Thursday, February 28, 2013

1) Papua Liberation Army Leader Pledges No Surrende


1) Papua Liberation Army Leader Pledges No Surrender
2) Fears civilians may suffer in West Papua reprisal attacks
3) Secession and the limits of sovereignty
4) Papuans want to call in UN negotiators
5) TWO OPM members to face charges: Others are being hunted by police
6) Thousands flee in fear of heavy civilian casualties as TNI begin Highlands reprisal offensive


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1) Papua Liberation Army Leader Pledges No Surrender
Robert Isidorus | February 28, 2013
Jayapura. The National Liberation Army of the Free Papua Movement, led by Goliath Tabuni, said it had no interest in money or power and that it was purely fighting to achieve an independent Papua.

“We want to be fully independent,” Anton Lego Obet Tabuni, secretary general of the organization known as TPN-OPM, told Suara Pembaruan in a phone call.

“We know that [we’re being chased],” Anton said. “We will not surrender and we will not back down even slightly in maintaining our ideology. This is serious.” 

Asked to comment on Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian’s statement linking the shootings that killed eight military officers to the regional elections, Anton denied it. 

“We’re not looking for positions and therefore the allegation is inaccurate.”

Tito said police and military heightened security in Sinak and Tingginambut after an ambush killed soldiers and four civilians. 
Tito said the number of officers increased as the regional election process was still ongoing.

“I will not withdraw members of the forces in Ilaga, Puncak district, to preempt any unwanted incidents. Right now the condition is quite conducive,” he said.

Tito said that the incidents in Sinak and Tingginambut could have been arranged by candidates who took part in the elections. 
“The shootings in Tingginambut and Sinak were not related to the Free Papua Movement issue, but to another.”

A leading human rights group has blamed poor law enforcement for the recent murder of the eight soldiers and four civilians in Puncak Jaya.

In a statement on Saturday, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) questioned police effectiveness in the restive province.

After expressing sadness over the deaths, Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar said, “This series of violent acts are crimes that have to be responded to by law enforcement.”

Haris said that greater transparency in the legal process following such crimes would likely reduce instances of violence in Papua, given the current extent of secrecy imposed.

Kontras data showed that in Puncak Jaya there were 15 cases of violence since the start of last year, including two incidents in which unidentified people snatched firearms from officers.

In the 15 incidents, nine military officers, two police officers and 10 civilians died. One military officer and nine civilians were also hurt.
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2) Fears civilians may suffer in West Papua reprisal attacks

Submitted by stevenr on Thu, Feb 28, 2013 - 2:10pm
brisbane_line_feb_28_2013_joe_collins_west_papua_association.mp3
Supporters of the West Papuan independence movement in Australia are concerned civilians may be targeted in reprisal attacks after eight soldiers were shot dead in the Indonesian-occupied territory on February 21.
It comes after allegations emerged about the torture of prisoners in the Abepura Correctional Facility on January 21.
It is alleged two guards - Bonifasius Manuputy and Eli Asip Wamuar – whipped 20 prisoners with a “thick white wire” about the arms, back and shoulders resulting in cuts and bruising, with one prisoner suffering from a broken arm as a result.
The Asian Human Rights Commission says the head of the Facility and head of the Security Unit were present when the beatings were taking place.
It’s not the first time officials at Abepura has faced such allegations. In June last year the head of the Facility was replaced by the current office holder, Nuridin, after it was revealed 42 prisoners were tortured at Abepura.
This latest allegation comes after claims that two men were arrested and tortured by West Papuan police on February 15 because they were “related” to two pro-independence activists.
4ZZZ reporter Steven Riggall spoke to Joe Collins, head of the Australian West Papua Association about the case and the pro-independence movement more broadly.

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3) Secession and the limits of sovereignty

Harison Citrawan, Jakarta | Opinion | Thu, February 28 2013, 11:38 AM
A- A A+
Paper Edition | Page: 7
Unsurprisingly, many fingers have pointed to separatist rebels following the shootings that killed eight Indonesian soldiers and four civilians in remote areas of Papua last week.

To my understanding, such an allegation appears inescapable. This so-called “self-determination” movement has long been instigating hostile activity in the area with one unswerving aim: to secede from Indonesia.

Separatism has been an issue since the birth of the nation-state system and persists in both developed and developing countries, in democracies and non-democratic states. One thing that should be highlighted at this point is the changing nature of secessionism, particularly on how to achieve independence.

Human rights norms have proliferated through various instruments, creating a kind of “humanization approach” in international relations. Arguably, since the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, states have striven for legitimacy from a legal point of view.

Apart from the many bloody secessionist conflicts around the world, the issue of secession seems to come within the United Nations’ framework, that is to say the issue becomes one of peace and security, of respect for human rights.

Human rights instruments clearly prohibit war of any kind. The mere use of force in pursuing independence is contrary to the human rights principle.

The act of raising arms by secessionists legitimizes the mother state to suppress the movement for the sake of territorial integrity and national security.

Nevertheless, from a standpoint of the extant state, using territorial integrity as the basis for oppression and to suppress separatist movements also violates human rights norms.

In the International Court of Justice advisory opinion on Kosovo in 2010, Judge Cançado Trindade opines that, “No state can invoke territorial integrity in order to either commit atrocities [...] or perpetrate them on the assumption of State sovereignty, or commit atrocities and then rely on a claim of territorial integrity notwithstanding the sentiments and ineluctable resentments of the ‘people’ or ‘population’ victimized.”

