Tuesday, January 29, 2019

Indonesia to let UN workers into West Papua as violence continues

Indonesia to let UN workers into West Papua as violence continues
Helen Davidson, @heldavidson Email
Wed 30 Jan 2019 13.12 AEDT

A man with his forehead painted with the separatist flag of West Papua banned by Indonesia. Photograph: Trisnadi/AP


UNHCHR wants access after Indonesian military crackdown in response to guerrilla attack
Indonesia has agreed in principle to allow the UN office of the human rights commissioner into West Papua amid continuing violence in the region.
The long-running low-level insurgency violently escalated late last year, after West Papuan guerrillas attacked a construction site in Nduga, killing at least 17 people they claimed were Indonesian military but who Jakarta insists were civilian workers.
In response Indonesia launched a military crackdown in the region, leading to a number of deaths and thousands of people allegedly being displaced after they fled into the jungle.
The office of the high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, told the Guardian she had been engaging with Indonesian authorities on the issue of West Papua and “the prevailing human rights situation” and had requested access to the area.

“Indonesia has in-principle agreed to grant the office access to Papua and we are waiting for confirmation of the arrangements,” said a spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasandi.
Shamdasani has previously said the attack by the guerrillas was unacceptable violence but the Indonesian government was not addressing the root causes of the separatist conflict.
West Papuan leaders were informed of the development at a Geneva meeting between the commissioner and Vanuatu representatives on Friday, during which the exiled West Papuan leader Benny Wenda handed over a petition signed by 1.8 million of his people.
The UN spokeswoman said the meeting had not been arranged for the purpose of receiving the petition but was in the context of Vanuatu’s universal periodic review session before the UN human rights council.
The petition, smuggled out of the region in 2017, calls for a UN investigation into allegations of human rights abuses and for an internationally supervised vote on independence.
“In 2017 nearly 2 million of you risked arrest, torture and assassination to raise your voices through this historical petition,” Wenda said after the meeting.
“Today, with official state-level support from the Vanuatu government, we, the people of West Papua, have presented it to the UN high commissioner for human rights. We are working day and night to approach the UN general assembly in New York.”

The petition was banned in West Papua and blocked online at the time activists collected signatures. Papers were “smuggled from one end of Papua to the other”, Wenda told the Guardian at the time.
In September 2017 Wenda sought to deliver the petition to the UN’s decolonisation committee but was rebuffed, with the committee saying West Papua was outside its mandate.
The committee’s chair, Rafael Ramírez, said at the time the mandate extended only to the 17 states identified by the UN as “non self-governing territories”.
West Papua was removed from the list in 1963 when it was annexed by Indonesia, an act many Papuans consider to be illegal and which was the start of a long-running separatist insurgency.
The petition included new requests for UN investigations into the violence in Nduga, including allegations that Indonesian forces used chemical weaponsagainst civilians – a charge Indonesia denies.
Billy Wibisono, the first secretary of political affairs at Indonesia’s embassy in Canberra, said the allegations were baseless, “misleading and false news”.
“Armed separatists in Papua have conducted heinous crimes including murder of innocent civilians,” he said in a letter to the Saturday Paper, which published the allegations.
“As a compliant member of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Indonesia possesses no chemical agents as listed in schedule 1 of the Chemical Weapons Convention; while the schedules 2 and 3 chemical agents are used for strictly peaceful purposes. Such have been confirmed by 19 OPCW inspections since 2004. Hence, no Indonesian apparatus has ever been in possession or utilised any chemical weapons.”
On Monday an Indonesian military spokesman, Muhammad Aidi, said one soldier was dead after separatists in Nduga opened fire on an aircraft.
Aidi said another soldier had been injured in the attack on the light plane, which had just taken off from Kenyam airport, carrying military personnel and local government members including the chief of Nduga district.
Amid the crackdown, which followed mass arrests of pro-independence protesters in early December, Indonesian authorities have also raided and destroyed a number of headquarters of the domestic movement, the West Papua National Committee.
At least three people – including the activist Yanto Awerkion, who was imprisoned for his involvement with the petition – are facing “rebellion” charges after holding a prayer meeting they had notified authorities about.
The Indonesian government has been contacted for comment.
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DFAT reply to AWPA letter (18 Dec)

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1) The Government is urged to swiftly implement the Palm Oil Moratorium in Papua.


