Wednesday, July 24, 2019

1) West Papua regencies to host international mangrove day events


2) Palm oil company found guilty of rainforest destruction and rights abuses in Papua
3) Church group calls on Jakarta to end Papua clashes

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1) West Papua regencies to host international mangrove day events

NEWS DESK THE JAKARTA POST
Jakarta  /  Wed, July 24, 2019  /  03:37 pm

Mimika and Asmat regencies in West Papua are set to host events for the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem on July 26 to educate the public on the importance of mangroves to the environment.
“The major theme in this year’s celebration is ‘Mangrove for the Nation’ in which Blue Forests wants to highlight the importance of the mangrove ecosystem in all aspects of life, be it ecology, economy or social life,” said Wahyudin Opu, coordinator of Blue Forests Mangrove Co-Management, in Jayapura, West Papua, on Wednesday, Antara news agency reported.
He said that in Mimika regency, the event would be held in Kokonao by monitoring the mangrove areas there and cleaning debris from the coast.
“Mangrove day celebrations will also be filled with activities such as on-site education about mangroves and competitions for elementary school students in Kokonao,” he said.
In Asmat, the event will be held in Yepem village, Agats district, with activities such as an education discussion about the importance of mangroves, a mangrove forest clean-up activity and a mangrove identification competition for local children.
Wahyudin said Mimika and Asmat had the largest mangrove forests in Indonesia, covering 513,900 hectares of land, and the second-largest in the world after the Sundarbans region in Bangladesh and India. (ami)
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2) Palm oil company found guilty of rainforest destruction and rights abuses in Papua
4:24 pm on 24 July 2019 




Major palm oil producer Korindo has been found guilty of rainforest destruction and human rights abuses in the Indonesian province of Papua by the Forest Stewardship Council.

However, environmental group Mighty Earth said despite the guilty verdict and the "greenwashing" of their activities, the Council is not yet completely cutting its ties with the Korean-Indonesian logging and palm oil conglomerate.
Senior Campaign Director, Deborah Lapidus, said it's ironic the notoriously destructive company has held certification for responsible forest management.
She said the guilty decision was long-awaited.
"So, we expected them to be expelled from the certification body. And we're frankly very surprised that instead of being expelled, the FSC and Korindo reached an agreement that Korindo would adhere to a number of conditions for improvement, and importantly remediation for harms that they've caused to communities and ecosystems."
Ms Lapidus said Mighty Earth are urging the FSC to consult directly with the affected communities in Indonesia's Papua and North Maluku to assess Korindo's impact and negotiate compensation.
She said Korindo was found to be guilty of three violations including significant conversion of forests, destruction of high conservation lands including critical wildlife habitats, and violation of traditional and human rights.
Mighty Earth said it hopes the decision means Korindo's days of abusing the rights of indigenous people and systematically destroying vast areas of pristine rainforest with impunity are finally over and it is calling for full public disclosure of the findings.
The NGO said the company must return customary lands, resolve social conflicts and grievances, fairly compensate local communities for lost land, natural resources, and livelihoods, and restore damaged ecosystems.
It said if Korindo delivers on its liabilities which will cost millions, then the FSC's findings will set a strong precedent for other logging companies.
Mighty Earth first exposed the large-scale deforestation in Indonesia's Papua and North Maluku in its Burning Paradise report.

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3) Church group calls on Jakarta to end Papua clashes
Benny Mawel, Jayapura  Indonesia  July 24, 2019
Thousands displaced due to conflict in restive Indonesian province are suffering and dying in camps, Franciscan group says
A church group in Papua has called on the Indonesian government to actively seek an end to clashes between the military and rebel groups in Papua that have displaced thousands and left at least a hundred people dead in the last eight months.

The violence flared after the rebels killed 20 workers constructing a road in Nduga district on Dec. 2, 2018.

The Solidarity Team for Nduga, which helps care for the refugees, said last week that about 5,000 people from about dozens of villages have yet to return to their homes.

It also said 139 refugees — mostly children under five years of age — have died due to disease and a lack of healthcare in refugee camps in Jayawijaya and Lanny districts, while sporadic clashes have left a number of troops and rebels dead.

Hipolitus Wangge, a Solidarity Team for Nduga volunteer, said at least 17 soldiers have been killed in clashes since December.

