Friday, November 22, 2024

1) The uncomfortable topic of West Papua in the Melanesian Spearhead Group

2) West Papua: Where Transmigration Means Genocide, Ecocide and, in the End, Suicide 

3) Minister Sjamsoeddin seeks to boost defense in Papua  

4) Papua Deemed Conflict Vulnerable, Bawaslu to Tighten Election Supervision

5) On 16th anniversary, KNPB united, consistent in fight for Papuan independence
6) KPK Reminds Papua Special Autonomy Fund Management Must Be Transparent: No Abuse!
7) BP Commits $7B To Carbon Capture Project In Papua, Indonesia 
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1) The uncomfortable topic of West Papua in the Melanesian Spearhead Group 
By Scott Waide Posted 21h ago

For a decade, Benny Wenda has tirelessly campaigned to secure West Papua's place in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), advocating for a voice in the regional arena.

As Chairman of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, ULMWP, Wenda has consistently highlighted the deep cultural and racial ties that validate their claim for full membership, asserting that their rightful place in the MSG would enable them to address West Papua's Independence aspirations more effectively.

In 2023, hope surged among West Papuans as it seemed their long-standing efforts might finally bear fruit.

Hopes dashed for West Papua's inclusion

As the MSG convened in Vanuatu to deliberate on granting full membership to the United Liberation Movement, the mood was buoyant. 

Back home, the West Papuan community prayed fervently, and villages celebrated, proudly displaying flags in a show of unity and optimism.

However, the joy was short-lived as the MSG ultimately denied West Papua's bid for full membership.

The disappointment was palpable, with Wenda expressing the widespread sadness and frustration that echoed across the region.

"At the time, everybody was upset and disappointed, both at home and among our Melanesian brothers and sisters," he reflected.

The setback raises critical questions about the significance of MSG membership for West Papua's independence aspirations and sheds light on the complexities behind the decision-making processes of the region's premier Melanesian body.

Looking back

For West Papuans, their lush green mountains and resource-rich land have been a battleground for decades.

The Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua, collectively known as West Papua by independence activists, have been under Indonesian rule for the past 50 years. 

This region, once a tranquil paradise, has seen persistent conflict and strife, deeply affecting its people and their way of life.

In the 1960s, control of what was then known as West Irian was transferred from the Netherlands to Indonesia.

West Papuan freedom activists argued for their right to independence under the UN's 1960 Declaration on Decolonisation. 

However, in 1969, Indonesia conducted the so-called Act of Free Choice referendum, where one thousand hand-picked representatives voted on behalf of the entire West Papuan population. The act, anticipated as a mere formality by the Indonesians, saw President Suharto declare any other outcome a betrayal, ensuring West Irian's continued integration with Indonesia.

Indonesia declared a unanimous victory, but for most West Papuans, it felt like a robbery, sparking a civil war that has persisted ever since. 

The Indonesian military has been accused of widespread human rights abuses, with hundreds of thousands believed to have died in the conflict and many more displaced. The shadow of violence and repression has hung over the region, stifling voices of dissent and hope for self-determination.

Evolution of the WP cause

Despite the challenges, the West Papuan independence movement has evolved over the years.

In 2014, a significant milestone was reached in Vanuatu when different factions united to form the ULMWP. 

This coalition represented a renewed hope for a collective struggle, striving to amplify their cause on international platforms and push for their long-desired independence.

Ronny Kareni, a West Papuan academic and activist, was in Port Vila when the ULMWP was established. He said the unified front gave new hope to West Papuans and the movement.

"This came out at the end of the Melanesian Spearhead Group meeting in 2013 in Kanaky, New Caledonia. There are two factions. A faction of the movement or the political entity making representation and so there was a call for a unified front," he said. 

"So the inception of United Liberation Movement for West Papua came at the end of 2014, whereby Vanuatu government, the multiple other customary council, the Chief of Council came together…"

The MSG is the premier regional organisation for Melanesian countries in the Pacific, comprising Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, and New Caledonia's Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front party as full members.

While the ULMWP has observer status within the group, Indonesia is an associate member.

West Papua, an uncomfortable topic

The inclusion of Indonesia in the initial stages was an uncomfortable subject for Melanesian countries like Vanuatu, which have long supported the West Papuan cause.

And the discomfort continues with Indonesia's presence in the MSG.

Vijay Naidu, an adjunct professor of governance and international affairs at the University of the South Pacific, highlights that the different relationships between Indonesia and individual Melanesian countries influence decisions in the MSG.

"Each one of the countries has had a kind of different position on West Papua and relationship with Indonesia. So, I suppose if you look at it, since the mid-1980s, Vanuatu has been the most consistent followed by the Solomon Islands to some extent in terms of pushing for greater freedoms, reduction in human rights violations, and independence for West Papua.

