No progress has been made in sending a U.N. human rights mission to Indonesia’s Papuan provinces despite the appointment of Fiji and Papua New Guinea’s prime ministers to negotiate the visit.
Pacific Island leaders have for more than a decade requested the U.N.’s involvement over reported abuses as the Indonesian military battles with the West Papua independence movement.
The latest U.N. Human Rights Committee report on Indonesia in Marchwas highly critical and raised concerns about extrajudicial killing, excessive use of force and enforced disappearances involving indigenous Papuans.
Fiji’s Sitiveni Rabuka and Papua New Guinea’s James Marape were appointed by the Melanesian Spearhead Group last year as special envoys to push for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights’ visit directly with Indonesia’s president but so far to no avail.
“We have not been able to negotiate terms for an OHCHR visit to Papua,” Commissioner Volker Türk’s office in Geneva said in a statement to BenarNews.
“We remain very concerned about the situation in the region, with some reports indicating a significant increase in violent incidents and civilian casualties in 2023.
“We stress the importance of accountability for security forces and armed groups operating in Papua and the importance of addressing the underlying grievances and root causes of these conflicts.”
Indonesia issued a formal invitation to the OHCHR in 2018 after Pacific leaders from Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Tonga and Marshall Islands for years repeatedly called out the human rights abuses at the U.N. General Assembly and other international fora.
The Pacific Islands Forum – the regional intergovernmental organization of 18 nations – has called on Indonesia since 2019 to allow the mission to go ahead.
“We continue establishing a constructive engagement with the U.N. on the progress of human rights improvement in Indonesia,” Siti Ruhaini, senior advisor to the Indonesian Office of the President told BenarNews, including in “cases of the gross violation of human rights in the past that earned the appreciation from U.N. Human Rights Council.”
Indonesia’s military offered a rare apology in March after video emerged of soldiers repeatedly slashing a Papuan man with a bayonet while he was forced to stand in a water-filled drum.
The latest U.N. report highlights “systematic reports about the use of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or ill-treatment in places of detention, in particular on Indigenous Papuans” and limited access to information about investigations conducted, individuals prosecuted and sentences.
In recent months there have been several deadly clashes in the regionwith many thousands reportedly left displaced after fleeing the fighting.
In June Indonesia was accused of exploiting a visit to Papua by the MSG director general to portray the region as “stable and conducive”, undermining efforts to secure Türk’s visit.
Siti told BenarNews the invitation to the U.N. “is still standing” while attempts are made to find the “best time (to) suit both sides.”
After years of delays the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) – whose members are Fiji, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and New Caledonia’s Kanak independence movement – appointed the two prime ministers last November to negotiate directly.
A state visit by Marape to Indonesia last week left confusion over what discussions there were over human rights in the Papuan provinces or if the U.N. visit was raised.
PNG’s prime minister said last Friday that, on behalf of the MSG and his Fijian counterpart, he spoke with incumbent Indonesian president Joko Widodo and president-elect Parbowo Subianto and they were “very much sensitive to the issues of West Papua.”
“Basically we told him we’re concerned on human rights issues and (to) respect their culture, respect the people, respect their land rights,” Marape told a press conference on his return to Port Moresby in response to questions from BenarNews.
He said Prabowo indicated he would continue Jokowi’s policies towards the Papuan provinces and had hinted at “a moratorium or there'll be an amnesty call out to those who still carry guns in West Papua.”
During Marape’s Indonesian visit, the neighbors acknowledged their respective sovereignty, celebrated the signing of several cross-border agreements and that the “relationship is standing in the right space.”
Siti from the Office of the President afterwards told BenarNews there were no discussions regarding the U.N. visit during the meeting between Marape and Jokowi and “human rights issues in Papua were not on the agenda.”
Further BenarNews enquiries with the President’s office about the conflicting accounts went unanswered.
Indonesia is an associate member of the MSG and the ULMWP has observer status. Neither have voting rights.
“That is part of the mandate from the leaders, that is the moral obligation to raise whether it is publicly or face-to-face because there are Papuans dying under the eyes of the Pacific leaders over the past 60 years,” president of the pro-independence United Liberation Movement of West Papua, Benny Wenda, told BenarNews.
“We are demanding full membership of the MSG so we can engage with Indonesia as equals and find solutions for peace.”
Decolonization in the Pacific has been placed very firmly back on the international agenda after protests in the French-territory of New Caledonia in May turned violent leaving 10 people dead.
Riots erupted after indigenous Kanaks accused France of trying to dilute their voting bloc in New Caledonia after a disputed independence referendum process ended in 2021 leaving them in French hands.
Meeting in Japan late last week, MSG leaders called for a new referendum and the PIF secured agreement from France for a fact-finding mission to New Caledonia.
While in Tokyo for the meeting, Rabuka was reported by Islands Business as saying he would also visit Indonesia’s president with Marape “to discuss further actions regarding the people of West Papua.”
An insurgency has simmered in Papua since the early 1960s when Indonesian forces invaded the region, which had remained under separate Dutch administration after Indonesia’s 1945 declaration of independence.
Indonesia argues it incorporated the comparatively sparsely populated and mineral rich territory under international law, as it was part of the Dutch East Indies empire that forms the basis for its modern borders.
