1) Kiwis accused of providing 'aid that
kills'
2) NZ $6.3m aid plan under fire
3) In EU,
activists tell of Papua abuses
4) Access and
human rights abuses raised in EU Parliament hearing on West Papua
5) Freeport Sales Fall Short as G-Resources Gains on
Martabe
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1) Kiwis accused of providing 'aid that kills'
By Paul Bensemann
1:25 PM Saturday Jan 25, 2014
Tales emerge of a brutal crackdown on suspected West Papuan separatists by police with NZ training
Local independence leader Buchtar Tabuni, foreground, has had to hide from police after he was stopped on the way to a soccer game last June. Photo / Paul Bensemann
The West Papuan farmer showed me scars on his head he claimed police caused nearly two years ago.
His eyes were still bloodshot after a beating by rifle butts, boots and rattan sticks. The left eye, scarred on its edge, seemed slightly out of place.
The 35-year-old still gets headaches and has a partial loss of sight. After the beating, he said he was locked in a paddy wagon with 14 others, and left without food, water, medical attention or a toilet for 26 hours.
Local independence leader Buchtar Tabuni, 34, said he has had to live and hide in the jungle after police stopped him on the way to a soccer game last June. They kicked him and beat him with rifle butts and threatened to bury him alive in a cemetery. Because he has not stopped politicking, he fears a police "killing team" may shoot him in the street.
Both men were talking about a provincial police force in the Indonesian territory that New Zealand trains.
Some Papuans say that by helping local police, New Zealand is party to the brutal suppression of human rights in the region, where the United Nations has urged Jakarta to hold accountable those responsible for violence.
The farmer seemed what he claimed: a market gardener hosting young people from his former highlands village while they studied in Jayapura, the largest city. Nothing he said was critical of Indonesian sovereignty.
Speaking through translators, the farmer said: "They broke the door in. They fired pistol shots into the sky outside and two policemen inside shot pistols into the ceiling. There were 15 of us in the house - me and 14 students.
"They used their boots to jump on me. I was beaten on and off from 3am to 10am with rifle butts and wooden sticks. They were yelling, 'You are OPM. You are stupid'.
"At 11am we were taken to police headquarters. I had blood all over my face. They kept us in the police van at the back. No food, no water, no toilets. Next day at 1pm we were let out."
Unlike the farmer, Tabuni was radically political and said he was threatened to make him stop speaking out.
"There was a Polisi [police officer] on each side and they pinned an arm each with their backs. Behind me another one was grabbing my hair and pulling my head back. When we drove past a cemetery they said they could easily bury me alive in there.
"They said, 'You Papuans are not capable of creating anything but you want freedom. Why you want to be free? Papuans can't even make good food - you can't even make spices.'
"Maybe it is time New Zealand is thinking about Papuans. New Zealand government funds to Indonesia should stop."
For "spreading separatist propaganda" he had been jailed twice.
Victor Mambor, chairperson of the Alliance of Independent Journalists of Papua said one of his employees, Ardiansyah Matra'is, was killed at Merauke in 2010. The journalist had written a series of articles about illegal logging by military officers.
"His motorbike was by a bridge. Police say he jumped into river to commit suicide. But when his body was found in the harbour ... hands tied together, feet tied together, his body beaten. Ardiansyah was dead before going in the river."
Mambor summed up New Zealand's police training as "aid that kills".
"The Polisi here kill the people - they don't make investigations. New Zealand needs to stop."
Few independent accounts of alleged human rights abuses in West Papua exist because Jakarta restricts access to observers. A 2005 report Genocide in West Papua? by John Wing, co-ordinator of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University, claimed more than 100,000 Papuans had died since Indonesia took control from the Dutch in 1963.
And eight months ago the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay said that "serious allegations of human rights abuses by law enforcement officials persist."
The New Zealand aid project started in 2009 when police officers set up programmes in six West Papuan centres.
New Zealand's Jakarta Embassy website quotes senior police liaison officer Tim Haughey saying that for the past four years, officers had been "talking with and 'walking the beat' with their Indonesian counterparts, sharing the Kiwi style of community policing ..."