Yuliana Langowuyo, deputy director of Franciscan’s Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation said the regional and national governments must cooperate to end the conflict.

"The government needs to form an investigation team to find out the current situation in Nduga,” Langowuyo told ucanews.com.

“The government must take necessary steps to end the conflict between the military and Free Papua Movement, because in the end, it is the civilians that suffer most,” she said.

The Indonesian president must withdraw troops to bring peace back to Nduga so that civilians can return home, she said.

"However, whether they return or remain in camps, the government must preserve their rights to education and health care,” Langowuyo said.

Arim Tabuni, a Nduga refugee in Wamena, in Jayawijaya district said there are no health teams to handle sick refugees.

"What we have to do is contact nurses or doctors who work with us if someone gets sick,” he said.

Emus Gwiyangge, a local legislator bemoaned what he called half-hearted aid for the displaced people.

"Initially, the provincial government provided help in the form of food," said Gwiyangge.

"But later, assistance was discontinued. Discussions to try and build peace were also stopped," he said.

Another local lawmaker, Aman Jikwa, called on the government to immediately re-evaluate the presence of security forces in Nduga, because a strong military presence was deterring people from going home.

"When the soldiers come, people are scared,” he said.

Saur Tumiur Situmorang of the National Commission on Violence Against Women, echoed Jikwa’s comments.

"Sometimes they damage homes left by residents and open fire on livestock,” Papuan news portal Jubi.co.id quoted Situmorang as saying.

Military spokesman Muhamad Aidi, denied claims the military were a threat to people.

"Refugees yet to return to their homes are being threatened and intimidated by rebel groups, not the military," he said.

“Many refugees who have returned to their homes have received assistance from the military,” he said.
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Tuesday, July 23, 2019

'Cycle of revenge': Children join Papua rebels in Indonesia


'Cycle of revenge': Children join Papua rebels in Indonesia

Teenagers pictured among independence fighters in central highlands of restive territory in far east of Indonesia.

by

Wamena, West Papua, Indonesia - Evidence is emerging that children are joining the long-running conflict in the restive Indonesian province of West Papua, six months after the military stepped up its crackdown on separatist rebels after the murder of 17 road construction workers in December.
A bleached-out photo shared by rebels shows a group of pro-independence fighters in the central highlands of the province and, among them, three who are clearly children; their faces smeared with camouflage paint and high-powered rifles in their hands.
Sebby Sambom, a spokesman for the West Papua Liberation Army (WPLA), the largest rebel group, said that while he was concerned that children were joining the cause, they had been left with "no choice" but to take up arms.
He said those in the photo, which was sent to Al Jazeera in June, were 15 years old.
"Imagine the military attacked the village, killed parents and elders," Sambom said, explaining that the photo had been taken in the district of Nduga where thousands have been displaced by the recent fighting. 
"Some took [up] firearms to take revenge for their family's death. This is a political situation, and the world needs to acknowledge this."
Indigenous Papuan rebels have been fighting for independence for at least 50 years, but the evidence that teenagers are joining the fight has caused alarm among community leaders.
"This child's trauma can be a cycle of revenge," Father John Djonga, a prominent Catholic priest in the central highlands, told Al Jazeera. "It will be more terrible in the future," he said.


'Early warning'

In February, Child Soldiers International (CSI), a London-based rights group, said the number of child soldiers recruited around the world, in contravention of international conventions, had risen dramatically in recent years.
The group verified more than 29,000 cases of children recruited as fighters between 2012 and 2017 in 17 countries around the world, but that does not include West Papua because the area remains off-limits to foreign journalists and international organisations, including diplomats, who need special permission to visit the region. Tourists can visit provided they apply for travel permits.
Shelly Whitman, the executive director of the Romeo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative, which works to stop the use of child soldiers around the world, said under-18s were often drawn into conflict to avenge the deaths of friends and family, but also because of poverty, and a lack of empowerment.
Not all will be on the front lines. They may supply food or water for the fighters or act as lookouts, but the longer they spend with the group the more likely it is that they will pick up a weapon, she said.
"This is an early warning indicator of far more deliberate and calculated potential for human rights violations," Whitman told Al Jazeera. "It should be heeded. The world should be paying attention."
Nduga, whose people were largely cut off from the outside world until missionaries arrived in 1962, is well-known for its cultural diversity and is part of the World Heritage-listed Lorentz National Park, but the highland area has also been at the heart of the conflict, which started after Indonesia took control of West Papua in the wake of a controversial referendum.
The people in the central highlands have "a horrible collective memory of state violence and tend to be anti-government" compared with other regions in West Papua, researcher Adriana Elisabeth, who works with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, wrote in a 2008 report.

