Jayapura, Jubi – A number of rights NGOs comprising KontraS, YLBHI, Amnesty International Indonesia and the families of the victims of the Bloody Paniai case (7 – 8 December 2014) highlighted many irregularities in the investigation of the case by the Attorney General’s Office (AGO).
The investigation, which began on December 3, 2021, is considered to have caused confusion due to the use of the term “general investigation” which is not stated in Law No. 26/2000 regarding Human Rights Court nor the criminal procedure law in Indonesia.
“We are monitoring the process through public channels of the AGO and the media. According to Komnas HAM, there are a number of things that must be addressed in the investigation to the case that killed four teenagers and injured at least ten people,” said Tioria Pretty, the Head of Impunity Monitoring Division of KontraS in a written statement received by Jubi on Monday, March 28, 2022.
According to at least eight press releases made by the AGO from December 2021 to March 2022, 61 people consisting of civilians and members of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and police have been questioned by AGO investigators. The process took place in at least three locations, namely Jakarta, Papua, and West Sumatra.
However, based on the credible information Jubi received, there has been no communication from the AGO to the victim’s family or their lawyers to date. Whereas in the criminal justice system for gross human rights violations, ideally, the Prosecutor is a defender and companion for victims to achieve justice.
KontraS, YLBHI, and Amnesty International Indonesia all agreed that the AGO had yet to exercise its authority to appoint ad-hoc investigators from the community as stipulated in Article 21 paragraph (3) of the Human Rights Court Law. The ad-hoc investigators must be the one with a proven track record of working for human rights and has victims’ perspectives.
This step is important to make the investigation participatory and independent in order to obtain and use the best evidence in the ongoing judicial process. The time limit for investigation of gross human rights violations as stipulated in Article 22 of the Human Rights Court Law must also be considered by the AGO so that the next process (the prosecution) can proceed effectively and properly according to the values, principles, and provisions of law and universal human rights.
“Looking at the Human Rights Court process for three other gross human rights violations, namely the Abepura case, the Tanjung Priok case and the Timor Leste case only presents doubts for the victim’s family and also the public,” Tioria said.
The three NGOs not only criticized the lack of coordination between the AGO and the families of victims but also the AGO’s weak indictments as seen in current and previous cases. The AGO has failed to hold those in the chain of command accountable, it only named one field actor suspect and therefore, cut off the accountability of policymakers for what happened at Paniai in 2014.
Civil society groups suspected the AGO was also not optimal this time during the investigation into Bloody Paniai. Not to mention the fact that only one out of the 15 gross human rights violations whose status elevated into investigation during nearly eight years of President Joko Widodo’s leadership. This makes the doubts of the victims’ families valid.
The families of the victims of the Paniai case also expressed their doubts that the current law enforcement process could lead to justice. They said there had been too many unresolved cases of violence by security forces in Papua, such as the Dogiyai case which killed two people (Dominokus Auwe and Alwisus Waine) in 2011 and the murder of Pastor Yeremia Zanambani in 2020.
Apart from the Paniai case, there are several other serious human rights violations that have occurred in Papua. These cases have not yet been advanced to the investigation stage despite presenting sufficient preliminary evidence, including the cases of Wasior 2001 and Wamena 2003.
The human rights situation in Papua continues to decline throughout the years. Instead of fulfilling Papuan people rights, the government keep using a security approach to Papua’s problems that often turns into violence.
The massive deployment of TNI personnel, the operation against the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) that made civilians victims, residents who had to live in evacuation camps, racism, murder, and various other human rights violations are situations experienced by Papuans on a daily basis.
Therefore, the victim’s family together with the three NGOs urged the Attorney General’s Office to appoint an ad-hoc human rights investigator from the community who has the capacity in the field of human rights and side with the victim to participate in the investigation of the Paniai case.
The people also asked the AGO to hold several high-ranking TNI and police officials responsible for the Paniai case, and Jokowi to stop the human rights violations in Papua by changing the security approach to dialogue that upholds human rights. (*)
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia’s COVID-19 situation has continued to improve, with only three provinces outside Java and Bali recording more than one thousand active COVID-19 cases, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, has informed.
"Those three provinces are Papua, Lampung, and West Sumatra," he said at a press conference after attending a limited meeting on the evaluation of public activity restrictions (PPKM), which was led by President Joko Widodo at the Presidential Palace on Monday.
The number of active cases in Papua is still pegged at 12 thousand, Lampung at 7,400, and West Sumatra at 2,500, he expounded.
Hartarto, who is also chairman of the Committee for COVID-19 Handling and National Economic Recovery (KPC-PEN), noted that as of Sunday (April 17, 2022), Indonesia's active COVID-19 case count stood at 60,475 nationally, a decline of around 90 percent compared to April 2021.
Meanwhile, the number of daily confirmed cases was pegged at 602, and the hospital occupancy rate was recorded at 4 percent, he added.
Despite the improvement in the number of daily confirmed cases and active cases, the minister urged people to get the first, second, and booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to Hartarto, there are only two provinces where first dose vaccination coverage has not reached 70 percent: Papua and West Papua.
Meanwhile, provinces where the second dose vaccination coverage is still below 70 percent are West Kalimantan, East Nusa Tenggara, Gorontalo, West Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, Central Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, Maluku, North Maluku, Papua, and West Papua, he said.
The first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Indonesia in March 2020. According to data from the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, as of April 18, Indonesia has recorded a total of 6,040,432 COVID-19 cases, 5,833,560 recoveries, and 155,903 deaths.
Read: Papua's COVID-19 Cases Remain High; Vaccination Coverage Below 50%
ANTARA
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-only-tropical-glacier-puncak-jaya-melting-2631916
3) Frozen no more: Indonesia’s only tropical glacier could melt away as soon as 2025
To mark Earth Day, CNA looks at how climate change has accelerated the melting of the Eternity Glacier in Papua.
