2) West Papua: Civilians Injured by Indonesian Security Forces
3) Failing our forests: in two years we’ve lost enough trees to cover Spain
4) The case of Nduga is considered to be a Papuan stain early in the year
5) POLICE OFFICER SHOT DEAD A TEENAGER IN MAPPI
6) PAPUA LEGISLATOR: FILEP KARMA DETENTION AT SOETTA AIRPORT WAS ‘TOO MUCH’
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1) DANIL HATIL, THREE FORGOTTEN PEOPLE IN THE STORY OF PUTI HATIL AND KOROWAI (PART 1)
Jan 05, 2018
Danil Hatil, carrying his three years old son, Puti Hatil before they went to get treatment at Dian Harapan Hospital Jayapura – supplied/Rev Trevor Christian J
Nabire, 5/1 (Jubi) – The night I met Puti Hatil I wept three times. I wept for Puti and the general bad state of health throughout Korowai region. And I wept thinking about Daniel Hatil, a father who carried his child in his arms for 10 hours walk through the jungle and had been witnessing the sufferings of his child grow worse day by day.
One of the teachers in Danowage wept when Puti was carried up onto my front porch and he saw Puti Hatil’s hole in his cheek. This teacher cried out, “My God, why would God allow this, why God?”
I wept over and over then thinking, “This is 2017 and there are still so many places in the world where small children such as this suffer terribly with no medical help and must be carried 10 hours to the nearest help. And that help is not even a hospital but a simple missionary clinic as ours is.”
Public attention
During the month of October a medical case from the Korowai area went viral throughout Papua. This was the case of the sick Korowai child, Puti Hatil. Facebook and What’s App groups circulated prayer requests and photographs and in just a short time over a dozen regional newspaper articles were printed about this sick child.
Puti Hatil is a 3 years old who suffered for a month in the remote village of Afimabul in the Korowai region. A wound in his cheek grew worse and worse until it ate through his cheek until there was a widening hole there. There are no roads, no stores, no electricity, and no government presence in almost the entire region where Puti lives.
In desperation, therefore, and aided by the Evangelist Dakinus Wanimbo, Puti’s father carried Puti to Danowage where I live in order to get help.
They started walking at 7am and did not reach Danowage until 5pm, struggling through thick jungle and swamp and crossing small rivers. There in Danowage our missionary medical clinic helped clean the wound and then arrange to get them to Dian Harapan hospital where they could receive more thorough care.
Little Puti has received much media attention these past two months. But in this three part articles, I would like to highlight 3 other forgotten people from the case of Puti Hatil who also deserve attention.
The forgotten Danil Hatil
I admit that Daniel Hatil was not exactly forgotten by the media. But media did not catch the most important thing about Puti’s father.
I was reading a newspaper article about Daniel Hatil entitled, “Daniel Hatil, Pria Korowai Ini Pertama Kali Makan Nasi (Daniel Hatil, this is the First Time this Korowai Man has Eaten Rice). It is a fine article and I am glad it was published, but it misses the main point.
The MOST important aspect of this story was not that an interior man from the jungle ate rice for the very first time, or saw automobiles for the very first time. This only serves to sensationalize the primitive or write about him because of his unfortunate trait of not being very knowledgeable about the world. The reader might be motivated to pity Daniel, but that is not ideal.
Pity is not the right motivation. We should not pity Daniel Hatil; we should revere him. The MAIN focus of any article mentioning Puti’s father Daniel Hatil should be this: what a devoted father he is. What an outstanding example of love he has shown to his son.
We should not feel superior to him because we are from the city or are more highly educated. Rather, Daniel is a good example to us all for us to learn from.
In Papua the family is disintegrating. Many fathers in the city beat their children or go and get drunk and speak roughly to their family members. But here in the middle of the jungle we witness this example of a kind father Daniel who sacrificed his own time and strength and comfort for his son Puti.
It is what is inside the heart of man that is the most important.
The name of the disease that Puti suffers from is called Noma, or Cancrum Oris, and you can find horrifying pictures of noma on the internet.
This disease only occurs in conditions of extreme malnutrition, and it slowly eats away all the flesh on the face. Only the very poorest and malnourished parts of the world experience this illness.
Yet in this year, 2017, Papua is still such a place. So much OTSUS money is pouring into Papua, yet this area is still very, very poor.