2) Indonesian military to complete Trans-Papua Highway

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1) The Government is urged to swiftly implement the Palm Oil Moratorium in Papua.
By ADMIN | Published: JANUARY 29, 2019




Last November, the head of the Awyu ethnic group in Boven Digoel Regency, Egidius Pius Suam, sent a letter to Indonesian President Joko Widodo, with copies also sent to several ministries, the Governor of Papua Province, Boven Digoel’s Bupati and leaders of civil society organisations in Papua and Jakarta. The letter detailed the Awyu indigenous people’s oppostion and grievances against seven large-scale plantation companies that have been trying to set up on the Awyu’s traditional lands.
The letter was also signed by five clan chiefs, the heads of Metto, Hobinanggo, Ujung Kia, Kapogu villages and of Ki sub-district and the head of the LMA Boven Digoel, along with the support of three other heads of ethnic groups in Boven Digoel: Wambon, Kombai and Korowai.
The seven companies referred to in the letter are: (1) PT Perkebunan Boven Digoel Sejahtera (with a concession of 39,440 hectares); (2) PT Perkebunan Boven Digoel Abadi (37,010 hectares; (3) PT Boven Digoel Budidaya Sentosa (39,190 hectares); (4) PT Perkebunan Sawit Kifofi 19,940 hectares); (5) PT Perkebunan Dugu Fofi (38,160 hectares); (6) PT Perkebunan Papua Sentosa (38,725 hectares); and (7) PT Indo Asiana Lestari (38,525 hectares).
The companies’ concessions cover part of several administrative sub-districts: Subur, Ki, Jair, Mandobo and Fofi, all in Boven Digoel, Papua Province. The total amount of forest under threat of being handed to these oil palm plantation companies is 250,990 hectares.
The reason these community leaders are opposing the company is because of the threat it poses to their land and culture; they risk losing sites where they carry out cultural rituals and obtain customary artefacts as well as their food sources and sources of livelihood, as well as the loss of biodiversity, damage to the environment and social conflict.
“We are asking the Indonesian President to cancel and revoke the companies’ permits, and put a stop to the process of allowing oil palm plantation companies to operate in forested areas on the land of the Awyu indigenous people, based on a consideration of Law 29/2009 concerning the environment, Constitutional Court Decision No 35/PUU-X/2012, Presidential Instruction 8/2018 concerning a moratorium and re-evaluation of permits for palm oil plantations, and the rights of the Awyu indigenous people.”, asked Egedius Pius Suam in his letter.
However, the community has still not received any meaningful replies to the letters they sent. In the meantime, the company has kept up its attempts to influence members of the community to accede to its plans.
“According to our research the majority of these concessions are located in the area where plantation companies owned by the Menara Group obtained plantation business licences in 2011 and then got permits to release state forest land from the Forestry Minister in 2012. However, those companies did not make optimal use of the land and were then sold to new owners based in Malaysia: Tadmax Resources Bhd and the Pacific Inter-link Group”, explained Franky Samperante from the Pusaka Foundation.
The government of Boven Digoel Regency and the Investment Agency and One-stop Permit Centre, revoked location permits for [some of the] Menara Group companies in 2015, and [some of their] Plantation Business Licences in 2018. However, the local government just handed out new permits for the same land to the companies mentioned above.
The practice of companies buying and selling land from each other, and the government issuing permits to new companies, has all taken place without a process of consultation and collective decision making to obtain the consent of local indigenous people who hold rights in the area. This goes contrary to principles laid down in law and business norms which are supposed to respect the rights of indigenous people, including through the principle of Free Prior Informed Consent).
“Currently the Awyu indigenous people have not been able to obtain any information or permit documents, including copies of Environmental Impact Assessments and agreements that have been made by the Menara Group”, explained Father Anselmus Amo, MSC, leader of the Justice and Peace Secretariat for Merauke’s Catholic Diocese.
We have found that in this case, both local and central government have shown negligence from the outset and there have been a string of violations of regulations concerning the issuance of location permits, plantation business licences, environmental permits and forest release permits. This includes issuing location permits and forest release which exceeds the maximum permitted area: Agrarian Ministry / National Land Agency regulation 5/2015 states that location permits can only be issued for 20,000 hectares in a single province or 100,000 hectares in the whole of Indonesia; Agriculture Ministry Regulation 98/2013 states a maximum of 100,000 hectares of Plantation Business Licence should be given to a single company or corporate group; and Environment and Forestry Ministry Regulation P.51/2016 states that the area of forest estate released to a single company or corporate group should be no more than 60,000 hectares and should be issued in stages, no more than 20,000 hectares at one time.
“According to Environment and Forestry Ministry LHK P.51 Tahun 2016, it is forbidden to transfer the ownership of conversion production forest which has formerly been released to a different party and start work in that forest, because the new licencee will not have met the obligations. The way government issues permits and the ways companies transfer them is agaist the law. This case shows just how poor the governance of forest and other land in Papua is”, explained Aiesh Rumbekwan, the Executive Director of Walhi Papua.
Because of this, the Pusaka Foundation, Walhi Papua and the Justice and Peace Secretariat of Merauke Catholic Diocese urge the central and local government to swiftly implement the Oil Palm Moratorium legislated for in Presidential Instruction 8/2018, by taking proactive and transparent steps to stop the companies mentioned above from working and undertake an evaluation, revoking the permits of companies which violate communities’ rights and come into conflict with the law.

