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PAPUA – PRISON ISLAND: SPECIAL IN-DEPTH REPORT

Opinion/ Analysis

by contributors to the “Papuans Behind Bars” Project* (see end of article)

APRIL 16, 2013

An expression of people’s desire for freedom, cries of “Papua Merdeka” continue to ring out through the cities, mountains and forests of West Papua. The struggle is against fifty years of Indonesian rule, which throughout the last half-century has violently tried to subdue Papua, in its attempts to create a unified nation from the 17,000 islands that once made up the Dutch Empire.

Freedom as expressed by the word ‘merdeka’ is primarily a call for political independence, although the word is imbued with the clear hope that a new national sovereignty would also bring a wider liberation. Even when used outside the context of nations, ‘merdeka’ carries a sense of autonomy or self-reliance; from the same Sanskrit root Indonesian also inherited the word mahardika, meaning wisdom or nobility.

Those cries of freedom are also heard from the cells of Papua’s prisons, where its absence is arguably felt more strongly than anywhere else. The struggle for a national liberation suddenly becomes much more personal and immediate when deprived of your own individual liberty, by means of police handcuffs or a judge’s order.

Prison is used as a weapon against the people and their resistance to Indonesia, and over the years thousands of Papuans have found themselves locked away from the world behind prison bars. Many were arrested for expressing their aspirations for liberation, mostly relatively peacefully, but occasionally also for taking up arms. Others were merely unlucky enough to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and got caught up in the structural violence of a justice system designed to spread intimidation throughout the entire population.

It is not always straightforward to know whether and how to relate to the macro-politics of nation states and aspirations of would-be nation states, and especially for those of us who are not in Papua and who are not forced into an existence defined by ever-present violence, repression, marginalisation and resistance. But by listening to the experiences of people caught up in that system, we can understand and be inspired by the ways that they have found to withstand oppression and create an impulse for their own freedom and that of their friends, families and communities.

Here are some of the stories from Papua Prison Island, tales of some of the individuals who have felt the full force of Indonesia’s law enforcement in recent years, who have been arrested at random or deliberately targeted as activists, who have been tortured or beaten in detention, whose trials were a farce, who have suffered major illnesses with no access to proper healthcare – but who have in many cases kept their strength, their dignity and sense of solidarity intact.

1. Repeated Targets: Buchtar Tabuni and Yusak Pakage

A political prisoner is forever marked out as an enemy of the state.  Those who survive the horrors of the prison system and emerge to continue their resistance after being released are particular targets for petty and personalised vengeance. This was the case in 2012, when two former political prisoners who have remained politically active, Buchtar Tabuni and Yusak Pakage, were rearrested and re-condemned, both under ridiculous pretexts.

The story can be traced back to December 2010 when Miron Wetipo, a prisoner who had recently escaped from Abepura prison, was shot dead. News reached the prison and the prisoners’ anger erupted spontaneously. As a riot commenced, two political prisoners stepped in to try to negotiate a resolution. Buchtar Tabuni, the then-leader of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), was serving three years for organising a demonstration, and Filep Karma fifteen years for raising the Morning Star flag, a banned symbol of West Papua. Their attempts at mediation were ignored and instead they were blamed for starting the riot. Along with three other prisoners they were transferred from the jail to police headquarters for three months, where they were initially denied food and family visits and were at constant risk of violent reprisals from the cops.

Eventually the men were returned to the prison and the story could have ended there. Although Filep Karma’s sentence is set to run for several more years, Buchtar served the rest of his sentence and was released nine months later. He continued to be a prominent activist fighting for independence.

However, almost a year after his release on 6th June 2012, Buchtar Tabuni was arrested again. This piece of news only made minor headlines at the time, as everyone’s attention was focussed on a wave of seemingly-random shooting incidents that was causing panic at the time around Jayapura, as they were occurring nearly every day. After Buchtar’s arrest, the Jayapura police chief said in a press conference that he had been arrested in connection with a string of recent violent incidents, which would seem to imply the that he was accused of being involved in the shootings.

However, when Buchtar’s lawyer was able to see him, he established that the arrest was actually in connection with the prison riot 18 months before. But why should he be arrested suddenly now, if the case could have been brought to trial at any point in the nine months between the riot and Buchtar’s release while he was still in custody?

In fact, it appears that this arrest was part of a new wave of repression against the KNPB, an organisation which had been gaining in momentum across Papua over the past few years, mostly by organising open demonstrations in Papua’s urban centres. It was to become a decisive move against the popular organisation; Victor Yeimo, who took over from Buchtar as KNPB chair, claimed that 21 KNPB members were killed and 55 imprisoned during the course of 2012. Just over a week after Buchtar was arrested, KNPB deputy leader Mako Tabuni would be gunned down by a police marksman as he was buying betel nut on a street corner.

Buchtar’s trial for violent disturbance started in July. It was reported that several KNPB members received threatening text messages not to attend the trial. Yusak Pakage was undeterred, however. He was also a former prisoner, having been sentenced to ten years in prison at the same flag-raising event in 2004 where Filep Karma had also been arrested. In July 2010 he was granted a pardon and released, after which he was involved in the Papuan Street Parliament (Parlamen Jalanan).

Watching the farce of a trial, Yusak’s frustration built up until he kicked over a rubbish bin. Bright red spit from someone who had been chewing betel nut spilled out of the bin and stained the trouser-leg of a public official. Yusak was arrested. While he was being searched, police found that he was carrying a penknife. This became the pretext to charge him under an Emergency Law from 1951, which prohibits carrying weapons.

So for possessing this everyday object Yusak Pakage was sentenced to seven more months in prison. He has said that he believes he was targeted for having previously been a political prisoner, and it would be hard not to see it that way, as it is totally normal to carry not only penknives but also tools such as machetes and bows-and-arrows in Papua.

Having already spent years behind bars does not make prison less of an isolating experience. Yusak Pakage, whose name is known around the world due to Amnesty International having promoted his case as a prisoner of conscience, told a local reporter how he was saddened at how few visitors he received in prison, especially after his sister moved to another city. While he knew local human rights activists were supporting him in other ways, whether out of fear or lack of motivation, they didn’t come to visit.

But prison can also sharpen the sense of solidarity with those facing the same fate. After being released from his eight month sentence, Buchtar Tabuni’s first act was to go to the site of where his friend Mako Tabuni had been killed. A few days later he flew to Wamena to try to negotiate the release of other KNPB members which had been arrested in September, accused of possessing explosives. This trip was followed up by trips to Timika and Biak, where he also visited KNPB members in prison and tried to secure their release.

2. Left to Sicken and Die: Prisoners of the Wamena Arsenal case.

On December 2012, Kanius Murib passed away in Wamena, 59 years old. He had been in prison since 2003, but in the last few months of his life the prison guards allowed his family to care for him, as by that time he was suffering from severe mental illness and failing physical health. Arrested with nine other people and sentenced to life imprisonment, he was the third prisoner from that case to die in custody.

The accusation laid against the men was that they had carried out a raid on the weapons arsenal in a military base in Wamena on 4th April 2003. Not knowing who had carried out the attack, the military went on the rampage, sweeping through surrounding villages, meting out an undiscriminating collective punishment on the whole population, burning entire villages to the ground as they so often do when they take revenge. Several people were killed in these reprisals, and it is likely that many others starved to death in the mountains as they fled their homes.

Kanius Murib’s house was one of those burnt. He was arrested on 6th April. While still in military detention one week later he was dragged three kilometres to Ilekma Village, together with another man, Yapenus Murib. Kanius was handcuffed, Yapenus was pulled by ropes tied around his neck. This torture was more than a human body could take; he died shortly afterwards.

Seven more men were arrested, and also experienced similarly brutal torture. One was able to escape, so together with Kanius Murib seven were left to stand trial. All were convicted of treason and sentenced to between twenty years and life.

In December 2004 the other six men (Apotnalogolik Lokobal, Jafrai Murib, Linus Hiluka, Numbungga Telenggen, Kimanus Wenda and Michael Heselo) were woken up and forced to get in a truck. They were being moved to Gunung Sari Prison on Sulawesi Island, isolated from friends and family by 2000km of ocean. They remained there until 2007, when Michael Heselo fell ill in prison. Before his family could raise funds to come and visit him, he died in prison, aged 35.

Protests broke out in Papua, demanding that the five men remaining in Makassar should be brought back to Papua. The authorities acceded to the request and the prisoners were divided between Nabire and Biak prisons – still a long way from home, but at least they were in Papua. But prison continued to take its toll on the men’s health. In 2011, Kimanus Wenda started experiencing stomach pains and was vomiting all the time, and feared he had a tumour. Jafrai Murib, who would have been no more than 28 or 29 at the time, had a stroke, which left him almost paralysed.

Both men urgently needed medical care, and it is the prison’s responsibility to ensure inmates receive treatment, but the only attention they received was consultations with local doctors. The prison refused to pay for operations, or for their transfer to Jayapura, where better facilities were available.

This happens time and time again. Filep Karma has also had a history of sickness in prison – kidney problems left him in severe pain for some time. After a long campaign to get treatment for him, finally local activists went out on the streets collecting donations so he could be operated on in Jakarta. In this way they managed to pay for the flights for him and his family, and international groups helped to pay the hospital bill. It is a sign of the force of his character, which has brought him through ten years of prison maintaining a stubborn and uncompromising commitment to his principles, that even as the money was being found, Filep was talking of refusing to leave unless another prisoner, Ferdinand Pakage, could also get treated – he even started a hunger strike. Ferdinand Pakage had been blinded in one eye after a beating by a prison guard, and continues to suffer as a result.

For Kimanus and Jefrai, eventually local activists had no other choice but to go out on the streets and collect donations again. For doing what should have been the state’s responsibility, collecting money to care for sick prisoners, fifteen people were arrested on 20th July 2012. One of them was Yusak Pakage, just three days before he would be arrested again in the courtroom incident.

Eventually, after many months, enough donations were collected, in Papua, Jakarta and abroad, and prison authorities gave their permission for Kimanus and Jafrai to be transferred to Jayapura for treatment. In the end Kimanus was diagnosed with a hernia. But even after all that has happened, accessing health-care continues to be a struggle – the latest news is that Jafrai Murib was temporarily denied access to the physiotherapy he needs to recover from the stroke – as punishment for having a mobile phone in his cell.

3. In the mountains where no-one is watching: Prisoners in Wamena Prison

Wamena, where Kanius Murib and the others were arrested, is the main town of Papua’s Central Highlands, which support a higher population than other parts of Papua, but remain inaccessible. No usable road connects this high plateau to the coast, and news still doesn’t reach the outside world so easily. It is in these mountains that most of the bloodiest military operations have taken place in recent years. When prisoners are taken they are usually accused of treason and often given long sentences based on spurious evidence. As lawyers and human rights groups, already overstretched in the lowlands, have not always had the resources to come up here, there is often no-one to support them. Few details about their cases circulate, and it can be difficult to find any information about them. Here’s what we know:

Tenius Murib and Jigi Jigibalom were arrested in a military sweeping operation in November 2003. Still in the early hours of the morning, troops surrounded a house in Bolakme village and opened fire, killing ten people. The two survivors were arrested, tortured and accused of belonging to the Free Papua Movement guerrilla army. One of the accusations was that they had participated in the same raid on the weapons dump described above. They were sentenced to 20 and 15 years respectively.

Dipenus Wenda was arrested with three other men in March 2004, while they were giving out leaflets campaigning for a boycott of Indonesian elections. One of the four, Marius Koyoga, was shot dead while in police custody. The others went on trial for treason. Dipenus Wenda was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

In January 2005, Yusanur Wenda and between six and eight others were arrested in Wunin district (information is so limited we are not even sure how many people were prosecuted in this case). Also accused of belonging to the OPM, they were supposed to have burnt down public buildings and schools. For this Yusunur Wenda was sentenced to 17 years, and the others also received long sentences. Local activists asked at the time why the OPM would be interested in burning schools. But there is another explanation: a week before the arrests even took place, a website called West Papua News had published an account of the burnings. In their story, it was Kopassus special forces and police mobile brigade (Brimob), which had arrived by helicopter, and burnt down not only the public buildings but all the houses in the village as well.

