Monday, November 30, 2020

GLW photos of WP flag raising in Sydney

 

https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/solidarity-shown-west-papua

Solidarity shown to West Papua

Peter Boyle  Sydney December 1, 2020 

   GLW Issue 1291 

 



Outside the Leichhardt Town Hall, Sydney on December 1. Photo: Peter Boyle



Supporters of West Papua's struggle for self-determination took part in a Morning Star flag-raising ceremony at Leichhardt Town Hall organised by the Australia West Papua Association.

Every December 1, West Papuan people brave brutal repression by the Indonesian occupation forces to raise their national flag on their own land.

So, all around the world on that day, the Morning Star flag is raised in solidarity.
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morte GLW photos from FB
Supporters of West Papua's struggle for self-determination took part in a Morning Star flag-raising ceremony at Leichhardt Town Hall organised by the Australia West Papua Association. Every December 1, West Papuan people brave brutal repression by the Indonesian occupation forces to raise their national flag on their own land. So, all around the world on that day, the flag is raised in solidarity. Photos: Peter Boyle








































1st of December – the day of Papuans’ statehood, remembrance, and mourning

 All Jakarta’s policies for West Papua originate from colonial myths, and these myths must be re-evaluated if Jakarta is sincere about fixing the so-called “Papuan problems.”

 

By Yamin Kogoya

1st December 2020

 

1st of December – the day of Papuans’ statehood, remembrance, and mourning

Each year on December 1st, Papuans commemorate the day on which the embryo of a new Papuan state was conceived. This was West Papua’s original Independence Day. The Morning Star flag was first raised in 1961 as the Dutch prepared West Papua for independence. Unfortunately, its newborn statehood was short-lived. A few months later the Indonesian military invaded the independent sovereign nation state of West Papua. Since that time, the Indonesian military regime has endeavoured to eradicate any attempt to revive the dream of statehood through a sequence of military campaigns across West Papua. All Papuan lives have, in one way or another, been shaped by these wars.

Jakarta’s fear of an independent Papuan state is exemplified by their ruthless response to leaders calling for an end to Indonesian rule. For example, the assassination of the Papuan tribal chief Theys Eluay and the killing of the senior commander of Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM), or Free Papua Movement, Kelly Kwalik in 2009, sent a clear message of their attitude towards the raising of the Morning Star. 

This idea of statehood is written in the hearts, mind and blood of hundreds of thousands of Papuans. In remembrance of their sacrifices, the leader of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), Benny Wenda, has called for a National Day of Prayer on December 1st, 2020.

This year will mark the fifty-ninth anniversary of the day that West Papuans first raised their flag. Next year will mark 60 years since their statehood was removed by Indonesia’s Western-endorsed military government, with the complicity of the United Nations.

West Papua has been turned into a killing field

Since the Indonesian invasion, West Papua has been turned into a killing field. As Benny Wenda stated  on SBS News on 28th October, ‘West Papua is becoming a hunting ground by special forces.’

Mr. Wenda was responding to the killing of pastor Jeremiah Zanambani at his village in Intan Jaya in September 2020 and  the severe beating of thirteen Papuan students on October 27.  The entirety of West Papua has been turned into a killing field, in which Indonesian security forces have enjoyed unjustifiable impunity against Papuans for a half a century. These killings continue, but it seems that the world doesn’t hear about them.

The UK-based Free West Papua Campaign reported that on November 21, 2020, four West Papuan school students and a thirty-four-year-old man were shot by the Indonesian security forces in Puncak Belantara Limbaga.

We need to reflect on these killings with a fresh perspective. These killings are not isolated incidents. This violence has its roots in the myth of colonialists’ civilising mission that was  carried out in many parts of the world. 

 

The logic of killing Papuans as wild animals in a hunting ground

The colonial mindset is predicated around the idea that colonised land was previously uninhabited. These territories were perceived as more or less uninhabited, in which monsters and exotic animals roamed free, without values, norms, or rules. Therefore, the task of a “civilised” man was to go into this unoccupied territory and kill anyone or anything that posed threat to their mission.

In their minds, this mission was to restore order, value and civilisation while stripping away the beauty and resources of the colonised land. The killing of the original inhabitants was considered inconsequential because according to their logic, they were not committing any crime against humanity. They were merely eliminating threats. In the institutionalised psyche of the colonial mindset, the torturing and killing of any original inhabitants of their so-called ‘newly discovered uninhabited land’ was justifiable. Original inhabitants were always projected as monsters and savages who posed a threat to moral and civilised men. 