Father to son

Tribal rivalries have also played a role in the continuing unrest, according to Enos Rumansara, an anthropologist from Cenderawasih University in Jayapura, with two indigenous tribes - Kogoya and Wenda - dominating the district over successive generations.
Benny Wenda, who escaped prison in Indonesia in 2002 and now lives in exile in Britain, heads the Papua independence movement. His father - also a rebel leader - was killed by the military in 1997.
"The natural conditions shape their character, these rural friends, they know the culture of tribal warfare," Enos said, adding that the indigenous communities see Indonesia as an outsider. "Until today, tribal clashes still exist. The reason can be triggered by women or dispute over their land."
The current leader of the Free Papua Movement (part of the WPLA), 19-year-old Egianus Kogoya, is the youngest son of the group's former leader Silas Kogoya who was killed following the so-called Mapenduma Operation in 1996 when the military moved in to rescue a group of environmental researchers who had been kidnapped by the rebels.
Someone's got to break the cycle and find a different path
SHELLY WHITMAN, THE ROMEO DALLAIRE CHILD SOLDIERS INITIATIVE
At high school, Egianus refused to learn the Pancasila - the five principles that guide Indonesia - which he dismissed as a tool of an oppressive government. It was at that point that he decided to drop out of school, his elder sister Raga Kogoya told Al Jazeera.
"He felt no need to learn about the country that caused the death of his father," she said. "He felt offended." 
Indonesia ratified the United Nations Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict in 2012, but the military has yet to acknowledge the presence of child soldiers in West Papua.
"We don't know about the information claimed by the West Papua Liberation Army," Brigadier-General Sisriadi, the spokesman for the Indonesian military, told Al Jazeera. 
He added that as far as the armed forces knew, they were fighting only adults and declined to discuss the issue further.


'Break the cycle'

The Dallaire Initiative's Whitman said the armed forces needed to make an effort to understand what was driving the children into violence. Tribal and religious leaders also have a role to play in helping the children, and ending the violence.
"Someone's got to break the cycle and find a different path," she said.
Six months since they fled their homes, Nduga's displaced children have yet to receive any counselling. 
"Given the fact that these children have been suffering from trauma, [we] encourage these children to get psychological rehabilitation services," said Retno Listyarti, commissioner of the Indonesian Child Protection Commission. "If the local government is unable to fulfil it, then they can request to the central government," she told Al Jazeera. 
The Minister of Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Yohana Yembise did not respond to Al Jazeera's questions on the children's plight.
The night before Easter, a group of the displaced youngsters gathered at a church in Wamena in the central highland.
Two volunteers asked them to write their hopes for the future on a piece of paper and hang it on a "wishing tree". One child said they wanted to be a nurse. Another, to make their parents happy. 
But some had other ambitions.
"He wants to be a [pro-independence] fighter," one of the boys laughed as he pointed at his friend.
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Monday, July 22, 2019

1) Indonesia’s cover up over Papuan media freedom violations exposed


2) Freedom of the press in Indonesian-occupied West Papua
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1) Indonesia’s cover up over Papuan media freedom violations exposed

By  - 
  
ANALYSIS: By David Robie

A poster at a media freedom in West Papua summit in Jakarta during World Press Freedom Day conference in May 2017. Image: David Robie/PMC


Indonesia recently hosted a bold public relations window-dressing expo in Auckland presenting itself as a “Pacific” nation while attempting to provide an unconvincing impression of normality in the two Melanesian provinces known collectively as West Papua.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi hailed “a new era of Pacific partnership – a Pacific Elevation” while New Zealand’s counterpart Winston Peters responded to human rights questions with a remarkably naïve statement that Indonesia was “making progress” by welcoming a press pack to West Papua.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Papuan critics have dismissed this Pacific Expo as effectively “fake news” – a cover-up of more than a half-century of repression and distortion.
Frequent reports from human rights agencies have detailed a litany of abuse, violence and repression tantamount to “slow genocide”, as at least one author has described it.
The atrocious current conditions in West Papua were highlighted yet again last week with a report by the relief aid group Solidarity Team for Nduga claiming that at least 139 people have died in internal refugee camps in the Highlands of West Papua and more than 5000 people have been displaced since renewed fighting broke out between the Indonesian military and West Papua pro-independence rebels last December.


