2) Solomon Islands Seeks Balance in Relations With Indonesia and West Papua
3) Solomans defends Indonesia police deal
4) Freeport smelter to be built on 100 hectares of land in Gresik
5) Way forward found in Freeport dispute with Jakarta
6) Jokowi urged to honor promise to free up media access to West Papua
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A google translate. Be-aware google translate can be a bit erratic.
Original bahasa link at
1) Ambassador visited the Netherlands, the Office attended the Franciscan SKPKC intel at night
Jubi | News Portal Papua No. 1, Wednesday, April 5, 2017 - 12:48
People dressed thugs allegedly photographing intel appear in the court of the Franciscan SKPKC Office - Doc. SKPKC
Jayapura, Jubi - Director of the Office for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (SKPKC) Franciscan, Yuliana Langowuyo criticized the performance of the security forces who he said is very disturbing meetings between activists of Human Rights (HAM) Papua with the Dutch ambassador to Indonesia in the Office SKPKC Franciscan, City Sentani , Jayapura district, Tuesday (04/04/2017).
Yuliana to Jubi said Dutch Ambassador to Indonesia, Rob Swartbol during a visit to the office of the Franciscan SKPKC Papua, not only escorted by police with formal clothes (according to the procedure) but also people in civilian clothing who enter the office area SKPKC and do "gerakan- motion "unnecessary.
"Many people in plainclothes, we thought it was intel, come in. We felt uncomfortable, because the meeting was closed. They were in the back and side of the secretariat, also sat in the hall," said Juliana.
According to Juliana, people suspected of intelligence is the area around the office, trying to get out of the door that had been closed, photographing and come to the office again at night time.
"When they come at night, they wondered at the guard office. They asked what the meeting was about, ask your email address and contact number of activists who met with the ambassador as well," said Juliana.
Yuliana, although do not know the people in plainclothes that where, argues, in ways such as professional intelligence work and should not be criticized.
"It's unprofessional and should be criticized. Because there are police who mengkawal ambassador. We did not know they were from a unit where, whether police, military or State Intelligence Agency (BIN) but they were in plainclothes. They are willing to enter joined the meeting for what ? ' Yuliana asked.
Earlier, the Dutch Ambassador to Indonesia visited the Office of the Parliament of Papua and Papua legislators met some of them, Ferinando A.Y. Tinal, Laurenzus Kadepa, Elvis Tabuni, Mathea Mamoyaow, Orwan Tolli Wone, Deerd Tabuni, Syamsunar Rasyid, Emus Gwijangge, Wie Tan Long, Sinut Busup, Ignatius W Mimi, Nathan Pahabol and Yakoba Lokbere.
After the meeting, said the arrival Rot Tinal Ferinando Papua into a routine visit. The goal is to monitor the program and help given the Dutch government in economic development, strengthening the rights of women, water and agriculture.
"Members of the council also have to convey the aspirations. Among the violations of human rights, freedom of expression and a few other things," said Ferindando Tinal. (*)
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2) Solomon Islands Seeks Balance in Relations With Indonesia and West Papua
With the end of the RAMSI intervention and restoration of full sovereignty comes more difficult diplomatic balancing.
By Grant Wyeth April 05, 2017
Preparations are being made in the Solomon Islands for the mid-year transfer of power from the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) intervention force, which has policed the islands since 2003 after the country’s civil unrest, to the Royal Solomon Island Police Force (RSIPF).
Part of this restoration of full sovereignty in the Solomon Islands involves reestablishing international security cooperation to combat criminal activity, and the country is presently in the process of organizing an agreement with Indonesia. A draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Royal Solomon Island Police Force (RSIPF) and the Indonesian National Police was discussed at recent meetings within the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) structure, and it is expected to be signed soon.
The MoU involves cooperation in preventing, detecting, and combating trafficking of illicit drugs, smuggling, trafficking in persons, money laundering, arms smuggling, cyber crime, international and economic crime, and corruption. There are also plans for Indonesian police to be involved in the continued training of the RSIPF.
However, this cooperation between the Solomon Islands and Indonesia has not come without some controversy. The Solomon Islands is a staunch supporter of the West Papuan movement for self-determination and a consistent critic of human rights abuses by Indonesian police and military in the region, and cooperation with the Indonesian National Police, particularly in regards to training, may be seen to be in conflict with these positions.