This Western fantasy was predicated on the idea that man (specifically white man) was destined to lead the world into a better future. Peoples considered stupid, savage and primitive must be enlightened by Western ideas. It is the white man’s duty to civilise the cavemen, monkey men and savage men, saving humanity from ignorance and paganism. The description of a “dark lost world” with racist undertones narrated in colonial textbooks such as the Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1899), the White Man’s Burden by Rudyard Kipling (1899), and Minutes  of Education by Mathew Arnold (1852) reflects the deeply patronising views held by colonialists.

The spirit of the frontier wars between European settlers and the original inhabitants in Australia, Canada, America and New Zealand still haunt the psyche of the Indigenous people of  these countries. Restoring a permanent ‘trust’ has become challenging as governments continue to regard the indigenous people as a burden to the national story. 

The enlightenment fantasy was a plague for the first nation communities

The colonial project is based on distorted information and misconstrued ideas about the colonised subject. Edward Said shed light on this issue in his ground-breaking book Orientalism (1978). Said argues that the West constructs imagery of a mythical Other - “The East.” The West portrays “the Other” as mysterious, exotic and somewhat demonic in its savagery, lacking the light of morality and civilisation.

We now know that the idea of civilising the dark planet, concocted during the heyday of European enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries, was cataclysmic for sovereign First Nations peoples around the globe. Enlightenment ideas decimated the First Nations peoples of America, Canada and Australia, and commodified millions of Africans and sold them into slavery. Hardly a person on the  planet escaped the plague of the civilising influence of the West. 

It is this plague that was inserted into the mind of Indonesians by the Dutch

The oppression of native Indonesians during Dutch colonial rule was portrayed in Pramoedya’s 1980 novel Bumi Manusia (The Earth of Mankind). Pramoedya recounted the colonial plague that ran through the blood of a highly stratified society based on race and colour. This plague later fuelled the fire of Indonesian nationalism against Dutch occupation, leading to the declaration of independence in 1945.

 In Indonesia, Papuans are called bodoh (stupid), kotor (dirty), and terbelakang (backward). The war starts here – at the level of mind, language and conception. How can Indonesians and Papuans relate to each other on an equal footing when the Indonesian state has clearly been influenced by the colonialist mentality inherited from the Dutch? Recognition of this is crucial to establishing engagement between Papua and the Indonesian state. 

West Papua – the garden of Eden turned into a garden of killing

Indonesians view West Papua as a Garden of Eden. However, the Papuans are seen as a problem. To address this problem, Jakarta has adopted a policy of securisation of West Papua. The process of doing that has been disruptive for the Papuans themselves, but also the Indonesians in contradicting their own anti-colonisation rhetoric that preceded the 1945 independence declaration. However, the plight of the Papuan peoples is diminished in the eyes of the world as Indonesia continues to court the West using the “legitimacy” of democracy.

Papuans’ genocide at the hands of Indonesia, and the unprecedented destruction of their ancestral homeland, originated in European racism. Indonesians are merely imitating the demonization of their humanity practiced by the institutionalized racism of the Dutch colonial system in their pursuit of securing the resources beyond their borders. 

The myth of the so-called ‘civilised human’ provided a mandate to ‘re-humanise’ others whom they considered lesser or improper humans. This is the crux of the colonial plague that reverberated across the planet over the past 500 years. We are still suffering from this plague. This myth has become one of the most dangerous ever concocted. Indonesians still believe and practice this idea in West Papua

They want to love Papua, but they can’t because the problem starts in the myth that regulates the Indonesian colonial mindset

Special Autonomy is dead 

The failed project of Special Autonomy that was imposed upon Papuans in 2001 as a compromise for the growing demand for independence after Suharto’s new order collapsed, has largely been rejected by Papuans. Despite this rejection, Jakarta still insists Papuan elites to re-evaluate why the project failed, despite  the fact that Papuans have repeatedly informed Jakarta that Special Autonomy has failed. Papuans rejected this idea by portraying it as a coffin containing many dead Papuan bodies. They buried  this coffin  signifying  that any ideas, and policies introduced by Jakarta regarding the fate of West Papua would mean death for Papuans. 

