2) TNI Sets Up Village Guard Post Following Alleged PNG Incursion
3) Tolikara Divert Attention from Rights Issues in Papua
4) Students Rally over Domination of Non-Papuans in Sorong Selatan Administration
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HTTP://THEISLANDSUN.COM/WEST-PAPUA-FOR-PACIFIC-ISLANDS-FORUM-AGENDA-DEPENDS-ON-THIN-DOWN-PROCESS-OF-TOPICS-MCCULLY/
1) WEST PAPUA FOR PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM AGENDA DEPENDS ON ‘THIN DOWN’ PROCESS OF TOPICS: MCCULLY
THE CHANCES of West Papua liberators, pushing for the human rights abuses in the Indonesian province, to go on talks at the 46th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting remains uncertain, but will depend on a list of topics on queue.
This is according to New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Murray McCully, who is in the country this week.
Responding to the increasing calls for the issue to go before the important regional Forum, McCully instead, routed his government’s stand on the human rights issues in West Papua, and spoke on the Forum Officials Committee in Fiji responsible for the issues of discussion.
He said the Committee will meet this week for a “thin down” process of topics that should go on agenda.
“The Forum Officials Committee is meeting this week, as I understand it, in Fiji, to design the agenda for leaders, designed to thin down the number of topics, so that only a few important ones remain. And we certainly recognise the support and desire of Melanesian countries to ensure that this matter is understood and dealt with in a respectful way by full means,” McCully said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.
He said he had made discussions with Sogavare earlier in their meeting.
“We very much understand that [Solomon Islands] have deep interest in this regard that the involvement of the Melanesian Spearhead Group as the key sub-regional grouping is something that we should respect and that the desire to see some sort of discussion in a wider regional environment of the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting is something that we should also respect.”
New Zealand, along with Australia, has been criticized for overlooking the West Papua crisis while being very vocal on human rights abuses elsewhere but the Pacific.
Last week the Pacific Islands Forum was urged by its own Specialist Sub-Committee on Regionalism to make West Papua a priority on this year’s agenda.
This had followed other loud calls by organisations such as the Australia West Papua Association and the PNG Union for a Free West Papua, for the Pacific Islands Forum to discuss West Papua.
According to an online Free West Papua campaign, there is widespread popular support from across West Papua, Papua New Guinea and the rest of the Pacific to have the situation in West Papua raised at the Forum.
Much hope has grown for this since the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) was made an Observer Member of the sub-regional Melanesian Spearhead Group this June.
The 46th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting will take place in Port Moresby, PNG, next month.
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2) TNI Sets Up Village Guard Post Following Alleged PNG Incursion
Jakarta. The Indonesian Military, or TNI, says it will set up a security post in the Papuan border village of Yakyu, in Merauke district, following a report that soldiers from neighboring Papua New Guinea last week ordered residents there to lower the Indonesian flag.
Brig. Gen. Supartodi, the Merauke military commander, said on Friday that the group of 14 uniformed PNG soldiers reportedly entered the village on Aug. 7.
Yakyu is located 1.2 kilometers from the Indonesia-PNG border.
“In response to this [alleged] incident, we have decided to build a [security] post in Yakyu village,” Supartodi said as quoted by Antara.
Col. Mohammad Syafei Kasno, of the Cendrawasih Military Command, which oversees the TNI’s operations in Papua, said separately that 10 soldiers had been deployed to the village.
The alleged incident was first reported on Thursday by Suzana Wanggai, the head of the provincial border office, who said that the PNG soldiers had claimed Yakyu village as part of PNG territory.
She noted that while the village lay squarely in Indonesian territory, its residents were from the Mayna clan of the Kanum tribe, who moved to the area in the 1990s from neighboring Weyam village in PNG.
“The people obtained Indonesian identity cards from Merauke district last month,” Suzana said as quoted by Tempo.
Syafei claimed that PNG officials had argued the village was on neutral ground and should hoist the flags of both countries.
However, Col. Mark Goina of the PNG Defense Force told ABC’s Pacific Beat radio program that no such incident had ever taken place.
“We have not received any information around PNGDF troops going to Merauke to conduct any form of activity or operation, and therefore we categorically deny any involvement of our service men and women and that information is not true,” he said.
“I confirm there is no Papua New Guinean soldiers in or near Merauke, they are all stationed outside of the border doing their normal border duties.”
Still, he could not say for sure whether Yakyu village lay in Indonesian or PNG territory. “At this point in time I need to confirm that, we need to confirm that on a map.”
