AWPA -West Papua Update No 6
(8 October 2024)
No improvement in the human rights situation in West Papua. Clashes have continued between the TPNPB and the Indonesian security forces with casualties on both sides. There have been crackdowns on peaceful demonstrations with activists arrested and intimidated.
Relaunch of Papuans Behind Bars
On 24th September TAPOL and PBB relaunched their comprehensive database detailing arbitrary arrests, violence, abuse, torture, unfair trials, intimidation and neglect of prisoners across West Papua. The online platform details each individual case, as well as providing statistics and reports, so that the full scale of the problem can also emerge. The launch participants involved in human rights advocacy in West Papua, included Gustaf Kawer, lawyer and founder of PAHAM Papua, Rosa Moiwend, Papuan human rights activists, Andreas Harsono, Human Rights Watch researcher, Hyebin Bina Jeon, HURIDOCS programme officer, who works on data-based human rights work from all over the world, and TAPOL’s own Raka Sudisman. A valuable and informative resource.
Annual Overview 2023 Report | 23 September 2024
Summary
In 2023, we recorded a total of 531 political arrests, relating to 530 people, in 81 separate incidents. Of those arrested, 50 were indicted on criminal charges, of whom 18 were prosecuted, convicted and sentenced, with prison sentences ranging from 6 months to 16 years. Of those arrested, 454 were released, or presumed to be released.
Of those indicted, the most commonly used charge was the Emergency Law on possession of firearms and explosives (Undang-Undang nomor 12 tahun 1951), with 23 people charged and indicted. Of those 23, 12 were prosecuted and found guilty of this offence. This is a significant increase on previous years. In contrast to this, 11 people were charged and indicted on treason charges. This is a marked reduction in the use of treason charges (which campaigners argue are repressive), compared with the previous year, when the charges were used 24 times. Eleven people were prosecuted in connection with murder or manslaughter. This was mostly in relation to attacks on security forces personnel. Six of the 11 prosecuted were found guilty.
At the end of 2023, 35 of the 531 political arrests were still detained while undergoing legal process, with a further 18 imprisoned following trial, across various locations in Papua. The location of eight detainees was unable to be determined. Four people not in detention remained wanted for arrest. Two Papuan political prisoners died in 2023. Including those arrested in 2021 and 2022, in total, 96 Papuan political detainees were in detention at the end of this year.
Report in English
https://papuansbehindbars.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/PBB-2023_EN_final.pdf
Report in Bahasa Indonesia
https://papuansbehindbars.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/2023_ID_Final.pdf
Latest update from Human Rights Monitor on IDPs in West Papua
(Photos in report.)
IDP Update September 2024: New Research on IDPs in West Papua underlines urgent need for Government action Human Rights News, Reports / Indonesia, West Papua / 19 September 2024
As of September 2024, more than 79,867 people in West Papua remain internally displaced as a result of armed conflict between Indonesian security forces and the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB). New internal displacements between June and August 2024 reportedly occurred in the regencies Maybrat and Puncak. In the Paniai Regency, not all internally displaced persons (IDPs) returned to their homes after being displaced due to a security force raid in the Bibida District in April 2024.
IDPs who decided to return to their villages are facing extraordinary military presence and surveillance by security force members. In the Paniai Regency, security force members have made attempts to set up new security posts near indigenous villages, increasing the potential for the occurrence of armed clashes near civilian settlements and human rights abuses against residents. Former IDPs from Maybrat reported that they must live under constant surveillance by the military after returning to their home villages, while education and healthcare facilities are not fully functional.
While the Government of Indonesia continues to deny the existence of IDPs in West Papua, Indonesian churches have taken the initiative to research the situation of the IDPs. The results were published in early September 2024. Human Rights Monitor has not received updated information on the condition and numbers of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Pegunungan Bintang, Nduga, Intan Jaya, Yahukimo, Fakfak, and Puncak regencies in the past three months.
New research on IDPs in West Papua
In September 2024, the Bishop’s Conference of Indonesia, the West Papua Council of Churches, and the Fellowship of Churches in Indonesia published joint research results on IDPs in West Papua. The research was conducted by a collective of researchers from various fields, including migration, socio-politics, law and social justice, religion, and humanitarianism. Data was collected in July-August 2024 and obtained firsthand from 70 IDPs, all indigenous Papuans.
