1) Papua shooters
identified: OPM
2) Another
civilian killed by ‘armed group’ in Papua
3) Indonesia's Grasp on Papua Questioned
Amid Unrest
4) State Terrorism
5) Village Chief Killed in Papua Shooting
6) 1 July opened the Eyes of the World, says Thaha Alhamid
7) Joint prayers in Papua by
Street Parliament is banned by the police
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1)
Papua shooters identified: OPM
Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Archipelago | Mon,
07/02/2012 3:40 PM
Lt. Gen. Marciano Norman: (Tribunnews/Herudin)
National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Lt. Gen. Marciano
Norman said authorities had identified the perpetrators of a fatal shooting in
a village in Papua on Sunday which killed a civilian.
“When pursued, they fled to the area near the border [with Papua
New Guinea]. We have identified some armed groups in the location and we
suspect the shooters are among them,” Marciano said in Jakarta on Monday.
“Our investigation has been narrowed down so our operation has
had clear targets,” he added.
Yohanes Yanufrom, 30, became the latest victim of fatal violence
that has escalated in Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua over the past
few weeks.
Yohanes, the head of Sawio Tami village, Arso Timur district,
Keerom regency, was reportedly shot dead by an unidentified group of armed
assailants while riding his motorcycle on Sunday.
Military officials said they had suspected the perpetrators were
members of the Free Papua Organization led by Lambert Pekikir.
Several minutes before the village official was shot, Col.
Indarto, a member of the Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad), was
attacked in his car by gunfire while on his way after inspecting troops in
Sawio Tami. He is the 431/Kostrad battalion commander.
The bullets hit the car’s roof and side windows. The battalion
commander escaped unharmed but his driver was injured by the
broken windows.
---------------------------------
2) Another
civilian killed by ‘armed group’ in Papua
Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura | Headlines |
Mon, 07/02/2012 6:19 AM
Yohanes Yanufrom, 30, became the latest victim of fatal violence
that has escalated in Papua over the past few weeks.
Yohanes, the head of
Sawio Tami village, Arso Timur district, Keerom regency, was reportedly shot
dead by an unidentified group of armed assailants while riding his motorcycle
from Sawio Tami to Workwana on Sunday at around 8 a.m. local time.
“After
being gunned down, his body and the bike were dragged to the roadside,”
Cendrawasih Military chief Maj. Gen. Erwin Syafitri told reporters at the
military headquarters in Jayapura on Sunday.
Coordinating Politics, Security
and Justice Minister Djoko Suyanto condemned Sunday’s incident, urging security
authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.
“The police and military
must chase and arrest the perpetrators so that people know who was behind the
violence,” he said in Jakarta as quoted by Antara.
Erwin suspected the perpetrators were members of the Free Papua
Organization led by Lambert Pekikir.
Several minutes before the village
official was shot, Col. Indarto, a member of the Army Strategic Reserves
Command (Kostrad), had his car strafed by gunshots on his way from inspecting
troops in Sawio Tami. He is the 431/Kostrad battalion commander.
The
bullets hit the car’s roof and the side windows.
“The battalion
commander escaped unharmed, but his driver was injured by the broken windows,”
Erwin said.
He was 200-300 meters ahead of Yohanes at time of the
incident.
“The victim [Yohanes] was found as our personnel were chasing the perpetrators.
I am sorry that a civilian was shot,” he said, adding that the assaulting group
comprised 20-30 people equipped with various weapons, including some that were
handmade.
“They fled to the PNG border, which made it difficult to continue
the chase,” he said.
Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Bigman L. Tobing was reported to
have received a letter from Lambert Pekikir, whose Free Papua Organization is
believed to have bunkered down near the border zone.
The letter,
according to Erwin, said that July 1 would be commemorated as the
organization’s anniversary with the raising of the Bintang Kejora (Morning
Star) flag. In the letter they threatened to enter Jayapura to create
commotion.
“We managed to deter them from infiltrating Jayapura, but on their
return to their base at the border area, they launched an attack and left a
civilian dead,” he said.
The Bintang Kejora, which symbolizes the secessionist group’s
fight for free Papua, was reportedly spotted in several places.
“We found one
each at South Jayapura, Buper Waena, Kimbim and Mount Susu in Wamena. Citizens
are generally not provoked into raising the flag,” Erwin said.
Five people,
civilians and security personnel, were killed and another five were injured as
mysterious shooting incidents have battered Papua over the last few weeks.
Among the injured victims was German Pieter Dietmar Helmut, 55, who was
attacked on May 29 at a tourist site in Jayapura.
Gilbert Ma’dika, a school
student, was shot in the chest in June 4. The following day, Iqbal Rival was
attacked while riding a motorcycle with a friend.
In a matter of minutes,
First Pvt. Dongki Kune was fatally shot at Entrop Jayapura.
Motorcycle-ojek
riders Arwan Aswan, Tri Sarono, First Pvt. Sahlan, civilian Elianus Yoman and
Mako Tabuni were among those either killed or injured in the violent
incidents.
Sunday’s incident came two days after President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono reiterated the government’s stance that would allow no room for
dialogue by anyone seeking to push for a referendum.
