Tuesday, May 6, 2014

1) Three Injured as Papua Police Fire on Civilians


1) Three Injured as Papua Police Fire on Civilians
2) Australian Government urged to adopt human rights safeguards in military aid programs as West Papua marks anniversary of Indonesian control
3) Indonesian update (The Monthly magazine)
4) SWISS AMBASSADOR SEEKS INFORMATION ON SPECIAL AUTONOMY, JAKARTA – PAPUA DIALOGUE
5) ONE-ROOF SCHOOL AT YAMBI IS CLOSED
6) MILITARY DENIES SHOOTING INCIDENT AT PNG BORDER
7) The U.S. And The Indonesian Right: A Look At Anti-Democratic Pro-Capitalist Crimes

8) Australian PM apologizes  for canceling trip to Indonesia 

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1) Three Injured as Papua Police Fire on Civilians

By Banjir Ambarita on 06:56 pm May 06, 2014
Category News
Jayapura. Police in Papua have confirmed shooting and injuring three people from a mob reportedly demanding to lynch the driver of a truck involved in a deadly accident, but deny firing without warning.
The officers shot at the three men in Dogiyai district on Tuesday “because the mob had started to get out of control,” Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian, the Papua Police chief, told the Jakarta Globe.
He said the incident stemmed from a traffic accident in the district’s Edeida hamlet, in which a speeding truck struck and killed two residents, Yusten Kegakoto, 18, and Jhon Anouw, 20.
The driver fled to a nearby police station, fearing a backlash by onlookers.
“The mob demanded that the police hand the driver over to them, but the police refused. That’s when the mob ran amok, even though they’d been warned,” Tito said.
He added that the mob had dispersed after officers from the police’s Mobile Brigade, or Brimob, fired into the crowd and injured three people.
He also said police would call a gathering with local elders and religious leaders to quell any simmering tensions and prevent any revenge attacks.
However, residents at the scene refuted the police chief’s version of the events.
“When the residents went to the police station, the Brimob personnel fired without warning,” said Benny Goo, a resident.
He said one of those injured was shot in the thigh, another in the chest and a third in the stomach.
The police have long been criticized for their excessive use of force in Papua, which hosts the heaviest concentration of police and military personnel of any province in the country — sent there ostensibly to put down a low-level armed insurgency that has been running for decades.
Rights groups had expressed concern about an increase in heavy-handed tactics when Tito was named the provincial police chief in 2012. Tito previously headed Densus 88, the police’s counterterrorism unit, known for its high body count in its pursuit of suspected terrorists.

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Human Rights Law Centre

2) Australian Government urged to adopt human rights safeguards in military aid programs as West Papua marks anniversary of Indonesian control

2 May 2014
The Australian Government should introduce laws that would minimise the risk of Australian policing or military assistance supporting human rights violators.
The Human Rights Law Centre’s Director of Communication, Tom Clarke, said Australia’s support of Indonesia’s counter-terrorism unit, Detachment 88, was in desperate need of review.
“The Australian public can have no confidence that adequate steps are being taken to ensure Australia is not in any way complicit with human rights abuses occurring in Indonesia’s Papuan provinces,” said Mr Clarke.
Mr Clarke said under international law countries have an obligation to conduct due diligence to identify the “risks and potential extraterritorial impacts of their laws, policies and practices on the enjoyment of human rights”.
A report from the Asian Human Rights Commission released last year detailed how Australian-supplied helicopters were among aircraft used to carry out napalm and cluster bombing in the West Papuan highlands during the 1970s. However, Mr Clarke said such problems are not limited to historic events.
“Australia has an extremely dubious record when it comes to Papua – successive governments have turned a blind eye to the human rights abuses occurring on our doorstep. But if we want to avoid the mistakes of the past, we need to have a serious discussion about what type of human rights safeguards could be introduced to ensure we don’t have blood on our hands if atrocities continue,” said Mr Clarke.
Mr Clarke points to the “Leahy Law” in the USA as a model potentially worth looking at as it attempts to ensure recipients of military aid are vetted by the US State Department and Department of Defence.
“Such mechanisms are never going to be magic wands that can just wave away all human rights concerns, but we could and should do more to implement practical steps to reduce the risk of supporting people or units that commit gross violations of human rights,” said Mr Clarke.
This week marked the 51st anniversary since the UN handed temporary control of West Papua to Indonesia for six years until the controversial ‘Act of Free Choice’ referendum was conducted. Last year, Indonesian authorities shot protestors marking the 50th anniversary.
“There’s a reason many Papuans refer to the Act of Free Choice as the ‘Act of No Choice’ – it was an incredibly flawed process. Under severe duress, including threats of violence from senior ranking military officials, 1025 hand-picked Papuans were forced to vote on behalf of a population of one million. This anniversary is another reminder of the various injustices that continue to this day in Papua,” said Mr Clarke.
The Human Rights Law Centre is hosting public events in Melbourne and Sydney looking at these topics and otherswith Rafendi Djamin, Indonesia’s Representative for the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, Elaine Pearson, the Director of Human Rights Watch in Australia, and Dr Clinton Fernandes, Associate Professor in International and Political Studies at University of New South Wales.
 
