1) WHAT INDONESIA’S RISE MEANS FOR AUSTRALIA
2) Body of latest Freeport victim sent home
3) RETURNING TO THE FOLD –WEST PAPUA SEEKING PERMANENT MEMBERSHIP STATUS WITH MSG &PIF
4) Live Link To Papuans
5) 4 die in landslide in Intan Jaya, Papua
6) West Papuans given Aboriginal passports
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HTTP://WWW.THEMONTHLY.COM.AU/ISSUE/2013/JUNE/1370181600/HUGH-WHITE/WHAT-INDONESIA-S-RISE-MEANS-AUSTRALIA
1) WHAT INDONESIA’S RISE MEANS FOR AUSTRALIA
Medium length read1300 words
Large and close but poor and weak, Indonesia holds a shadowy place in Australia’s world view. We have never known quite what to make of it, or how seriously to take it. Soon there will be no option but to take it very seriously indeed, because Indonesia is changing fast. In the Asian century, it may matter to Australia as much as China and the US. It may even become our most important ally. Indonesia was barely a blip on Australia’s strategic radar until the Pacific War, when Japan seized it from the Dutch and attacked Australia from bases there. Indonesia won independence after the war and, for the first time, Australia had a neighbour big enough and close enough to threaten it directly.This raised new and unsettling questions about our security. Australia’s distant allies might see a clash with Indonesia as just a little local conflict irrelevant to their interests, so we could not assume they would offer much help. During the 1950s, the possibility that we might need to defend ourselves from our new neighbour unaided became a central issue in Australia’s defence and foreign policy. Fortunately, the threat never materialised. Australia’s relationship with Indonesia was uncomfortable under President Sukarno’s rule, but the country remained poor and militarily weak, especially at sea. Then, after Suharto took over in 1967, he replaced Sukarno’s nationalist adventurism with a more cautious and constructive foreign policy. He fostered regional links through the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and encouraged coolly cordial relations with Australia. Even so, Indonesia has never lost its special place in Australian defence planning. In the decade and a half after Vietnam, when the military missions of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) were limited to local defence, Indonesia remained the only conceivable threat. Since the 1970s, Australia’s armed forces have been primarily designed to defend against the kind of pinprick raids on our territory that are all Indonesia’s military could manage. Indeed, behind the diplomatic evasions, the government’s 2013 defence White Paper, released in May, makes clear this is still the ADF’s priority.
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http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/06/02/body-latest-freeport-victim-sent-home.html
2) Body of latest Freeport victim sent home
Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura | Archipelago | Sun, June 02 2013, 3:07 PM
Mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) sent the body of worker Herman Wahid, who was buried by sludge in the company’s deep ore zero (DOZ) site, to his hometown of Makassar, South Sulawesi, from Timika, Papua, via an Airfast Indonesia aircraft at 8:30 a.m. local time on Sunday.
Herman had been rescued from the site of the incident but was in critical condition. He died at Tembagapura Hospital, Mimika regency, Papua, at 6:30 p.m. local time on Saturday.
“Herman Wahid, victim in the 1 C West DOZ loading point incident that occurred while he was conducting maintenance works, was pronounced dead today (Saturday),” said Papua police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Gede Sumerta Jaya, on Saturday.
Tembagapura Police are still conducting an investigation into the incident.
The company’s vice president of corporate communications, Daisy Primayanti, said in a statement on Saturday that PTFI expressed its deep condolences to Herman’s family.
The incident occurred at around 1:30 p.m. local time on Friday when wet ore material flowed from containers and buried a truck that was being operated by Herman.
“Our prayers are with him and his family,” said PTFI president director Rozik B.Soecipto, adding that the company was investigating the cause of the incident.
On May 14, a cave in at the Big Gossan facility killed 28 of 38 workers who were undergoing safety training in an underground training facility.(asw/ebf)
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From Yoab Syatfle
SUBJECT:
3) RETURNING TO THE FOLD –WEST PAPUA SEEKING PERMANENT MEMBERSHIP STATUS WITH MELANESIAN SPEARHEAD GROUP (MSG) AND PACIFIC ISLAND FORUM (PIF).