"On the other hand, perhaps with equal consistency, Papua New Guinea and Fiji have been at odds and uncomfortable about the push for independence for West Papua and that has basically been influenced by the extent to which they relate to Indonesia. 

"So these contrasting positions then enter into the debates and discussion within the spearhead group."

Kanaky, Bougainville & West Papua

While it is tempting to draw comparisons between Independent movements in Kanaky, Bougainville and West Papua, each of the cases is vastly different.

France is a colonial power with the Kanaky people pushing for Independence. 

Bougainville remains part of Papua New Guinea until the Independence referendum is ratified by the PNG Parliament.

West Papua is represented by an organisation — the ULMWP — with the Indonesian government reaffirming that the region remains an integral part of Indonesia.

In 2023, the Melanesian Spearhead Group's most recent communique stated that the United Liberation Movement for West Papua did not meet the existing criteria for full membership, and the group could not reach a consensus on the issue.

Hope for the future

The leaders of the Melanesian Spearhead Group are tasked with balancing delicate international politics alongside a desire to support human rights, making their decisions complex and multifaceted.

For West Papuan leader Benny Wenda, the fight continues, supported by activists operating in exile across the world, including figures like Ronny Kareni.

Despite the setbacks, they persist in their hope that through political dialogue, the region can chart a path forward together, seeking justice and recognition for West Papua.