Where is it all going? (to be continued)
Editor: Zely Ariane
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2) West Papua: Civilians Injured by Indonesian Security Forces
Jan 05, 2018
In the course of the Indonesian military’s «sweeping operations» in West Papua, five West Papuans were hit by gunfire and further four were tortured on 20 December 2017. The victims included three children that were injured when the Indonesian army fired arms at the airport as well as civilian houses nearby. In addition to the armed attack, the military has, together with the police, closed off the Nduga region of West Papua and travelling out of and into the region now requires as special passport which, amongst others, restricts the access of journalists and humanitarian agencies to the region.
The article below was published by Free West Papua:
On 21st December, we received reports from a grouping of Indonesian and West Papuan human rights groups on the shooting and torture of West Papuan civilians, including children, amid Indonesian military and police “sweeping operations” in the Nduga region, West Papua.
According to a press release by the Coalition for Justice, Law and Human Rights of the Central Highlands of Papua, Civil Liberty Defenders and the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence, the Indonesian military undertook a “sweeping operation” at Daragma airport in Mugi District of the Nduga region on 20th December.
The Indonesian military and police “fired randomly at people coming to the airport as well as toward people’s houses and other buildings around Daragma Airport“. The human rights groups also describe how they received information from Mugi that “two houses were burned by the security apparatus and other homes in the vicinity were riddled with bullet holes because of being shot by the combined Indonesian security forces.” They described that three underage children were shot while at home.
After the Indonesian military and police conducted this operation, they blocked access to the Nduga region and anyone travelling to the area must first apply for a special travel pass which must be obtained through 5 Indonesian military/police guard posts at 5 points.
The human rights groups are requesting that the Indonesian military and police “stop attacks and disproportionate, sporadic actions against civilians” and are calling upon them to allow journalist, humanitarian and other access to the region. They are also calling for the Indonesian military and police to be withdrawn from the Nduga region to allow for a peaceful Christmas.
We fully condemn this latest brutal attack on West Papuan people, including children, by the Indonesian military and police. We join the human rights groups in calling for justice and for the Indonesian military and police to immediately stop such attacks and to completely withdraw. Indonesian President Jokowi is currently visiting West Papua and is being accompanied by over 2,500 Indonesian military personnel.
Jokowi is trying to promote his image in an attempt to draw attention away from the ongoing genocide and human rights atrocities in occupied West Papua while being accompanied by thousands of Indonesian soldiers. The killing of West Papuan people around Christmas time when the president has visited West Papua in the past is nothing new and has become what West Papuans call the worst sort of “Christmas presents” they could imagine.
It is time for the Indonesian military and police to withdraw from West Papua and allow the people their fundamental right to self-determination with they have been illegitimately denied for so long. The only solution for peaceful conflict resolution in West Papua is through a genuine act of self-determination in an internationally supervised vote.
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3) Failing our forests: in two years we’ve lost enough trees to cover Spain
Fire. Oil palm. Cattle. Soy. Rubber. Wood. New data from Global Forest Watch shows that forest destruction is on the rise globally, in spite of a slate of pledges
Published: 21:16 January 5, 2018
By Jeremy Hance, Guardian News & Media Ltd
Washington: Two years ago the world signed the Paris Agreement to combat climate change. It included specific pledges to “conserve and enhance” the world’s forests in order to combat rising temperatures. But in the last two years - 2015 and 2016 - we’ve lost enough trees to cover 493,716 square kilometres, according to satellite data recently released by Global Forest Watch (GFW) . This is nearly equal to the entirety of Spain - or about four Englands.
Currently, deforestation accounts for around 10-15 per cent of annual global carbon emissions. Even as combating deforestation has long been seen as one of the cheapest ways to tackle global warming, GFW’s data shows just how far we have to go.
“Forests are fundamentally hard to protect - they are in remote frontiers or in countries with weak governance,” said Liz Goldman, a Research Associate at GFW.
But she added that the rising forest loss “doesn’t mean deforestation pledges are not having an impact - many of these agreements are still at an early stage. Important.”
2015 - The assault on New Guinea
In 2015, the world lost enough trees to blanket 198,295 square kilometres, an area around the size of Uganda. On the plus side, this was a slight dip from the year before. But it still represented a worldwide trend of rising deforestation since GFW started tracking tree loss in 2001 — even as governments and corporations (increasingly and repeatedly) pledged to do something about it.
Arguably, the most shocking data in 2015 came from the island of New Guinea, which is considered the third largest block of intact rainforest on the planet, after the increasingly fractured Amazon and the Congo. Deforestation on the island jumped an astounding 70per cent in 2015, threatening the island’s thousands of species found no-where else - think birds of paradise and tree kangaroos - and its local people who have lived closely tied to the forests around them for millennia.
