Month: September 2010

WPNA: WEST PAPUANS WANT PAYBACK FROM THE US

MEDIA RELEASE:  WEST PAPUA NATIONAL AUTHORITY, 22 Sept 2010

WEST PAPUANS WANT PAYBACK FROM THE US

Today there are rallies at US Embassies in West Papua, Jakarta, Melbourne and Perth, reminding US Senators in a Congressional Hearing in Washington of Indonesia’s atrocious human rights record in West Papua and the republic’s dismal effort to decentralize, demilitarize or democratize.

West Papuan lawyer, Edison Waromi, who is President of the West Papua National Authority, arrived in Washington this morning to attend the Congressional hearing.

“We West Papuans have a lot of history with the United States” he said. “General MacArthur’s children might not know their father dropped us two thousand guns to fight the Japanese during World War 2. John Kennedy’s children probably don’t want to know their father called us ‘just 700,000 cannibals’ as he artfully bullied the Dutch into relinquishing its colony to the Indonesians. I would of course remind Ellsworth Bunker’s children that their father was the architect of the New York Agreement that enslaved us to the Indonesians. And then there’s Mr Kissinger and the whole Freeport mine business”.

The West Papua National Authority/West Papua National Consensus is in Washington to advise American politicians to support

(1)     The re-insertion of West Papua on the UN Decolonization List

(2)    West Papuans’ inalienable right to self-determination in terms of the recent ICJ ruling on Kosovo

(3)    An international fact-finding and peace-keeping mission to West Papua immediately.

“Ultimately someone has to take responsibility for the 546,000 ‘missing’ Papuans since the beginning of the Indonesian occupation in 1962” said Mr Waromi.

LP3BH Report on Manokwari Shooting Incident

Institute of Research, Analysis and Development for Legal Aid

(LP3BH)
Jl. Gunung Salju No. 18 Fanindi (Bengkel Tan) – Manokwari, 98312
Telp/Fax : (0986) 213160; Po.Box.128 Manokwari, 98301

Report on Manokwari Shooting Incident

As a result of the gun fires shootings that were conducted by Police’s
Mobile Brigade (Brimob) Compy 3 Detachment C Manokwari, on 15 September
2010, Wednesday, 8pm (local West Papua time), at least 2 civilians died
and one woman got serious injuries with broken leg, broken pelvic bone,
and broken jaws. The incident took place in Esau Sesa Street, South
Manokwari, West Papua Province.

According to the local (witness), before the shooting incident happened
there was a traffic accident in Esau Sesa Street, a woman called
Antomina Kowi/Mandacan was hit by a motorcycle (a hired motorbike) at
around 6.30pm. The victim suffered a broken right tight bone, serious
pain on pelvic bone, and broken ribs. The motor cycle was in a high
speed from the direction of Manokwari town towards Arfai district South
of Manokwari. Post-incident, the victim’s family chased the motor’s
driver but he headed to Brimob’s headquarters. The family could not find
the driver they went back and took the victim to Manokwari Public
hospital for medical treatment.
After the incident, the residents were looking for the driver, and one
of the Brimob personnel came alone toward the mob, according to the
witness instead of calming down the people, he created tension. He was
then injured by the angry mob using the machete. Being injured the
Brimob member ran back to his HQ and contacted other Brimob members.
At around 8pm, around a dozen Brimob personnel with fully equipments
went to the crowded people and started shooting brutally against those
civilians, most of the children and adults went hide into the jungle to
avoid the angry Brimob members who seizing the area.
At around 8.20pm, the electricity went off in the whole regency for
about 10-15minutes. A resident who was in Manokwari Public hospital
said, “when the power supply went down totally, there was a car came to
the hospital and drop something, and they took it to the emergency room,
all windows and door were locked by the medical workers, only one
spotlight that lighted up inside the room.
Minutes later, it was heard that there was a death body inside the
emergency room in that hospital. Since the night time to the morning,
Thursday 16 September 2010, there was no relative of the death person
came to the hospital. Around 9am, some of the families came to the
hospital stayed outside the morgue. The dead body then was known as
Naftali Kwan the priest of GPKAI (Christian Fellowship Bible Church of
Indonesia) in Manokwari hinterland.
Around 09.30, the locals found another dead body on the edge of abyss.
The victim was known as Septinus Kwan, male, about 30years old, farmer.
In the same time, another victim a woman was called Arfonika Kwan was
found dying in critical condition in the abyss. She is the wife of the
dead victim Naftali Kwan. The victim was rushed to the public hospital,
she suffered of broken leg, broken jaws, broken pelvic bone. According
to a local, the victim was trying to avoid the angry Brimob and fell
down into the abyss.
At around 10.30am, there was a mass paraded and carried the dead body of
Septinus Kwan toward Manokwari Regent’s office. The mass have 3 demands:
First, Rp30millions compensation to the victims’ families, second that
all Brimob [the National Police’s Mobile Brigade] officers be pulled out
of Manokwari. Third, the land used to built the Brimob’s HQ will be
drawn back as the property of the indigenous people.
Thursday 11am, Manokwari ton became tense, all shops, office buildings,
schools and markets closed. The road was so quite only the sound of
machine guns were heard and a rumor was spread throughout sms/mobile
phones among the residents that there will be a nigh attack, but it was
not existed.

