2) What we talk about when we talk about Papua
3) Indonesian Forces Kill Papuan Rebel Commander Near Grasberg Mine
4) Militants in Indonesia’s restive Papua region increase online presence
5) Indonesian students expelled from school face treason charges for joining a protest on Papua
6) Papua official not linking child infections to schools
7) Police to investigate RMS separatist flag hoisting incident
——————————————-
1) Rebel leader killed in clash in Indonesia’s Papua region
By ALFIAN KARTONO Associated Press AUGUST 17, 2020 — 9:10AM
JAYAPURA, Indonesia — Indonesian troops fatally shot a separatist leader in ongoing clashes between security forces and a rebel group near the world's largest gold mine in Indonesia's easternmost Papua region, police and rebels said Monday.
Hengky Wanmang, a leader of the Free Papua Organization, was shot as he tried to escape Sunday from an early morning raid by military and police on a house believed to be a separatist headquarters in the mountain village of Kalikopi, Papua police spokesman Ahmad Musthofa Kamal said.
Kamal said at least three other rebels were injured in a battle with security forces but managed to escape into the jungle near the mining town of Tembagapura with several other Papuan fighters armed with military-grade weapons as well as axes and arrows.
He said security forces seized an assault rifle, two guns, seven air rifles, 19 cellphones, two telescopes and 22.4 million rupiah ($1,500) in cash during the clash, which caused about 2,000 villagers to flee for safety.
Papua Police Chief Paulus Waterpauw described Wanmang as a central figure in the West Papua Liberation Army, the military wing of the Free Papua Organization. He said Wanmang was responsible for recent attacks near the giant Grasberg gold and copper mine, operated by PT Freeport Indonesia, that began Feb. 29 and left two security personnel and four rebels dead.
On March 30, eight gunmen fatally shot a New Zealander when he and six employees of PT Freeport Indonesia were in a parking lot at the company's office.
"Hengky Wanmang was responsible for the shootings," Waterpau said in a statement.
He said Wanmang also led ambushes on the road to the mine in July 2009 that killed eight people, including Australian miner Drew Nicholas Grant, and wounded 37 others.
Sebby Sambom, a spokesman for the liberation army, confirmed Wanmang's death.
"It is with great regret we inform publicly that one of our leaders, Hengky Wanmang, was killed by Indonesian troops," Sambom said in a statement Monday. "A bunch of terrorists have shot our fighters for the sake of defending American interests in Papua."
Rebels in Papua have been fighting a low-level insurgency since the early 1960s, when Indonesia annexed the region, a former Dutch colony. Papua was formally incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored ballot that was seen as a sham by many.
The mine, which is nearly half owned by U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan and is run by PT Freeport Indonesia, is seen by separatists as a symbol of Indonesian rule and has been a frequent target for rebels.
The Grasberg mine's vast gold and copper reserves have been exploited for decades by Freeport-McMoRan, damaging the surrounding environment while providing significant tax income for the Indonesian government.
But indigenous Papuans have benefited little and are poorer, sicker and more likely to die young than people elsewhere in Indonesia.
———————————————-
2) What we talk about when we talk about Papua
August 17, 2020
Author. Usman Hamid is executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia. He holds a master's in philosophy from Australian National University. He has previously served as coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) and in 2012 co-founded Public Virtue and the Indonesian Branch of Change.org. Currently he teaches at Indonesia Jentera School of Law (STH Indonesia Jentera).
The debate over Papua flared up again in Indonesia after anti-racism protests in the US triggered a social media campaign highlighting the plight of Papuans. Like black people in America, they have long suffered from structural racism.
In a rare event, racism in Papua was brought into the public conversation. With the powerful hashtag #PapuanLivesMatter, Indonesians — Papuans and non-Papuans — spoke about the various abuses suffered by Papuans, including the fate of dozens of Papuan prisoners of conscience prosecuted for protesting against the same thing that took George Floyd’s life: racism.
This has happened before but this time there were at least two major shifts in the conversation about Papua. First, it caught the attention of the wider community beyond human rights activists, academics and government officials. Second, its focus shifted somewhat from the issue of separatism to the question of racism and its implications.
