West Papua Report February 2012
This is the 94th in a series of monthly reports that focus on developments affecting Papuans. This series is produced by the non-profit West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) drawing on media accounts, other NGO assessments, and analysis and reporting from sources within West Papua. This report is co-published with the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN). Back issues are posted online at http://www.etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm Questions regarding this report can be addressed to Edmund McWilliams at edmcw@msn.com. If you wish to receive the report via e-mail, send a note to etan@etan.org.Summary: The trial of five Papuans who led a peaceful demonstration in October 2011 demanding Papuans’ right to self determination has begun. There has been no prosecution of security forces who brutally attacked that demonstration, killing at least three peaceful demonstrators and beating scores more. The U.S. State Department called on the Indonesian authorities to ensure due process for those indicted and urged that Indonesia respect its international legal obligations related to the trial. Human Rights Watch, for its part, called for the release of the five Papuans who are being tried under an archaic “subversion” provision of the criminal code. WPAT presents an exclusive report on efforts by the Indonesian special forces, Kopassus, to organize a propaganda campaign on West Papua. The campaign targets the U.S. and other governments for purportedly seeking to exert influence there. In its annual report, Human Rights Watch describes a worsening environment for human rights in West Papua. Reporters without Borders, in another global review, notes the growing threat to journalists in West Papua. The Asian Human Rights Commission reports on new Indonesian security force torture of Papuan civilians. The Indonesian government is colluding with Interpol in an effort to arrest prominent Papuan dissident Benny Wenda. Indonesian joins a number of repressive regimes attempting to use Interpol to silence critics. Jakarta has announced plans for a massive road building scheme in West Papua which will facilitate developers access to virgin forest areas. A revealing report by the Jakarta Globe explores the prevalence of illiteracy among Papuan children, even in urban areas, and notes the central government’s persistent failure to provide educational services to Papuans. The Government has again announced plans to create a new Papuan province, a step which will further divert funds from essential services for Papuans.
Contents
- Prosecution of Peaceful Dissent Targets Papuans
- WPAT EXCLUSIVE: Kopassus Organizes Propaganda Offensive Targeting U.S. and others regarding West Papua
- Human Right Watch Describes Worsening Environment for Human Rights in West Papua
- International Journalists Condemns Security Force Targeting of Journalists in West Papua
- Military Officers Arbitrarily Arrest and Torture Civilians Based on False Claims of Rebel Activity
- Interpol Joins Indonesian Effort to Silence Dissident
- Trans-Papua Road Planned
- Jakarta Abuses Papuans through Denial of Essential Services
- Plans Advance to Create Central Papua Province
Prosecution of Peaceful Dissent Again Targets Papuans
The trial of six West Papuan leaders who played the leading roles in the October 16-19, 2011 convening of the Third Papuan National Congress (see November 2011 West Papua Report ) began January 30 in Jayapura. The trial was adjourned shortly after it began and will resume on February 8. Over 300 people were initially detained as the Papuan Congress concluded 19 October 2011. An assault on the entirely peaceful gathering by Indonesian security forces led to the death of at least three participants and the beating of many more. No security forces have been prosecuted for that assault.
Six people have been detained since October 19, 2011; five of the six face charges of subversion under Section 106 paragraph 53 and 55 of the Indonesian Criminal Code. The use of these charges to suppress peaceful dissent date back to the Dutch colonial times and have frequently been employed by the Dutch, the Suharto dictatorship and even successive democratic regimes. The provisions violate Indonesia’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The six detainees are: Forkorus Yaboisembut, Dominikus Surabut, Edison Waromi, Selphius Bobii, Agus Sananay, and Gat Wenda. Five of the six are charged with subversion: Wenda is only charged with carrying a concealed weapon.
The United States State Department publicly called on Indonesia to “ensure due process” and to observe its “international legal obligations for those indicted.” The U.S. also urged Indonesia to “work with the indigenous Papuan population to address their grievances, resolve conflicts peacefully and support development in the Papuan provinces.”
The United States “recognizes and respects the territorial integrity of Indonesia within its current borders, which include the provinces of Papua and West Papua,” the spokesperson added.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has demanded that Indonesia drop the charges against the five Papuans. The New York-based rights group said Indonesian security forces had used “excessive force” including batons and firearms to break up a pro-independence assembly in the provincial capital Jayapura last October, killing at least three people and injuring more than 90. HRW noted the injustice that while eight police officers were let off with written warnings for disciplinary infractions, the five Papuan leaders are charged with treason. “The Indonesian government should show its commitment to peaceful expression by dropping the charges against these five Papuan activists,” the group’s Asia deputy director Elaine Pearson said in a statement. “It’s appalling that a modern democratic nation like Indonesia continues to lock up people for organizing a demonstration and expressing controversial views,” she added. Pursuing the trial would “only deepen the resentment that many Papuans feel against the government”, Pearson said.
HRW also urged Indonesia to release at least 15 other Papuans, including independence leader Filep Karma, and about 60 others mostly Maluku activists, over “peaceful acts of free expression.” Rights groups accuse Indonesia of gross human rights abuses in Papua, a Melanesian-majority region rich in natural resources where poorly armed rebels have been fighting for independence for decades. Jakarta denies the allegations but severely limits access by foreign media or aid workers into the remote eastern province to conduct independent inquiries.
More than 100 people are currently imprisoned in Indonesia for peacefully promoting separatism in Indonesia, most of them from Papua or the eastern Maluku islands, according to Human Rights Watch.
Indonesia’s Special Forces (Kopassus) organized a week-long training program for two dozen bloggers and journalists at their headquarters in Jakarta late November, 2011. Trainees were warned about alleged foreign interference in West Papua, including by the U.S. and other governments. According to its website, the Indonesian Association of Citizen Reporters (Persatuan Pewarta Warga Indonesia, PPWI ), jointly organized the training with Kopassus Group III/Sandhi Yudha or the ‘Secret War’ group. The group has a section called the ‘Papua Desk.’
The PPWI website shows Kopassus group commander Col. Izak Pangemanan shaking hands with Wilson Lalengke, PPWI chairman. According to some trainees’ Facebook accounts and the syllabus, the training included several components including one about separatism in West Papua. A trainee Facebook account showed Kopassus had also recently sent around 250 officers to Papua.
Mahar Prastowo, a PPWI deputy chairman, played a central role by liaising with Kopassus for the program, where he gave a talk about Papua, saying that he had approached Forkorus Yaboisembut, the chairman of the Papua Customary Council, and Buchtar Tabuni, the chairman of the West Papua National Committee.
Trainees came from Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi, but included no Papuans. The training program was intended to counter international news reporting about West Papua which is seen as critical of Jakarta policy and Indonesian military conduct in West Papua.
At the training, Mahar Prastowo contended that the United States is stirring unrest in West Papua. He cited President Barack Obama’s decision to deploy 2500 marines to Darwin, Australia. Prastowo also said there is a “paradigm shift” in suppressing independence movement in Papua. He encouraged the PPWI trainees to get involved in the information war. On his Twitter feed (@maharprastowo), he criticized mining giant Freeport McMoRan which he said had taken out most of the gold and copper from Papua’s Grasberg mine, while only giving Indonesia only one percent of the income.
Prastowo told the trainees to help create “a common enemy” of the Papuans and the Indonesians. Prastowo described this common enemy as “ABDA,” representing American, British, Dutch and Australian interests. Trainees were encouraged to use their Twitter, Facebook and blogs to fight “foreign agents in Papua. On his Facebook account “Mahar Writerpreneur,” he uploaded a cartoon of four Caucasian men, supposedly to represent ABDA, eating resources from the Grasberg mine.
PPWI chairman Wilson Lalengke has issued 100 PPWI press cards for Kopassus officers. The training program was mainly financed by the Ministry of Defense. In addition to the training assistance, Kopassus will help bloggers and journalists cover Papua by providing logistical support to include transportation.
Prastowo’s blog indicates that he has some sort of an association to the Jakarta-based Islam Defenders Front (Front Pembela Islam, FPI). He posted some FPI announcements. The hardline FPI for years has engaged in thuggish attacks on businesses and others it does not approve of. The FPI is believed to have official backing.
In late December, FPI chairman Habib Rizieq Shihab and Islamist politician Muhammad al-Khaththath visited the Ministry of Defense, demanding the ministry to take stern actions against “Papuan separatist.” They also threatened to wage jihad in Papua.
Another Facebook account says that PPWI is also planning to publish a tabloid in West Papua.
Human Right Watch Annual Report Describes Worsening Rights Environment in West Papua
In its annual review of human rights observance and violation around the world, Human Rights Watch focused significantly on developments in West Papua. West Papua related excerpts follow:
- In August internal military documents – mainly from Kopassus, Indonesia’s special forces -were made public, exposing how the Indonesian military monitors peaceful activists, politicians, and religious clergy in Papua. The documents show the deep military paranoia in Papua that conflates peaceful political expression with criminal activity. Several of those named in the documents as targets have faced arrest, imprisonment, harassment, or other forms of violence.
- Access to Papua in 2011 remained tightly controlled. Few foreign journalists and human rights researchers can visit independently without close monitoring of their activities. Since October the vice president’s office has set up the Unit to Accelerate Development in Papua and West Papua, which is focused on economic development. Its board members include some veterans of peace talk over Aceh.
- In July over 500 representatives of Papuan civil society met at a peace conference in Jayapura, organized by a government-funded peace-initiative network.
- Violence in Papua worsened in July and August with several unrelated attacks in which more than two dozen people were killed or seriously injured. Seventeen people were killed in Puncak Jaya in July when two rival political camps clashed in an election dispute.
- In Puncak Jaya there has been a long insurgency between the Free Papua Organization (OPM) and the Indonesian military. The OPM commander in Puncak Jaya claimed responsibility for several attacks against the Indonesian military in July, including one in which an Indonesian military chopper was shot down, injuring seven soldiers and killing one.
- In October security forces used excessive violence when arresting more than 300 Papuans involved in a three-day Papuan Congress. At least three men were killed and more than 90 were injured. Six Papuan leaders were charged with treason.
International Journalists Underscore Security Targeting of Journalists in West Papua
Reporters Without Borders released its Press Freedom Index 2011-2012 on near the end of January, in which Indonesia dropped 29 places from a year earlier to 146th. The reason for Indonesia’s slip in the ranks, according to the organization, was largely due to cases of journalists in West Papua being killed, kidnapped and assaulted.
Bambang Eka Cahya Widodo, chairman of Indonesia’s Elections Supervisory Board (Bawaslu), told media that journalists were sometimes targeted because of their election coverage. He cited the case of a journalist in Merauke, Papua, who was stabbed while reporting on an electoral dispute there last year.
WPAT Comment: The United Nations, foreign officials and human rights organizations have long been critical of Indonesia’s ongoing efforts to prevent international monitoring of human rights violations in West Papua. The measures employed by Jakarta include restrictions on travel to and within West Papua by international journalists, human rights monitors and humanitarian agencies. The International Committee of the Red Cross remain banned from re-opening its offices in West Papua. But perhaps the most insidious tactic employed by Jakarta is the targeting of Indonesian journalists and human rights workers by Indonesian security forces. Reporters Without Borders has performed an important service in drawing attention to security force intimidation, brutalization and murder of Indonesian journalists.
Military Officers Arbitrarily Arrest and Torture Civilians Based on False Claims of Rebel Activity
The Asian Human Rights Commission, January 26, issued an urgent appeal ( Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-005-2012) regarding the Indonesian military’s brutalization of a dozen Papuans, including three local activists, in Kurulu, West Papua, in early November 2011. The assault on these civilians was related to unsubstantiated claims of rebel activity in the area. In an appeal to the international community, the AHRC noted that civilians are “frequently victimized based on arbitrary allegations of rebellion, and subsequently tortured.”
The incident followed a false allegation initially passed to a pro-Jakarta militia of a meeting between the Papuan armed resistance OPM and villagers from Umpagalo village in Kurulu district. Local military personnel of the 176/ Kurulu military headquarters reacted to the unsubstantiated report by going to Umpagalo at around 11pm. “They beat three local activists, Melianus Wantik, Edo Doga and Markus Walilo, as well as nine villagers, Pilipus Wantik, Wilem Kosy, Elius Dabi, Lamber Dabi, Othi Logo, Nilik Hiluka, Hukum Logo, Martinus Mabel and Saulus Logo, then stabbed them with bayonets for two hours, forced them to crawl and doused them with water for one hour. The officers also humiliated, beat with wood sticks, kicked and stepped on them with their boots, pointed their guns and threatened that they would cut their heads, and shot at them four times.”
The troops then transported the victims to the 176 military headquarters and after several hours delay, they were released without charges. The victims? colleagues complained to the Kurulu sector police following the incident, but the police refused to process the complaint claiming there was no substantial evidence to prove the allegations. More importantly, the police have no capacity to investigate or prosecute military personnel under terms of the law on military courts (Law No. 31 of 1997).