In 2008, nine people were arrested while walking to a funeral in Yalengga village. They had been asked to carry a banned Morning Star flag so that the dead man could be buried beneath the Papuan flag. On the way they were intercepted by soldiers, arrested and tortured. Once again, the charge was treason, this time the sentence eight years. It is believed that these men were not even activists, yet they were condemned under laws intended for major attacks against the integrity of the Indonesian state.

At present, out of all these cases, only six convicted political prisoners remain in Wamena prison. Four are from the Yalengga case: Oskar Hilago, Wiki Meaga, Meki Elosak and Obeth Kosay, as well as Yusanur Wenda and Depenus Wenda. Over the years the others have all managed to escape. Some were among the 42 people who broke out of Wamena prison on 4th June 2012. Another mass escape had taken place in 2009, with 43 people managing to escape. Finally in November 2012, two young men who had allegedly been in possession of OPM documents, saved themselves the perils of Indonesian justice by finding a way to break out before their case came to trial. It seems that the only chance for justice in Wamena is to take it for yourself.

4. Allegiance to the Wrong Flag: Repression Against Symbolic Acts of Resistance

The charge of Makar, or treason, the infamous article 106 of Indonesia’s criminal code has been used as a catch-all to repress Papuan movements. It was the principle charge in all the Central Highlands cases mentioned above. Whether the accusation is a peaceful act of dissent or armed rebellion, the charge is likely to be the same, probably because most of the other criminal accusations which could be brought are seen as lesser crimes. With article 106 it is possible to condemn someone to 20 years in prison, or even life, as in the case of Jafrai Murib.

A flag has become a symbol both of what Indonesia cannot tolerate and the Papuan challenge to Indonesian authority. The Bintang Kejora (Morning Star) was first flown on December 1st 1961 at a point when the Dutch Colonial Government was preparing to hand over power to an independent West Papua, before Indonesia sent its armed forces to claim the area. After Suharto fell a special autonomy package granted by President Gus Dur expressly allowed the flag to be flown as a symbol of Papuan identity, but the military never accepted that policy. The special autonomy still stands in theory, but a Presidential Regulation forbade the Morning Star flag once more in 2007.

Many people have gone to prison because of this particular piece of cloth, or even displaying the symbol on clothing, bags etc. Filep Karma is the most well known, and also the most extreme case, sentenced to fifteen years in prison for raising the flag on December 1st 2004. Actually this was the second time Morning Star flag had landed Filep in prison. The first time came just weeks after Suharto fell, and the people of Biak occupied the port, flying the flag from the water tower. The people held the port for four days, but then the military stormed in. Filep Karma was shot in both legs but survived, one of 150 people arrested that day. For many, the punishment was even more severe: according to local investigators, 139 bodies were loaded onto two navy ships to be dumped at sea.

As he has long been a popular figure in Papuan resistance movements, large demonstrations accompanied both of Filep Karma’s trials. At the trial for the 2004 flag-raising, the reason for the demonstrations was the prosecution’s demand for a five-year sentence, which the crowd felt was extreme. Yet in the end the judge went much further, taking the unusual step of exceeding the prosecution’s demand and condemning him to fifteen years and Yusak Pakage to ten.

The ‘Jayapura Five’ were arrested at the Third Papuan People’s Congress in October 2011. Their act of supposed treason was an act of provocation – or at least they knew the huge risks they were taking when they convened a congress where representatives from all over West Papua would meet to discuss their political future. Unsurprisingly, but bravely, the congress decided to declare independence. The flag was raised, and Forkorus Yaboisembut, leader of the Papuan Customary Council, was declared as President of the Federal Republic of West Papua. Edison Waromi, who had been imprisoned under political charges for twelve years in 1989, and then six months in 2001 and two years in 2002, was chosen as Prime Minister. Another former political prisoner, Selpius Bobii, who had organised the conference was also jailed, as were August Makbrawen Sananay Kraar and film-maker Dominikus Sorabut. They were sentenced to three years in jail.

Also still in prison for raising flags are Darius Kogoya and Timur Wakerkwa, sentenced to three years and two-and-a-half years respectively for raising the Morning Star on 1st May 2012. And there have been many more prisoners in recent years for these symbolic acts of defiance: Septinus Rumere, an activist from Biak in his sixties, simply raised a flag outside his house in 2009 – he was sentenced to six months for treason. The Iba brothers were maybe hoping to get away with raising a flag which merely resembled the Morning Star in Bintuni in 2009, but they were sentenced to between two and three years anyway.

Another case highlights how the cruel reality of the prison system clashes with the ways indigenous people find to assimilate the pressures on their lives and express their desire for liberation. In Demta village, on West Papua’s northern coast, a group of villagers had built a meeting house they called Mammo and started believing in a king. Such messianic beliefs, sometimes known as cargo cults, have emerged in Melanesian cultures ever since they came into contact with colonialists, and can be seen as a reaction to these new patterns of domination. This group made a procession calling for repentance from humanity’s wickedness and obedience to the king. Alongside the flag of the king, the Morning Star was also raised. The next morning, after the Mammo had been burnt down by local Christians, people from the group went to the police to avoid a violent conflict building up. They were arrested and charged with treason. After two months their release was negotiated, even if the charges were not formally dropped.

People organising politically for the rights of indigenous people are also targetted. Edison Kendi and Yan Piet Maniamboi were arrested as organisers of a demonstration to mark World Indigenous People’s Day on Yapen island on 9th August 2012. Their trial was still ongoing as this piece was being written, with rumours that the prosecution is asking for 20 years imprisonment.

There have been no recent cases of people being imprisoned as a direct consequence of defending their land from the resource industries of logging, mining and plantations that are becoming ever-more rampant in West Papua, but the climate of repression is nevertheless opening doors to these industries, as there are plenty of reports from local people who feel too intimidated to taking a public stance against these development projects. After all, if raising a flag in your front garden can be considered treasonous, could not also standing in the way of a priority project for Indonesia’s economic development, such as the MIFEE agribusiness project or the Freeport goldmine?

5. When the law itself is violence, do guilty and innocent continue to mean anything?

While in recent years no long-term prisoners have resulted from the continuing conflict around the massive Freeport goldmine, it was a demonstration against that mine outside a university campus in Jayapura that led to a wave of arrests and intimidation in 2006. Twenty-three people spent an average of five years in jail after that demonstration, but by now most have been released. The exceptions are Luis Gedi and Ferdinand Pakage, who were sentenced to fifteen years each and are still inside, and Echo Berotabui, who succumbed to the despair and killed himself in prison.

On the day of the demo, 16th March 2006, minor clashes broke out, but then the police tried to storm the demo and they misplayed it. Four policemen and one air-force officer were killed that day. Once again, the state’s response was to react with widespread violence targeted against all and sundry. Seventy people were arrested, one or two were killed, and the campus emptied as students fled in panic.

As the weeks went on, the state’s handling of the case continued to be directed indiscriminately, more a thirst for revenge than an attempt to prosecute those who actually engaged in violence during the demonstration. Of the 23 people held and charged, all reported torture. People were forced under torture to make allegations against others. Luis Gedi was picked up on the street and forced to admit to killing policeman Rahman Arizona and to give another name as his accomplice. After being subjected to torture the name that he gave was Ferdinand Pakage. The police went to arrest Ferdinand and then they demanded to know where was the knife that had been used to kill Rahman. They made him go to the campus to try and find it. Then they shot him in the foot, and he told the police the knife was at his house. The police went there and seized his mother’s vegetable knife.

Similar stories continued throughout the trial process, with intimidation and a thirst for vengeance running high, police caring little whether the people they had in the dock were the perpetrators or not.

At one point, when 16 men had already been sentenced, police tried to force one of them, Nelson Rumbiak to appear as a witness for the prosecution in the trial of the remaining seven. When his testimony contradicted the police version of events, the police beat him up. As a response the remaining seven defendants refused to leave the prison to attend the next hearing, and convicted prisoners backed them up by throwing stones at the vehicle that came to take them to court. When another man was later arrested in connection to the same trial, all 23 prisoners wrote to the prison governor, saying that they would not testify for the prosecution, ‘even if they should be shot dead’.

Ferdinand Pakage lost an eye in prison in September 2008, after he was beaten by a guard who was holding his keys. The wound left behind has continued to cause problems over the years.

In the multiplicity of forms of struggle for Papuan independence, acts of violence do occur, but the state’s hysterical response means that ‘guilty’ and ‘innocent’ cease to be distinguishable. Dani Kogoya is believed to be a member of the TPN/OPM guerrilla army, and has been accused of co-ordinating an attack in Nafri near Jayapura, where one military officer and three civilians were killed. He was arrested in September 2012 and is being tried with four other people.

Dani has reportedly admitted his involvement in the killings, and expressed regret. Although that confession was made under duress, it is certainly possible that he was involved. What is definate is that neither he nor those accused of being in his gang will stand any chance of a fair trial. The ground has already been laid out: assuming his guilt a year previously police and military conducted a raid where Dani was supposed to have lived. The local community leader was forced to dig a hole while soldiers threatened him at gunpoint. At least fifteen people were held and tortured or maltreated. Dani’s eight-year-old daughter was reported to have been kidnapped and disappeared for a week. During his own arrest in 2012, Dani Kogoya was shot (police said that he was trying to escape), and his leg needed to be amputated. As the trial commenced, and the prosecution laid out its evidence, none of the witnesses they presented could testify to having seen Dani Kogoya carry out the attack.

Papua’s political prisoners stand almost no chance of receiving proper legal representation as the intimidation of lawyers is intense, claiming they are also committing treason. When the accusations are non-violent acts it is bad enough, but when violence has been involved the stakes are even higher. For example, in the case following the 2006 anti-Freeport demonstration, lawyers received death threats by text message against them and their family, and the house that one of them was staying in was pelted with stones. During Filep Karma’s 2004 trial, a severed dog’s head was left outside his lawyers’ office, alongside a note mentioning them by name.

6. Targeting the KNPB: how the state terrorizes social movements.

Late afternoon on 29th September 2012 at the West Papua National Committee’s (KNPB)Wamena secretariat, riot police and military showed up and arrested the people present. They claimed they had found two ready-assembled bombs on the premises. More raids would take place over the weeks and months to follow, in Wamena and also Timika, Biak and Jayapura, all involving members of the KNPB. Other KNPB members would be placed on the wanted list, effectively forcing them into hiding.

One of these arrests, in Wamena in mid-December was especially tragic. As three men were being arrested, police pressed them to give more names. They forced one of the men, Meki Kogoya, to phone another KNPB activist, Huburtus Mabel, and arrange a meeting for the next day. Being in custody, Meki was unable to turn up for the rendezvous, but the police were there and shot Huburtus Mabel, who died from his wounds and also Natalias Alua, who was left in a coma, but eventually recovered. Once again, they were allegedly trying to resist arrest.

However, beyond the names of the suspects, little information is known about this Wamena case. It is from Timika, where trial proceedings are in course, that there is much more news. It appears that twelve people were arrested early in the morning of October 19th, as the KNPB were preparing to organise public activities over the coming days. The police claimed to the press that they had found metal pipes and powders to be used in bomb-making.

Six of the activists were set free after five days, and the remaining six charged under an emergency law from 1951, which prohibits the carrying of weapons – a different article of the same law as that used to sentence Yusak Pakage for the penknife. Also used in the Wamena and Biak cases, this law is rapidly becoming the state’s preferred strategy for criminalising independence activists.

When the case came to court, the allegations were toned down somewhat. It appears that only one of the six was accused of possessing explosives, which he denies. The explosives in question are a kind commonly used for dynamite fishing – an ecologically destructive practice to be sure, but not an indication that they would be used against people. The others were accused of possessing panah wayar – a kind of barbed arrow used for fishing, and other tools. In Papua, bows and arrows are carried by almost everyone, as they are used for hunting and fishing and are a symbol of cultural identity. As the weapons charges seemed rather flimsy, the charge of treason was also added before the case came to trial.

It seems very strongly that this wave of arrests has been very deliberately planned to neutralise the KNPB. Even more so when coupled with a string of assassinations throughout 2012 and the politically-motivated use of the police wanted list.