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3) Tolikara Divert Attention from Rights Issues in Papua
Jayapura, Jubi – The government should not divert attention from human right issues in Papua by fanning a inter-religious tensions over the Tolikara incident.
On Wednesday (12/08/2015) in Jakarta, the Civil Society Coalition for Tolikara urged those who had concerned and interest against the incident in Tolikara to more understand about the history and complicity of religious relations in Papua and Tolikara in particular.
“State is present not to maintain any conflict, or furthermore to create one, but to bridge the recovery process that already initiated by both Muslim and Christian leaders in Tolikara. This distinction should be maintained and passed on to young generation in accordance with the basic slogan of the nation about Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, Unity in Diversity. Therefore it could not become a justification on a restriction or discriminative action of one party to another in our diverse community,” a coalition member Wahyu Wagiman told representing Elsham Jakarta in the press conference held at Bakoel Café, Jakarta on Wednesday (12/8/2015).
“State is present not to maintain any conflict, or furthermore to create one, but to bridge the recovery process that already initiated by both Muslim and Christian leaders in Tolikara. This distinction should be maintained and passed on to young generation in accordance with the basic slogan of the nation about Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, Unity in Diversity. Therefore it could not become a justification on a restriction or discriminative action of one party to another in our diverse community,” a coalition member Wahyu Wagiman told representing Elsham Jakarta in the press conference held at Bakoel Café, Jakarta on Wednesday (12/8/2015).
Further he said the State also contributed in switching the focus of attention over Papua issue from the perspective of the relation between State and Papuan to become a dispute involved people and interreligious communities in Papua.
Meanwhile, another coalition member, LBH Jakarta told the national agencies such as Human Right Commission did not push the further implementation of seven agreement initiated and signed by Muslim and Christian leaders at the level of Tolikara Regency and Papua Province.
“For instance, the statement of Human Right Commission which underlined about the law enforcement was actually limited at the level of punitive justice and forget the fact that the restorative justice included into the customary law in Papua that is the law instrument set on the Article X of Special Autonomy Law No.21/2001 for Papua Province,” Public Attorney Tommy Albert representing LBH Jakarta told in the press conference.
“For instance, the statement of Human Right Commission which underlined about the law enforcement was actually limited at the level of punitive justice and forget the fact that the restorative justice included into the customary law in Papua that is the law instrument set on the Article X of Special Autonomy Law No.21/2001 for Papua Province,” Public Attorney Tommy Albert representing LBH Jakarta told in the press conference.
The Civil Society Coalition for Tolikara which is consisting of Wahid Centre-Universitas Indonesia (AWC-UJ), Aliansi Nasional Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (ANBTI), ELSAM, Human Rights Working Group (HRWG), Indonesian Centre for Reconciliation (ICR), Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Jakarta, Yayasan Pusaka dan Yayasan Saut Keadilan in ending the conference urged the President Joko Widodo to immediately invite Tolikara Muslim and Christian leaders to encourage the materialization of agreement elaborated into seven point and in 29 July. (Victor Mambor/rom)
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4) Students Rally over Domination of Non-Papuans in Sorong Selatan Administration
Sorong, Jubi – Students in Sorong Raya, criticized the policy of Sorong Selatan Regent who appointed many non-Papuans to fill positions in his administration.
He said the regent’s policy of appointing non-Papuan officials to fill strategic positions in Sorong Selatan Regency amount to marginalization of indigenous Papuans.
“In fact referring to Special Autonomy Law No. 21/2001, Papuans should be a master on their land. The regent has declined the mandate of the law. It’s risky that other people should give us an order,” he said.
“In fact referring to Special Autonomy Law No. 21/2001, Papuans should be a master on their land. The regent has declined the mandate of the law. It’s risky that other people should give us an order,” he said.
The mentioned strategic positions are Acting Regional Secretary, Head of General Work Office, Head of Regional Asset and Finance Agency, Acting Head of Regional Development Planning Body, Acting Head of Education Office, Section Head of Regional Administration, Head of Public Relations, Secretary of General Work Office, Treasure of Regional Secretariat, Head Section of Education Financing, Head Section of Health Financing, Head of Environment Office, Secretary of Fishery, Head of Mining Office, Inspectorate Secretary, Secretary of Education Office and some other structural positions of echelon III and IV.
“The regent has violated the Special Autonomy Law by never empowering the native Papuans to become a master on their own land,” Yosep said. He asked the governor, West Papua People’s Assembly and Councilors from the fraction of Special Autonomy of West Papua Province to reprimand the regent. (*/rom)
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