The research identified the top four difficulties they faced were lack of food (97%), health care (87%), economic/livelihood factors (81%), and loss of access to free education (90%). Some assistance was provided by church groups (30%), family/relatives (29%), and/or 24% from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or solidarity groups. Local government support was reported to be very low. After more than three years, half of the respondents reported not receiving any assistance. Accordingly, two-thirds of IDPs mentioned they do not feel safe in their current situation.
All respondents cited ‘armed conflict’ as the main cause of their displacement (100%). ‘Fear’ was mentioned by 97% of all respondents. A total of 41% of displaced families reported that they were intimidated by parties to the conflict and 39% of respondents revealed that their families were directly threatened. IDP respondents reported that their average period of displacement was more than three years, which included a period of between one and two years of moving around in the forest on foot. IDP respondents reported spending 1-2 years in forest displacement, usually walking long distances. About two-thirds of the respondents were constantly on the move or sleeping in the open or under tents/tarps.
The main considerations that influence IDPs to return are economic and livelihood issues if they return to their villages (53%), and the lack of security in their home village (70%). 39% of respondents stated they would not return because of threats from conflict parties.
The research illustrates that internal displacement has become a chronic problem in West Papua, given the duration and intensity of displacement. The persons interviewed in average internally displaced for more than three years. Some of them lived in forest shelters for more than 16 months under poor living conditions (97% reported not having enough food), facing psychosocial trauma and vulnerability (66% of respondents feel unsafe in their current location)....................
New Human Rights Watch Report
“If It’s Not Racism, What Is It?” Discrimination and Other Abuses Against Papuans in Indonesia
September 18, 2024
Summary
Nineteen-year-old Alfa Hisage was arrested on August 30, 2019, for joining a student-led protest against anti-Papuan racism in Jayapura, a city in the Indonesian territory of West Papua. He told Human Rights Watch that at the police station, officers beat and racially abused him, particularly for his dreadlocks. “They pushed my head on the table,” he said. “And they used a bayonet to cut off my hair.”
The Indigenous Papuan population of Indonesia has long encountered racial discrimination based on their ethnic origin, including from government agencies and institutions, as well as in laws and regulations. Ever since the Netherlands turned over West Papua to the newly independent government of Indonesia following a deeply flawed United Nations resolution in 1969, many Papuans have sought independence – primarily peacefully but also through the force of arms – from Indonesian rule.
The Indonesian government has responded with numerous grave abuses by the government security forces, the isolation of West Papua from the rest of the world, and the arrest, prosecution, and long prison terms for Papuan activists who have peacefully called for independence or other forms of self-determination. The Indonesian authorities have encouraged tens of thousands of non-Papuan families to work and to settle in West Papua, which has driven many Indigenous Papuans from their land.
The resistance of Papuans and many non-Papuans in Indonesia to discrimination took on a new dimension following an August 17, 2019 attack by security forces on a Papuan student dormitory in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, in which the students were subjected to racial insults. The attack renewed discussions on anti-Papuan racial discrimination and sovereignty for West Papua. Papuan students and others acting through a social media movement called Papuan Lives Matter, inspired by Black Lives Matter in the United States, took part in a wave of protests that broke out in many parts of Indonesia. Alfa Hisage was among the many students who joined the demonstrations.
The Indonesian government responded by detaining hundreds. Papuans Behind Bars, a nongovernmental organization that monitors politically motivated arrests in West Papua, recorded 418 new cases from October 2020 to September 2021. At least 245 of them were charged, found guilty, and jailed for joining the protests, with 109 convicted of “treason.”
However, while in the past, Papuans charged with political offenses typically were sentenced to years – in many cases, 10 years or more – of imprisonment, in the recent cases, perhaps because of international and domestic attention and pressure, the courts handed down much shorter sentences, and many of those convicted were soon released because they had already served much of their term in pretrial detention.
Victor Yeimo, a prominent Papuan rights activist and spokesperson for the West Papua National Committee (Komite Nasional Papua Barat, KNPB), was arrested on May 9, 2021, but had to be hospitalized for tuberculosis three months later. He was eventually detained again in January 2023 to face trial for treason, and was convicted. When he was released after completing his one-year jail sentence (including pre-trial detention) on September 23, 2023, he was welcomed at a large public gathering, where he called on Papuans to resist racial discrimination: “It is imperative that the Papuan people learn that the annexation of this region is based on racist prejudice.”……………
Full PDF report.