The KNPB is an organisation which, since 2008, has tried to organise big demonstrations in cities across Papua. Their principal call has been for a referendum on independence to replace the flawed UN sponsored ‘Act of Free Choice’ in 1969, and they have closely aligned themselves with international initiatives to mobilise support for the Papuan cause amongst lawyers and parliamentarians. Papuan people responded and many thousands dared to come on the demonstrations, building a rapidly growing movement across West Papua.

To organise openly in this way was a bold step, relocating the focus of the struggle from the forest to the cities. Although many KNPB members see theirs as a revolutionary struggle, they also recognise the need for mass participation, and so there is a desire to focus on more non-violent forms of struggle. KNPB leaders have repeatedly stressed this point.

Actually it appears that there have been a couple of explosions that have taken place in Papua recently. Both were in Wamena – one in an empty police outpost and the other in an empty government building. It’s important to emphasize that these were empty buildings and there were no injuries – and also that those arrested in Wamena are not believed to be charged with causing these explosions. But it is also possible to imagine that some independence activists may end up choosing this kind of clandestine action. Especially as attempts to organise openly using peaceful methods which should be interpreted as legal are met with long prison terms or even police bullets.

Increasingly prominent in the political policing of West Papua is a group called Densus 88. Set up as an anti-terror squad after the 2002 Bali bombings, their focus has mainly been countering Islamic terrorism. There too, the sensationalism that surrounds their attacks on radical Muslims, and the frequency that they shoot-to-kill has raised accusations that they are causing the radicalisation of certain Muslim communities in response. In Papua, they are accused of carrying out assassinations, of activists and non-activists. A sign of their increasing prominence is that the latest chief of police in Papua was promoted to the position after running Densus 88.

In Papua, it is not really clear whether some activists are storing explosives or not, and if so what they intend to do with them. What is certain is that during the course of 2012 it has become much more difficult for groups who want to express their aspirations openly on the streets to do so. In early 2013, prominent Papuan advocate Benny Wenda made a major diplomatic tour around the US, Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island States. Normally the KNPB would have been out on the streets to show support for his initiatives. But there have been no such demonstrations. It seems that right now, actions like this have become almost impossible.

7. Papua Prison Island

In 2013, the arrests continue: One person arrested and two others on the wanted list for organising a demonstration in Manokwari, four people arrested in Sarmi accused of being OPM members, another seven held near Jayapura and tortured by police demanding to know the whereabouts of independence activists, two of which have been kept in prison. Then there have been a number of cases in Paniai, in the western part of Papua’s highlands: six people were arrested and held for a month before being released for a lack of evidence, two teenagers were also arrested in a separate case and held for two weeks, and there have been two other reported cases of arrest and torture.

And these are only the political cases: with Papuans so extremely economically and socially marginalised in their own land, and with clear evidence of systematic racism in all parts of the state bureaucracy, we can only wonder what might be the stories of those condemned to prison for non-political crimes.

Prison is just one extreme form of how people are deprived of their freedom in West Papua. While some Papuans are being giving jail sentences, others are being cheated out of their ancestral land by plantation companies, forced to flee their villages due to military operations, or simply unable to find a way to make a living when the possibilities for work fall overwhelmingly to migrants from outside Papua. But none of these injustices are isolated. The prison system is one tool the Indonesian state uses to crush opposition and so maintain these patterns of oppression. Many of those held captive have been denied their personal liberty as punishment for seeking a wider liberation.

Meanwhile Indonesia’s latest strategy is to pacify Papua with promises of development programs, organised unilaterally from Jakarta, whilst glossing over the structural causes of oppression – for example ministers have denied that there are any political prisoners in Papua, only criminals. But economic development without freedom cannot bring peace, merely intimidate people into coercive obedience. It is encouraging that so many in Papua, including many prisoners, refuse to be intimidated.

—Much of the information for this article came from http://www.papuansbehindbars.org , a new project to document the cases of West Papuan Political prisoners. That site has profiles of current and former political prisoners and releases monthly news updates on arrests, trials etc. However, this is an opinion piece which does not represent the position of the Papuans Behind Bars project—


Yapen treason trial accused testify of torture in custody

from West Papua Media, with local sources

April 15, 2013

Defence witnesses have revealed the extensive and systemic use of casual torture and inhumane treatment by Indonesian police, whilst testifying at the Makar (treason) trial of two West Papuan peaceful political activists in Yapen District Court, Serui, on April 9.

IMG-20130409-00019

Yan Piet Maniamboi (defendant seated on Left) during cross-examination by Matius Matulesi, SH

The activists had been threatened with twenty years jail for organising a nonviolent march about media freedom in West Papua. The two men, Edison Kendi (38) and Yan Piet Maniamboi (36) were arrested for their involvement in organising peaceful demonstrations in Yapen on May 1, and August 9, 2012 for World Day of Indigenous Peoples,  and have been held in atrocious conditions in Serui prison and have been subjected to routine and regular torture since their arrest.

Banner at freedom of expression rally rejecting Indonesian rule in Papua on the International Day for Indigenous People. Photo via Alex Rayfield from West Papua Media stringers in Yapen.

The treason trial has been beset by procedural mistakes and the failure to appear of several police officers as prosecution witnesses.  Edison Kendi is the National Federated Republic of West Papua’s Governor of Saireri region.

According to independent observers present at the April 9 hearing, the four defence witnesses testified that they were beaten and tortured during detention and interrogation by Yapen police, and were forced to provide false information to stop the torture.  The presiding judge suspended the trial for five minutes to talk with witnesses as the BAP (Case Records) were in danger of being revoked by the judge, legally inadmissible as they were based on testimony extracted under torture.

One of the witnesses, named John, answered Prosecutor Matius Matulesi’s questions on the validity of the Case Records version of testimony, the prosecutor disagreed with John and called him “Swanggi” (Devil or Ghost).   Matulesi also began to threaten both the witnesses and defendants with hoax charges for testifying about their mistreatment.  Matulesi, a Christian native of Maluku, is known as a hard-liner and being “very inhumane in demanding punishment to the fullest extent on  native Papuans in Serui, according to human rights observers at the trial.

Edison Kendi had previously testified about the brutality inflicted on him and Maniamboi whilst being held at Yapen police station, and then after their transfer to Serui  prison on December 9, 2012 .  Kendi wrote in statement provided to observers:

“Since we were arrested we were tortured, kicked, pierced with wood, hit with wood, so we suffered extraordinary bruises and swellings, but (we were) never treated (for injuries) during our detention at the Yapen police station. Police did not allow us to be treated, for the  reason we are OPM (Free Papua Movement).”

Failure to provide medical attention for injuries whilst in custody is a grave human rights violation in and of itself, under the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, and also the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment – obviously in addition to the torture suffered by the defendants.

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Defendants Yan Piet Maniamboi (fourth from left) and Edison Kendi (5th from right), with family, supporters and legal counsel, in court before the hearing. (photo: West Papua Media stringers / NFRPB)

Matius Matulesi has also come in for heavy criticism over his violations of basic prisoner rights to medical treatment in this case, for injuries sustained by the defendants whilst under torture by Yapen police.  According to Edison Kendi, “On December 19, 2012 I submitted an application to the clinic in the Prisons for medical treatment, but I was not allowed to go out (to the hospital) by the Attorney on behalf of Matius Matulesi, SH -  so we just keep quiet and bore the pain. I’ve been treated at the clinic LP / prisons but with no improvement. I was sick when swelling on both my legs because of torture when captured and examined at the police Yapen station. I have repeatedly applied for treatment outside of LP / prisons but it’s all just all in vain since the detention December 6, 2012 – January 21, 2013 is not permitted by the prosecutor Mathius Matulesi, SH”.

Matulesi also allegedly prevented Kendi from attending the funeral of his father, allowing him only two minutes with his father’s body before being taken back to prison, despite other Indonesian prisoners, including prisoners convicted of violent terrorism offences, routinely granted this basic right.

The trial was adjourned for the prosecutor to present two investigators from the police station at the next session to be confronted with the witnesses’ testimony.

West Papua Media


Selpius Bobii: “Stop violence in Paniai, proceed with heart to heart communication”

(Apologies for the delay in posting due to significant funding shortfall and time over-commitments from WPM team)

Analysis/ Opinion

27 March, 2013

 by Selpius Bobii, Abepura Prison

The ongoing conflict in Papua is deliberately generated and professionally driven by Indonesian government through its defence system, purposely to defend the sovereignty of Indonesia over Papua.  Beside political conflicts, economic factors play a certain role in initiating conflicts in Papua. As a result, both Papuan and non-Papuan civilians suffer the consequences, but mostly indigenous Papuans suffer the worst outcome of these conflicts.

One of the regions in Papua that draws major attention of the Indonesian military is Paniai.  The conflicts there that are deliberately initiated by the Defence force of the Republic of Indonesia in confronting the OPM troops led by John Yogi has left the people of Paniai in great devastation.

These ongoing conflicts have left the civilians in a frightening and intimidating situation because Indonesian Police and Indonesian National Army have been doing mass military mobilisation and convoys, committing sexual harassment and assaults on woman and girls, carrying out unlawful arrests, torturing innocent civilians, and raids from house to house, confiscating hunting tools like bows and arrows, axes, and knives.  The local people had to move to the neighboring villages searching for refuge, food and health. Some of them got sick and died, some were shot dead by the Indonesian military.

Violence, intimidation and unlawful detentions by Police  Army are escalating in Paniai in the last few weeks, especially to combat the (local) OPM movement led by John Yogi.

Marko Okto Pekei, SS (Activist from Timika Catholic Parish) reported that the tense situation in Paniai has been going for a long period of time following the forceful disbanding (by Indonesian security forces) of the OPM HQ in Eduda in October 2012. After the incident, Indonesian Security Forces deployed massive number of Indonesian Military personnel in Paniai.

On the afternoon of February 24th 2013 the people of Paniai witnessed the deployment of Indonesia Military into Paniai, 53 trucks dropped them.  During the deployment, a source that did not wish to be named mentioned that an Indonesia police officer (told him)  that, in February 2013 alone, the government ( especially the Defence Ministry) of Indonesia has deployed more than one thousand military personnel from Kelapa Dua Jakarta to Paniai.  As a result, people in Paniai, especially fathers and young men, feel intimidated everywhere they go.  They could not go out for gardening because of the fear that they would be suspected as members of OPM.

During that tensed situation, Marko Pekei also reported that there has been raids carried out in the middle of the night in the villages, unlawful arrest, torture, and forceful kidnapping, abduction and killing of innocent civilians in Paniai.

The latest cases for example are, Stefanus Yeimo who was shot dead by Indonesian Police (Brigade Mobile) at 15:30 (west Papuan time) in Kopo Paniai. He was shot when he and his friend were at a local store buying cigarette. According to the Indonesian Police (POLRI) the reason behind the shooting is, he was suspected to be member of OPM.

At 18:00 on the same day, Stefanus was buried by his family in Kopo village, Paniai.

Meanwhile, according to report from an Activist from Justice and Peace Division of Timika Catholic Parish, there is another victim from the Moni Clan; Indonesian National Army Special Team 753 in Uwibutu tortured him on Saturday March 23rd 2013 at 21:30 local time.

After the victim was arrested he was beaten, kicked and was dragged along the asphalt road. At that time few by passers witnessed that violent and unjust treatment. The victim was even dragged into the police checkroom and brutally tortured until the next day and he was rushed to the hospital for medication.

According to the relative of the victim who did not wish to be named, the victim was intoxicated but was not violent when he went to visit a family friend at the hospital. He left the hospital at 21:30 local time. That was when the Indonesian Army Special team 753 from Paniai unlawfully arrested him took him to their base and beat him up, tortured him and they took him the hospital.

In response to the escalating and ongoing violence in Paniai, We the Front PEPERA (Act Of Free Choice) would like to take this opportunity to demand:

1). Indonesian Army (TNI) and Indonesian Police (POLRI) to stop excessive terror, torture, kidnapping and unlawful arrests and shootings in Paniai.

2). Cenderawasih Regional Military Commander XVII and Provincial Police Commander to stop deploying military personnel in Paniai and as soon as possible withdraw the additional personnel that was deployed from Jakarta.

3). The military personnel who violates human rights in Paniai be brought to justice.

4) Cenderawasih Regional Military Commander XVII and Provincial Police Commander as soon as possible sack the Indonesian Army (TNI) and Indonesian Police (POLRI) personnel who are responsible for the ongoing violence in Paniai.