For further information or comments, please contact:
Tom Clarke, HRLC Director of Communications, on 0422 545 763 or tom.clarke@hrlc.org.au
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The MONTHLY
3) Indonesian update
By ELISABETH KRAMER Tuesday, 29th April 2014
On 9 April Indonesians voted in general elections for their parliamentary representatives. Commentators agreed that it was the Indonesian National Party of Struggle’s (PDIP) election to lose. Its decision to nominate the hugely popular Governor of Jakarta, Joko Widodo (Jokowi), as its presidential candidate had the media buzzin. Pre-election polls put PDIP’s results at well over the 25% threshold required to put forward a candidate for the presidential elections in July.
Early vote counts suggest that PDIP didn’t make the 25% threshold and will now have to form a coalition in order to put Jokowi forward.
Whatever the outcome, it’s unlikely that Jokowi will not contest the presidential election. The way things stand, it’s also unlikely he will lose.
Jokowi’s main contender for the presidency is Prabowo Subianto, a former military leader who was accused of human rights abuses under the Suharto regime. Prabowo’s party, Gerindra, also failed to garner the required 25% of the popular vote. The negotiation of coalitions is ongoing but pending unforeseen events these two seem the main challengers for the presidency.
For Australians, the outcome of these elections will be something to watch. International engagement was a cornerstone of outgoing president Yudhoyono’s regime, which aimed to increase Indonesia’s leadership role in the region and make a name for Indonesia on the international stage. Yudhoyono was largely seen as a friend to the west, having undertaken military training and completed his Masters degree in the US. 
But even with a leader who seemed amenable to building international relations, Australia-Indonesian relations still managed to sour, driven by the trespass of Australian navy boats into Indonesian waters and the spying scandal.
By the end of this year, Indonesia will have a new president. So what can Australia expect if Jokowi or Prabowo assume the presidency? It’s impossible to say with certainty. International relations very rarely play into electoral campaigns in Indonesia. Party rhetoric focuses almost exclusively on domestic issues. Nationalist discourse has predominated, with a strong emphasis on the need for Indonesia to solve its internal problems rather than looking outwards. 
But apart from the usual focus on improving the lot of regular Indonesians via agricultural reforms, social welfare and education, and fighting corruption, new debates have emerged which indicate that a change in government may have real consequences for how Indonesia deals with other countries. The issue of food security has come to the fore, with several parties arguing that Indonesia needs to reduce its dependence on imports. There are also calls to ensure that the profits from mining projects flow increasingly to national coffers and not those of international investors. 
Perhaps a more telling indication of what to expect is reflected in the language of the presidential hopefuls themselves: that Indonesia needs an assertive and decisive leader. As his second term comes to an end, Yudhoyono is almost universally seen as weak and ineffective.
Prabowo has drawn upon his military experience to emphasise his experience in making tough decisions. Invoking anti-colonial themes, he describes Indonesia’s relations with foreign countries as characterised by exploitation. Jokowi has not been so blatant, but in asserting that he will be tough on corruption and ‘idiocy’ in the government he, too, knows the public wants a different kind of leader. 
The Indonesian public will have high expectations of the new president. Australia should be prepared to deal with a leadership that is potentially far less accommodating than the previous government.