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Counterpunch 
NOVEMBER 22, 2024 
2) West Papua: Where Transmigration Means Genocide, Ecocide and, in the End, Suicide 
JULIE WARK
“By way of transmigration … the different ethnic groups will in the long run disappear because of integration…and there will be one kind of man.”
– Martano, Indonesian Minister of Transmigration, March 1985
“Brigadier-General Ali Murtopo told us in 1969 that if we want to be independent we should write to the Americans and ask them if they would be good enough to find us a place on the moon.”
– West Papua People’s Front
Indonesia’s new president, war criminal Prabowo Subianto, couldn’t even wait to be sworn in. He established a “strategic initiative” of five “Vulnerable Area Buffer Infantry Battalions” in the Keerom, Sarmi, Boven Digoel, Merauke, and Sorong Regencies of West Papua to “enhance security” with an additional 5,000 troops as backup for the 25,000 already there. According to the Armed Forces Chief, General Agus Subiyanto, “the main goal of the new battalions is to assist the government in accelerating development and improving the prosperity of the Papuan people”. He didn’t mention a possible future presence of militias, which is Prabowo’s way of dealing with populations that resist military-improved prosperity. On 21 October, just one day after Prabowo’s inauguration, Muhammad Iftitah Sulaiman Suryanagara, Minister for Transmigration, announced plans to resume the government’s transmigration programme in West Papua. It was needed, he said “for enhancing unity and providing locals with welfare”. Prabowo himself hotfooted it to West Papua on 3 November to check out a programme aiming to create three million hectares (an area about as big as Belgium) of food estates across the country. Reuters calls this a “self-sufficiency drive”. Forest, wetland, and savannah will be turned into rice farms (in which Indonesia’s military has a major stake), sugarcane plantations, and other infrastructure, which would include military installations to guard the sequestered land. This “key food programme” is actually ecocide. In net terms, it will add approximately 392 million tons of carbon to the atmosphere.
For the past six decades, Indonesia has been an occupying colonial power in West Papua. The United Nations is responsible for this and its atrociousconsequences, as John Saltford meticulously details in his account of the 1969 UN-orchestrated handover of West Papua to Indonesia in a so-called Act of Free Choice, which was nothing more than “a ridiculous and overtly manipulated denial of West Papuan rights”. Ever since, overt manipulation of the reality of the West Papuan people has been the order of the day in the international arena. The murderous farce is officially blessed as Indonesia has been a member of the UN Human Rights Council since 2006. The UN has refrained from confronting Indonesia about its refusal to allow an official visit to West Papua, although more than a hundred countries have demanded it. After all, investigating crimes against humanity committed by one of its leading human rights “defenders” might be awkward. “Universal” human rights law turns out to be for some but not for others. And “some” can kill and otherwise destroy “others” with impunity.
The transmigration equation is actually this: moving people in = moving people out. Whether they want to move in or want to move out. Some people don’t have the right to decide these things. That transmigration in West Papua comes with so many troops, that it is so highly secretive, is enough to suggest that “enhancing unity” and “providing welfare” are not the agenda at all. In both origin and destination, transmigration is not voluntary but more due to deceit and brute force, respectively. In itself, it’s another form of militarisation because there are many former military personnel secreted among transmigrants, especially in border areas. As the Free Papua Movement (OPM) leader James Nyaro warned, “Don’t think of these settlers as ordinary civilians. They are trained military personnel disguised as civilian settlers”.
Since West Papua with its torture mode of governance isn’t open to independent observers it’s almost impossible to get accurate figures of the numbers in the equation but a recent estimate puts the total number of internally displaced people at about 80,000. This displacement means denial of the basic rights needed for survival: food, shelter, health, freedom from suffering, torture, inhuman treatment, danger, and from fear, freedom of movement, liberty, and security. Genocide Watch reports that some 500,000 West Papuans have been killed since the Indonesian occupation began and, in 2015, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization calculatedthat West Papua’s population was approximately 4.4 million, but only around two million were Indigenous West Papuans. The figures show that Indonesian settlers outnumber West Papuans by some 10% and that about 25% of the population has been murdered. In 2004, a Yale University study concluded that the evidence “… strongly suggests that the Indonesian government has committed proscribed acts with the intent to destroy the West Papuans as such, in violation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the customary international law prohibition this Convention embodies.” Twenty years later, the evidence of genocide is even more compelling but even more hushed up.
Why is this horrible case of genocide, ecocide and, in the end, human species suicide (“unwitting suicide, causing one’s own death while pursuing other ends”) being ignored? One explanation comes from Edward S. Herman. There are “good and bad genocidists”. In the “first fine careless rapture” of Indonesia’s New Order (military dictatorship), its genocidal project and mechanisms were lauded and assisted by the World Bank, “development aid” bodies like the IGGI (Inter-governmental Group on Indonesia), and funded by World Food Program, the EEC, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, West Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United States, and the UNDP. After throwing West Papua to wolves in New Order clothing, the “international community” has, by omission and commission, embraced this as a “good” genocide, perpetrated by our genocidists and it has done nothing, absolutely nothing, to stop it. Underlying this fact is racism, murderous, systemic racism.
Transmigration comes with a lot of baggage. You only have to look at the history of transmigration in West Papua to understand how transmigration, European and settler colonial in origin, belongs to the “good” genocide package. It began in Dutch colonial times, in the early nineteenth century, when poor settlers sent to the outer islands were forced to provide plantation labour, with very high mortality rates. The standard—a very low bar for the rights of some—was set. After independence, Sukarno continued the programme, now planning to transport millions of people from the islands of Java, Madura, Bali, and Lombok to less densely populated settlement areas in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and West Papua. His original plan, announced in 1949, was to move 48 million people over 35 years, thereby reducing Java’s population from 54 million to 31 million. However, the targets of this immense social engineering endeavour (the World Bank’s “most irresponsible project” in the words of Survival International) were never achieved. Between 1979 and 1984, the peak transmigration years during Suharto’s New Order military regime, 535,000 families (almost 2.5 million people) were moved.
The rights of transmigrants themselves, many of them poor peasants who are either tricked or coerced into leaving their homes, are also violated, as transmigration is a matter of “national security”. They are moved to state- or privately-owned estates, where the company concerned, often a military asset, cultivates twenty percent of the land while the transmigrants, now a de facto coolie labour force, must cultivate the rest and sell the crops to the company. They are promised eventual ownership of 1.5 hectares of cultivable land and 0.5 hectares for a house and garden but, when crops are eventually produced some years later, they must pay for the land by reimbursing some the bank credit used for the company’s initial investment. They live in compounds far from the land they’re allocated, and are also in danger from attacks from the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) or displaced local people.
