Thursday, June 27, 2013


1) Separatists kill three in Indonesia's Papua

2) OPM Admits Shooting TNI Member in Papua
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Three people have been killed in Indonesia's restive eastern region of Papua, police said Thursday, in an attack claimed by separatists during which a soldier was shot dead and a civilian hacked to death.
A third civilian died after jumping into a ravine while trying to escape the ambush in the Puncak Jaya district, police said.
Tuesday's attack was claimed by a local leader of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) who said only members of the security forces were killed, not civilians.
Attacks on security forces are common in Papua, where poorly-armed militants have for decades fought an insurgency on behalf of the mostly ethnic Melanesian population.
Papua province police spokesman I Gde Sumerta said that there was "an exchange of fire, the gunmen killed the soldier by shooting him in the head".
The attackers then used a machete to hack to death the male civilian driving the car the soldier had been travelling in, the spokesman said.
A second male civilian travelling with the group died after jumping into a nearby ravine as he tried to flee from the attack, said Sumerta, adding his body was found early Thursday.
Goliat Tabuni, the local OPM leader, told the local Suara Pembaruan newspaper that "the shooting was carried out by my members, on my orders".
However, he said only security forces had been killed. "Our members will not indiscriminately shoot civilians," he said.
In February suspected OPM gunmen killed eight soldiers in an attack in Puncak Jaya, known as a militant hideout, in one of the most serious assaults on security forces in the region's recent history.
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FRIDAY, 28 JUNE, 2013 | 02:11 WIB
2) OPM Admits Shooting TNI Member in Papua
                                                 The West Papua National Liberation Army, lead by Goliath Tabuni. PHOTO: WPNLA

TEMPO.CO, Jayapura - The Supreme Commander of the West Papua National Liberation Army, Gen. Goliath Tabuni, claimed he was responsible for the shooting in the Papuan district of Illu on Tuesday, June 25. Two people were killed in the shooting, a TNI infantry lieutenant named I Wayan Sukarta and a civilian named Tomo.
"The shooting was done my members under my command," Tabuni said as reported by the West Papua National Liberation Army media, Thursday, June 27.  
In the report, Tabuni also said that the civilian they killed--reported by local media as a taxi driver--was actually a military intelligence of the TNI 753.
Tabuni further said that the Liberation Army is ready to fight against the military. He also asked Indonesia's security officers--the TNI and the police, not to use civilians as the targets of their emotional outlet.
"If want to pursuit my members, just look for me and my members only," he said.
Papua Police spokesman, Comm. I Gede Sumerta Jaya, said the motive of the shooting was to disrupt the distribution of basic goods to Illu District.  
Sumerta asserted that the police will do something about what happened and will form a special team to investigate the shooting. "It was a criminal act and the offenders will be pursued," he firmly stated.
 
JERRY OMONA

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Prior to last week’s MSG meeting many West Papuans were hoping for full membership. Image: West Papua Media Alerts
Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Daniel Drageset
Whereas some parties are pleased that the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) drew up a roadmap for membership of the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL), others are disappointed that the MSG did not go all the way and give full membership to the WPNLC.
The WPNCL, which attended the 19th MSG Leaders’ Summit with a five-person delegation, expressed happiness over the outcome.
A ni-Vanuatu MP, however, has said that a roadmap is simply not good enough and that Vanuatu as a strong supporter of West Papua therefore should withdraw from the MSG.
WPNCL, however, seems more than content, even though full membership is yet to be achieved. In a statement issued earlier this week it stated that after many years of lobbying it has now “entered a new chapter in its international efforts.”
Before last week’s MSG meeting in the New Caledonian capital Nouméa, some had expressed hopes that the WPNCL would attain full membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, just like the Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS), which is the coalition of parties calling for independence in New Caledonia.
Although this is yet to happen, the MSG stated that it “fully supports the inalienable rights of the people of West Papua towards self-determination.”
Human rights
Furthermore, MSG expressed concern for human rights violations in West Papua, and therefore decided to send a delegation to Indonesia later this year to discuss West Papua.
In an interview with Radio New Zealand International, Andy Ayamiseba of WPNCL said that this “is a clear indication that the case of West Papua is out of Indonesia’s hands.
“It is no longer a domestic issue or internal matter but it’s not a regional issue, an international issue.”
The Australian West Papua Association (AWPA) said that it is disappointing that the issue of membership was deferred, but it welcomed a number of the other decisions.
“[T]he fact that the issue of the right to self-determination for the people of West Papua was recognised by the representative regional body of the Melanesian Peoples is very significant as is the fact that the MSG leaders acknowledged that there are ongoing human rights abuses in West Papua,” Joe Collins of AWPA said in a statement.
He described it as “encouraging” that MSG goes on a “fact-finding mission” to Indonesia, but warned that such missions may be “controlled or manipulated as to where, when and whom they are permitted to see by the authorities.”
Disappointed ni-Vanuatu MP
In an article in the Vanuatu Daily this week entitled Shameful day for Vanuatu, an anonymous ni-Vanuatu MP said it was a “sad day for Vanuatu when news was made public […] that the issue of West Papua had to wait for another six months.”
The MP alleged that Fiji, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands held secret meetings between them on the issue of West Papua and called it “very disrespectful.”
“I call on Vanuatu leaders not to join the other MSG leaders to either Jakarta or West Papua [for a fact-finding mission] but for Vanuatu to protest to the other MSG countries to pull out from the MSG because the vision by Vanuatu’s first prime minister has been defeated,” the MP stated.
Moreover, the MP said that if ni-Vanuatu authorities do go to Indonesia they “will have to consider carrying in their hands messages of condolences to pass on to the families of so many hundreds and hundreds of our Melanesian brothers and sisters who were raped, jailed, tortured and shot in jails, and slaughtered like animals over the past many years by the Indonesian military.”

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