5). People, Government and Church to work together hand in hand, establishing communications from heart to heart in order to curtail the violence and human right abuses that has been going on in Paniai for a very long time.

6). Journalists to truthfully and honestly expose the real situation that has been happening in Paniai

7) Violence will never solve the conflicts in Papua, therefore We the PEPERA (Act Of Free Choice) Front would like to take this opportunity to demand the United Nation or a neutral third-party to immediately act unconditionally and according to the international law to end the political and social injustice in Papua.

This statement serves as guide and to be carried out by the concerning parties who thinks Papuans deserves justice, peace and security in Papua and especially in Paniai.

Selpius Bobii, Abepura Prison: Wednesday, 27th March 2013.

Selpius Bobii is the General Chairperson of Front Pepera (The United Front of the Struggle of the People of Papua)  and is currently one of the “Jayapura Five”, Political Prisoners held in Abepura Prison, Jayapura, West Papua.  The five (Bobii, Forkorus Yaboisembut, Edison Waromi, Dominikus Sorabut and Agus Kraar) were found guilty in an opaque and predetermined trial of  Treason (Makar) charges, laid after the violent Indonesian security force crackdown on the Third Papuan People’s Congress  in October 2011.

 


Testimony of Markus Yenu of his arrest and interrogation

Manokwari, 7th March 2013

Markus Yenu was arrested at the side of the road in from of Daniel Sakwatorey’s house (former political prisoner in Papua, 2008) at Sanggeng Manokwari West Papua. The arrest was by Manokwari’s Criminal Police Unit at 11.32am West Papua time, on the order of Manokwari’s Criminal Police AKP. KRISTIAN SAWAKI. The Manokwari Criminal Police officers were driving a black Inova with the number plate DS.9977.

According to Markus Yenu’s evidence (he’s the Executive Governor of the West Papua National Authority District 2 Manokwari) after he was arrested and taken to the police station at Manokwari, he was immediately taken to an interrogation room and asked to give information about a peaceful demonstration on the 17th January 2013 during which the morning star flag was flown. There were various sized flags flown, and also biased political speeches from several leaders from the Free Papua movement who were inciting people to overthrow the legitimate government.

Markus Yenu also gave evidence that when he was in the interrogation room at the Manokwari Police Station he was visited by Kombes (Pol) Yakobus Marzuki former chief of police in 2008 and now Director of Papuan Police Intelligence. Marzuki told Yenu:

  • Comprehensive data from the Police indicated Markus Yenu was involved with provoking the acts of arson and destruction that three police officers faced on the 5th December 2012 following the shooting of Thimotius Ap.
  • In the near future police plan to meet with Kesbangpol to get rid of all organisations that don’t support the Ideology of a United Republic of Indonesia (NKRI)
  • Eight people are already dead, but police and TNI will be pursuing and removing any subversive groups both in the forest and the city.
  • Whereas for Markus Yenu there was an order from police headquarters to disable him.

According to Yenu, the Director of Papuan Police Intelligence said many other things indicating a threat to human rights and democracy activists in Papua.

Yenu said that, ‘After me, the police will arrest another six people who have been identified as suspects

1). Frans Kapisa,

2). Billy Auparay,

3). Ottow Rumaseb,

4). Jakobus Wanggai,

5). Eliazer Awom, and

6). Zeth Wambrauw

 

Source: WPNA Manokwari

 


Police question Papuan leader over peaceful demo ‘treason’

Written up Pacific Scoop from Social Media Reports by West Papua Media

March 6, 2013

Markus Yenu, Manokwari Governor of the West Papua National Authority (National Federated Republic of West Papua), was forced to appear at Manokwari Police Sector HQ  today (March 6) for questioning over makar (treason) charges relating to the organising of a peaceful mass demonstration almost two months ago.

The executive governor of the West Papua National Authority area 2, Markus Yenu, and the chairman of Solidaritas Pemuda Melanesia Papua Barat, Abraham Wainasiri,  lead a peaceful rally at Manokari on January 17. Image: WPM

The executive governor of the West Papua National Authority area 2, Markus Yenu, and the chairman of Solidaritas Pemuda Melanesia Papua Barat, Abraham Wainasiri, lead a peaceful rally at Manokwari on January 17. Image: WPM

Yenu has not yet been released, and no further information has yet been received about his status – whether he will be charged or released.

West Papua Media has contacted police in Manokwari without reply and the Papua Police Criminal Investigation chief in Jayapura – who claims to know nothing about Yenu’s whereabouts.

On January 17, a crowd of peaceful protesters calling for a referendum on the future of Indonesian-ruled West Papua assembled at a rally point in Manokwari.

The crowd – including students and workers – moved towards the Banyan Tree at UNIPA Manokwari together with the protest coordinator, Alex Nekemen, and speakers, among them Silas Ayemi, the area secretary of Bintuni WPNA),; Abraham Waynarisy (SH chairman Solidaritas Pemuda Melanesia Papua Barat SPMPB) and the pro-independence group KNPB.

Political speeches were made accompanied by slogans of “Papua Merdeka” (“Free Papua”) along the way.

The crowd marched around the city of Manokwari towards an open field.

In front of the office of the State Attorney of the Republic of Indonesia, Markus Yenu openly questioned bout the detainees after a an incident on December 14 – Melkianus Bleskadit, Rev. Dance Yenu and 5 students from UNIPA Manokwari who have been held by police for almost four months without charge.

Earlier story by West Papua Media

 


Amnesty: Two men detained, feared tortured in Papua

UA: 48/13 Index: ASA 21/005/2013 Indonesia

22 February 2013

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL URGENT ACTION
Two Indonesian men now arbitrarily detained in Jayapura, Papua province, are believed to have been tortured or otherwise ill-treated by police.

Daniel Gobay and Matan Klembiap are currently detained at the Jayapura district police station in Papua province. Police officers allegedly tortured or other otherwise ill-treated them and five other men while interrogating them about the whereabouts of two pro-independence activists. They have not received medical treatment and they have not had access to a lawyer since their arrest.

According to credible sources, plainclothes police officers arbitrarily arrested Daniel Gobay and two other men on the morning of 15 February 2013 in Depapre, Papua province. The three men were first forced to crawl on their stomachs to the Depapre sub-district police station approximately 30 metres away and then moved to the Jayapura district police station an hour later. There they were then forced to
strip, were kicked in the face, head and back, and beaten with rattan sticks. Police officers allegedly pressed the barrels of their guns to their heads, mouth and ears. They were interrogated until late at night and in the morning of the following day.

Matan Klembiap and three other men were arbitrarily arrested separately by plainclothes police officers on the morning of 15 February in Depapre and taken to the Jayapura district police station.

The four men were also forced to strip and were kicked and beaten with rattan sticks and wooden blocks by police officers. One of the men has testified on video that police gave him electric shocks.

On 16 February, five of the men were released without charge but Daniel Gobay and Matan Klembiap remain in police custody and are reportedly to be charged with “possession of a sharp weapon” under the Emergency Regulation 12/1951.

Amnesty International has asked that readers “Please write immediately in English, Indonesian or your own language calling on authorities in Indonesia” to take the following urgent action:

  • To ensure that Daniel Gobay and Matan Klembiap are not tortured or otherwise ill-treated;
  • To ensure that the two men have access to medical treatment, and to lawyers of their choosing; and
  • To immediately order an effective and independent investigation into the allegations of torture and other ill-treatment of the seven men by police officers. Suspected criminal offences involving human rights violations must be dealt with through the criminal justice system, rather than only internally and as disciplinary breaches to ensure that all those responsible for torture and other ill-treatment, including persons with chain of command responsibility, are brought to justice in fair trials, and that victims are provided reparations. Particular attention must be paid to the protection of victims, witnesses and their families.

Amnesty International


Buchtar Tabuni released from Abepura prison after completing sentence

Buchtar Tabuni

Buchtar Tabuni Free Political Prisoner Campaign art (artwork: AK Rockefeller)

by West Papua Media

January 19, 2013

UPDATED

Buchtar Tabuni, the Chairman of the pro-independence National Parliament of West Papua, was released unexpectedly from Abepura prison around 12pm West Papua time today, to a waiting group of about fifty of his supporters from the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), according to multiple sources.

KNPB News reported that Tabuni sent an SMS message early this morning from prison. “To all the Free Papua fighters in Numbay, Sentani and its vicinity, at 9 this morning please pickup (at) Abepura LP”,  Buchtar’s message read.

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Buchtar Tabuni upon his release from Abepura prison (19/3) (photo: Melinda Ayomi/Kompasiana)

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Buchtar Tabuni being escorted (19/3) on long march from Abepura prison to Mako Tabuni’s site of execution in Waena (photo: Melinda Ayomi/Kompasiana)

Local sources today reported to West Papua Media that about fifty KNPB members then escorted a relieved Tabuni from Abepura prison on a long march to the assassination site of his friend and KNPB colleague, former KNPB Chairman Mako Tabuni.  Mako Tabuni was gunned down in broad daylight in a political assassination carried out by Australian-funded and trained Detachment 88 counter-terror officers outside the Perumnas 3 Dormitories in Waena on June 14, 2012, one week after Buchtar’s arrest.  He was also due to be taken to the graveside of Mako Tabuni in order to pay his respects to his slain friend, colleague and clansman.

Tabuni was arrested on 6 June 2012 during an upsurge in mysterious “OTK”  (orang Terlatih Khusus or “specially trained persons”) shootings, and publicly linked by then Papua Police Chief Bigman Tobing to the shootings.  However, according to statements by Tabuni’s lawyer during his criminal trial in September, the entire case was “nothing more than a set up.”

Lawyer Gustaf Kawer said at the time, “Buchtar had been linked to the shooting of Miron Wetipo but that case has already been solved, so it was clear that the authorities were trying to make a scapegoat of Buchtar.”

Tabuni was in custody when more shootings occurred, so “Buchtar was not in any way connected with those shootings. So instead of being charged with the shootings,” said Kawer during Tabuni’s trial, “he now faces the charge  of inflicting damage on the Abepura Prison in 2010, which means that he should have been arrested in 2010.”

In a highly opaque trial closed to independent witnesses, and marked by significant intimidation of journalists by police and court officials, Tabuni was convicted on a charge “for having allegedly inflicted damage on the Abepura prison in December 2011,” and “for exchanging harsh words with prison warders.”

In recent months, Tabuni’s health had suffered from his incarceration in Abepura prison, with complaints of respiratory illness, gastric diseases and dangerously low blood pressure, from his incarceration in atrocious and unhygienic conditions by Indonesian colonial prison authorities.

According to credible sources, Tabuni is spending the next days with family, friends and colleagues from KNPB to mourn the losses of his comrades, and to discuss and consider the next steps in the campaign for justice in West Papua.

WestPapuaMedia


PT Selaras Inti Semesta’s Unkept Promises to Senegi Villagers

Forest devastation of customary land on the MIFEE estate (File photo)

Tabloid Jubi

by Ans K @ Tabloid Jubi

January 4, 2013

The leader of the Merauke District Legislative Council (DPRD), Leonardus Mahuze, says that PT Selaras Inti Semesta, a company logging forest owned by the people of Senegi village in Okaba district, has not fulfilled the promises it made when it started its operations there.

Chairman DPRD Merauke, Leonardus Mahuze (Jubi/Ans)

That was how Leo described the situation to tabloidjubi.com, on Thursday (3/1).  He said that the company’s promise to provide education for Senegi village’s children, including providing college places, has still not happened.  Similarly the company has not provided new houses, electricity supplies or clean water either. As a result, the local people who are the customary landowners in the area, feel they have been exploited.

Until now, Leo related, the only thing which PT Selaras Inti Semesta has completed building has been a church. In the meantime they are logging the forest every day. “Yes, of course the local people are the victims in this situation. The council has received many complaints”, he said.

Leo added that in the near future he will summon PT Selaras Inti Semesta and local people to a meeting at the District Legislative Council, and draw up a memorandum of understanding between the two parties, witnessed by representatives of the people. This is in order to uphold the people’s rights.