For West Papuans, the arrival of transmigrants was preceded by forced displacement as the rule in transmigrant areas was one Papuan family to nine non-Papuan families. By 1984, about 700,000 hectares of land had been confiscated (about a third of the size of Belgium, to stay with the earlier comparison) without any compensation. In 1981, the counterinsurgency “Operation Clean Sweep” (suggesting that West Papuans were rubbish to be cleared away, like their rainforest) came with the slogan Biar tikus lari kehutan, asal ayam piara dikandang (Let the rats flee to the jungle so the chickens can breed in the coop), which also says a lot about the almost captive status of transmigrants.
It’s been known for more than forty years that transmigration is a fiasco within its own framework of the benign “development project”. Costing an average of US$7,000 per family in the mid-1980s, it was an economic disaster that gobbled up almost 40% of the economic development budget of the outer islands. Rather than alleviating poverty there, transmigration aggravated it and spread it more widely. Most transmigrants were worse off after moving. Population pressure in Java wasn’t relieved. The environmental calamity it caused was clear from the start. Yet, with World Bank and Asian Development Bank loans, plus bilateral financial aid, transmigration kept expanding so that, from 1980 to 1990, ten times more people were moved than in the previous seven decades. By 1991 forest loss was estimated at 1.2 million hectares per annum.
Transmigrasi has strategic and economic (cash crop) goals other than the mostly stated aim of reducing population pressure. In 1987, the Department of Transmigration was fairly honest for once: ‘‘the frontier regions of Kalimantan, Irian Jaya, East Timor have the priority for migrating military people for the purpose of Defense and Security’’. The idea was to seed active and retired military personnel into transmigration settlements and administration to create buffer zones in “trouble spots”. When he headed the Cendrawasih/ XVII Regional Command in West Papua, Brigadier-General Sembiring Meliala referred to ‘‘The Basic Pattern of Territorial Management Specific to Irian Jaya, Employing the Method of Community Development Centers.’’ By this he meant camps to which the Indigenous peoples of West Papua would be moved after being ejected from their traditional villages, where they were to be “Javanised” with special courses of ‘‘guidance and instruction.’’ In fact, transmigrasi is a depraved plan that aims to strengthen “national defence and security” (read: military benefits) by means of mass murder and at the price of global warming with all its planet-wide consequences: après moi le déluge.
Propaganda is another important aspect. Posters distributed by an organism whose name declares that West Papuans are aliens—Project for the Guidance of Alien Societies of the Directorate General for Social Guidance (Projekt Pembinaan Kemasyarakatan Suku-Suku Terasing)—and text books that were distributed in the early 1980s, by which time twenty-four major transmigration sites had been established on 700,000 hectares of appropriated land, show West Papuans as primitive, dirty and lazy and, depicted beside them, Javanese as neat, clean, civilised, and hardworking. The term Papuan was generally expunged, or Papua and Maluku were lumped together as one geographical, ethnic, and cultural entity. Information like the following was disseminated: “The inhabitants of Maluku and Irian both come from the same ethnic stock: Irianese. … [T]he countryside of Irian has not yet been cultivated because of the lack of people. Even their staple food, sago, just grows wild in the jungle.” The government still refers to transmigration in abandoned land.
This is all part of what settler colonialism scholar Patrick Wolfe calls the “logic of elimination”, whereby Indigenous populations are obliterated to gain control of land and resources. “The deployment of five new battalions in Merauke is best understood in terms of Wolfe’s logic of elimination.” In another word, genocide. But it’s not just a local genocide that the Indonesian military hopes to tuck away behind restricted access to West Papua and a sweeping press ban, because it’s also ecocide. And this affects the whole world.
So far, the results in Merauke, for example, are that Papuans number less than 40% of the population, life expectancy is 35 years for men and 38 for women, and HIV rates are extremely (and suspiciously) high. The Indonesian government, boasting about how it’s strengthening environmental standards, plans to take two million hectares of land in this region for a sugarcane project of five consortiums of Indonesian and foreign companies. Since this—“the world’s biggest deforestation project”—is designated a project of “strategic national importance”, Indonesian law allows the government to expel Indigenous communities from their land. President Prabowo Subianto’s first official visit to “West Papua” wasn’t to West Papua, but to the Merauke food estate, the National Strategic Project, to what, for him, was a part of Indonesia that needs the protection of heavily armed troops against the local Malind people who are protesting the seizure and destruction of their land, customary forests, and villages, without any prior warning, let alone consultation. Destruction of their very lives. West Papuans are fighting back, not only as an organised National Liberation Army but also as groups and individuals armed with bows and arrows or weapons acquired on the black market from low-ranking Indonesian soldiers whose welfare is neglected. Stripped of their identity as ancestral keepers of the land and forest by acts of capitalist violence, in which the agribusiness crops are in themselves part of the destructive machinery, Indigenous people become “terrorists” threatening Indonesia’s national security, and therefore exterminable.
Alien monocrops, affecting both natural forests and peatlands, significantly increase carbon emissions as well as the direct devastation they cause. Rainforests are often described as Earth’s oldest living ecosystems. Some have existed in their present form for at least 70 million years. For example, the Amazon rainforest probably appeared some 55 million years ago during the Eocene era. Rainforests cover only 6% of the Earth’s surface but contain more than half its plant and animal species, so they’re extraordinarily dense with all kinds of flora and fauna which, since they also help to regulate climate, are essential to human wellbeing. They are usually structured in four layers: emergent (top layer, up to 60 metres high); canopy (about five metres thick, forming a roof over the two remaining layers, creating a humid, dark environment below, and protecting topsoil); understory (dark, still, and damp); and forest floor (where decomposers like slugs, termites, worms, and fungi thrive, breaking decaying fallen organic matter into nutrients). Although each layer, with different levels of sunlight, water, and air circulation, has its own characteristics, they belong to an interdependent system. When a tree is cut down, at least four different whole ecosystems are destroyed. And every single species that disappears has knock-on effects on other species including, eventually, humans. In this sense, a single tree can represent the whole forest. The rainforest is many worlds that are unknown to the marauding species—the humans that come to cut them down—who see only cash crops where whole cosmologies have thrived since human time began.
