1) The last frontier
2) OPM: Three regions ready to fly the Morning Star flag
3) Papua Police confiscate homemade weapon
4) INDONESIA: Police shot civilians in a petty fight
in Papua resulted in one person
------------------------
Banyan
1) The last frontier
In West Papua Indonesian history is
repeating itself as tragedy
Jun 30th 2012 | from
the print edition
THE flight from Bali to Jayapura, in the
Indonesian half of Papua, offers a stunning view. The planes stop at Timika
soon after dawn to connect with helicopters leaving for Grasberg, the largest
gold mine and third-largest copper mine in the world. As the sun rises, a vast
expanse of lush forest emerges. From the air it is a vision of Eden. But on the
ground, these are dark days.
Ever since 1969, and a ludicrously misnamed
“Act of Free Choice”, when a decision by 1,025 selected Papuans was deemed an
act of self-determination accepting Indonesian sovereignty over the former
Dutch colony, simmering, low-level resistance has persisted. After the fall in
1998 of the dictator, Suharto, and the flowering of Indonesian democracy, the
region was granted “special autonomy” in 2001 and renamed Papua (from Irian
Jaya). In 2003 it was split into two provinces—Papua and West Papua. But
Indonesia continues to rule the region in the Suharto style, through shadowy
parts of the security forces. This year a spate of unexplained deaths has
raised tensions. At least 17 people have been killed since May. Jayapura’s
usually bustling streets are deserted after nightfall. Anonymous text-messages
warn people to stay indoors, recalling memories of previous crackdowns.
In Wamena, a sprawling town in the
highlands, it is wise to take a bicycle rickshaw, not a motorcycle taxi. The
cyclists, calves bulging as they labour, are native Papuans and know the way. The
motorbikes belong to the Indonesian migrants—from Sulawesi, Madura and Java—who
make up 40-50% of the 3.6m population of the two provinces. Migrants own the
shops, restaurants and building firms, and man the police and army. Native
Papuans sit in the dirt to hawk vegetables and fruit. Women traipse in from the
countryside with hand-knotted nets strapped to their foreheads, stuffed with
cabbages, piglets and sometimes their babies. To the migrants’ disgust, some
men still come into town naked but for their penis gourds. The mainly Muslim
settlers and mostly Christian Papuans do not always get along.
Three recent incidents, above all, have
contributed to the climate of fear. On May 29th a German tourist was shot on
the beach at Jayapura. Activists link the shooting to hearings that month at
the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, where Indonesia was discussed. Among
the countries unusually critical of its record, especially in Papua, was
Germany. The suspicion is that parts of Indonesia’s security forces want to
show that Papua remains dangerous, blaming the Free Papua Movement, or OPM, a
secessionist group that has used guerrilla tactics.
Then on June 6th a ten-year-old boy was
injured by a motorcycle ridden at high speed by two Indonesian soldiers through
a village near Wamena. Angry locals attacked the soldiers, killing one of them.
Their comrades came back for revenge on the villagers, setting fire to some of
their houses. At least one person died. For critics of the army this was a
typical tale of its indiscipline, brutality and impunity. Even after a video
seen around the world in 2010 showed soldiers torturing Papuan suspects, the
three culprits received jail sentences of just eight to ten months, for
insubordination.
In the third incident, security forces in
Jayapura on June 14th shot dead Mako Tabuni, a leading advocate of a referendum
on Papuan independence. The police say they had reason to suspect him of recent
killings, and that he was carrying the gun used to shoot the German tourist.
Eyewitnesses, however, have said he was unarmed and doing nothing more
aggressive than buying betel nut when he was killed.
All of this is eerily reminiscent of the
way Indonesia ruled its former province of East Timor for 24 years. There, too,
abusive and mysterious security forces fuelled local resentment. There, too,
Indonesia divided to rule, stressing the fissures among the local population.
There, too, it would blame unrest on a tiny resistance manipulated by foreign
forces. In East Timor Indonesia tried to contain unrest by closing off the
territory. Papua is largely off-limits to foreign journalists. Foreign
NGOs—even those dealing with an HIV epidemic spread by prostitution—are finding
visas for their workers hard to come by. Some feel pressure to leave Papua altogether.
Yet there are reasons to doubt that Papua
can follow East Timor into the independence it has now, as Timor-Leste, enjoyed
for ten years. First, East Timor’s legal status was different. Through the
occupation, Portugal remained, under the UN charter, the “administering” power.
Much as the outside world might have liked to forget the problem, there were
legal reminders of its existence. The Act of Free Choice, though a flagrant
injustice, was nevertheless one to which the UN was party. Second, the Papuan
resistance is not as coherent even as the faction-ridden Timorese.