"It means talking to business owners and pedestrians, meeting with community groups and organisations and finding out their concerns and issues for many of the local community this is the first time that they would have sat down with the police and discussed issues affecting them."
In West Papua I could not quiz local police or speak to other officials because I was interviewing illegally on a tourist visa, having arrived on the pretext of bird watching.
But several Papuans raised disturbing claims about the effect of the programme.
Paul Mambrasar, of the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy of Papua said he had seen "no evidence police were applying the knowledge" of New Zealand training.
Referring to the June 2012 killing of Mako Tabuni, secretary general of National Committee for West Papua, or KNPB, Mambrasar said: "A doctor said when they [the police] took Mako from the hospital there was only one bullet hole. When they took him back, there were many holes."
Mambrasar and others described how West Papuan police chief Inspector General Tito Karnavian was carrying out a new and brutal crackdown on Melanesian separatists. Karnavian received part of his military training in New Zealand, and has a masters degree in security studies from Massey University. Septer Manufandu, co-ordinator of the Civil Society Coalition to Uphold Law and Human Rights in Papua said that in September 2012 he discussed community policing with New Zealand Ambassador David Taylor and questioned whether it was helping Papuans.
Manufandu had been investigating alleged torture to KNPB members around West Papua after police raids last year. He said police pulled suspects fingernails out with pliers or squashed their toes with table legs. Complaints his group made had been ignored, with the Jayapura police commander saying it was a "normal situation to get information".
During my visit, a church leader and mediator, Dr Neles Tebay, said although Indonesia had committed to improve dealings with Papuans, the problem was local military and police. Aid to these agencies was often counter-productive.
"Generally speaking the Indonesian Government is closer to New Zealand than to Australia. Australians are considered as a more arrogant neighbour. Kiwis are more friendly."
Talks with the pro-independence Free Papua Movement (OPM) was the only way of settling the conflict, he said. New Zealand was in a good position to back that.
The New Zealand Government has taken a cautious approach towards Papua. Prime Minister John Key said after meeting Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan in April 2012 that West Papua was "a very complex issue".
Behind the scenes, however, concerns have been raised about the programme.
A January 2011 diplomatic cable released under the Official Information Act to Auckland human rights activist Maire Leadbeater and headed "Indonesia: Aid Monitoring Visit to Papua 18-23 November 2010" stated: "We highlighted the community policing project as a flagship in the province ... This was welcomed by the heads of police and the military in Jayapura, by the police commander in Wamena and by the Governor and other political figures. One Wamena non-government organisation argued that as the police were agents of 'violence against Papuan children' we should expect criticism if we engaged with them.
"We responded that we had registered a variety of concerns about police; our view was that it was better to try and find ways to improve their performance and lift community understanding of their role also, rather than ignore extant problems."
Asked for comment, the Indonesian Embassy in Wellington did not address specific Papuan claims but described them as "a collection of negative opinions by sources that are mostly unreliable".
"In the words of New Zealand's Foreign Minister Murray McCully, community policing is one of the aspects that New Zealand is world-class at," the statement said.
Mr McCully said in a statement a review of the pilot work found it "supportive of the Indonesian National Police's reform efforts and provided practical skills and training.
"The NZ Government believes it is better to work with Indonesia to help instil principles of civil policing and community engagement rather than to observe and criticise from a distance. We welcome the Indonesian Government's instructions for the police and military to work in accordance with the law and with respect for human rights."
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2) NZ $6.3m aid plan under fire
8:30 AM Saturday Jan 25, 2014
A New Zealand police training project about to start in the troubled Indonesian territory of West Papua this year has been described by Papuans as "the same as sending money to kill us".
Police began training their Indonesian counterparts in 2009 in a pilot scheme.
Last October, Foreign Minister Murray McCully extended the project to a $6.34 million, three-year-long commitment.
"This is an excellent opportunity for New Zealand to contribute to Indonesia's peace and prosperity by improving professional community policing," he said.
But some Papuan lawyers, church leaders, human rights workers and journalists say local police actions have worsened since New Zealand's involvement, with Indonesia using it as a front to appease Western powers.