New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens released
The family of the kidnapped New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens thanked all those involved in his liberation, including the New Zealand authorities and West Papuan rebels. The family said they are grateful for those who kept Mr Mehrtens "safe and healthy as their means allowed". Mr Mehrtens spent more than 19 months in captivity in Indonesia's Papua region, as the rebel group sought to use him as a bargaining chip on talks around the independence of Papua.
It has been reported that the release of the pilot has caused some division in the TPNPB and West Papua advocates have also raised concerns that the Indonesia security forces could launch a military assault in Nduga now that Phillip Mehrtens has been released.
School strike for West Papua
Green Left
Alex Bainbridge Magan-djin/Brisbane August 30, 2024Issue 1414News
More than 100 people marched through the streets of Magan-djin/Brisbane on August 30 as part of a School Strike 4 Climate student strike for West Papua.
“Right now my people, the people of West Papua are living through a painful reality,” a message from Papuan activist Jeffrey which was read to the crowd said.
“We face violence, discrimination and an ongoing struggle just to have our rights recognised,” the message said.
The colonising Indonesian state denies the people of West Papua their rights to self determination, to raise their own Morning Star flag, and to speak freely since what Papuans describe as an “Act of No Choice” in 1969.
Environmentally and socially destructive mining and forestry operations are bitterly opposed by local people.
“When we look for the freedom to make our own choices and protect our own lands, we are often met with military force and the silence of the world,” the message said.
“We must raise our voices, demand justice and stand against this oppression.”
The action took place in defiance of an attempt by Instagram to silence the organisers when their Instagram page was shut down earlier this year.
This action was one of 30 strikes for West Papua around the world on the day.
See more photos on the Green Left Facebook page.
Thanks to Greens Senator David Shoebridge and former Senator Lee Rhiannon for attending.
https://awpasydneynews.blogspot.com/2024/08/photos-solidarity-from-sydney-30-august.html
Military operation in Intan Jaya accompanied by violence against residents
Human Rights Monitor 27 September 2024
On 13 August 2024, Indonesian military forces reportedly raided the Silatuga Village of Sugapa District, Intan Jaya Regency, searching residential houses in the area. According to information received from local human rights defenders, military members released bazookas in Silatuga. They dropped mortar grenades on the Holomama Hamlet, following a firefight with members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB). The operation was launched in response to the killing of a non-Papuan civilian by TPBNPB members. The killing happened only a few hours prior to the raid.
Human rights defenders alleged that security forces searched residential houses without a warrant and tortured residents. At least eight villagers, all of them indigenous Papuans, were injured as a result of security force violence (see photos and table below, source: WPCC). The victims later had to treat their wounds at home using traditional forms of treatment. They were afraid to walk to the health facilities in town due to the heavy military presence there. Victims of torture during the security force raid in the Silatuga Village, Intan Jaya, on 13 August 2024
More Photos etc…….
Students intimidated by police at Nabire police station, Central Papua province
Human Rights Monitor 30 September 2024
On 29 September 2024, the five students Mr Josan, Mr Ando, Mr Joshua, Mr Cela, and Mr Emigay, all members of the ‘West Papuan Student Solidarity’, were intimidated after registering a peaceful assembly to commemorate the Rome Agreement of 30 September 1962 in Nabire, Papua Tengah Province. The intimidation occurred at the Nabire District Police Headquarters after police officers had asked the students to pick up a reply notification letter in response to the registration.
After arriving at the police station around 9:45 pm, the students were forcibly detained and questioned at the criminal investigation unit. The interrogation was carried out without a lawyer to provide legal counsel to the students. Police officers reportedly threatened the students to report their involvement in the protest to their university principal, demanding an expulsion from the university. The students were released at 1.00 am., 30 September 2024 (see photo on top).
Police officers arrest two Papuans in Nduga without warrant
Human Rights Monitor 28 September 2024
Police officers arrested two indigenous Papuans, Mr Ripe Kerebea and Mr Eli Koranue, in the town of Kenyam, Nduga Regency, Papua Pegunungan Province, on 17 August 2024. Mr Rife Kerebea’s name was on a wanted list for participation in various violent attacks by members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB). While the police have pressed charges against Mr Kerebea, it is unknown whether the police have also initiated a legal process against Mr Koranue. Human rights activists expressed concerns regarding the arbitrary nature of the arrest, claiming that both men are civilians.
