On 30 June this year, Indonesia’s legislature approved the division of the troubled West Papua territory into five provinces from the current two. The move has caused unrest throughout West Papua, with large scale protests and arrests. Many West Papuans see this division as strengthening Jakarta’s disputed control of the territory.
The Indonesian parliament announced these plans in April, but Papuans claim that they were excluded from the process. The two provinces of West Papua Province and Papua Province have now been divided to create South Papua Province, Central Papua Province, and the Papua Central Highlands Province.
The government says the decision will help spur development, improve public service delivery, and create more job opportunities for Papuans. Indonesia’s Home Affairs Minister, Tito Karnavian, said the primary goal of the legislation was “to accelerate development in Papua to increase the welfare of the people in Papua, especially indigenous Papuans.”
Exacerbating Tensions
Lawmakers in Jakarta hoped this development would reduce tensions in the territory. The further division has, however, had the opposite effect: enflaming tensions anew. The creation of new provinces will include the creation of more government posts throughout the territory, which will likely be filled by non-Papuan Indonesians. New provinces will also lead to the creation of new military posts and the development of new infrastructure such as roads, which many West Papuans see as facilitating troop movement.
In particular, the creation of new provinces will lead to the parallel creation of a further eight military district commands (Kodim) in the region, increasing from 22 to 30. Each Kodim consists of around 800 personnel, meaning approximately 6,400 additional troops will be stationed in what is already the most heavily militarised area in Indonesia.
The creation of the new Kodim will also likely require the creation of new overarching Regional Military Commands (Kodam) beyond the existing two. With relations between Papuans and the military arguably beyond the point of repair, the further extension of a military presence into the lives of Papuans is deeply unwelcome.
In response to the proposal, there have been a series of mass demonstrations, many of which have been met with official violence. Protest by Papuans rejecting the prosed new divisions and demanding a referendum on independence is viewed by authorities as seditious and therefore illegal.
Historical Dissidence in Papua
Trouble in the territory dates back to the mid-1960s, after Indonesia began administering the territory but before its incorporation was formalised in 1969 in a forced show of hands by 1026 village leaders. While the United Nations recognised that “vote” as formally incorporating West Papua into Indonesia, Papuans have consistently rejected the process as a sham.
Indonesia’s administration sparked armed resistance and resulted in a large number of subsequent deaths, in particular during the 1970s and ‘80s. Estimate vary, but at least tens of thousands died during this time, with sporadic clashes, generalised repression, human rights violations, and occasional killings becoming routinised thereafter.
On the back of Indonesia’s period of reform, in 2001 West Papua was granted “Special Autonomy” status as a single province to devolve administration towards reducing the simmering conflict. “Special Autonomy” was intended to boost living conditions in the territory, at the time the lowest in Indonesia. Since then, there have been improvements in per capita income, education, and health care, although Papuans claim that these changes have largely benefited the non-Papuan “trans-migrant” population. Non-Papuan residents now make up around half of the total population of the territory.
While the granting of Special Autonomy was intended to assuage local grievances, in 2003 the Indonesian government attempted to divide the province into three. The Indonesian Supreme Court ruled that the division contradicted the Special Autonomy provisions but allowed the division into two parts that had already been undertaken.
The Indonesian government has for several years said that more development will address the concerns of Papuans. Papuans, however, see greater “development” as increased inroads by non-Papuans into their territory, with further alienation of their lands to “development” projects and more loss of their nominal autonomy.
One of the unintended consequences of “Special Autonomy” was an increase in access to local spending, some of which has leaked through to Papuan separatists and been used to buy weapons. While the Papuan armed resistance is still relatively small, perhaps a thousand fighters, if that, there has been an increase in armed violence over the past three years in part as a result of the supply of weapons.
