Media Alert:
12:30pm 12 July 2010. Papuan protest leaders from FORDEM (Forum Demokrasi) are currently in negotiation with DPRP members for a date for a special session of parliament.
FORDEM has given the DPRP until 19 July to organise a date.
West Papua update – stirrings of insurrection. Please pass on….
Forwarding from Jason McLeod
Friends, A brief update:
1. After occupying parliament for two days the police threatened to use force to disperse the crowd (about 1500 stayed overnight). Protesters leaders then called the occupation off.
2. Significantly all protesters – moderates and radicals alike – withdrew in an orderly and disciplined manner. (Remember the last time there was an occupation like this – when students blockaded the road between Jayapura and the airport in March 2006 over the Freeport mine – it ended up in a riot with Indonesian security personnel stoned to death, retaliatory action by the paramilitary police with student dormitories ransacked and scores killed, beaten and tortured, hundreds of students fleeing to PNG, and a severely traumatised student population that is only re-grouping now).
3. This is not a radical protest although student activists from both the KNPB (West Papua National Committee) and WPNA (West Papua National Authority) are involved. However the protest is led by respected church leaders and backed by the Majelis Rakyat Papua (MRP – or indigenous Papuan upper house). Moderate NGO leaders are also involved. In fact, all components of Papuan society are involved.
4. There are now negotiations and political manoeuvrings to try and secure Papuan political leaders support to hand back Special Autonomy
5. To what extent the Papuan civil service (PNS) is being drawn in is not yet clear, but there is widespread dissatisfaction with Special Autonomy by members form the PNS who are a major beneficiary of Special Autonomy along with the Papuan political elite.
6. Equally true we know militias have been armed and that the police are out in force but it is not clear what their movements will be.
7. Another demonstration has been called for 19 July
8. Papuans have called for foreign governments to withhold all funds for Special Autonomy until there has been a dialogue with Jakarta to resolve the crisis.
Please pass this round your networks.
Warmly
Jason
Photos from July 8 Jayapura DPRP Mass Civil gathering
Photographs of the Mass Actions in Jayapura on July 8 are beginning to emerge. Please stay tuned for more updates.
Click on images below to view in full size
For original files for publication please download the following rar file (use Winrar to unpack):
http://rapidshare.com/files/406094393/WEST_PAPUA_MASS_ACTIONS_july_8__2010.rar
Please credit West Papua Media Alerts
Indonesian forces & protestors fill West Papuan Parliament
Article in The Australian
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/forces-protesters-fill-west-papuan-parliament/story-e6frg6so-1225889989044
MORE than 300 Indonesian police and soldiers, together with armoured vehicles, were occupying the West Papuan parliament last night.
West Papuan analyst Camellia Webb said as many as 20,000 people took part in an initial rally in Jayapura on Thursday, making it the biggest rally since the fall of Suharto in 1998. About 4000 continued to occupy the parliament building last night.
Radio New Zealand reported that up to 50,000 people had taken part in the initial protest.
An upper house of tribal leaders, the Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP), voted last month to reject Papua’s autonomy status, introduced in 2001 after the fall of the Suharto military dictatorship in Jakarta.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian government’s military campaign to control the rebellious province may have been inadvertently aided by a report from the International Crisis Group, which blamed the resistance movement for a spate of violent incidents, according to a Sydney University study.
The authoritative report by the Brussells-based ICG was followed by punitive operations by the Indonesian military in the Papuan highlands, which brought “grave consequences” for civilians in those areas.
“The ICG report strengthens the Indonesian government’s position that they are fighting violent guerillas in West Papua rather than a legitimate, popularly backed resistance movement, and the ICG’s views have been echoed in international reporting on the conflict,” says a paper by the university’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.
The Sydney University study, written by Jim Elmslie and Camellia Webb, a PhD candidate, says evidence relied on by the ICG included selective quoting from Indonesian tabloid press reports, hearsay and discredited interrogation testimonies.
The authors did not interview the person they identified as the main actor in these events, Victor Yeimo.
The ICG report characterises the resistance movement, the West Papua National Committee and Mr Yeimo as militantly radical, promoting the use of violence for achieving the political goal of a referendum on Papuan independence.
The authors said they found the WPNC to be “primarily a media and information clearing house that expresses mainstream views held by a wide spectrum of Papuan civil society and political organisations”.
The ICG’s Jakarta analyst, Sidney Jones, said last night the Sydney University report was “more political polemic than serious criticism”.
“For all its efforts to discredit our findings, its sources are limited to pro-independence voices,” Ms Jones said.
“We interviewed all sides, including members of the KNPB, the OPM, the police, church leaders, pro-independence activists, adat (customary) leaders, NGOs, detained student leaders and government officials.
Ms Jones added: “We know the report was controversial, in part because many, including the Sydney researchers, believe that all of Papua’s problems are attributable to outsiders and it is heresy to suggest that any responsibility be attributed to Papuan groups themselves. The reality is far more complex.”
The ICG report held the WPNC responsible for several recent acts of violence in West Papua.
These include an attack on the police station in Abepura in April last year, arson at the Cenderawasih University in Abepura in the same month and killings around the Freeport mine since June last year through to January.
West Papua Media Alerts 