It’s no coincidence that Prabowo has announced a new transmigration programme at the same time as his ecocidal deforestation regime intensifies. These conjoined twins of his agenda are the two sides of Indonesian colonialism in West Papua: exploitation and settlement by dispossession. Benny Wenda, Interim President of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua tells it from his people’s perspective: “Indonesia only wants West Papua’s resources; they do not want our people. The wealth of West Papua—gas from Bintuni Bay, copper and gold from the Grasberg mine, palm oil from Merauke—has been sucked out of our land for six decades, while our people are replaced with Javanese settlers loyal to Jakarta.”
Although Rafael Lemkin, who coined the term “genocide”, was greatly concerned about colonial genocides, he is generally and mistakenly seen as having a more limited understanding of the word, in “the wake of the Holocaust in order reflect its features as a state-organized and ideologically-driven program of mass murder”. Israel’s present, horrific genocide in Palestine, a moral wound inflicted on all humanity, has laid bare the deep colonial, racist roots of the Westphalian world order, supposedly of equal sovereign states. Rather, it is an order of “unequal subjects; sovereigns and colonized; and of states, empires, settlers, and colonies”. As such, it normalises mass shredding of defenceless people, especially children, and their debasement to unidentifiable body parts in plastic bags. The fact that its victims tend to be dark-skinned is part of an ongoing colonial legacy arising from the destructive forces of European capitalism. The results in terms of international law, including genocide law, are visible in the power of veto used by the United States to block proposals put before the UN Security Council ordering Israel to stop the genocide in Gaza. “The right to veto is not only a privilege of the victors in WW2; it is an advantage given to themselves by the same vanquishers that simultaneously happened to be at the time former and new empires.”
If the international legal system is dominated by old imperial powers and newer transnational companies, every aspect of exploitation, subjugation, and even genocide in former colonies will be ignored, disguised and, in some cases, encouraged. In West Papua, hiding behind innocuous terms like development, enhancing unity, welfare, and sustainability are the facts that directly affect the other people, the original peoples of West Papua.
1) The causes of political and social unrest in West Papua extend far beyond the question of self-determination; the people are not just “rebels” as they’re often depicted but are threatened with extermination.
2) They’re not a “primitive” lesser or alien species but wise human kin who know how to live in harmony with nature and who, protecting their environment (and hence that of everyone), are said to stand in the way of progress (read: destruction).
3) They have no rights as people or as individuals as the international legal order doesn’t protect them, but lets the genocide happen.
4) They’re frontline victims of the civilising lie which, now taking the form of global warming, is telling us what civilisation has done to this planet, humanity’s habitat.
5) West Papua rainforest custodians are subjected to an alien military mindset or, in practice, everyday brutality and devastation. In a detailed study, Yezid Sayigh spells out the scary reality of what military-managed “sustainability” means in Egypt, and the comparison with the Indonesian regime is relevant because the Indonesian military is also heavily involved in extractive sector business.
6) The West Papua people are clearly subject to the “logic of elimination” by occupying forces seeking to gain control of land and resources.
7) Not all genocides are highly organised, high-tech mass killing projects. Genocide can be achieved through gradual dispossession, destruction, and small-scale but constantly repeated killing, as is happening in West Papua, and also against many other Indigenous peoples.
8) As genocide scholar Kjell Anderson asks, if West Papuans “do not regard themselves as Indonesians and are not regarded as such by other Indonesians”, how can they survive as a people in the militarised, hegemonic state of Indonesia?
9) The UN is still dodging its responsibility for the genocide in West Papua even though its own human rights experts express “serious concerns about the deteriorating human rights situation … citing shocking abuses against indigenous Papuans, including child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people”.
Rafael Lemkin understood genocide as aiming at the annihilation of essential elements of a group’s conditions of life: political, social, cultural, economic, biological, physical, and moral. Whatever the group and wherever it was. All of these elements were assaulted in European colonial projects around the world, and are being destroyed by Indonesia’s colonial project in West Papua, most recently by the revival of transmigration and deliberate destruction of Indigenous cultures and ways of life. As philosopher Imge Oranlı observes, genocide denial “is a peculiar phenomenon that speaks to the ontology of evil. Here, the evilness of an evil event is not readily evident to the public because the evil in question was socially and politically produced by the same ideology that continues to shape the collective social imagination of that very public.” The western collective and social imagination is shaped by the deeds and ideology that enabled a good part of European “civilisation”. So, some genocides are more acceptable than others. Once again, think of Belgium: what if a European country of about the same size as the recent land appropriation in West Papua was subjected to the same genocidal project. Would the “international community” remain passive and silent?
“Good” or “bad” genocide, the issues are inescapably the same: genocide (humans kill others of their own nature)→ecocide (as part of this project, humans kill nature) and, in the end→suicide (humans kill themselves).
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3) Minister Sjamsoeddin seeks to boost defense in Papua  
November 22, 2024 19:20 GMT+700
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin is aiming to strengthen defense in Papua to maintain stability in the region, which is in line with the development program and efforts to improve the welfare of Papuans.The ministry's information bureau on Friday informed that the minister conveyed his plan directly to the ranks of the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) in Papua.On Thursday, Sjamsoeddin visited the Yohanis Kapiyau Air Base in Timika, Papua, to review defense facilities in Papua and brief TNI ranks in the region, including commanders and unit commanders.He said that strengthening the defense system in Papua is not merely about securing the region but also ensuring stability, which would have an impact on the entire region.He also emphasized Papua's importance for Indonesia in the geopolitical, geostrategic, and geoeconomic contexts."Papua is an integral part of the sovereignty of this country with invaluable strategic value. We must ensure a strong defense system in Papua to tackle all potential threats," Sjamsoeddin told TNI ranks in Papua, according to a statement released by his office on Friday.At the meeting, he also reminded TNI leaders to maintain synergy between the central and regional commands and ensure security and sovereignty in Papua.He advised them to continue improving readiness and be professional in carrying out their duties to preserve the country's sovereignty, especially in Papua.Sjamsoeddin also reviewed projects to improve infrastructure and facilities at Yohanis Kapiyau Air Force Base, including surveillance sensors and intrusion systems.During the activity, the minister was accompanied by head of the Defense Facilities Agency of the Ministry of Defense, Vice Marshal Yusuf Jauhari.His visit to Papua was part of his working visit to several eastern regions of Indonesia. Related news: OPM kills pilot from New Zealand in Mimika, PapuaRelated news: KOOPS HABEMA shoots down two OPM members, including a TNI defector