(English translation: https://awasmifee.potager.org/?p=308)


Gustaf Kawer: Legal team ready to assist KNPB Baliem leader Simeon Dabi

Tabloid Jubi

by Benny Mawel

January 6, 2013

Jayapura (6/1)- The Family of Simeon Dabi, Baliem Valley Chairman of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), made complaints about the absence of a lawyer to assist Simeon, (a call which was responded to) by the Coalition for Enforcement of Democracy for Papua, Gustaf Kawer.  Kawer said the team was now ready to assist the hearing of Simeon Dabi.  (However) the readiness of the Coalition team for democracy can not be (automatically) realised because of  funding constraints, according to Gustaf,

Lawyer Gustaf Kawer

“Since the beginning we have shown the will to assist them (every trial of a KNPB activist) The problem is that we do not have operational funds for Wamena, “said Gustaf in response of complaints by Simeon Dabi’s family about detention proses, dossier creation and submission of the detainees from police custody to the prosecutor without a lawyer, Thursday (2/1).

Meanwhile, another lawyer, Olga Hamadi said she had not been contacted in the case of assisting  Simeon during the hearing.  However, according to Olga, they are ready to assist if the family  contacted  them. “I have not been contacted about it by the family. Later, when contacted, surely I will respond, ” said Olga Hamadi, human rights lawyer and Coordinator of Kontras Papua.

Previously, the family is hoping that the central executive of KNPB could help  finding a lawyer who will assist Simeon. “We hope Simeon’s friends in Jayapura can help find a lawyer,” Simeon’s family said.

KNPB central executive members admitted that they already tried to contact a lawyer who will assist Simeon.  The contacted lawyer is ready to go to Wamena. “We act at a level of coordination with the lawyer.  The lawyers Gustaf Kawer and Olga Hamadi are ready to go to Wamena,” KNPB central spokesman, Rocky Wim Medlama, said to tabloidjubi.com, Thursday (3/1)

However, according to Rocky Medlama, there are parties who restrict them. “The lawyer is ready to leave for Wamena but there are parties who make problems about this,” Wim said on Wednesday (3/1).

Neither Gustaf nor Olga commented on this.

(Translated and edited for clarity by West Papua Media team)


Paniai villages reportedly razed as Densus 88 resumes sweep operations in search of TPN’s Jhon Yogi

West Papua Media

January 8, 2013

Unconfirmed reports from local activists and credible human rights observers in Paniai have claimed that 13 houses have been burnt down as sweep operations by Indonesian security forces have resumed, causing panic amongst local Papuan civilians.

The operation by a joint Indonesian army (TNI) and police unit, allegedly led by a large number of Detachment 88 troops (the elite Australian-funded counter-terror unit) is searching for Free Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM) guerrilla leader Jhon Yogi, has begun with up to 13 houses burned to the ground, allegedly claimed by Detachment 88 officers to be TPN posts.

Activists from National Papua solidarity (Napas.com) have reported that Detachment 88 (d88) troops began to raid houses across the area around Pugo village on January 7, from 11am local time.   According to field reports, the searches lasted well into the night, causing many people in surrounding villages to flee the area in fear of their lives.

Five Companies (approx 500 armed men) of the joint strike force (including one company of D88 troops) reportedly laid siege to the alleged headquarters area near Waididi Pogo of Yogi’s TPN-OPM Paniai region command on Monday.  According to Napas.com, Yogi’s men returned heavy fire on the strike force.

According to the local community members, the civilian houses in Pogo were burned quickly on Monday by rogue Indonesian military, together with plain clothes militia or Intel (military intelligence officers), according to SMS messages sent to the media.

Since 13 December 2011, the Indonesian military forces have been regularly attacking, and systematically dismantling and burning villages and traditional buildings alleged to be posts or headquarters of the TPN-OPM Division II  in Paniai.

Community members have reported to Napas.com, the movements of Yogi have been well know n by the Indonesian military, who are allegedly using the situation to have a “show force with full war equipment”, using this opportunity to surround the new TPN headquarters.

Separate reports received by West Papua Media,which have been unable to be confirmed to our verification standards, have claimed that “unknown persons” units have also fired on both civilians and military units. including gunfire that erupted from a suspected military source on a hill behind the Paniai General Hospital area at Uwibutu Madi.

According to human rights sources, Paniai people are greatly fearing for their safety amid another escalation in military offensives.

Previous offensives in the  Paniai since December 2011 have displaced tens of thousands of civilians, and burnt down hundreds of villages.

(For background, please visit http://westpapuamedia.info/tag/Paniai/)

West Papua Media


Yusak Pakage: ‘I was arrested for being a former tapol.’

by OKTOVIANUS POGAU of SuaraPapua.com
5 December 2012Jayapura: ‘I was arrested because of my having once been held as a political prisoner (tapol),’ said Yusak Pakage, a Papuan activist. who said that the charge against him was a frame-up, alleging that he was dangerous just because he was carrying a knife.

He made this statement to suarapapua.com on 4 December, following a hearing at the Class 1A district court in Jayapura  He said that as soon as he was arrested on 27 July this year, he was taken to a police command post and questioned about his behaviour towards a court official, Sefnat Fonataba.

‘Soon after, Fonataba came to the police station and told the police there that there was no problem with me and apologised to me for what he had done.’  The policeman asked Pakage to write a statement  saying that there was no problem between him and the policeman which is what he did.

When he was about to sign the statement, the chief of police in Abepura came along and said that he had other instructions about how to handle this case.

‘Shortly afterwards, I was taken to the police station where I was interrogated for quite a long time about the knife. I said that it was a very cheap knife, the kind of knife that you can find in any traditional market in Jayapura. It is just something I carry about with me for my everyday needs. I didn’t buy it in order to do something criminal, as the security people seemed to think.’

‘ I have never  heard anything about needing a special permit to carry an ordinary knife.The law in Indonesia is very confusing and I don’t know about any rule governing the carrying of a knife.  The chief of police said that he didn’t know who I was and wanted the case to be handled in the usual way.’ But according to Pakage, the police officer knows very well who he is and that he had previously been held as a tapol. ‘He was lying,’ said Pakage.’He just wanted it to be known that I had formerly been held as a tapol, when I was arrested along with Filep Karma in 2004 for carrying the  Morning Star flag.’

‘I frequently make statements about the human rights situation in Papua and take a leading part in many demonstrations, so of course he knows very well who I am.’

Pakage also said that during his interrogation, all his personal belongings were taken away, even including his ballpoint, and none of these things  have been returned to him.

On 19 August, he was transferred to the prison in Abepura and he is now waiting for his case to be completed and to hear the verdict of the judge.

Pakage used this occasion to warn his activist friends to be very careful and keep control of their feelings when they are doing anything to struggle for the rights of the Papuan people.

‘I tell them not to get too emotional and to learn from my own experiences which show that I can be arrested for something very trivial.’

Siman Pattiradjawane, the lawyer who is defending Pakage told reporters that the verdict in the case will be announced on 11th December.


Victor Yeimo and others arrested as police crackdown on December 1 protests in Jayapura

By West Papua Media, with Victor Mambor at TabloidJubi.com, and Julian Howay at SuaraPapua.com

December 2, 2012

UPDATED DECEMBER 3, 2012

Three leaders of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) who were detained at a West Papuan independence rally on December 1 have been allegedly disappeared by Indonesian security forces, prompting fears of ill treatment at the hands of police.

As reported earlier by Tabloid Jubi and West Papua Media, Victor Yeimo, Alius Asso and Usman Yogobi were arrested by Police while leading a long march enroute to a planned mass rally commemorating the West Papuan “Day of Independence” of December 1st  at the tomb of Theys Eluay. All three were arrested for allegedly being responsible for these demonstrations, according to Police who spoke with Jubi.

Victor Yeimo, Chairman of KNPB, negotiating with Kalpores Alfred Papare moments before his arrest, December 1, 2012, Abepura (Photo: WK, KNPB)

Victor Yeimo, Chairman of KNPB, negotiating with Kalpores Alfred Papare moments before his arrest, December 1, 2012, Abepura (Photo: WK, KNPB)

Indonesian police prevent KNPB demo; arrests of Victor Yeimo (Photos: West Papua Media stringers)

Indonesian police prevent KNPB demo; arrests of Victor Yeimo (Photos: West Papua Media stringers)

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KNPB members and human rights lawyers are currently trying to confirm his whereabouts and legal status, however Indonesian police have claimed to West Papua Media that all detainees being held at the Police headquarters.  Legal access has not been allowed at time of writing and human rights observers hold grave fears for the safety of the detainees.

Yeimo-ditangkapVictor Yeimo, KNPB Chairman, has been on a wanted list (Daftar Pencarian Orang or DPO) and has up to now evaded a massive Papua-wide manhunt by the Australian trained Detachment 88 counter-terror unit, allegedly on treason charges imposed after his appearance on the Australian ABC 7.30 Report where he presented evidence of the Densus 88 assassination of his predecessor Mako Tabuni.

However, after the arrests, the whereabouts of Victor Yeimo, Alius Asso and Usman Yogobi remain unknown until time of writing, with no indications if they still being detained or have been released by police.

“Yes. There are journalists who say that Victor (Yeimo) was released earlier. But we do not know where he is. KNPB members are still trying to find him. Their mobile phone (three KNPB’s members were arrested) was (switched) off.” Sebby Sambom, a Human Rights Activist, told tabloidjubi.com on Saturday afternoon (1/12).

Some human rights lawyers who commonly accompany Papuan activists also still looking for them (Victor Yeimo, Alius Asso and Usman Yogobi). Because when they checked into the both of Police Office (Polda and Polresta), human rights lawyers was told by police that no one was arrested after rally this morning.

“We had been to the police office, Polda and Polresta, but they (Victor Yeimo, Alius Asso and Usman Yogobi) were not there. Police said no one was arrested there (Police and Police),” said Olga Hamadi, a Papuan human rights lawyer.

Papua Police Head of Public Relations, Chief I Gede Sumerta Jaya confirmed to tabloidjubi.com, mention that the three activists will be released after the investigation at the Police Sector office of Abepura.

“After being interrogated in Abepura police station, according to the police chief, three of them will be released as they could not to do any further investigation.” said I Gede Jaya Sumerta.
However, West Papua Media twice contacted the Police Sector (Polsek) headquarters in Abepura this (Sunday) morning, where an officer named Mas Arbi claimed that Yeimo and the other prisoners were still in custody.   Officers immediately volunteered further information on the second phone call that “none of the prisoners have been tortured,” despite West Papua Media having not yet asked that question.  WPM has not been able to independently verify the claims of police, as legal representation is still barred from seeing Yeimo.

Massive security presence

The December 1 commemorations in Jayapura were amongst national mobilisations in most centres across Papua, and solidarity gatherings internationally.

Reports from Abepura early in the morning described a massive security presence to prevent West Papua people from engaging in peaceful acts of free expression, and from engaging in flagraisings of the Morning Star flag, the Indonesia-banned West Papuan independence flag.

Unknown persons had blockaded the entrance to the Cenderawasih University (UNCEN)  by welding iron crossbars and erecting a 2 metre high steel fence around the university in anticipation of events.

From 7.30 on Saturday morning, students and activists with KNPB leaders (including Yeimo) gathered in small numbers by the site of former KNPB head Mako Tabuni’s murder, in front of the Perunmans 3 Housing Complex in Waena, where many highland students are domiciled.

Intelligence officers and plain-clothed Densus 88 personnel posing as ojek (motorcycle taxi drivers) become more aggressive towards participants converging prior to the long march, according to West Papua Media stringers and SuaraPapua.com.

At 0845 three platoons of heavily armed Dalmas riot police arrived on site, followed by Jayapura police chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner Alfred Papare and his men.   Papare began negotiations with Yeimo on the route and plan of action for the day, which was to make speeches and a prayer service at the tomb of slain Papuan leader Chief Theys Eluay, to commemorate December 1 and also World AIDS Day.

Participants carried many banners also demanding that the Indonesian government do more to combat HIV/AIDS, which is taking a heavy toll on Papuan society, in a situation that many Papuans believe is a deliberate policy by Jakarta of neglect and genocide.

Kapolres Papare asked the students to not go to Eluay’s tomb as he “could not be held responsible for anything that happened outside his Jayapura jurisdiction”, according to our stringers.  Having heard the explanations and assurances from the students who accompanied Victor Yeimo (KNPB Chairman), police chief Papare then left the scene and ordered the Jayapura Police Dalmas riot police officers to leave the Perumnas 3. After negotiation, the students resumed speeches for the next 1 hour.

