A Papuan self-determination protest ... The Australia West Papua Association has protested to Foreign Minister Marise Payne condemning Indonesian police threats against Papuan protesters. Image: Antara
The West Papua regional police (Polda) have arrested 36 people in Manokwari and Sorong city following a demonstration commemorating the anniversary of the West Papua New Guinea National Congress (WPNGNC) at the weekend, reports CNN Indonesia.
West Papua regional police spokesperson Assistant Superintendent Adam Erwindi said that the people arrested on Friday were currently being questioned by police.
“The Manokwari Polres [district police] backed up by West Papua Polda Brimob [Mobile Brigade paramilitary police] have secured them and are taking information,” said Erwindi .
Erwindi said that the protesters did not provide prior notification of the rally with police. The police claimed they had the authority to break up the protest as a result.
In addition to this, Erwindi said, the protest action was disrupting public order and blocking roads so that road users were unable to pass.
“The substance of the demo violated Article 6 of Law Number 9/1998 [on demonstrations]”, he said.
This article stipulated that in conveying an opinion people must respect the rights and freedoms of others, respect morality and safeguard security and public order.
Protesters told to consider security
Erwindi asked that those who wanted to hold protest actions pay attention to the security situation and public order. He also warned that all protest actions must be in accordance with regulations.
“If they’re not in accordance with the above then police in accordance with mandated laws are obliged to break them up,” he said.
At least two Brimob members were injured after being hit by stones when the rally was being broken up.
According to the Antara state news agency, the demonstrators refused to disperse and pelted police with stones and bottles until they were pushed back by teargas.
The demonstrators who were forced back became even more brutal and continued pelting police with rocks and bottles. They also ignited firecrackers and threw them at police.
The demonstrators shouted “Free Papua” as they threw stones in the direction of police.
Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft. The original title of the article was “36 Orang Ditangkap Usai Demo Papua Merdeka”.
Australia West Papua Association protest
The Australia West Papua Association has protested to Foreign Minister Marise Payne, saying Indonesian police threats against Papuan protesters ahead of the December 1 flag-raising protests are of “grave concern”.
Association spokesman Joe Collins wrote a protest letter to Payne, saying:
“Dear Foreign Minister,
“I am writing to you concerning the issue of West Papua and in particular regarding comments made by the Indonesian national police spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Awi Setiyono on the 23 November 2020, which is of grave concern.
“Tempo News (24 November) reported the police spokesperson as saying that the “The Indonesian national police (Polri) together with the National Armed Forces (TNI) will conduct massive joint patrols ahead of the commemoration day of the 1 December. He also made an announcement that locals should not participate in the annual anniversary.
“I am sure you are aware that the 1st of December is West Papuan National day or National Flag day and it is of great importance to the West Papuan people. Fifty-nine years ago on the 1st of December in 1961, the Morning Star flag was flown for the first time officially beside the Dutch Tricolor. The Dutch were finally about to give the West Papuan people their freedom. However, it is one of the great tragedies that at their moment of freedom it was cruelly crushed and West Papua was basically handed over to Indonesia in 1963. After 6 years administration of the province, Indonesia held a sham referendum called the “Act of Free Choice” under UN supervision. The Papuans call this the’ act of no choice’.
“The West Papuan people continue to raise their flag as an act of celebration but also of protest against the injustices they suffer under Indonesian rule. They can face up to 15 years jail for doing so. Just two weeks ago 23 Papuans were given jail terms of between 1 and 2 years. They were arrested in December 2019 while on their way to take part in a flag raising ceremony on the 1 December (2019) in Fak Fak.
“The human rights situation in West Papua is deteriorating with the security forces conducting operations to intimidate local people. There is also an increase in violence towards villagers who the security forces suspect of supporting independence or to those they believe have what the security forces term “separatist” sympathies. There have been a number of killings and arrests by the security forces in the past few weeks in West Papua. Indonesian police arrested 54 participants at a public hearing organised by the Papuan People’s Council (MPR) in Merauke on the 17 November. They were arrested for alleged makar (treason). Yet all they participants were doing were holding a meeting to discuss Indonesia’s intention to extend the Special Autonomy laws. Although they were eventually released the arrests show there is no freedom of expression or freedom of assembly in West Papua.