It is crucial that the government understands what we talk about when we talk about Papua. It is injustice, racism, persecution and political violence that preoccupies the minds and work of activists – not simply separatism.
Unfortunately, the government has consistently failed to acknowledge this basic fact. In the past few weeks, it has peddled the old misguided narrative about Papua that attempts to shut down any legitimate criticism of how Jakarta unfairly treats native Papuans by framing that criticism as an effort to compromise Indonesia’s territorial integrity.
At least two op-ed pieces by government officials and a report by Gadjah Mada University (UGM) were published over the last month to challenge the increasingly popular Papuan Lives Matter discussion.
In an op-ed in The Jakarta Post on 13 July, acting Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah made a case for “decoupling” the Black Lives Matter protests from the call for Papuan independence. He argued that a “fair comparison cannot be made” between the situation in the US and Papua, saying that “BLM stems from an expansive history of discrimination and structured racism, the main foundation of Indonesia is equality.”
While it is true that the US and Papuan experiences of racism are different, this is a poor argument for backing his claim that there is no racism against Papuans in Indonesia. Various media reports, including those published in the Post, have depicted how Papuans outside Papua experience everyday racism.
The 2019 incident in Surabaya, East Java, last year, where authorities were recorded hurling racist insults at Papuan students, and the subsequent arrests of dozens of Papuans for taking part in rallies to protest this racist treatment, are clear examples of how institutional racism against Papuans has pervaded law enforcement bodies.
The US and Indonesian constitutions may herald the equality of all people, but that is an ideal that the governments of the two nations often cannot live up to.
Faizasyah further argues that structural racism could not exist in Papua because “the special autonomy law gives locals the privilege to administer their provinces” and that “a structured effort is being made to promote development centered around Indonesians of Papuan origin.”
But a study conducted by researchers from the Indonesian Institute of Science (LIPI) came to the opposite conclusion: that the marginalisation of and discrimination against indigenous Papuans is one of the four major causes of conflict in the region, along with development failures, disputes over the history of Papuan integration, and human rights violations against native Papuans.
The study, The Papua Road Map, highlights how Papuan cultural expressions are often regarded as a symbolic form of resistance to Indonesian rule. The arrest of West Papuan musician Arnold Ap by the Indonesian Army’s Special Forces (Kopassus) in 1983 for his social criticism and protest songs, followed by his murder a year later, have haunted Papuans for decades.
It does not help that even after Papua was granted Special Autonomy, Jakarta has relied on a 2007 government regulation that proscribes certain cultural symbols such as the Morning Star flag, which the LIPI researchers suggest serves as a “sharp reminder of the central government’s suspicions of Papuan cultural expression.”
Barely a week after Faizasyah’s piece was published, Jaleswari Pramodhawardani, the deputy head of politics, law, defence, security and human rights affairs at the Office of Presidential Staff, published an op-ed in Kompas again questioning the merit of associating the BLM protests with the Papuan struggle.
Jaleswari repeated Faizasyah’s claim that there is no systemic racism in Papua, refuting the claims that the government has engaged in repressive acts against Papuans and has failed to bring prosperity to the region. She said that her claims were backed by data, but her argument was little more than ‘whataboutery’, and failed to address the core issues.
Jaleswari, for example, cited a UGM study claiming that political violence in Papua is mostly carried out by armed criminal groups linked to the Free Papua Movement (OPM). The study, conducted by UGM’s Papua Task Force and apparently aimed at countering the 2018 Amnesty International Indonesia report on unlawful killing in Papua, relied heavily on media reports. If anything, the study actually acknowledges the violence committed by security forces against Papuans.
Regardless of the accuracy of the report, pointing to the violence committed by armed rebels should not be used to gloss over the violence, including unlawful killings, committed by security forces.
The Amnesty report detailed at least 69 incidents of unlawful killing involving both the Indonesian Military (TNI) and police in Papua between January 2010 and February 2018. The killings claimed 95 lives, 85 of whom were native Papuans. One of the most important findings of the report was that most cases (41 of them) occurred in the context of events that were unrelated to calls for independence or a referendum for Papua.