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4) SWISS AMBASSADOR SEEKS INFORMATION ON SPECIAL AUTONOMY, JAKARTA – PAPUA DIALOGUE

 May 6th, 2014


Jayapura, 5/5 (Jubi) – The Ambassador of Switzerland, Daniel Dersic, visited Papua to hold talks with Governor Lukas Enembe and the provincial parliament on Monday (5/5).
Dersic said it was his first visit to Papua and the Switzerland Embassy would like to know more about the implementation of  Special Autonomy in Papua.
“The purpose of my mission is to observe and to be in touch with the development in Papua, and to hear about the implementation of the Special Autonomy which is considered a failure by some Papuans. I also wanted to know further about the desire of the Papuan community for a dialogue between the Papuans and the Government of Indonesia,” Dersic said.
At the same place, the chairman of the Papua Representative Council (DPR Papua), Deerd Tabuni said the Special Autonomy scheme was the idea of Papuan people but their welfare had not improved.
“The development is only seen in the urban area. But in other remote areas such as at the coastal or mountain areas, people are still living in poverty though most of the revenue and income for the State is obtained from Papua, such as PT Freeport Indonesia,” he said.
He if the people of Papua had the opportunities to manage their own natural resources, they would not live in poverty and never entertain the idea of independence.
“The security situation in Papua is always changing. It’s uncertain. Sometimes shooting incidents occurred. It’s made us confused. And the police never arrest the perpetrators. It’s made us suspicious. (Jubi/Arjuna/rom)
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5) ONE-ROOF SCHOOL AT YAMBI IS CLOSED



Jayapura, 5/5 (Jubi) – Papua’s education department  has confirmed the closure  of a school at Yambi Sub-district in Puncak Jaya Regency after no pupils attended classes because of the presence of an armed group.
“It’s true there is a one-roof school consisting of elementary, junior and high schools at Yambi Sub-district to be closed. Because it’s located at the OPM (Free Papua Movement) base, no pupils went to the school,” the Head of Education and Cultural Department of Province Papua, Elias Wonda told reporters in Jayapura on Monday (5/5).
“Yambi located at the mountain area is actually been in the Sinak area. It only has one entrance and surrounded by the mountain. So it’s difficult to access while there is also the OPM base. I have been there. The place was empty, only some of OPM members who live there,” he said.
He further said the access to the Central Highland areas is isolated so it’s difficult for his office to access the existing schools out there. “Children who are going to the school should take one or two days travel from one village to others which live around 5-10 families,” he said.
To resolve this case, the Education and Cultural Department will create a boarding school program where the pupils of the 4th-12th grade of the elementary school and the junior and senior high school would be placed in the boarding house to study at the One-roof school while the 1st-2nd grade of the elementary school would remain study at their village school. The department is planning to build the boarding school this year but they still have a lack of budget since the education budget was dropped to all regencies/municipality.
“It’s our future program to response the shortage of teachers. So all teachers of the entire grades would be able to educate,” he said.
“We hoped we could build it next year. Currently ther are five pilot regencies and it has been discussed with the Papua Parliament. Basically the parliament has agreed. After we received the funds, it could be answer the shortage of teachers and schools at the remote areas by implementing the boarding school system,” he said.
He added the five pilot regencies are Yahukimo, Lany Jaya, Puncak Jaya, Boven Digoel and Dogiyai.
“In the sixties to eighties, the quality of education in Papua was regarded as excellent. But in the 2000 ear, its quality was dropped. Therefore, we are trying to revitalize the education in Papua,” he said.
Earlier, the Governor of Papua Lukas Enembe said the education in the villages need to be managed and the best model should be established, including to develop a system to reduce the gap in education, therefore the graduates from the village areas and the urban areas have the equal quality.
“The education in the villages needs to be well managed. It’s important to be implemented to ensure the graduates from the villages have the same quality with the graduates from the urban areas. So they could have the same competencies to be competed to get the job opportunities,” the Governor Lukas Enembe said.(Jubi/Alex/rom)