According to information received, police officers forcefully entered the house of Mr Ripe Kerebea at 3:30 am and arrested him without showing a warrant. Mr Kerebea’s wife and children witnessed the arrest. Mr Koranue was arrested almost simultaneously inside a traditional men’s house in Kenyam. Relatives and friends witnessed the arrest. In both cases, the relatives were not informed about the reason for the arrest. They demand the immediate release of the detainees if the police fail to present sufficient evidence for involvement in a criminal act. Mr Kerebea is the village head of Krepkuri Village, Mr Koranue graduated from a Vocational Highschool in Merauke and took a job as a construction worker.
Mr Ripe Kerebea and Mr Eli Koranue.
Indonesia, Papua New Guinea ink MoU on parliamentary cooperation
September 27, 2024
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Speaker of Indonesia's House of Representatives (DPR) Puan Maharani and her Papua New Guinean counterpart, Job Pomat, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on bilateral parliamentary cooperation in Jakarta on Friday.
Speaking after her meeting with Pomat at the Parliamentary Complex, Jakarta, Maharani explained that the agreement serves as an instrument for promoting political dialog between the national assemblies of the two neighboring countries.
"This way, the two countries will be able to discuss common issues, such as parliamentary cooperation, economic cooperation, and border cooperation," she highlighted while emphasizing the importance of preserving the conducive situation between the countries.
The lawmaker further noted that the DPR had been maintaining harmonious relations with Papua New Guinea, considering the Melanesian country's status as one of Indonesia's valuable partners in the Pacific region. "This meeting reflects Indonesia's balanced diplomatic approach, which pays equal attention to our neighbors in the east rather than being fixated on competition among great powers," she stressed.
She remarked that despite entering the final days of the 2019-2024 period, the DPR was eager to receive the Papua New Guinean parliament speaker for the MoU signing. Maharani also emphasized that the two parliaments are committed to maintaining their well-fostered ties after the forthcoming transition in the DPR. She then quoted Pomat as saying that the National Parliament of Papua Guinea will support the incoming Indonesian government to be led by President-elect Prabowo Subianto, who will assume the presidency on October 20, 2024. DPR Deputy Speaker for Political and Security Affairs Lodewijk F. Paulus and Deputy Speaker of DPR's Commission Utut Adianto accompanied Maharani during the bilateral meeting.
Translator: Melalusa S, Tegar Nurfitra Editor: Rahmad Nasution
West Papua National Liberation Army Claims to Have Shot Police Brigadier in Lanny Jaya.
Translator Ririe Ranggasari Editor Petir Garda Bhwana 11 September 2024
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The West Papua National Liberation Army-Free Papua Movement (TPNPB-OPM) claims to have shot dead a police officer and another person in Lanny Jaya, Papua Pegunungan Province. TPNPB-OPM spokesman Sebby Sambom said Brigadier Johan Herik Sibarani, 32, was killed in the shooting. The shooting also injured a civilian, Adi Fallo, 20, who was taken to the hospital.
The shooting in Lanny Jaya took place on Tuesday evening, September 10. Sebby said he received reports of the shooting from TPNPB-OPM members on the ground. "We are responsible for the attack at around 7:30 p.m. at the Lenny Jaya Regency DPRD office at Jalan Raya Tiom-Melagi, Kampung Dukom," Sebby said in a written statement on Wednesday, Sept. 11. Sebby said the attack resulted in the death of Lenny Jaya police member Brigadier Johan. Sebby also accused Adi of being an intelligence officer, although the Papua Police had described Adi as a civilian.
The motivation for the TPNPB-OPM attack, Sebby said, was to prevent the TNI and Polri from conducting checks on civilians and spying on the movements of TPNPB troops in Lanny Jaya. "With this attack, the TPNPB ordered the Indonesian military to stop its activities immediately," Sebby said. As of Wednesday morning, the Papua Police are still investigating the incident in Lanny Jaya. The shooting of Brigadier Johan and Adi was said to have been carried out by an unknown person (OTK).
Papua Police head of PR, Sr. Comr. Ignatius Benny Ady Prabowo, said the shootings took place in two different locations, namely in Dukom village, Tiom district, and Dugime village, Niname district, Lanny Jaya regency, Papua Pegunungan.