If Jakarta is sincere about a solution to West Papua’s problems, they need not re-evaluate Special Autonomy. Instead, they must start by re-evaluating how they think about West Papua.

Media release -West Papuan flag raising in Sydney

Media release -West Papuan flag raising in Sydney

 

Australia West Papua Association (Sydney) 

Media release 1 Dec

 

West Papuan flag raising at Inner West Council

The Australia West Papua Association thanks the Inner West Council in Sydney for supporting the raising of the West Papuan National Flag on its Leichhardt Town Hall today, 1st December (to commemorate the first   official flying of the Morning Star flag on the 1st December in 1961). 

 

In a media statement  (30 November 2020) the UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani on Papua and West Papua, Indonesia said  

“We are disturbed by escalating violence over the past weeks and months in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua and the increased risk of renewed tension and violence.”

and

“Military and security forces have been reinforced in the region and there have been repeated reports of extra-judicial killings, excessive use of force, arrest and continuous harassment and intimidation of protesters and human rights defenders.”

 

In a Jubi report (30 November) it was reported that the police arrested six residents of Merauke “because they were found to have kept the Morning Star flag and documents regarding the referendum on Papuan sovereignty in Merauke."

 

The head of the Merauke police said  

"that the police arrested and detained them because they were considered against the state. He also claimed that the arrest of the six residents was carried out properly and according to procedure.

 

Joe Collins of AWPA said “Fifty-nine years after the Morning Star flag was flown for the first time officially beside the Dutch Tricolor West Papuans are still being arrested because they have symbols of the Morning Star flag or are simply involved in discussions about their political future. 

 

Joe Collins said as “the human rights situation in West Papua deteriorates with ongoing human rights abuses,  “ its time our Foreign Affairs Minister  Marise Payne followed the example of the UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani and also made a public statement of concern on the human rights situation in the territory, one of our nearest neighbours.


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1) MEDIA STATEMENT: Comment by UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani on Papua and West Papua, Indonesia

 




2) UN Highlights Arrests, Killings in Indonesia’s Papua Region 



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https://bangkok.ohchr.org/papua-statement/
1) MEDIA STATEMENT: Comment by UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani on Papua and West Papua, Indonesia 


BANGKOK/GENEVA (30 November 2020) – We are disturbed by escalating violence over the past weeks and months in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua and the increased risk of renewed tension and violence.
In one incident on 22 November, a 17-year-old was shot dead and another 17-year-old injured in an alleged police shootout, with the bodies found at the Limbaga Mountain, Gome District in West Papua.
Earlier, in September and October 2020 there was a disturbing series of killings of at least six individuals, including activists and church workers, as well as non-indigenous residents. At least two members of the security forces were also killed in clashes.
An investigation by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) found one church worker, Rev. Yerimia Zanambani, a pastor of the Protestant Evangelical Church, may have been killed by members of the security forces, and that his killing was just one “of a series of violence occurring across the regency throughout this year.”
We have also received numerous reports of arrests. At least 84 people, including Wensislaus Fatuban, a well-known human rights defender and human rights advisor to the Papuan People’s Council (Majelis Rakyat Papua or the MRP) and seven MRP staff members, were arrested and detained on 17 November by security forces in Merauke Regency in Papua Province.
Their arrests came ahead of a public consultation organised by the MRP on the implementation of the Special Autonomy Law in Papua and West Papua provinces. Fatuban and the others were released on 18 November.
UN human rights experts have also repeatedly expressed serious concerns regarding the intimidation, harassment, surveillance and criminalisation of human rights defenders for the exercise of their fundamental freedoms.
The recent violence and arrests are part of a trend we have observed since December 2018, following the killing of 19 individuals working on the Trans-Papua Highway in Nduga regency by armed Papuan elements.
There was a further escalation in in August 2019, when anti-racism protests and widespread violence erupted in Papua and elsewhere following the detention and discriminatory treatment of Papuan students in Java.
Military and security forces have been reinforced in the region and there have been repeated reports of extra-judicial killings, excessive use of force, arrest and continuous harassment and intimidation of protesters and human rights defenders.
We are concerned about reports that both armed elements and nationalist militias have been actively involved in the violence.
We urge the Government of Indonesia to uphold people’s rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association in line with its international obligations, particularly ahead of 1 December, when there are often protests, tensions and arrests.
We also call on the authorities to pursue thorough, independent and impartial investigations into all acts of violence, in particular killings, and for all perpetrators – regardless of their affiliations – to be held accountable.
At a time of ongoing discussions related to the Special Autonomy Law, we urge all sides to work to prevent further violence. There is an urgent need for a platform for meaningful and inclusive dialogue with the people of Papua and West Papua, to address longstanding economic, social and political grievances. There is also a clear need to ensure accountability for past and recent human rights violations and abuses.
ENDS
Watch the Video Statement here: https://vimeo.com/484722895/bc8c4f7144
Download the Video Statement here: https://owncloud.unog.ch/s/0xu2GuNZqCJ4FOt
For more information and media requests, please contact:  in Bangkok, Todd Pitman (+66 63 216 9080 / todd.pitman@un.org) or Wannaporn Samutassadong (+66 65 986 0810 / wannaporn.samutassadong@un.org; or in Geneva, Rupert Colville – +41 22 917 9767 / rcolville@ohchr.org or Ravina Shamdasani – +41 22 917 9169 / rshamdasani@ohchr.org or Marta Hurtado – +41 22 917 9466 / mhurtado@ohchr.org or Liz Throssell – +41 22 917 9296 / ethrossell@ohchr.org
Tag and share – Twitter: @UNHumanRights and @OHCHRAsia / Facebook: unitednationshumanrights and OHCHRAsia