The island of New Guinea is split into two distinct political entities. The western half is a remote — but large and rich in natural resources - region of Indonesia, governed by faraway Jakarta. The eastern half of the island is its own country, Papua New Guinea. Both areas, however, saw significant jumps in forest loss beginning in 2015.
“Visual inspection of the data shows that industrial agriculture and logging are the major players in Papua,” Mikaela Weisse, a Research Analyst with GFW, said. “Data from Greenpeace Indonesia shows that 48 palm oil companies have permits in Indonesian Papua, some as large as 45,000 hectares.”
The satellite imagery shows what many have long warned: that the island of New Guinea has become the newest frontier for forest destruction. Logging and palm oil companies, among others, are infiltrating the island, viewing it as a lucrative place to expand operations in an increasingly resource-scarce planet.
The numbers in 2016 were hardly any better for New Guinea. Tree loss dipped slightly in Papua New Guinea but rose in Indonesian Papua - potentially pointing to a new trend of high deforestation across one of the most intact tropical forests we have left.
2016 - World aflame
As bad as 2015 was for the world’s forests, last year was far, far worse. In 2016, tree loss jumped 51 per cent globally from the year before taking out a total of 297,000 square kilometres.
“Clearly this is a sign that we need to do more,” said Goldman.
Experts at GFW say the jump in 2016 was driven largely by one thing: fire. In temperate forests, fire is often a natural part of the ecosystem’s life cycle and can even bring about renewal to forests. But fire has no place in tropical forests where it is nearly always caused by humans trying to clear land for planting.
“These large-scale fires [in the tropics]...damage the forests’ natural structure, affect the habitats of plant and wildlife, and release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the air,” said Goldman.
Such fires can even lead to international crises. In 2015, blazes across Indonesia resulted in a toxic haze that at times covered several Southeast Asian neighbours, cost up to $35 billion and, according to one analysis, likely lead to the premature deaths of 100,000 people due to respiratory issues.
Indonesia- which has taken the unenviable spot of the world’s largest forest destroyer from Brazil -has tried for years to combat such fires. In 2011 Indonesia installed a moratorium on new logging or plantation concessions on primary forest and peatlands. But it’s not proven as successful as hoped, according to many experts.
“Our data show that the moratorium has not had much of an impact on forest protection,” said Weisse. “Forest loss within moratorium areas has continued to increase in 2015 in all areas except Sumatra, which [has] little primary forest left.”
She added the moratorium may be ineffectual because it’s essentially toothless. Companies defying the moratorium don’t face “legal consequences,” according to Weisse. Already, some are warning that Indonesia won’t be able to meet its climate pledges which hinge largely on reducing deforestation.
Today, even fires in temperate areas - see California’s epic conflagrations this year - appear to be exacerbated by rising temperatures worldwide.
“There is mounting scientific evidence that climate change is heating up our forests,” Goldman said.
Hotter, drier forests are more prone to fire and harder to put out. It was no coincidence that 2016 was not only a major fire year, but also the warmest year on record. Moreover, the constant cuts we are making into intact forests are leaving them more vulnerable. Decades of research shows that forest fragments are hotter, drier and more prone to fire than intact forests.
“There is increasing evidence that climate change, coupled with land use change and fire could lead to forest dieback in places like the Amazon,” said Goldman.
Already, we have lost around one third of the Amazon Rainforest to deforesters like the cattle and soy industries. Experts increasingly believe that regional rainfall in Brazil is being negatively impacted by carving away at the world’s greatest tropical forest.
After peaking in 2004, deforestation slowed in Brazil. Indeed, Brazil’s successful efforts in stemming deforestation have long been pointed to as one of the major wins in combating climate change and protecting forests. 2016 changed that. A new government in Brazil views the Amazon not as a region worth protecting, but largely as a resource to exploit. Last year saw forest destruction rise in Brazil to the highest level yet measured by GFW, easily eclipsing 2004. Whether this is a one-off incident or a new trend remains to be seen.
Together Brazil and Indonesia accounted for nearly a quarter of all forest loss last year.
Prioritising forests
GFW - which is run by a partnership of University of Maryland, Google and the World Resources Institute - analyses satellite data to track tree loss worldwide at a scale of 30x30 metres. They state that they do not measure true deforestation - the loss of forest to human activities - but tree loss.
“We refer to the data on GFW as tree cover loss because it can’t distinguish plantations from natural forest, or human-caused forest loss from natural loss,” said Weisse.
Related: Could we set aside half the Earth for nature?
In other words, to a satellite natural forests and plantations look the same. So, when a plantation is cleared, GFW measures that as tree loss, even though it will shortly be replanted.
