1) West Papuan asylum seekers to be sent to camp on PNG-Indonesian border Group of seven who were deported from Australia fear kidnapping by Indonesia if sent to remote border camp

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/11/west-papuans-refugee-camp-border

1) West Papuan asylum seekers to be sent to camp on PNG-Indonesian border
Group of seven who were deported from Australia fear kidnapping by Indonesia if sent to remote border camp

Marni Cordell
theguardian.com, Friday 11 October 2013 17.45 AEST

Seven West Papuans who claimed asylum in Australia have been told they will be sent to a remote camp in Papua New Guinea on the border of Indonesia – the country they are fleeing from.

The group, including a woman and a 10-year-old child, landed on Boigu Island in the Torres Strait on 24 September and sought protection from Australia. But they were deported two days later and handed over to PNG immigration officials in the capital of Port Moresby, where they have been kept in a hotel room since.

One of the group, Yacob Mechrian Mandabayan, told Guardian Australia via phone from Port Moresby on Friday afternoon that the seven had been given two options by PNG immigration officials when they met with them late Thursday afternoon.

“Option number one is go back to Indonesia and option number two is [claim asylum] in Papua New Guinea. We refused the two options,” he said.

“Refugees like us in PNG cannot have a good life,” Mandabayan said.

“[The PNG government] has not given citizenship to other West Papuan activists before us when they came here. We have a 10-year-old kid here, he needs education.

“Also in PNG we can see a lot of Indonesian people. Indonesia can pay those people to kidnap us or do something to us, that’s why we feel unsafe in Papua New Guinea.”

After refusing the offer, the group were told they would be sent to a camp in Kiunga, in PNG’s Western province, where other West Papuan refugees reside, Mandabayan said.

“In Google maps, you can see that Kiunga is really close to the border [with Indonesia]. That’s why we’re afraid.”

Before fleeing West Papua, the group said they had received threats from the Indonesian military for taking part in a protest against the Indonesian occupation of the province.

Mandabayan told Guardian Australia at the time: "We've become refugees in our own country and we ask your help to expose our situation here. We need your help. Please.”

The group is now questioning the legality of their removal from Australia.

On 30 September, the immigration minister, Scott Morrison, told the media that the West Papuans had been removed under a 2003 memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Papua New Guinea.

But that MOU requires asylum seekers be in PNG for seven or more days before arriving in Australia. The seven West Papuans repeatedly told Australian immigration officials that they only spent two nights in PNG before arriving on Boigu Island.

Morrison later admitted the agreement had been relaxed. "There was a concession agreed between the two governments," he said.

Mandabayan told Guardian Australia, “Why does [Australia] treat us like a criminal? We came as refugees to Australia, seeking asylum and protection in Australia; why do they treat us like a criminal? They dumped us here, and now the PNG government is doing the same thing.”

A spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition, Ian Rintoul, said, “Scott Morrison has admitted that the government did not follow the 2003 MOU and returned them to PNG despite the fact they had not been in PNG for more than seven days as required by the MOU.

“It seems that the West Papuans have been unlawfully removed from Australia.”

“Scott Morrison flicked the West Papuans to PNG to keep them ‘out of sight and out of mind’ to avoid any embarrassment with Indonesia. Now, the PNG government is following Australia’s lead and flicking them to a remote camp,” he said.

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http://m.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/10/11/mimika-dairi-elections-marred-with-violations.html
2) , Dairi elections marred with violations
Nethy Dharma Somba and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Timika/Medan | Fri, 10/11/2013 8:05 AM | Archipelago

Queuing to cast votes: Residents of the Nawaripi village in Timika, the capital of the Mimika regency in Papua, queued before entering the booth to vote on Thursday. Up to 11 pairs of candidates took part in the regional regent election in Mimika, which has 223,049 eligible voters. (JP/Nethy Dharma Somba)

Blatant irregularities were reported at regional elections in Mimika regency, Papua, and in Dairi regency, North Sumatra, on Thursday.

In Mimika, incidents included people voting without having a valid ID card, a member of the Polling Station Working Committee (KPPS) punching all the ballots at a polling station (TPS) and voters casting multiple ballots.