The West Papuan resistance is, however, fragmented between different political groups and their quasi-independent armed wings. While each of the groups claim exclusive representative status, they each share a common call for a referendum on independence. This was supported in 2019 by 1.8 million Papuans, or 70 percent of the Papuan population, signing a petition calling for a referendum. The Indonesian government has, however, ignored the petition. A petition this year rejecting the further division of the territory received over 700,000 signatures.
Towards Resolution?
The shared view of Papuan independence groups is that Timor-Leste legitimised the referendum process in 1999. They are calling for a similar process to determine their future. The difference is, however, that Timor-Leste was not recognised by the UN as a part of Indonesia, whereas the Papuan territory is, hence its ability to intervene in one case and not the other.
Moreover, advocacy for a referendum within the UN requires a sponsor and no country, including the former colonial power, the Netherlands, have indicated an interest in supporting such a move. Further, given shifts in wider power rivalries, Indonesia is seen as a key regional partner and each of the UN Security Council Permanent Five, for their own reasons, oppose a Timor-Leste-type intervention.
From an Indonesian perspective, West Papua is fundamental to Indonesia’s territorial integrity, as well as making a significant contribution to Indonesia’s economy through resource extraction, principally of oil, natural gas, copper, gold, silver, and timber. Indonesia’s legislature has also been hostile to granting meaningful political concessions to Papua. The further division of the territory can be seen less as promoting development and more as Jakarta increasing its control.
Indonesia’s security sector, too, has for decades financially benefited from Papua, through running local business “protection’ services” and black-market operations. The army in particular has been most strongly opposed to a negotiated resolution to Papuans’ outstanding claims.
As a result of the division, protests are expected to continue and, as Indonesia extends administrative control into the territory, it is likely there will be more armed clashes. However, Indonesia is determined to further bring the territory into the national fold and the international community, to whom resistance leaders make regular appeals for intervention, continue to turn a deaf ear.
Damien Kingsbury is Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Arts and Education, Deakin University. He has written on developing country issues for the past four decades and has coordinated election observation missions to Timor-Leste and Myanmar. He was also advisor to the 2005 Aceh peace process. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Kingsbury
Waropen, Jubi – Chair of the Synod of the Kingmi Church (GKI) in Papua Rev. Tilas Mom said the church was the last line of defense to unite Indigenous Papuans (OAP) in Papua. He said that amid the division of regencies and cities in Papua and West Papua following the formation of three new provinces, the church must keep Papuans from being divided.
“Jakarta (the central government) may create various ways to divide Papuans, including through regional expansion. But the Papuans should remain united. The church is the last defense for us Papuans. If the church is divided, too, we Papuans are done for,” Tilas Mom told Jubi in Waropen on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.
At the XVIII GKI Synod Session, a number of regents, both GKI cadres and cadres from other church denominations, asked GKI leaders to maintain church unity. Even though the number of provinces, regencies, and cities in Papua is increasing, the regional heads want the GKI Synod to remain one.
Further, the regents also called for the eradication of money politics in the current nomination and election of the GKI Synod chair for the next five years.
“This is a sign of warning from church cadres to us church leaders, regardless of denomination, so that we do not act or be influenced by worldly things,” said Tilas Mom.
He hoped that the nomination and election process for the GKI Synod chair was in accordance with the rules. Because sometimes, he said that such an election could sometimes trigger a rift within the church when the party that lost at the election did not want to accept the results.
“It is common that the losing candidate ends up trying to form their own class or synod. This is an issue that we, church leaders, certainly pay more attention to. We have to learn to be better than this,” he said.
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Yotam Bugiangge, a former Indonesian Army member in the 756/MWS Infantry Battalion with the rank of the private second class, reportedly joined the armed criminal group or KKB in Papua.
Led by Egianus Kogoya, the group attacked civilians in Nogoloid Village, Nduga Regency, Papua, a few days ago.
“It is true about the report that a former soldier joins the KKB in attacking civilians, killing 10 people in Nogoloid on Saturday, July 16, 2022,” said Papua Police’s Director for General Crimes Sr. Comr. Faizal Rahmadani, in Jayapura, Papua, Wednesday, July 20.