The AHRC observed that security force use of torture against indigenous Papuans is widespread, often targeting persons suspected of supporting independence movements. “Such suspicions are often leveled arbitrarily against members of the indigenous community and result in stigmatisation.” AHRC added: “according to the law on military courts, members of the military that commit crimes against civilians, such as extrajudicial killings or torture, can only be held accountable by military justice systems. Military courts are not open to the public, are notorious for only giving lenient punishments, and show a clear lack of impartiality.” AHRC called for a joint investigation of the incident by the Indonesian military (TNI) and the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM).
Interpol Lends Its Resources to Indonesian Efforts to Silence Dissident
Interpol has issued a “red notice” for Benny Wenda, a prominent Papuan dissident who has been granted asylum in the U.K. on political grounds.
The Interpol action against Wenda is similar to other actions targeting prominent dissidents legally living outside their home countries. The Interpol alert system is increasingly being employed to serve the interests of often repressive regimes seeking to silence their critics.
A lawsuit alleging that some oppressive regimes are using Interpol’s alert system to harass or detain opponents is being planned by rights activists and lawyers in the United Kingdom. Campaigners say that some government fabricate criminal charges against those who have taken refuge in other countries and then seek their arrest through Interpol “red notices.”
The notices are meant to alert member police forces that an Interpol member state has issued an arrest warrant, but some countries will take seize suspects based on the “red notice” alone. There are about 26,000 outstanding.
Trans-Papua Road Planned
According to the Jakarta Post, Indonesia’s Public Works Ministry is allocating Rp 3.6 trillion (US$399 million) to build a “Trans-Papua Highway.” Planned road construction would be among the largest undertaken in Indonesia. he aim of the Trans-Papua Highway is purportedly to connect isolated areas in Papua’s central highlands to Wamena, Habema, Kenyam, and Batas Batu, as well as the Asmat regency on the south coast. The plan would also include two other road projects within the “Master Plan for Acceleration and Expansion of Indonesian Economic Development” (MP3EI), involving roads linking Timika in the Mimika regency and Enarotali in the Paniai regency, and those linking Merauke with Tanah Merah in the Bouven Digoel regency. Government spokespersons claim that the government aims to build 70 percent of a total of 3,100 kilometers of national road in Papua and West Papua by 2014.
WPAT COMMENT: Such massive road development poses both positive and negative consequences. Improved access to markets for local farmers and industries could be a boon to isolated Papuan villages and towns. Papuans generally will also benefit from improved access to essential services and employment opportunities often lacking in rural areas of West Papua. On the other hand, such road development also expands the opportunity for illegal enterprises, particularly illegal logging operations, to exploit Papuan natural resources. The Suharto dictatorship often boasted of “road development” in occupied East Timor. In fact, road network expansion was largely aimed at facilitating military access to exploitable resources and expanding military operations into the hinterlands.
Jakarta Abuses Papuans Through Denial of Essential Services
The failure of the Indonesian government to provide essential health services to the Papuan population of West Papua has been repeatedly documented and, arguably, leaves the Jakarta government open to charges of ethnic genocide. This calculated, malign neglect in the area of basic health services extends to provision for education. A revealing January 31 Jakarta Globe report notes that Papua’s illiteracy rate among those aged 15 years and under was 32 percent, the highest in the nation, according to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2010. That figure has increased steadily since 2007, when it was 25 percent, going up to 28 percent in 2008 and 30 in 2009.
The Globe report, by Banjir Ambarita and Mary Anugrah Rasita, underscores that the Jakarta government’s failure to educate young Papuans is not only a problem in remote rural areas. The reporters visited a state elementary school in Jayapura (Port Numbay) and found extensive illiteracy. Nella Manaku, headmaster of Holtekamp Elementary School acknowledged that 50 percent of the students there could neither read nor write. The reporters observed that many fifth- and sixth-grade students were just at able to be taught how to write.
The headmaster blamed the high illiteracy rate on a lack of teachers at saying that were just five instructors for the more than 100 students. Moreover, “Three of them are permanent and the others are contract teachers, but they rarely show up for work,” he said. He explained that he had repeatedly applied to the Jayapura Education Agency for more teachers, but to no avail. “For several years now we’ve been asking for help, but there’s never been a response from the authorities,” he said. Kayus Bahabol, a provincial legislator, told the Globe that the high illiteracy rate was not the only issue the school was dealing with. “Educational facilities here are badly lacking…. Livestock wander all over the place and leaving their droppings everywhere,” he said.
Kenius Kogoya, another provincial legislator, said the Holtekamp case was just the tip of the iceberg. “If things can get this bad at a school in Jayapura, a major city, imagine what it’s like at schools in rural areas,” he said. “The government always likes to claim that regional autonomy has been a blessing for development in Papua, but this is highly questionable.”
Arief Rachman, an education expert who chairs the National Commission for UNESCO, agreed that the low level of development in the province was the main culprit for the high illiteracy rate. Darmaningtyas, an education expert from the Taman Siswa school network, told the Globe that the problem of teacher shortages was a long-standing one in Papua. He urged the government to give priority to infrastructure development to improve the distribution of books and other school supplies across Papua, “because right now we lack the channels to get the appropriate reading materials to the students there.”
Plans Advance to Create Central Papua Province
Media reports reveal that the Indonesian government is moving forward with plans to create a new province in the western portion of the island of New Guinea controlled by Indonesia. According to a January 20 report in the Cenderawasih Pos Jakarta the central government is moving forward with the creation of “Central Papua” sometime in 2012. The province will have 10 districts: Supiori, Biak Numfor, Yapen Islands, Waropen, Nabire, Dogiyai, Deiyai, Intan Jaya, Paniai and Mimika.
The formation of a new province re-opens a contentious legal and political debate over the division of the land Papuans consider “West Papua” into two entities, Papua and West Papua a decade ago. That division was described as illegal by the Indonesian courts but inexplicably was allowed to stand as a fait accompli. Many Papuans have resisted the division of Papuan territory, arguing that the action fails to take into account their political aspirations, in particular, their pursuit of self determination. Moreover, Papuans and many observers have argued that the creation of new administrative subdivisions absorb funds that are critically needed to provide essential services in the areas of medical care, education and social/cultural development. Rather, they argue, creation of new administrative entities amounts to top-down development which favors creation of massive new “development” undertakings which advantage corporate interests, usually to the grave disadvantage of local development.
Creation of such new administrative entities also creates “perches” for the expansion of the security force establishment, further diverting funds and broadening and deepening the militarization of Papuan lands.
Related articles
- Statement from 5 Makar accused at KP3 treason trial (westpapuamedia.info)
- Makar accused reject charges, and Indonesian jurisdiction over Papua in adjourned trial (Photo Report) (westpapuamedia.info)
- West Papua : Where is our freedom and justice? Trial on Monday (westpapuamedia.info)
- Lawyers urge Australian Government to speak out over Papuan treason trials (westpapuamedia.info)
- Human rights abuses and the question of genocide in West Papua (westpapuamedia.info)
Makar accused reject charges, and Indonesian jurisdiction over Papua in adjourned trial (Photo Report)
January 31, 2012
By Nick Chesterfield from West Papua Media with local sources
(Jayapura) The treason trial against the leaders of the Third Papuan People’s Congress in Jayapura was adjourned on Monday until February 8, after a short hearing that Indonesian authorities moved at the last moment preventing many supporters from attending.
The five defendants, President of the Federated Republic of West Papua (FRWP) Forkorus Yaboisembut, Prime Minister Edison Waromi, together with Congress organisers Selpius Bobii, Dominikus Sorabut and Agus Sananay were charged with makar or treason under Article 106 of KUHP (the Indonesian Criminal Code) for their declaration of an independent West Papua at the close of the Third Papuan People’s Congress on October 19 last year.
Papuan leaders accused of treason on trial in Jayapura, January 30, 2012
The historic Congress was violently broken up by Indonesian security forces using live fire and excessive violence, with at least seven people killed, hundreds beaten and tortured, despite official permission for the event to be held. Indonesian security officers involved were given minor disciplinary sanction, with most perpetrators of violence enjoying complete impunity despite footage of the Indonesian security force violence being broadcast internationally.
Initial reports from witnesses inside the trial early in the day claimed that the team of judges argued with the defence legal team about the need to know the political position of the defendant’s, despite the fact that in a treason trial this would be self-evident. Yaboisembut and Waromi then fundamentally rejected the charges against them, arguing that their actions were not treason“.
Forkorus Yobeisembut (Jakarta Globe)
According to Forkorus as reported by the Jakarta Post, “What we have been doing is seeking our own independence. Thus, we have cheated no one,”. Forkorus argued that Indonesian occupation of his homeland was the real issue, and that ”this problem is not the problem of separatism and rebellion or treason”. Both Forkorus and Waromi said that the issue of Papua should be tried in international courts as the Indonesian state did not have jurisdiction over Papua.
Forkorus Yaboisembut (Jakarta Globe)
in a short statement sent to West Papua Media, the defendant’s legal team said that the judge asked Forkorus and the accused understood the indictment. “He answered that, yes, he understood what the prosecutors read but did not understand the charges of treason against them.”
“Forkorus then asked for time to read a statement to the assembly to process the rejection of the law, (the request of) which was then approved by a judge. Our attorneys will do the rebuttal (exception) to the indictment dated 8th February 2012,” according to the legal team led by Hamadi.
(Photo: Efraim Joteni)
Bintang Papua reported that another one of the lawyers for the accused, Gustaf Kawer,said that up to 32 lawyers from across Papua and Indonesia had offered pro-bono defence of the treason accused. He said: ‘I am convinced that the large number of lawyers who are attracted by the case is a good sign of interest in the need to find a solution to the problem of Papua.’
Forkorus Yaboisembut and Edison Waromi media interview after trial.(Photo: Efraim Joteni)
The Panel of Judges hearing the trial are Chairman of the Jayapura District Court of Class IA, Jayapura, Papua, Jack John Octovianus, SH. MH,; assisted by I Ketut Nyoman S, SH. MH. Syor Mambrasar, SH. MH. Orpah Marthina, SH. and Willem Marco Erari, SH.
Outside the court hearing, almost 400 hundred heavily armed riot police and a similar number of Army and Kopassus personnel were guarding the courthouse venue from dawn (0600) with close to a dozen armoured assault vehicles, mounted with heavy machine guns, according to participants.
Protest in support of West Papuan leaders in trial for treason (Photo: Efraim Joteni)
Protest in support of West Papuan leaders in trial for treason (Photo: Efraim Joteni)
Participants in the protest claimed to West Papua Media via SMS that security forces were acting in a heavy-handed manner, describing their actions as “wild and aggressive”. “This display of armour makes thousands of ordinary people in Jayapura traumatized and afraid to come to action,” said Jack Wainggai, the spokesman for the Prime Minister of the FRWP, Edison Waromi, on trial for treason today. Organisers had aimed for several thousand people to attend, but amid heavy Indonesian security that discouraged solidarity protests by West Papuan supporters of the defendants, only 500-600 braved the heavy armour and “state intimidation” outside the court.
Protest in support of West Papuan leaders in trial for treason (Photo: Efraim Joteni)
Brimob outside makar trial (Photo: West Papua Media)
Brimob outside makar trial (Photo: West Papua Media)
one of almost a dozen armoured vehicles securing outside court venue Jan 30 2012 Jayapura (Photo: West Papua Media)
Despite promises by Indonesian authorities that the trials would be open, the presiding judges secretly started proceedings at 8.30 am before supporter could arrive. In a press statement before the trial, Bintang Papua reported that Olga Hamadi of Kontras Papua said, “The five men will face charges under Article 106 of the Criminal Code for subversion. Based on past experience, there are concerns regarding security during the trial which will be open to the public, meaning that anyone wishing to attend the trial will be able to do so.” Hamadi urged all present to restrain themselves and ensure that conditions surrounding the trial are conducive.
Speculation has mounted amongst local observers that the trial may be moved from Jayapura to metropolitan Indonesia to reduce any potential political flashpoint it will cause amongst pro-independence forces in Papua, with the prosecutor’s office formally warning of such a move should unrest occur. Conversely though, any shift would create more opportunities for international observers to be present at the trial, a basic condition called for by the defence and international human rights monitors.
After the adjournment, the few hundred that did attend were able to disperse peacefully without an Indonesian security force crackdown, but tension still remains high in Jayapura as armed troops are still deployed on the streets the following day.
Elsewhere in Papua, solidarity actions were held with the treason trials against the Congress leaders. In Manokwari, orations were held calling for international peacekeepers to be deployed to protect West Papuan people from Indonesian state violence. Calls were also made in Manokwari for neutral international mediators for dialogue between Jakarta and the Federated Republic of West Papua.