Third, and most important, Timor-Leste’s
oil-and-gas income is relatively modest, and started to flow only after
independence. Papua is already a treasure-chest. That immense forest is
pockmarked in places by isolated lighter-green squares, where the trees have
been felled and oil palm planted. And Freeport McMoRan, Grasberg’s owner,
claims to be the largest single taxpayer to the Indonesian government.
Indonesia is not going to part with such riches easily. It has invested heavily
in Papua, buying itself a corps of people with a vested interest in its
continued rule.
The SBY effect
Its rule in Papua is a reminder that
Indonesia’s current president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was a general under
Suharto, that the army has not cleaned up its act since its atrocities in East
Timor and in the conflict in Aceh in Sumatra, and that, in some other respects,
too, his regime looks less like the repudiation of Suharto’s Indonesia than its
continuation. But Mr Yudhoyono enjoys being feted internationally as the leader
of a beacon of democratic moderation. Papua may be the place where that image,
already tarnished, is irrevocably stained.
from the print
edition | Asia
--------------------------------------------
2) OPM: Three
regions ready to fly the Morning Star flag
Bintang Papua, 27 June 2012
OPM: 'Three regions are ready to fly the Morning Star flag'
The OPM's general coordinator, Lambert Pekikir has announced
that three regions in Papua are ready to fly the Morning Star flag on 1 July,
the anniversary of the OPM's military wing, the TPN.
The flag flying will last for three days, along with fireworks.
He said that the three regions are Wamena, Keerom and Yapen Waropen. People in
Wamena are from the mountains, the people Yapen Waropen are coastal people,
while those from valleys and lowland areas live in Keerom.
OPM troops along with civilian sympathisers will take part
in the flag-flying. 'There will be ceremonies as well, attended by the general
public and those struggling for an independent Papua.
'Our military forces are well prepared for these events and if
the TNI and police respond with violence, we are ready,' he said.
Meanwhile, the police have issued an ultimatum urging that
there is no flag flying. 'The Morning Star flag is not a flag of the
Indonesian Republic or a regional symbol, and anyone who unfurls that flag
anywhere in Papua will be seen as having violated the law and will
face the consequences in accord with the laws in force in Indonesia.'
The army spokesman, Yohannes Nugroho Wicaksono called on
people not to fly the flag. 'In the interest of security and order throughout
the area of Papua, we urging people not to be provoked by those who are
planning this event.'
Activities undertaken by the police in anticipation of the flag
flying on 1 July include intensifying police patrols and sweepings in all
police regions. He said that the police have been ordered to act
professionally.'
The chairman of Commission A of the DPRP, the Papuan
legislative assembly, Ruben Magai, has called on all the people not to be
provoked by unnecessary issues in advance of the TPN anniversary. He hoped that
people will continue to engage in their everyday activities, while calling on
the security forces not to use violence. 'The persuasive approach must be prioritised.
The best thing would be for all those concerned to sit down and talk, to as to
find out what each sides wants.
[Slightly abridged translation by TAPOL]
------------------------------------------------------
3) Papua
Police confiscate homemade weapon
The Jakarta Post | Archipelago | Thu, 06/28/2012 7:38 AM
Jayapura:
The Papua Police have confiscated a homemade weapon together with 47 bullets
discovered in a suitcase abandoned near a trash can on Jl. Pipa Argapura in
Jayapura.
The weapon was discovered by two scavengers on Monday at 11:30 a.m.
local time.
“The two scavengers were suspicious upon discovering the suitcase.
As soon as they saw the weapon after opening it, they reported it to the
nearest police post,” Papua Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Johanes Nugroho
said Wednesday.
Johanes
explained that the box in which the bullets were stored was not made in
Indonesia but came from overseas.
The weapon with its bullets, he said, had
been sent to the National Police’s forensic laboratory for ballistic tests. “It
will take one to two weeks to know the test results,” he said.
When asked
whether the weapon was used by unknown assailants to terrorize the Jayapura
area in a spate of recent unsolved shootings, Johannes said he could not answer
because he had to wait for the results of the ballistic tests-
----------------------------
4) INDONESIA: Police shot civilians in a petty fight
in Papua resulted in one person died and four others injured
June 28, 2012
ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME
Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-110-2012
28 June 2012
---------------------------------------------------------------------
INDONESIA: Police shot civilians in a petty fight
in Papua resulted in one person died and four others injured
ISSUES: Extrajudicial killing, police violence, right to life,
inhuman & degrading treatment
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received
information regarding the death of a civilian and the injury of five others
after the police shot them in a petty fight in Degeuwo, Papua, on 15 May
2012. The five civilians were having an argument with the owner of a billiard
parlour they were visiting. The owner of the parlour called the police and
three officers arrived and became involved in a fight with the civilians. None
of the civilians were armed at that time.
CASE NARRATIVE:………………………………
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