He explained that based on the investigation of the crime scene and witness statements, it was revealed that Kogoya and Bugiangge were the masterminds of the attack. “Egianus Kogoya and Yotam Bugiangge have joined forces and attacked civilians,” he confirmed.
On Saturday, July 16, Papuan armed groups opened fire and tortured civilians in Nogolait Village, resulting in 10 deaths and causing injuries to two residents.
Before deserting the military, Bugiangge served in Senggi, Keerom Regency, Papua. He abandoned service while on duty on December 17, 2021, carrying an organic military weapon, the Pindad SS1 V1 5.56 mm caliber.
ANTARA
Waropen, Jubi – Papua’s Waropen Regency is nicknamed the Land of a Thousand Mangroves. People also called the area pecek land (muddy land). It is so called because most of the area is mangrove forest, with muddy moist soil contours.
“Almost 95 percent of the Waropen Regency area is mangrove forest. The land is always muddy because it is a swamp area,” said Indigenous Papuan rights activist Jhon Imbiri on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.
Behind the thick mangrove forest and the muddy soil of Waropen, there is a lot of economic potential from crabs, or karaka as locals call it, as well as shrimps and bia (shellfish).
“Indeed, Waropen has the potential for karaka, shrimps, and bia. Apart from being self-consumed, they are also sold to increase income. There are actually fishes, it’s just not a lot,” Imbiri said.
Another potential in Waropen, according to Imbiri, is the beauty of Sarfambai Beach in Waren Village, Lower Waropen District. It has a lot of tourism potential as visitors can enjoy the expansive sea while waiting for the sun to set.
“In addition, there is a Jesus Christ Statue on Nau Island. The location could become a religious tourism area. The statue was built by the first regent of Waropen, Ones Ramandey,” said Imbiri.
Nau Island can only be reached by speedboat or the like from Waropen port. It takes about 20-30 minutes to travel from the mainland. The natural beauty of Nau Island is preserved as not many tourists visit the island yet.
This island also has magnificent underwater. Coral reefs and marine life are still preserved in a natural ecosystem. If we are lucky we can see a group of dolphins swimming to the shore.
Moreover, Nau Island also has a beautiful white sandy beach, stretching around the island. It is just that these potentials have not been managed properly. The karaka fishermen only catch in small numbers to meet daily consumption and sell them as additional income, not as the main livelihood.
“Karaka, shrimp, and bia in Waropen are only sold by residents to the local market. It has yet to be sent outside Waropen, even though this has promising potential if managed properly. Likewise, a breakthrough for tourism management is as much needed,” said Jhon Imbiri. (*)
Three little boys hug each other tight as the waves crash over them, threatening to swamp their wooden canoe. This is Torres Strait, to the north of Australia, and the Roem brothers have been sent away across the ocean by their mother and father because they fear for their children’s lives.
In a few moments, two of those little boys—Yoshi and Sammy Roem, now famed drummers, singers and dancers—will take to the stage under the bright lights of Adelaide’s world music festival, WOMAD. Backstage, Yoshi tells me,‘We got lost on the sea for five days…there was a reason for that journey—so we could be here today, just carrying the voice of freedom, carrying the voice of free West Papua’.
In 2006, Yoshi and Sammy were political refugees, chased by the Indonesian army and navy until they washed up on Cape York. Today they are Australian citizens and cultural warriors for the friends and family they left behind in Indonesia’s eastern province of West Papua. Tonight, in Adelaide, the impact on the audience is clear as Yoshi drums his way onto the main stage, traditional tifa drum in hand, to join the ten-piece electro-trad drum-and-dance fusion extravaganza Sorong Samarai.
WOMAD is one of the great world-music festivals, loved and applauded by artists, music lovers and festival connoisseurs. This year WOMAD is thirty years old, and it has never looked better. There’s a beautiful arboretum garden, shady and pleasant, even under the sting of the hot South Australian sun. There’s world food, and great South Australian vino and cold beer aplenty, in what must be the greatest musical beer-garden in the world.