Among the latest human rights violation reports has been a document presented to Britain’s House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee last month.
Prepared by researcher Pelagio Da Costa Sarmento of the respected London-based Indonesian human rights agency Tapol and editor Victor Mambor of the Jayapura-based newspaper and website TabloidJubi, the submission was in response to an inquiry by the Commons Select Committee into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and Global Media Freedom in an effort to combat disinformation.
A covering declaration accompanying the submission made it clear it was exposing the current state of lack of media freedom in West Papua.
“Over the last 10 years, journalists and news organisations have faced serious threats to their personal security, as well as being targeted by digital disinformation campaigns that aimed to disrupt the work of legitimate news sources and reporting,” the declaration said.
“The death of two local journalists, assaults on multiple others and several cases of international journalists being deported from Indonesia for reporting on or in West Papua underscores the lack of media freedom of West Papua.”
Promises not kept
Indonesia ranks 124th out of 180 countries in the Reporters Without Borders Global Press Freedom Index, which states “President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo did not keep his campaign promises during his five-year term.
“His presidency was marked by serious media freedom violations, including drastic restrictions on media access to West Papua … where violence against local journalists keeps on growing.”

Victor Mambor and I shared the podium in an “alternative” media freedom forum in Jakarta at the time of the UN World Press Freedom Day conference in May 2017 and my Media Asia articleabout the crisis outlined efforts to “gag” discussion about media freedom in West Papua.
Mambor has been a strong advocate for the Alliance for Independent Journalists (AJI) over the West Papuan media freedom cause.
The submission by Tapol and Jubi declares:
  • There are patterns of threats that implicate the safety and security of local journalists in West Papua.
  • A clearing house, “an intricate red-tape”, was re-introduced in May 2019 to select foreign journalists coming to West Papua. (Once a permit is granted, security forces supervise the selected journalists during their work in West Papua).
  • Over the past 10 years, there have been two deaths, multiple assaults, arrests on local journalists and deportation of international journalists. (Most of the cases remain open with no clear investigation process).
  • Disinformation using bogus online media disrupts the work of legitimate news sources.
Human rights violations
“West Papuans have been experiencing serious human rights violations including torture, imprisonment and extrajudicial killings by the Indonesian security forces (police and military),” the submission says.
“The West Papuans have long expressed their desire for self-determination since Indonesia took over the territory in 1963. It was officially incorporated into the Indonesian state in 1969 after the ‘Act of Free Choice’.
“Simmering low level conflict between various pro-independence groups and the Indonesian army have been ongoing since then, with the continued existence of local armed groups in West Papua. Indonesia has maintained a significant military presence in the region.”
However, in recent years “civil resistance movements have gained traction organising protests against human rights violations in West Papua and demanding the right to self-determination”.
The submission says that as a result the Indonesian government has “tightened security control over West Papua by maintaining the presence of both military and police forces and deploying these state security forces to stop rallies or discussions on human rights and/or political issues, and clamp down on the freedoms of expression, association, and assembly”.
Human rights violations and extrajudicial killings by the military and police in West Papua “rarely make the headlines in the mainstream media,” says the submission.
There have been many cases since where access to foreign media has been limited or refused. There have also been several cases of foreigners visiting West Papua being deported from Indonesia “on suspicion of being journalists”.
Relaxed media rules
While four journalists from New Zealand (from RNZ Pacific and Māori Television) took advantage of a brief period of relaxed media rules in 2015 after President Widodo took office to visit West Papua, none have been there since.
In May 2019, the head of the immigration division in the regional office of the Ministry for Law and Human Rights in Papua Province reaffirmed a “clearing house” system for any foreign journalists wanting to visit West Papua.
If a permit is granted the foreign journalist would then be supervised by the security forces during their entire working trip in West Papua.
Here is a list of human rights violations against journalists documented by Tapol and Jubi researchers over the past decade:
Local journalists:
2010: Journalist Ardiansyah Matrais, a correspondent for Jubi and Merauke TV, was reported missing on July 28. Two days later, his tortured body was retrieved from the Gudang Arang Merauke river. The police autopsy report said he was still alive when he had been thrown into the river. His case remains unresolved.
2011: Journalist Banjir Ambarita, correspondent of the Jakarta Globe daily and Vivanews.com, was stabbed while driving a motorbike. It is suspected that the motive was related to an article he had written on the sexual abuse of a detainee by three police officers. No further investigation undertaken.
2012: Leiron Kogoya, a journalist for Pasific Post and Papua Pos Nabire, died when gunmen plane shot down his plane at an airport in Papua province. Though he was not specifically the target, his death served as a reminder of the dangers that journalists face in West Papua.
2015: Abeth You, a journalist writing for Jubi was attacked by police in October when covering a demonstration on human rights violations in West Papua.