“There have been reports that on 20-21 November 2020, 4 West Papuan school students aged between 13 and 19 and 1 West Papuan man aged 34 were shot by the Indonesian Security Forces. Eighteen year-old Manus Murib, who survived the shootings remains in a critical condition in hospital. When he was first shot Manus passed out and when he came to reported that he found that men wearing black uniforms, vests and helmets were placing guns across his chest and taking photographs. The troops were possible Detachment 88 troops which are trained by Australia.
“There have been ongoing security force operations in West Papua in the regencies of Nduga, Intan Jaya, Mimika and Puncak Jaya since the end of 2018 resulting in the loss of civilian life not only by armed conflict but also by sickness and malnutrition as these operations have created a large number of internal refugees who are reluctant to return to their villages because of their fear of the security forces.
“As recently as the 27 November 36 people were arrested by the police after being involved in rallies in Manokwari and Sorong. They were simply commemorating the anniversary of the West Papua New Guinea National Congress (WPNGNC).
“Twenty civil society organisations that are members of the Papua Civil Organisation, Solidarity (SOS), have called on the Indonesian president to “withdraw all organic TNI-Polri troops from the areas in Nduga Regency, Intan Jaya Regency, Mimika Regency and Puncak Jaya Regency which have given birth to serious human rights violations in the form of refugees and violations of the right to life”.
“I urge you to support the call by the West Papuan civil society groups and raise the matter of the human rights situation in West Papua with the Indonesian President.
“I also urge you to use your good offices with the Indonesian Government asking that it control its military in West Papua and asking it to inform the security forces that it should allow any rallies called to celebrate West Papuan National flag day to go ahead peacefully, without interference from the security forces.”
Yours sincerely Joe Collins AWPA (Sydney)
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2) China solves Freeport’s $3 billion problem in Indonesia
Asia Times exclusive reveals that China's Tsingshan Steel has agreed to build a government-mandated copper smelter
By JOHN MCBETHNOVEMBER 29, 2020
JAKARTA – The long drawn-out saga of mining giant Freeport Indonesia’s (PTFI) proposed new copper smelter has taken a new turn with China’s Tsingshan Steel agreeing to build the US$1.8 billion facility at its Weda Bay nickel processing complex in Halmahera, eastern Indonesia.
Maritime Affairs and Investment Coordinating Minister Luhut Panjaitan disclosed in an interview with Asia Times that the deal is expected to be signed before next March. “We are happy with the agreement,” he said, “but the two sides are still in detailed discussions.”
Up to now, the choices have been to either expand Mitsubishi’s existing copper smelter at Gresik, East Java, build a new and much more costly smelter at a nearby industrial estate or shift the whole project to Halmahera as part of an integrated smelting hub.
Panjaitan and other sources familiar with the deal say Tsingshan has agreed to complete the smelter within 18 months, leaving Freeport to build a $250 million extension to the Mitsubishi plant in what could be seen as a token gesture of its commitment to the in-country processing of all of its ore.
Mitsubishi and Freeport signed an agreement on November 13 to add 300,000 tons to the current facility’s one million ton capacity, but the sources say Freeport is still ready, however reluctantly, to build a new smelter if the Tsingshan deal falls through.
The company is also committed to the construction of a precious metal refinery on the same site now that its export license has expired for so-called anode slime, the sediment rich in gold, silver, selenium and tellurium left over from the smelting process.
Confusion had reigned over the smelter issue for the past two years, with senior bureaucrats and politicians seemingly at variance on where it should be located. Once the Tsingshan deal is concluded, it will still need government approval.
As late as last week, Mines and Energy Minister Arifin Tasrif was continuing to dance around the subject. “The important thing for the government is that copper concentrate processing takes place in the country,” he said, without offering any further explanation.
Panjaitan has been the main proponent of the move to nickel-rich Halmahera, taking Freeport and the Indonesian mining community completely unawares last June by revealing that President Joko Widodo had already agreed to the plan.
He is also the prime mover behind a planned electric vehicle industry, with South Korea carmaker Hyundai as an initial $1.5 billion investor and LG Chemical interested in building a lithium battery plant on the same site near Jakarta.