Westpapuamedia.info
Related articles
- West Papua : Where is our freedom and justice? Trial on Monday (westpapuamedia.info)
- Rallies to support Papuan leaders facing treason trials on Monday (westpapuamedia.info)
- HRW:: Indonesia – Drop Charges Against Papuan Activists (westpapuamedia.info)
- TAPOL statement on West Papua to the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights (westpapuamedia.info)
- West Papuan leader urges peaceful defiance in the lead-up to December 1st (westpapuamedia.info)
Shootings, village burnings and helicopter attacks continue across Paniai
SPECIAL REPORT AND UPDATE
by Nick Chesterfield at westpapuamedia.info
December 16, 2011
Harrowing accounts of terror and intimidation are emerging from villagers and human rights workers in the remote Paniai district in West Papua overnight, as a massive Indonesian military assault against National Liberation Army guerrillas continues.
Local human rights and church sources are reporting that ordinary villagers are being subjected to significant human rights abuses by a combined Indonesian police and military force, and have called for immediate international intervention in West Papua to stop the violence.
Over four full strength combat battalions of Indonesian army (TNI) Kostrad commandos from Battalion 753, Brimob paramilitary police, and elite counter-terrorism troops from Detachment 88 – all units armed, trained, and supplied by the Australian Government – were deployed in an offensive to surround the headquarters of the Paniai Free Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM), under the command of General Jhon Yogi.
TPN/OPM headquarters Markas Eduda burning after TNI attack, 13/12/2011, Paniai, Papua
Paniai villages burning after TNI attack, 13/12/2011, Paniai, Papua
TPN/OPM headquarters Markas Eduda burning after TNI attack, 13/12/2011, Paniai, Papua
Punitive village burnings and raids are continuing in remote villages around the TPN/OPM headquarters of Markas Eduda. At the time of writing, seventy-five houses, six schools, and about 25 other buildings have been recorded as burnt down in a total of 27 villages by Indonesian security forces.
Eighteen people are now confirmed dead – fifteen from gunshot wounds, and three refugees who allegedly succumbed to starvation in the so-called care centres under the control of security forces. The victims’ names from the attack in Eduda are:
Dead:
- Tapupai Gobay (30) was shot in the chest.
- Tawe Bunai Awe (30) head crushed*.
- Uwi Gobay (35) was shot in the abdomen.
- Wate Nawipa (25) was shot in the back.
- Martinus Gobay (29) head crushed*.
- Owdei Yeimo (35) was shot in the back.
- Ruben Gobay (25) was shot in the abdomen.
- Paul Gobay (42) was shot in the abdomen.
- Bernadus Yogi (23) was shot in the chest.
- Demianus Yogi (15) was shot in the back.
- Simon Kogoya (40) was shot in the abdomen.
- Simon Yogi (30) was shot in the head.
- Luke Kudiai (25) was shot in the chest.
- Alfius Magai (20) head crushed*
Note: those with “head crushed” allegedly sustained these fatal injuries through severe beatings with rifle butts and “boot stamping”, according to sources
Wounded:
- Paschal Kudiai (15) hit by a bullet in the head.
- Martinus Kudiai (30) was shot in the hand.
- David Mote (40) was shot in the thigh.
- Amandus Kudiai (43) was shot in the arm.
- Yohan Yogi (21) was shot in the leg.
- Mon Yogi (20) was shot in the back.
Credible reports have also confirmed that two civilian “company” helicopters were provided to Security forces, and were allegedly used to drop live grenades and chemical dispersal weapons onto villages surrounding Eduda, and strafe villages with sniper and machine-gun fire on December 13, 14, and 15. Several independent witnesses have claimed to West Papua Media, and reported elsewhere across social media, that the helicopters are well known in the area for local non-military operations.
"Company" Helicopter alleged by local sources to be used in Indonesia security force offensive in Paniai. Source claims photo taken on Dec 13 aas helicopter was circling group. This photo is not independently verified, however analysis shows the image is consistent with independent witness descriptions, and the terrain and weather conditions are consistent with other photos supplied. (West Papua Media source)
Witnesses interviewed by local human rights workers have claimed that at 0800 local time on December 13, the Company helicopter launched CS gas salvos into the village of Markas Eduda, the TPN headquarters, to flush out villagers and guerrillas. According to a separate account sent to West Papua Media by TPN/OPM sources, the helicopters landed troops and occupied Eduda for most of the day, with guerrillas taking to forests in retreat. In retaliation, TPN/OPM fighters shot at the helicopters, unsuccessfully, and several hours of intense fighting ensued which was suspended when Free Papua fighters witnessed many village houses and schools being simultaneously burnt in the surrounding area. According to the TPN/OPM source, villages were set on fire around Eduda and gunshots were heard for the rest of the day and through the night. Free Papua fighters have retreated to the forest and are awaiting orders for their next moves, according to the source.
Villagers from across Paniai are continuing to be displaced by the operations, forced to flee en masse into areas around Enaratoli, on the opposite side of Lake Paniai. As reported on December 14 by West Papua Media, over 131 villages have been abandoned causing at least 10800 Paniai villagers to flee the military operations.
Church sources have further reported that refugees seeking shelter in the Enaratoli area are enduring worsening conditions without any relief. Armed Indonesian security forces have established a police supervised secure “Care Centre” at Uwatawogi Hall in Enaratoli, and have crammed into it 1715 people from Kopabutu and Dagouto villages. According to local activists in reports to West Papua Media, local residents are being threatened with arrest and beatings if they try to provide detainees with adequate humanitarian relief. Police are also preventing people held at the hall from leaving for food or sanitation needs, according to sources. At the time of writing, three people have died at the “care Centre” since December 9 from Diarrhoea. They are :
- OTOLINCEA DEGEI age 2 years , died 8:20pm, 9/12/11;
- YULIMINA GOBAI Age 4, died 3pm, 14/12/2011;
- ANNA DEGEI Age 47, died 1030pm, 14/12/2011.
No food, sanitation or medical aid has been made available by any government agency to give relief to this large number of internally displaced people.
Over 9000 refugees are either hiding in the forest or seeking shelter with their own extended families in the region area. Those with their families are considered safe, however their needs and conditions are difficult to monitor and assess given their isolation
Local teachers have also been in contact with West Papua Media’s stringers. Since 27 November 2011, teaching and learning activities have been suspended indefinitely in all village schools surrounding Markas Eduda. Schools such as SD YPPK in Badao Dei, Yimouto, and Obayauweta villages have been suspended, as has Primary, Junior High, “shop” (trade school) and Elementary Instruction in the towns of Dagouto, and Uwani. The students of these schools have been evacuated with their parents.
A teacher in junior YPPGI Uwani said while repression was occurring in the villages that: “For while we have closed the schools, because school children are frightened and fled with their parents. In addition, we as teachers do not feel safe to make teaching and learning activities. All the teachers have fled Paniai district, and to Nabire. “
On December 15, the army / police battalions have returned to the villages of Uwamani, Dei and Obaipugaida to prepare a major attack for a new phase of the campaign. It is believed strongly by local activists that the “company” helicopter will still be used in addition to Unconfirmed reports have been received by West Papua Mediathat the Indonesian arsenal against civilians in Paniai includes one Mil Mi-24 SuperHind gunship, one of two usually stationed near Jayapura.
650 Kostrad troops from Battalion 142 being deployed from Palembang to Paniai in Papua, boarding their troop ship on December 9, 2011
West Papua National Committee (KNPB) activists in Paniai reported on December 15 that after the assaults on villages, the Indonesian military forces are now arresting, intimidating and carrying out interrogation on all residents across the districts of Toko, Kopabaida and Uwamani. According the KNPB, Indonesian police have arrested scores of children and adults, and are conducting brutal and physical interrogations and questioning from 11.00 am until the end of the day
The offensive was ongoing throughout December 15, with Indonesian security forces opening fire in many locations around Eduda. Overnight, from 0200 to 0600, heavy gunfire erupted across the Degeuwo River valley. Human rights sources in villages and also with refugees conveyed reports that people were being shot at by snipers if they were moving anywhere after dark, even to collect, food, water, or to secure pigs. It is not known how many people were killed during the night, but local source are expecting the toll to rise.
According to a report provided tonight by a local pilot, Indonesian security forces shot eleven times into houses in the village of Gekoo, where mourners were gathering for a the funeral of a local man who died from illness. Villagers alleged that some bullets even landed in their cooking fires, exploding their food pots.
Witnesses reported a series of helicopter raids from 11am on December 15, with helicopters being used to machine-gun the villages of Obaiyepa and Uwaman. Human rights workers have been unable to access these areas to see if any casualties were sustained.
Unidentified village burnt down 13, dec 2011, near Eduda, Paniai
Helicopters landed at Eduda ceremony ground 11 times from 11:00 to 13:00 hours, and residents suspect logistics, ammunition and additional forces were being deployed.
The area around Paniai has been long subject to conflict and heavy Indonesian military offensives against civilians, however in recent months the Indonesian police have taken charge of punitive operations against West Papuans harbouring pro-independence sympathies. The conflict has recently escalated over land rights and the control of local gold mining operations, with Brimob deeply involved in both joint venture security, and direct involvement in gold businesses and associated activities. The Australian gold mining company Paniai Gold is also operating in the Degeuwo River region.
Indonesian soldiers in Paniai, December 2011
Civilians in the foothills are in panic and reliving the trauma of past operations, according to the report from a local pilot. “They are concerned emotions again will open in Wegeuto of the 1982 war Memoria Passionis (memory of suffering) and again when the Army conducted ongoing military operations (DOM – Daerah Operasi Militer) from 1989-1993 across the Badauwo area, near Eduda, ” the source said via email. He explained that during the last DOM period the army accused and stigmatised civilians as being members of the TPN-OPM, and subsequently tortured thousands of villagers. Human rights sources at the time documented villagers being waterboarded / tortured for 24 hours; residents’ houses burned, raped girls and married women, extrajudicial killings, burning off fingers, moustaches and beards, pulling fingernails and quartering villagers with armoured vehicles. Troops also conducted burning and destroying food gardens, killing livestock and pets, and fouling water supplies.
Residents are concerned that the current angry and emotional behaviour by the TNI-police toward TPN / OPM will be vented on civilians living on the slope of the hamlet Wegeuto especially, directly adjacent to Markas Eduda. In a message delivered to West Papua Media local villagers have pleaded for International Advocacy to get Military and Police immediately withdrawn from Eduda and Paniai in general.
Much trauma is being felt by civilians across Paniai as a result of the offensive. Independent journalist Sonny Dogopia, from Papuan Voices , interviewed local villagers by telephone on December 14. Magda Tekege, a housewife from Deiyai District, said civil society is very scared and depressed. ” Here also TNI / Police beat us and put us under surveillance, and are one full alert status, ” she explained. Deiyai Magda called the situation unusual , “this is probably due to invasion by TNI / police in Paniai, therefore Deiyai also suffer the effects.”
Reports from Tuesday described the exercises that the Australian trained, funded and armed Brimob Gegana unit, upon arriving in Enaratoli proceeded to take over the streets immediately, causing normal town life to be immediately disrupted as local people emptied the streets to hide.
On December 6, Human rights, church sources and local activists had independently claimed that 542 people have been forcibly evacuated by troops from the Special Gegana Brimob “Counter” terrorist police unit. The villages of Dagouto and Kopabatu and surrounding hamlets in the Dagoutu Paniai district were evicted after the Gegana unit decided it wanted to expand a new headquarters facility to deploy in the offensive against Jhon Yogi, the local leader of the armed guerrilla unit of the National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM).
The Gegana unit, a specialised elite anti-terrorist unit of the Indonesian police has been deployed heavily across Papua to crackdown on pro-independence activists engaged in non-violent resistance, as well as to eliminate the armed struggle groups. Gegana is one of several elite Indonesian police units that receives arms, funding, and training from the Australian Government, and was blamed on December 3 for burning down a church and school in Wandenggobak, in the highland regency of Puncak Jaya.
As this article was going to press, an update was received from a trusted human rights worker in Paniai. “At 2300 in the evening, Brimob Coconut Battalion 2 burned down buildings of Paniai Districts’ tourism assets, located in Bukit Dupia, in the same location as the Regent’s residence. This evening in Paniai the situation is very tense”. TPN fighters reportedly have returned fire on the attack and heavy fighting is still occurring,
The situation is ongoing and developing and West Papua Media will continue to closely monitor events.
Please urgently help us continue this work. @westpapuamedia ia working tirelessly to end impunity in Papua with effective journalism. But we need your help – PLEASE DONATE NOW wp.me/P1aPlR-116
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Shoot to kill threat over defiant Papuan flagraisers
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2011
IN the aftermath of October’s brutal crackdown by Indonesian police on the Third Papuan People’s Congress, local pro-independence committees have organised mass civil resistance in most towns across West Papua to commemorate its 50th anniversary of Independence, tragically cut short by Indonesia’s invasion in 1963.
The banned symbol of West Papua’s independence, the Morning Star flag, will be raised in provocative actions that occupying Indonesian security forces have deemed as an act of rebellion, and have threatened to shoot to kill anyone participating.
Flagraising ceremonies are scheduled to be held in almost twenty centres across Papua and West Papua provinces, including Jayapura, Wamena and Timika. Massive shows of force have been reported from Indonesian forces to prevent local people from taking part in planned events.
