https://en.jubi.id/nduga-regency-shifts-security-approach-moves-from-military-to-civil-handling/
Wamena, Jubi – Nduga Regent Edison Gwijangge has announced a new policy to ensure the security of the Nduga Regency. Instead of being treated as a military operation zone, Nduga’s status will be changed to a civil technical area. This means that the Nduga and the Mountainous Papua Province Administrations will be responsible for handling security issues in the area.
“The goal of this policy is to minimize casualties among the community, as well as among the Indonesian Military (TNI) and Police and members of the Egianus Kogoya’s group (The West Papua National Liberation Army/TPNPB). We are hopeful that this change will help avoid bloodshed in Nduga and transform the area from a red zone to a green zone,” said Gwijangge on Monday, June 5, 2023.
He emphasized that the next few months will focus on making the region safe. This will be achieved through effective coordination and consolidation between the Nduga Regent, the Governor of Mountainous Papua, Cenderawasih Military Commander, and the Papua Police Chief. They will work together to ensure the security and comfort of the community.
The local government has identified priority work programs, including addressing security concerns in preparation for the upcoming political year. The people of Nduga are urged to remain calm and maintain close coordination with the regent. The government is committed to directly handling any issues that may arise, and they encourage the community to report any problems they encounter. (*)
Jayapura, Jubi – On Monday, June 5, 2023, members of the Papuan People’s Front Against Racism (RPMR) organized a protest in the courtyard of Mimika Dormitory in Perumnas I Waena, Jayapura City. Various organizations, student groups, and Papuan people in Jayapura City participated in the protest.
They demand the immediate and unconditional release of West Papua National Committee (KNPB) international spokesperson charged with treason Viktor Yeimo. Yeimo was tried by the Jayapura District Court upon his alleged involvement in the anti-racism protest in 2019 against racial slurs toward Papuan students in Surabaya.
Wene Kilungga, the representative of RPMR, stated that Viktor Yeimo had been a victim of racism and had been unjustly criminalized by the state in order to suppress and limit his political expression, which is protected by the law.
According to Kilungga, the state’s criminalization of pro-democracy activists restricts their fundamental rights, including the right to criticize, which is an integral part of democratic rights. He emphasized that Viktor Yeimo was only criticizing systemic physical and verbal racism against Papuans that has been ongoing for 60 years.
“In law enforcement, there is a consistent bias against indigenous Papuans, with persistent discrimination. Justice has never been served through the court system,” he stated in a press release received by Jubi editorial.
Kilungga argued that Viktor Yeimo’s legal proceedings were unnecessarily prolonged, consisting of 36 trials, and resulted in a highly discriminatory verdict. He believed that, based on the trial facts, Viktor Yeimo should have been acquitted, but instead, the panel of judges sentenced him to eight months in prison.
“If we consider the trial facts, Viktor Yeimo should be acquitted in the name of law and justice. However, on May 5, 2023, the judge sentenced him to eight months in prison, minus the time already spent in detention. Therefore, Viktor Yeimo should have been released on May 27, 2023,” he explained.
However, on May 12, 2023, the public prosecutor filed an appeal against the judge’s decision. Consequently, the court issued a letter on May 14, 2023, extending Viktor Yeimo’s detention for an additional 30 days.
“Based on the discriminatory legal proceedings that Viktor Yeimo has faced, it is evident that racism is deeply embedded within the system itself,” Kilungga said.
Therefore, the Papuan People’s Front Against Racism is calling on the state to cease the criminalization and discriminatory treatment of Viktor Yeimo throughout the legal process conducted by the Jayapura District Court.
“We also demand that the state, through the Jayapura District Court, refrain from further extending Viktor Yeimo’s detention period and immediately release him unconditionally, in accordance with the law and the facts presented during the trial,” he concluded. (*)
Separatists in the Indonesian region of Papua where a New Zealand pilot was taken hostage in February have been siphoning off government aid money to buy black market guns for a deadly guerrilla war, officials say.
The "Dana Desa" village fund introduced by President Joko Widodo in 2015 and valued at $US4.7 billion this year has long been criticised as prone to corruption. Nowhere is the oversight of the scheme more challenging than in Papua's remote highlands.