Information and Documention
LP3BH MANOKWARI
Simon LP3BH Manokwari

(Translated by Paula Makabory)

Copy of report with pictures is available at

https://ipahr.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/west-papua-human-rights-report-on-shooting-by-police/

Groups Urge Obama Administration to Reject Dino Patti Djalal as Indonesia's Ambassador

Groups Urge Obama Administration to Reject Dino Patti Djalal as Indonesia’s Ambassador

Contact: John M. Miller  (ETAN) 718-596-7668
Ed McWilliams (WPAT) 401-568-5845 (until Sept. 21), 575-648-2078 (after)

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) and West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) are deeply concerned about the appointment of Dino Patti Djalal as the Indonesia’s Ambassador-designate to the United States. We urge President Obama to reject his credentials and urge Jakarta to send an Ambassador untainted by complicity with human rights violations and with greater credibility.

Ambassador Djalal was a defender of the Suharto dictatorship, and his career involved him in brutal repression. While defending the Indonesian security forces in East Timor (now independent Timor-Leste), he would often attack human rights investigators and organizations. He sought to portray the violence there as civil conflict among East Timorese, rather than resulting from repression of resistance to Indonesia’s illegal and brutal occupation.

The Suharto dictatorship and the Habibie government that followed promoted Djalal as Indonesia’s leading “expert” on East Timor. During that time, Djalal reportedly had close links with the Indonesian army’s intelligence agency.

In 1999, during and after East Timor’s historic UN-organized vote on independence, Djalal was based in East Timor as the spokesperson for the Satgas P3TT (the Indonesian “Task Force for Popular Consultation in East Timor”).  In that capacity he took the lead in the Task Force’s political initiatives.

As Task Force spokesman, Djalal quickly emerged as its leading political heavyweight, taking the lead in leveling false accusations against UNAMET (UN Assistance Mission for East Timor). In his official capacity Djalal also served as flack for the militias created and directed by the Indonesian military to terrorize the East Timorese population in the run-up to August 1999 vote. Those militias and their Indonesian security force allies repeatedly attacked East Timorese civilians, burning villages and assaulting churches in attempt to frighten the population into voting against independence. The militias also sought to intimidate the UN teams sent to prepare for the vote and the international media and humanitarian organizations in the country to monitor the process.

As international alarm over the excesses of the militias and their Indonesian military sponsors grew, Djalal played a key role in seeking to deflect criticism of the militias and the military.

Djalal denied the reality that militias were arming in the run-up to the vote and sought  to obscure militia and military atrocities against civilians in East Timor. He was a dogged critic of international journalists and human right organizations who sought to report these atrocities.

In the wake of East Timor’s overwhelming vote for independence, the Indonesian security forces and their militias rampaged throughout country exacting revenge for the people’s rejection of Jakarta’s rule. The militia and military attacks destroyed vital infrastructure and buildings. They targeted UN facilities and personnel, as well as international journalists, diplomats and other observers. Djalal was key in Jakarta’s unsuccessful efforts to deny the  reality of the which cost the lives of approximately 1,500 East Timorese, displaced two-thirds of its population, and destroyed 75 percent of East Timor’s infrastructure.

In diplomatic assignments in the U.S., Great Britain and Canada, Djalal focused on defending the role of the unreformed and abusive Indonesian military, including targeting of its foreign critics. More recently he has served as Presidential spokesperson.

Ambassador Djalal’s past as an apologist for the worst behavior of the Indonesian military and its minions augers poorly for international efforts, especially in the United States, to press for  justice and accountability for past human rights crimes and genuine reform of Indonesia’s security forces. As the situation in West Papua becomes increasingly tense, will Djalal serve as Indonesia’s Washington-based apologist for continued repression?

