1) ULMWP Public Discussion Canceled due to Police’s Attendance

2) Four Construction Workers Shot Dead in Mulia

3) Five Bime Residents Die of Malaria

4) Election Commission Says Papua Can’t Do Away with Noken System Abruptly

5) Follow up on West Papua  as conservation province

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http://tabloidjubi.com/eng/ulmwp-public-discussion-canceled-due-to-polices-attendance/

1) ULMWP Public Discussion Canceled due to Police’s Attendance

15 March 2016

Jayapura, Jubi – On 8 March 2015 at 22:05 Papua time, the Internal Affairs working team of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP), Markus Haluk and the Central Executive Board of the Indonesia-Highland Student Association (DPP-AMPTPI) agreed to hold a discussion forum to update the current situation and latest development occurred in Papua.

DPP-AMPTPI was assigned to create a team to facilitate the public discussion with Markus Haluk as resource person.

The working team member Hendrikus Madai said since 8 March to 11 March 2016, the working team has done any relevant preparations for the success of discussion. Madai who’s also the Deputy Secretary General of DPP AMPTPI, said the discussion was planned to be held in Mimika student dormitory at Jalan Kamp Wolker Perumnas I Waena, Jayapura.

“After obtaining permission from Mimika student dormitory board, and chairs were set for the invitees, the invitation was sent to the activists, students and public via printed invitation letters, facebook, WhatsApp and SMS with expectation about 300-500 people would participate in the forum,” said Madai to Jubi in Mimika student dormitory’s yard on Saturday (12/3/2016).

He said several issues to be raised in the discussion are including the unity among Papuans, controversy on the opening of ULMWP Office in Jayawijaya Regency, and the extent of support by international community towards the struggle of Papuan people that represented by ULMWP to the update on current situation in Papua, which is through the seminar it would provide a good and factual understanding for Papuan people.

“But, unfortunately on the day the forum should be implemented, on Saturday (12/3/2016) at 08:40 Papua time, five equipped police officers came to Mimika student dormitory’s yard,” Madai explained.

Then, he added, they guarded the entry of student dormitory blocking the participants to enter the room. Meanwhile, police officers were standby at the outside of student dormitory. The Police parked 5 cars at dormitory’s yard while a car (Avanza) and police truck were parked at Perumnas 1 intersection.

“There were also officers not wearing the uniform and taking radio HT. I suggested they are police intelligent,” he said.

Deputy Committee Antonius Yohame said looking at the situation, he promptly made coordination with Markus Halus as key resource person from ULMWP and Secretary General AMPTPI as person in charge of the seminar and public discussion. “And they requested us (the committee) to cancel the event and people who were already in the room to dissolve themselves,” he said.

Jubi’s reporter had inquired to the police officers guarded in front of Mimika student dormitory, but they didn’t give any answers. (Abeth You/rom)

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http://tabloidjubi.com/eng/four-construction-workers-shot-dead-in-mulia/

2) Four Construction Workers Shot Dead in Mulia

16 March 2016

Jayapura, Jubi – Four highway construction workers were shot dead by an armed group in Mulia, Puncak Jaya on Tuesday (15/3/2016) at around 13:45 Papua time, police said.

The attackers also burned an excavator and a bulldozer belonging to PT Modern, the contractor that builds the road, Puncak Jaya Police Chief Adjunct Senior Police Commissionaire Marcelis said.

“Yes, there was a shooting towards four PT Modern employees. I was in Muliat at that time,” Mercelis said

But he requested reporter to ask question on the shooting incident to Papua Police Spokesperson because Sinak Police Chief already reported the incident to Papua Police Headquarter by SSB radio. According to him, location where the shooting was occurred is used being attacked by Yambi group.

The attack was occurred when the workers were constructing Sinak-Mulia highway at Agenggen Village of Sinak Sub-district, Puncak Jaya Regency. The armed civilian group attacked them and burned an excavator and a bulldozer.

Those who died in the incident are Project Leader Anis and heavy equipment operators Andi, Daud and David.

Papua Police Chief Inspector General Paulus Waterpauw admitted about the shooting. The report said the number of dead victims is three employees of PT Modern, namely Anis, Andi and David, the chief. While Daud is currently reported in critical condition, and one of employees was managed to escape and report this incident, he further said.

“They were attacked when doing the road construction between Sinak (Puncak Regency) and Mulia (Puncak Jaya Regency),” Waterpauw explained.