With Tsingshan also planning to complete a lithium battery factory at Weda Bay by 2023, the new copper smelter will provide it with the sulphuric acid needed to produce low-grade ferronickel for the stainless steel market and also to recover cobalt from spent lithium batteries.
Indonesia has 80% of the elements needed for lithium battery production, including cobalt, manganese, aluminum and even rare earth elements. But on the horizon as well is a recycling plant at Halmahera that may eventually remove the need for new minerals in the production process.
Freeport’s copper will be a source of wiring and other parts for the home-grown electric car industry Panjaitan envisages. According to one expert estimate, battery electric vehicles use as much as 83 kilograms of copper, compared with 23 kilograms for an internal combustion engine.
Investment service Seeking Alpha said recently that the Indonesian subsidiary’s parent company, Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold (FCX), has “a unique opportunity in a high copper priced world” to take advantage of the growing demand for electric vehicles.
If it goes ahead, as now seems likely, a deal with Tsingshan would save the Indonesian government and FCX about $3 billion, the estimated cost of building their own smelter at the Gresik Industrial Estate, north of the port city of Surabaya.
As the new majority owner of PTFI, the government is already having to pay for half of the cost of a major underground expansion at the Grasberg mine in Papua’s Central Highlands, the world’s largest gold reserve and second-biggest copper mine.
Regarded as one of the world’s most profitable mining operations, thanks to its rich gold deposits, the proven reserves at the high-altitude Grasberg contribute to about a third of FCX’s total portfolio, which also includes copper mines in the United States and Chile.
Unlike nickel, copper refining is a notoriously marginal business when the final process of turning concentrate into copper cathode adds only 5% to the overall value. By some estimates, any new Gresik smelter would have lost $10 billion over the next 20 years.
Asia Times understands that Freeport has undertaken to pay treatment and refinement charges (TCs/RCs) to Tsingshan that are higher than the market price by an amount equal to the 5% export tax the company currently forks out for the half of its concentrate it currently exports to mainly Japan and Spain.
While that would serve as a subsidy to Tsingshan’s operating costs and the overall synergy appears compelling, financial experts still question the economic viability of building a copper smelter in a place as remote as Halmahera, a proposition Freeport would never have considered.
They say that dangling the export tax as a “subsidy” may be a clever idea, but even that may not produce a positive cash flow in the current environment. As one source put it: “Realistically, the only way to improve the economics is to cut the capital cost, which means no environmental controls.”
Transporting Freeport’s concentrate is not considered a major factor, but the distance between Freeport’s port at Timika on Papua’s south coast to the Halmahera site is only 2,660 kilometers, compared to the 4,000-kilometer passage to Gresik.
Tsingshan and French mining company Eramet began nickel smelting operations at the $2.2 billion Weda Bay Processing Park in April last year, adding to a pioneering multi-billion-dollar complex the Chinese group operates at Morawali on the east coast of Central Sulawesi.
Although the Gresik smelter has not attracted any ancillary industry over the past 20 years it has been in operation, Panjaitan is still confident of drawing overseas investors to Halmahera, particularly Chinese manufacturing companies anxious to move offshore.
China already has an iron grip on Indonesia’s nickel industry, inciting some controversy by bringing in thousands of its workers to construct the two processing centers in Central Sulawesi and now Halmahera.
At Sulawesi’s $7.8 billion Morowali complex, Tsingshan and Indonesian partner PT Bintang Delepan operate a three million ton a year nickel pig iron smelter, a 500,000-ton carbon steel facility and a 600,000-ton high-carbon ferrochrome plant.
Further down the coast, in Southeast Sulawesi, China’s Virtue Dragon Nickel Industry last year completed the $1.4 billion first stage of its three-phase Konawe complex, which will eventually boast a production capacity of three million tons of ferronickel a year.
President Widodo’s closest adviser on a range of subjects, Panjaitan has always treated the Freeport smelter as the ultimate test of the government’s resolve to add value to its minerals and vault the country in global supply chains.
Phoenix-based FCX has been reluctant to build a new smelter because of the high capital cost involved and the reality, which the government has always stoically ignored, that smelting has never been a profitable business at the best of times.
But circumstances may have changed with the government’s 2018 acquisition of a 51% stake in PTFI, in exchange for the extension to FCX’s contract, and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic that has put an additional strain on state finances.
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