The trend of unlawful killings continues. This year alone, Amnesty has recorded at least 11 cases of suspected unlawful killings by security forces. This shows a lack of accountability on the part of the government in relation to the many incidents of political violence in Papua. This lack of accountability for state violence is cited by the landmark LIPI study as one of the major issues hampering conflict resolution in Papua.
It is baffling that Jaleswari would ignore the LIPI study, which is based on three years of research, and refer instead to a politically biased study with questionable methodology.
What is more confusing is Jaleswari’s argument that the election of Indonesia to the UN Human Rights Council is proof that the nation is not perceived by the international community as violating the rights of Papuans. This statement could not be farther from reality.
The list of issues raised by the Human Rights Council for Indonesia’s third Universal Periodic Review in 2017 and the recent written communication by the UN Committee on Civil and Political Rights show that Indonesia is still under the spotlight for rights abuses in Papua and West Papua, from unlawful killings to the treatment of internally displaced people, and the lack of freedom of expression in the two provinces.
It is worth noting that according to Statistics Indonesia, the nation’s democracy index improved last year, increasing from 72.39 points to 74.92 points. However, of all provinces in the country, West Papua is recorded as having has the worst democracy index, with just 57.62 points.
There is no question that transparency is key to solving the Papua problem. It is therefore reprehensible that the government stubbornly refuses to address this issue. It continues to harass those who seek to shed light on injustice in Papua, even after a court declared unlawful its decision to impose an internet blackout during the 2019 anti-racism riots.
Human rights lawyer Veronica Koman is an example. She has been forced to live in exile in Australia, unable to return to Indonesia after being charged with spreading fake news for reporting on Papua from her social media account. The government is now even attempting to force her to return Rp 773.8 million (US$52,760) in scholarship funds that she received to study human rights law at the Australian National University (ANU), a policy that Veronica described as “financial punishment”.
There is no overlooking the fact that there are elements within Papua that are calling for either a referendum or independence. The question of Papua can easily be linked to the issue of separatism.
But as data provided by credible institutions show, racial discrimination and human rights abuses are a reality in Papua, regardless of separatism, and these abuses must be acknowledged and addressed. The government can no longer pretend that all is well in Papua and must begin confronting the uncomfortable truths about the region.
———————————-
3) Indonesian Forces Kill Papuan Rebel Commander Near Grasberg Mine
Ronna Nirmala Jakarta 2020-08-17
Government security forces in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua province have killed a separatist commander whose group carried out deadly shootings at the Grasberg mine, police said Monday.
Hengki Wanmang (alias Hendrik Wanmang) was a regional commander of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) who claimed responsibility for the March 30th killing of Graeme Thomas Wall, 57, a New Zealand national working at the Grasberg gold and copper mine operated by U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan Inc.
Hengki was killed Sunday during a raid by 196 police and 92 soldiers on a separatist base in Mimika Regency, Papua police chief Paulus Waterpauw told a press conference in the provincial capital of Jayapura on Monday.
“Confirmed dead. The profile and the attributes he used match with the photo provided by another member of the separatist group we caught earlier,” the police chief said.
Security forces also injured three other members of the separatist group, but could not confirm their identities because they escaped into the surrounding forest.
"The team saw three KKB members being shot, but we could not confirm their identities," said Paulus, using an acronym that stands for “armed criminal group” in Indonesian.
The slain man had been operating in the area for some time although he became a commander only in 2018, Paulus said.
In 2009, Hengki was involved in a series of attacks and hostage-takings around the Grasberg mining area that killed three people and injured 11, including police, the police chief said.
"Hengki was the person who invited KKB members in the Central Mountains region to enter Tembagapura district and carried out attacks in the Freeport area," he said.
Police confiscated homemade weapons, 381 bullets, 22 million Rupiah (US$1,484) in cash, mobile phones, and three separatist flags in Sunday's raid, he said.
"We will keep hunting them down, in life or death," Paulus said.