Kiki Siregar @KikiSiregarCNA
22 Apr 2022 06:15AM (Updated: 22 Apr 2022 10:09AM)
JAKARTA: Primary school students in Indonesia are taught that the country has something significant, a tropical glacier in Papua’s Jayawijaya mountains which is the only one in the region.
Located at Jaya summit or Puncak Jaya in the Indonesian language, some people call it the Eternity Glacier.
However, in a few years, teachers may not be able to tell their students about this geographical trivia.
After existing for about 5,000 years, the days of the glacier are numbered as research shows that it is melting and there is only a little left of it.
“The year when the glacier would be gone is between 2025 to 2027,” Mr Donaldi Permana, a climate research and development coordinator with the country’s meteorological, climatological and geophysical agency (BMKG) told CNA. He has studied the glacier extensively since 2009.
Global warming is believed to be the main reason for the melting of the glacier.
Mr Permana said this has been happening since the industrial revolution in 1850 when developed countries shifted from agrarian economies to one which is dominated by industries releasing greenhouse gas emissions causing warmer temperatures.
“But we only knew after the 1990s, that the (Indonesian) glacier is melting,” he said.
Jayawijaya mountain is situated in Lorentz National Park, at an elevation of 4,884m above sea level. It is the highest mountain in Indonesia and some people also refer to it as Carstensz Pyramid, since the mountain has several peaks with different names, said Mr Permana.
Other tropical glaciers in South America and Africa are also melting, Mr Permana noted.
However, as the elevation of Puncak Jaya is lower as compared to the other mountains with tropical glaciers, the one in Indonesia will disappear sooner.
Head of BMKG Dwikorita Karnawati also told the parliament at the end of last month that the glacier could be gone in 2025.
THE MELTING IS ACCELERATING
Earlier studies have measured the area of the glacier, said Mr Permana.
Based on the soil maturity and vegetation distribution patterns around the glacier, it was concluded that the glacier area was about 19 sq km in 1850, he said.
Satellite imagery later showed that the glacier area was down to only 2 sq km in 2002.
By 2018, the size was only 0.46 sq km. Last year, it was 0.27 sq km. This means that the melting has accelerated over time.
To learn more about the glacier, Mr Permana and his colleagues extracted ice cores from it in 2010 by drilling 32m down to the bedrock. The ice cores were then taken to be examined.
The team also installed polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes to measure how much of the glacier is melting by looking at its thickness.
In 2015, they found that the pipe was exposed by 5m. “This means 1m of depth was gone per year,” Mr Permana noted.
They also noted that in 2016 when El Nino caused drier and warmer weather over Indonesia, the melting accelerated.
“From 2015 to 2016, in just one year, we lost 5m of depth,” he added.
He said that from 2016 to 2021, a further 12.5m of depth has been lost.
“Based on those figures, we can conclude that there is an acceleration (of melting),” he said. This was expected because when the glacier melts, the area around it becomes bigger, absorbing more solar radiation, added Mr Permana.
Glaciers are important because they are an indicator of the Earth’s climate and how it changes. Their melting is also a clear indicator of global warming.
From the ice cores that were extracted by Mr Permana and his colleagues, they recorded deposits of tritium, which is indicative of nuclear tests the Soviet Union and China conducted back in the 1960s.
“The tests created tritium. This composition is recorded in all glaciers in the world,” said Mr Permana.
In general, when glaciers melt, they also contribute to the rise of sea level, he added.
“Maybe this (Indonesian) glacier’s contribution is not so significant because the initial area is not so big compared to the ones in South America or Greenland … But the animals and trees around the Papua area could be impacted by the melting, although unfortunately there is no study on this yet.”
Mr Permana also revealed that there is an indigenous tribe living around the area who worships the glacier. However, there has so far been no known study about this group and how they may be affected if the glacier disappears.
“OUR PRIDE WILL DIMINISH”
Besides Mr Permana, another researcher who has also examined the glacier is Mr Yohanes Kaize.
He is the chief scientist of PT Freeport Indonesia, a gold and copper mining company. Its Grasberg mine, which holds one of the largest reserves of copper and gold in the world, is just a few kilometres away from Puncak Jaya.
On days when the weather is clear, the glacier is visible from Grasberg, Mr Kaize said.
He has visited the glacier several times in the last seven years to examine air and water quality in the area as well as the rainfall.
Mr Kaize also monitors the glacier from the air and takes pictures of it.
“The glacier area has diminished significantly. It is very sad,” said Mr Kaize.
“Previously, there were also smaller glaciers there but they are gone now.”
The melting ice will flow into the tributaries and lake near the summit and would probably impact the river there, he said.
Eventually, this could affect the Arafura sea between northern Australia and the south coast of New Guinea, he posited. But he believes that the impact may not be that significant.
“The (water) volume of the rivers or lake would probably increase but probably not so much,” he said.
He also noted that there are a few tribes living nearby, although he is unsure which one worships the glacier.
Nevertheless, as a native Papuan himself, Mr Kaize stated: “We Papuans believe that nature and people are interconnected. That is why we also call it Mother Earth.
“So they probably have local tales about the glacier. If the glacier is gone, the tale would be gone too.”
He predicted that all glaciers will disappear in Puncak Jaya by 2030.
“As a Papuan myself, the only glacier in the Oceania region, the only one in Indonesia, I can say we are proud of this. But when it is gone, our pride will also diminish,” he told CNA.
“So, now we have to save the Earth together. Even simple things like planting trees and not littering matter. Hopefully, we can still admire the glacier until the very end.”
Source: CNA/ks(aw)
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