We are more than privileged to have been given this opportunity by officially writing to you to advise that the Exeutive Government of the Federal Republic of West Papua, an Embryo State being formed on the October 19,2011 hereby seek leave from the member countries of the Melanesian Spearhead Group to consider granting us an Observer or Permanent Membership Status.
The Government of the embryo state and the 2.5 million people of West Papua are more than honoured with the highest esteem and gratitude by the overwhelimg sympathy and support from the South Pacific region and in particular our Melanesian brothers’ Countries. It is our highest honour as we very much respect and value your kind gesture in supporting our cause. It is also our firm believe that our return to the Melanesian fold and the Pacific region in general is not a mistake or co- incident in fact we originally belong to Melanesia and the Pacific Region. It was never our choice or making for West Papua to be integrated into the Republic of Indonesia, rather it was beause of the foreign interest that we were forced into Indonesia for the past 51 years. We have fought the guerilla warfare against the Indonesian Military Supremacy and have suffered in all forms of horrendous crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Indonesian Armed Forces. But yet we have withstood our ground and defended our inheritance up to this day. As a result we have endured the suffering and oppression since the annexation by Indonesia and thank God we have been able to sustain up until today. The human rights abuses and sufferings in Papua will only come to an end when West Papua gains its full independence.
Upon the Declaration of the Federal Republic of West Papua by our President Forkorus Yaboisembut on October 19, 2011, we are now seeking for the World Support and Recognition of the Embryo State that had been established during the 3rd National Peoples Congress. The campaign has been robust and had spread like wild fire throughout the world in the last 2 years and even it is now an agenda on President Obama’s Desk.
We now want to take this campaign to our brothers of Melanesian countries and the rest of the Pacific region.
It has been our dream and long desire to return to Melanesia and Pacific as it used to be in our ancestral days prior to the western civilization. We also wish to remind our Melanesian Brothers that during the Netherlands Colonial Era we were one of the founding members of former South Pacific Commission (SPC) incepted in 1950 which gave birth to the present Pacific Island Forum.
We look forward to meeting you all in Noumea during the forthcoming Melanesian Spearhead Group meeting.
Thanking you all in advance and “Long Live Melanesia.”
May God Bless you all!
PAUL PETER MASTA
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4) Live Link To Papuans
Highgate Hill did its bit last night nurturing the Freedom Flotilla's journey to West Papua.
The event was part of a global network of celebrations including an Original Nations passport ceremony at the Trades Hall Council in Melbourne. It took place in the shadow of
the death of young activist Kainus Tabuni on Wednesday May 29th.
The flotilla is spearheaded by Uncle Kevin Buzzacot and has evolved over ten years since it was conceived at the thirtieth anniversary of the Canberra Tent Embassy. Following a ceremony at Lake Eyre on July 25th the flotilla will make its way overland to Brisbane and up the cost to Cairns. The flotilla itself will sail from Cairns on August 17, following concerts and ceremonies.
Check the flotilla's facebook page.
It aims to bring international attention to the rampant killing and oppression of the West Papuan people by the Indonesian military.
The public meeting at Turnstyle Community Hub in Laura St last night heard that the flotilla is aware that the Indonesian military plans to intercept the flotilla and hope that international attention brought about by the social media will help protect their safety.
Young activist Kainus Tabuni was shot dead on Wednesday May 29 2013. Leader of the
West Papuan National Committee (KNBP), Mako Tanubi was assassinated in public in June 2012 by the Indonesian government. The movements leaders are regularly arrested and beaten, meetings broken up and headquarters destroyed.
At least 100,000 West Papuans have been killed by the military since the Indonesian took control of the country in 1969 using an illegal act known by West Papuans as the Referendum of No Choice. This well documented international crime, in which one thousand Papuan tribal elders were forced at gun point to vote on a referendum handing over control of the country to the Indonesian government, is celebrated by the Indonesian government with a surreal statue in which a giant Indonesian soldier is supported by tiny, naked West Papuans.