More than 3,000 kilomnetres from Jakarta, Papuan rebels have been fighting for independence since the region rich in copper, gold, nickel and natural gas was absorbed by Indonesia after a 1969 vote.
The escalating insurgency is coinciding with a spike in illegal weapons sales in the region, according to lawyers and court documents, with the village fund providing a key source of revenue.
In 2015, there was just one case of illegal weapons and ammunition trade in Papua, court documents and reports show. By 2021, the number jumped to 14.
In Nduga, where Susi Air pilot Phillip Mehrtens has been held hostage for more than three months, so concerned are police the village fund is being used to buy guns they have asked the central government to withhold the $US14 million allocated to the district this year.
"If we don't block this, then the village fund will flow to the village and they (rebels) might keep asking for support...Maybe to buy weapons, to buy food," Papua police spokesperson Ignatius Benny Ady Prabowo told Reuters.
Otomi Djiwangge, a spokesperson for the Nduga district government, said Dana Desa was "not supported by the right monitoring" and the local government had no authority to supervise it.
"So it's reasonable if the use of the village fund is somewhat loose and anyone can do what they want with it."
He did not comment on the claim the fund is utilised by rebels, as it was just a presumption, he said.
Illegal arms
It is unclear how much of the $US337 million in village funds allocated for the Papua region in 2023 is being diverted into arms.
But Faizal Ramadhani, head of the Cartenz Peace Operations taskforce which oversees security in Papua, told Reuters about 40 per cent of illegal arms cases he investigated involved funds from the Dana Desa programme. He declined to provide further details.
Spokespeople for the national police and military declined to comment for this story.
The finance ministry, which oversees distribution of Dana Desa, said monitoring mechanisms were in place to ensure the funds were used as intended, but declined to comment on the claim that Papuan rebels have been misappropriating money.
In 2021, NGO Indonesia Corruption Watch identified 154 cases of alleged corruption related to the fund, the highest of any government sector spending.
Sebby Sambom, spokesperson for the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, denied rebels used village funds but did say the group was in part inadvertently funded by the state.
"We have a rich land so we do it in our way. We can make money through gold mining and timber and also many government payments," he told Reuters. "We have a right to use that money."
Designed to spur economic growth, Dana Desa has tripled in size since 2015, but in Papua, some say there is little to show for it.
"I have never seen a project funded by the village fund, not at all," said Bernadus Kobogau, a tourism official in Intan Jaya. Instead, he said, deadly skirmishes once confined to the jungle now occur in the middle of town.
"Revolutionary tax"
The increased firepower of Papua's rebels was evident in recent photos released along with a threat to shoot Mehrtens if independence talks don't start within two months.
The rebels in Nduga brandished a grenade launcher, several machine guns and 18 assault rifles, including those produced by state weapons munitions maker Pindad, according to Deka Anwar, from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC).
"Gone are the days that Papuan rebels would save precious bullets," said Anwar. "Now they can shoot for days."
In Papua's highlands, village funds are treated like a "revolutionary tax", he said, commandeered either via intimidation and coercion, or given willingly by supporters of independence.
Deposited directly into village bank accounts, the funds are regularly handed out in cash by village heads in the Papuan highlands.
"They have a lot of money in Papua, so it is easy to buy the weapons," said Latifah Anum Siregar, director of the Democracy Alliance for Papua (AIDP) and a lawyer who covers illegal weapons sales cases.
Compounding the problem, rebels are mostly buying weapons from corrupt military and police officers, she said.
One officer travelled to the Papuan town of Nabire nine times to illegally sell weapons, according to court documents.
"In Indonesia we call it 'senjata makan tuan,'" said Siregar of a dynamic replete with irony: rebels weaponising state funds to fight against the state. "It means it backfires."
- Additional reporting by STEFANNO SULAIMAN
East Bintuni Regency, Indonesia – Striding barefoot through the emerald green jungle with a long wooden bow slung over his shoulder, Josep Ogoney points up at the tropical vegetation surrounding him and his remote riverside village.
“This is my pasar,” said the 37-year-old, using the Indonesian word for a market. “I can take animals to eat, plants for medicine and wood to build my home.”
But this stretch of pristine rainforest is rather different from conventional markets.