Yoshi muses, ‘This band, the Sorong Samarai band, we say, “music is our weapon of choice”. We tackle the issue of West Papua through dance and music and songline. Just putting the flag on stage, just holding this flag, is a huge privilege. Back home it is forbidden, many people die for this flag’. As Australia and the world focus on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, noisily demanding justice for an innocent civilian population, the invaded and brutalised farmers and families of Australia’s neighbour West Papua go unseen and ignored.
Unlike many of the other inspiring acts on WOMAD’s many stages, Sorong Samarai tells a clear political story—a narrative of neocolonial genocide and ecocide in their homeland. In Papua they say that ‘all men are birds’, meaning that everybody sings and is close to nature, embedded in the forests, mountains and ocean, and carrying the stories of earth, creation and bio-interdependency in their singing. This connection to nature, place and history is evident as the Sorong Samarai crew carries the cultural torch for a legendary and loved West Papuan academic and musician, who no longer sings his gentle songs about land, language and the spirits of the rainforest because he was murdered by Indonesian special forces in November 1983, his body dumped in a forgotten jungle grave. Tonight, Yoshi and the band will channel the music and spirit of Arnold Ap, poet and martyr for the West Papuan people.
An anthropologist and musicologist at the Cendrawasih Museum, Ap travelled across West Papua recording the songs and languages of the 400-plus distinct language groups, and formed the legendary cultural revival band Mambesak. Mambesak’s songs exalted the beauty of local life and land, and became wildly popular as songs of resistance. They meme-ed their way across the Indonesian archipelago, syncing with human rights struggles in South Maluku, Borneo, Aceh and even Java, where anti-Suharto activists added them to the canon of protest against the corrupt kleptocracy of President Suharto and his brutal military.
Yoshi knows many of Ap’s protest songs by heart. He and his brothers grew up singing them in Wamena, the capital of the beautiful Baliem Valley in the West Papuan highlands. ‘Arnold Ap, he’s a legend, he sung songlines in our languages. As a young West Papuan I see him as an example. In Jayapura [capital of West Papua] the local hip-hop musos like and sample Arnold Ap. Like him, they use local language to sing’.
Under strobing lights and smoke, Sorong Samarai is in a frenzy. Yoshi and Sammy dance in tandem, centre stage, combining chic Melbourne hip-hop moves with Papuan tribal dance. Log drums roll frenetic rhythms in an ecstatic climax and the crowd roars in appreciation. In the breath between songs, two women wrapped in West Papuan flags join the band on stage and burst into song: Petra and Rosa Rumwaropen, who with their sister Lea make up singing trio The Black Sistaz. Petra recalls, ‘I was born into the political movement through music, because my father was a member of the Black Brothers. Growing up we were taught to keep the culture alive through their music. Like Arnold Ap, carrying on the same message and struggle’.She continues:
Petra’s father, Agust Rumwaropen, was a founding member of the Black Brothers. The rock-reggae-funk-trad fusion band formed in Jayapura in 1974 in reaction to the Indonesian invasion of Dutch Nui Guinea in 1963 and the bogus UN-supervised referendum on Papuan independence in 1969, in which 1025 West Papuans were hand-picked and, under military supervision, forced to vote to join the Republic of Indonesia. Exiled West Papuan elder and leader Jacob Rumbiak says, ‘The 1025 were locked up by the Indonesian military and told to vote for Indonesia or their accursed tongues would be cut from their accursed mouths’. TheBlack Brothers would not be silenced, and went on to inspire generations of musicians and political resistance in West Papua and across Melanesia, in Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.
Airileke Ingram, the leader of Sorong Samarai, counts the band in, and ten drummers fly into a cataclysm of pounding beats. The band’s co-founder Ronny Kareni thumps out a fat funk base line on electric bass. Screaming electric guitar joins the rising rhythm, sending the WOMAD audience into a pogoing dance delirium.
