Year: 2011

West Papuans Call For Dialogue With Indonesia

(Note: West Papua Media was a participant in this conference, and a paper calling for development of Papuan media was a key part of this conference also.  Over the next fews weeks, we will be publishing a selection of observations from this conference, and a book will also be forthcoming from CPACS West Papua Project)

 

ABC News/Radio Australia
Friday, February 25, 2011

West Papuans Call For Dialogue With Indonesia

The ramifications of the fast moving events in Libya and the middle
east could be felt as far away as Papua in Indonesia, a Sydney
Conference has been told.

A movement for greater autonomy or even independence from Indonesia has been active since Papua was absorbed by the Muslim state in 1969.

It has been at times ruthlessly suppressed by successive governments
in Jakarta, fearful of the loss of national unity and rich resources.

But observers say with demands for greater democracy reverberating
around the world there might be a new willingness in Jakarta to take
on board the calls for change.

Presenter: Karon Snowdon

Speakers: Peter King, Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Sydney
University; Jacob Rumbiak, coordinator of the foreign office of the
West Papua National Authority; John Otto Ondawame, Vice President of
the West Papuan National Coalition for Liberation.

SNOWDON: Indonesia has faced strong resistance to its rule in Papua,
or West Papua, as it’s also known. The complaints include the appalling human rights record of the security forces, lack of development, resource stripping, cultural insensitivity and unwelcome migrants.
Often these complaints have been ignored or dealt with inadequately,
but perhaps this is changing.

KING: The political situation in Jakarta is now being driven by events
in Papua and also international reaction to what’s happening in Papua.

SNOWDON: Peter King is the convenor of the West Papua Project at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney,
where he spoke at an international conference on Papua.

Peter King says the government of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been embarrassed by the worldwide release of the video showing Papuan men being tortured by Indonesian security.

And by the symbolic return of special autonomy to Jakarta through huge public demonstrations in June last year. Indonesia’s effort at appeasement, special autonomy has been a failure.

KING: Anybody would be encouraged by what’s gone on in the Middle
East. And the Papuans are even more mobilised than those Arab
populations were – it’s a kind of permanent Papuan mobilisation
against Jakarta. And the tactic so far of cultivating an enriched
elite of bureaucrats and politicians, which has been the main
Indonesian strategy to pacify Papuans, plus the influx of migrants
from outside Papua, that’s not going to wash in the post-Tahir Square
milieu that we’re living in.

SNOWDON: And there has been something of a breakthrough.
Jacob Rumbiak was jailed for nine years, part of the time he spent
with East Timor’s Xanana Gusmao. He returned to Jakarta for the first time this month at the invitation of the Indonesian government. He’s now an academic and the coordinator of the foreign office of the West Papua National Authority, which he calls the transitional government of an independent West Papua. He was afforded high level access over two weeks of talks in Jakarta.

RUMBIAK: Visiting Jakarta is part of how to negotiate with Jakarta
about how to build trust between Jakarta and the people of West Papua.

SNOWDON [TO RUMBIAK]: To what end, independence or just more autonomy for Papua?

RUMBIAK: The aim is based on [democracy]. Let Papuans choose. If they want to integrate with Indonesia, it’s OK, but when they want to [be] independent, that’s the right.

SNOWDON: A lack of unity in the past has set back the resistance movement. John Otto Ondawame, the vice president of the West Papuan National Coalition for Liberation based in Vanuatu says a united call for dialogue for the peaceful resolution of issues with Indonesia mean the old divisions have ended.

ONDAWAME: Papuans are united in their aspirations for political change.

SNOWDON [TO ONDAWAME]: Are the groups working together successfully now?

ONDAWAME: Yes, we’re working together both inside West Papua in the
guerilla camp in the jungle and also in the outside world to raise the
voices of the West Papuans to the international community that we are
united.