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2) Indonesian military to complete Trans-Papua Highway
6:26 am today 

Officials working on a troubled road project in Papua say Indonesia's military will complete the job this year.
In December, at least 16 Indonesians working on the Trans-Papua Highway in Nduga province were massacred by fighters from the West Papua Liberation Army.
The project was put on hold with the military saying it would take over work on the 4000 kilometre highway.
Combat engineers will reportedly carry out the construction, with hundreds of extra security personnel deployed to the area.
Detik News reports a military battalion has been assigned to the building of the project's remaining 16 bridges.
Indonesian army engineers had already been working on the Trans-Papua Highway project for a number of years.
Military involvement in the project was cited by the Liberation Army as a central reason for killing the road workers, who were suspected of being soldiers.
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Monday, January 28, 2019

1) TNI Evacuates Soldier who Dies from Gun Attack in Papua


2) Indonesia boosts its military presence in the Natuna Islands
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1) TNI Evacuates Soldier who Dies from Gun Attack in Papua

Translator: Ririe Ranggasari   
Editor: Petir Garda Bhwana 
29 January 2019 11:46 WIB


TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Cendrawasih XVII Regional Military Command of the TNI (Indonesian National Armed Forces) evacuated the body of Private Nasarudin, victim of an armed group in Mapnduma, Nduga Regency of Jayapura, Papua. Praka's body is evacuated on a civil aviation to Sentani Airport, Tuesday morning, January 29.
Upon arrival at Sentani Airport, Nasarudin body will be will be laid to rest at the Battalion 751 Raider command headquarters, before being flied home to his hometown in Makassar.
Deputy Chief of Cenderawasih XVII Regional Military Command Lt. Col. Inf. Dax Sianturi said that Nasaruddin, who was a member of the Yonif 751 Reider, died during a gun attack on Monday, January 28. He was on duty securing the Mapnduma airport.
Meanwhile, his partner Private Muhamad Rivai, who was hit by a bullet ricochet, is still being treated at the Timika Regional Hospital.
The two members of Battalion 751 were attacked while securing the Mapnduma airport before the arrival of Nduga Regent Yarius Gwijangge, who came bringing logistics assistance. Shortly before the plane landed, security forces were shot at from a height, followed by gun contact.
ANTARA
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2) Indonesia boosts its military presence in the Natuna Islands
29 Jan 2019|

When Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi delivered her traditional annual foreign policy review recently, she made a point of referring to last month’s separatist slaughter of 19 construction workers in rebellious Papua. ‘Indonesia’, she declared, ‘will not back down, not even an inch, when it comes to its sovereignty.’
What struck observers, however, was her failure to make the same point about the South China Sea now that President Joko Widodo has followed through on a two-year-old pledge to strengthen the country’s military presence on Natuna Besar, the largest of 272 small islands on the southern fringe of the disputed waters.
The closest land mass to an increasingly assertive China, the 1,720-square-kilometre island is being equipped with a sophisticated surface-to-air missile system, elements of a marine battalion and significantly upgraded air and naval bases.
Marsudi’s focus was interesting, given that the government has sought to keep Papua off the international agenda while trying to convince Melanesian nations in the southwest Pacific that Indonesia is treating the Papuans fairly.
Certainly, it reflected the shock that rolled through the security community over the 1 December massacre, believed to be the worst single case of bloodletting since the Free Papua Movement (OPM) launched a stuttering insurgency in the late 1960s.
But Marsudi’s failure to make more than a passing reference to the South China Sea was surprising—particularly when China now insists that it has a claim to so-called ‘traditional fishing grounds’ inside Indonesia’s 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
Traditional fishing grounds are not recognised in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; but traditional fishing rights are, and they have already been the subject of successful bilateral negotiations between Indonesia and two of its neighbours, Australia and Malaysia.
When Jakarta produced an updated national map in 2017 renaming the EEZ north of the Natuna Islands as the North Natuna Sea, the Chinese Foreign Ministry dispatched a formal letter declaring that the two countries have overlapping maritime claims.
Changing the name, it said, had only complicated the dispute and threatened peace and security in the region—despite the fact that Indonesia is not a claimant to the Spratly Islands and doesn’t recognise any boundary issue with China.
After years of prevaricating, it was the first time Beijing had suggested that its claimed nine-dash line of historical sovereignty, which envelops most of the South China Sea and has no basis in maritime law, actually infringes on Indonesian waters.
The signs had been there for some time. After several incidents in the previous three years, tension escalated in March 2016 when the Chinese coastguard seized back a fishing boat detained in what it said was traditional fishing grounds.
What angered Indonesian officials is that two heavily armed Chinese coastguard vessels penetrated the country’s 12-nautical-mile territorial limit to force the return of the trawler, which had been caught by a fisheries protection craft deep inside the EEZ.
Two other Chinese fishing boats were intercepted in May and June 2016, but as far as is known there have been no further cases since then, an indication that Beijing may have decided to approach Indonesia differently from some of its smaller neighbours—at least for now.
That cuts little ice with feisty Indonesian Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti, who continues to accuse China of committing transnational crime by paying off Indonesian fishing boats to offload their catches onto Chinese motherships positioned just outside the EEZ.
Chinese fisheries suffered a setback late in 2014 when Pudjiastuti banned foreign fishing boats from Indonesian waters, saying they and their Indonesian partners had breached the terms of their joint venture agreements and cost the country billions of dollars in lost revenue.
Foreign policy has never been a Widodo strong suit, but his pledge to beef up Indonesia’s northern defences remains one of the centrepieces of his government’s determination to protect natural resources and to grow Indonesia as a maritime power.
Analysts believe the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) will deploy Norway’s advanced Kongsberg medium-range missile system (NASAMS) to the Natunas, providing an air defence umbrella covering more than 100 square kilometres.
The newly acquired weapon is based on Raytheon’s advanced medium-range air-to-air missile, or AMRAAM, which the US approved for sale to Indonesia in 2016 when its air force took delivery of an additional 24 refurbished F-16 fighters to boost its front-line air defences.
Natuna Besar may also become the base for some of the eight new AH-64E Apache attack helicopters which were sold to Indonesia on the strength of their perceived role in safeguarding the free flow of shipping through the Malacca and Sunda straits.
The government plans to lengthen the island’s 2,500-metre runway and to build more hangars and improved refuelling facilities, ready perhaps for the proposed purchase of C-130J Super Hercules cargo planes that can be configured for prolonged maritime patrols.
The air force is also likely to deploy unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the island to expand its reconnaissance abilities over the East Natuna gas-field and the busy shipping lanes that cross the northern approaches to the Java Sea.
Indonesia is believed to be reconsidering its decision to buy four Wing Loong UAVs from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China for its squadron in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, 460 kilometres southeast of Natuna Besar. Instead, it has been looking at Turkish Aerospace Industries’ Anka drones, which can remain in the air for up to 24 hours and have already proved themselves in surveillance and armed reconnaissance missions over Syria.
The Indonesian Navy has taken over most of the patrols in the North Natuna Sea since the rash of incidents in 2016, but analysts say it will take several years for Natuna Besar to evolve into a fully fledged base with the necessary fuel stockpiles to improve the range of effectiveness of navy operations.
John McBeth is a Jakarta-based correspondent. Image courtesy of stratman² on Flickr.
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1) PNG civil society group wants change on Papua policy