Tensions are high across the Bird’s Head Penninsula of West Papua as hundreds of paramilitary police (Brimob) seconded to the area exchanged gunfire with local units of National Liberation Army (TPN) and conducted heavy handed searches of homes and villages.
Shots were exchanged from 3pm local time on November 29 in the farming and gold panning village of Markus Eduda between Brimob personel and the village based unit of the National Liberation Army (TPN), led by Jhon Yogi. An estmiated 300 Brimob personel, who are not usually based in the area, are currently stationed in the western villages of Dagouto, Pasir Putih and Bibida.
On November 30 Indonesian soldiers were stationed at the location in the nearby city of Nabire nominated as the venue for a peaceful “praise and worship only” commemeration ceremony, with no flag raising.
Other previously unreported events in the area include escalating fear in villages, since combined military and police forces opened fire in the village of Madi Paniai on August 15, 2011.
Local human rights workers say that since the August shooting, residents of Madi Paniai and the neighbouring villages of Ugi, Weya and Aga have been living in fear, especially people who had fled to the area from other parts of Papua because of its relative safety.
They added that armed personnel were searching homes, rummaging through people’s belongings supposedly looking for sharp tools, and confiscating needles, knives, shovels, arrows and machetes.
They added that the continued presence of the police and military forces and the intimidating and invasive searches were causing widespread distress and prompting people to move to other villages.
According to latest reports the residents of Dagouto, Muyadebe, Uwamani and Badauwo have fled, deserting the villages.
Massive troop buildup
Around Jayapura, several thousand Papuans are expected to attend the 50th anniversary celebrations in Sentani, at the grave of slain independence leader Theys Eluay, who was murdered by Kopassus special forces officers in 2001.
Negotiations with police are still ongoing to allow a gathering and prayer fellowship after organisers were prohibited to raise the Morning Star At time of writing, Permission had still been refused by Jayapura Police to allow any gatherings.
Local sources have described urban centres across Papua as being like cemetaries with people staying off the streets whilst security force personnel are conducting shows of force.
In Manokwari, a prayer vigil and flagraising is planned together with a nonviolent mass demonstration, but statements from hardline leaders from the guerrilla National Liberation Army (TPN/OPM) have threatened to play into hands of Indonesian security forces planning a crackdown on flagraisers.
On Wednesday night, Manokwari was described as a “Blood Danger Zone” by organisers of independence celebrations after Richard Jouweni, a commander of the TPN, declared he would use violence against security forces to ensure the banned Morning Star would fly. Indonesian military commanders in Manokwari have prohibited local organisers from carrying out flagraisings, however these calls are likely to be defied. The location of the ceremonies are still unknown, while civilians in nearby villages have already started arriving in Manokwari town centre for the events.
Concerns are mounting of significant bloodshed in Serui and Waropen. Papuan and Indonesian media and human rights workers have reportedly been barred from the centres off the north coast, and the head of police has issued warnings to anyone engaging in political expression. The police chief in Serui, Daniel Pryo Dwiatmoko, Kepala Kapolres (+6282198480889, +6282198683246) said on November 29 in a interview on Radio Republic Indonesia “If Papuans wish to talk about independence of a nation-state, find another place to talk… We will permit no event regarding flag raising, if there is, its shoot to kill on sight”.
This statement is an eerie echo of Ali Murtopo, the architect of Suharto’s military takeover of West Papua, who in 1969 told the 1025 imprisoned delegates to the contentious Act of “free” Choice – the disputed process by which Indonesia took over West Papua – “We do not want you Papuan’s, we just want your land. If you want a country of your own, you can go to the moon. Vote for Indonesia,’ or we will cut out your accursed tongues”.
In Nabire and Biak, prayer gatherings will take place instead of flag raising due to fear.
In Merauke, on the edge of the Torres Strait, 1600 troops from the Indonesian army were airdropped down on November 29, and unconfirmed reports have filtered through of flagraising actions near the vast Merauke Integrate Food and Energy Estate.
The Australian trained Indonesian special force unit Kopassus is also deploying significantly across Papua to crackdown on peaceful free expression. Confirmed reports from disgruntled Kopassus sources to West Papua Media are describing 213 troops (2 companies) being deployed in Keerom and Jayapura, and another two companies of Kopassus have been deployed in Yakuhimo regency in the Highlands. Local human rights sources have described these Kopassus groups as “waiting around for a chance to crackdown”.
International media and human rights organisations are banned from Papua by Jakarta, however close monitoring of the situation is occurring through international media in conjunction with citizen media sources.
The Australian Government, while deepening ties with the Indonesian military despite widespread international condemnation of it’s human rights abuses, claimed to West Papua Media that Australia and Indonesia regularly exchange views on the situation in Papua. According to a spokesperson for the Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, “The Australian Government closely follows developments in the Papuan provinces … and encourages all concerned to act with restraint”. No mention was made of the need for Indonesian forces to allow peaceful political expression to occur without escalation.
West Papua Media will be monitoring this developing situation closely, and encourages other journalists to maintain close contact with us.
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Amnesty: ‘Slap on the wrist’ for police violence in Papua is accountability failure
These written warnings are a slap on the wrist. They do not provide accountability for the deaths of three people, or for the use of excessive and unnecessary force against a peaceful gathering.
The bodies of Demianus Daniel, Yakobus Samonsabara, and Max Asa Yeuw were later found near the Congress area.
“These written warnings are a slap on the wrist. They do not provide accountability for the deaths of three people, nor for the use of excessive and unnecessary force against a peaceful gathering,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director.
Some 300 participants were arbitrarily arrested and ill-treated at the end of the Congress. Most were released the following day but six have been charged and are currently awaiting trial.
Amnesty International has called on the authorities to act on the findings of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) that rights violations were committed by security forces, and to prosecute those responsible.
“Even though the Indonesian authorities have a responsibility to prosecute human rights violators, this is yet another example of how in Indonesia, human rights crimes committed by police officers never reach civilian courts, but are dealt with through inhouse disciplinary hearings,” said Sam Zarifi.
“Internal disciplinary procedures are for dealing with minor offences, not serious human rights violations.”
Amnesty International also urges the Indonesian authorities to set up an independent police complaints mechanism to deal with human rights violations by police officers.
Current bodies such as the National Police Commission or the National Human Rights Commission do not have the powers to deal effectively with complaints about police abuses, nor to provide reparations to victims.
A Komnas HAM investigation team found a range of human rights violations were allegedly committed by the Indonesian security forces on 19 October, including opening fire on the peaceful Papuan gathering and beating and kicking participants.
It was reported on 7 November that the President’s office had rejected the Komnas HAM findings, stating that the police were still handling the case.
On 22 November, an internal police disciplinary hearing in Jayapura, Papua found the former Jayapura Police Chief Iman Setiawan guilty of violating the Disciplinary Code for “his inability to co-ordinate police officers under his command”.
Seven police officers from Jayapura City were also found guilty of violating the code for not “protecting and servicing the community with the best of their ability” and “degrading the honour and dignity of the state and the police”. They were all each given a written warning.
The disciplinary hearings for the seven police officers were reportedly held behind closed doors.
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New Report Reveals Extent of Papua Human Rights Violations
Press Release from Tapol, Franciscans International, Asian Human Rights Commission and Faith Based Network on West Papua (FBN)
NGOs meet in Geneva to address their concerns on the situation of Human Rights in Papua
Geneva, 3 November 2011
Following last month’s violent dispersal by Indonesian security forces of the Third Papuan Peoples’ Congress in Jayapura, Indonesia has been confronted with the full scale of human rights problems in Papua by the new Report ‘Human Rights in Papua 2010/2011’.[1] This was launched yesterday in Geneva, by the Faith Based Network on West Papua (FBN), Franciscans International (FI), and the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).
The Report portrays the bleak reality of the abuse of civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights in Papua in 2010 and 2011. The aim of the Report is to raise awareness of the human rights situation in Papua and to create in Papua a ‘land of peace’.
More specifically, the Report draws attention to the hardship faced by national and international civil society as well as by local human rights defenders who are too often victims of intimidation, harassment and arbitrary detention on the charge of makar (treason) while exercising their right to freedom of expression in their struggle for justice and accountability. The Report further denounces the policy of the Government of Indonesia aimed at discrediting, limiting and jeopardizing the work of international human rights organizations working in Papua, including denied access to international media through the manipulation of bureaucracy. As a result, certain international organizations are directly or indirectly forced to withdraw from the country, as was the case of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) and Peace Brigades International (PBI).
With a view to presenting the Report and raising awareness on the recent tragic events, Franciscans International organised a round table discussion. This was attended by representatives of the Faith Based Network on West Papua, Geneva for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, Papua Peace Network (JDP -Jaringan Damai Papua), Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders TAPOL, World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), and the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia to the United Nations.
In response to the numerous issues and concerns raised during the discussion, the representative of the Permanent Mission of Indonesia made an official statement asserting that “human rights protection is a national priority”. Despite the appreciation for the participation of the Permanent Mission of Indonesia, this statement was visibly met with strong disagreement by NGOs. They attested that “Political statements are not enough to address human rights violations in Papua, since – the reality is -a climate of fear prevails in Papua”.
The NGOs present concluded by calling upon the Government of Indonesia to: Immediately release all political prisoners; Immediately cease intimidation, harassment and physical violence against human rights defenders, journalists, and religious leaders in Papua; to criminalise torture and ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture; ratify the International Convention on Enforced Disappearances; and to Start a genuine dialogue with national and international civil society.
For more information on the report Human Rights in Papua 2010/2011, please contact:
Kristina Neubaeur –Faith Based Network on West Papua, Coordinator
Francesca Restifo – Franciscans International, International Advocacy Director
Paul Barber – TAPOL, Coordinator: +44 7747 301 739; paul.barber@tapol.org
Wong Kai Shing – Asian Human Rights Commission, Executive Director
1] Available at http://tapol.gn.apc.org/press/files/Human-Rights-in-Papua_Report-2010-2011.pdf
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Report on wrongful arrest of 15 civilians n Wahno-Varia, W Papua
Report on wrongful arrest and torture of 15 civilians in Wahno-Vuria hill, Kotaraja, Jayapura town, Papua Province, 31 August 2011
Produced by: Investigation team comprising KomnasHAM Papua, a student or representative of Cendrawasih University Jayapura, and representatives
and members of the Baptist, Kingmi and Catholic churches
Published by: the Fellowship of Baptist Churches of Papua
September 2011
This is a TAPOL summary
The report is based on the results of an investigation by the Fellowship of Baptist Churches in Papua, including witness statements from the victims and their families, in an aim to publish the facts from the ground.
During July and August 2011, there have been a number of events affecting the security situation in Papua. These include a number of mysterious murders for which the perpetrator(s) remain unknown, civilian deaths and injuries caused by security forces, repressive actions by security forces, clashes between the security forces and OPM/TPN, election unrest including demos and violence, an attack on the 5-7 July “Papua Peace Conference” at Cenderawasih University, a simultaneous murder at Skyline Jayapura, and a series of events accompanying and following on from the seminar in Oxford, England organized by the International Lawyers for West Papua. A common feature seems to be that on several occasions the murders and other acts of violence occurred simultaneously across different locations. In most cases the perpetrators appear to remain unknown.
Background to the event on 31 August 2011
According to Biben Kogoya, Chair of RT 08 (RT is the smallest unit of neighbourhood governance), following a meeting of all RT/RW chairs last year, all sharp weapons kept in houses of the local population under the area of their jurisdiction should be collected and kept in the houses of the RT/RW chairs, which Biben Kogoya duly did. He had heard shortly before the incident that there was going to be a sweeping. He states that in the week leading up to the incident he had been trying to call the local police in Abepura to inform them of some new TNI members who had been hanging around the area each night between 25-29 August, providing alcohol and encouraging the young people to drink, and asking
them to point out the houses of people they were looking for, including Danny Kogoya, Panius Kogoya, Ekimar Kogoya, Etra Yanengga, and Gidi Wenda.
However, the police did not answer the phone or respond to his reports as chair of RT 08. On 29 August, Biben had decided to sort this out, but he did not get the chance to do so as he was then arrested.
The events of 31 August 2011:
At 05:00-06:00 on 31 August 2011 a combined unit of 115 members of the army and police carried out sweeping and a siege of 4 houses in the Wahno hill area, RT 08 in Kotaraja Luar, Jayapura. One of the houses targeted was that of Biben Kogoya (Chair of RT 08). The combined forces arrived in 6 Avanza cars and a police truck, with two of the units equipped with black batons. They parked 500 meters from the houses in question and placed the area in question under siege, firing a volley of shots towards the houses.