SNOWDON: And he calls on the Melanesian Spearhead Group and the
Pacific Island Forum to do more to promote reconciliation between
Indonesia and Papua.

ONDAWAME: These two bodies must stand together to address the issue of West Papua and to send a fact finding mission to investigate the human rights situation in West Papua and other related issues.

SNOWDON [TO ONDAWAME]: Given the recent case of torture case against members the Indonesian military do you see any change in Jakarta and in the president’s office towards a better deal for Papua?

ONDAWAME: The culture of torture [by the] military has continued for
the past 54 years after occupation.

SNOWDON: Is there no improvement?

ONDAWAME: No improvement at all.

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Kampung inhabitants need more medical personnel

JUBI, 22 February 2011

Kampung inhabitants need more medical personnel

People living in Mosso kampung, district of Muaratami have urged the
Health Service to increase the number of medical personnel available to kampung dwellers because it is very inadequate at present.

‘We need help from the medical service because we are getting complaints every day from patients about the lack of medical facilities,’ said Charle Wetapoa, an official.

He said that the lack of personnel had been a problem for years, with
the result that people living in the kampung are finding it difficult to
get the medical assistance they need. He said that there were only two people working at the clinic in the kampung

He said that they have called on the Health Service in Jayapura to
prioritise medical personnel for Mosso this year , which would help
improve the conditions of the people in the kampung, especially with
regard to their health.

The Mosso kampung is part of the administrative district of Jayapura
Municipality but is located at a great distance from other kampungs in
the same district, meaning that it is very difficult for the people to
get the service they need. There are altogether 45 people living in the
kampung.

[COMMENT: This is happening in a territory like Papua that is providing
revenues for the Indonesian state coffers from the hugely profitable
mining operations of Freeport copper-and-gold mine. TAPOL

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Papua New Guinea Raises Concerns Over Arms Smuggling At Indonesian Border

Media Information:

(Note: West Papua Media and illegal arms smuggling investigators have long raised this issue with the PNG and Australian governments, however, evidence collected from the ground has implicated INdonesian military sources, not West Papuan opposition sources. The reporting in this piece is disingenuous and misleading by lumping this together with Operation Sunset Merona, implying that West Papuan refugees were involved in weapons smuggling. This has never been the case. Widespread research has documented a pathway of Indonesian military officers exchanging weapons for Marijuana with Raskol gangs from the PNG highlands, and with Indonesian officials in PNG openly flooding the country with small arms via illegal logging networks. Please contact West Papua Media for more background).

BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific
February 21, 2011

Papua New Guinea Raises Concerns Over Arms Smuggling At Indonesian Border

Text of report by Papua New Guinea newspaper The National website on 21
February

[Article by Isaac Nicholas: ‘Weapons smuggling a concern’]

Western law enforcement authorities have raised concerns about arms
smuggling into the province from Australia and Indonesia, saying it is
a threat to national security.

Provincial Police Commander Peter Philip said his men had confiscated
arms ranging from high-powered semi-automatic weapons to small arms
and shotguns.

He also raised concerns that Operation Sunset Merona refugees had been flown into East Arwin refugee camp without consultations with
provincial authorities, adding that the flight of more than 50 refugees by the PNGDF Casa aircraft into Kiunga was causing further strain on the limited resources in the province.

Philip said the frequency of illegal gun smuggling was higher than
what was happening up at the West Sepik border.

Ningerum Prison acting Commander Wini Nemo also raised similar
concerns that the extra people on the ground would also put pressure
on the jail holding capacity of 30 inmates, adding that the jail was
already over-crowded.

Similar sentiments were conveyed to Correctional Services Minister
Tony Aimo during a visit to the North Fly township of Kiunga last
week.

Provincial Magistrate Patrick Monouluk said arms smuggling was a
concern for authorities which lacked the capacity to police the vast
border province.

