4) MSG formal invitation a 'major stepforward' in West Papua battle
5) Pertamina Denies Link to Papua Officer With 1m Liters
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Posted at 07:11 on 06 June, 2013 UTC
Australia’s Foreign Minister has accused people who advocate self-determination rights for West Papuans of misleading the indigenous people of Indonesia’s Papua region.
Bob Carr made the comment during a Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee hearing on his government’s response to ongoing human rights abuses in West Papua.
Insisting that Canberra regularly engages with Jakarta over issues of concern in West Papua, the Minister criticised international West Papuan solidarity groups.
“They are planting in the minds of people who actually live in the place the notion this campaign has some kind of international resonance and that is a cruel deceit by self-indulgent people safe in their own beds, safe in a democracy. A cruel deceit about the potential of a demand for secessionism.”
Bob Carr says Australia and the world recognise Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua.
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Posted at 02:00 on 06 June, 2013 UTC
The West Papua National Committee, or KNPB, says it will hold peaceful demonstrations on June 18th in the Indonesian province to mark the first time West Papua will attend the Melanesian Spearhead Group meeting.
The MSG hosts, New Caledonia’s pro-independent FLNKS Movement, has officially invited West Papua to attend the summit in Noumea.
The general coordinator of the KNPB event, Assa Asso, says there will be simultaneous demonstrations in Manokwari, Sorong, Yahukimo, Wamena and other towns in the Indonesian province.
Many previous demonstrations and protests have been met with force by Indonesian troops, who accuse the protesters of being violent separatists.
On May 1st, three demonstrators were killed in a peaceful protest to mark 50 years since Indonesia took control of the province.
Two weeks later, the chairman of the KNPB Victor Yeimo was arrested by police at a separate rally and remains detained.
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Posted at 20:42 on 05 June, 2013 UTC
New Caledonia’s pro-independence FLNKS Movement has officially invited West Papua to attend this month’s Melanesian Spearhead Group summit in Noumea.
At the summit, MSG leaders are expected to decide on a formal membership bid by the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation.
The FLNKS spokesperson, Victor Tutugoro, says they have also met the consul of Indonesia in Noumea about their position on West Papua.
The chairman of the Vanuatu Free West Papua Association, Pastor Alan Nafuki, says the invitation is an important step.
“I think this is one of the major steps in history of West Papua since 1961. And I think for myself it is the answer, the answer of our struggle together, the answer of the people of god who have been praying for many many years, over 50 years now, and we have at least achieved something and I am very so proud of that.”
Pastor Alan Nafuki
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4) MSG formal invitation a 'major stepforward' in West Papua battle
Updated 6 June 2013, 9:50 AEST
The invitation was sent by New Caledonia's indigenous Kanak political group the FLNKS, and will allow West Papua to attend the summit as an independent entity, instead of travelling as part of the Vanuatu delegation.
These is still no sign if Indonesia will allow delegation members to travel from its province, and while an application has been lodged to give the province full MSG membership, there is no guarantee it will be supported by its other members Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.
Reporter: Hilaire Bule
Speaker: Pastor Alan Nafuki, Chairman, Vanuatu Free West Papua Association
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5) Pertamina Denies Link to Papua Officer With 1m Liters
Jayapura, Papua. State-owned energy company Pertamina says it does not know how a low-ranking police officer in Papua who is accused of fuel smuggling and illegal logging could have ended up with 1 million liters of subsidized fuel.
Muhammad Irfan, Pertamina’s general manager for Papua and Maluku, said on Thursday that his office cut business ties with police officer Adj. First Insp. Labora Sitorus last year.
“We don’t know from where he got [the fuel] from that was seized by police, because Pertamina stopped supplying [his company] in March 2012,” Irfan said.
He said that a few months later, in October 2012, Pertamina dropped Labora’s company Seno Adhi Wijaya as an authorized fuel distributor on account of poor performance. Whereas Pertamina wanted a target of 300 kiloliters per month a month, Seno Adhi Wijaya wanted that to be their annual target.
Labora, who was arrested last month, said the fuel seized from a boat and warehouse registered in his name was unsold stock from Pertamina.
But a crewman on board the boat where 400,000 liters of fuel was found denied that. He said the fuel was obtained when the crew was ordered by Labora to siphon it from tankers out at sea.
The arrest and contraband grabbed headlines last month following information from the police that a report from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK), the government’s anti-money laundering agency, showed Rp 1.5 trillion ($154 million) in financial transactions passing through Labora’s bank accounts between 2007 and 2012.
The officer has been charged with fuel smuggling and illegal logging, although he insisted that both businesses were legitimate and the money was his family’s.
In addition to the 1 million liters of fuel, police also seized 115 containers of timber at Surabaya’s Tanjung Perak Port, reportedly destined for export to China.
The containers held 2,264 cubic meters of merbau, a rare and highly prized tropical hardwood that is illegal for export as rough-sawn timber.
Police say Labora obtained the wood through another company, Rotua, which bought it from local communities allowed to fell the trees in limited quantities for their own use.
While much of the attention in the case so far has been focused on Labora, sources in the police force say most of the money was being passed up the chain of command to senior officers, in exchange for being allowed to operate unhindered for years.
A source told the Jakarta Globe that officers called Labora “the cash machine” because he would fork out sums of up to Rp 300 million at a time.
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