"The first incident occurred in Dukom Village on Tuesday at around 19:30 East Indonesia Time. The unknown person came to a kiosk owned by Brig. Pol. Johan. He then shot the victim," Sr. Comr. Pol. Benny in his statement in Jayapura on Wednesday, September 11, as reported by Antara.
After receiving information about the shooting, officers immediately went to the scene and evacuated the victim to Tiom Regional Hospital. "The victim was shot in the right upper chest and right back, which resulted in his death," he said. A few hours later, a shooting took place in Dugume village, Ninimae district, by an unknown person against Adi Fallo at about 20:05. "The victim was shot in the right thigh. The victim was conscious when evacuated to Tiom Regional Hospital," he said. ANTARA
Timor-Leste draws flak for arresting activists during papal visit
By UCA News reporter Published: September 10
Rights groups remind one of the youngest nations of its constitution that backs freedom struggle in other countries
Rights activists have criticized the Timor-Leste government for arresting activists who expressed solidarity with West Papuans’ independence struggle during Pope Francis' visit. Police arrested physically disabled Nelson Barros Pereira Xavier on Sept. 10, a day after Pope Francis arrived in the national capital for a three-day visit. Xavier was arrested for holding flags of the Vatican and Timor-Leste with writings “Free West Papua” and “Free Palestine” on them at a papal program in the cathedral in Dili, local media reports said. He was released after a few hours but told “that the case will be forwarded to the public prosecutor's office,” news outlet Neonmetin.info said, quoting Cesario da Silva, coordinator of the Association of Disabled Persons’ Organization.
The arrest was an “act that can't be justified,” said Ivo Mateus Goncalves da Cruz Fernandes, who researched at the Australian National University on Timor-Leste’s history.
This is the second arrest for showing solidarity with West Papua in recent days in the Catholic-majority nation. On Sept. 2, Nelson Roldão, a Timorese rights activist supporting Papuans, was arrested at Nicolau Lobato International Airport in Dili for displaying the Morning Star flag of Papua. He was released later.
The freedom of West Papua, which is part of Indonesia, is a politically sensitive subject. Indonesia considers the freedom movement a secessionist movement and wants to crush it militarily. Timor-Leste was under Indonesian occupation until 2002 when it gained independence and became a free nation. Fernandes told UCA News that the constitution of Timor-Leste requires the country “to show solidarity with the people of any country that is fighting for its freedom. " “The authorities are violating the constitution” by such arrests, he said. Armindo Moniz Amaral, a lecturer at Dom Jaime Garcia Goulart Dili College of Philosophy and Theology, said the arrests were “illegal and arbitrary.” Timor-Leste officials seemed to act like the Indonesian state that prohibits Papuans from wearing attributes such as the Morning Star flag, he told UCA News.
Earlier too, Timor-Leste has stifled efforts to show solidarity with Papua.
In August 2019, police arrested 47 youths when they were about to hold a demonstration to express support for Papua before the embassies of Indonesia and the US. Indonesia's Christian-majority Papua region has been a hotbed of conflict and death for more than six decades since it became a part of Muslim-Majority Indonesia following the end of Dutch rule in the 1960s. The Papuan freedom struggle and the Indonesian efforts to suppress it have killed up to 500,000 people.
The Papuan activists are trying to get the pope to talk about the Papuan issue and exert political pressure. But the government is trying to keep the issue away from the pope, he said. Papuan activities planned to present the pope with a 124-page book, titled "The Prayers and Hopes of Papuans to the Holy Father Pope Francis," written by 34 Papuans, including priests, and translated into Italian.
However, the book was not allowed to be presented wrapped in an open Papuan bag (a traditional Papuan bag woven from dried tree bark).
TNI raises five battalions for Papua food resilience program
October 2, 2024
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) General Agus Subiyanto on Wednesday inaugurated five infantry battalions (Yonif) to support the government's food resilience program in Papua region. The battalions will be dispatched to five regions of Papua to collaborate with the Agriculture Ministry and local residents to cultivate essential crops, including rice, he said. "These battalions are specialized in different aspects, such as construction and production. We will carry out agricultural programs in Papua with their help," he told journalists after the inauguration in the National Monument (Monas) area, Central Jakarta.