At TPS 62 in Koprakopa village, Mimika Baru district, a person who lacked an ID card, an invitation from the local General Elections Commission (KPUD) and a listing on the fixed voters’ roll was seen casting a vote.

Head of TPS 13 in Nawaripi village, Sem Nauw, announced that villagers wanting to vote wouldn’t need a KPUD invitation, just an ID or a guarantee from their neighborhood unit (RT) head that they were residents.

At TPS 61, a KPPS member, apparently representing all the people who wished to vote at the station, punched all the ballots — which were then brought to TPS 62 and cast. A police officer reported the matter to an Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) member and then detained the person at the Mimika Baru Police station while the ballots and ballot box were brought to the Mimika Panwaslu office.

Eleven candidates were competing in Mimika for the support of 233,409 voters at 568 polling stations.

Meanwhile in North Sumatra, the Dairi Panwaslu head, Hotmanita Capah, acknowledged that many irregularities had occurred during its regency election.

“Outsiders from Medan, Pekanbaru and Kabanjahe also cast votes in the election. We call them phantom voters,” she said on Thursday.

She said several phantom voters were seen voting at a number of polling stations, such as at TPS 6 in Sidikalang district. Also, perforated ballots had been found at TPS 4, also in Sidikalang.

Hotmanita said her office would recommend that the Dairi KPUD hold re-votes at those polling stations. There were 203,910 voters in Dairi.

In an election in North Tapanuli regency, also in North Sumatra, candidates were competing to get the most votes from 199,082 eligible voters at 627 polling stations.

North Tapanuli KPUD head Lantagon Manalu said that initial results were showing it was a very tight race. He declined to say which candidate was leading in the vote count.

“We will know later when the KPUD officially announces the election results on Oct. 15,” said Lantagon.

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3) West Papua to remain closed to outside world

Date
October 11, 2013 - 7:09PM


Michael Bachelard



Indonesia correspondent for Fairfax Media

Fresh hope that Indonesia would allow foreign journalists and observers freely into its most troubled province, West Papua, appear to be unfounded.

The governor of Papua province, Lukas Enembe, said on Wednesday that he wanted to welcome reporters and non-governmental organisations to the area.

"There's nothing that needs to be covered up. That would only raise questions. They can see the development we have made and inform others that Papua is a safe place," he said, as quoted by the Jakarta Globe newspaper.

His promise was immediately seized upon by Australian Greens Senator Richard Di Natale, one of the Parliamentary Friends of West Papua group. He said he had been planning to visit the area anyway, and, in the wake of the governor's comments he would "invite a delegation of journalists and human rights representatives to join me on the trip".

But the hope for fresh openness was quickly squashed by the central government in Jakarta, which still requires journalists to apply for special permits to go to the province, and to take secret police officers with them if they are approved.

Journalists must apply to the Indonesian department of foreign affairs for special permission to travel, giving all information about who they will interview, when and where.

Their application is then considered on a Thursday evening in what's called the "clearing house" meeting, involving 18 Indonesian government departments, including police and the military.

Many applications for travel features to the Raja Ampat diving site are approved, but most applications for serious reporting are rejected.

Fairfax Media has confirmed with the Indonesian department of foreign affairs that the "clearing house" process remains the only legal route to West Papua.

Journalists who travel without permission face being put on a blacklist banning them from future visits to Indonesia, and correspondents resident in Indonesia confront the possibility that their immigration status may be revoked.

Even the International Committee for the Red Cross has been banned from the province.

Mr Lukas, who was elected in April, does not have the power to overturn the policy of the central government. His province is represented at the clearing house meeting by the Home Affairs ministry.

However his comments could be construed as a welcome change of tone.

And Ruben Magai, the head of Commission A, which is responsible for mass media at the provincial parliament, also urged the central government to ease up, saying: "If security is the reason I don't think Papua is in some kind of war state or something like that nowadays."

But western journalists have been assured on numerous occasions in the past that permission to travel will be forthcoming and those promises have, in the past, turned out to be largely false.

Indonesian troops have been involved in a low-level conflict with Papuan separatist organisations since the area was annexed by Indonesia in 1969 in a vote widely seen as a sham by international monitors.


Disclosure: Michael Bachelard applied and was one of the few to receive permission to visit West Papua in January 2013. He produced two reports: