General Gatot Nurmantyo, a former commander in the Indonesian National Armed Forces, giving his television interview – in Bahasa Indonesian. Video: TV-One Indonesia
Asia Pacific Report correspondent
A former Indonesian military commander has condemned the formal labelling of the West Papuan resistance TPN/OPN as “terrorists”, saying that the Papuan problem was complex and could not be solved by armed force alone.
Among other critics of the tagging are the Papua provincial Governor, Lukas Enembe and a Papuan legal researcher.
General Gatot Nurmantyo, former commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI), said during a live interview on TV-One Indonesia that it was wrong to label the TPN/OPM (National Liberation Army/Free Papua Movement) as a terrorist group.
He said that Jakarta had tried to use a military solution since the former Dutch colony of Irian Jaya was “integrated” into Indonesia in 1969 without bringing about any change.
“Papua cannot be solved by military operations,” he said.
General Nurmantyo said military operations would not solve the root cause of the conflict in Papua.
He regretted the decision made by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration on May 5.
“I am saddened to hear that troops are leaving for Papua to fight. It’s a picture that I think makes me sad,” said the general.
Sad for two reasons
He said he felt sad for two reasons:
- First, Papua was one of the Indonesian provinces and the youngest province of the Unitary State of the Republic.
- Second, based on Government Regulation in Lieu of Acts (PERPU) 59 of 1959, Papua was still under civilian rule. So, the military actions should be mainly territorial, which supported by intelligence and prepared combat operations.
The retired general said that Papuans “are our own people”, so the burden could not be imposed only on the military and police. Executive government and other government agencies should comprehend the real background of the movements and be involved to resolve the prolonged problem in Papua.
“Territorial operations are operations to win the hearts and minds of the people, because what we face is our own people. Do not expect to solve a condition in Papua only with military operations,” said General Nurmantyo.
“I remind you, it will not work, no matter how great it will be. Because the problem is not just that small,” he said.
General Nurmantyo, who has been a former military district commander in Jayapura and Merauke said that Indonesia already had experience in Aceh where the conflict had not been resolved by military operations.
As the PERPU 59 of 1959 was still valid, the governor was the single highest authority. The military was not allowed to carry out operations without coordinating with the local government.
Communication with government
General Nurmantyo said communication with the local government was carried out and measured operations launched.
“Lest the people become victims! How come, in a situation like this we are waging an open war? Seriously!
“Meanwhile, the situation is still very civil. The leader is the governor or local government.
“This is a state regulation. This is different from when Papua would be designated as a military operation,” said General Nurmantyo.
According to a media release received by Asia Pacific Report. Papua Governor Lukas Enembe and the provincial government also objected to the terrorist label given to the KKB (“armed criminal group”), as the Indonesian state refers to the TPNPB (West Papua National Liberation Army).
Key points
Two of the seven points made in the media release said:
- “Terrorism is a concept that has always been debated in legal and political spheres, thus the designation of the KKB as a terrorist group needs to be reviewed carefully and ensure the objectivity of the state in granting this status, and
- “The Papua provincial government pleaded with the central government and the Indonesian Parliament to conduct a re-assessment of the observation of the labeling of KKB as terrorist. We are of the opinion that the assessment must be comprehensive by taking into account the social, economic and legal impacts on Papuans in general.”
A West Papuan legal researcher, who declined to be named, said that the Indonesian government misused the term “terrorism” to undermine the basic human rights of indigenous West Papuans.
So far, the term terrorism had no precise definition and so has no legal definition, said the researcher.
Many of the United Nations member states did not support UN resolution 3034 (XXVII) because it contained a certain degree of disconnection to other international instruments, particularly human rights laws.
Disagreements among the states remained regarding the use of terrorism, especially the exclusion of different categories of terrorism.
Right to self-determination
In particular the exception of the liberation movement groups. Particularly contentious which was the affirmation in 1972 of “the inalienable right to self-determination and independence of all peoples under colonial and racist regimes and other forms of alien domination”.
“The legitimacy of their struggle, in particular, the struggle of national liberation movements by the principles and purposes is represented in the UN charter. Therefore, designating West Papua Liberation Army as a terrorist group by the Indonesian government considered outside the category of the terrorist act,” said the researcher.
“Any definition of terrorism must also, accommodate reasonable claims to political implications, particularly against repressive regimes such as Indonesia towards West Papuans.
“The act of self-determination by Papuans cannot be considered terrorism at all.”
The international community should condemn any regime that is repressive and terrorist acts by colonial, racist and alien regimes in denying peoples their legitimate right to self-determination, independence, and other human rights.
A coherent legal definition of terrorism might help “confine the unilateral misuse” of the term by the national government such as Indonesia against TPNPB/OPM, said the researcher.
The other side of the story was war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, oppression, torture and intimidation by the state.
These elements were present in West Papua and they qualified as the act of terrorists and were therefore universally recognised as crimes against humanity and criminals, the researcher said.
The researcher added: “The West Papua army or TPN/OPM are not terrorist groups. They are the victims of terrorism”
This report and the translations have been compiled by an Asia Pacific Report correspondent.
- Curbing deforestation associated with the palm oil industry is crucial if Indonesia wants to meet its long-term emissions reduction targets, experts say.
- There are still 3.5 million hectares (8.65 million acres) of natural forest inside existing oil palm concessions that could potentially be cleared in as little as three years as demand for palm oil continues to grow.
- Experts have called on the government to save these forests by extending and strengthening a moratorium on licensing new plantations.
- They also call for the adoption of the high conservation value and high carbon stock approaches to identifying areas to protect.
JAKARTA — Indonesia could lose an area of tropical rainforest bigger than Belgium to oil palm plantations over the next three years without existing measures to slow this loss, activists warn. This would negate the government’s own commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070.
Indonesia has since 2018 banned the issuance of permits for new oil palm plantations to stem deforestation associated with palm oil production. But existing concessions containing vast swaths of forest may still be cleared. These amount to 3.5 million hectares (8.65 million acres) of forest — and they could be cleared within just three years, according to Anggalia Putri, forest and climate program director at the environmental NGO Madani.
She notes that companies are required to develop their concessions within three years or risk having the land deemed as “abandoned,” seized by the state and given to another firm under existing regulations.
“So oil palm trees have to be planted and the natural forests [in the concessions] will disappear,” Anggalia told Mongabay.
Besides that, the government’s biodiesel program, which seeks to phase out fossil fuel diesel for a blend that contains palm oil-derived fuel, also threatens deforestation, she added. Indonesia’s biodiesel transition program, the world’s most ambitious, will require 15 million hectares (37 million acres) — an area a fifth the size of Borneo — of new oil palm plantations, according to the government.
While it’s not clear whether the new plantations will be established in already deforested areas, the program nevertheless adds further pressure to clear natural forests inside existing oil palm concessions, Anggalia said.
“Various studies show that if the demand for biofuel increases overtime, we will run out of crude palm oil by 2023 or 2024,” she said. “And of course that’s an immense pressure for our natural forests and peatland. If we clear all natural forests [inside concessions] for biofuel [production], we will miss the target” set by Indonesia’s government of turning the country’s tropical forests back into a carbon sink by 2030.
That target is part of a larger goal to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070; both aims have been derided as massively unrealistic by experts and activists.
No review, no revocation
Most of Indonesia’s remaining primary forests are located in the easternmost region of Papua, made up of the administrative provinces of Papua and West Papua.
In West Papua province, a government review recently identified 383,431 hectares (947,479 acres) — an area two and a half times the size of London — of intact forest that sits inside areas earmarked for oil palm plantations.
While there hasn’t been a similar review in the neighboring, and much larger, Papua province, a new report by Greenpeace shows at least 685,388 hectares (1.69 million acres) of forests inside oil palm concessions. Nearly two-thirds constitutes primary forest and almost a sixth is peatland.
Primary and peat forests are ostensibly protected under the palm oil permit moratorium, but the policy isn’t retroactively applicable for concessions issued before it was passed. And without extra measures to protect these forests, they can be legally cleared for planting oil palms.
Greenpeace estimates that clearing this area of forest in Papua province could release 71.2 million metric tons of carbon — equivalent to almost half of Indonesia’s total emissions in 2018, or half the emissions from the global aviation industry that same year.
Greenpeace says the figure is a conservative one as it doesn’t account for the carbon stored in below-ground biomass such as peat. That makes preserving these forests a crucial part of achieving any kind of long-term carbon sink or net-zero goals, according to Greenpeace forest campaigner Arie Rompas.
“If this is done immediately by revoking existing permits, the Indonesian government could save the carbon remaining in Papua’s concessions,” he said. “If it’s not done, of course the 2070 net-zero emissions target won’t be achieved.”
Weak policies
Experts say there have already policies in place that could potentially prevent these forests from being cleared. But they’re either not strong enough or aren’t being strictly implemented.