2) UK Parliamentarians welcome handing-in of historic West Papuan People’s Petition

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1) PNG civil society group wants change on Papua policy

18 minutes ago 


Civil society groups in Papua New Guinea are urging the government to speak out about violent conflict in the neighbouring Papua region of Indonesia.
This comes amid a recent escalation of conflict between the West Papua Liberation Army and Indonesian security forces in Papua's Central Highlands.

The chairman of PNG's Union For Free West Papua, Kenn Mondiai said Papua New Guineans are deeply concerned about the conflict but their government remains silent.
He said 1986's Treaty of Mutual Respect, Friendship and Co-operation with Indonesia restricts PNG from speaking out.
"At the political level government's hands are tied because of that 1986 treaty. But as Papua New Guinean and Melanesian civil society organisations, we Melanesians are sick and tired of the manner in which the Indonesian government and the Indonesian military and the police force, their brutality," Kenn Mondiai said.
Mr Mondiai said civil society wanted PNG's government to change it policy on West Papua to become more proactive in pushing for solutions across the border.
He said he was encouraged by PNG involvement in efforts by the Pacific Council of Churches to visit Indonesia, including Papua, to gauge the latest human rights situation.
However, PNG's Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato says his government is working to support the economic development approach that Jakarta is taking in Papua region as the best response to West Papuan issues.
Mr Pato recently said the two countries had been planning and implementing joint projects in their common border areas.
Meanwhile, the PNG Union For Free West Papua is assisting representatives the Liberation Army and Free West Papua Movement (OPM) in preparation for a planned press conference on Thursday in PNG's capital Port Moresby.

The representatives are expected to address the humanitarian crisis in the Central Highlands, and unveil the OPM's plans for proposed negotiations with Indonesia.
Indonesia's Political, Legal and Security Minister Wiranto recently told media that the government would not enter any discussions with the Army, who Jakarta describes as a criminal group.
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https://www.freewestpapua.org/2019/01/28/uk-parliamentarians-welcome-handing-in-of-historic-west-papuan-peoples-petition/

2) UK Parliamentarians welcome handing-in of historic West Papuan People’s Petition

JANUARY 28, 2019
A group of UK parliamentarians in the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for West Papua have welcomed the handing-in of the historical West Papuan People’s Petition to the UN human rights chief. 
In a statement, the APPG said:
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on West Papua is overjoyed to hear that the West Papuan People’s Petition has been officially handed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva with support from the Vanuatu government. The petition, signed by 70% of the Papuan population and calling for self-determination for the territory, was an arduous and heroic achievement of the West Papuan people. We hope the UN will now respond by fulfilling its historic duties to rectify the 1969 Act of Free Choice and allow West Papuans to freely determine their own future.
The petition hand-in comes at a time of great concern in West Papua, with chemical weapons reportedly deployed by the Indonesian military and a humanitarian crisis in Nduga. Thousands of Papuans have been internally displaced, and several have died. We call for the urgent removal of Indonesian security forces from the Nguda Regency and for Indonesia to allow humanitarian and monitoring agencies in to the area. 
In a meeting facilitated by the Vanuatu government on January 25, 2019, the Chairman of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, Benny Wenda, handed the self-determination petition – signed by 1.8 million Papuans in 2017 – to Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. 
The ULMWP will now target the UN General Assembly. 
Read Chairman Benny Wenda’s statement here.

