On May 27, Indonesian President Joko Widodo (“Jokowi”) received a recorded death threat from Egianus Kogoya (“Egi”), the commander of the West Papua National Liberation Army–The Free Papua Movement (TPNPB–OPM) in Nduga region, West Papua Province. Egi stated that he would execute a New Zealander pilot who was brought to his camp after having been taken hostage in February if his demands were not met within two months (bbcindonesia, May 29; westpapuadaily, July 9). Egi expected Jokowi to open trilateral negotiations that involved Indonesia, New Zealand, and the TNPB–OPM. Instead, Jokowi changed course and engaged in “heart-to-heart” diplomacy with Papua New Guinea and Australia, whom Jokowi describes as Indonesia’s most important neighbors and strategic partners in the Pacific (detik, July 3).
Jokowi’s International Diplomacy
Since taking office in 2014, Jokowi has advocated for a “soft approach” towards the TPNPB–OPM, utilizing negotiations and international diplomacy where Indonesia’s first two presidents, Sukarno and Suharto, would have once applied force (westpapuadaily, July 4). Jokowi provided his full support to the head of the Nduga Regency in the latter’s efforts to negotiate directly with Egi to release the pilot. Further, Jokowi strengthened bilateral relations with Australia and Papua New Guinea, respectively, during his presidential visits to said countries from July 3 to July 5. The two countries are thought to host the greatest number of supporters for West Papuan independence in the region. Using “heart-to-heart” diplomacy with his counterparts, he explained his strategy and sought their support in minimizing the West Papua conflict and the TPNPB’s demands. On his way back from Australia and Papua New Guinea, Jokowi also made his seventeenth visit to West Papua, with an eye towards the fulfillment of his campaign promise to prioritize West Papua’s development (kompas, July 3; bbc, July 7).
Prior to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to Indonesia on June 6, 2022, the Chairman of the Diplomatic Council of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), Akouboo Amatus Douw—who was granted asylum by Australia in 2006—sent a letter to Prime Minister Albanese. He requested that the West Papua conflict be discussed with President Jokowi (pina, July 4; hot.grid.id, June 8, 2022). As there was no progress made in response to the letter, so too was there also little done regarding Egi’s threats. Due to the breakdown of talks, Egi ceased all communication with Indonesian officials on June 10.
Egi’s Responses to Jokowi
In an effort to generate international media attention, Jeffrey Pagawak Bomanak—a TPNPB militant based in Papua New Guinea and claiming to have the full support of Israel—posted on June 27 a threat on social media that the TPNPB would execute the pilot in just four days, on July 1. July 1 has symbolic importance, as it is the anniversary of the establishment of the OPM (kompas, June 30; cnnindonesia, July 3; disway.id, July 12). Instead of complying with Bomanak’s plan, however, Egi, maintained his own timeline in the hostage negotiations. Egi permitted Douw and the Speaker of the TPNPB, Sebby Sambom, to issue a statement denying the July 1 execution date.
Through his spokesman, Egi toned down the death threat, but demanded the withdrawal of Indonesia’s military from West Papua and the establishment of an international mediation format for peace negotiations (jubi.id, July 1). In addition, the TPNPB decried colonialism and illegal actions in sacred lands as his movement’s true adversaries, rather than the New Zealander pilot or the presence of Indonesian troops (pina, July 4). The TPNPB agreed to release the pilot on the condition that Jakarta and New Zealand open channels of communication where the TPNPB can set forth its demands. Egi’s requests are predicated on an assumption that a majority of Australia and New Zealand’s citizens would support West Papuan independence (tempo, July 4; bbc, July 7).
Jokowi’s Responses to Egi
Jokowi issued a statement in response to the TPNPB on July 3, just before his trip to Australia and Papua New Guinea. In it, he assured the international community that while he could not disclose his strategy in full, his preferred means of freeing the New Zealander hostage remains negotiations. On his first day in Australia, Jokowi had a second private conversation with Albanese—the first occurring during the Australian PM’s visit to Indonesia on June 6, 2022 (setkab.go.id, July 4; brief.id, July 5; cnbcindonesia, June 6, 2022).
On the second day of his visit to neighboring Papua New Guinea, Jokowi pledged to provide scholarships for the next generation of Papua New Guineans to study in Indonesia (kemlu.go.id, July 6; suarapapua, July 6). Thus, the outcome of the two bilateral summits not only strengthened the relationship of Indonesia with Australia and Papua New Guinea, but also signaled those two countries’ support for Jokowi’s policy of establishing social justice and welfare in West Papua in order to resolve the conflict and reassert Indonesian sovereignty over the territory. Yet Jokowi’s international diplomacy would not be complete if he did not touch the “hearts and minds” of the victims of the West Papuan conflict, thereby showing his commitment to the region. As such, on his journey back to Indonesia after the two successful bilateral summits, Jokowi spent three days in West Papua (sbs.com.au, July 7).