A total of 15 people, including Biben Kogoya, were beaten, tortured, interrogated and exhorted to confess to having committed the Skyline and Nafri murders. Victims were beaten with rifle butts, kicked, slapped, and forced to lie on the ground for a number of hours. Biben Kogoya was particularly singled out for beatings, and was confronted with an apparently unearthed bullet and some documents, and told to confess to owning these items or be murdered and buried. He was then forced to dig a hole whilst surrounded by security forces who had their guns aimed at him. He was frightened and thought that he was digging his own grave, but managed to escape into the open. The combined unit also brought a photograph of the soldier who was murdered on Jalan Baru, Camp Wolker (23/08/11) and asked Biben Kogoya if he had killed him. The photo was put inside his family photo album and taken out of the family room - he said he had never put that photograph of the soldier in the photo album.
Then the soldiers said it was Kogoya who killed him, this is the proof, look, it’s in his album. Meanwhile, Ekimar Kogoya was tortured until, unable to withstand the pain any longer, he confessed to the murders. When pushed to name an accomplice he then named Panius Kogoya.
The houses were ransacked and a number of items such as handphones, money, shoes, a watch, wallets and a bank card were seized.
Throughout the experience, the victims were subjected to degrading treatment, being called variously “dog, pig, cow, animals, murderers, cannibals.” They were also stigmatized as OPM members.
As Biben Kogoya escaped from digging the hole/grave, the Vicar Metius Kogoya arrived, shortly followed by the arrival of the Head of Abepura Police and the provincial Head of Police (Kapolda). According to the witness statement of the Vicar, the leaders said to their staff “don’t hit them anymore, what’s happened here is already enough.”
Between 12 and 13:00 on 31 August the 15 people were brought to the Polresta. They were left in the locked truck for some time in the full sun, finding it hard to breath and hurting from their wounds. They complained, and the truck was moved to the shade. Then they were taken one by one to sign a notice, without having a lawyer present. They were each photographed, then sat in front of the door of the investigation unit and interrogated. They were put back in the truck around 23:00-24:00 to sleep except Ekimar and Panius who were detained separately. They reportedly waited for hours in the truck without food or drink until 06:00 on 1 September. 3 of them became ill and were laid on the floor of the truck. One policeman helped us, giving us a litre of water (between 13 of us) and a packet of cigarettes. When they woke in the morning they were not allowed to go to the toilet to urinate or defecate but were told to go to the toilet in the open yard of the police station.
On 1 September at 11:40, the leaders of the Baptist church and human rights activists, accompanied by Matius Murib arrived to visit the detainees, who were sitting in front of the investigation unit of the police station, with the others lying asleep as they had malaria. 13 detainees were released and were taken home at 15:00, arriving at their house at 17:00. Ekimar and Panius remained in custody.
On 2 September, the 13 victims who had been sent home were taken to the hospital for a medical check up to be given the OK. It turned out three of them were sick with malaria, so were not given the all clear. They were:
1. Uwne Kogoya (23) malaria tertian +4
2. Yawenus Kogoya (21) malaria tropika +2
3. Nusman Kogoya (19) high leukosits.
On 3 September the Vicar was called by the police station to come and collect the arrest and detention notices for Panius Kogoya and Ekimar Kogoya, who were both charged with murder and/or violence in a public place against a person or object.
Condition of the victims
Following the incident, the victims suffered internal bruising and were traumatized. They were not able to carry out normal activities or travel very far. Biben Kogoya’s ability to remember, hear and see properly was reportedly impaired, and his control over his emotions was abnormal. On 6 September Uwen Wenda was reportedly still in Abepura hospital with malaria tropika and tersiana.
Key recommendations
· Intelligence should be good, accurate and accountable.
· Those currently imprisoned should be released as they are not guilty for the Nafri and Skyline cases.
· The central and Papuan provincial governments should sit down together and discuss the security situation across Papua, which is increasingly unstable.
· The Head of Jayapura Police must be accountable for the arrest and torture of 15 civilians on 31 August, which took place without due legal process.
· Those police and soldiers involved should be punished in accordance with the law.
· The torture, humiliation and stigmatization which happened during the arrests are considered to be grave human rights violations (pelanggaran HAM yang berat).
· The police are responsible for reparations for both material damage and for the psychological recovery of the victims.
· A formal and public apology is needed from the Indonesian police to the victims and their families within ten days.
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15 Papuans mistreated and tortured by army and police
16 September 2011
FIFTEEN PAPUANS MISTREATED AND TORTURED BY ARMY AND POLICE
TAPOL strongly condemns the use of violence and torture against Papuan detainees
A report has been released following a joint investigation into the maltreatment and torture of a group of 15 Papuans in connection with two criminal incidents that occurred recently in West Papua. The report, published by Papuan church leaders, the NGO network Foker and the Papua Human Rights Commission, states that 15 Papuans were arrested in Jayapura on 31 August and were mistreated and tortured for nine hours by a joint force of military and police. They were reportedly beaten with rifle butts, punched, kicked in the stomach with army boots and subjected to continual verbal abuse in an attempt to force them to
confess to the as yet unsolved murders at Nafri and Skyline in Jayapura.
One of the men said he had been threatened with death if he failed to confess to owning items including a bullet and some documents which he said he had not seen before, and another was reportedly tortured until he confessed to the murders and named another of the men as his accomplice. During police interrogation, the two were threatened with death if they did not confess to the crimes. They were then charged with the murders and remain in detention.
After the remaining thirteen men were released, they said that they had also been forced to lie on their backs on the ground facing the blazing sun for seven hours. They further commented that they felt as though they were being treated like cattle. They were deprived of water and food for lengthy periods while being beaten and tortured and no attention was paid to the injuries and bruises that they suffered during their ordeal. They said that they were weak and in some cases fell ill as a result of their treatment but were denied access to a toilet and ordered to urinate and defecate out in the open.
Apart from the appalling treatment to which they were reportedly subjected, the detainees were arrested without arrest warrants and during their interrogation, they were not accompanied by lawyers despite the associated requirement for persons in detention when they are given notice that they are about to be questioned.
Moreover, according to legal requirements they should have been released within 24 hours, a binding requirement for persons who are held without being charged for any crime. They were in fact held for 27 hours.
TAPOL strongly condemns the atrocious treatment of these Papuans. We call on Komnas HAM, the National Human Rights Commission, to conduct an investigation into the treatment of these Papuan detainees. TAPOL also calls on the Minister of Justice and Human Rights to call to account all those persons who were responsible for using extreme violence and torture against this group of men.
The government of Indonesia should make it absolutely clear that all persons who work for government agencies within the military and the police, including those which were involved in the detention and mistreatment of these fifteen men should at all times treat persons being held in detention without resorting to violence and torture and should be instructed to refrain from using such methods or face dismissal if they do so.
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- KNPB on the recent acts of violence in Papua (westpapuamedia.info)
- KontraS: Arrest and torture of 13 Papuans have worsened the situation in Papua (westpapuamedia.info)
- Warinussy on the politics behind the recent conflicts in Papua (westpapuamedia.info)
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Kontras: SBY must prioritiser the Papuan problem and stop the Escalation of Violence
THE PRESIDENT MUST GIVE PRIORITY TO REACHING A DIGNIFIED SOLUTION TO THE PAPUAN PROBLEM AND TO PREVENTING THE ESCALATION OF VIOLENCE IN PAPUA
There are fears that the prospects for peace in the land of Papua will become increasingly difficult for three reasons. The first is the escalation in the level of violence that has been disrupting the situation in Papua. The second is the total lack of accountability regarding security operations in Papua by the TNI, the Indonesian army, and Polri, the police force., and the third is the ambivalence in the President’s attitude towards the Papuan problem. If nothing is done
about these three problems, it can lead to activities that would be counter-productive for achieving a dignified solution to the Papuan situation.
The first problem, the latest in the occurrence of acts of violence in Papua, happened on Sunday, 21 August when a man named Das Komba, 30 years old, was found dead, having been murdered near his garden. Prior to this, there was information that the TNI in Arso would be holding training exercises near this man’s garden. Two women who usually garden nearby had met several people who were thought to be members of the TNI somewhere near the garden. This led to people in the vicinity becoming very fearful and feeling very unsafe. The killing came on top of a spate of incidents of violence and killings [altogether nine during August] that have occurred in Papua, particularly in the wake of the Papuan Peace Conference .
The second problem relates to the deployment of TNI forces and the role of Polri in Papua. The deployment of troops is not related to any political decision by the President or the Indonesian parliament, the DPR RI, but was promoted by the TNI. Such a political move should be accompanied by a clear mechanism for accountability as provided for in our laws. It is therefore abundantly clear that the security operations by the TNI are illegal and are in breach of the regulations. The government should have learnt from past experience in Aceh and Timor-Leste that the security approach never solves problems but only
intensifies the issues, making any solution even more difficult.
The illegal use of TNI forces also provides more evidence of the weak role of Polri in taking charge of security in Papua. Polri is increasingly showing that it lacks confidence in itself and its incapacity to take charge of security, in accordance with its mandate as stipulated in the Law on Polri. The government should be providing as much support as possible for the role of Polri in safeguarding security for the general pubic with the use of persuasive methods.
Aother problem that is no less important is the recent leak of Kopassus operational documents which drew attention to the huge role of intelligence and to the clarification of the TNI’s active role in pursuing the security approach in Papua.
The third problem relates to the attitude of the government, in particular the ambivalence of the President. In a series of interviews, the President has spoken about achieving wellbeing for Papua. But on the other hand, security continues to be the main approach and is not accompanied by any overall correction to security operations that do not promote the safety and sense of security of the people in general.
We therefore make the following demands:
1. The President of Indonesia should hold dialogue with the Papuan people representing all the interests of the Papuan people . This should be done in a dignified manner and should respect basic human rights.
2. The President of Indonesia should adopt a firm attitude to stop all the polemics going on among his ministers and pursue a single policy for Papua. The policy should be directed towards a model for solving the conflict and not just consist of speculations and stigmas.
3. The government should put an end to the continuing acts of violence and killings that have been occurring in Papua and make an evaluation of the presence and deployment of TNI forces, while maximising the role of Polri as the ones who are responsible for security.
4. All sides should play an active part in halting all forms of violence which can only have a negative impact on the peace process which is what the general public wants to happen.
Jakarta, 23 August 2011
Kontras: Commission for the Disappeared and the Victims of Violence
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Supporting Accountability, Not Separatism, in Indonesia
Elaine Pearson
Deputy Asia Director, Human Rights Watch
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-pearson/supporting-accountability_b_932075.html
The list appears among 500 pages of Indonesian military documents, which recently came to light, that provide an insider view of the military’s surveillance operations in Papua. the country’s easternmost province.
Most of the documents concern the activities of Indonesia’s Special Forces, or Kopassus. The US should be paying close attention since a year ago it restored full military ties with Kopassus, which had been suspended for years because of the force’s notorious human rights record.
Officially, Kopassus operates in Papua to monitor and suppress the Papuan separatist movement, the Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka, or OPM), which has been engaged in an armed struggle against the Indonesian government since the 1960s. The documents show, however, that the focus of Indonesian military operations in Papua goes far beyond the roughly 1,000 poorly armed rebels and includes a broad swathe of Papuan political, traditional, and religious leaders, and civil society groups who are spied on by a vast network of Papuan informants.
The documents show that the military believes it has more to fear from peaceful “political separatist” activity than from armed separatists. A 2007 Kopassus report states, “Current political activity in Papua is very dangerous compared to the activities of Papuan armed groups because their access already reaches abroad.”
The problem, as the documents make clear, is that pretty much anyone who challenges authority is automatically deemed a separatist. A couple of years ago I met a Papuan family from Jayapura, the provincial capital, who were pro-Indonesia. They told me how their son had taken a romantic stroll on a nearby beach with his girlfriend when they were set upon by eight naval officers, who beat him up and forced the pair to engage in humiliating sexual acts. The family tried to complain to the police and to the naval base to no avail. The youth’s cousin told me, “I am a Papuan woman and an Indonesian citizen. We are not separatists, but whenever anyone tries to stand up for their rights, they are called separatists – that’s how they silence us.”
The reports indicate that Kopassus believes nongovernmental organizations primarily work to discredit the Indonesian government and the armed forces by using the “human rights issue” to garner international condemnation of Indonesia’s military presence in Papua and to promote Papuan independence.
Human Rights Watch has long documented violations by Indonesian security forces in Papua. For years, the military denied the reports of human rights violations in Papua, even when faced with overwhelming evidence. This lack of accountability gives security forces a green light to commit abuses against the local population. However, the recent growth in cell phone video is making it more difficult to deny abuses.
Last year, a film uploaded to YouTube showed soldiers brutally torturing two farmers in Papua, kicking them, threatening one with a knife to his face, and repeatedly jabbing the other in the genitals with burning wood. A prolonged international outcry finally forced the military to take action. In the end, three soldiers got light sentences for “disobeying orders” rather than torture. It is unclear whether the military has discharged any of them. Two months earlier, soldiers from the same battalion shot and killed Rev. Kinderman Gire on the suspicion he was a separatist. At the trial, the defendants claimed Gire led them to believe he was a member of OPM and tried to grab a rifle from one of them, who then shot him in the chest. They dumped the body in a river, after trying to cut off his head. Last week a military tribunal convicted three soldiers, again only for “disobeying orders,” and sentenced them to six, seven and fifteen months in prison.