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Papua rebels fire at aircraft in Indonesia; 1 dead




Papua rebels fire at aircraft in Indonesia; 1 dead

By Associated Press
JAKARTA, Indonesia — Separatists opened fire on an aircraft carrying military personnel and local government officials in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua region, killing one soldier, the military said Monday.
The incident, in Nduga district where rebels killed 19 people in an attack last month, happened shortly after the light plane took off from Kenyam airport Monday morning, said Muhammad Aidi, a military spokesman.
He said two soldiers on the plane were injured and one later died in a hospital.
The chief of Nduga district and two other district chiefs were passengers on the plane, which was transporting supplies to another remote area.
The rebels fled into the jungle after soldiers on the ground opened fire and it was unclear if any was killed, Aidi said.
An insurgency has simmered in the Papua region since it was annexed by Indonesia in 1963.
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Sunday, January 27, 2019

1) West Papuan separatists hand petition to U.N. human rights chief


2) Foreigner in Papua coup plot: arms dealer or ‘adrenaline junkie tourist’?
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1) West Papuan separatists hand petition to U.N. human rights chief
By Reuters• last updated: 27/01/2019 - 19:32

GENEVA (Reuters) - A separatist movement in Indonesia's West Papua province delivered a petition with 1.8 million signatures demanding an independence referendum to U.N. Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Friday, its leader told Reuters after the meeting. 
Benny Wenda, chairman of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), said he hoped the United Nations would send a fact-finding mission to the province to substantiate allegations of human rights violations. 
"Today is a historic day for me and for my people," Wenda said after the meeting in Geneva. "I handed over what I call the bones of the people of West Papua, because so many people have been killed."
He said West Papuans had no freedom of speech or assembly and the only way to be heard was through the petition, signed by almost three-quarters of the 2.5 million population. 
"It weighs 40 kg. It’s like the biggest book in the world."
He said he also spoke to Bachelet about the situation in the Nduga region, where he said at least 11 people had been killed and more may have died after fleeing into the bush to escape Indonesian forces, and 22,000 people had been displaced.
Provincial military spokesman Muhammad Aidi said the allegation was unfounded.
"He cannot show the evidence of what he has accused (Indonesia and the military) of," Aidi said on Sunday. "It is the Free Papua Movement that killed the innocent civilians."
Last month members of the military wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) claimed responsibility for killing at least 16 people working on a bridge on a high-profile road project, and a soldier, in the Nduga area.
The OPM has said it views the project workers as members of the military and casualties in their war against the government. 
The governor of the province subsequently called for an end to a hunt for the rebels, saying villagers were being traumatised.
The military rejected the plea to suspend the search in the remote, heavily forested province on the western half of New Guinea island, a former Dutch colony incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticized U.N.-backed referendum in 1969.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo wants to develop impoverished Papua and tap its resources. Since coming to power in 2014, he has tried to ease tensions in Papua by freeing prisoners and addressing rights concerns, while stepping up investment with projects like the Trans Papua highway.
(Reporting by Tom Miles and Augustinus Beo Da Costa; Editing by Catherine Evans)
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2) Foreigner in Papua coup plot: arms dealer or ‘adrenaline junkie tourist’?

  • Polish citizen Jakob Skrzypski accused of joining the Papua National Liberation Army and offering to help supply it with weapons
  • Observers describe him as an avid ‘extreme’ traveller with a passion for other cultures, languages, and humanitarian issues

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 27 January, 2019, 4:46pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 27 January, 2019, 11:17pm

Jakob Skrzypski left a stable job in Switzerland to travel through Indonesia last year. He visited Java, Sumatra and the tourist island of Bali before heading to the restive provinces of West Papua and Papua.

But three months ago, Indonesia authorities detained the 39-year-old Polish citizen in the Papuan capital of Jayapura. On January 15 this year, he was charged with treason.
He was the first foreigner in Indonesia to be charged with the offence, one that could see him spend 20 years in prison, if found guilty.
Skrzypski has been accused of plotting a coup with a pro-independence Papuan armed group and offering to help supply it weapons to overthrow the Indonesian government.
Skrzypski, who sports a bushy beard and has his hair tied back, has been held in a small, poorly-lit jail cell as he awaits trial in Wamena, an isolated town in Papua’s highlands.
A photograph seen by the South China Morning Post shows a jail cell with filthy streaks on the walls and a hand drawn sketch of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross.
“No freely available hot water. Washing water is dirty,” Skrzpski wrote in a letter to the Post, adding that he shared the cell with up to four other prisoners, and that he got one meal a day of rice and vegetables.

