are organized by the U.N. Development Programme's Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT). New Zealand's High Commissioner to Fiji, Michael Green, presented the award to ELSHAM.

The Times article quotes RRRT project manager Sandra Bernklau as saying that the awards complement RRRT's vision of "building and strengthening the capacity of Pacific Island governments, civil society, and citizens to promote social justice and address inequalities, especially of disadvantaged groups." She noted that the awards are intended to contribute to the development of a human rights culture in the Pacific region.

(Sources: "Rights Groups Win Awards," Fiji Times, February 27, 2005; "Papua Human Rights Advocate Wins Recognition in Suva," Radio New Zealand International Online/Pacific Media Watch, March 1, 2005)

Indonesian Military Involved in Massive Illegal Logging Operation in West Papua

A partnership of Indonesian and international researchers has documented a massive illegal logging operation in West Papua involving the Indonesian military. The Indonesian group Telapak and the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency revealed that more than 10 million cubic feet of valuable merbau wood are being smuggled abroad monthly, primarily to Chinese markets.

On February 22, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono convened senior officials to a meeting at which he demanded arrests of the timber barons involved and an investigation to be concluded within two weeks. The Jakarta Post, in a 24 February editorial, noted that among the parties involved in the illegal operation were personnel from the Indonesian Navy's Eastern Fleet Command as well as officers from a variety of the Army's regional commands. The editorial noted that the researchers have alleged that the illegal operation is "backed and managed by high-ranking Indonesian military officers aided and abetted by local government administrators and other law enforcers."

The researchers noted that as with most exploitation of West Papuan resources, the Papuan people receive little of the estimated one billion dollars per year derived from the illegal trade. Papuan communities received $10 per cubic meter while the international market price is $270 per cubic meter.

(Editor's Note: The following information, based on reports by usually reliable sources, has not been confirmed by researchers or reported in local or international media. The attacks described here are consistent with the hundreds of well-documented accounts of TNI violence in West Papua and illustrate a pattern of TNI's use of excessive, often illegal, force against civilians.)

Reliable sources in West Papua report that on February 11, 2005, Indonesian military troops in Biak Regency, Yomdori District, attacked more than 500 people who were praying to mark 40 days since the death of Melkianus Awom, a local commander of the West Papuan independence movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka, or OPM). According to the report, TNI personnel shot at those gathered and raided houses in the area, causing local villagers to seek refuge in the forests.