Presently the tensions between the Melanesian states and Indonesia over West Papua are playing out within the Melanesian Spearhead Group. The MSG was established in 1988 as a forum to cooperate on issues of regional importance to the Melanesian states and peoples. The membership of the MSG consists of the four Melanesian sovereign states — Fiji, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu — as well as the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS), a political party in New Caledonia that seeks independence from France. Alongside these full members Indonesia has associate membership status, and the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has observer status.
Indonesia’s participation in the group rests not only on West Papua’s status as a Melanesian region, but several other Indonesian islands in the area that Jakarta claims have inhabitants of Melanesian ethnicity. There is some debate among anthropologists and linguists over this assessment.
In 2013 ULMWP applied to the MSG for full membership status, seeing their situation as similar to that of FLNKS. However, Indonesia has opposed this recognition of the organization, not wishing to give the group greater international credibility. The issue has caused divisions within the forum, with PNG and Fiji siding with Indonesia, and Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and FLNKS supporting ULMWP’s bid. The presence of Indonesia and ULMWP within the MSG seems to have had a disruptive effect on its mission of developing common positions on areas of regional interest.
Although Indonesia seeks to prevent greater recognition of ULMWP, the participation of both parties within the MSG makes it the only forum where Indonesia and the West Papuan independence movement are able to engage in any kind of dialogue, providing an opportunity for the two parties to engage in contact that would not be possible within Indonesia’s domestic structures.
Despite concerns that enhanced cooperation between Indonesian and the Solomon Island police would compromise their position on West Papua independence, Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Milner Tozaka has stated that the forthcoming MoU would fall under the existing bilateral relations with Indonesia and not undermine its stance. Tozaka has been keen to stress that the Solomon Islands maintains a good relationship with Indonesia, despite its position on West Papua. “We are at liberty to maintain our good relationship with any country,” he said. “Therefore in terms of policing, if the ministry of police and corrections see that this is in line with our policy and it is best for our Royal Solomon Islands Police Force that should be quite acceptable.”
The transition of the security forces back to the Solomon Islands’ government after 14 years will complete the normalization of the country. While RAMSI’s scheduled mid-year withdrawal indicates a confidence that the government will be able to maintain its internal security, some suspicion still remains within the country as to whether the government has the capacity to do so. However, alongside internal security, the Solomon Islands will also need to build its capacity to be able to cooperate on issues of security with its neighbors. This will mean that its relations with large regional states like Indonesia will need to be solid, and a balance will need to be struck between this reality and the Solomon Islands’ solidarity with West Papua.
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3) Solomans defends Indonesia police deal
The Solomon Islands claims there is no relation between its support for West Papua (pictured) and its proposed policing co-operation with Indonesia. Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands have been strong advocates of indigenous West Papuan rights to self-determination and an end to human rights abuses in the Indonesian Papuan provinces. Indonesia is an associate member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) and is opposing a bid for full membership in the group by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), which currently has observer status.
The membership issue has caused divisions within the group with Papua New Guinea and Fiji siding with Jakarta, while the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu back the ULMWP’s bid. Support for Papuan representation in the MSG is based on strong regional concern about reports of rights abuses by the Indonesian police and military. However, a recent announcement by the Solomon Islands police minister that the force was seeking to strengthen co-operation with counterparts in Indonesia has raised questions about solidarity with Papua.
The Solomons’ foreign minister Milner Tozaka said any co-operation with Indonesia came under existing bilateral relations and did not compromise the stance on the provinces of West Papua and Papua. “We are at liberty to maintain our good relationship with any country. Therefore in terms of policing if the ministry of police and corrections see that this is in line with our policy and it is best for our Royal Solomon Islands Police Force that should be quite acceptable,” Tozaka said. The vast, resource-rich provinces make up around a quarter of Indonesia’s landmass but only a tiny fraction of the archipelago’s population. West Papua has a population below 900,000 and Papua province around 3.5 million. Last week Indonesia’s police shot dead a Papuan man they described as an armed separatist leader. In Papua Province’s Yapen district, Maikel Merani was killed after reportedly exchanging fire with police. The Indonesian media claimed the shooting broke out during a police raid on Merani’s house. The authorities claimed to have been hunting Merani for a prolonged period. The authorities, regarded as imperial occupiers by many Papuans, released pictures of the corpse, his alleged weapons and other criminal paraphernalia discovered during the raid. There was a rifle, ammunition, knives, cash and the illegal Papuan Morning Star Flag. The Jakarta Globe reported that a witness claimed the police subsequently tortured Merani’s relatives. Merani’s father was supposedly taken in for questioning. Picture credit: Flickr
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4) Freeport smelter to be built on 100 hectares of land in Gresik
Stefani Ribka The Jakarta Post
Jakarta | Wed, April 5, 2017 | 07:07 pm
While copper and gold mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia and the government are conducting negotiations over the conversion of the company's contract, Freeport has earmarked 100 hectares of land on which to construct a smelter in Gresik, East Java.