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6) MILITARY DENIES SHOOTING INCIDENT AT PNG BORDER

 May 6th, 2014

Jayapura, 5/5 (Jubi) – The military in Papua has denied reports in Papua New Guinea that a shooting incident had occurred between Indonesian soldiers and the border patrol guard of PNG.
Cenderawasih garrison spokesman  Lieutenant Colonel Rikas Hidayatullah said it was not true that  Indonesian soldiers shot their PNG counterparts. He said Indonesian soldiers even allowed PNG troops to cross the ‘no man’s land’ area.
“The news on the shooting of the PNG soldier at the border area was not true. The fact is the Indonesian soldiers encountered the PNG soldiers in no man’s land area and allowed them to pass by,” he said to Jubi on Monday night (5/5).
He further asked reporters to be more sensitive in reporting issues at the border of Indonesia and PNG and seek confirmation to his department.
“It’s important to maintain the situation at the Border area of the Republic of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. So we should equally verify the validity of information,” he said.
Earlier, as reported by tabloidjubi.com to quote the report of the Post Courier, the Ministry of the Foreign Affairs and Immigration of PNG, Rimbink Pato called the Indonesian Ambassador for PNG, Andrias Sitepu to give a note of complaint by PNG on the shooting incident that occurred on 19 April in the morning. (Jubi/Victor Mambor/rom)



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OpEdNews Op Eds 

7) The U.S. And The Indonesian Right: A Look At Anti-Democratic Pro-Capitalist Crimes



The story of "post-colonial" Indonesia begins on August 17, 1945, when Sukarno, its first president, declared Indonesia an independent and free nation. The Dutch colonization of Indonesia began in 1602 with the establishment of the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch controlled all aspects of Indonesian life and its great wealth of natural resources, including its vast quantities of oil and natural gas until the Japanese military invaded in 1942.
Sukarno became newly independent Indonesia's first president in 1945. Much of Sukarno's popularity came from his strong opposition to colonialism and the exploitation of people and resources in poor and exploited lands. Ten years after becoming president of Indonesia, he held a conference April 18-24 of 1955 at Bandung in order to encourage and map out strategies for independent economic and social development free from the control or dictates of any European country, the U.S., or the USSR. Attendees of the first Bandung Conference included Burma, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, Indonesia, Pakistan. It was also attended by 18 other countries from Asia--Afghanistan, Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Jordan, Laos, Lebanon, Nepal, Peoples' Republic of China, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, South Vietnam, Syria, Thailand, Turkey and Yemen. From Africa there was Egypt, Ethiopia, Gold Coast (now Ghana), Liberia, Libya, and Sudan.
The Bandung Conference and the concept and creation of the non-aligned movement (not aligned with or under the control of Europe, the U.S., or USSR's interests or influence) was seen as a threat, particularly to the U.S. The very concept presented a grave threat to the hegemonic interests of the U.S. Within three years of the conference many Indonesians would pay with their lives for the audacity of wanting to be free and attempting to control their own destinies and resources. Indonesia's President Sukarno did seem to fully believe in and hold to the concept of non-alignment, wanting true independence, favoring neither Moscow nor Washington. Indonesia did have a large communist party, the PKI, and this would be a factor in U.S. actions to come. Sukarno's determination to maintain control over Indonesian oil and other natural resources put him on a collision course with the U.S. Even though Sukarno had no affiliation with the PKI, President Eisenhower labeled Sukarno a communist and his administration and the CIA went to work spreading misinformation. In 1957 and 1958 the U.S. began to carry out attacks on the civilian population. In 1958 the U.S. began to bomb Indonesian ships and airports in eastern Indonesia. On May 18, 1958, a B-26 piloted by Allen L. Pope, after bombing a navel vessel at the port city of Ambon, flew over the city, bombing a church and the central market, killing over 700 civilians.
Pope was shot down and imprisoned until February of 1962 when then U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy visited Indonesia. Pope was released as a goodwill gesture after Kennedy had spoken with Sukarno.
The Suharto [note the subtle spelling difference] coup d'etat of September 30, 1965, and its subsequent mass killings began with a group of officers loyal to Suharto began abducting and killing six generals loyal to Sukarno. Suharto then went immediately to spread the fabrication that the six were killed by the PKI and military officers loyal to the PKI. In John Roosa's excellent book on this subject, "Pretext For Mass Murder", he writes: "It has been difficult to believe that a political party, consisting entirely of civilians, could command a military operation. How could civilians order military personnel to carry out their bidding?" Numbers of those killed vary widely from 250,000 to a million Indonesian civilians. The main purpose for this crime was to destroy the Indonesian left and to eliminate Sukarno with his non-aligned movement.
In a May 1990 article on U.S. involvement in the coup, Kathy Kadane writes: "The U.S. government played a significant role in one
of the worst massacres of the century by supplying the names of thousands of communist party leaders to the Indonesian army,
which hunted down the leftists and killed them, former U.S. diplomats say. For the first time U.S. officials acknowledge that in 1965
they systematically compiled lists of communist operatives, from top echelons down to village cadres. As many as 5,000 names were furnished to the Indonesian army, and the Americans later checked off the names of those who had been killed or captured, according to the U.S. officials." The U.S. was an active participant in one of the 20th century's worst mass murders.