In his visit to the Indonesian Military Command Institute in
Bandung, the President said he would welcome any initiative for dialogue on
development and people’s welfare rather than a referendum.
Some Papuan leaders
applauded the President’s statement, calling for immediate action by the
central government.
However, Indonesian human rights activists
associated with Impartial warned that the government should also remain open to
opportunities for dialogue sought by secessionist groups.
--------------------------------------------------
3) Indonesia's Grasp on Papua Questioned Amid
Unrest
Angela Dewan | July 01, 2012
A
spate of shootings in Papua over the past month is fueling charges that
trigger-happy Indonesian soldiers are only exacerbating unrest and
pro-independence sentiment in the resource-rich region.
Indonesia has
maintained a strong military presence since it annexed the former Dutch colony
in 1969, despite granting it more autonomy in 2001. Some estimates suggest that
more than 14,000 troops patrol the restive province.
“Special autonomy isn’t
working because Jakarta has failed to win the hearts of Papuans,” said Socratez
Sofyan Yoman, a Baptist minister and pro-independence activist.
“Their
military and police treat us like animals. So we’re seeking better dialogue and
an end to the intimidation,” he said.
Part
of the movement to escape Indonesia’s grasp is to claim more benefits from a
wealth of natural resources in Papua, which has attracted foreign giants such
as BP and US miner Freeport McMoRan.
Violence occurs regularly at Freeport’s
massive gold and copper mine, a symbol of the Papuan struggle, with many
claiming a spiritual attachment to nature and resenting outsiders who they say
strip the land bare of resources.
Since a German tourist was shot and wounded
on a Papuan beach on May 29 by suspected separatists, seven civilians and a
soldier have died in shootings and other violence, according to the human
rights group Kontras.
Police have tended to blame the pro-independence Free
Papua Movement (OPM), which celebrated its 47th anniversary on Sunday. It urged
Papuans to raise its banned Morning Star flag for the occasion.
But police now
suspect that the National Committee for West Papua (KNPB), a separatist youth
group, is behind some of the violence.
KNPB representatives, however, say the
group is unarmed and accuse police of trying to orchestrate violence to blacken
the independence movement and of covering up investigations into fatal
shootings committed by its officers.
They
point to the shooting and killing of KNPB vice chairman Mako Tabuni last month,
an incident that led infuriated pro-independence activists to demand a full
explanation from the national parliament.
“We came to Jakarta to ask the
president for a new approach,” Septer Manufandu of the Papuan NGOs Cooperation
Forum said.
“They say they want dialogue with us, but they continue their
intimidation through their soldiers and police,” he said.
Police claimed
Tabuni was armed and resisted arrest before they shot him, but activist groups
quoted witnesses as saying he was shot by men in plainclothes from a passing
car.
Activists also claimed that soldiers acted with impunity on June 6 when
they opened fire on the town of Wamena, shooting 17 people, killing one and
torching 87 homes in response to the murder of a soldier by someone in the
community.
Police said the soldier had been stabbed after he knocked down a
child while riding a motorcycle.
But
information is hard to verify because foreign journalists are de facto barred
from the region.
The Reverend Benny Giay, a prominent activist, said Jakarta
needed to ask why there was such strong pro-independence sentiment in Papua,
Indonesia’s easternmost province, which occupies half of the island of New
Guinea.
“It’s because we are treated like animals, like nothing, on our own
land. Our sentiments didn’t just fall from the sky,” he said.
However, Jakarta
refuses to revisit the 1969 UN-backed “Act of Free Choice” referendum that
validated its claim to Papua. The referendum was widely seen a sham, with
Jakarta hand-picking 1,026 people to vote on behalf of all Papuans.
President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Friday that there would be “no discussion or
dialogue about the separation of Papua” and that Indonesia’s sovereignty over
Papua was “legal and final.”
The government has tried to engage local leaders
in dialogue to implement policies that suit both sides, but Papuans are growing
weary of the process, analyst Muridan Widjojo from the Indonesian Institute of
Sciences told AFP.
“It’s a little contradictory — Jakarta wants to take a
dialogue approach at the same time it takes a militaristic approach, so it has
lost the trust of the people,” he said.
Agence France-Presse
-----------------------------------
Opinion piece
4 ) State Terrorism
Terrorism
is the act of installing fear and terror, politically it is used to terrify a
population into submission to the terrorist's dictates. No Empire wants to lose
a colony, Britain wanted to keep America, Belgium wanted to keep the Congo,
..........
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5) Village Chief Killed in Papua
Shooting
Jayapura. A village chief was
shot dead in Indonesia’s restive Papua province on Sunday, Indonesian military
said, blaming separatists who are celebrating the founding of an independence
movement.
Up to 30 gunmen had fired shots at village chief Johanes Yanafrom,
who was riding a motorcycle in Keerom district outside the provincial capital
Jayapura, Erwin Syafitri, commander of the Cendrawasih Military Command that
oversees military operations in Papua, told reporters.
“He died on the spot
after he was hit in the head and chest,” he said.