In the interest of promoting strengthened U.S.-Indonesian relations based on respect for human rights, ETAN and WPAT believe that the U.S. government should not accept Djalal’s credentials as Indonesia’s Ambassador to the United States.

http://etan.org/news/2010/09djalal.htm

Manokwari Tense as Indonesians shoot dead Priest and Son

WARNING: THE PHOTOGRAPHS CONTAINED HERE ARE HIGHLY GRAPHIC AND DISTRESSING

September 16, 2010

URGENT IN MANOKWARI

Large numbers of fully armed police, including members of the Australian trained, armed and funded Detachment 88, are blockading Manokwari after the police shooting of a priest and his son on Wednesday.

Rev. Naftali Kuan (58 years old) from the GPKAI Church and his wife (Mrs. Antomina Kuan, 55 years old) and their twenty-three year old son Septinus were trying to calm their church members when BRIMOB officers short the three of them. Rev. Naftali and his son Septinue were shot dead, and Antomina was shot in the neck and is intensive care at Manokwari Hospital.

Allegations by Indonesian police that a mob attacked them with stones causing them to open fire in self-defence are completely untrue, according to witnesses.

In Manokwari on Wednesday, 15 September 2010 at 18:30, an Indonesian on a motorcycle seriously smashed an elderly Papuan woman, an Arfak tribal elder. The incident occurred in front of BRIMOB headquarters in Rendani Manokwari, and the motorcycle rider ran into BRIMOB office rather than helping the woman to hospital.

Papuans spontaneously gathered in front of the BRIMOB office calling for the driver to take responsibility for the incident. When BRIMOB officers rejected their pleas, frustrated locals started throwing stones at them.

At the moment Rev. Kuan and his son are being carried by thousands in a peace rally in front of the West Papua Governor’s office. The mourning demonstrators are calling on BRIMOB and the central government to take responsibility for their assassinations, and crimes against indigenous Papuans.

Piter Hiyowati of The West Papua National Authority is calling for an urgent dispatch of UN militarized peace-keepers in West Papua to contain the excesses of the Indonesian security forces against the indigenous population which Yudhoyono’s government in Jakarta appears to be unwilling to impose normal standards of military discipline.

AWPA (Sydney) Urges Moratorium on Australian aid to Detachment 88 torturers

Australia West Papua Association, Sydney
PO Box 28, Spit Junction, Sydney, Australia 2088

The Hon Julia Gillard MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
Canberra
ACT 2600

15  September 2010

Dear Prime Minister,

On behalf of the Australia West Papua Association  (AWPA),  I am writing to you concerning the recent media reports about the torture of activists in Maluku by members of the Indonesian counter-terrorism unit Detachment 88. Detachment 88 also operates in West Papua where they have  also  been accused of human rights abuses. In December 2009  the West Papuan  leader Kelly Kwalik who was of great symbolic importance  to the West Papuan people was killed  by the Indonesian security forces  which included members of  Detachment 88.  We will not go into great detail of the human rights abuses committed by this unit and that of the other Indonesian Special Forces unit,  Kopassus.  These human rights abuses have been documented in numerous reports and the activities of the Indonesian security forces  are well know to the Australian people from their past history in East Timor, Aceh and the ongoing abuses in West Papua.  A recent Human Rights Watch report titled “What Did I Do Wrong?” Papuans in Merauke Face Abuses by Indonesian Special Forces,”  documents a number of cases of West Papuans who were tortured by Kopassus troops.
AWPA and other civil society organisations have written regularly to Australian Governments over many years about our ties with the Indonesian military. We have raised concerns that any aid or training given to the military would be used against the West Papuan people who are struggling for their right to self-determination.

Many of the NGO submissions to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) concerning  the Lombok treaty, also raised  concerns about the past history of  the Indonesian military’s treatment of civilian populations.  Unfortunately these concerns have proven yet again justified in the case of the treatment of activists in West Papua and Maluku.

During the occupation of East Timor by Indonesia, the Australian Government appeared to believe that by continuing ties with the Indonesian military that  the professionalism of the Australian military would  rub off on the Indonesian military.  However, this  proved to be wishful thinking and a complete failure  as  was shown  by the behavior of the Indonesian military at the time of the referendum in East Timor. It is also a failure now.  To quote from the Human Rights Watch Report  “The cases in this report illustrate how violence thrives when a culture of impunity persists in  the heart of what is supposed to be one of Indonesia’s best trained fighting units”.

AWPA is urging you to put a moratorium on the training, funding and any ties between  the Australian military,  Detachment 88 and the special forces unit  Kopassus, until a full inquiry is held into the activities of these units in relation to  human rights abuses in the archipelago.

Yours sincerely
Joe Collins
Secretary
AWPA (Sydney)

CC The Hon Kevin Rudd MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs
The Hon Stephen Smith MP
Minister for Defence
Various human rights organisations

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