The march began slowly from Waena, passing an Indonesian army (TNI) post about 50 meters from the housing complex, which was packed with military personnel moonlighting as taxi drivers, and several platoons of heavily armed TNI on guard, who rang a warning bell as students ran past.

According to reports from Suara Papua, the march was blocked by dozens of police officers from Jayapura Police at the corner near Dian Harapan Hospital (RSDH) in Waena. forming a three layer formation blockade. The first layer is riot police, while the second and third layers are heavily armed police, who were supported by large numbers of plainclothes police who parked their motorcycles and cars nearby.

Yeimo’s Arrest

Yeimo told police through a megaphone that more students were joining them to continue the journey to Sentani.  The Police Head of Operations AKP Kiki Kurnia ordered participants to  disperse, but students refused the order to move on.  Kiki Kurnia then advanced toward Victor Yeimo and seized him violently.  Yeimo did not resist as Kurnia gave the command to capture him and a large number police descended on Yeimo, violently immobilising him as Yeimo, Julian Douw and Usman Pahabol were thrown into the Dalmas truck and taken away, according to witnesses.

According to an Australian counter-terrorism source operating in Indonesia, who securely contacted West Papua Media on December 3 on condition of anonymity, the “gentleman holding Yeimo’s left arm” during his arrest, “is a Densus 88 officer”.

Victor Yeimo's arrest on December 1 (Photo: West Papua Media/KNPB)

Victor Yeimo’s arrest on December 1 (Photo: West Papua Media/KNPB)

Yeimo-ditangkap

The source elaborated that this individual received training from the Australian Federal Police run Joint Centre for Law Enforcement Co-operation in Jakarta.  West Papua Media has been unable to independently verify the source’s claims with police in Jayapura, nor with Australian Federal Police, before updating this story.

Just as the three were taken away, at about 11 am outside Dian Harapan Hospital (RSDH). police violently dispersed the remaining group of students to disperse them, firing tear gas and six live warning shots into the air. A number of students were also beaten by police, according to witnesses.

Soldiers from the TNI post also joined in the pursuit of students who were forced to flee via alleyways between homes, most running back in the direction of the Perumnas 3 dormitories, and all the armed police began raids again.

According to reports from Suara Papua, dozens of students desperately sought shelter inside the UNCEN Campus, where they were funneled into a dead end by police, back at the locked front gate, though they managed to escape for the time being.  KNPB sources have reported that several students sustained injuries from beating, but this has yet to be independently verified.

However, unconfirmed reports to West Papua Media overnight have said that the police, allegedly backed by Densus 88 personnel, have been conducting brutal raids on student dormitories and highlander’s residences across Jayapura.

It is confirmed that at 1235 local time Densus 88 raid occurred on the KNPB office in Sentani an hour later, seizing laptops, Morning Star flags and the United Nations flag.  No reports of injuries or arrests were received during that raid.

More to come.

West Papua Media


BREAKING NEWS: KNPB LEADER VICTOR YEIMO AMONG ARRESTS ON DECEMBER 1 FLAGRAISING DAY

BREAKING NEWS

West Papua Media

December 1, 2012

(Jayapura) Indonesian security forces have arrested several people in West Papua today as demonstrations were held to commemorate the 51st anniversary of the original declaration of West Papua’s independence.

Victor Yeimo, the Chairman of the West Papua National Committee, has been confirmed as being arrested by police, according to independent witnesses and direct communication with his brother.  It is currently unknown if Yeimo was arrested by the Australian funded and trained Detachment 88 counter-terror unit, who had committed to hunt Yeimo.

Several other people have been confirmed arrested jointly by Indonesian military (TNI) and police outside the headquarters of TNI battalion 752 at Expo Waena.  The two confirmed detainees are Usman Yogobi and Alius Asso, according to West Papua Media stringers at the scene.  More names will be provided as soon as confirmed.

Major rallies were also held in Melbourne (Australia), and were planned to be held in Sorong, Nabire, Fak Fak, Manokwari, Wamena,, Timika and Serui.  Information from these rallies have not yet been forthcoming.

More to come – please stay tuned.

WESTPAPUAMEDIA


Police chief calls on Papuans to ‘remain calm’ as 1 December approaches

Morning Star Moon Landing

Ironic Morning Star Moon Landing (Artwork: AK Rockefeller)

 

Tabloid JUBI

28 November, 2012

The police chief  of the district of Mimika, Jeremias Runtini has called on the people to ‘remain calm’ as1 December approaches. He said that people should act together to safeguard security and public order and should avoid getting involved in activities that tend towards subversion such as flying the Morning Star flag.

He said that to mark its anniversary, the OPM, Organisasi Papua Merdeka, the Papuan Freedom Movement, usually flies the Morning Star flag and other people join in this as well.

‘There is nothing special about 1 December,’ he said, adding that the police and the military will be patrolling the area, after mustering their men on Timika Indah Square,’ he told journalists, as 1 December approached.

He said that in anticipation of people flying the Morning Star flag, his men will be mounting patrols throughout the region of Mimika. ‘I very much hope that people will not get involved in activities that are in violation of the laws in force in the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, ‘especially bearing in mind that flying the Morning Star flag is regarded as an act of subversion and is therefore against the law.’

Repeating his call for people to ‘remain calm’ and avoid doing anything that is against the law,  he called on people to support all the development activities that are being undertaken. ‘Let us join together and get involved in these development activities; I am ready to be a partner in these joint endeavours.’

He told journalists that during the three days approaching 1 December, the police will be at the top level of readiness during these three days.

‘All of us must think positively and refrain from doing anything that is in violation of the law, so as not to disrupt peace and tranquillity.’

[Translated by TAPOL]

(WPM NOTE: West Papua Media will be providing monitoring services for international media for December 1 events.  Please contact the editorial team to assist or report.  Donations are required to enable effective monitoring.)

KNPPB A Rival Organization Created By Indonesia To Compete With KNPB

by wedaumamo at KNPB News
November 17, 2012
Analysis / Opinion

Jayapura, KNPBnews – In their continuous efforts to destroy the legitimate movement of the people of West Papua who are fighting for their rights, Indonesian counter-intelligence operations have now created a rival organization called the West Papua Youth National Committee (Komite Nasional Pemuda Papua Barat, or KNPPB). The organization claims itself to be a forerunner of a self-claimed Republic of West Papua under the leadership of Yance Hembring, an agent of the Indonesian Republic.

The KNPPB, an acronym which bears a striking resemblance with KNPB, was created by Indonesia to further strike a blow at the genuine struggle for Papuan rights, led by the KNPB. The fact that Indonesia would instigate further attacks towards the good image of the political struggle of the people of West Papua was to be expected and it was also predicted. It was only a matter of time before journalists of the newspaper Bintang Papua, a number of which are mere agents of Indonesia, calculatedly published the news item concerning the establishment of this rival organ, based on information passed on by sources who are nothing more than the minions of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), and who have been paid to discredit the struggle of the people of West Papua, a struggle led by the KNPB and the people of West Papua.

Active monitoring of the online media shows that Yance Hembring’s group constitutes a faction of the OPM which has already surrendered to the Republic of Indonesia and which is now being used by Indonesia to influence and destroy the bases of the OPM. This faction is now also being used by Indonesia to recruit young people to destroy the KNPB by setting up the rival organ called KNPPB, in exchange for money.

The release today of this deceit by the newspaper Bintang Papua (issues numbers 14 and 15) has as main purpose to blacken the good image of the KNPB and to diminish the sympathy of the people of West Papua for the KNPB. Wim Metlama, KNPB’s National Spokesperson, said that Indonesia was resorting to the old ways of paying Papuans and Papuan newspapers in order to play their dirty political games and soiling the good image of the struggle of West Papua.

“Treacherous moves like these are not something new. These are old tricks that Indonesia has been using, but it has always been to no avail. And we are convinced that the people of West Papua are wise enough to recognise these dreadful tricks played by the colonisers. Even more so, this deceit only proves once again to the people of West Papua that Indonesia is in the habit of manipulating the truth and lying to the people, and precisely for that reason will they realise that the NKRI is truly an occupying colonial force in West Papua”, said Wim.

The newspaper Media Papua is unfortunately contributing to the spreading of the lie, by publishing the news item and disseminating the deceitful information into the public in West Papua. According to our monitoring, a month ago, Papua police chief Tito Karnavian had approached the board of editors of the newspaper Bintang Papua and he had asked them for their support for his colonial agenda. Soon, if not already, many agents of the printed media and other reporters in West Papua will be offered money in return for services to support the colonial program as Tito Karnavian has recently requested.

[Translated by LT]

 


Police in Papua claim to set up team to investigate terror incidents around Freeport

TITO KARNAVIAN

TITO KARNAVIAN (Photo credit: RubyGoes)

 

Bintang Papua,

 

 

9 November, 2012

 

Timika: The chief of police in Papua has announced that he will be setting up a special team to investigate recent acts of terror in the vicinity of the Freeport copper-and-gold mine which is located in the district of Mimika,

Inspector-General Tito Karnavian said that the special team will be charged with mapping the incidents and investigating each one so ensure that they are properly solved.

‘The team will be instructed to handle each case seriously. What happens at present that when an incident occurs, everyone talks about it  but then is disappears.’

The chief of police spent two days in the area with a number of officers and inspected the open pit mining (Grasberg) as well as the underground mines.

He stressed the need for the incidents to be handled seriously.  There have been a number of shootings in the Freeport area since 2009, but in most cases, the perpetrators have not been found.

During the past three years, he said, there have been ‘hundreds’ of shooting incidents leading to the death of twenty people which has included members of the police force, members of the company’s internal security force as well as local people who are involved in traditional mining.

As regards the general situation in Papua, the chief of police said that everything is quiet and under control.  He went on to say that there have been a number of terror incidents in Wamena which have been solved as well as  cases of the discovery of explosive material in Timika.  Six people who are thought to be involved in explosive material are currently in the custody of the police and are being interrogated. He said that the cases are being handled in accordance with legal procedures. ‘Anyone who is deemed to be guilty will be processed according to the law.’

[Translated by TAPOL]

 

(WPM Note: Bintang Papua has only reported what Karnavian has alleged.  However, the facts of the Wamena terror arrests, and also the facts surrounding the ongoing OTK shootings near Freeport have all pointed to the clear involvement of the security forces.  If this new Karnavian announcment is the pretext for another wave of crackdowns on local Papuan people instead of the perpetrators in the security forces who are making massive profit of protection rackets and illegal gold mining in Freeport, and in order to justify their security budget, then Karnavian must be aware that most of Papuan civil society knows this is just window dressing.  Karnavian knows full well the perpetrators of security incidents, he is just too afraid to go and arrest his big brothers in Kopassus.  This strategy is disingenuous, as arresting the wrong people will ensure that the OTK attacks continue, even after the alleged culprits have been extrajudicially executed by the Karnavian death squads of Detachment 88, funded, armed and trained by Australia, UK and the US.)

 

 


LP3BH-Manokwari calls for dialogue between Papua and Indonesia

COMMENT by Yan Christian Warinussy
Executive-Director of LP3BH, Manokwari
November 14, 2012In the concluding months of 2012, there have been many more acts of violence in Papua and West Papua which reflects very badly on the government of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) at a time when development, good governance and security  are essential in the Land of Papua as an integral part of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI). This is happening as a time when many countries  which are members of the UN Human Rights Council are closely watching the situation, following the  Universal Periodic Review  in May 2012, which made  180 recommendations, thirty of which were rejected by the Indonesian government.

One of the recommendations that was rejected was that arrests and detentions on the basis of Articles 106 and 110 for treason should stop. This means that the state will continue to take firm measures, possibly including the use of firearms, against peaceful actions by members of civil society who give expression to their opinions and political views which are opposed to the views of the government. Several activists of the  National Committee of West Papua (KNPB)  have been summoned and interrogated and are likely to be charged for treason. One of these activists is Alexander Nekenem, chairman of the DWP, the local parliament, who was recently summoned  by the police in Manokwari.