The 2018 oil palm permit moratorium is itself a case in point. In addition to halting the issuance of licenses for new plantations, it also calls for a sweeping review of existing licenses. But according to Greenpeace, not a single permit has been revoked as part of this process, even though many were issued in apparent violation of prevailing laws and regulations.
And even if a concession is found to be illegal, there’s no default mechanism to redesignate the land as forest, allowing local governments to easily parcel the land back out to another company under a new permit.
The Ministry of Environment and Forestry says it’s addressing this issue.
“We’re currently discussing a ministerial regulation on how to revoke permits that have already been issued,” Ruandha Agung Sugardiman, the ministry’s acting chief of planning, said at a March 22 press conference. “The point is we protect our primary forests so that our national target of reducing emissions by curbing deforestation [can be met].”
Compounding the lack of permit reviews is the fact that the moratorium expires in September this year. Without an extension, the previously unbridled issuance of palm oil licenses will resume, which would put even greater pressure on natural forests, according to Jasmine Puteri, the Indonesia program advisor at the NGO Rainforest Foundation Norway (RFN).
Trias Fetra, a palm oil management program officer at Madani, said extending the moratorium alone is not enough. The government also needs to strengthen it by including a stipulation that explicitly bans clearing natural forests and peatland inside existing concessions, he added.
“That’s why continuing the oil palm moratorium policy with an element of saving natural forest and increasing the productivity of oil palm plantations is very important in achieving Indonesia’s long-term vision,” Trias said.
High conservation value and high carbon stock
An important aspect of identifying forests to save is by determining which areas have high conservation value (HCV) and/or high carbon stock (HCS), and then designating them as protected from clearing.
In 2020, Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya said her office had identified nearly 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) of potential HCV areas within 345 oil palm concessions with a total area of nearly 3.6 million hectares (8.9 million acres).
Rizaldi Boer, director of the Center for Climate Risk and Opportunity Management in Southeast Asia and Pacific at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), said the government had started discussing taking the HCV and HCS approach in payment ecosystem services. This would see incentives offered to farmers or landowners in exchange for managing their land to provide ecological service.
“The problem is that the regulation on this matter hasn’t been issued yet,” Rizaldi said.
If the HCV and HCS concepts are applied in identifying areas with high ecosystem services, then large swaths of forest can be saved from deforestation, given that more than 60% of industrial and oil palm plantations have high ecosystem services, Rizaldi added.
“Right now, it’s still voluntary” for landowners to implement the HCV and HCS concept, he said.
Rizaldi cited the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) as an example of certification scheme that requires its members to adopt the HCV and HCS approach. The RSPO, widely considered the gold standard for palm oil sustainability certification, requires plantings after November 2005 to not replace primary forest or areas required for management to maintain HCV forests. In November 2018, the RSPO started requiring its members to conserve HCS forests as well.
“Those who have become RSPO members wouldn’t dare to clear forests inside their concessions. If palm oil plantations that are established after 2005 cause deforestation, [the companies] will have to pay for remediation and penalties,” Rizaldi said.
Indonesia also has its own domestic sustainability certification scheme, called the ISPO. Unlike the RSPO, which is voluntary, the Indonesian government has made the ISPO compliance mandatory for all growers. But while the ISPO states that HCV areas cannot be cleared and HCV identification is required, it doesn’t define the identification procedures clearly and is based on national laws and regulations that don’t recognize the HCV concept and don’t make it mandatory to conduct HCV assessments before clearing a forested area.
The ISPO also hasn’t adopted the HCS approach.
“That’s why I emphasize that this certification policy [ISPO] has to include this element [HCV/HCS] as well, and it’s a mandatory element,” Rizaldi said.
The environment ministry’s Ruandha said the ministry has a high-resolution map showing which concessions have HCV and HCS forests.
“But the ones who determine whether an area is HCV or HCS is the license holder,” he said. “What will the management [of the HCV/HCS area] be like? Will it be managed by the license holder itself, or returned to the government? That’s [determined] case by case.”
Banner image: Oil palm plantations in Malaysia. Image by Rhett A. Butler / Mongabay.
“Based on the results of the crime scene investigation, the house burnt (down) by the separatist group was a public learning activity center,” public relations head of the Nemangkawi task force, Senior Commissioner Iqbal Alqudusy, told ANTARA here on Saturday.
He condemned the incident, saying the separatist group had set fire to an institution belonging to the educational sector that had been built by the public and for the public.
The crime scene investigation was aimed at collecting evidence and identifying the suspects involved in the incident, he said.
“The investigation is aimed at searching and collecting information, clues, evidence, suspects’ identities, and witnesses or victims for the next investigation,” he expounded. (INE)
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