Negotiations Underway
On July 7, while inaugurating the Papua Street Carnival in Jayapura, West Papua, Jokowi disclosed he held an internal meeting with his negotiation team the preceding night; Jokowi cautioned that while his approach may appear quiet on the face of things, it was nevertheless actively at work (westpapuadaily, July 8). Furthermore, Jokowi stated that 99 percent of West Papua is safe and secure, based on what he observed during his three-day visit. He emphasized that the conflict was a minor issue that TPNPB propaganda has been able to inflate into a much larger and negative issue. Hence, Jokowi strongly suggested focusing on larger positive outcomes, such as the creation of new West Papuan creative industries, to include the venue he was speaking at, the Papua Street Carnival (detik, July 7).
While Jokowi was concentrating on his soft approach, on July 13, the TPNPB’s three-year-long internal conflict between Sebby Sambom and Jeffrey Pagawak Bomanak reignited (disway.id, July 13). Sambom denounced Jeffrey’s status as TPNPB–OPM Chairman and declared that the latter was a criminal, and therefore not a true member of the TPNPB. According to Sambom, the OPM has never existed as such, and is only a name. Sambom also refuted Egi’s assertion that Sambom, Akouboo Amatus Douw, and Jeffrey are united. In addition, Sebby forbade Egi and TPNPB–OPM Commander-in-Chief Goliath Tabuni from interacting with Jeffrey.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey asserted that the TPNPB–OPM only dispatched a delegation to negotiate the release of the New Zealand pilot with a letter of authorization (disway.id, July 13). As the two-month deadline neared at the end of July—and with the ongoing internal conflict within TPNPB–OPM—the prospect of releasing the New Zealander hostage diminished. Jokowi, nevertheless, continued to declare that he was prepared to negotiate (tempo.id, July 4; rri.go.id,July 12).
Conclusion
Key points:
- Rebels kidnapped Phillip Mehrtens, who was working for an Indonesian airline at the time, at Nduga airport in February
- His captors are part of the insurgent group West Papua National Liberation Army
- They previously demanded Indonesia recognise Papuan independence in return for his release
New Zealander Phillip Mehrtens was working for Indonesian airline Susi Air when he was snatched by rebels at Nduga airport in February.
"Phillip is a much-loved father, husband, brother and son," Mr Hipkins told reporters in Auckland.
"I want to urge, once again, those who are holding Phillip to release him immediately.
"There is absolutely no justification for taking hostages.
"The longer Phillip is held, the more risk there is to his well-being and the harder this becomes for him and for his family."
Mr Hipkins said the Ministry for Foreign Affairs was leading New Zealand's response by working with the Indonesian authorities.
The prime minister also said he had spoken with Mr Mehrtens's family this week "to assure them that the government is doing all it can to bring Phillip home".
"I acknowledge this is an incredibly challenging time for them," he said.
"Phillip's safety and well-being remains our top priority."
The rebels who kidnapped Mehrtens are from insurgent group the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB).
They had previously demanded that Indonesia recognise Papuan independence in return for the New Zealander's release.
According to the Indonesian army, armed separatists ambushed soldiers searching for Mr Mehrtens in April, killing at least one.
Papua is a former Dutch colony that declared itself independent in 1961, but neighbouring Indonesia took control two years later, promising an independence referendum.
A subsequent vote in favour of staying part of Indonesia was widely considered a sham.
AFP
The leader of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) has called for the establishment of a “United Indigenous Nations” for global justice and an end to Indonesia’s ‘malignant’ colonisation of West Papua.
Today — August 9 — is the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, as declared at the inaugural UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva in 1982.
OPM chairman and commander Jeffrey Bomanak said such a new global indigenous body would “not repeat the failure of the United Nations in denying any people their freedom”.
“The integrity of indigenous peoples is not for sale,” he said in a stinging statement to mark the international day.
He offered an “independent” West Papua as host for the proposed United Indigenous Nations to lead international governance with an international forum representing — for the first time — the principled values and ideals of indigenous and First Nations peoples who were the “true guardians of our ancestral motherlands”.
He criticised the UN’s lack of action over decolonisation for indigenous peoples, blaming the body for allowing the “predatory destruction of the world caused by the economic multinational
imperialists and their unsustainable greed”.
Citing the UN website for indigenous peoples, he highlighted the statement:
“CENTURIES-OLD MARGINALISATION AND OTHER VARYING VULNERABILITIES ARE SOME OF THE REASONS WHY INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DO NOT HAVE THE SAME POSSIBILITIES OF ACCESS TO EDUCATION, HEALTH SYSTEM, OR DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS.”