Translator: Genta Tenri M, Resinta SulistiyandariEditor: Rahmad Nasution

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4) Papua Deemed Conflict Vulnerable, Bawaslu to Tighten Election Supervision

Reporter
November 21, 2024 | 01:04 pm

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) said that all provinces on the island of Papua will receive special attention due to their vulnerability to conflicts during regional elections. 

"Bawaslu has warned all provinces, regencies, and cities to intensify their supervision," said Bawaslu Chair Rahmat Bagja to media crew at the Bawaslu media center in Central Jakarta on Wednesday, November 20, 2024.

Bagja mentioned that Bawaslu has also held coordination meetings with the Acting Governor of the Papua Highlands and the regional leaders' communication forum (Forkopimda) of the easternmost island of Indonesia.

The risk in Papua is diverse, Bagja said, from armed separatist movements to individuals who disrupt security. 

Bagja also alluded to the traditional “noken” system, which is a special mechanism for voting for the people of Papua originating from mountainous areas.

Bagja stated that Bawaslu pays closer attention to areas that do not exercise noken, as they are considered conflict-prone areas. "Even though it follows the one man one vote system," he added.

Another issue in Papua is the unclear data of the final voter list (DPT), but Bagja said the election must proceed in Papua. 

To anticipate conflicts, Bagja mentioned that Bawaslu has implemented several mitigations, such as conducting surveillance patrols during the pre-election silence and holding alert drills across all regions in Indonesia.

Bagja stated his agency has coordinated with the regional election desks in vulnerable areas. The identification of Papua as a vulnerable area resulted from mapping by Bawaslu, the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN), and the Strategic Intelligence Agency (BAIS) of the Indonesian National Police.

The Governor of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas), Ace Hasan Syadzily, mentioned that several provinces in Papua are categorized as highly vulnerable to conflicts leading up to the election.

"Especially in Aceh and four provinces in Papua, as well as at the regency-city level. This situation can give rise to vertical and horizontal conflicts in the community," said Ace during a consultation meeting with Commission I of the House of Representatives in Senayan, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday, November 13, 2024.

Annisa Febiola contributed to the writing of this article.

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5) On 16th anniversary, KNPB united, consistent in fight for Papuan independence
Suara Papua – November 20, 2024

Jayapura – The West Papua National Committee (KNPB) celebrated its 16th anniversary yesterday (November 19, 2008-November 19, 2024). Commemorations were held in several different regions, both inside and outside the land of Papua.

In Jayapura, the central KNPB together with the KNPB Numbay and Sentani regional branches celebrated the anniversary with the theme "Gathering the wrath of the people's resistance" at the Waena III State Housing Complex (Perumnas) in Jayapura city on Tuesday November 19.

During the celebration, they held a people's forum looking back at the struggles that the KNPB has gone through and what should be done in the future in view of the existing dynamics.