‘We will counterattack’
A TPNPB spokesman, Sebby Sambom, said the killing of one of the group's commanders was a call to war against Indonesian authorities. He claimed that the group has 33 regional commanders, each leading 2,500 personnel.
"We will counterattack. This is war. War needs retaliatory action," Sebby told BenarNews via text message onMonday.
"TPNPB will not back down and will not surrender even if one of our leaders was shot dead by the enemy forces," he added.
"We also have non-permanent members, they are the Papuan people. So we believe that one day, when TPNPB-OPM announces war, all fighters and the people will definitely join in,” said Sebby.
The provinces of Papua and West Papua make up one-fifth of Indonesia’s landmass but only 5.9 million of Indonesia’s 250 million people live there.
Tensions rose in Papua in December 2018 after separatist rebels allegedly killed 19 members of a crew building a highway in Nduga Regency. Authorities immediately sent more than 750 soldiers and police to the region.
According to the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), a Jakarta think-tank, Paniai Regency is the main stronghold of Papuan separatist groups, followed by Puncak Jaya and Mimika regencies.
A low-level separatist conflict has simmered since the 1960s in Papua and West Papua, a region at the far eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago that declared independence from Dutch colonial rule on Dec. 1, 1961.
In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded the region and annexed it. Six years later, the region held a referendum in which security forces selected slightly more than 1,000 people to agree to Papua’s formal absorption into the nation, according to human rights advocacy groups.
Papua was rocked by weeks of violence in August and September last year after news about allegations that security forces on Java Island had mistreated Papuan students ignited mass protests. The unrest left more than 40 people dead.
——————————————
https://www.newdelhitimes.com/militants-in-indonesias-restive-papua-region-increase-online-presence/
4) Militants in Indonesia’s restive Papua region increase online presence
By NDT BureauAugust 17, 2020
The TPNPB’s online presence spans various platforms to reach diverse audiences
Papua, Indonesia’s eastern-most province, has been in a grip of a civil unrest. The Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka or OPM) is an umbrella term for the independence movement established during 1965 in the West Papua territory which is currently being administrated by Indonesia as the provinces of Papua and West Papua, also formerly known as Papua, Irian Jaya and West Irian. The rebel West Papua Liberation Army Tentara Pembebasan Nasional Papua Barat (TPNB) is the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM).
The TPNB has now increased its online presence. On July 5, an account in the name of an armed Papua separatist group-Tentara Pembebasan Nasional Papua Barat (TPNPB), or West Papua National Liberation Army – emerged on Twitter. The account referred to itself as ‘TPNPB News’ and immediately began posting video footage and images of the group’s Komando Daerah Pertanahan (KODAP, or regional defence commands), located in the Paniai, Nduga, and Bintang Mountains regencies of Papua province. As of July 20, its audience remained small, having attracted only 57 followers, before being suspended by Twitter on a later unspecified date.
On Facebook, a page called ‘The TPNPB News’ has 19,770 followers as of August 13, 2020. This page describes its mission as that of “informing current affairs and alert world attention of the West Papua’s freedom and self-determination.” The TPNPB News Facebook account refers to itself as the group’s “official news agency”. A check on the account using Facebook’s page transparency feature – intended to help Facebook users better understand the purpose of a page – shows that it is run from Australia. The page carries statements from the local TPNPB units as well as from the group’s leadership. A post published on the page on July 3, carried a statement from Tabuni, described as the TPNPB’s “Supreme Commander”. In the post, Tabuni claimed that he presided over 33 KODAPs, all of which he had ordered to “take up arms against Indonesia”. The post identified an individual named Lekagak Telenggen as the group’s “Commander of general operations”. The page last posted on August 11, 2020. As per the post, the TPNPB obtained a secret document belonging to the Indonesian Government which called for open military operations in Central Mountains of Papua and pitting Papuans against Papuans.
On You Tube, the militant group runs a channel under the name “Central Secretariat of TPNPB-OPM”, which has more than 10000 subscribers. The You Tube channel has the following description, “The long journey of the West Papua National Liberation Army which was formed two years after the proclamation of July 1, 1971, namely on March 26, 1973, was born an embryo that emerged with a nationalist/patriotic spirit of a struggle for liberation of the beloved West Papua Land and Nation.”