“It’s all free,” grinned Josep, who is a member of the Ogoney, an Indigenous clan from Indonesia who inhabit the far-eastern, richly-forested province of West Papua.
That is not entirely true. The Ogoney have cultivated the forest for centuries, living off the fruits of their labour. Here, they grow pineapples, sago and sweet potatoes, they hunt deer and pigs, and they use endemic plants to nourish and heal themselves.
But while parts of the Ogoney’s forest have been set aside for sustainable use of the abundant natural resources, much is considered sacred according to their traditional beliefs and, therefore, it is not only left untouched, but fiercely protected.
Indigenous peoples and local communities, like the Ogoney, manage half the world’s land and 80 percent of its biodiversity and have been effective custodians and defenders of nature for generations. Forests on Indigenous lands, which store 37.7 billion tonnes of carbon globally, play a major role in stabilising the earth’s climate.
But only recently have Indigenous peoples and local communities begun to receive mainstream recognition for that role. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2021, also known as COP26, world leaders pledged to provide $1.7bn to support these communities, citing evidence that they reduce deforestation.
“By using sustainable practices taught from one generation to another, they actively safeguard forests, preserving biodiversity and keeping a delicate balance essential for both the environment and their own sustenance,” said Emmanuelle Bérenger, lead for sustainable forest management at the Rainforest Alliance, a global nonprofit. “To effectively protect forests, they need to be supported through legal recognition.”
Lessons for supporting Indigenous-led conservation can be learned from Indonesia, which, in 2016, began legally recognising Indigenous “customary forests” in order to both bolster land tenure rights and better manage the nation’s natural resources.
To date, Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, which oversees the third largest tract of rainforest in the world, has recognised the customary forests of more than 100 tribes, reallocating 153,000 hectares (591 square miles) of land previously under state control.
In October, the Ogoney became the first Indigenous people in West Papua province to have a customary forest recognised by the government. It spans 16,299 hectares (63 square miles) of lowland tropical forest, which contains rare species such as birds of paradise and cassowaries – emu-like creatures that are the closest living species to dinosaurs.
“I myself thank God because of this acknowledgement,” said Yustina Ogoney, head of Merdey district, which encompasses all the Ogoney villages. “I pay serious attention to forest protection because if there is no forest, it will have a big impact on us.”
Recognition was the culmination of a long, difficult process that began in 2017.
The Ogoney began their application for customary land recognition after a timber company, Papua Satya Kencana (PASKA), was issued a concession in their district.
“I saw that areas belonging to other clans in the Moskona tribe suffered massive timber harvesting by the company,” said Yustina, who in 2017 became the head of the district. “Our forest is still intact, and we didn’t want it to happen here.”
It was not a simple process.
Many of the Ogoney had no idea about the existence or importance of the decree on customary land recognition, and when it came to mapping the territorial boundaries, there were disputes between communities as to where they should be. Several site visits were required before the government eventually verified the application.
“The government has been very slow to give recognition, especially for the Papuans,” says Sulfianto Alias of Panah Papua, which with the support of Perkumpulan HuMa Indonesia, led participatory mapping for the Ogoney and six other clans in the region.
As part of the process, Panah Papua produced a study of the Ogoney culture, which is known for its sustainability.
The clan, which according to the research dates back at least seven generations, practise shifting cultivation, largely of sago, which comes from palm trees, and buah merah, an endemic red fruit known for its healing properties – with rules dictating where in the forest cultivation is permitted.
“It is a beautiful place,” said Rosalina Ogoney, a 41-year-old from the same village as Josep. “We have fields where we can grow food, but only for what we need, and elsewhere it is forbidden to even enter – let alone hunt or carry out activities.”
As a result, the rainforest has been preserved. A study by the Samdhana Institute, an Indonesian nonprofit, found that between 1990 and 2020 just 51 hectares (126 acres) of forest were lost on the Ogoney’s land, an annual deforestation rate of just 0.1 percent.
By comparison, Nusantara Atlas, an independent deforestation monitor, estimates Indonesia’s tree cover loss from 2001 to 2021 was an average 0.5 percent each year.
As well as a source of food, medicine and building materials, the forest provides a key defence against floods – more frequent due to climate change – in Ogoney territory, which is surrounded by large rivers at the foot of the Arfak mountains.