The event was attended by a number of KNPB founders and activists in Papua. Among them were KNPB International Spokesperson Victor Yeimo, West Papua National Parliament Chairperson Buchtar Tabuni, Hakim Pahabol from the New Guinea Council, Bazoka Logo from the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) Sentani Congress, Marthen Manggaprow from the West Papua National Authority (WPNA), Ester Haluk from the Papua People's Democratic Movement (GARDA Papua), Manu Iyaba from the Papuan Peoples Youth and Student Movement (GEMPAR Papua), Eneko Pahabol representing the church youth, Kamus Bayage representing Papuan students and KNPB Chairperson I Warpo Wetipo.

Victor Yeimo said that the KNPB's resistance over the last 16 years has been a non-violent resistance fought along with the ordinary people and this remains KNPB's position to this day.

"Our generation must believe that the revolution requires cadres who are consistent, committed and consistent in organisational awareness and struggle. Today's generation is the generation that will be able to determine the direction of the struggle, because tomorrow it is certain that every individual and organisation will fight to defend itself", said Yeimo.

Meanwhile, Buchtar Tabuni criticised the KNPB saying that every fighter must unite under one common agenda, the aim of which is to realise a common mission.

"The ones who damage and create disunity are the NGO [non-government organisation] groups, the church and academics, including the DPR [House of Representatives] who are part of the strategic organisational structure of the resistance movement", said Tabuni.

Hakim Pahabol said that fighters must have clear stages in the agenda of struggle from the beginning to the end. Where there is action, there is a reaction that will give birth to change.

"That's where we become subjects in the status of a legal challenge. The KNPB is already worthy of playing a role as a national media, so it is important to maintain this as a national asset. The fighters of the West Papuan nation today must realise that we can no longer be busy taking care of extinguishing the smoke, but we must be able to extinguish the fire by our methods that are correct", he said.

Bazooka Logo spoke more firmly on the struggle of Papuans saying that fighters should not be moderate, sentimental and the like.

"Fighters also cannot be condoned if every political aspiration is submitted to the DPR, the MRP [Papua People's Council], regents and governors, because this is the same as us improving the face of the NKRI's [Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia] colonialism", said Logo.

Marthen Manggaprow said he appreciated the resistance carried out by the KNPB. He said that the WPNA salutes and respects the existence of and also the militancy shown by the KNPB to this day in continuing to mediate the political aspirations of the people of West Papua.

"We also know because we are always with KNPB, where there are peaceful demonstrations and also joint training as fellow fighters who fight. One thing we suggest is that KNPB continues to open itself up, accept criticism from the people like this, and learn from our past failures, (because) we will definitely be free", he concluded.

Ester Haluk was more critical of Papuan freedom fighters who are not united in the struggle. She emphasised that unity is important, so when united, this unity must be defended.

"Why disband and form a government or a country? A government formed in the interim or a transitional government will not bring about change or liberate the West Papuan nation. So stop the public deception here", she said.

"Advocacy work on human rights violations, environmental damage, refugee data collection and so on is never done. No data has been submitted to the UN Human Rights Commission. So, don't let fighters dream high in empty spaces without concrete work and campaigns", said Haluk.

Manu Iyaba said that the current leaders of the West Papuan nation prefer to live comfortably and think and act in an elitist way. If they want to become leaders, they must come from the bases of the ordinary people who are fighting.

"Leaders must educate the people so that the people are aware, because the fact is that today the Papuan people are busy with practical colonial politics."

Eneko Pahabol stated that they are obliged to guard the flock or congregation by continuing to speak out with a prophetic voice.

"Therefore, in this forum I invite the honourable fighters as members of the church, to worship God. The Lord Jesus as the teacher of the revolution of the colonised nation and fighting with a strong faith, would never let it go just like that."

"The KNPB must continue to guard itself and we also pray that the KNPB remains as a media for the people of West Papua nation. This is the voice of the church youth. We will definitely be free, if Papua is free it is [because of] our true faith in the struggle for national liberation", said Pahabol.

Warpo Wetipo said that resistance without threats by the enemy is human resistance that seems abnormal. But the KNPB was born because of these threats, grew and bloomed under these threats, even died under these threats, so this threat belongs to the KNPB.

According to Wetipo, since the KNPB existed, these threats have existed and come one after another.

"In the current context, [there must be] self-criticism of all fighters and leaders who come to give criticisms, suggestions and advice. On this the KNPB's anniversary we agree to see that our current state of oppression is not okay, so your soul rebels, anxiety continues to burn."

"So will you just sit still, bow down and contemplate? The people's office is in the alleyways, the highways, that's where we have our offices. Bring yourself, give your heart and accept their hearts if you are a leader who fights. That is people power", he said.

Kamus Bayage said that in the context of the nation's struggle, the students are the people, where students are one of the important pillars in the joint resistance towards national liberation. Therefore, Bayage said he attended the event to represent students as fighting people.