According to him, until now the Police could not yet identified which groups are responsible for the attack and shooting. But local residents saw the insurgent group of Legagak Telenggen crossed the road,” said Waterpauw. (*/rom)

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http://tabloidjubi.com/eng/five-bime-residents-die-of-malaria/

3) Five Bime Residents Die of Malaria

16 March 2016

Jayapura, Jubi – Five indigenous Papuans from Bime sub-district, Pengunungan Bintang Regency, have died of malaria, a local health official said.

The Head of Pegunungan Bintang Health Office Jeremias Tapior said earlier the residents had said they died of dysentery, but a local medical team found that they had malaria.

“I just received report from the team from Health Office. There is no dysentery outbreak in Bime Sub-district. They have clarified the information on dysentery outbreak was incorrect, the fact is they died because of malaria,” Jeremias Tapior said on Tuesday (15/3/2016) by phone.

According to him, his team on location also reported the absence of local medical staffs to cause the dead of five residents due to lack of medical treatment. “It is true there are five residents died but not because of dysentery. They died because of malaria and not promptly treated. It’s not categorized as special occurrence,” Tapior said.

Currently the Health Office has deployed the medical team to treat two malaria patients in Bime Sub-district. “The team also informed about the shortage of medicines in Bime,” he said.

“I and doctor Aaron Rumainum from Papua Health Office have acted. We came to the pharmacy warehouse asking them to send medicines to Bime,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Head of Preventive Health Problems Department of Papua Provincial Health Office, dr. Aaron Rumainum said five residents were died due to late assistance from the medical staffs. “Frankly it was occurred because no medical staffs there,” said dr. Rumainum. (Abeth You/rom)

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http://tabloidjubi.com/eng/election-commission-says-papua-cant-do-away-with-noken-system-abruptly/

4) Election Commission Says Papua Can’t Do Away with Noken System Abruptly

16 March 2016

Jayapura, Jubi – Papua Election Commission (KPU) said the use of noken system in the Regional Head Election could not be done away with abruptly, since several regions still maintained the system.

However, KPU Papua appreciated the statement of those who rejected the use of the noken system in the Regional Head Election (Pilkada) Phase 2 that would be held simultaneously in 11 regencies/municipality, because the Noken system is incompatible with election principles of direct, universal, free and secret.

“We do refer on the Constitutional Court’s decree to provide such attention to gradually eliminating the noken system. So it means we are not being forced to straightly dismiss it,” KPU Papua commissionaire Isak Randi Hikoyabi said in Jayapura on Tuesday (15/3/2016).

If the noken system was applied, said Hikoyabi, KPU Papua must issue technical guidelines as applied in Yahukimo Regency to ensure the implementation of noken system was legal by Law.

“I predict in the next Pilkada, there are about five or six regencies that would use the noken system, including Puncak Jaya, Intan Jaya, Dogiyai and Tolikara,” he said.

In response, he said KPU Papua has conducted an internal meeting with some local governments and political parties to discus about the mechanism being applied in the next Pilkada. The point is the provincial KPU would only become a mentor while the local KPUs would ensure the transparency of the implementation of noken system.

“Whether the noken system would be applied through a mechanism of Bigman, which means the entire constituents being represented by a tribal chief or people would get in a line to give support to a candidate; these two different ways would be regulated later, which one would be suitable to be applied. KPU will form a regulation or technical guidelines to ensure the implementation of noken system would be legal and transparent,” he said.

Earlier, the academic from the Faculty of Social and Political Science of the Cenderawasih University, Eduard Kocu considered the appliance of noken system in general election in Papua actually benefited some political elites. Thus, the regulation is needed to protect the democracy values.

“Its regulation must be designed in a such way to not contradicting with democracy values. The use of noken system in the general election actually is not appropriate because it is against to the principles of direct, universal, liberate and secret,” said Kocu.

However, he said as part of local wisdom, the noken system has enriched the democracy values at the local level. But on the other hand, it is also weakening the meaning of democracy. (Alexander Loen/rom)

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http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/03/17/follow-west-papua-conservation-province.html

5) Follow up on West Papua  as conservation province

Agustina YS Arobaya and Freddy Pattiselanno, Manokwari | Opinion | Thu, March 17 2016, 10:18 AM - 

The Papua and West Papua provinces are considered among the global priorities for biodiversity conservation, partly because of the species-rich forest environment of the Australopapuan fauna, as well the many unique New Guinean species. It is home to 146 mammals, 329 reptiles and amphibians and also 650 birds that represent 50 percent of Indonesia’s terrestrial animals.