While human rights impede a state’s exclusive authority in its territory, human rights protection should breed legitimacy for a state’s handling of separatist movements.

John Rawls, a leading figure in moral and political philosophy, defined three roles of human rights.

First, human rights lend legitimacy to any regime and decency to its legal order.

Second, an excellent human rights record is sufficient to prevent forceful intervention by other peoples in a state’s internal affairs, say by economic sanctions or, in grave cases, by military force.

Third, they set a moral baseline for pluralism, ethnic and religious tolerance.

The bottom line is interdependence rather than independence in resolving issues of secession. Interdependence requires interchange between fundamental freedoms, democracy, development and the protection of human rights.

In my view, this kind of approach in Papua would considerably reduce armed conflict between separatist groups and security forces.

As for the latest killing of civilians and soldiers, military measures could be necessary but ought to be proportionate.

Military advantages gained must be balanced against any collateral damage that might occur. Military measures would demonstrate Indonesia’s prerogative for a monopoly on the internal use of force.

Forceful demonstration of this prerogative should be followed by a firm commitment to preserve human rights and a clear manifestation of this commitment by bringing to court previous human rights violators.

Jean Bodin, a 16th century French jurist and political philosopher, and professor of law in Toulouse, once stated that, “the best way of preserving a state, and guaranteeing it against sedition, rebellion, and civil war, is to keep the subjects in amity with one another, and to this end, to find an enemy against whom they can make common cause”.

Men are susceptible to “barbarous acts” and “tyranny and oppression”.

It is not subversive acts or movements that should become our common enemy. The real enemy is those who seek to deny meaningful, universal access to fundamental rights and freedom.

The writer is a researcher at the human rights research and development agency, Law and Human Rights Ministry. The opinions expressed are personal.
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http://www.ucanews.com/news/papuans-want-to-call-in-un-negotiators/67557

4) Papuans want to call in UN negotiators

UN involvement only way to end violence, says leader
Ryan Dagur, Jakarta
Indonesia
2013-02-28 15:42:16
photo
Lambert Pekikir, chief of Free Papua Movement
The head of the main Papuan independence movement says conflict in Papua can only be resolved with UN involvement.
“Problems in Papua must not only be resolved by Papuans and the Indonesian government,” Lambert Pekikir, commander of the National Liberation Army of the Free Papua Movement (TPN-OPM) told ucanews.com on Thursday.
TPN-OPM believes the handover of then-West New Guinea by the Netherlands to Indonesia in 1969 resulted in unfair management of natural resources and human rights abuses by security personnel. It does not recognize the sovereignty of the Indonesian government in Papua.
“I am sure the Indonesian government has a hidden agenda. The United Nations must get involved and serve as mediator,” he said. “The United Nations must be responsible for problems faced by Papuans because it played its part in the integration."
Father Johanes Djonga, an activist priest who received the 2009 Yap Thiam Hien Award, said UN involvement would be good.
According to him, Papuans have bitter experience about the way the Indonesian government deals with conflicts in the area.
“This military approach creates hatred, which has become bigger. It seems that conflicts are maintained. On the other hand, there is no significant change in terms of people’s welfare,” he said.
On February 21, approximately 20 men armed with guns and machetes attacked a group of 10 soldiers heading to Sinak Ilaga Airport in Papua's Puncak district. Seven soldiers and four construction workers were killed.
An hour earlier a soldier was killed when gunmen stormed an army post in Tingginambut, in Puncak Jaya district.
“Similar attacks will happen in the near future if there is no serious effort to resolve the problems,” Pekikir said.
The TPN-OPM claimed responsibly for the recent attacks.
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from Tapol
5) TWO OPM members to face charges: Others are being hunted by police
Bintang Papua, 27 February 2013

Jayapura: Following the arrest earlier this week of two members of the OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka), a spokesperson for the police has stated that the two men, identified by the initials, AG and PG who were arrested in Kampung Ayaigo, sub-district of Kebo, District of Paniai will face charges in court.

The police officer stated that the men  were in possession of explosive materials and ammunition in violation of Emergency Law  12/1951 which allows a sentence, if convicted, of twenty years or life imprisonment.

The spokesperson, I Gede Sumerta Jaya, head  of public relations of the Paniai chief of police, also said that the police were engaged in operations to find other persons on the 'wanted list' (DPO) for a series of actions such as shootings and other acts of violence that have been occurring in the area. These other persons were identified by the initials JY, SY and DY.

The men are alleged to have been involved in shootings in Paniai,including the shooting of an ojek driver and holding nine employees of a contractor company as hostages who were building a school in Kampung Ukawo, District of Siriwo, Paniai. The men were also alleged to have assaulted women and demanded material goods from local people a short while ago.

''We do not know what the motives for the shootings and violence are because we are still interrogating the men,' the spokesperson said.

Asked about the security situation following the arrest of the two OPM members, the spokesperson described it as 'conducive', following  an armed skirmish between the TNI/Polri and the OPM.

The two men are currently undergoing intensive questioning at police command headquarters in Paniai. The two men were caught during sweeping operations by the TNI/Polri after having engaged in an act of terror against the command post of the Paniai Police.

They were said to have in their possession one unit of HT (?), one bullet caliber 7.56 , a hand-phone, personal identifications tabs and Morning Star flags.

End of Translation
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6) Thousands flee in fear of heavy civilian casualties as TNI begin Highlands reprisal offensive
westpapuamedia.info
Major Reprisals begin with house to house searches, village and church burnings in Tingginambut 

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