"On this occasion, Papuan students appreciate the KNPB as a teacher who continues to educate the intelligence of the people to see the reality of oppression more closely. The KNPB is a national media that continues to be maintained, so continue to remain united."

[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Rayakan HUT ke-16, KNPB Tetap Bersatu dan Konsisten Perjuangkan Kemerdekaan".]

Source: https://suarapapua.com/2024/11/20/rayakan-hut-ke-16-knpb-tetap-bersatu-dan-konsisten-perjuangkan-kemerdekaan/

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6) KPK Reminds Papua Special Autonomy Fund Management Must Be Transparent: No Abuse!
22 November 2024, 09:06 | Editorial Team

JAKARTA - The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) reminded that Papua's special autonomy funds (otsus) must be managed transparently. Do not let there be abuse such as bribery to project procurement that leads to corruption.

This message was conveyed when the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) held an audience at the KPK's Red and White Building, Kuningan Persada, South Jakarta on Thursday, November 21. Initially, the Chairperson of the KPK, Nawawi Pomolango, said that this step was the right momentum to ensure the governance of the implementation of special autonomy (otsus) in accordance with Law Number 22 of 2021.

"The presence of the MRP is a control over all aspects of the lives of the Papuan people and ensures that governance in Papua is running well and clean. This is of course in line with the KPK's mission to eradicate corruption," said Nawawi in an official written statement, Friday, November 22.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chairperson of the KPK Alexander Marwata reminded that special autonomy funds must be used for the benefit of the community. For example, economic empowerment, health, and education in Papua.

Alexander also advised that the use of these funds must be free of corruption because it comes from the state budget (APBN).

"The Papua Special Autonomy Fund has a large budget value, especially now that there are 6 provinces that have been expanded. We hope that the management will be transparent and can have an impact on the community. There should be no abuse such as bribery and fictitious projects," he said.

Furthermore, Alexander also said that MRP could coordinate with the Deputy for Coordination and Supervision to discuss the management of special autonomy funds. He said this method could be more effective because the anti-corruption commission does not have branches that can observe direct use of the budget.

"This hearing is a momentum to evaluate the implementation of special autonomy funds. Because the KPK does not have an office in the regions, please coordinate with Korsup regarding the problems found in the field," said Alexander.

Receiving this warning, MRP, which is a representation of indigenous Papuans (OAP), is ready to oversee the use of special autonomy funds. However, they had mentioned that special autonomy funds were often problematic.

"The distribution of special autonomy funds is often problematic. We don't know who used and managed this fund. We came here to ask the KPK to re-examine financial management in the Papua region," said member of the Special Committee (Pansus) Affirmation and Chairman of the Honorary Council of MRP Dorince Meheu on that occasion.

Dorince also highlighted that there are still many inequality that occurs in Papua. "There are many basic rights to OAP, especially related to natural wealth management, which have not been fulfilled," he said.

"Papua is rich in natural resources, but its people are still living in poverty. We are tasked with keeping the benefits of special autonomy really up to OAP," concluded Dorince.

The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)

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7) BP Commits $7B To Carbon Capture Project In Papua, Indonesia 
by Violet George November 22, 2024 

In a significant move for Indonesia’s energy sector, BP and its partners have committed a $7 billion investment to a groundbreaking project in Papua. This initiative combines the development of a new gas field, Ubadari, with cutting-edge carbon capture technology.

The announcement, made during a meeting with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in London, signifies a major boost to the country’s gas resources. 

The Ubadari field has the potential to unlock an additional 3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, a valuable asset for meeting Asia’s growing energy demands.

The project goes beyond simply extracting resources. It marks Indonesia’s first foray into large-scale carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). 

This innovative technology captures carbon dioxide emissions, preventing them from entering the atmosphere. In its initial phase, the project aims to sequester a substantial 15 million tonnes of CO2 emissions from the Tangguh liquefied natural gas facility in West Papua. 

Captured CO2 will even be strategically utilized to enhance production at the Tangguh facility, demonstrating a resourceful approach to emissions reduction.

Relevant: CCSA Appoints New UK Director To Support The Deployment Of CCUS Industry

President Prabowo hailed the project as a testament to British companies’ confidence in Indonesia’s economic future. 

He highlighted $8.5 billion in total investment from British firms across various sectors, including energy transition, education, infrastructure, and healthcare. This comprehensive collaboration underscores the potential for Indonesia’s long-term development.

The Tangguh Production Sharing Contract, led by BP with a 40.2% stake, spearheads this project. 

Partnering with BP are industry giants like China’s CNOOC, Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp, Inpex Corp, and Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. Having received approval from Indonesian authorities in 2021, the project is poised to make a significant impact on Indonesia’s energy landscape in the coming years. 

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