Boost for women
Beyond the climate benefits, the broader recognition of customary forests is seen as an opportunity to improve gender equality and livelihoods among Indigenous peoples, who are disproportionately affected by poverty and discrimination.
Previously, the Ogoney received scant agricultural training or support because their land was considered state forest, but officials at the Ministry of Manpower and Bogor Agricultural University are now working to help improve the efficiency of crop cultivation. There is also the prospect of ecotourism being developed.
“I hope that inclusive economic growth can occur,” said Rina Mardiana, of the university’s Faculty of Ecology.
Meanwhile, a study of five customary forests – including the Ogoney’s – last year found the process has created “opportunities for women” in local politics.
Women in one tribe in Sumatra, on the western end of the Indonesian archipelago, successfully improved gender equality in forest management by forming women’s groups. But the success is not widespread. Women often require permission from male relatives to use forest products, for example. “Still women’s voices are not taken into account,” said Abby Gina Boang Manalu, the lead author of the study.
Going forward, critics say that the government must ramp up the speed and scale of recognition.
According to a report in March by the Ancestral Domain Registration Agency (BRWA), an Indonesian nonprofit, there 25.1 million hectares (96,912 square miles) of potential customary forest, but only 3.2 million hectares (12,366 square miles), or 12.7 percent, has been recognised by local government – the final step before national government passes recognition.
“It’s not enough,” said Tania Li, a professor of anthropology at Toronto University and expert in Indonesia’s Indigenous peoples’ movement. “It’s not happening at the scale required. It has to move at least as fast to even catch up with the backlog.”
Li points to the tens of millions of hectares of concessions that have been granted for palm oil, logging and mining, particularly in Papua, where Indigenous land rights face a difficult and complicated political backdrop due to a long-simmering separatist conflict.
“This is a decisive moment,” added Li. “Does Indonesia really want to protect its forests and Indigenous peoples, or does it want profits and power?”
New funding
Even for the Ogoney, concerns linger post-recognition. Several clan members held a protest at the logging company PASKA’s site in 2019 after it allegedly failed to build homes, water wells and toilets for the community as promised. While the company has stopped operating on their land since its permit lapsed, the damage is still being felt. “The water has become muddy, it’s hard to find fish,” said Julianus Ogoney, 29.
PASKA did not respond to requests for comment.
The Ministry of Environment and Forestry told Al Jazeera it is working to speed up its process of recognition.
“There is a great reason to support Indigenous peoples,” said Yuli Prasetyo, deputy director of the ministry’s customary forest programme. “They know how to best protect and manage their lands. We can all learn from them.”
Those efforts received a major boost in May when international donors launched the Nusantara Fund, which will provide up to $20m over the next decade in what is Indonesia’s first direct funding mechanism for Indigenous peoples and local communities.
Back in West Papua, the dawn of a new age of Indigenous empowerment could be on the horizon. And while some of the Ogoney opposed Yustina when she became the first female head of the district, they have since changed their minds.
“Male elders said I was not capable enough,” said Yustina, pacing along a dirt trail in the rainforest wearing a technicolour headdress, dogtooth necklace, and handwoven cloth sarong handed down from her mother.
“I did not respond or acknowledge them. Instead, I worked hard. They have stopped questioning me now.”
This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Journalism Fund
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Papua Police Chief Sr. Commissioner Ignatius Benny Ady Prabowo on Wednesday, June 7, said a joint military and police team together with the local administration were currently mediating a conflict between two local Papua tribes; Mee and Dani. The clash on Monday, June 5, turned deadly and claimed two lives.
“Law enforcement officers are handling the conflict among local residents that saw a house burned in the Nabire Regency,” said Ignatius in his press statement on June 7.
The local police chief, Regenet, and a number of regional leaders were trying to mediate the two tribes in conflict.
"We urge residents, especially in Nabire Regency and several regencies around the area, to refrain and stay indoors and don’t commit to harming themselves or others," the police chief said as he called for peace.
The clash between the two tribes in Nabire Regency was allegedly triggered by a conflict over the territorial boundaries of customary land in Urumusu Village, Uwapa District, Nabire, Central Papua. The conflict led to the burning of houses which resulted in the death of two people. The incident occurred on Monday afternoon.
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