Ronny says, ‘Sorong Samarai is a band but it’s also become a movement in itself, where the simple words, Sorong (western tip of island of Papua) and Samarai (eastern tip), have become everyday language to symbolise the struggle of the people of West Papua’. One thing the Black Brothers, Mambesak and Sorong Samarai have in common is that their music is a conduit to convey the basic human right of freedom of cultural and political expression. ‘Like these music legends, we sing about the memory of suffering as a healing process in our collective movement, we sing about truth and justice in our land, and to remind ourselves and the world that full freedom for West Papua is possible’.
Music is irresistible. Arnold Ap’s weekly radio show in Jayapura spread the idea of music as a counter-force to neocolonialism, military occupation and cultural destruction. The rising popularity of his music saw Ap arrested and imprisoned. Kopassus special forces—Indonesian military trained by Australia—tortured, starved and beat him in his Jayapura prison cell. Fearing for his life, Ap gained access to an old reel-to-reel tape recorder and a guitar, and alone in his cell, only days before his death, wrote a love note to his wife and recorded his last song, ‘The Mystery of Life’, a gentle song praising life, love and land. The note and tape were smuggled out of prison and across the border into Papua New Guinea, where Ap’s wife and children had fled as political refugees.
Yale University suggests that since Indonesia first invaded West Papua in the early 1960s, 400,000 men, women and children have been killed, echoing the better-known killing fields of Indonesia’s brutal occupation of East Timor. With only two thirds of its operating budget supplied by Jakarta, the Indonesian military must fund its activities via an opaque mix of legal and illegal businesses. In West Papua, far from the prying eyes and bleeding hearts of modern Jakarta, it has found an Eldorado of gold, oil and timber.
Ronny Kareni says that tens of thousands of Indonesian soldiers now occupy West Papua. No one knows the true figure. The Indonesian army, partially trained and armed by the United States and Australia, has a documented history of mass rape, torture and murder. Since 2017, it has been involved in ‘sweeping operations’, occupying villages, machine-gunning settlements from helicopters, actions that have sent tens of thousands of refugees fleeing into the forest, some into neighbouring Papua New Guinea. Today there are as many as 60,000 to 100,000 internally displaced people, while, under military protection and coordination, thousands of kilometres of virgin rainforest are being cut down and sold off, assisting in the systematic destruction of the third greatest forest on earth.
Cymbals shimmer and crash; the drums crescendo and fall silent. The stage is dark, the gig is over, the breathless WOMAD audience is blown away by the life-force of the Papuan drums and voices.
Backstage, in the artists’ garden, theSorong Samarai players rest, recoup and reflect. Yoshi says, ‘I was looking at social media and seeing people posting their voice about Ukraine. And that’s cool, okay, I pray for them, but it makes me feel little. It makes us feel down, to be honest, little, like we’re no one, just because we’re black, because we’re not white skin and blue eyes, being West Papuan. But we’re human too’.
Petra joins in, ‘Just this week there were student protests where peaceful protesters were injured, shot and arrested. It’s an ongoing situation. We call it a slow genocide. Every day, especially in the highlands, where it’s remote, people are being attacked, villages are being bombed. West Papua is Australia’s closet neighbour, and there’s no media coverage of what’s been happening there’. She continues, ‘My one message to the Australian prime minister would be, “Stop turning a blind eye to your brother, to your neighbour, we’re only 250km away from you, we’re on your doorstop, people are dying, you need to step up and do something”’. Ronny smiles as he eats a salad and smashes a two-litre bottle of water. ‘We call on the Australian government to be vocal on human rights in West Papua just as they have been for Ukraine. The leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum, which Australia is a member of, have agreed to call for a visit of the UN Human Rights Commissioner to West Papua to carry out an impartial investigation. This is what Austra
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