2) The Consultant: Why did a palm oil conglomerate pay $22m to an unnamed ‘expert’ in Papua?
3) Selling Out West Papua
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1) Indonesian trolls target Tongan beauty Diamond Langi over Papuan solidarity
By Sri Krishnamurthi - June 25, 2020
Beauty queen Diamond Langi ... “I shared [her video] because I wanted to bring awareness with what was happening with West Papuans, especially now with the Black Lives Matter movement." Image: Diamond Langi FB screenshot/PMC
By Sri Krishnamurthi, contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch
Miss Universe NZ 2019 beauty queen Diamond Langi is being trolled by thousands of Indonesians on social media for speaking up about discrimination against West Papuans.
“The post I had made was #FreeWestPapua with a video showcasing the discrimination West Papuans have had to endure for years,” she declared on Coconet TV’s Facebook and Instagram pages two days ago.
On her “Women of the Islands – Diamond Langi” webpage on the Coconet TV website, the Auckland-born Tongan beauty queen is quoted as saying:
“I shared it because I wanted to bring awareness with what was happening with West Papuans, especially now with the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I had kindly asked Miss Indonesia (Frederika Alexis Cull), who I had met last year in America while competing at Miss Universe, to speak to the president of her country [Joko Widodo] to free the seven activists who were found guilty of treason for protesting against racism.
She says that from that one post she has been hounded by Indonesian trolls who still exist on her Facebook page.
While there was support for her stance, some of the abuse from some Indonesians bordered on plain hatred, whereas others claimed the Melanesian region of West Papua belonged to Indonesia [it was annexed by Jakarta in in 1969 in a disputed colonisation process that has resulted in armed struggle and peaceful resistance ever since – Pacific Media Watch].
‘My Instagram was flooded’
“From that one post, my Instagram was flooded with abusive comments (at least 10,000 comments in a day) and they also started abusing my family, close friends, and even organisations that I work with,” she says on her Coconet TV webpage.
“From that one post, my Instagram was flooded with abusive comments (at least 10,000 comments in a day) and they also started abusing my family, close friends, and even organisations that I work with,” she says on her Coconet TV webpage.
“I was like, wow if this is happening to me just from making a post, imagine what is happening to the people of West Papua!
“I’ve had to deactivate some of my social media for a little bit but don’t worry I’ll be back,” she says.
But she also had support for her stance.
“Very concerning that our beautiful Pacific sister, Diamond Langi’s public Facebook page is under attack by a few propaganda-fuelled keyboard warriors from Indonesia, because she’s chosen to use her emerging platform and political freedom to stand in solidarity with our indigenous whanau in West Papua,” @Oceania Interrupted said on Facebook.
“Black Lives Matter all over the world, even in the Pacific – and bullying someone for standing in solidarity with indigenous people in our Pacific context, who continue to be brutally oppressed, exploited, silenced and killed in their own land is sickening!
“If you haven’t already, please go on her page, show some love for what she is standing in solidarity for; And if you know a thing or two about THE REAL WEST PAPUA [sic] situation, please school the ignorant bullies on her page and in our world,” the cultural activist group says.
Earlier this year, Langi acted in a Polish-American feature film titled, Sosefina. The film is written by Manu Tanielu and Namualii Tofa and directed by Hinano Tanielu.
The theme of Sosefina has been to tell the story of a marginalised and overlooked Polynesian community. The movie was released in the United States on 31 January 2020.
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(Note. Lots of photos etc. in article)
2) The Consultant: Why did a palm oil conglomerate pay $22m to an unnamed ‘expert’ in Papua?
BY THE GECKO PROJECT AND MONGABAY
ON 25 JUNE 2020 Mongabay Series: Indonesian Forests, Indonesian Palm Oil
- In a year-long investigation with The Gecko Project, the Korean Center for Investigative Journalism-Newstapa and Al Jazeera, Mongabay traced a $22 million “consultancy” payment connected to a major land deal in Indonesia’s Papua province.
- It took us from South Korea and Singapore to the heart of the largest rainforest left in Asia, to find out what role the payment played in making the Korindo Group one of the largest oil palm producers in the region.
- Photography by Albertus Vembrianto.
This article was co-published with The Gecko Project.
Part 1: ‘Maybe they didn’t expect us to find it’
In April 2019, an Indonesian delegate stepped onto the stage at a conference hosted by Interpol, the international police organization, at its Singapore headquarters. Among the audience were dozens of law enforcement agents from across the world, there to learn about how white-collar crimes and corruption underpinned the ongoing destruction of the world’s rainforests.
Interpol’s interest in forest crime had been stimulated by the billions of dollars the World Bank had calculated developing countries were losing in tax revenues to the global trade in illicit timber every year. There was a growing recognition among enforcement agencies that the crime scene was not only in rainforests. It was also in the dark recesses of the global financial system, through which bribes were paid and profits laundered.
The delegate, from an Indonesian nonprofit, walked the audience through a “suspicious” $22 million payment made by a conglomerate, which she declined to identify in her presentation. In corporate filings, the transaction had been described as a “consultancy fee,” paid to an unnamed “expert” who had helped obtain the rights to develop a vast oil palm plantation in the Indonesian province of Papua………………..
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3) Selling Out West Papua
In West Papua, Indonesia, we investigate allegations of fraud and human rights abuses in billion-dollar land deals.
25 Jun 2020 15:53 GM
West Papua is home to Asia's largest remaining rainforests, Indigenous communities and unique species.
But this exclusive 101 East investigation reveals how Korean-run companies are allegedly engaging in questionable deals as they buy up forests to develop palm oil plantations.
Featuring rare access to a restive Indonesian province usually off-limits to journalists, we meet tribesmen who allege that Posco International and Korindo are plundering their land for a pittance.
Both companies deny all allegations including fraud and human rights abuses.
Selling Out West Papua was produced in collaboration with Mongabay, The Gecko Project and the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism.
Join the conversation @AJ101East
Source: Al Jazeera
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