The Indonesian government has also rejected the recommendation regarding freedom of expression for persons who have been detained merely for taking peaceful actions, a recommendation that was made by the USA and Canada. What this means is that Filep Kara, Forkorus Yaboisembut, Edison Waromi, Selpius Bobii, Sananay Karma and Dominikus Sorabut  will continue to be deprived of their lawful right to freedom of expression.

Another very bad thing for the Papuan people is that the Indonesian government has rejected the recommendation by the Japanese government which called on Indonesia to end all violation of  human rights  by the security forces (TNI and Polri, the army and the police), because the Indonesian government claims that this is not relevant for Papua because it is not in accord with the facts, whatever they mean by the facts. In my opinion, the Indonesian government’s rejection of this means that there will continue to be an intensification of violence and hence systematic abuses of basic human rights which will continue to occur into the future in the Land of Papua.

In view of all this, as Executive Director of the LP3BH and a defender of human rights in the Land of Papua, I urge the SBY government  to open up space for dialogue  between Papua and Indonesia before the end of 2012. The SBY government should appoint a team of people to meet Father Dr. Neles Tebay, co-ordinator of the Papuan Peace Network, in order to discuss  the format of this dialogue. This would mean that by early 2013,  preparations could be started for a dialogue between the Indonesian government and the Papuan people.

In my opinion, dialogue is the best path to take, in the interests of justice, peace and dignity on both sides, as the way, according to universal standards, to resolve  the conflicting political views which have existed for such a long time, causing the deep frustration  that has borne down both on the Papuan people and the Indonesian government to this very day.

In this way, the Indonesian government would  win the respect of the international community for  having accepted that the political conflict that has lasted for such a long time should be resolved b means of dialogue.

[Translated by TAPOL]

 


Report on the US ambassador’s meetings with various government agencies and institutions

(via Tapol) The following is a summary of two lengthy reports in Bintang Papua on 7 and 8 November about the visit earlier this month of the US ambassador Scot Marciel, to West Papua:
——-
DPRP Meetings
During discussions with members of the Papuan Provincial Legislative Assembly (DPRP), the ambassador expressed strong support for the special autonomy law enacted eleven years ago and said that the US government recognises West Papua as a part of the Republic of Indonesia.He said that his main interest was in the development programme in West Papua and to discuss possible collaboration in this process.

The deputy head  of the DPRP, Yunus Wonda, said the ambassador was keen to know what the priorities were in development and said the ambassador  was particularly interested in education and health.

He also asked about the difficulties surrounding the election of the governor which resulted in the election being delayed for two years. Yunus explained that  the problems had emerged because of a dispute in the MK (This presumably refers to the Constitutional Court – Tapol).

With regard to education, the ambassador said that the US is willing to help by providing study opportunities to young Papuans in the US.

Yunus asked the ambassador how many indigenous Papuans were now studying in the US, adding that they were keen to know the names of these people, to see whether they were indeed indigenous Papuans.

The DPRP also called on the US  to support the idea of dialogue between Jakarta and Papua. He said that they would not use this dialogue to press for independence  for Papua but were only interested in advancing the implementation of the special autonomy law.

——————

Talks with military personnel

Marciel said that the US was very impressed by the developments that had already been achieved and also with the reforms that had been made with regard to the TNI (the Indonesian army). These remarks were made during a meeting between the ambassador and senior officers of the provincial military command. On this occasion the ambassador met the chief of staff of the military command along with seven other senior officers.

In a press release issued by the US team, the ambassador referred to Freeport and asked for clarifications about the company and wanted to know whether there could be more collaboration (with the company) in education, culture and security.

The chief of staff explained that according  to Law 34/2004,  the military were now implementing ‘soft power’ in their territorial operations in Papua, and were keen to assist in speeding up development and human resources so as to ensure that West Papua would not continue to lag behind other parts of Indonesia.

In response to the ambassador’s question as to why the duties of the military command in West Papua were so much greater here than elsewhere and required a very different approach, the chief of staff said that the military were acting in accordance with their noble duties as ‘Noble Protectors of the People’  (Ksatria Pelindung  Rakyat).

————————–

MRP Meeting

During a meeting with the first deputy chairman of the Majelis Rakyat Papua (Papuan People’s Council) Hofni Simbiak, the ambassador said he wanted to know more about the election of the governor and to know more about governmental affairs in the Province of Papua. Hofni said that even a very large tree could be felled at any time.  Because of this, he said that he hoped that there would be more diplomatic visits to Papua so as to give guidance on leadership on the province.

He said that the ambassador’s visit was a good opportunity to discuss the gubernatorial problem, as well as the whole process of government. in the province.  He said that they were very interested in this matter so as to ensure the the common people would not be victims of this situation.

He explained that because of the continued absence of an elected governor, no budget had been produced and there was no one who could take responsibility (for finances).  This was having serious consequences for the people.  (Simbiak) said that they had urged the KPU (Electoral Commission) to discuss this matter with the provincial government and to take firm action on the matter.   He said it was extremely important for a governor to be elected because without this, the services provided by the governor were not available and this was leading to big problems for the people.

The ambassador said that the American people were aware of the difficulties regarding the governor and said: ‘We are having an election of our president in the US and face the same situation as you here in Papua because we are keen to provide help for the government here in the fields of education, health and forestry.’

—————————-

Meeting with Tito Karnavian

In a meeting with Inspector-General of the  Police Force, Tito Karnavian,  the ambassador expressed support for  the developments already achieved by the police.

The chief of police said that when they were confronted with acts of violence, they always act in accordance with the law and in a professional manner, keeping the use of violence to a minimum. He also spoke about their activities to combat corruption so as to ensure that the development budget could serve the interests of the people.

He said that the ambassador had stressed the importance of  transparency and in case of acts of abuse by the police, everything should be made public.  When he asked in what way the US could help, the chief of staff said that they could be given advice on how best to deal with demonstrations.   The second point he made was that for purposes of investigation, the difficulty is that there is no forensic laboratory in Papua.  His third point was about the need for working together especially with Bhayangkari (the organisation of wives of the military), in particular with regard to partnerships with the people.

In response, the ambassador expressed great enthusiasm and said he hoped that joint programmes would be conducted in the next four or five years.

Marciel also expressed support for the police pursuing a lenient approach and the need to avoid projecting an image of the police as being involved only in arresting and detaining people but should prioritise activities that bring them close to the people.

[Translated by TAPOL]

[COMMENT: There is no mention at all of the ambassador having met leaders of Papuan organisations such as DAP, the Council of Indigenous People, KontraS Papua, ELSHAM-Papua or other people's organisations.]

 


PRD Merauke Secretary badly beaten by TNI 755 Btn

by West Papua Media and local sources

November 6, 2012

Information and video footage has emerged from Merauke, Papua, documenting the beating by Indonesian soldiers of the Secretary General of the Parlemen Rakyat Daerah (People’s Regional Parliament), further fulling tensions in the area between occupation forces and the local population.

The incident occurred around 3pm local time on November 3 , as the SekJen, Peter T. Katem was riding his Yamaha motorcycle with a community member, Mr Robert Mayonim.  The pair lost control of their bike due to newly made but rough village roads in Domba Empat street,  accidentally nudged a military officer with their motorbike outside the office of E Company, 755 Battalion (Merauke) of the Indonesian Army (TNI), according to witnesses.

Citizen journalists, Lintah Digoel and Rade Minyak. who interviewed the victims reported that the TNI member and two colleagues then gave chase after they refused to accept the accident, and attacked the pair at the crossroads outside the Company post.  As the beatings continued, more soldiers arrived on the scene and joined in, some in plain clothes and some in uniform.  The beating was filmed (below) by a witness.

According to local sources, Katem and Mayonim were taken forcibly to the E/755 Btn Post with beatings continuing as they were being dragged.  Arriving at the office, they were then tortured for about an hour and a half, they were punched, kicked and beaten with wood, fruit and bamboo.

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The persecution ended after a number of Domba Empat community members   came to the office to demand their release, which occurred two hours later, Digoel and Minyak reported.

So far, none of the perpetrators have been investigated.

 

with KNPBNews.com

 


Papuan Baptist Church: “Indonesian Security Forces Must STOP Committing Crimes Against Humanity in Papua”

Fellowship of Baptist Churches in Papua

PRESS RELEASE

1 November 2012

The Central Body for the Fellowship of Baptist Churches are very concerned about Indonesian security forces towards God’s people in Papua. The cause for this concern came after General Kelly Kwalik killed in Timika on December 16, 2009 by Joint TIM – TNI, Indonesian Police, BRIMOB and Detachment 88, and Musa Mako Tabuni, Chairman of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) were killed by Detachment 88 on June 14, 2012 at Waena, Jayapura,  Papuans are confronted with strange and uncivilised events such as a bomb discoveries, bombings, and the arrest of Papuan civilians on suspicion of possessing ammunition throughout the entirety of Papua.

Examples include:

  • The bombing of the parliament Jayawijaya building on 1 September 2012 at 02:15 WIT by OTK;
  • the throwing of bombs at the Jayawijaya police station traffic on 18 September 2012 at 20:55 WIT;
  • the discovery of a bomb in Timika, Friday, October 19, 2012,
  • the discovery of three bombs in Manokwari on October 9, 2012.
  • Explosion of three homemade bombs in Sorong on Sunday, October 28, 2012 at 22.00.

As of October 30, 2012 there has been the discovery of 7.62 calibre ammunition in as many as 9 points, 5 TJ 5.6 bullets in as much as 121 points,  5.6 servant bullets in 20 points and the arrest of four youths known by the initials DIH (26), a resident of Organda, YP (28), a resident Sampan Timika, AK (24) a woman, a resident of Organda, and YJW (27) a Karubaga citizen. (Cenderwasih Pos News, Wednesday, October 31, 2012).

On Wednesday, October 31, 2012 and the Papua Regional Police arrested a civilian with the initials OG (27) for the alleged possession of Jayapura PTC ammunition.

From the whole combination of “scenarios” and engineered changes that feature indigenous Papuans as owners of ammunition and bomber gives the VERY clear impression of a SYSTEMATIC STRATEGY being applied by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia through the power of the security apparatus with multiple objectives, agenda and targets, namely:

  • A systematic effort to thwart the Papuan demands to work towards a peace dialogue;
  • Systematic efforts to destroy and criminalize peaceful struggle for self-determination rights (the right to self-determination) of the people of Papua;
  • A systematic effort to make the peaceful struggle for independence of Papuans become known as “terrorists”, so that the international community does not support the struggle of the people of Papua, and the Indonesian security forces instead become supported with funding from the Government of the United States and Australia, which has been instrumental in training and sponsorship of Detachment 88 to fight against “terrorists” in Indonesia.

All ammunition and bombs which have been found and detonated were not owned and operated by indigenous Papuans, but there are several false owners, suppliers and urgers of young Papuans to give truth to the “justification” that those involved in the  struggle of the people of Papua are in fact criminals and “terrorists”.

Recommendations:

  • The entire Papuan society, migrants and indigenous Papuans, do not easily believe that the bombs which were detonated and found, and ammunition recovered from the hands of indigenous Papuans is not true. because the struggle to find justice and political rights for the people of Papua is found through peace, which has already been shown to be true, and not through violence, which would only be a backwards change.
  • The security forces of the Republic of Indonesia must stop committing crimes against humanity by an engineered situation of bombs and ammunition discovery at the houses of indigenous Papuans.
  • The Government of the Republic of Indonesia immediately open a space for an unconditional peace dialogue between the Government of Indonesia and the Papuans, mediated by a neutral third party, as a political solution to the Special Autonomy has FAILED to answer the complexity of the issue of Papua. Peaceful dialogue with the following conditions:
    • Immediately release all political prisoners such as Filep Karma, Forkorus Yaboisembut and friends unconditionally.
    • Immediate withdrawal of all non-organic troops, which are not balanced by the number of indigenous Papuans.
    • The Government of the Republic of Indonesia immediately allow access for foreign journalists and humanitarian workers to visit Papua.
    • The Government of the Republic of Indonesia immediately inviting and allow the United Nation Special Rapporteur to visit Papua.

Chairman

The Central Body for the Fellowship of Baptist Churches in Papua,

Sofyan Yoman Socratez


38 Papuans flee TNI/Polri security sweeps in Keerom

ELSHAM News Service

November 2, 2012

Investigations and monitoring conducted by Elsham Papua in Keerom between Saturday (27 Oct.) and Sunday (28 Oct.) have revealed that at least thirty-ight (38) indigenous Papuans have had to leave their villages and have fled into the forest and stayed there for more than five (5) months.