Interviews were collected over eight days in West Papua in July 2013 by journalist and academic Paul Bensemann. Because the Indonesian province restricts foreign reporters, he posed as a bird-watcher to gain access to 22 Papuan leaders and alleged victims of violence.
Prominent human rights leader Yosepha Alomang said that until 2011 the Indonesian military was responsible for most killings. "Now it is the police doing this. You [New Zealand] send aid money to them. It is the same as sending money to kill us."
Activist Paul Mambrasar said Indonesia was "using double standards in its policing".
The Indonesian Embassy in Wellington described the claims made to Bensemann as "a collection of negative opinions by sources that are mostly unreliable"
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3) In EU, activists tell of Papua abuses
Margareth S. Aritonang and Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Sat, January 25 2014, 9:31 AM
In a move that will irk officials in Jakarta, a group of activists have spoken about the human rights situation in the West Papua and Papua provinces at the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights.Three activists, two of whom are Indonesian, were guest speakers at the committee’s hearing from Wednesday to Thursday in Brussels, Belgium.
The activists are Zely Ariane from Jakarta-based National Papua Solidarity (Napas), Victor Mambor from the Jayapura chapter of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and Norman Voss from German-based International Coalition for Papua (ICP).
Representing the Indonesian government was Indonesian Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union Arif Havas Oegroseno.
In the hearing, video footage of which can be viewed at europarl.europa.eu, the activists raised concerns about the unresolved human rights cases in Papua and the limited access of foreign journalists and NGOs to Indonesia’s easternmost region.
“There are still double standards in Papua and other parts of Indonesia when it comes to media freedom and the application of the Press Law,” Mambor told the hearing.
In his written statement to the forum, which was made available to The Jakarta Post, he said that AJI had documented 22 cases of threats and violence against journalists in Papua in 2013 alone.
Zely, meanwhile, told the hearing that “the Indonesian government should admit that the state of the human rights situation in Papua is serious”. She called on the EU to put pressure on the government to uphold their commitment to a dialogue with Papua.
Norman called for the release of all political prisoners in Papua and reminded the committee of the long outstanding visit of UN human rights mechanisms to Papua. “Papua needs to be opened up and international human rights norms be realized for Papuans. A peaceful and sustainable change cannot be expected in a climate of fear and repression of political dissent,” he said.
“We came [to the hearing] to explain our version of what is actually happening in Papua and ask for support from the EU Parliament to help uphold justice and peace in Papua,” Zely told the Post upon leaving for Brussels.
“We hope that our presentation will encourage the EU Parliament to endorse calls for the Indonesian government, as well as lawmakers, to actually protect and uphold the rights of Papuans, as well as to ideally implement a peaceful dialogue between Indonesia and Papua,” she added.
In a 16-page dossier submitted by the activists to the committee, activists also criticized the restricted access slapped on foreign diplomats who attempted to assess the situation in Papua, citing the recent closed visit of foreign ministers from Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) member nations as an example.
“After the MSG — a regional body of Melanesian nations who support the human situation in Papua — decided to visit Papua to meet with civil society representatives, the Indonesian authorities only prepared a tour to industry and trade related projects. As a result of this access restriction, Vanuatu withdrew from the visit as it felt the ‘pre-arranged’ tour would not meet the purpose,” the dossier says.
This particular incident also highlights similar restricted practices implemented for other foreign agencies, including those that deal with humanitarian and development cooperation.
Arif, according to the recorded footage, rejected the activists’ claim that the situation had not changed in Papua. He emphasized that the government’s policy of decentralization and special autonomy for Papua had boosted development there.
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4) Access and human rights abuses raised in EU Parliament hearing on West Papua
Victor Mambor, while spoke in front of EU Parliament Members (Doc. EU)
Brussels, 24/1 (Jubi) – The human rights subcommittee of the EU parliament in Brussels held a hearing on human rights abuses in West Papua, Indonesia on Thursday, January 23, 2014.
During the one hour meeting, the chair of the hearing gave an overview of human rights reports they had received in preparation of the meeting. A large group of national and international human rights NGOs had sent letters to the subcommittee’s members.