Last week, Monouluk sentenced a man to 18 months imprisonment for
smuggling arms and ammunition. Simon Somo Harquart from Mapos Village, Buang, in Morobe, was arrested by police when he attempted to move three firearms from Saibai Island in the Torres Strait into Daru.
Acting on a tip-off, police confiscated a .22 squibman rifle, 303
rifle, self-loading rifle and more than 150 rounds of ammunition.
Monouluk found him guilty and after sentencing, Harquart was
transferred to Bomana Jail outside Port Moresby.

Aimo admitted that arms smuggling and free movement of people across
the border of Indonesia and Australia was a major security concern and
he would raise the issue through reporting to the National Executive
Council to extend the operations from West Sepik to Western.

“We are sitting on a time bomb. There is exchange of guns and drugs
along this Western border which Waigani does not know about,” Aimo
said.

“It is very fragile and a threat to our national security.”

Source: The National website, Port Moresby, in English 21 Feb 11

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0

Nurses in Papua take their complaints to governor.. and to the ALDP

Bintang Papua, 19 February 2011
Abridged in translation by TAPOL

Nurses working at the Dok II General Hospital have taken part in a
demonstration at the governor’s office, complaining that their rights
have been ignored.

‘We are working to the utmost and often doing things that doctors should
be doing in addition to our own duties. In addition to applying
catheters and giving infusions, we do laboratory work and look after
and wash the patients, as well as handling things that doctors should be
doing.’

Leni Ebe is one of more than one hundred nurses working at Dok II in
Jayapura.who are critical of the management of the hospital which they
describe as being appalling. After having made complaints to the
director of the hospital (to no avail), they took their complaints to
the governor of the province.

She spoke in particular about the incentive fee that had been promised
by the government but had not yet been paid.

Nurses in all the hospitals in Abepura as well as elsewhere in Papua are
doing their utmost, she said. ‘We were promised the incentive fee in
2009 and were eventually paid Rp 30,000 [around £2.00], which we got
only after pressing very hard for it.’

Since the enactment of the Special Autonomy law (in 2001), Papua has
been allocated substantial sums of money yet internal management
problems have led to a failure to solve problems in the hospitals,
including the failure to pay the incentive fee, which is being paid to
administrative staff. This led to the hospital personnel deciding to
take their problem to the governor.

Leni Ebe said that it had been agreed that specialist doctors and
dentists would get Rp 10 million (a month), phamacists would get Rp5
million and other medical personnel would get Rp 3m, while other staff
including nurses would get only Rp1m. ‘We have to handle so much of the
work, including that usually done by doctors. Is this is all we are
worth? It is far too little, especially for those of us who have
families to feed.’

A decision by the governor allocating the money for the whole of 2010
had not been followed through, as a result of which the nurses decided
to take their problem to the ALDP this week. Anum Siregar, director of
the ALDP, said that the failure to implement the decision was a clear
indication of the lack of any seriousness on the part of the government
to solve the problem and could lead to similar cases occurring elsewhere.

4

DAP rejects transmigration

JUBI, 21 February, 2011

DAP rejects transmigration

The chairman of DAP, the Papuan Traditional Council, has called on the
Indonesian government to be more judicious about plans to send yet more transmigrants to Papua.

Forkorus Yaboisembut said that plans by the Transmigration Department to move more transmigrants into Papua was a matter of great concern.

‘I very much hope that Papua will not yet again be the target for more
transmigrants because this is turning the Papuan people into a minority in their own homeland.’

He went on to say that sending more transmigrants in Papua was creating many more problems. In addition to turning local communities into minorities, it is also fostering feelings of jealousy because the
majority of people who run businesses and own plenty of capital are
those who have come from other parts of Indonesia.

Transmigration is also resulting in local Papuan cultures being swamped
by cultures from outside.

The government has announced that it has allocated Rp 600 billion to
cover the cost of bringing more transmigrants to Papua from other
parts of the country. The new transmigration programme is scheduled to continue until 2014.

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