Indonesia’s military has heralded such light sentences for torture and killing as “appropriate.” Perhaps this is not surprising given a US Defense Department official characterized the prosecution of the video torture case as “progress.”
Last year, when resuming full military ties, then-US Defense Secretary Robert Gates described how Indonesia’s defense minister “publicly pledged to protect human rights and advance human rights accountability and committed to suspend from active duty military officials credibly accused of human rights abuses, remove from military service any member convicted of such abuses, and cooperate with the prosecution of any members of the military who have violated human rights.”
The revelations in the military documents don’t appear to have changed any thinking inside the Indonesian armed forces. Responding to recent articles about the documents, an Indonesian military spokesman told the Jakarta Post: “There is no such thing as a repressive or militant approach. What we do is always a welfare approach, where we help Papuans have better lives.”
And the old pattern of military denials continues. Where individual cases garner international attention, the Indonesian military has understood that all it needs to do to continue receiving US military funding is to slap soldiers on the wrist for “disobeying orders” rather than prosecute them for serious crimes. The US has conveyed multiple messages of disappointment to the Indonesian government and military on individual cases such as the video torture trial. But US unwillingness to impose significant consequences, such as suspending new military cooperation, tells the Indonesians and others that the US doesn’t insist on sticking to its standards.
The US should call on the Indonesian government to fully disclose all military tribunal cases involving alleged abuses against civilians, including prosecutions for “disobeying orders,” and provide transcripts to the public. Until the Indonesian government re-examines these cases, in line with the US Leahy law, which prevents the US from cooperating with abusive military units, the US government should not participate in joint endeavors with military personnel or units working in Papua. The US should also call on Indonesia’s military to stop viewing peaceful political activists as threats to national security and stop spying on them.
Both the US and Indonesia should recognize that people like Senator Leahy, who are named in the Papua military documents, were not seeking to challenge Indonesian sovereignty, but simply to defend the international standards for accountability that the Indonesian military is undermining.
Elaine Pearson is the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Follow Elaine Pearson onTwitter.
Related articles
- Comments on ICGs Hope and Hard Reality in Papua: (westpapuamedia.info)
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- Elaine Pearson: Supporting Accountability, Not Separatism in Indonesia (huffingtonpost.com)
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ROAD TO FREEDOM IN JAYAPURA – Video
by Frengky Making
The rally organised by the National Committee for West Papua (KNPB) on August 2 2011 was led by Mako Tabuni from KNPB. The protesters were on the streets the whole day. There were more than 10,000 people, from Sentani, Jayapura as well as students from Abepura. The peaceful rally was organised to support the seminar by International Lawyer for West Papua (ILWP), initiated by Benny Wenda in London, the UK, which looked into the history of the 1969′s People’s Act of Free Choice (PEPERA).
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07:05KomnasHAM-Papua condemns recent violence and makes recommendations
Bintang Papua. 15 August 2011
Jayapura: Komnas HAM, the National Human Rights Commission has condemned the brutal actions by unidentified people against innocent civilians as well as members of the security forces.that have occurred since June in
the province of Papua.
The chairman of Komnas HAM’s office in Papua, Julles R.A Onggen SH, together with other members of the commission called a press conference to discuss the security situation in Papua. They said that the significant increase in acts of violence was very worrying indeed, particular because of its impact on the need to safeguard peace in Papua.
They made the following points and recommendations:
First, they strongly condemned the many acts of violence perpetrated by unidentified persons towards the civilian population and members of the
armed forces acting in the course of their duties.
Second, they called on the police to take action speedily and objectively in accordance with the laws in force regarding acts of violence, while at the same time not forgetting to use the cultural approach in accordance with the terms of special autonomy to minimise these acts of violence.
Third, the Commission has set up a joint team consisting of the Komnas HAM, the DPRP, the provincial government of Papua, local governments, the churches and NGOs to investigate these acts of violence, each making their own specific contribution.
Fourth, it called upon all sections of the community to remain calm, not to be provoked, to live peacefully together, respecting each other in order to safeguard security.
Fifth, to request the military commander of Kodam XVII to clarify the issue of the KINGMI Church and it will set up a team to investigate the matter.
Sixth, in accordance with the provisions of article 34 of the Constitution, the Commission will seek the commitment of the national government as well as local governments to provide social security for the dispossessed, the poor, the street children and the unemployed people.
Seventh: in connection with the sixth point, to call upon the provincial government to put this into practice in accordance with the special autonomy law.
Other points dealt with the recognition of collective rights, including the need for peace, for development and for a healthy and clean environment. The provincial government should also ensure that civil and political rights are safeguarded, such as the right to compensation for those whose rights have been violated, freedom of thought and freedom of religion.
It also called on the provincial government to safeguard people’s economic, political and social rights, freedom from fear and impoverishment and from racial discrimination, the right to get a job with a decent wage.
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The Age: Independence at threat from enemy within
Tom Allard
August 13, 2011
Mako Tabuni, KNPB leader addresses a crowd on August 2Papuans remain under Indonesia’s menacing grip, reports Tom Allard from Jakarta.
It would seem, to most observers, to be a singularly unremarkable venture. A group of American tourists visiting a cultural centre in the Papuan town of Abepura, just outside the capital Jayapura. On the agenda was an opportunity to view some historical artefacts and watch a traditional dance.
But, as the group of some 180 visitors toured the facility and enjoyed the performance, they were being watched. In the shadows was an informant for Indonesia’s elite special forces unit, Kopassus.
Indigenous traders sell produce in Jayapura, where migrants own many businesses.In a report back to his handler, the informant observed the tourists had been warmly welcomed by the centre’s manager and been amused and entranced by the dance. The visit had lasted precisely 35 minutes, from 11.50am to 12.25pm, and had been ”safe and smooth”.
The informant warned there was no room for complacency, a point heartily endorsed by the Kopassus handler, Second Lieutenant Muhammad Zainollah.
”With visits from overseas tourists to Papua, there is the possibility of influencing conditions of Papuan society,” Lieutenant Zainollah wrote in his report to the local Kopassus commander. ”Politically, there needs to be a deeper detection of the existence hidden behind it all because of the possibility of a process of deception … such as meetings with pro-independence groups.”
The note is bizarre and even amusing. It is one of hundreds of intelligence briefs obtained by the Herald from Kopassus intelligence posts in Papua and part of a cache of 19 documents that includes a highly detailed analysis of the ”anatomy” of the separatist movement.
But it is also instructive of what the material in its entirety reveals: the Indonesian government runs a network of spies and informants in Papua that is staggering in its scope and range of targets. And infecting all the reporting and analysis is a deep paranoia that is both astonishing and disturbing.
In the easternmost reaches of Indonesia’s sprawling archipelago and located in the western half of the island of New Guinea, the resource-rich region of Papua is a running sore and source of angst and embarrassment for Indonesia, a country that has otherwise made substantial strides as a democratic and economic power.
Despite being granted special autonomy 10 years ago and targeted for accelerated economic development, its indigenous Melanesian people are the country’s poorest and many are deeply unhappy with Jakarta’s rule and a heavy security presence.
The documents, which date from 2006 to 2009, reveal that independence activists and members of the OPM-TPN, the small armed resistance, are under intense surveillance, but so too are many ordinary Papuans and civic leaders who do not advocate independence but are concerned about the advancement of their people or are influential in the community.
”Everyone is a separatist until they can prove they are not,” says Neles Tebay, a pastor and convener of the Papua Peace Network that is promoting dialogue with Jakarta. Around the capital, Jayapura, there are 10 Kopassus spy networks infiltrating ”all levels of society”, including the university, government agencies, the local parliament, hotels and the Papuan Customary Council.
A worker at a car rental agency tips off his Kopassus handler whenever a suspicious customer visits the establishment or talks about ”M”, shorthand for ”merdeka” or freedom. A phone shop employee ”often provides information on the phone numbers of people purchasing phone credits”.
Journalists, university students, bureaucrats, church leaders, teachers, motorcycle taxi drivers, clan leaders, village chiefs, farmers and forest workers are all on the books of Kopassus. One leader of the OPM-TPN has eight Kopassus informants within his network, including a 14-year-old family member.
Each of the informants, who cannot be identified to protect their safety, is described by temperament and motivation. The motivation is usually ”to make money”. Temperaments range from ”hard-working”, ”courageous” and ”quiet” to ”unstable”, ”explosive” and ”drunk”.
And the Kopassus intelligence documents are just a snapshot of the total campaign under way in Papua. Other units of the Indonesian military, known as the TNI, run similar operations, as do the police. There are also scores of agents in Papua from Indonesia’s national intelligence agency, known by its acronym BIN.
Benny Giay, a leader of the Gospel Tabernacle Church, is one of the civic leaders branded a separatist and targeted by Kopassus. For Dr Giay, the suffocating presence of the intelligence network is part of daily life, as is interference in the affairs of his church by the military.
”If someone joins the church, we always have to ask ourselves, ‘what did they come here for? Are they intels or worshippers?’,” he says.
And, given the disappearance and deaths of other leaders under the gaze of Kopassus, the surveillance leaves Giay constantly uneasy. ”I have to check my meals to make sure they are not poisoned and I have to be home by 7pm. If I walk around after then, I have to bring someone with me, always.”
Marcus Haluk, the secretary general of the Central Highlands Papuan Student Association, features heavily in the documents. It seems most of his meetings are attended by a Kopassus spy.
”I’ve lost count of the attempts to kill or threaten me,” he says. ”I’ve had guns pointed at my head, I’ve been thrown from a motorcycle. There are always SMS threats.”
Underpinning the spying is the view that most institutions in Papua are riddled with separatists. The documents outline a two-stage intelligence operation to address the perceived problem.
The first involves disrupting alleged separatist networks and the second is dubbed the ”diminishing dominant influence phase” or ensuring ”traditional institutions used for politics in Papua lose the trust of the indigenous peoples of Papua”.
In short, the objective is to discredit the institutions and arrangements introduced by the central government under Papua’s special autonomy deal introduced in 2001, the very policy supposed to give Papuans economic and cultural rights, dampen independence sentiment and secure national unity.
Agus Sumule, a long-term resident of Papua and adviser to Papua’s Governor, Barnabas Suebu, is an immigrant, a nationalist and was a key player in drafting the special autonomy laws which created a new legislative body to represent indigenous Papuans known as the Majelis Rakyat Papua (MRP).
Special autonomy has never had a chance, he argues, and much of that blame lies with Jakarta’s refusal to implement it properly.
Papua was divided into two provinces against the wishes of the MRP, Dr Sumule says. Moreover, the home affairs ministry interferes in the election of MRP candidates, and has banned people from taking their seats. Despite provisions in the special autonomy law for symbols of Papuan identity to be displayed, the cherished Morning Star flag has been outlawed. Those caught displaying it can be sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Some $3 billion in aid has flowed from the central government to the region in the past decade, but it is handed out haphazardly and most of it has been siphoned off by corrupt officials or wasted on bureaucracies to support the new province and dozens of new regencies in Papua.
Meanwhile, Papua has been swamped by migrants from other parts of Indonesia who dominate its economy. Explaining the economic disparity, one Kopassus report offered a plainly racist rationale. Indigenous Papuans ”lack the willingness to work and the willingness to make a better life, so their lives seem to be making no substantial progress”, it said. Migrants, in contrast, had a ”high spirit and work ethic”.
Asked about the extensive intelligence operations, Dr Sumule observed: ”On the one hand its paranoia, but it’s also much more than paranoia. It shows they don’t have a relevant policy for Papua, an understanding of Papua or what Papua should be in Indonesia. The problem with the intelligence is it’s not intelligent. They send so much wrong information for the people in Jakarta, and they make decisions on it. It’s very dangerous.”
Indeed, the major report on the Anatomy of Separatists had a detailed section on the alleged foreign support networks for a ”Free Papua” and it bears out Dr Sumule’s criticism of the quality of the intelligence.
The list of 32 Australians includes academics, politicians and religious leaders who could understandably be placed in the category. Others have simply shown an interest in Papuan affairs, raised concerns about human rights or are journalists.
The appearance of the former current affairs host Naomi Robson on the list is a stand-out.
The former Today Tonight host, now running a web-based dating service and TV show, presumably gets a mention because she entered Papua without media accreditation in 2006 to ”save” Wa-wa, the boy who was the subject of a story by rival program60 Minutes.
Famously, Channel Nine’s current affairs flagship alleged Wa-wa was destined to be consumed by his fellow Korowai tribespeople, who were cannibals, but after filming they left him behind to an uncertain fate.
Foreigners in Papua are viewed suspiciously, especially non-government groups. Indonesia has expelled several foreign NGOs from the territory in recent years. The International Committee of the Red Cross is banned from visiting more than 100 political prisoners. By contrast, the ICRC is allowed into Guantanamo Bay and could visit prisons in apartheid-era South Africa.
One part of the intelligence analysis that is presumably more accurate is the assessment of the strength of the OPM-TPN. It is reckoned to have 1129 fighters with mixed weapons totalling only 131, and grenades.