Victor Mambor from the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) – Jayapura, listed cases of attacks against journalists in Papua and called on the EU to ensure the protection of media freedom in Papua.
“There are still double standards in Papua and Indonesia when it comes to media freedom and the application of the press law,” Mambor explained. AJI had documented 22 cases of threats and violence against journalists in Papua.
Members of the European Parliament stressed that the situation in West Papua had to long been ignored in discussions and called for a closer involvement.
Earlier this week, the EU parliaments committee on foreign affairs had adopted a report to prepare a partnership and cooperation agreement between Indonesia and the EU. Member of the European Parliament Anamaria Gomes had emphasized that this agreement should be the framework for the parliament to look further into the conditions in West Papua.
Norman Voss, from Human Rights and Peace for Papua, an international coalition of faith-based and civil society organizations, called for a release of all political prisoners in Papua and reminded of the long outstanding visit of UN human rights mechanisms to Papua. “Papua needs to be opened up and international human rights norms be realised for Papuans. A peaceful and sustainable change cannot be expected in a climate of fear and repression of political dissent.”
In June 2013, the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva had reviewed Indonesia’s implementation of civil and political rights and had urged Indonesia to left the restrictions on freedom of expression and opinion in Papua.
Zely Ariane from the National Papua Solidarity in Jakarta explained that “the Indonesian government should admit that the state of human rights in Papua is serious.” She called on the EU to put pressure on the Indonesian government to continue their commitment to conduct a dialogue with Papua.
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5) Freeport Sales Fall Short as G-Resources Gains on Martabe
By Tito Summa Siahaan on 11:12 am January 25, 2014.
Category Business, Corporate News
Tags: Freeport Indonesia, G-Resources
Category Business, Corporate News
Tags: Freeport Indonesia, G-Resources
Freeport Indonesia, the local unit of US mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold, failed to achieve its full-year sales target from its Grasberg mine in Papua last year, while G-Resources saw higher-than-expected productivity from its Martabe gold mine in North Sumatra.
Freeport-McMoRan, which controls Freeport Indonesia, said late on Wednesday that copper sales by volume from Grasberg was 885 million pounds, while sales of copper was close to 1.1 million ounces.
While output for copper rose 24 percent from 2012 and gold by 20 percent, it was short of the targeted 1.1 billion pounds and 1.2 million ounces for 2013, respectively.
Freeport Indonesia in August declared that it might fail to achieve its target by 20 percent after two separate accidents occurred in Grasberg. Despite a significant increase in sales volume, the mining company suffered from lower prices as the international commodity market remained subdued.
Freeport-McMoRan said the average price for copper per pound dropped by 8.3 percent to $3.28 last year, while gold tracked the 21 percent decrease in the precious metal’s price to $1,312 an ounce.
The Arizona-based company expects sales volume to climb in the coming years as the underground development in Grasberg will provide access to higher-grade ores.
Freeport-McMoRan said in a statement obtained by Jakarta Globe that sales from Indonesian mining are expected to approximate 1.1 billion pounds of copper and 1.6 million ounces of gold for 2014.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong-based G-Resources reported higher-than-expected productivity from its Martabe mine in North Sumatra.
Martabe produced 281,477 ounces of gold, exceeding its original forecast of 250,000 ounces. Additionally, G-Resources mined 1.5 million ounces of silver from that site.
Martabe started commercial operations early last year. The mine is designed to sustain gold production of 250,000 ounces and up to 3 million ounces of silver. The mine is estimated to hold reserves of 8.05 million ounces of gold and 77 million ounces of silver.
Martabe said in a statement sent to the Globe on Friday that it generated $429 million from sales of 280,363 ounces of gold and 1.46 million ounces of silver.
G-Resources set a target output range of 230,000 ounces to 250,000 ounces for gold and 2 million ounces for silver.
“The range is set because we are assessing alternative measures to optimize mining operations, while the low gold price scenario is expected to be sustained,” the company said.
G-Resources has invested $900 million to develop Martabe. The production cost at Martabe is lower than most gold mines in Indonesia as it has a low striping ration, which means that materials mined from earth contains more minerals.
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