1) Vila-based Indonesian ‘troll’ page targets Papuan advocates

 2)  Dialogue, not combat, ready 

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https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/04/29/vila-based-indonesian-troll-page-targets-papuan-advocates/

1) Vila-based Indonesian ‘troll’ page targets Papuan advocates

By Pacific Media Watch -  April 29, 2023

By David Robie

As part of an Indonesian-backed disinformation and troll campaign against West Papuan pro-independence activists, a Facebook page has emerged making bitter and slanderous attacks on campaigners, Papuan exiles and media people in the Pacific region.

Among the targets for this page — dubbed “View Information”, purportedly based in the Vanuatu capital of Port Vila — are Pacific Council of Churches general secretary Reverend James Bhagwan over a “false campaign” on Papua, and Australian-based Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman who is accused of being “an imposter”.

Other targets include London-based United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) president Benny Wenda for “masterminding the Wamena riots” in 2019, Canberra-based youth advocate and activist Ronny Kareni for “cultural mockery” and New Zealand academic and journalist David Robie.

I am accused of “continuously meeting” Benny Wenda to discuss issues relating to Papua and of “ignorance and prejudice”.

True, I did meet Benny when we hosted him at the Pacific Media Centre during his New Zealand visits in 2013 and 2017 and our team interviewed him at the time. Indeed, he was interviewed by several journalists and appeared on a number of programmes such as RNZ Pacific.

He does an extremely impressive job as a tireless and impassioned advocate for his indigenous people and independence.

One of the regular themes of the View Information page is the plight of the New Zealand pilot, Philip Mehrtens, being held hostage since February 7 by pro-independence 

ighters of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB-OPM).

Broker negotiations
Originally the fighters wanted New Zealand to broker negotiations with the Indonesian government in Jakarta, but the military and political authorities have refused to talk, endangering the life of the Susi Air pilot.

“Philip Mark Mehrtens is a human being and deserve[s] medical attentions [sic] as we do not know under what conditions he is living in. This sepratist [sic] are abusing his freedom and holding him against his consent and will,” says View Information.

“Isn’t this an abuse of human rights?

“[These] separatists are abusing his right to freedom from being held as a captive for unreasonable grounds. He is treated as some kind of product in a grocery store.”

About the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC), View Information page claims: “PCC considers Papuans as [a] product or commodity in grocery stores.” That phrase again!

“PCC has become a parody conquistador for the religious groups in the Pacific and a sign of betrayal to the Papuans.

“Papuans are this cheap that the PCC has to sell them for money.

“Say no to PCC before it is too late.”

Riots ‘mastermind’
About the 2019 rioting in Wamena and across the region characterised by advocates of an independent West Papua as the “Papuan Rising” and likened to the Arab Spring: “The Papua Extremist Group (ULMWP) led by Benny Wenda is the mastermind behind the West Papua riots.

“They were designed a riot exactly one day before the UN General Assembly (24/9) began with student access campaign.”

Like most of the other claims on this FB page, there is not a single source given in any attempt to back up the hostile statements. Genuine information about the ULMWP is available here.

About the United Nations, View Information claims: “The UN has never declared there is genocide taking place in Papua or West Papua. It has addressed issues of civilians being killed by the armed separatists in Nduga Regency.”

This another lie. The UN has reported about allegations of “slow genocide” in Papua in 2014 and on other occasions, and last year UN special rapporteurs reported on the “shocking abuses against Indigenous Papuans”. There have been countless such reports and a 2018 agreement by Jakarta for the UN Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Papua to make an independent report has never materialised.

A feature of this propaganda page is the wild and sweeping statements and allegations without a shred of evidence. No information about the “publishers” or “writers” is divulged, although it claims to provide “factual, balanced, quality and fair reporting”.

Jakarta causing confusion
Jakarta’s misinformation campaign that has been causing confusion throughout the world has been stepped up in recent months.

“Indonesian intelligence has allocated considerable funds globally, especially in Oceania, to target and discredit any person or institution sharing information about the genocide in West Papua,” says Yamin Kogoya, a regular contributor and commentator for Asia Pacific Report.