The battalions include Yonif 801/Ksatria Yuddha Kentswuri, which will be stationed in Keerom, Papua Province; Yonif 802/Wimane Mambe Jaya, which will be posted in Sarmi, Papua; Yonif 803/Nduka Adyatma Yuddha, which will be sent to Boven Digoel, South Papua; and Yonif 804/Dharma Bhakti Asasta Yudha, which will work in Merauke, South Papua. Meanwhile, Yonif 805/Ksatria Satya Waninggap will be based in Sorong, Southwest Papua.
Based on data obtained by ANTARA, each infantry battalion consists of 691 personnel drawn from different regional military commands (Kodam) across the country.
Kodam I/Bukit Barisan has dispatched 150 soldiers, Kodam II/Sriwijaya 150 soldiers, Kodam III/Siliwangi 450 personnel, Kodam IV/Diponegoro 400 officers, Kodam V/Brawijaya 230 personnel, and Kodam VI/Mulawarman has fielded 25 officers for the battalions.
Furthermore, Kodam IX/Udayana has contributed 306 soldiers, Kodam XII/Tanjungpura 43 officers, Kodam XIII/Merdeka 157 personnel, Kodam XIV/Hasanuddin 225 soldiers, Kodam XVI/Pattimura 294 officers, Kodam XVII/Cenderawasih 100 soldiers, and Kodam XVIII/Kasuari has sent 20 personnel.
Meanwhile, the Jaya Kodam of Jakarta and Iskandar Muda Kodam of Aceh have contributed 350 and 100 soldiers, respectively, to the special battalions.
Translator: Genta T, Tegar Nurfitra. Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Human Rights Monitor
Police crackdown on commemorations for New York Agreement in Wamena – 14 injured including a minor
Cases / Indonesia, West Papua / 21 August 2024
On 15 August 2024, police dispersed peaceful protests in the towns of Nabire, Wamena, and Sentani, as well as in Jayapura City with force. According to information received from local human rights groups, 222 protesters were arrested, and 41 injured as police forces dispersed the crowd with batons, teargas, and rubber ammunition. Many wounded protesters sustained head injuries, indicating that the officers targeted vital body areas. The protest in Nabire triggered outbreaks of occasional ethnic violence in the Bumi Wonoreja area. Acts of horizontal violence between Papuans and non-Papuans have significantly increased over the past years, resulting in a growing potential risk for the occurrence of atrocities in West Papua.
Joint security forces prevented protesters at various gathering points across Wamena. They dispersed the crowd with tear gas and rubber batons in the locations Sinakma, Woma, Hom-hom, Jibama Market, and Woken Ilekma. Fourteen KNPB supporters, including a thirteen-year-old minor, were reportedly injured as a result of police violence. Police officers arbitrarily detained 21 KNPB supporters in Sinakma, Jibama Market, and Hom-hom and brought them to the Jayawijaya Police Resort headquarters. They were detained for seven hours and released at 2:00 pm after KNPB members came to the police station and demanded their release. The officers reportedly failed to return seized objects, including two motorbikes and a mobile phone..............
Peaceful rallies planned in West Papua for 15 August. The New York Agreement . Activists already intimidated
AWPA Statement 14 August 2024
The 15 August marks 62 years since The New York Agreement and West Papuans are still suffering under Indonesian colonial rule. Yes, most of the world recognises Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua at this stage but most also would recognise that the so called act of free choice in 1969 was a sham..................
https://awpasydneynews.blogspot.com/2024/08/peaceful-rallies-planned-in-west-papua.html
The Fifty-Third Pacific Islands Forum was held in Nuku’alofa, Tonga
from 26 – 30 August 2024
From PIF Forum Communique in relation to West Papua and Kanaky (New Caledonia)
----------------
NEW CALEDONIA
59. Leaders noted the update on the situation in New Caledonia by the President of the Government of New Caledonia, the Honourable Louis Mapou, and reaffirmed their continued call for order and stability to prevail as well as their continued commitment to provide support as necessary to New Caledonia.
60. Leaders reaffirmed the commitment to deploy the high-level Forum Troika Plus Mission to New Caledonia in line with the request of the Government of New Caledonia and noted the agreement of the French State and the Government of New Caledonia on the Terms of Reference for the Forum Troika Mission. Leaders endorsed the Terms of Reference for the mission.
WEST PAPUA (PAPUA)
61. Leaders recalled their decision from 2019 and 2023 and noted the update from the Special Envoys.
Full Communique at
Military-led project also risks stirring resentment in the easternmost Papua region, researchers say.