2017: Journalist Ardi Bayage, a reporter for Suarapapua.com, was arrested when covering a protest during World Press Freedom Day in 2016. Bayage showed his press card to the police, however the police ignored and accused him of lying. He was held for several hours in the police headquarters in Jayapura.
2018: Journalist Abeth You of Jubi in May captured the police beating his colleague Mando Mote on his mobile phone. He was choked by a member of the police; his mobile phone was taken away and his press card was destroyed.
Foreign journalists:
2006: Five Australian journalists from Channel Seven were detained and put under surveillance in Jayapura, Papua province, and then deported. Naomi Robson, Rohan Travis, Peter Andrew, Paul Richard and David John were detained on charges of entering the province with tourist visas. They were forced on a flight back to Jakarta on September 14 from where they were expelled from the country.
2014: Two French journalists, Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat, were detained in August in Papua province. They were doing a report on West Papua for the Franco-German TV channel Arte. They were charged with violation of immigration regulations and promoting instability. Their local guide and interpreter were also arrested and interrogated by the police for 36 hours.
2016: A visa was denied for French journalist Cyril Payen to report in Papua. On January 8, the Indonesian Embassy in Bangkok informed Payen that his application for a visa to visit Indonesia and carry out reporting in Papua province had been denied. The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials later informed the French Embassy in Jakarta that the denial was because his previous reporting on the pro-independence movement was “biased and unbalanced”.
2017: French journalist Basil Longchamp and his camera crew were deported from Indonesia after being granted permission to work on a documentary in Indonesia covering West Papua. On their arrival in Indonesia, they were expelled and banned from returning to Indonesia.
2018: Rebecca Henschke, an Australian journalist working for the BBC and her crew received an official permit to cover a military aid operation in West Papua. However, when the authorities found out about her Twitter post showing troops providing only non-nutritious foodstuffs, the journalist and her crew were expelled on the grounds that her post “hurt the feelings” of the soldiers.
2018: Australian doctoral candidate Belinda Lopez doing Indonesian studies at Macquarie University, Sydney, was detained in Denpasar, Bali, after arriving from Australia for her honeymoon in Indonesia.
“She was also planning to visit West Papua to attend a festival. Immigration officials told her that her name was blacklisted without offering any justification She had formerly worked as a reporter in Jakarta and had already been deported from West Papua once in 2016 on suspicion of being a journalist.”
The researchers said the evidence demonstrated “acute risks and barriers for journalists working in West Papua”.
‘Bogus online media’
The submission also declared that West Papua suffered from the existence of “bogus online media”.
According to a 2018 investigation by Jubi and a Jakarta-based website, Tirto, there were about 18 online media platforms that were “dubious and bogus”.
“Their style of reporting includes producing hoaxes and propaganda regarding West Papua, quoting fictitious sources and conveying strong bias in favour of the police and the military in West Papua,” stated the submission.
“Their work severely disrupts the work of genuine media organisations which also have an online presence. They make a major contribution to the spread of disinformation to the public regarding the issues in West Papua.
“They also affect the work of civil society organisations that have limited access to the region, and that rely on the online news reporting that comes out of West Papua.”
In their report, Tapol and Jubi cite an example of how a bogus online media had “disrupted critical humanitarian work”.
Describing the difficulties in verifying information and human rights violations allegedly taking place in Nduga regency, in the Central Highland of West Papua, the submission explains how Indonesian police and military have been conducting a joint operation against the West Papua Liberation Army since last December.
Nduga lockdown
“Independent sources have been very difficult to reach, and the military has been the sole source of information. Any accounts differing from the military are declared as a hoax, whereas not a single press worker can access Nduga due to the lockdown,” states the submission.
“A local Papuan senator was reported to police when he stated that there were civilian deaths resulting from the operation. This makes balanced and accurate reporting from the ground nigh on impossible.
“It is also undermining the image of a free and fair media in Indonesia – one of the largest democratic nations in the world. There is very limited accountability on the part of the authorities towards the ongoing human rights crisis in West Papua.”
In the past two UN Universal Periodic Reviews of Indonesian human rights, New Zealand and France have called for Indonesia to respect press freedom and open access to national and international journalists to West Papua.
Call for protection
Among recommendations by Tapol and Jubi are:
  • The United Kingdom – as host of the recent Global Media Freedom conference – should ensure freedom of the press is upheld universally, including in West Papua.
  • Indonesia ought to “maintain its credibility” by providing access to national and international media so that they can provide unrestricted coverage in West Papua.
  • Indonesia should be pressed to protect journalists working in West Papua and ensure that they are free from any harassment by security forces.
  • Indonesia must bring to justice those responsible for attacks and killings of journalists in West Papua.
  • Development aid funding should be increased to strengthen capacities of local organisations, media outlets, and journalists in West Papua, and to enable greater transparency and credible documentation of the ongoing human rights crisis in West Papua.
  • More West Papua reports
  • Māori Television’s Native Affairs in West Papua
  • Tapol
  • Tabloid Jubi