The TPNPB’s online presence spans various platforms to reach diverse audiences. The group’s outlets on social networks, such as Facebook and Instagram, predominantly feature Indonesian-language content. This indicates that they are being used by the TPNPB to build support inside Indonesia for the armed separatist movement.
——————————————
5) Indonesian students expelled from school face treason charges for joining a protest on Papua
Posted 17 August 2020 11:46 GMT
Written by Mong Palatino
Arbi Nur was one of four students who were expelled from Khairun University in Indonesia after they joined a protest in December 2019 supportive of Papua, Indonesia's largest and most eastern located, and predominantly Christian province. Their expulsion is currently under appeal, but Arbi Nur learned on July 13 that the police has charged him with ‘treason’ and ‘public provocation’. Human rights groups are calling for the dropping of cases against him, and the reinstatement of the students at the university. Global Voices author Mong Palatino interviewed Arbi Nur about his case through a Twitter conversation on August 12.
From protest to expulsion
Arbi Nur and fellow students Fahrul Abdullah W. Bone, Fahyudi Kabir, and Ikra S. Alkatiri joined a protest on December 2, 2019 in Ternate City calling for the release of Papuan political prisoners. The protest was violently dispersed by the police and the four were detained for 27 hours.
Ternate is part of North Maluku province, which is a neighboring island to West Papua and Papua provinces, both located in the east of Indonesia. It is also a place where many Papuan students are studying for college.
West Papua and Papua are part of Indonesia but some groups are demanding that the government recognize Papuans the right to self-determination. The conflict has lasted for many years already, with Papuan activists accusing Indonesian troops of committing widespread abuses in the region.
As of June 2, there are around 51 prisoners of conscience from Papua according to the monitoring of Amnesty International. Most are political activists and human rights defenders facing treason charges.
Despite the fact that the protest was not held on the campus, the rector of the Khairun University dismissed the four students based on a notice sent by the police. The rector’s decree stated that the four had “tarnished the good name of the university, breached the ethics of being a student, and threatened national security.”
The notice of dismissal was received by the students in March only. They challenged the dismissal by filing a petition at the administrative court in Ambon, the capital of the Maluku Islands province.
Treason case
After the appeal petition was filed, a treason case was lodged by the Ternate police against Arbi Nur. The notice was sent by the police to the Ternate district attorney's office on July 13. If found guilty, Arbi Nur could face up to 20 years in prison.
Tigor Hutapea, the lawyer of Arbi Nur, said the police cannot simply issue notices passing judgment on individuals for allegedly committing treason.
An act of makar (treason) allegedly committed by a person must be proven and ruled on by a court. A simple notification from the Kapolres (police chief) clearly cannot be used as a formal legal reference.
The public defender also insisted that Arbi Nur did not commit a crime:
Arbi also spoke out about [human rights] violations against the Papuan people. Once again, the demonstration was peaceful, orderly and there were no blunt or sharp weapons, firearms and no violence was committed against persons or property.
Nanang Kosim, spokesperson of the Indonesian People's Front for West Papua or FRI-WP, told Radio New Zealand on August 10 that activists like them are often beaten and yelled at for being ‘traitors to the nation’. Arbi Nur is a member of FRI-WP which has chapters in a growing number of universities.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) weighed on the issue and expressed concern about the case of Arbi Nur. It also urged Khairun University to reinstate the expelled students. Andreas Harsono, HRW’s senior Indonesia researcher said:
Khairun University should support academic freedom and free expression, not expel students peacefully expressing their views. (It) should let the students return to their studies this semester and ensure a university environment that promotes free expression.
Arbi Nur’s reaction
Through a direct message on Twitter, this author reached out to Arbi Nur who shared his thoughts about the treason case:
I am not surprised and afraid when I learned about the treason case. I am ready to face this accusation. Treason charge is often used by authorities against Papuan activists and non-Papuan solidarity activists. An example is the conviction of Surya Anta (who was found guilty of treason for organizing a protest against racism). And the impact is the silencing of freedom of expression.