His court case is an unexpected twist in the long-running independence struggle between Papuans and the Indonesian government.
A low-level insurgency has simmered in the provinces, which share a border with Papua New Guinea, ever since the former Dutch colony came under Indonesian rule in the 1960s.
Papua declared itself an independent nation in 1961, but Indonesia took control of the resource-rich region by force in 1963. It officially annexed Papua in 1969 with a UN-backed vote, widely seen as a sham. The province was split into two in 2003 to become Papua and West Papua.
The pro-independence movement has little international backing, except for a small number of Pacific nations.
In his correspondence with the Post, Skrzypski described how Papua had “nurtured” his curiosity for some time, and that we wanted to visit.
He visited Papua’s urban centres of Sorong, Jayapura, Timika and Wamena, making friends in each place through social media.

“Papua is … virtually unknown, seldom ever mentioned in Europe. Since it’s very different from the other parts of Indonesia, it has been nurturing my curiosity for some time,” he wrote.
Skrzypski graduated from Warsaw University in Poland, worked in Britain, then studied at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, before getting a job there.

He had travelled to Indonesia several times, and also to Armenia, Myanmar and Iraq.
In August 2018, while he was in Wamena, the largest town in the highlands of Papua province, local police asked him to report to them.

Skrzypski said he did so, accompanied by a man who was his tour guide.
He said police offered him a ticket to leave Indonesia, but he refused. They then asked the guide to stay at the police station, while they allowed Skrzypski to go back to the hotel.
The next day, the police picked up Skrzypski in the hotel and brought him to the Papuan capital of Jayapura, an hour from Wamena by flight, where he was arrested.
The guide was later freed.
According to Skrzypski, police accused him of joining the West Papua National Liberation Army, a militant group and one of four active separatist organisations.
They cited his online friendship with Simon Magal, a student with links to prominent West Papuan human rights activist Mama Yosepha Alomang, as evidence.
Mama Yosepha received international acclaim after she lobbied against American mining firm Freeport McMoRan, which has been accused of causing grave environmental damage in its decades-long operation of the giant Grasberg copper mine.
The National Liberation Army had also waged attacks against Freeport, saying that the province’s integration with Indonesia was a conspiracy between the government and the mining giant.


Skrzypski says he discussed Freeport with Simon.
But Jayapura police commissioner Ahmad M. Kamal said they had evidence from Facebook Messenger chats and video testimony from three pro-independence fighters that Skrzypski had expressed his support for the militant Papuan independence movement.
Magal was subsequently arrested and also charged with treason.
A statement issued by Skrzypski’s lawyer Latifa Anum Siregar and several human rights groups said police alleged the Polish citizen was an arms dealer and relied on photos of him holding guns as evidence.
But according to one of Skrzypski’s friends, the photos were taken in an indoor sport shooting range in Vaud, Switzerland, where he had been living.
The police also claimed to have confiscated more than 130 rounds of ammunition from Skrzypski and three Indonesian citizens.
Veronica Koman, a lawyer for the National Committee for West Papua (KNPB), which is campaigning for the national referendum, said police become paranoid when foreigners make contact with Papuans.
Access to the region for international media is limited.
“Based on my correspondence with [Skrzypski’s] family and close friends, he is just an adrenaline junkie tourist,” she said.
Tapol, an NGO monitoring human rights issues in Indonesia, described Skrzypski as an avid “extreme” traveller with a passion for other cultures, languages, and humanitarian issues.
In his letter, Skrzypski claimed access to his lawyer was obstructed and authorities were holding his trial in Wamena instead of the capital Jayapura where his case would get more attention from media and the diplomatic community.
He said he felt isolated and depressed, not knowing when he would have to go to court next.
To pass the time, he had been reading old copies of National Geographic magazines and books on Papuan culture.
“Every step of the investigation was held secretly. I was never informed of anything in advance. At least not by the police,” he wrote.
Police insisted this was not the case. During their investigation of Skrzypski, foreign ministry officials in Jakarta were kept in the loop and they communicated with the Polish embassy there, they said.
Skryzypski’s trial continues and his next court appearance is scheduled for January 29.
This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: QUE STI O NS O VER POLish m an accu sed IN PAPUA COUP PLOT
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