The land is located in the Java Integrated Industrial and Port Estate (JIIPE) in Gresik.
“We need to wait for Freeport’s decision because it just converted its business permit to an IUPK [special mining license]. We are in constant communication because the MoU was signed in 2015,” JIIPE head of marketing and tenant relations Sianny Indrawati told reporters on Tuesday.
JIIPE covers 1,761 hectares of industrial park developed in 2013. Its first block is rented by five tenants. Two more blocks are expected to be fully occupied by 2019.
The industrial park is integrated with a 499-hectare seaport and a 800-hectare housing estate. Of the planned 3,060 ha of land, 60 percent has been procured by JIIPE. The remaining 40 percent is in process of being acquired.
Freeport on Tuesday obtained a special mining permit (IUPK), which is effective for eight months as from Feb. 10. The company will be allowed to export 1.11 million wet metric tons of copper concentrate per year. It will be evaluated after the first six months, taking into account the progress of construction of the smelter. (bbn)
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5) Way forward found in Freeport dispute with Jakarta
10:37 am on 5 April 2017
The mining giant Freeport has agreed on a way forward to a resolution in its prolonged dispute with the Indonesian government over its Papua operations.
After months of strained negotiations over the renewal of Freeport's contract to mine the large Grasberg gold and copper deposit in Papua, it appears the miner may be willing to divest some of its majority share to Indonesia.
The Jakarta Post reported Indonesia's Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan as saying the parent company Freeport-McMoRan had agreed to allow its contract of work to be converted into a special mining permit.
Relations between the two parties became tense after a mineral export ban took effect in January under a government order.
Freeport Indonesia has been pressed by Jakarta to divest 51 percent of its shares, build a smelter within five years and convert its contract in exchange for a permit to export copper concentrate.
Freeport Indonesia spokesman Riza Pratama said the company was still negotiating the terms with the government.
As a result of the export ban, Freeport had been unable to sell its copper concentrates overseas, leading to a large pile-up that halted its mining operations.
Earlier this month, Freeport resumed production at 40 percent of its normal rate after securing an export permit for anode slime, a by-product of copper processing.
Meanwhile, some Indonesian lawmakers called on the central government to seek input from the Papuan people before making any future policy about the miner.
"We ask the energy and mineral resources minister to involve Papuan locals in any decision-making process pertaining to Freeport Indonesia in order to comply with the Regional Autonomy Law," chairman Gus Irawan Pasaribu said.
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6) Jokowi urged to honor promise to free up media access to West Papua
4:28 pm on 5 April 2017
The international media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, has called on the Indonesian President Joko Widodo to keep his election promise to allow local and international journalists to operate in West Papua without obstruction or surveillance.
Indonesia President Joko Widodo Photo: supplied
Tabloid Jubi reported this call came after the expulsion of French journalists Franck Escudie and Basile Longchamp on visa violations last month.
RSF’s Benjamin Ismail said the Indonesian president had undertaken to scrap the restrictions that obstruct the work of foreign journalists in West Papua.
Indonesian police clamp down on West Papuan pro-independence demonstrators. Photo: Tabloid Jubi
But he said Jakarta's repeated refusals to issue press visas and the growing number of journalists on its blacklist, shows it falls far short of qualifying as a country that supports freedom of expression and media freedom.
During his campaign for election as president in July 2014, Joko Widodo said he would allow journalists to visit West Papua freely, and raised hopes media freedom would be revived in the region.
no cpation Photo: RNZ / Koroi Hawkins
Indonesia is ranked 130th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2016 World Press Freedom Index.
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