However, GFW is working on changing how to tracks tree loss. The group has developed a map of primary forests versus plantations for Indonesia in order to come up with more accurate numbers of forest destruction in the country.
Despite current limitations, the GFW has become instrumental in measuring our impact on the world’s forests, even in near real-time in some places.
The Food and Agriculture Organization also tracks deforestation, claiming in 2015 that deforestation had slowed worldwide. However the FAO, a UN agency, depends on self-reporting from each country, leading to different measurements in different places and a dependence on self-reporting. The FAO also counts monoculture plantations - such as pulp and paper and rubber (though not oil palm) - as forest, despite the fact that ecologists have been arguing for years that monoculture plantations are in no-way true forests.
“They’re about as biologically similar to native forests as my front lawn,” William Laurence, a forest ecologist at James Cook University, said last year in Ensia .
Plantations contain fewer species, retain significantly less carbon, and often result in soil erosion and water pollution from inputs of herbicides and pesticides.
“The truth is that neither GFW nor FAO is perfect or complete, and each has their strengths and shortcomings,” said Weisse. “Rather than see the two systems as contradictory, we believe that we need to rely on both sources to have a complete understanding of the world’s forests.”
The ongoing scale of forest loss means that far more action is required, according to Goldman and Weisse. They say that nations and corporations need to speed up the process of decoupling deforestation from commodity supply chains like beef, palm oil, rubber and wood. At the same time, governments must increase enforcement efforts on-the-ground and make sure companies that defy laws and regulations are adequately punished. Finally, local and indigenous communities need to be given rights to their traditional land. Research has shown that the best forest protectors are indigenous groups - so long as they have secure rights to the forests they depend on.
But first the world really has to make forests a priority, and not just another issue drowned in meetings, proposals and pledges. Governments have to stop paying lip service while turning a blind eye and more forest funding is needed from wealthy nations.
“We want to do more than watch [forests] disappear,” said Weisse. “Our hope is that governments, companies, and civil society organisations can use the information we provide on when and where forests are changing to make better decisions.”
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A google translate. Original bahasa link at
4) The case of Nduga is considered to be a Papuan stain early in the year
Jumat, 05 Januari 2018 — 19:31
Papua No. 1 News Portal | Jubi
Jayapura, Jubi - Member of the House of Representatives Commission I of Papua in charge of law and human rights, Laurenzus Kadepa said, the case of the death of a young man in Nduga District, Papua, Anekanus Kemaringi for allegedly persecuted unscrupulous TNI, Papua stain early this year.
He is worried that the Nduga case will be a dark start in Papua this year. Not likely, in the future will be a lot of blood Papua civil society that spilled.
"I am afraid that this year will be a lot of incidents, especially since it's a political year, the beginning of this year, I ask the Papuans to be alert, to all state institutions, to be in control."
According to him, just like other events in Papua, in the case of Nduga there is also a chronological difference between the Kodam party and the community. Kodam stated because of the attack, while the community said otherwise.
"I am also condolence to the victims, the chronological difference between Kodam and the community, it has happened frequently, not new," he said.
He said that since all the cases involving elements of TNI-Polri, the chronology is always different. Chronological versions of the police and TNI, in contrast to community reports or witnesses.
"I think, in the future whatever is done, people will not believe it anymore.This is a matter of trust," he said.
He is also pessimistic, the case can be resolved, even though the related parties, including the Papuan parliament down the field.
"It will be like many other cases, there is no certainty of settlement, I would like, by the institution of DPR Papua invite Kodam XVII / Cenderawasih, to discuss this matter," he said.
Human rights activist in Nduga, Wene Talenggen said the TNI Pos Maleo member who served in the area tortured Anekanus Kemaringi to death.
The body of the 22-year-old victim was hidden in a guard post, even rejected when the family asked for bodies of victims.
"Members are going to shoot, start firing but the post commanders say they beat them until they got battered," Wene told Jubi on Tuesday (2/1/2018)
According to him, during the incident, the victim tried to save himself by running as far as five meters from the post, but the commander of the post and a member on duty, withdraw the victim to the post.
"The victim was helpless in front of the post, when six TNI soldiers from the Koramil Nduga came to torture the victim to death," he said.
Kapendam Kodam XVII / Cendrawasih, Col Inf Muhammad Aidi said that the incident started from the attack on the TNI post.
"Four citizens attacked members of the post using sharp weapons," Aidi said.
One of the attackers continued him, trying to seize the member's weapons. At that time, there was a duel of TNI members and victims.