During these five months, they have had to move from one place to another, and they have had to settle in huts around the Bagia hills, west of the tow of Arso.

The locals evacuated their villages because they were afraid of becoming victims of ongoing sweeps conducted by  joint army/police forces in the area, who are hunting indigenous Papuans who would allegedly be members of the separatist armed struggle (TPN-OPM); another alleged motive behind these sweeps is the search to find the killer of the head of the village of Sawyatami, who was shot on 1 July.
The names of the indigenous Papuans who fled to the forest, and who are now internally displaced persons (IDPs) are as follows:
Name of IDPs from the village of Sawyatami:
1. Hironimus Yaboy (45)
2. Alea Kwambre (28)
3. Afra Kwambre (27)
4. Carles Yaboy (10)
5. Ardila Yaboy (8)
6. Desi Yaboy (4)
7. Lefira Yaboy (1)
8. Markus Kuyi (17)
9. Yustus Kuyi (16)
10. Timotius Kuyi (15)
11. Samuel Kuyi (13)
Name of IDPs from the village of Workwana:
1. Lukas Minigir (68)
2. Rosalina Minigir (36)
3. Hanas Pikikir (21)
4. Naomi Giryapon (19)
5. Krisantus Pikikir (12)
6. Penina Pekikir (3)
7. Habel Minigir (33)
8. Agustina Minigir (21)
9. Adrianus Minigir (2)
Name of IDPs from PIR III Bagia:
1. Agustina Bagiasi (35)
2. Mikael Kimber (18)
3. Jhon Kimber (14)
4. Kristiani Kimber (11)
5. Serfina Kimber (8)
6. David Kimber (2)
7. Fabianus Kuyi (50)
8. Martha Tekam (38)
9. Marselina Kuyi (23)
10. Fitalius Kuyi (20)
11. Margaretha Ibe (19)
12. Jubelina Kuyi (19)
13. Kristianus Kuyi (17)
14. Frins Alfons Kuyi (15)
15. Emilianus Kuyi (11)
16. Maria Yuliana Kuyi (8)
17. Moses Hubertus Kuyi (5)
18. Rati Kimber (1)
Out of the total displaced people, eight (8) are children who were attending school. Their names are:
1. Yubelina Kuyi, high school students at Negeri 1 Swakarsa Arso
2. Kristianus Kuyi, junior high school student at Negeri 1 Arso
3. Frins Kuyi, elementary school student at Inpres PIR III Bagia
4. Emilianus Kuyi, elementary school student at Inpres PIR III Bagia
5. Charles Yaboy, elementary school student at Inpres Sawyatami
6. Nike Ardila Yaboy Sanggwa, elementary school student at Inpres Sawyatami
7. Kristian Pekeukir, elementary school student at YPPK Dununmamoy Arso
8. Yohana Kimber, elementary school student at Inpres Sawyatami

These children have not attended school from 2 July 2012 until the date of this report. YK, whom Elsham found in the camp, explained that she no longer went to school because she was afraid of the TNI/police. “I am scared that the soldiers will shoot me. My father is also fighting for an independent Papua so I am afraid to go to school,” said YK in a plain tone.
During the decade covering the period 1970 to 1980, Keerom was a Military Operations Area. Many local residents have undergone cruel and arbitrary treatment at the hands of the Indonesian security forces, as they were accused of alleged involvement in the separatist movement. Today, residents are still feeling the trauma of living in a military operation area. And up to the date of this report, the IDPs are still afraid to return to their villages.

ElshamNewsService

 


Tapol: Britain and Indonesia – Too close for comfort?

TAPOL Press release
President’s visit prompts fresh concerns about arms sales and training of anti-terror police

30 October 201

British-funded training of Indonesia’s anti-terror police, Special Detachment 88, should be reviewed in the light of serious concerns about the unit’s human rights record and its operations in Papua, says TAPOL ahead of a state visit to London by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono from 31 October to 2 November 2012.

In the run-up to the visit TAPOL, which promotes human rights, peace and democracy in Indonesia, is also appealing for an immediate ban on the sale to Indonesia of any military equipment that may be used for internal repression.

“While British businesses are no doubt eagerly anticipating the President’s visit, victims of human rights abuses will derive little comfort from the prospect of increased arms sales and ongoing training of Indonesian security forces,” says Paul Barber, Coordinator of TAPOL.

As the UK government prepares a state welcome for President Yudhoyono, rights groups from the UK and beyond are organizing an alternative welcome at a demonstration on behalf of the victims of human rights abuses outside Downing Street from 13:00 to 14:30 on Wednesday 31 October.

While Indonesia has made substantial progress in its transition from dictatorship to democracy since the downfall of former President Suharto in May 1998, serious human rights concerns remain.

“The news that the President is to receive a prestigious honour from the Queen is a gross affront to those who have suffered violations at the hands of successive Indonesian governments,” said Barber [1].

Special Detachment 88, known as ‘Densus 88’ was formed after the Bali bombings in 2002 to combat terrorism, but is reportedly being deployed to tackle other issues, such as alleged separatism in Indonesia’s conflict-affected provinces. Local civil society monitors say Densus 88 is being used to crack down on the Papuan independence movement, and the unit has been implicated in the assassination of its leaders, such as Mako Tabuni who was shot dead in June this year.

The unit is trained at the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation, JCLEC, which received a minimum of £400,000 in funding from Britain in the financial year 2011/12, as well as training provided by British officers. These include the UK’s South East Asia Counter Terrorism & Extremism Liaison Officer Detective Superintendent Phil Tucker; former Metropolitan Police Commander Bob Milton, and David Gray, an officer from the Counter Terrorism Command at New Scotland Yard who sits on JCLEC’s Board of Supervisors and has been teaching on the course since August 2009.

In July this year, leading Indonesian human rights NGO, KontraS, published research which stated that Densus 88 operations commonly involved arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, physical abuse and injury causing death [2].

Indonesia has been identified by the UK as a priority market for defence sales, with Prime Minister David Cameron boosting the export effort when he visited Jakarta with arms company executives in April 2012. The value of approved arms export licences has risen dramatically under the coalition government. The use of British equipment such as Hawk jets, armoured personnel carriers and water cannon for internal repression has been widely documented over the years and was acknowledged by the British Government in the 1990s. UK Tactica vehicles have been used to crush protest on the streets of Jakarta as recently as March this year, and are used by Indonesia’s notorious paramilitary police unit Brimob.

During the President’s visit, groups including TAPOL, Down to Earth, Survival International, Progressio and Christian Solidarity Worldwide will be highlighting these and other key issues, including Human Rights in Papua; The Need for Dialogue in Papua; Freedom of Expression; Rights, Livelihoods and Climate Justice; Religious Intolerance; and Timor-Leste and Impunity.

Information on these issues is set out in a briefing available here.

ENDS

Contact: Paul Barber on 01420 80153 / 07747 301 739 or Esther Cann on 07503 400 308.

Notes:

1. President Yudhoyono will reportedly be awarded the Knights Grand Cross of the Order of Bath by the Queen during his visit.

2. KontraS report on Densus 88 available from TAPOL on request


Update on Manokwari police beating of journalist Oktovianus Pogau

Statement/ Media safety briefing from Oktovianus Pogau, SuaraPapua.com

October 27, 2012

I (Oktovianus Pogau, a journalist at suarapapua.com and a freelancer for The Jakarta Globe) will report on a beating that I experienced, perpetrated by police in Manokwari, West Papua.

Journalist Oktovianus Pogau (Photo: Andreas Harsono)

On the 24th October, 2012, at around 16.00 Eastern Indonesian Time, I was accompanied by three journalists, two from Cahaya Papua (Duma Sanda and Patrick Tandilerung) and one journalist from Tabloid Noken (Jo Kelwulan) to Manokwari police station to meet with the Chief of Police for Manokwari, AKBP Agustinus Supriyanto S.Ik, as had been arranged on the evening of Tuesday (23/10) with the officer.

The Chief of Police had initially stated that he was not aware if members of the force had beat up journalists, then, when many journalists from Jakarta began to call the station inquiring about the incident, Supriyanto became adamant that there were no beatings of journalists by police.
Then, continued Supriyanto, 5-10 minutes later at around 20.00 Eastern Indonesian Time, there was a brief message from me to his phone (whereas I sent him an SMS at 13.29 WIT, 30 minutes after the beating) which stated that there had been a beating and that my neck had been strangled while I was covering an action by Komite Nasional Papua Barat (KNPB) (National West Papuan Committee) on Tuesday 23/10 in front of Kampus Universitas Negeri Papua (Unipa) (Papuan State University) which was supporting an international lawyers meeting in London.

Then, the Chief of Police conveyed himself as the supervisor and manager of all the police in Manokwari, Papua Barat, and didn’t question that the media publish (when shown the news headlines in Cahaya Papua which detailed the violence perpetrated by members of the police force against me) news about the aforementioned incident.

Supriyanto said that the relationships between all journalists in West Papua, particularly in Manokwari, is really good, and because of this, he personally regrets the incident of the beating, and in fact, was surprised that a member of the force would do something like this to a journalist.

Supriyanto said that he wished to offer a personal apology for the incident. He also said that there was also a possibility that the incident occurred because the police didn’t realise I was a journalist, and that they were also carried away with the emotion of the moment.

Because of this, the Chief of Police firmly requested that I identify the men responsible for the incident so they could be subject to due legal processes, as in line with my request.

However, Supriyanto also suggested that the case didn’t have to be resolved amicably, that is, to be resolved by making peace with the offenders. According to the chief of police, it could be a rather difficult process to find the offenders, as there were many members in the force, and certainly no-one would be honest, but he said again that it depended on me.

After the chief of police opened this conversation, he gave us all the chance to talk. Duma Sanda explained that there was an issue of freedom of the press, in which the work of journalists is universal, meaning, it doesn’t mean that just because I didn’t live and become a journalist in Manokwari, I didn’t have the right to cover the demonstration by KNPB.

Duma also firmly requested that the Chief of Police teach the men to respect the profession of journalism, and also to respect journalists like myself. And, to make himself clearer, Duma also requested that the Chief listen to a chronological account of the beating I experienced.

I introduced myself (officially) to the Chief of Police.  I told him about my work writing news for the paper Papua Pos Nabire and Tabloid JUBI during high school, about writing several columns in Tabloid Suara Perempuan Papua, the newspaper Bintang Papua, along with Papua Pos Nabire.  And I conveyed to him that I’d also covered stories for The Jakarta Globe and that this is still continuing, and then that I established suarapapua.com as an online media outlet.

I explained to the Chief of Police in chronological order the incident of the beating (you can read my previous email). After this, I conveyed a number of important issues to the Chief of Police that have to be understood about the incident of the beating.

I said that firstly, his men had violated the article KUHP on disorder; secondly, the men had violated article UU Kebebasan Pers 1999 (UU on Freedom of the Press 1999) by preventing the work of a journalist; thirdly the UU anti-discrimination; and fourthly, Intelligence didn’t have the authority to capture let alone beat someone and certainly they violated their work code.

Because of this, I requested that the problem not be resolved amicably/peacefully, but should be followed up through a more direct process of law. I said that it was important that the police officers be aware, and law enforcement officers should be an example, that if there are officers who are at fault, then they have to be punished as criminals so that the public can know.

Oktovianus Pogau


Papuan independence demo in London

Bintang Papua
25 October 2012 Benny Wenda leads an Independence Demo in London

Jayapura: Three British Members of Parliament were present at a meeting which was held in one of the committee rooms in the House of Commons for two hours on 23 October  at which information was given about the situation in West Papua.

The three parliamentarians were Andrew Smith, MP, member  for Oxford, Lord Harris a member of the House of Lords and Dan Rogerson MP, member for Cornwall.

While the meeting was in progress, a group of a dozen or more supporters of the OPM, the Papuan Freedom Organisation, held a demonstration outside, led by Benny Wenda, leader of the West Papuan.organisation overseas, who also addressed the demo. One of the demands made by the speaker was for the United Nations to send an observer mission to West Papua.

[The report is accompanied by a photo of the demonstration, which also shows the Morning  Star flag.]