The Indonesian province of West Papua has endured as one of the world's longest running and most extreme cases of ongoing human-rights abuse. On December 1, 1961, the First Papua Congress voted to rename the territory "West Papua" and the Morning Star flag was raised, signifying their nationhood, independence, and sovereignty as a nation. On August 14, 1962, Indonesia dropped hundreds of paratroopers into West Papua. In 1962, President Kennedy and the U.S. government forced the Netherlands to sign on the transfer of West Papua to Indonesia without Papuan consent.

Since that occurred, over 500,000 civilians have been killed. Thousands more have been raped, tortured, imprisoned, or have "disappeared" after having been detained. Many in the international human-rights community see what is happening in West Papua as a deliberate, ongoing process of genocide of West Papua's indigenous people. They cite the case of the "Biak Massacre" in which over 200 people including women and children were rounded up by the Indonesian military, loaded onto vessels, taken to the sea, and thrown overboard.

The use of torture by the Indonesian military on the indigenous population is widespread as is rape and sexual assault by the military and police against the indigenous population. The Indonesian military has been able to act with impunity with the full support of the U.S. and Great Britain.

Another faction in the West Papua story has been the U.S. mining company Freeport-McMoRan, which mines copper and gold. In its original contract from 1967, Indonesia gave Freeport "the exclusive right to enter upon and to take possession of and to occupy the project area." This resulted in the forced relocation of about 2,000 indigenous West Papuans. Since that time, the perceived needs and desires of both Freeport and the government in Jakarta always took precedence over the people of West Papua.

Another joint project of the U.S., Great Britain, and Indonesia was the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975. The U.S. and
Britain gave Indonesia their blessings and millions of dollars' worth of weapons and armaments to carry out the invasion with ease.
By 1999 when East Timor regained its independence, 200,000 of the nation's 700,000 population had been killed. Aside from providing Indonesia with armaments, the U.S. regularly holds joint-training exercises with the Indonesian military. They do this with the Philippines as well. There, over 1,500 extra-judicial killings of activists, human-rights workers, and journalists have occurred since 2001 and are continuing to happen.
These joint military training and exercises are the Asian parallel of the School of the Americas, which has trained Latin American
militaries and dictators to torture and carry out extra-judicial killings throughout Latin America since the end of World War II.

The parallels and ongoing practice has gone on far too long and can still be seen with regularity in the Philippines. Speak out to end extra-judicial killings whenever and wherever they occur.

I welcome your thoughts and ideas. -Brian McAfee 
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8) Australian PM apologizes  for canceling trip to Indonesia 
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | World | Tue, May 06 2014, 11:20 PM

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott expressed his regrets to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that he would be unable to attend the upcoming Open Government Partnership (OGP) Asia Pacific Regional Conference in Nusa Dua, Bali.
PM Abbott made a phone call to President Yudhoyono at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, according to a press release made available to The Jakarta Post today.
“President SBY says he could understand that PM Abbott’s nonattendance is due to his activity to finalize the Australian federal budget,” presidential spokesman for foreign affairs, Teuku Faizasyah, said in the release.
Abbott is one of several heads of states and government of Asia-Pacific countries invited to the OGP conference, which will end Wednesday.
If PM Abbott was able to attend the conference, it would have been the first time the two leaders would have met since a wiretapping scandal surfaced in November last year.
Faizasyah said that in the phone call, the two leaders discussed the creation of a code of conduct for surveillance being negotiated by their respective foreign affairs ministers.
“The President hopes that the code of conduct can be completed by August at the latest,” Faizasyah said.
He further said the Australian prime minister expressed his hope to be able to visit Indonesia to meet President Yudhoyono during his overseas trip in June.
PM Abbott also conveyed his plan to establish an Indonesia-Australia study center in Melbourne and expressed his hope that he and President Yudhoyono could maintain their good relations even after the latter ended his term of office later this year. (fss/ebf)
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