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2) Freedom of the press in Indonesian-occupied West Papua

Letters 
Tue 23 Jul 2019 02.46 AEST

Eight members of the House of Lords call on the foreign secretary to take a strong stand against the banning of nearly all foreign media, NGOs and humanitarian agencies from entering West Papua

We, members of the House of Lords, would like to draw Jeremy Hunt’s attention to the severe restrictions on press freedom in Indonesian-occupied West Papua. Since the Indonesian takeover in 1963, nearly all foreign media, NGOs and humanitarian agencies have been banned from entering West Papua. At a time of allegations of widespread, systemic human rights abuses against the indigenous population, the Indonesian government has sought to control the flow of information from West Papua to the outside world.
UN officials have found themselves barred from accessing West Papua. Former UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, issued a statement of concern over Indonesia’s persistent foot-dragging in response to his desire to visit the territory. The current high commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, has similarly found her outstanding request for access unfulfilled. West Papuan journalists working locally face even more severe threats. This decade, several have been killed, arrested, beaten or tortured, allegedly for their reporting on Indonesian security service activities.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is making press freedom a pillar of its agenda in 2019. We hope the UK will take a strong stand on press freedom in West Papua and ensure that it is not bolstering this repressive activity through diplomatic support and military and police ties.
Richard Harries, Ray Collins Shadow minister for foreign affairs and international development, Alistair Cooke Deputy speaker, Navnit DholakiaDeputy leader, Liberal Democrats, David Hannay, Leslie Griffiths, Alan Beith,David Alton International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP), All-party parliamentary group (APPG) on West Papua

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1) Govt distributes aid to conflict-hit residents of Papua


2) Papuan rebels kill Indonesian soldier

3) Soldier Killed in Separatist Attack on Papua Bridge Construction Site

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1) Govt distributes aid to conflict-hit residents of Papua