The north-western part of Papua is also part of the Coral Triangle Marine Protected Area, containing the world’s greatest diversity of coral-reef fish, with more than 1,650 species in eastern Indonesia alone. 

Papua has also huge reserves of natural resources of oil, gas and minerals and continues to retain some 80 percent forest cover, including large reserves of commercially valuable lowland rainforest. 

Mining is the most profitable but unsustainable economic sector because from 50 to 60 percent of the total gross domestic product of the provinces is derived from it. The largest natural gas project, Tangguh liquefied natural gas, is positioned to extract the natural resources from a field in West Papua’s Bintuni Bay area for export. 

However, as reported by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), until March 2013 West Papua was among the eight provinces with the highest poverty rate (26.67 percent) – second after neighboring Papua (31.13 percent).That is why the governments depend on extractive industries such as mining and logging to generate revenues. 

Uncontrolled exploitation of the natural resources changes the landscape through erosion, flooding, run-off of top soils to the beaches, landslides, earthquakes, forest fires and other things that affect local livelihoods. 

Most coastal and marine ecosystems within the provinces are also severely threatened by a combination of the effects of climate change, such as extreme weather events, sea level rise and ocean acidification. 

Aware of the threats to terrestrial and marine ecosystems, on last Oct. 19 West Papuan Governor Abraham O. Atururi and local leaders declared the entire province a “conservation province”. 

The stated goal is to start down a path of sustainable and equitable development that recognizes and conserves the province’s globally significant natural capital and supports the rights of customary communities.

The governor established a working group to oversee the conservation province process. 

Why is being a conservation province so important?

Biodiversity must be accessible and people must have some rights to use it. For example, instead of buffer zones serving primarily to protect core areas in parks, protected areas can be established and justified by their ability to help sustain tangible local benefits, such as breeding grounds for animals and sources of pollinators, seeds, clean water or valued products, within a larger landscape. 

Working closely with local communities rather than fencing them out should be urgently implemented. It goes beyond most (though by no means all) previous community, participatory, or development efforts intended primarily to win local acceptance of other people’s conservation agendas. 

Partnering can also build local institutions and develop people’s sense of their own worth and that of their environment. 

Working with local people to identify local needs can build trust. By building a basis for mutual understanding to protect the environment, oversights and misunderstandings can be avoided. 

A conservation province should also be reflected through its short-, middle-and long-term action to show how such a province benefits people and local administrations. 

Along with modern industries, a potential conflict between the community-based natural resource utilization and increased commercial scale activities such as mining, logging and oil palm cultivation should be monitored and evaluated to minimize conflicting interests among stakeholders.

More importantly, the taskforces and local administrations should also improve the competence of officials at all levels to enable them to run a conservation province. Good governance practices would be a better way to achieve its goals.

Despite more than 100 laws and regulations related to natural resources management in Indonesia’s various ecosystems, the lack of capacity, coordination and understanding of the essence of the relevant legal instruments by local officials hinders law enforcement.

Furthermore, conflicts of interest among local government agencies at the provincial level on land use should refer mainly to the Spatial and Regional Planning (RTRW) of the province. 

Institutions like the agencies of public works, forestry, mining, agriculture, the regional environmental board, Conservation of Natural Resources Bureau and universities need to plan together the designated areas for logging, mining, plantations or road networks and special protected areas as well as for the use of local communities.

A pilot project by the Institute of Research and Community Services Universitas Papua (UNIPA) is assisting communities along the “bird head” around Sorong in agricultural products processing and non-formal education as part of community development in the turtle conservation program. UNIPA has introduced a health program, vegetable demonstration plots, environment awareness and animal husbandry with local governments and NGOs. 

Identification of terrestrial and marine ecosystems in the Special Economy Areas (KEK) that significantly contribute to the low-level economy is essential for developing commodity clusters in each regency of West Papua.

It is urgent to link KEK as an engine of economic growth in the province to the “maritime axis” envisioned by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo. West Papua has three special economy areas: Sorong for the management of maritime industries, Teluk Bintuni for smelters and petro-chemist industries and Raja Ampat for marine ecotourism. 

We can benefit from KEK and the maritime axis to promote our fishery, sea transportation, marine ecotourism, maritime industries and mining sectors as West Papua lies along the international trading route connecting Indonesia to the Asia-Pacific and Australia. 
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Agustina YS Arobaya is head of the Conservation and Environment Laboratory School of Forestry.
Freddy Pattiselanno is a researcher at the Center of Excellence for Sustainable Development, Institute of Research and Community Services Universitas Papua (UNIPA) in Manokwari, West Papua. -