Despite Indonesian and Australian government denial that the genocide is taking place only hundreds of kilometres from the Australian coast, footage smuggled out of the country clearly depicts a warzone in which 30,000 armed police and military, suppress a population of around two million West Papuans. This is the highest ratio of military to civilian control in the world.
Flotilla organisers in Melbourne discussed the role of the Freeport mine and the Australian government with the Turnstyle meeting. Freeport mine is the biggest gold mine in the world and Indonesia's largest taxpayer. In 2011 Freeport paid the Indonesian government $2billion in taxes alone. The government also owns 19 percent of the mine. US shareholders received a further $1.8 billion.
The meeting then screened the documentary, Goodbye Indonesia which shows the Indonesian Intelligence forces bizarrely texting death threats to the leader of the Free Papua movement as they hunt him down.
Posing as birdwatchers, the film makers record interviews with leaders of the movement, including one tribal elder who was part of the Referendum of No Choice. After spending a night in the swamp surrounded by the intelligence forces hunting them and their subjects two very scared journalists flee the country.
Following the release of the documentary on Al Jazeera television, a minister in the Indonesian Government Ms Dewi Fortuna Anwar observed that any movement toward independence is illegal under Indonesian law and is not afforded the right of free speech. "However, I do not think it is the policy of the Indonesian government to carry out violence against activists without due process of law," she said.
Whether that constitutes plausible deniability or simply denial is a matter of conjecture.
What is clear is that the attempts by the Indonesian and Australian government to contain the genocide to the remote highlands of the world's second largest island have failed. Online activists and the independent media will take this issue to the world and, hopefully, restore justice to this tragically betrayed region.
The author, Geoff Ebbs, is the Greens candidate for Griffith.
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5) 4 die in landslide in Intan Jaya, Papua
The Jakarta Post | The Archipelago | Sat, June 01 2013, 3:14 PM
Paper Edition | Page: 5
A landslide in Zanamba village, Intan Jaya regency, Papua, buried four residents alive on Tuesday.
The four victims were salt farmers, who at the time of the incident were resting in their honay (circular hut). They have been identified as Botak Lawiya, 19; Amutawa Lawiya, 25; Laris Lawiya, 18; and Tembi Kogoya, 19.
The incident occurred on Tuesday, but the remoteness of the area and a lack of means of communication made it impossible to report to the Papua Police headquarters until Thursday
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This statement was released by the West Papua Freedom Flotilla on June 1.
In solidarity with the passport ceremony in Melbourne, a peaceful rally was also held in Manokwari, West Papua.
The “freedom flotilla” convoy, which will travel through central and northern Australia and leave from Cairns, aims to highlight the abuse of human rights and land rights occurring in West Papua.
Indonesia invaded the western half of the island of New Guinea in May 1963. Since then over 500,000 West Papuan deaths and disappearances have been unaccounted for as a result of violence and poverty inflicted by the military occupation.
West Papuan leaders together with traditional owners of the Kulan, Gunnai and Arabunna Aboriginal nations, which once shared the same continent, have initiated this peaceful action to draw international attention to the situation in West Papua and take a stand against the Indonesian military and the governments and multinational corporations that are complicit in the crimes against humanity taking place there.
“For as long as these human rights abuses occur, the Australian and Indonesian government are complicit in genocide,” says Robert Thorpe, an elder of the Gunnai nation.
Jacob Rumbiak, the foreign minister of the Federated Republic of West Papuan government in exile said: “This mission will reunite our Indigenous family link, which was broken by geological evolution and colonial boundaries.”
Uncle Kevin Buzzacott, an elder of the Arabunna nation said: “This was one land; we still are one people, one soul.”
The Freedom Flotilla is being crowd-funded, and has received support from environmental and human rights activists, politicians, musicians, unions and West Papuans inside and outside West Papua.
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