Tag: Jayapura

Plea for help from Puncak Jaya against TNI military operations

(FORWARDING ON)
(Please note: By republishing this plea for help, West Papua Media does not necessarily explicitly endorse the call for arms.  We believe the situation would be far better served by allowing international journalists, and UN peacekeepers to be sent into this area to prevent this carnage.  However, in the absence of this, all peoples have the right to self-defence and self-determination, and therefore we cannot oppose the legitimate calls to assist in self-defence).
Report from Piron Moribnak
ARMY’S SOCIALISING PROGRAMME IS BEING USED TO CRUSH TPN/OPM LED BY GOLIAT TABUNI IN PUNCAK JAYA

The doubts of  people living in the central highlands about a socialising programme  launched by the commander of Cenderawasih Military Command/XVII to create harmony which has been under way since 2 May 2011 have been confirmed. The programme is nothing more than a shield which became clear when troops involved in the socialising programme suddenly halted these activities and started to conduct sweepings as part of a military operation.

Since 6 – 8 July, fully armed troops have surrounded the headquarters of the TPN/OPM under the command of General Goliat Tabuni in Tingginambut and a battle has been raging since 5 July during which three TNI soldiers were shot in Kalome, district of Tingginambut, and were flown by helicopter to Jayapura.

The TNI’s programme to build houses for the local people and to give sermons at prayer meetings on Sundays as well as to carry out mass medical treatment for local communities  has failed to win the support of the local communities. They have rejected TNI sermons in the churches, while the offer of medical treatment has failed to persuade the local people to get medical treatment free of charge . On the contrary, the local people have chosen to remain silent and have fled from locations where mass medical treatment is on offer. This is because the Papuan people living in Puncak Jaya regard the military as murderers of the Papuan people and have refused to accept these military programmes.

The army’s socialising programme in Puncak Jaya is nothing but a shield and a cover-up of the violation of human rights at a time when human rights are of paramount importance throughout the world.

The TNI is concealing its plan to crush General Goliat Tabuni by means of military operations so as to enable them to counter our doubts about these socialising activities because we have been disrupted and have taken measures to protect ourselves.

It is an irony that we Papuan people do not possess the means to resist the TNI which has all the necessary equipment whereas Goliat Tabuni has nothing more than a few of weapons, making it very difficult for him to mount a proportionate response . Is there a country anywhere in the world that is willing to supply military weapons to Goliath Tabuni to make it possible for him to make a proportionate response?  … if General Goliat is forced to end his struggle … at the hands of the TNI?   [/Several gaps in this sentence make it difficult to decipher the precise meaning. TAPOL/]

We pray that there is nowhere in the world for their protection and that Almighty God will protect us.

This is our response to the call by the chief of police in Puncak Jaya  via the intermediary of the head of the district of Mulia  for the local people to halt all their activities from 8 July and to remain in their homes from 6pm every evening.

NOTE: General Goliat Tabuni  is now seriously cornered because of his lack of weapons and we call for the prayers of the Papuan people everywhere in the fight against the NKRI military and for strength from the Almighty God.

[Translated by TAPOL]

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Freeport must recognise rights of Moni people; contract of work should be re-negotiated

Freeport's contribution to Papua's welfare - Riverine tailings pollution

Bintang Papua, 8 July 2011

Jayapura: At a time when thousands of workers at Freeport are taking part in demonsstrations, demanding improvements in their conditions, the Moni people are calling on Freeport to acknowledge their rights.

According to Ema Zongganau, a women’s leader of the Moni people, Freeport has failed in the fifty years that it has been operating in the central highlands of Papua, to make any contribution to the indigenous Papuan people, in particular the Moni and Komoro people who have for generations been acknowledged as the rightful owners of the land where Freeport is now operating.

‘These two people have a claim to the land on which the largest mining company in the world is now operating. The company also operates in land owned by Amungme people,’ she said. While the Amungme people have land in the vicinity of Freeport operations with the company acknowledging their rights, the company has never acknowledged the rights of the Moni and Komoro people,’ she said.

In fact, according to Ema Zongganau, the company should contribute to all the Papuan people, in the two provinces of Papua and West Papua, those living in the coastal regions as well as those living in the mountainous interior. She said that what infuriates the Papuan people is that virtually all the profits earned by the company go abroad. The natural resources of Papua are being drained away with almost nothing being enjoyed by the Papuan people.

Speaking on behalf of the Moni people, she said that her people should get a just share of all this wealth. She said that in the fifty years that Freeport has been operating there, there has been no improvement whatsoever in the living standards and welfare of the Papuan people.

Ema said that the contract of work with Freeport should be re-negotiated, bearing in mind that the current contract is very weak indeed. Anyone who plays a leading role in Papua must immediately deal with the relationship with Freeport.