"Members of the TNI issued a crippling shot of one of the attackers," he said.
He said the victim came to the post in order to open house TNI post. But after the event, the victims attacked members of the post that led to violence. (*)
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5) POLICE OFFICER SHOT DEAD A TEENAGER IN MAPPI
Jan 05, 2018
Merauke, 4/1 (Jubi) – One teenager in Mappi Regency, Nikolausi Bernolpus, 19, was shot dead by police officer in Mappi. The police, Bripka DE, shot the victim using a revolver type weapon at the bottom of his back neck. He died on the spot.
“It is true; the perpetrator was Bripka DE. He has violated rules, since there was no duties command. Moreover, he was also carrying weapon to shoot victims,” said Mappi Chief Police, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Wartono, on December 28.
Wartono explained that the shooting occurred on December 25, 2017 at about 04.00 WITA.
Before the incident, Bripka DE conducted night patrol using cars in Keppi City, Mappi and neighborhood areas.
“When the patrol entered the Frog Road, it found a group of people suspected of being drinking. Furthermore, the group was being asked to go home for tomorrow morning they might go to church to celebrate Christmas,” Wartono explained.
But at about 3:40 am, one of the plainclothes police officer suddenly appears from behind, and he was too rebuking the victim. But the suspected group, including the victim, refuses to accept it which resulting in a fight.
While fighting the victim then ran into his house then took a sharp weapon. He then hit the policeman to fall with wood. It was then the warning shot was fired twice.
“A few moments later, the victim ran away and the police officer pointed the gun at the victim’s back neck,” Wartono explained.
Currently the perpetrator has been taken to Polda Papua to undergo further investigation as a suspect. “We’ve been visiting the family and his home and took care of everything including up to the funeral,” he said.(tabloidjubi.com/Zely)
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6) PAPUA LEGISLATOR: FILEP KARMA DETENTION AT SOETTA AIRPORT WAS ‘TOO MUCH’
Jan 05, 2018
Jayapura, 5/1 (Jubi) – Papua Legislator, Decky Nawipa considered the attitude of Soekarno-Hatta Airport Jakarta’s police toward Papuan Freedom leader Filep Karma on Tuesday (January 2) was too much and unnecessary.
Filep Karma, a former and well known Papuan political prisoner, was briefly detained at the airport for wearing a Morning Star badge on his ‘daily civil servant uniform’. Filep Karma is always wearing civil servant uniform with morning star badge in public everywhere.
That is why Decky Nawipa said it was ridiculous to detain Karma based on his wearing of the symbol.
“It’s not a new thing he (Filep Karma) ear the morning star badge on his shirt, and the ever-used pinnacle of a star, has become his identity,” Decky said to Jubi on January 3.
Nawipa said it is odd that Soetta Airport decides to detain and questioning Karma since the badge always stuck on Karma shirt. Wherever he has to travel, domestic or international, he always wears it.
“Why is it now being questioned? People wearing such badge are not automatically categorized as independent Papuans,” he said.
According to him, limiting and prohibiting the attributes of the morning star is not new for indigenous Papuans.
“It has been around since the Netherlands still occupied West Papua, until West Papua was submitted to Indonesia,” he said.
Quoted from CNN, Papuan independence leader, Filep Karma was briefly detained at Soekarno-Hatta airport police, Jakarta Tuesday (January 1) approximately at 21:00 pm, after getting off the plane.
He was taken to the Soekarno Hatta Airport Police HQ. But he was finally released by human right advocate of Civil Liberty Defender (CLD).
CLD’s activist, Uchok Sigit Prayogi, who accompanied Filep Karma at the Airport Police Headquarters, said based on the information obtained from Filep, at that time; he departed from Yogyakarta to Soekarno Hatta airport.
“When Filep arrived at the airport at about 9 PM, some TNI members were some dressed in civilian clothes, and then took Filep’s lodge to the arrival room,” Uchok told CNNIndonesia.com on Wednesday (January 3).
According to him, Karma said that since the flight from Yogyakarta to Jakarta, he was suspected by one TNI member who happened to be in the plane with him. Members of the TNI had reprimanded Karma because of the attributes Filep charged.
Arriving in the waiting room, a number of security forces then questioning Karma for the Morning Star badge on his outfit.
“In the interrogation process Karma was bombarded with question like investigation, even to the point of threat by breaking the table. It happens until 23:00 PM. Then, the police came and took Karma lodge to the Airport Police Headquarters for questioning. After debating, at 01.00 PM, Karma was finally able to go home,” he said. (tabloidjubi.com/Zely)
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