“The same thing is happening inside West Papua – the spreading of fake, false information often under the names of OPM, ULMWP and other groups advocating for a free West Papua.

“The internationalisation of West Papua’s issue has been Jakarta’s primary concern, knowing how they stole it — West Papua’s sovereignty — 60 years ago.”

• Report the propaganda View Information page to Facebook

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https://www.thejakartapost.com/opinion/2023/04/27/dialogue-not-combat-ready.html

2)  Dialogue, not combat, ready 

Editorial board (The Jakarta Post) 

Jakarta   ●   Fri, April 28, 2023 

Misinformation is rampant in this digital era, but the lack of transparency on the part of the government regarding the ongoing attempts to rescue a New Zealand pilot who was abducted by Papuan separatist rebels almost three months ago is equally disturbing. Worse, it could send the wrong message that it has deliberately misled the public, the taxpayers who will demand accountability of every rupiah spent on the operation to release the foreigner. First of all, the Indonesian Military (TNI) played down any use of force and instead supported negotiations to bring Phillip Mehrtens back home safely. 

The reality is military troops deployed for the joint operation in Papua called the Peaceful Cartenz, which replaced the Nemangkawi Operation last year, have been combing the jungles in the hilly Papuan regency of Nduga to hunt down members of the West Papuan Liberation Army (TPNPB) and locate Mehrtens. 

The hostage-taking took place on Feb. 7 in Paro airport in Nduga after the TPNPB guerillas burned the Susi Air aircraft Mehrtens piloted. All passengers on board were let go unharmed. In the latest video released on Monday by Mehrtens’ captors, the pilot said he was alive and healthy and called on the Indonesian authorities to stop the airstrikes. The New Zealander said Indonesia had dropped bombs in the area where he was being held, putting him and other people’s lives at risk. 

The TNI denied on Thursday that they had used bombs, saying the report was part of the separatist group’s propaganda to discredit Indonesia. In 2021, the London-based Conflict Armament Research told Reuters the purchase of thousands of mortar bombs from Serbia by the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) for use in Papua. A local reverend told Reuters he bore witness to bomb attacks by drones on several Papuan villages in October of that year, but BIN flatly denied such allegations. Notwithstanding the accusations, the military’s hostage release mission is underway and looks set to intensify, following a firefight in the Mugi-Mam area in Nduga on Saturday. 

TNI chief Adm. Yudo Margono raised on Monday the status of the military operation to “ground combat ready,” which equals the alertness level of naval forces protecting the illegal fishing-prone waters of the North Natuna Sea. Yudo confirmed the fatality of a TNI soldier in an April 22 skirmish, the fifth personnel killed in restive Papua this year alone. The TPNPB, however, claimed to have shot dead a dozen of the 36-strong squadron in the exchange of fire in Mugi-Mam.

 Despite the series of attacks, Yudo has promised not to deploy reinforcement troops to deal with hostage takers. But due to the difficulties facing the domestic and international media in accessing information on the ground in Papua, the outside world can hardly verify how things develop in the efforts to release Mehrtens, and on the restoration of peace and order in the strife-torn territory in general. 

The public has, for example, remained in the dark about how many military and police troops are in place in Papua. With the formation of new provinces in Papua recently, it should make sense for the TNI and the National Police to fly in more personnel. 

The reinforcements do not take into account ad hoc operations like the Peaceful Cartenz, border patrols and, if any, covert operations. The government, too, has remained silent about the progress of negotiations conducted by local figures and religious leaders to persuade the TPNPB to set Mehrtens free. 

The continuing military operations only signal the dialogue is stalled. But given the fact that the cycle of violence has inflicted nagging wounds to the Papuans, not to mention the injustice resulting from impunity for perpetrators of atrocities, dialogue should be the only choice to pursue. Instead of readiness to combat, Jakarta only needs the willingness to start a dialogue. 

A devastating tsunami accelerated peace talks in Aceh in 2005. The human casualties in Papua are already too many to trigger a dialogue for peace restorations in Papua.
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