While the poorly armed resistance fighters do have some success in ambushing Indonesian military posts and are adept at hiding in Papua’s mountainous terrain, the low estimate of their strength calls into question why there is such a large military presence in Papua.
The Indonesian government will not release precise figures on its armed deployments in Papua, but since special autonomy was introduced in 2001, it has doubled the number of battalions from three to six. It has 114 posts along the border with Papua New Guinea alone.
Estimates put the military numbers at about 15,000, roughly 13 soldiers for every armed separatist.
As one Indonesian official told a US embassy staffer, revealed in cables released by WikiLeaks: ”The TNI has far more troops in Papua than it is willing to admit, chiefly to protect and facilitate TNI interests in illegal logging operations.”
The massive military and intelligence apparatus in Papua makes a lie of Indonesia’s insistence that it long ago junked its ”security” approach to managing Papua and it is now formulating policy under the rubric of ”development and prosperity,” says Neles Tebay.
”[The troops] are trained to see Papuans as the enemy,” he adds. ”I’m not saying all the troops are bad but if one group of them is threatening the indigenous people then it creates widespread fear. Also, they are always interrogating people. It’s very threatening.”
Neither the TNI or Kopassus would respond to questions for this article, sent to them two weeks ago. However, it has maintained human rights abuses such as that depicted last year in a video of a man being tortured by soldiers holding a burning stick against his genitals, revealed in the Herald, do not reflect policy.
It also says it devotes energy towards improving living conditions in remote villages. Certainly, the Kopassus documents include accounts of its officers going to hamlets in the remote central highlands region to help with health clinics, building bridges and homes as well playing sport and attending religious and cultural ceremonies.
But, as shown by mass protests in Papuan towns last week, special autonomy has not worked for Papua’s indigenous people or for the Indonesian government. Papuans such as Neles Tebay have called for dialogue and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono talked last year about embarking on ”constructive communication”.
Progress, however, has been painfully slow and, as the cache of documents reveals time and again, the security forces make no distinction between demands for dialogue and militant separatism. If a lasting settlement is to be achieved, many believe it will require a significant scaling back of the military in Papua, its policy influence in Jakarta and the spy networks that treat ordinary Papuans like criminals and worse.
Related articles
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- Acts of violence are damaging the Papuan people, says DPD member (westpapuamedia.info)
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- Photo Report: Mass ralllies show Papuans refuse to accept Indonesian Occupation (westpapuamedia.info)
Anatomy of an Occupation: The Indonesian Military in West Papua
Full Report is available for download and distribution as a pdf Anatomy of an Occupation: The Indonesian Military in West Papua
and the Secret report is available Here
By Jim Elmslie and Camellia Webb-Gannon, with Peter King
Report for the West Papua Project at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS), The University of Sydney, August 2011
Executive Summary
This report deals with a series of Indonesian military documents that were passed to the West Papua Project (WPP) in early 2011.[1] The documents provide remarkable insights into how the Indonesian military (Tentara Nasional Indonesia – TNI), operates within the disputed territory of West Papua (disputed, that is, between the vast majority of Papuans and the Indonesian government), and how they view West Papuan civil society. The documents reveal the names and activities of Indonesian intelligence agents; describe how traditional Papuan communities are monitored; and include a detailed analysis of both the West Papuan armed guerrilla groups and the non-violent civil society organisations which promote self-determination. Identifying so many West Papuan leaders and others as “separatists”, these documents effectively show that support for independence is widespread and surprisingly well organised. West Papuans have long complained of living under an Indonesian military “occupation” and these documents go a long way to Anatomy of an Occupation: The Indonesian Military in West Papuasubstantiating this claim.
The authors of this report have sought to verify information contained in the documents where possible. Much of this information on individuals and Papuan organisations is already well known, although presented here more comprehensively in some respects than ever before. We can therefore be relatively confident that the documents are not fabricated or deliberately misleading, although they do contain inaccuracies, omissions and many obvious examples of false or misleading precision. Names of Indonesian intelligence agents, both Papuan and non-Papuan, are impossible to verify and have been left out of our report. We do believe, however, that the general modus operandi revealed in the documents is a fair representation of how the Indonesian military operates. As many diverse and disputed claims are made about the conflict in West Papua by the Indonesian and other governments, by international commentators and by the Papuans themselves, we believe that this information should be in the public sphere to increase understanding of this little-known, but intense, bitter and long-standing conflict.
The report is split into two sections. The first deals with the 97 slide PowerPoint presentation entitled, Anatomy of Papuan Separatists. The presentation itself can be viewed at http://sydney.edu.au/arts/peace_conflict/research/west_papua_project.shtml. This section acts as a running commentary on the slide show, explaining and contextualising what is an intriguing exposition of the West Papuan armed liberation movement and its non-violent civilian counterpart. The forensic details of the Anatomy leave the reader in no doubt as to the level of military scrutiny under which the Papuans live. It shows just how seriously the Indonesian forces take the threat of “separatism”, especially its attempts to reach out to an international audience. The presentation could accurately be renamed as an Anatomy of the Papuan Occupation.
The second section deals with an assortment of other leaked documents that flesh out the day-to-day reality of living under Indonesian occupation. In both images and text the daily tasks of security force members are outlined as they maintain a close surveillance on communities of traditional Papuans. Details of Indonesian agents – who they are, where they work, what information they can provide – are listed as small links in the heavy chain mesh of an occupation which has at its core the modern practice of “psychological warfare”, PSYOPS. This pernicious system of social control has created a pervasive atmosphere of terror amongst the Papuan population as their lives are manipulated by state actions and threatened with “black operations”. Unsolved, indeed uninvestigated, killings, beatings and rapes occur against a background of a rapidly changing demography as hundreds of thousands of non-Papuan Indonesians move into the province. Predominantly Muslim, the newcomers are adding another layer of tension and fear, as the Muslim-Christian divide widens – taking its cue from the threatened growth of radical Islam in Java and elsewhere.
PSYOPS, as practiced in West Papua, is analysed initially from a general perspective and then from the personal experience of several individual Papuans. As a tool of social control it has been effective in dividing the Papuan people, some of whom now form a Papuan elite that has prospered economically under the bureaucratic “reforms” enacted by the Indonesian government, particularly the creation of two provinces and some 23 new administrative regencies in Papua. However, these documents show that, despite PSYOPS and divide-and-rule administrative policies, there is a high degree of cohesion and unity amongst the West Papuan nationalist majority. Indeed, looking at the Papuan individuals identified in these documents it can be seen that West Papuan nationalism is spread throughout civil society, in the churches, youth groups, customary bodies and political organisations. Far from the desire for self-determination dying out, the younger generation of Papuan leaders is now stridently demanding the rights to which they are entitled by Indonesian law, albeit increasingly as a non-violent, civil resistance movement.
These documents show that Indonesian rule over West Papua can be characterised as an ongoing military/police occupation. Inevitably this involves the systematic infliction of human rights abuses on a civilian population. Our report concludes that Australia should not be co-operating as it does with the TNI elite special forces, Kopassus, because it directly implicates the Australian army and taxpayer in the suffering of the Papuan people. And all Australian military aid to Indonesia should be seriously reconsidered while the military dominated system of occupation persists in Papua. The political and administrative reforms that have benefited so much of Indonesia since 1998 need to be properly implemented in West Papua. Until then West Papua will remain a blight on Indonesia’s international reputation and a place of suffering for its indigenous Melanesian population.
[1] The West Papua Project, at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, The University of Sydney, has operated since 2000 as an academic think tank and research center examining the conflict in West Papua between the indigenous Melanesian people and the Indonesian state and its security forces. During this period the WPP has held many conferences, workshops and briefings, and its affiliates have produced a wide range of publications including books, scholarly articles and reports.
Introduction
This report is based on a series of documents recently leaked into the public domain that relate to military and intelligence operations in West Papua.[1] The most important is entitled Anatomy of Papuan Separatists and it gives observers unprecedented insight into how the Indonesian army views the situation there. Organised as a confidential briefing document, presumably for senior Indonesian military, political and government figures, it clarifies a situation that is generally regarded as opaque. Other documents relate to the use of Papuan and non-Papuan intelligence agents by the TNI and efforts by soldiers to socialise with Papuan village communities (these documents are analysed in the second section of this report). While the Indonesian government bans foreign journalists and researchers from Papua’s two provinces, now confusingly named Papua and West Papua, in an attempt to block information on the situation from reaching the outside world, here is a case where the Indonesians themselves are providing a frank and comprehensive assessment. While undated, the Anatomy document’s reference to US President Barack Obama suggests it was written, or at least finished, sometime after his election on November 4, 2008.
Anatomy of Papuan Separatists is an extraordinary document in the form of an extended PowerPoint presentation. Produced by the TNI,[2] it is a systematic and detailed analysis of the West Papuan political landscape, mapping who the various actors are and where they fit into a larger picture. Almost every leading West Papuan political and military player is included in this analysis – leaving one with the distinct impression that there is no other game in town except “separatism”. In fact the goal for most of the West Papuan leaders in this analysis is independence, which implies that this is also the desired outcome for the overwhelming majority of the Papuan people. So this document is both a study in “separatism” and a blueprint for a military occupation meant to combat that separatism. Separatism is shown to be not a rare sentiment held by the few, but rather the glue which binds together the West Papuan ethnic and political consciousness. We are given a valuable insight into how West Papua and its Indonesian occupation actually work.
The Anatomy file comprises 97 slides and methodically works through the various ways in which the West Papuans confront the Indonesian state. In broad terms the conflict is split between military and political spheres, with some overlap. Both of these spheres are explored in remarkably frank detail. The military analysis of the “separatist” movement is the most detailed ever undertaken, or at least revealed publicly, and shows just how extensive the armed opposition to Indonesian rule is. The Anatomy document provides details of 31 armed groups of the TPN (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional –the National Liberation Army), the military wing of the OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka—the Free Papua Movement) that are spread right across the two provinces (Papua and Papua Barat) that constitute the region referred to collectively in this report as West Papua. Rather than being the ragtag bunch of malcontents – which the OPM/TPN are usually portrayed as — this Anatomy shows them to be a relatively cohesive and deeply entrenched resistance army, highly committed to achieving their goal of independence from Indonesia, even though the Anatomy often seems to imply that all the dozens of groups it identifies across a 40 year period are still functioning pretty much as when first identified.
Before proceeding with analysis of the document we have three general comments.
First, we wish to highlight the pervasiveness of the phenomenon of “separatism” as seen from the (Indonesian military) author’s point of view. Demands for dialogue; the “return” of Special Autonomy to Jakarta, and for demilitarisation, improved human rights, an end to discrimination, economic marginalisation and environmental devastation in West Papua — all amount to only “separatism” in the Anatomy. And separatism is viewed as a legitimate thing for the military to attack; separatists are enemies of the Indonesian state, and therefore enemies of the military and the police. There is no attempt to understand where this sentiment comes from, just to identify its existence to be targeted for destruction. That there are so many separatists does not seem to faze the author(s) of the Anatomy; just to reinforce his (their) sense of mission.
There is little discussion of those Papuans who are not separatists. There are undoubtedly Papuans who have thrown in their lot with Indonesia, one of whom is identified in the Anatomy, Franzalbert Joku. He is the only person of the hundreds listed who has “returned to Indonesia”. Joku is a well-known former independence activist who has given up the struggle as a hopeless cause and works hard to convince other “separatists” to do the same. Later in this report we will explore Joku’s views further as well as those of other prominent Papuans who have eschewed the struggle for freedom.
Second, it is noteworthy that there are so many “separatists” identified in the Anatomy, and that they include so many of the most prominent people from the three generations since the Indonesian takeover of Papua in 1962-3 is striking. While most outside observers dismiss the chance of achieving independence as remote if not impossible, given the power and determination of the Indonesian state and the comparative weakness of the Papuans, many Papuans do not. They are fully committed to the struggle. In fact these documents show that the younger generation, those in their 20s and 30s, are as committed as the older generations. Together the Papuans listed in this document represent most of the current leading figures in West Papuan society. The Anatomy shows how seriously the Indonesian state and military consider the threat of separatism, and indeed it places the people named under grave threat of targeted assassination. Some of them have indeed already been killed since the publication of the document (for instance OPM leader Kelly Kwalik). This has led some informed readers of the Anatomy to describe it as a “hit list” of people targeted for removal.
Thirdly, this document tells us how the Indonesian military views the West Papuan political structure. To an outside observer it is hard to grasp how all the multiple military, social and political Papuan groups relate to each other. Here this complex situation is laid out with surprising clarity: there are traceable lines of authority and engagement — even between various “factions” and geographically isolated groups. One reason that Jakarta has given for refusing to negotiate with the West Papuans over the myriad problems that beset the province is that “we do not know who to negotiate with”.[3] This document undermines that pretext.