Indonesian control was formalized in 1969 with a U.N.-supervised referendum in which little more than 1,000 Papuans were allowed to vote. Papuans say they were denied the right to decide their own future and are now marginalized in their own land.
Indonesia in recent years has stepped up its efforts to neutralize Pacific support for the West Papuan independence movement, particularly among Melanesian nations that have ethnic and cultural links.
“Indonesia is increasingly engaging with the Pacific neighboring countries in a constructive way while respecting the sovereignty of each member,” Theofransus Litaay, senior advisor of the Executive Office of the President told BenarNews.
“Papua is always the priority and program for Indonesia in the attempt to strengthen its position as the Pacific ‘veranda’ of Indonesia.”
The Fiji and PNG leaders previously met Jokowi, whose second five-year term finishes in October, on the sidelines of a global summit in San Francisco in November.
The two are due to report back on their progress at the annual MSG meeting scheduled for next month.
“If time permits, where we both can go back and see him on these issues, then we will go but I have many issues to attend to here,” Marape said in Port Moresby on Friday.
2) Lele's home under the Morning Star
Presented by Richard Fidler
Lea Firth's family was forced into exile, out of their traditional home in West Papua, before she was born.
This was because her father, a well-known musician, had started to speak out for West Papuan independence from Indonesia, which made him a target for a nervous Indonesian government
After years of wandering, Lea's family received asylum in Australia, and that was the first time she felt safe, comfortable and at home.
It would be another decade before Lea became a citizen, and then received her Australian passport.
These documents meant she could at last travel to West Papuan to finally see the coral island paradise of her ancestral home that she had heard so much about growing up.
But Lea's homecoming journey was not how she imagined it to be.
Further Information
Lea Firth performs under the moniker Voice of Lele. Her new single is called Island Proud.
Image Details
Lea Firth performs under the moniker Voice of Lele
During a visit to an integrated health post in Jayapura District, Papua Province, the president remarked that all toddlers and children in Papua should get a dose of polio vaccine during PIN, which has entered its second phase.
He then reminded residents of the danger presented by the polio virus to the nation's future generations.
"Toddlers and children who are not immunized are susceptible to paralysis because the polio virus might continuously attack their central nervous systems," he underlined while adding that the disease is highly infectious.
On that note, Jokowi affirmed that the government would continue to encourage all citizens, particularly those residing in Papua, to get their children a dose of the polio vaccine four times.
The head of state remarked that his administration had been striving to intensify polio vaccination in the wake of a worldwide increase in cases of the viral disease.
"We are pushing local health offices to boost the rate of polio vaccination in their regions," he pointed out.
Jokowi then urged the Ministry of Health and all regional health offices across Indonesia to take quick steps to protect the country's children from the paralyzing disease.
"I want all health offices at the provincial, district, and municipal levels to exert even greater efforts to encourage parents to get their children vaccinated in order to prevent paralysis," he remarked.
First Lady Iriana, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin, and Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian accompanied President Jokowi on the visit to mark the 40th National Children's Day.
Related news: Govt to vaccinate 16.4 million kids on national polio vaccination week
Related news: Polio-induced paralysis untreatable: Jakarta health official
Related news: Papua governor initiates National Immunization Week on Numfor Island
Translator: Yudhi E, Tegar Nurfitra
Editor: Azis Kurmala
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's Communications and Information Minister Budi Arie Setiadi has urged the Telecommunications and Information Accessibility Agency (BAKTI) and the Joint Search and Rescue (SAR) Team to continue the search for the LCT Cita XX, which went missing in Papuan waters. The missing boat was carrying construction materials that will be used to provide 4G signals in Yahukimo Regency, Papua Mountain Province.
"The most important task is to save the lives of the 12 crew members. Human life is more important than anything else. I have ordered BAKTI Kominfo to conduct the search in the best possible way," Budi said, as quoted in a press release issued by the Ministry of Communication on Tuesday, July 23.
Twelve crew members were missing in the incident. They include Junaidi (captain), Dedi (Gualim), M. Arif Efendi (KKM), Naikal (oiler), Rusli (Helman), Agygera (cook), Suherman (tower material supervisor), Nimret G. Tua, Lukman Hakim, Samsudin, Asmoro and Alhakim.
The LCT Cita XX was reported missing and was transporting BTS, tower, power and VSAT materials to provide 4G signals in the area of Yahukimo Regency, Papua Mountain Province. The LCT Cita XX left Timika at 05:43 on July 15 and was scheduled to arrive in Yahukimo on July 18. On July 19, the ship's captain, Mufli, reported to the National Search and Rescue Agency in Timika that the ship had not arrived at Yahukimo port.
The ship's last communication with the Prima Jaya was on July 16. The Prima Jaya's crew reported that the LCT Cita XX was on the surface and not moving.
BAKTI director-general Fadhilah Mathar said his agency and the joint SAR team were continuing to try to locate the missing vessel.
A joint rescue operation has been searching the waters of Pulau Tiga district since noon on Monday, July 22. The team consists of the Indonesian Navy, Polairud and the regional SAR team. They used a KRI unit, a helicopter and a rigid inflatable boat. The search has not yielded any results so far.
The search continues today, with helicopters being used to survey the area from the air.
TEMPO.CO
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