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https://thediplomat.com/2020/11/un-highlights-arrests-killings-in-indonesias-papua-region/

2) UN Highlights Arrests, Killings in Indonesia’s Papua Region 

Recent tensions have been connected to Jakarta’s planned extension of the region’s Special Autonomy Law.

By Sebastian Strangio

November 30, 2020

 

The United Nations has once again voiced its consternation about the tense political situation in Indonesia’s Papua region, after months of escalating tensions between the authorities and pro-independence activists.

In a statement dated November 30, U.N. Human Rights Office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani pointed to a rash of violence and arrests that have taken place since the killing by separatists of 16 laborers working on the Trans-Papua highway in 2018.

“Military and security forces have been reinforced in the region and there have been repeated reports of extra-judicial killings, excessive use of force, arrest and continuous harassment and intimidation of protesters and human rights defenders,” the U.N. statement claims.

In particular, Shamdasani referenced a November 22 incident in which a 17-year-old was shot dead and another 17-year-old injured in an alleged police shootout in the Gome district of West Papua province. This came after a “disturbing” series of killings of at least six individuals in September and October, including activists and church workers. At least two members of the Indonesian security forces were also killed in clashes.

 

Indonesia’s Papua and West Papua provinces, which form the western half of the island of New Guinea, have seen a simmering separatist conflict since Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in a deeply flawed referendum in 1969. The Indonesian state’s attempts to quash the insurgency led by the Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka, or OPM) have resulted in a perennial crop of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, disappearances, restrictions on residents’ movement and freedom of expression, and even drawn accusations of genocide.

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Despite its longevity, the situation in the Indonesian provinces of Papua rarely garners sustained international attention, in large part because the Indonesian government has made it hugely difficult for outside journalists and human rights monitors to gain access to the region.

Much of the recent discord has been linked to the Special Autonomy Law, which was passed in 2001 in order to give Papua and West Papua provinces more political autonomy and a larger share of revenue from the region’s rich natural resources.

The Special Autonomy Law is set to expire next year, and many independence-inclined Papuans have opposed its renewal, claiming that it has been used to short circuit aspirations for independence while doing little to improve the lot of ordinary people. In late September, police fired live ammunition in order to disperse crowds protesting against the Special Autonomy Law in Jayapura, the capital of Papua province. Demonstrators were also demanding a referendum on secession from Indonesia, something promised to the country at the end of Dutch colonial rule in 1962. Many were holding the Papuan national flag – the Bintang Kejora, or “Morning Star.

 

The U.N. statement also pointed to the arrests of at least 84 people on November 17. These included Wensislaus Fatuban, a well-known human rights defender and human rights advisor to the Papuan People’s Council (Majelis Rakyat Papua, or MRP) and seven MRP staff members. The arrests came ahead of a public consultation organized by the MRP on the implementation of the Special Autonomy Law. Fatuban and the other council members were released the following day.

 

 

The recent violence is just the latest sign of the wide gulf separating the national aspirations of the Papuans, press-ganged into the Indonesian republic in 1969, and the central Indonesian government, which has battled a rash of regional rebellions since independence, and views each as a potentially existential challenge to the integrity of the republic.

As the U.N. rightly points out, there is an “urgent need for a platform for meaningful and inclusive dialogue with the people of Papua and West Papua, to address longstanding economic, social and political grievances.” Absent this understanding, Papua will likely remain one of Southeast Asia’s most sadly intractable conflicts.

AUTHORS

STAFF AUTHOR

Sebastian Strangio

 

Sebastian Strangio is Southeast Asia Editor at The Diplomat. 

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Sunday, November 29, 2020

Leading up to and on the 1st.

Leading up to and on the 1st. 


West Papuan National Flag Day.  1st December
On the 1st December in 1961, the Morning Star flag (the West Papuan National flag) was flown for the first time officially beside the Dutch Tricolor.  The Dutch were finally about to give the West Papuan people their freedom. 

However it is one of the great tragedies that at their moment of freedom it was cruelly crushed and West Papua was basically handed over to Indonesia in 1963.

Fifty Nine years later, the West Papuan people are still struggling for their right to self-determination. Supporters around the world on the 1st December raise the West Papuan flag in a show of support for the West Papuan people.

As individuals we can also contribute to raising awareness about West Papua on the 1st December.
By wearing a West Papuan t-shirt or badge or writing articles/opinion pieces to the media or for your church/trade union newsletter. 
All these simple actions will help raise the issue of West Papuan in the minds of the Australian public.

Quite a few webinar events that people can link in to below

AWPA letter to Aust Foreign Minister re concern about the 1st in Asia Pacific  report
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2020/11/29/36-arrested-after-police-break-up-free-papua-rallies-in-manokwari-sorong/
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A warm up in Sydney yesterday
                    


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Tuesday 1st at 10am 
West Papuan flag  raising 
The Inner West Council will raise the West Papuan Nation Flag on its Leichhardt Town Hall  (Corner of Marion and, Norton St Leichhardt NSW 204)

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https://www.facebook.com/events/368987817877594/

TOMORROW AT 11 AM UTC+11 – 12 PM UTC+11

Raising the Morning Star

Facebook Live






Online with Facebook Live
We examine the long and bloody history of flag raising attempts in West Papua, share some Solidarity pictures, videos and messages from supporters this year 2020 and discuss how Australians can help. 
See Less
An online event
https://www.facebook.com/events/368987817877594/
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You are invited to attend the virtual e-book launch of the late Andy Ayamiseba’s Memoir written by Manggupre Sabah and published by West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL).
Join us for an evening of reflections and inspiring messages by some of Andy’s closest friends and colleagues in his life long campaign for West Papuan Independence.
Event will commence 1st December at 5pm AEDT time/3pm WIT.
Following formalities, the webinar will open for attendees to participate in a question and answer session with key speakers.
Like, share and follow this page for further announcements including Webinar details.



https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=113176407273649&id=111463397444950


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Webinar & film screening | Expedition Content: Working with the Sound Archives of the Harvard Peabody Expedition to Netherlands New Guinea | Ernst Karel & Veronika Kusumaryati

December 3 @ 15:30 - 17:00

Synopsis

In 1961, filmmaker Robert Gardner organized the Harvard Peabody Expedition* to Netherlands New Guinea (current day West Papua). Funded by the Dutch colonial government and private donations, and consisting of several of the wealthiest members of American society wielding 16mm film cameras, still photographic cameras, reel-to-reel tape recorders, and a microphone, the expedition settled for five months in the Baliem Valley, among the Hubula (also known as Dani) people. It resulted in Gardner’s highly influential film Dead Birds, two books of photographs, Peter Matthiessen’s book Under the Mountain Wall, and two ethnographic monographs. Michael Rockefeller, a fourth-generation member of the Rockefeller (Standard Oil) family, was tasked with taking pictures and recording sound in and around the Hubula world. Expedition Content is an augmented sound work composed from the archive’s 37 hours of tape which document the strange encounter between the expedition and the Hubula people. The piece reflects on intertwined and complex historical moments in the development of approaches to multimodal anthropology, in the lives of the Hubula and of Michael, and in the ongoing history of colonialism in West Papua.

https://www.kitlv.nl/event/expedition-content/

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