Strike causing Freeport the loss of Rp 800 billion a day

According to a separate article in Bintang Papua on the same day, relating to the strike of thousands of Freeport workers, it is estimated, according to a report by the DPRP, that the suspension of the company’s operations as a result of the strike is thought to be losing the company Rp. 800 billion a day which, at the current exchange rate of Rp 9,000 to the dollar, is a little short of $100,000 a day.

If this figure is roughly correct, it puts into perspective the huge profits the company is making from its mining of copper and gold, while the Papuan people, even those whose land is being used by the company, continue to live poverty-stricken lives. (TAPOL)

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Police Reject Allegations of Hostage-Taking in W. Papua Mining Flap

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/police-reject-allegations-of-hostage-taking-in-w-papua-mining-flap/452167

2) Police Reject Allegations of Hostage-Taking in W. Papua Mining Flap
Banjir Ambarita | July 11, 2011


Raja Ampat Police on Monday denied reports that legal advocate Johnson Panjaitan has been held hostage as a result of a dispute between two mining companies in West Papua.

Earlier on Monday, Tagor Simanjuntak, Johnson’s colleague, told Liputan6.com that Johnson went to Kawe Island to represent Kawe Sejahtera Mining, which is filing a lawsuit against fellow miner Anugerah Surya Indotama.

Tagor said that Kawe Sejahtera claimed that a ruling from the State Administrative Court stipulates that Anugerah Surya should suspend all its mining activities until the legal dispute is over.

Johnson was sent to the site following a report that the company was continuing to operate in defiance of the court order. Tagor said that he received reports from Johnson’s staffers that the legal advocate was being held hostage.

But the local police chief denied the report.

“I was in Jayapura, but from the report I got, Johnson Panjaitan is in Kawe Island, but the hostage issue was not true,” police chief I Nyoman Suastra said.

He said he had already looked into the allegation, and had turned up no evidence of hostage-taking. “It’s clear there are no hostages, I’ve crosschecked already,” he said.


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Arrested for rallying people without permission

Bintang PPU, 4 July 2011

Jayapura: According to the police, the arrest of five activists who were attending the commemoration of 1 July, OPM Day, was because they had mobilised people but had done so without having the necessary permit.

”They were not praying at the time they were disbanded,’ said a police officer. ‘If they want to pray, they can go to any place but they don’t need to gather lots of people together nor do they need to unfurl banners,’ said police chief of Jayapura, AKBP Imam Sietiawan.

He said that the five activists, Marthen Goo, Herman Katmo, Bovit, Yulian and Sakarias Tamikai, had rallied people together without having the necessary permission to do so from the police.

‘When they saw this, my men arrested the five and took them to the police station, interrogated them for a while, and later that day, we sent them home.’ He said that a permit from the police is necessary if you want to rally people. He said that 20 or 30 people were holding up banners, although they said that they were only going to go to the grave of Theys Eluay to say prayers.

Asked about notification that had been given by the committee, he said that there was no notification about gathering together a lot of people in Abepura. ‘It would be okay in Sentani. If they want to carry out these activities, please go ahead and do so. But they shouldn’t all gather together and wave banners. That’s not right. That is what is not allowed,’ he said.

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Buchtar: Some Papuan political prisoners dont receive enough attention

 

Wednesday 22 June 2011

<http://www.aldepe.com/2011/06/buchtar-tapol-papua-kurang-diperhatikan.html&gt;

ALDP

 

Buchtar Tabuni, a Papuan political prisoner now being held in Jayapura, has complained that some Papuan political prisoners are not being given enough attention by NGOs and religious organisations. They are focusing most of their attention on particular political prisoners while others are being neglected.

‘ The NGOs have so far failed to give proper attention to some of us political prisoners, while paying attention to certain prisoners, in partiulcar’ said Buchtar Tabuni. He expressed this opinion on Monday, 20 June at the Narcotics Prison in Doyo Baru, Sentani, Jayapura, where he is being held.

‘Sometimes they pay us no attention at all, even though we are also political prisoners, he said. ‘

‘This is happening not only in Jayapura but also elsewhere in Papua.  Almost all our colleagues have the same experience., he said.   He thought that this problem should be discussed to ensure that NGOs and religious organisations play a role in all this.

He said that he regretted the attitude of the NGOs.   Local as well as international NGOs are doing a lot of campaigning about convicted prisoners and political prisoners in Papua but they are not paying enough attention to most of us.’   Buchtar himself is apparently quite unwell and is suffering from malaria.

He said that he hoped that more attention would be paid to all the convicted prisoners (napi) as well as all the political prisoners, including not only those in Jayapura but elsewhere in Papua too.   ‘We should all get proper attention,’ he said.  (ALDP)

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