Stephen Wright for RFA 2024.10.02 Bangkok
This Sept. 24, 2007 photo taken near Bensbach airfield in Papua New Guinea shows a landscape in the TransFly Eco Region that spans the border of Indonesia and PNG on the south of New Guinea island.
Iain Taylor/Creative Commons
Indonesia’s military is taking a leading role in plans to convert more than 2 million hectares of wetlands and savannah into rice farms and sugarcane plantations in a part of conflict-prone Papua that conservationists say is an environmental treasure.
The military’s involvement has added to perceptions that it is increasingly intruding into civilian areas in Indonesia and prompted a warning that it would bring bloodshed to Merauke, a regency in South Papua province slated to become a giant food estate.
It’s an area of easternmost Indonesia that has largely avoided violence during the decades-long armed conflict between Indonesia and indigenous Papuans seeking their own state.
The plans are part of the government’s ambitions for the nation of 270 million people to achieve food and energy self-sufficiency. They highlight the tension globally between the push for economic development in lower-income countries and protection of the diminishing number of pristine ecosystems.
Taken together, the sugarcane and rice projects for Merauke represent at least a fifth of a 10,000-square-kilometer (38,600-square-mile) lowland known as the TransFly, which spans Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. Its name comes from the Fly River – a squiggle on the otherwise straight line on the map that marks the border of the two countries on New Guinea island.
The great expanse of wetlands, grasslands and pockets of tropical rainforest in the south of the island is “globally outstanding,” said Eric Wikramanayake, a conservation biologist who wrote about its significance for a book on conservation regions in Asia.
Researchers say it is home to half of the bird species found in New Guinea including about 80 that exist nowhere else and other endemic animals such as the pig-nosed turtle and cat-like carnivorous marsupials.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has called it a “global treasure” and a proposed World Heritage listing says no other place in the region compares to it, including the famous Kakadu national park in northern Australia.
“If you were to convert a lot of the TransFly into agriculture then it’s going to change the conservation assessment, it will make it much more threatened,” Wikramanayake said.
“There is going to be some impact and those impacts, it’s like opening the can of worms” in paving the way for further development, he said.
For Ahmad Rizal Ramdhani, the major-general who heads Indonesia’s National Food Security Taskforce, the area targeted for development is swamps that should be converted to agriculture to realize their “extraordinary” fertile potential.
He told a 40-minute-long podcast with state broadcaster Radio Indonesia in August that the 1 million-hectare rice component of the agricultural plans was being funded by the government and overseen by the military and agriculture ministry. The sugar cane plantations and a related bioethanol industry are funded by private investors, he said.
Wearing an indigenous Papuan headdress, Ramdhani said he envisioned that Papuans would ask “Mr. TNI” – the initials of the name for the Indonesian military – for help with cultivating their customary lands.
Sacred and conservation areas would be protected and the land would remain in the ownership of indigenous Papuans, he said.
“To the people of Papua, especially those in Merauke, there is no need to worry and doubt, there is no need to be afraid,” Ramdhani said.
In seemingly contradictory remarks, Ramdhani said the conversion to rice paddy needed to be carried out in three years to ensure food security, but rice would also be exported – to Pacific island countries and Australia because it’s too expensive to send it to Java, Indonesia’s most populated island.
Analysis of land-use maps shows areas designated for rice overlap with conservation areas, indigenous sacred places and ancestral trails and hunting grounds, said Franky Samperante, director of Indonesian civil society organization Pusaka.
Pusaka said in a report in September that more than 200 excavators had begun clearing wetlands, customary forests and other lands belonging to the Malind Makleuw indigenous people in Ilwayab, Merauke.
Members of the community protested against the rice project during a Sept. 24 reception for Indonesian officials, video shows.
Women with faces caked in white mud to symbolize grief wore cardboard signs around their necks that said “We reject the Jhonlin Group company” – an Indonesian conglomerate that is reportedly a key part of the agricultural projects.
Earlier government and military-led attempts to develop agriculture in Merauke, including in the last decade, led to land grabs and other problems.
‘Risk of resentment’
The military’s leadership of the rice program adds to perceptions it is increasingly intruding into civilian areas, according to three Indonesian security researchers.
The large agricultural projects could fuel pro-independence sentiment and grievances over environmental destruction, said military analyst Raden Mokhamad Luthfi at Al Azhar University Indonesia.