And also:
“VIOLATIONS OF THE RIGHTS OF THE WORLD’S INDIGENOUS PEOPLES HAVE BECOME A PERSISTENT PROBLEM, SOMETIMES BECAUSE OF A HISTORICAL BURDEN
FROM THEIR COLONISATION BACKGROUNDS AND OTHERS BECAUSE OF THE CONTRAST WITH A CONSTANTLY CHANGING SOCIETY.”
Bomanak said that while these two quotes read well, they were “misrepresentative of the truth that has been West Papua’s tragic experience with the United Nations”.
‘Disingenuous manipulation’
“The facts are that the UN has prevented West Papua’s right to decolonisation through a disingenuous manipulation of the Cold War events of the 1960s,” he said.
“Indonesia’s invasion and illegal annexation of West Papua remains a malignancy in principle and diplomacy only matched by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But with different diplomatic outcomes
applied by the UN Secretariat.
“The UN Secretariat acts with incredulous diplomatic effrontery to allegations of collusion and complicity with a host of other predatory nations, all eager to plunder West Papua’s natural
resources — the world’s greatest El Dorado.”
He singled out Australia, China, France, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom and the United States for criticism.
Indigenous people knew the story of West Papua from their own experience with the same predatory nations and the “same prejudicial and corrupt geopolitics” that characterised the UN, Bomanak said.
“G20 conquerors and colonisers have never put down their swords and guns. They have never stopped conquering and colonising, either by military invasion or economic imperialism.
“They will never understand the indigenous perception of ancestral custodianship of our lands.
“The defence forces and militia groups of G20 nations still murder us in our beds and our beds are burning.”
Conflict of interest
The UN could not stop “global melting” because it was a conflict of interest with the “G20
business-as-usual paradigm of economic exploitation” fueling expansion economies.
“They will not stop until all our ancestral lands are one infertile wasteland. The UN is unable to resolve this self-defeating dynamic,” Bomanak said.
“The UN should be a democratic, progressive and 100 percent accountable institution. This is not West Papua’s experience.
“Six decades ago, the UN should have fulfilled the decolonisation of West Papua for the commencement of our nation-state sovereignty. Instead, we were sold to the highest bidders — Indonesia and
the American mining company Freeport McMoRan.”
The problem with international diplomacy was that the UN was “beholden to the G20’s vested interests” and its formal meeting place in New York, Bomanak claimed.
“Why remain inside the belly of the beast?” he asked other indigenous peoples.
“Upon liberation of our ancestral motherland, and upon the agreement of the new government of West Papua, I would like to offer all colonised tribes and nations of the
conquering empires — all indigenous peoples — the opportunity to manage our international affairs with absolute justice and accountability.
“International relations with indigenous governance for indigenous people. We will build the United Indigenous Nations in West Papua.”
Jayapura, Jubi – Three students were found guilty of treason and subsequently given a 10-month prison term by the panel of judges at the Jayapura District Court on Tuesday, August 8, 2023. Yoseph Ernesto Matuan, Devio Tekege, and Ambrosius Fransiskus Elopere faced allegations of treason due to their involvement in a free speech event held at Jayapura University of Science and Technology (USTJ) on November 10, 2022, where they waved Morning Star flags.
The event aimed to reject the Papua peace dialogue plan introduced by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). However, the police intervened and disbanded the event, leading to the arrest of multiple participants, including the aforementioned three students.
Subsequently, Yoseph Ernesto Matuan, Devio Tekege, and Ambrosius Fransiskus Elopere were identified as suspects in a treason case and were convicted by the Jayapura District Court.
In their verdict, the panel of judges contended that the actions of Yoseph Ernesto Matuan, Devio Tekege, and Ambrosius Fransiskus Elopere, who took turns hoisting the Morning Star flag, could not be categorized as an exercise of freedom of expression. The judges argued that raising the Morning Star flag during the free speech event indicated an intention to advocate for the separation of Papua from Indonesia.
Furthermore, the judges highlighted that the actions of these individuals disrupted the security situation in Papua and were deemed to pose a threat to the sovereignty of Indonesia. Additionally, the fact that the three defendants had previously engaged in similar activities in the same case was taken into account.
The panel of judges firmly asserted that the actions of Yoseph Ernesto Matuan, Devio Tekege, and Ambrosius Fransiskus Elopere had been proven to constitute the crime of treason, as outlined in Article 106 of the Criminal Code, in conjunction with Article 55 Paragraph (1) of the Criminal Code, as charged by the prosecution.
—————————————————
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.