[1] These documents have been referred to in a blog site on the internet dated January 30, 2011 at www.nokenlama.blogspot.com/2011/01/kisah-tentang-kekerasan-seksual.html in an entry entitled “Story About Sexual Violence in West Papua [By] Army Personnel”, which refers to “an article titled An Anatomy of Separatists in Papua, [by] Maj. D. Arm Fence”. The article was published by the Secretariat for Justice and Peace, Archdiocese Merauke, Papua. Some others of these documents have been quoted previously (see allannairn.com), although many appear to be new, or at least to have received no public analysis; hence this report.
[2] The author of the Anatomy document is named as Major Arm Fence D Marani.
[3] Private conversation with senior Indonesian officials accompanying President Yudhoyono on his visit to Australia, Sydney University, 8 March, 2010.
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SMH: Under the long arm of Indonesian intelligence
Tom Allard, Indonesia
IT WOULD seem an unremarkable venture – a group of American tourists visiting a cultural centre in the Papuan town of Abepura. But to one observer the event (lasting, as he later reported, precisely 35 minutes) was laden with potential significance.
The man in the shadows as the visitors watched a traditional dance was an informant for Indonesia’s elite special forces unit, Kopassus. In a subsequent report, he noted that, while the visit had been ”safe and smooth”, there was no room for complacency. It was a point heartily endorsed by his Kopassus contact, Second Lieutenant Muhammad Zainollah, who alluded, in a report to his own commander, to the risk of foreign tourists ”influencing conditions of Papuan society”.
”Politically, there needs to be a deeper detection of the existence hidden behind it all,” he warned, ”because of the possibility of a process of deception … such as meetings with pro-independence groups.”
Situated in the easternmost reaches of Indonesia’s sprawling archipelago, the Papua region is a source of continuing embarrassment for Indonesia – a country that has otherwise made substantial strides as a democratic and economic power. Despite being granted special autonomy 10 years ago and targeted for accelerated economic development, its indigenous Melanesian people are the country’s poorest and many are deeply unhappy with Jakarta’s rule and a heavy security presence.
The documents, which date from 2006 to 2009, reveal that independence activists and members of the OPM-TPN, the small armed resistance, are under intense surveillance, but so too are many ordinary Papuans and civic leaders who do not advocate independence but are concerned about the advancement of their people, or are influential in the community.
”Everyone is a separatist until they can prove they are not,” says Neles Tebay, a pastor and convener of the Papua Peace Network that is promoting dialogue with Jakarta.
Around the capital, Jayapura, where many of the documents originate, there are 10 Kopassus spy networks infiltrating ”all levels of society”, including the university, government agencies, the local parliament, hotels and the Papuan Customary Council.
A worker at a car rental agency tips off his Kopassus handler whenever a suspicious customer visits the establishment or talks about ”M”, shorthand for ”merdeka” or freedom. A phone shop employee ”often provides information on the phone numbers of people purchasing phone credits”.
Journalists, university students, bureaucrats, church leaders, teachers, motorcycle taxi drivers, clan leaders, village chiefs, farmers and forest workers are all on the books of Kopassus.
One leader of the OPM-TPN has eight Kopassus informants within his network, including a 14-year-old family member.
Other units of the Indonesian military, known as the TNI, run similar intelligence operations, as do the police. There are also scores of agents in Papua from Indonesia’s national intelligence agency, known by its acronym BIN.
Benny Giay, a leader of the Gospel Tabernacle Church, is one of the civic leaders branded a separatist by Kopassus. For Dr Giay, the suffocating presence of the intelligence network is part of daily life, as is interference in the affairs of his church by the military. ”If someone joins the church, we always have to ask ourselves, ‘What did they come here for? Are they intels or worshippers?’ ” he says.
Given the disappearance and deaths of other leaders under the gaze of Kopassus, the surveillance leaves Giay constantly uneasy. ”I have to check my meals to make sure they are not poisoned and I have to be home by 7pm. If I walk around after then, I have to bring someone with me, always.”
Marcus Haluk, the secretary general of the Central Highlands Papuan Student Association, features heavily in the documents. It seems most of his meetings are attended by a Kopassus spy. ”I’ve lost count of the attempts to kill or threaten me,” he says. ”I’ve had guns pointed at my head, I’ve been thrown from a motorcycle. There are always SMS threats.”
Underpinning the spying is the view that most institutions in Papua are riddled with separatists. The documents outline a two-stage intelligence operation to address the perceived problem. The first involves disrupting alleged separatist networks and the second is dubbed the ”diminishing dominant influence phase” or ensuring ”traditional institutions used for politics in Papua lose the trust of the indigenous peoples of Papua”.
In short, the objective is to discredit the institutions and arrangements introduced by the central government under Papua’s special autonomy deal introduced in 2001 – the very policy supposed to give Papuans economic and cultural rights, dampen independence sentiment and secure national unity.
Agus Sumule, a long-term resident of Papua and adviser to governor Barnabas Suebu, is an immigrant and a nationalist and was a key player in drafting the special autonomy laws which created a new legislative body – known as the Majelis Rakyat Papua (MRP) – to represent indigenous Papuans.
Special autonomy has never had a chance, he argues, and much of the blame lies with Jakarta’s refusal to implement it properly. Papua was divided into two provinces – Papua and West Papua – in 2003 against the wishes of the MRP, Dr Sumule says. Moreover, the home affairs ministry interferes in the election of MRP candidates, and has banned people from taking their seats. Despite provisions in the special autonomy law for symbols of Papuan identity to be displayed, the cherished Morning Star flag has been outlawed. Those caught displaying it can be sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Some $3 billion in aid has flowed from the central government to the region in the past decade, but it is handed out haphazardly and most of it has been siphoned off by corrupt officials or wasted on bureaucracies to support the new province and dozens of new regencies in Papua.
Meanwhile, Papua has been swamped by migrants from other parts of Indonesia who dominate its economy. Explaining the economic disparity, one Kopassus report claimed that indigenous Papuans ”lack the willingness to work and the lack the willingness to make a better life, so their lives seem to be making no substantial progress”. Migrants, in contrast, had a ”high spirit and work ethic”.
Asked about the extensive intelligence operations, Sumule observes: ”On the one hand it’s paranoia, but it’s also much more than paranoia. It shows they don’t have a relevant policy for Papua, an understanding of Papua or what Papua should be in Indonesia.
”The problem with the intelligence is it’s not intelligent,” he adds. ”They send so much wrong information for the people in Jakarta, and they make decisions on it. It’s very dangerous.”
Indeed, the major report on the ”Anatomy of Separatists” had a detailed section on the alleged foreign support networks for a ”Free Papua” and it bears out Dr Sumule’s criticism of the quality of the intelligence. The list of 32 names for Australia includes academics, politicians and religious leaders who could understandably be placed in the category, but many others are not separatist supporters – they have simply shown an interest in Papuan affairs, raised concerns about human rights or are journalists who have reported from the region. The appearance of the former current affairs host Naomi Robson on the list is a standout.
Foreigners in Papua are viewed suspiciously, especially non-government groups. Indeed, Indonesia has expelled several foreign NGOs from the territory in recent years. The International Committee of the Red Cross, for example, is allowed into Guantanamo Bay but banned from visiting more than 100 political prisoners in Papuan jails.
One part of the intelligence analysis that is presumably more accurate is the assessment of the strength of the OPM-TPN. It is reckoned to have just 1129 fighters with mixed weapons totalling only 131, plus some grenades.
While the poorly armed resistance fighters do have some success in ambushing Indonesian military posts, the low estimate of their strength calls into question why there is such a large military presence in Papua. The Indonesian government won’t release precise figures on its armed deployments in Papua but, since special autonomy was introduced, it has doubled the number of battalions from three to six. It has 114 posts along the border with Papua New Guinea alone.
Estimates put the military numbers at about 15,000, approximately 13 soldiers for every armed separatist.
As one Indonesian official told a US embassy staffer, revealed in cables released by WikiLeaks: ”The TNI has far more troops in Papua than it is willing to admit, chiefly to protect and facilitate TNI interests in illegal logging operations.”
Whatever the reason for its deployment, the massive military and intelligence apparatus in Papua makes a lie of the Indonesian government’s insistence that it long ago junked its ”security” approach to managing Papua and it is now formulating policy under the rubric of ”development and prosperity”, says Neles Tebay.
”[The troops] are trained to see Papuans as the enemy,” he adds. ”I’m not saying all the troops are bad but if one group of them is threatening the indigenous people then it creates widespread fear. Also, they are always interrogating people. It’s very threatening.”
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- West Papua Report August 2011 (westpapuamedia.info)
Empty promises whitewash Freeport’s rights, responsibility record
Special for ETAN‘s Blog
by David Webster
What does a mining company need to do to get a top score for “corporate social responsibility”?
Freeport's contribution to Papua's welfare - Riverine tailings pollution
To judge by the recent “100 Best Corporate Citizens List”, all it takes to finesse a long and controversial record of human rights abuses is to come up with a piece of high-minded rhetoric, then carry on as usual.
Human rights advocates and those who have studied the record of Freeport McMoran in West Papua were startled to learn that Corporate Responsibility Magazine had named Freeport as the 24th-best corporate citizen in America (click for the full list). More startling still, the company scored well based mainly on a sixth-place ranking in the human rights category.
How is this possible? Well, the survey’s methodology seems to pay no heed to human rights performance. Only human rights rhetoric matters. And in that, Freeport excels. A strong written policy on human rights declares: “Freeport-McMoRan does not tolerate human rights transgressions.” It points to rights risks in West Papua, Peru, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and adds that PT Freeport Indonesia policy is to “notify the direct commanders of the perpetrators” in cases where human rights allegations are made against Indonesian security forces. Since reputable human rights groups suggest that the top ranks of the security forces are implicated in widespread human rights violations in West Papua, this is hardly striking at the root of the problem.
As local people have pointed out, and researchers have confirmed, Freeport’s performance is a far cry from the written policies. The main trouble is intimate ties to Indonesian security forces.
Security forces may be implicated in the murder of American citizens near the Freeportmine, as Eben Kirksey and Andreas Harsono have reported.
Violence around the mine is used by security forces to target and scapegoat local people. In 2005, the New York Times revealed thatFreeport paid the security forces more than $10 million in 2001 and 2002. Payments are now made “in-kind” rather than in cash. The local Amugme people have long protestedFreeport seizure of their lands. Pictures of Freeport’s Grasberg mine from space (left) show the scale and environmental impact in the mountains that are home to the Amungme.
And lest all of this be hailed as “old news,” the Amungme filed a lawsuit last year sayingFreeport had taken their lands illegally. Meanwhile, the Indonesian army’s presence around Freeport, and the company’s close ties to Indonesian security forces, were reinforced this year. The continuing alliance between Freeport Indonesia and the Indonesian security forces is likely to exacerbate, rather than improve, the human rights situation.
None of these reports are taken in to account in the “100 Best Corporate Citizens List.” All the human rights indicators measure “human rights disclosure” and the sole source, according to the methodology details, comes from “Company public disclosures” – a corporation’s own information about itself.
The methodology, in other words, measures promises, not performance. There are parallels to the debate over whether companies accused of operating sweatshops overseas can be trusted to police themselves, or should accept independent monitoring. Thus the list cites the voluntary “Sullivan principles” first created under the Reagan administration and welcomed by companies resisting demands to divest from apartheid South Africa. AndFreeport boasts of adherence to the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, launched by the British and American governments in 2000.
The key word here is “voluntary.” As with the mining industry globally and with businesses jumping on the corporate social responsibility (CSR) bandwagon more generally, companies are happy to promise good performance, as long as no one will be looking over their shoulders.
So perhaps it’s no surprise to learn that Corporate Responsibility Magazine is in fact published on behalf of the Corporate Responsibility Officers Association, a body made up of many of the companies being judged, and steered by such firms as Domtar and KPMG.Freeport is listed as a “recent member” of the CROA. It’s advanced in the listings – it was ranked 83rd in 2010.
The problem here isn’t just the “corporate social responsibility” methodology, but the entire concept of “CSR”. It can all too often be used by companies to buy their way out of “corporate social irresponsibility.”
Freeport is no champion of the best values of corporate citizenship: For human rights activists, it’s long been a poster child for corporate irresponsibility. A list of good corporate citizens with Freeport winning laurels demonstrates more than flaws in the study. As George Monbiot has written of climate change credits, the lists offer corporations a new form of medieval European Catholic “indulgences,” forgiveness for any form of offence. Jeff Ballinger recently pointed out on this blog that companies like Nike are wrapping themselves in the CSR garment to burnish their corporate images, despite continuing disregard for many labor rights. Freeport, too, is now having itself measured for a fine CSR wardrobe.
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David Webster is an assistant professor of International Studies at the University of Regina inSaskatchewan, Canada. He is a former coordinator with the East Timor Alert Network/Canada.
see also
West Papua Report (monthly)
ETAN/WPAT: Statement on the operations of the Freeport McMoran Mine in West Papua, to the U.S. Senate hearing on Extracting Natural Resources: Corporate Responsibility and the Rule of Law
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