“There’s a real risk that the project could spark new resentment from OPM [Organisasi Papua Merdeka-Free Papua Movement], who may view it as further evidence of inequality, injustice, and environmental harm faced by Papuans,” he told BenarNews.
Justification for the military’s role in the Merauke project, Luthfi said, is based on the concept of food security outlined in Indonesia’s 2015 defense white paper.
Officers at the army staff college perceived a security threat from possible food shortages in the future caused by climate change and population growth, he said. However, the white paper also said food security efforts should be led by civilian ministries.
Hipolitus Wangge, a researcher at Australian National University, said the military had silenced discontent among Papuans during a failed program last decade to make Merauke into a major center of food production.
“We should expect more discontent, even bloodshed in Merauke in the next five years,” he told Radio Free Asia.
The Indonesian government’s development plans for the region and armed conflict were likely behind the demise of a once ambitious plan to protect the TransFly environment.
WWF’s Indonesia and Papua New Guinea chapters made a concerted attempt in the early-to-mid 2000s to develop a conservation plan and expand protected areas. Within a few years, the effort had foundered.
At the time, the WWF waxed lyrical about the environmental significance of the TransFly but the conservation group’s Indonesian chapter now says it “recognizes the importance of national strategic projects, such as the Food Estate initiative in Merauke, in addressing Indonesia’s food security challenges.”
The conservation program ended in 2016 because of insecurity in Papua and lack of resources, WWF Indonesia spokeswoman Diah Sulistiowati told Radio Free Asia (RFA), a news service affiliated with BenarNews.
“We understand that the government prioritizes this [agricultural] development to meet the growing demand for food and to support national food security goals,” she said.
WWF Indonesia is helping to ensure development of the TransFly region respects “rich ecological and cultural values,” Sulistiowati said, through its past recommendations for protection of high conservation value forests, cultural heritage sites and areas crucial to indigenous communities.
A lesser heralded aspect of the TransFly’s importance is that it’s one of a diminishing number of wetland stopovers for migratory birds that make epic journeys along a millenia-old Asian “flyway” stretching from Alaska to New Zealand.
“Whatever few wetlands and bird habitats that are used by these birds should be conserved,” said Wikramanayake, the conservation biologist. “There could be some sort of tipping point that causes the flyway to collapse.” Pizaro Gozali Idrus in Jakarta contributed to this report.
Submission by Jim Aubrey and Jeffrey P Bomanak to the
Senate Standing Committees on Legal and Constitutional Affairs
Criminal Code Amendment (Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes) Bill 2024.
The Criminal Code Amendment (Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes) Bill 2024 would amend the Criminal Code Act 1995 to remove the requirement for the Attorney-General’s consent to proceedings under Division 268 of the Act.
Submissions may be provided as a written document, audio or video file, art, song and/or dance.
Submission number 93 is from Jim Aubrey and Jeffrey P Bomanak
Genocide Rebellion - Free West Papua Chapter
Submissions at
Genocide Petition
https://www.lidiathorpe.com/genocide_inquiry
Opinion pieces/reports/media releases etc.
World’s biggest deforestation project gets underway in Papua for sugarcane
Comparing Palestine’s prospects for independence and peace https://johnmenadue.com/comparing-palestines-prospects-for-independence-and-peace/
Australia: Raise Rights Concerns in Indonesia
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/08/19/australia-raise-rights-concerns-indonesia-meetings
Looming now in Indonesia: The age of uncertainty
https://johnmenadue.com/looming-now-in-indonesia-the-age-of-uncertainty/
AWPA Open letter to Pacific Island Forum Leaders
https://awpasydneynews.blogspot.com/2024/08/open-letter-to-pacific-island-forum.html
The Silence on West Papua's Struggle for Independence
https://www.anubipocdepartment.com.au/blog/the-silence-on-west-papua-s-struggle-for-independence
Neither treaty nor pact, just troubling facts
https://johnmenadue.com/neither-treaty-nor-pact-just-troubling-facts/
Melanesian leaders want meeting with Indonesian president on West Papua 'as soon as practicable’
A list of sources of information/links in Bahasa and English compiled by Theo for May and June 2024
https://awpasydneynews.blogspot.com/2024/08/a-list-of-sources-of-informationlinks.html
PAPUA 2024 JULI daftar sumber informasi
https://awpasydneynews.blogspot.com/2024/09/papua-2024-juli-list-of-sources-of.html
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