Indonesian
military (TNI) were quick to blame rebels from the pro-independence Free Papua
Movement (OPM), which celebrated its 47th anniversary on Sunday, for the latest
attack.
“The group comprised of 20 to 30 people and they were all armed with
rifles. They are from the OPM led by Lambert Pekikir. We believe they have
escaped to the mountains and we are chasing after them,” he added.
Pekikir is
the OPM commander in Keerom district.
Syafitri said the group also fired shots
at a military patrol car, hitting the roof and side window and injuring a
soldier.
The OPM separatists had also raised four banned Morning Star flags in
Jayapura and Wamena districts, he said. The OPM had called on their supporters
to raise the Papuan flag as part of the anniversary celebrations.
Displaying
separatist symbols such as the Morning Star is considered an act of treason in
Indonesia under the criminal code and several perpetrators are serving 20-year
jail terms for the offense.
Coordinating
Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto
condemned Sunday’s attacks and urged the security forces to arrest the
perpetrators.
Gun attacks are not uncommon in the Papua region in the
resource-rich region, where poorly-armed separatist groups have for decades
fought a low-level insurgency for the mostly ethnic Melanesian population.
Since
a German tourist was shot and wounded on a Papuan beach on May 29 by suspected
separatists, seven civilians and a soldier have died in shootings and other
violence, according to the human rights group Kontras.
Agence France-Presse
-----------------------------
6) 1July opened the Eyes of the
World, says Thaha Alhamid
Bintang Papua, 28 June 2012
Jayapura: In response to the decision of
the OPM co-ordinator to raise the Morning Star Flag for three days from 1
July, to celebrate the anniversary of the establishment of the TPN/OPM, the
Papuan Presidium Council (PDP) has called on all sides not to do
anything to blemish that historic day such as perpetrating acts of terror
which can only spread fear among the Papuan people.
'Regardless of whether you are for or
against,' said Thaha Alhamid, general secretary of the PDP, '1 July is indeed
an important milestone for it was on that day that the Papuan
people declared the independence of Papua, which opened the eyes of the
world.'.
He said that everyone knows about that
historic moment, including Lambert Pekikir and his colleagues, and he hoped
that they would do nothing to damage the significance of that day.
'Brother Lambert knows all about the
importance of that day and he is obliged not to do anything that would
damage that anniversary. Nothing should be done to turn that day in a day of
violence and blood-letting.'
He said that the day marked an event
of political importance and if anyone wants to celebrate it, they should do so
by peaceful means and out of mutual respect. 'Treat that day as an important
political moment (for dialogue) and not for anything involving firearms.'
Thaha went on to say that the declaration
of independence on that day had opened the eyes of the world to two facts.
'Firstly,the Papuan people could not accept
the political decision taken by the UN with regard to the Act of Free
Choice and rejected Resolution 2504 which clealy failed to treat the Papuan
people as the subject, and secondly, that the Papuan people have their
aspirations which differ from those expressed in the UN resolution. 'It was on
1 July,' he said, 'that the Papuan people gave their reaction to the UN
decision of 1969 which legalised Papua's incorporation as part of Indonesia.'
Thaha also said that he hoped that
the security forces would adopt the persuasive approach , to seek to build
mutual trust and avoid military operations.
He sad that the Papuan people and in
particular the people in Jayapura are utterly worn out by the situation of
fear. 'The Papuan people dont want to go on living in an atmosphere of
fear. Papuan people are tired of living like this,' he said.
He went on to say that a peaceful
situation of mutual respect for constructive dialogue must be the way
forward to resolve all the problems in Papua. 'A political solution to reveal
the reality of our past history must be achieved by peaceful means,' he said.
'Violence can only lead to people getting injured and to yet more
violence.'
My message is: 'Stop all the violence and let
us enter into dialogue.'
[Translated by TAPOL]
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7 ) Joint prayers in Papua by Street
Parliament is banned by the police
Bintang Papua, 27 June 2012
Jayapura: The Street Parliament planned to
hold joint prayers by Papuans in the city of Jayapura, in response to the
security situation in Papua during the months of May and June and their impact
on human beings.
Unfortunately however, the police have
refused to grant permission for these joint prayers to be held., according to
Yusak Pakage, co-ordinator of the Street Parliament.
The intention was for Christians as well as
non Christians to take part in this joint prayer meeting as a sign of the
brotherhood between the Papuan people of all religions, for democracy and to
avoid horizontal conflicts.
But when the organisers of this event
informed the police of their intentions, the police refused to grant
permission. Yusak therefore apologised to the Papuan people that the
event will not take place after having announced their intention to organise
these joint prayers.
Yusak also said that they visited the mayor
of Jayapura to inform him of their intentions and he expressed support for the
idea.
The intention to hold joint prayers was
also raised with the board of the Hope Church in Jayapura, for the joint
prayers to take place in the church. But the executive board of the church was
not willing for this to happen, fearing that this would be seen as a political
event.
Yusak also drew attention to 1 July
which is the anniversary of the establishment of TPN/OPM and the
commemoration of Bahayangkara, and urged the Papuan people not to be
provoked in any way..
[Translated by TAPOL}
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