He also wrote about his expulsion from the university.
Campus should be independent. Campus should not accommodate political interest from outside (referring to the police action). The university bureaucracy doesn't have authority to intervene in student political activities inside or outside campus.
He also belied the claim of the Indonesia government that it upholds human rights and democracy in Papua. He pressed for greater global attention about the situation of activists in Papua and the need to make the Indonesian police accountable for its alleged human rights atrocities in the region.
———————————————-
6) Papua official not linking child infections to schools
3:30 pm on 17 August 2020
Almost 300 children below 19 years-old have been infected with Covid-19 in Indonesia's Papua province.
The Jakarta Post reported that the data from the Papua Covid-19 prevention task force is a cumulative number from late March to last week.
However Papua's Education, Archive and Library Agency head, Christian Sohilait, said not every infected child was a student.
He said the 289 confirmed coronavirus transmissions were not from school activities following the recent reopening of schools.
According to Indonesia's Health Ministry, the total confirmed cases of the coronavirus to date in Papua had reached 3,422 - almost two-thirds of whom had recovered.
There have been 36 deaths.
Of the total confirmed cases, 86 percent were reported as being people aged 19 to 58.
In neighbouring West Papua province, there had been 605 confirmed cases to date, with 450 recoveries and seven deaths.
Data on how many of these cases were children was not available.
——————————
7) Police to investigate RMS separatist flag hoisting incident
10 hours ago
Ambon, Maluku (ANTARA) - Police will probe the raising of the South Maluku Republic (RMS) separatist movement flag at the Corruption Court in Ambon, Maluku’s provincial capital, on Monday when Indonesians marked the 75th anniversary of the country’s independence.
"We will trace possible witnesses to expose (the identities of) people that had hoisted the RMS separatist flag," Chief of the Maluku Provincial Police Inspector General Baharuddin Djafar stated here on Monday.
Djafar pointed out that the local people's awareness of the RMS separatist movement had grown more measurable as was apparent from the lowering of the separatist flag and reporting of the incident to the police.
"The Maluku people have become increasingly aware that hoisting of the RMS separatist flag was not permissible, so they lowered the flag and handed it over to the Maluku Provincial Police as evidence," he stated.
Stenly Pattipeilohy, 36, a resident of Passo Village in Ambon, notified the Baguala Police Precinct on Monday morning of the hoisting of the separatist flag at the Corruption Court in Ambon City.
Pattipeilohy revealed that at 6 a.m. local time, his neighbor, Mrs. Desy, informed him of someone hoisting the separatist flag at the Corruption Court located some 200 meters from her home.
Related news: Former Papuan separatist hands over rifle to military
Related news: Police nab Papuan separatist movement's youth sympathizers in Abepura
Related news: Police confiscate 115 arrows, 22 archery bows from house in Mimika
"We will trace possible witnesses to expose (the identities of) people that had hoisted the RMS separatist flag," Chief of the Maluku Provincial Police Inspector General Baharuddin Djafar stated here on Monday.
Djafar pointed out that the local people's awareness of the RMS separatist movement had grown more measurable as was apparent from the lowering of the separatist flag and reporting of the incident to the police.
"The Maluku people have become increasingly aware that hoisting of the RMS separatist flag was not permissible, so they lowered the flag and handed it over to the Maluku Provincial Police as evidence," he stated.
Stenly Pattipeilohy, 36, a resident of Passo Village in Ambon, notified the Baguala Police Precinct on Monday morning of the hoisting of the separatist flag at the Corruption Court in Ambon City.
Pattipeilohy revealed that at 6 a.m. local time, his neighbor, Mrs. Desy, informed him of someone hoisting the separatist flag at the Corruption Court located some 200 meters from her home.
Related news: Former Papuan separatist hands over rifle to military
Related news: Police nab Papuan separatist movement's youth sympathizers in Abepura
Related news: Police confiscate 115 arrows, 22 archery bows from house in Mimika
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.