Ivany Atina Arbi The Jakarta Post

Jakarta   /   Mon, July 22, 2019   /  11:00 am

The government has begun providing evacuees in Papua with basic needs and medical assistance after receiving a report that some 139 civilians had reportedly died in shelters because of starvation and poor living conditions. The local security authorities dismissed the report about the deaths, saying that it was "not true". 
According to a civil society coalition, the deceased individuals were among thousands of people who escaped Nduga regency in Papua amid the ongoing conflict between the military and an armed group linked to the Free Papua Movement (OPM) in the region.
In response to the report, the Social Affairs Ministry channeled aid worth Rp 750 million (US$53,160) to the evacuees in the form of staple food, cooking utensils, school supplies and toys for toddlers, among other things.
The ministry stated that it was ready to provide additional aid to the conflict-hit residents if necessary. 
“I am responsible for that matter,” Social Affairs Minister Agung Gumiwang said over the weekend.
Agung had specifically ordered the ministry’s director general for social security and protection, Harry Hikmat, to visit the shelters to make sure that the assistance was properly channeled to the evacuees.
The institution had also assigned a psycho-social support team to help residents cope with trauma from the conflict related to the PT Istaka Karya incident.
In December last year, a number of fighters linked to the OPM allegedly murdered dozens of workers from the state-owned construction firm Istaka Karya. The incident eventually led to a military crackdown to hunt the suspected perpetrators.
The Nduga Solidarity Civil Society Coalition argued previously that the conflict had put the lives of Nduga residents at risk, as the military personnel kept searching residential areas using excessive power.
The security force even purportedly burned down houses and took over local churches during the military operation -- forcing locals to find safer places to live.
As a result, 11 districts in the regency had been completely vacated following the conflict, the coalition reported, adding that some 5,201 evacuees were currently lived in shelters in the neighboring city of Wamena, Jayawijaya regency.
The coalition revealed that at least 139 people had died in the shelters because of poor living condition. 
“Many of them died because of starvation. Others died within three or four days of suffering diarrhea, headaches or upper respiratory tract infections,” said Wamena-based volunteer Doly Ubruwangge.
The Social Affairs Ministry admitted the shelters were in poor condition, but it has yet to confirm the reports about the deaths of some evacuees. 
“We haven’t received any report about the deaths either from the Wamena administration or the Papua Social Agency, so we need to clarify this to the media,” said the ministry’s director general for social security and protection, Harry Hikmat.
He also forwarded a report from the Papua military command, citing that the report about the deaths was “not true”. The army even claimed that some people who previously resided in the Jayawijaya shelters had already returned to their homes.
“[The coalition] might have made up the story to gain the government’s attention [and to persuade the government] to withdraw the military personnel from Nduga,” said National Disaster Mitigation Agency head Lt. Gen. Doni Monardo, as quoted by Harry.
The Indonesian Military had committed to conduct operations in the region until they succeeded in capturing the OPM fighters who committed the “serious violation against the human rights”.
 
--Ardila Syakriah contributed to the story
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2) Papuan rebels kill Indonesian soldier
1:03 pm today 

Rebel fighters in West Papua have killed an Indonesian soldier in a renewed threat to Jakarta's road project there.
State news agency Antara reported the hit-and-run attack on Saturday took place in Nduga regency, where rebels are waging war on the state.
An Indonesian researcher, Hipo Wangge, said it was the ninth killing of a security officer by the West Papua Liberation Army since April.
The soldier was reportedly securing the Trans-Papua road project, a major effort by the Indonesian government to develop remote areas of Papua.
In December, part of the project near Nduga was put on hold when Liberation Army fighters massacred 16 construction workers.
The attack - the bloodiest in years to take place in Papua - prompted a massive deployment of Indonesian military and police to Nduga in a hunt for the rebels, sparking sporadic gunfights which have taken dozens of lives in the months since.
Rights groups say thousands of people have been displaced from Nduga. According to one group, at least 139 displaced people have died of malnutrition and disease in a temporary camp in nearby Wamena city.
Indonesian military spokesperson Muhammad Aidi told Antara in the attack on Saturday, the soldier suffered a gunshot wound to his waist and later died, with a helicopter rescue effort hampered by bad weather.

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3) Soldier Killed in Separatist Attack on Papua Bridge Construction Site

BY : ROBERT ISIDORUS
JULY 21, 2019 
Jakarta. An Indonesian soldier was killed in a separatist attack on the Yuguru River Bridge construction project in Nduga district, Papua, on Saturday.
The Indonesian Military (TNI) believes the gunmen acted under orders of Egianus Kogoya, leader of the military wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM).
"The incident occurred at 12.45 p.m. Eastern Indonesia Time while a member of the military was on lunch and prayer break; he was suddenly attacked by gunmen from bushes about 300 meters away," said Col. Muhammad Aidi, spokesman for the Cendrawasih Military Command.
Aidi said there may have been four or five attackers. The military is tasked with protecting construction sites on the Trans-Papua Highway, following previous attacks on construction workers.
"The other soldiers returned fire and chased after the attackers but ended the pursuit over security concerns and the inaccessibility of the terrain, which is covered in dense jungle, interspersed with many steep ravines," he said.
The soldier, identified as Pvt. Usman Hambelo, was wounded in the waist. He died about an hour later, before he could be evacuated by helicopter, which had been delayed by poor weather.
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