Tag: Jayapura

Deadline of 22 March for DPRP to return OTSUS

Bintang Papua, 8 March 2011

[Abridged in translation,]

Several hundred people attended a demonstration in Jayapura on Tuesday 8 March, mostly from the Central Highlands Students Association, urging the provincial legislative assembly, the DPRP, to convene a special session to declare that OTSUS (the special autonomy law) has failed and that it should be sent back to the central government at the latest by 22 March this year.

The demo coordinator Selpius Bobii said that OTSUS had been a complete failure, it should be repealed and the MRP should be disbanded. The government should respond without delay to the eleven recommendations made last June and foreign countries should stop providing money to support OTSUS.

The churches should withdraw their members from the second-term MRP now eing formed. He also called for a halt to all investments in Papua which are exploiting its national resources, including Freeport, MIFEE, the Degeweo mining company, Ilaga and PLTA construction works.

There was also a call to the Pope in the Vatican and the World Council
of Churches in Geneva to pay attention to the serious problems in West Papua in order to save the people from annihilation. The Papuan people and supporters abroad should organise large demonstrations from 22 to 24 March, calling on the executive and legislatures in Papua and West Papua to return OTSUS to Jakarta.

A spokesman for the National Committee of West Papua, KNPB, called on the younger generation of Papuans to show the world that they want freedom. ‘Since Papua became part of Indonesia, there has only been bloodshed, oppression and killings everywhere in Papua,’ he said. Other speakers spoke in the same vein.

Some members and leaders of the DPRP met representatives of the
demonstrators afterwards.

The chairman of Commission A of the DPRP, Ruben Magai said that the
blame for the failure of OTSUS rests with the executive and that the
DPRP has no powers to take decisions to affect the situation.

The demonstrators also took their demands to the governor of the province.

Selpius Bobii also read out a statement saying that they would boycott
the elections now under way for mayor and governor if the national
parliament does not respond to these aspirations. They also threatened to occupy the office of the governor if these demands continue to be ignored. He said that they would wait till 4 April, at which time they would occupy the governor’s office, a statement that was responded to very enthusiastically by the demonstrators.

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More reports about arrested nurses in Papua

[More reports about arrest of medical personnel in Jayapura]

JUBI 16 March 2011

The National Union of Indonesian Nurses has called on the police in the
province of Papua to release the eight nurses who work at the Jayapura Dok II General Hospital. The chairman of the organisation, Marthen Sagrim, said that failure to release the eight would create many problems.

He said that at the very least, they should not be held for long but the
best would be for all of them to be released quickly. ‘I can say for
certain that the strike that is going on will have serious repercussions
for everyone.’

He went on to say that his organisation had been in contact with nurses who are now on strike to ask them to return to their duties while waiting for the incentive payment to be paid. He said that a meeting that had been held at a hotel in Jayapura on Monday this week and had taken a number of decisions and nurses had returned to their duties on Tuesday, yet even so, there was this unexpected news about the eight arrests. ‘This simply does not make sense,’ he said. ‘These cases should be processed immediately and the people freed.’

He also said that he had made contact with all sides for a quick
solution to the problem, including with the criminal investigation unit
of the police and the DPRP, the Papuan Provincial Assembly.

—————-

JUBI 15 March 2011

It was the demand for the payment of the incentive fee to nurses at Dok II Hospital that led to a strike by a number of nurses, after which
eight of the nurses were arrested by the local police. The arrests took
place on Monday this week and several hours later, dozens of nurses
went to police headquarters in Jayapura..

The arrested nurses are: Leni Ebe, Popi Maure, Lativa Rumkabu, Stefi
Siahaya, Yolanda Inauri, Menaim Anonggear and Delila Ataruri. [Only
seven names.]

Speaking on behalf of the arrested people, their lawyer, Anum Siregar
said that the police action in arresting them was excessive. People just came out to demand their right to be paid. The police action is
damaging for the whole community,’ she said.

She said that the demand should be properly resolved. What the police
have done is not right and will only complicate matters. Actions of
solidarity will only intensify.’

She said that this matter is not one for the police to handle but for
the government to solve.

The eight people are still in police custody and are undergoing
interrogation, but the police have made no comment about the case.

As previously reported, the provincial administration promised that
nurses would receive an incentive payment in 2010, and that the payment would be made in December 2010, but this did not happen.

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Medical personnel arrested in Jayapura for ‘inciting strike’

Bintang Papua, 15 March 2011

[Abridged in translation into English]

Eight nurses and midwives have been arrested in Jayapura for their
involvement in a strike that resulting in a halt to services at the
general hospital in Jayapura. They face charges of inciting their
colleagues to take part in a strike.

[See earlier reports about the strike of medical personnel who were
protesting against the failure of the authorities to pay incentives that
had been promised more than a year ago.]

The eight persons are being held by the criminal investigation unit of
the Papuan police command. The police claim that there is sufficient
proof that the persons had acted in violation of the law, forcing others
to engage in acts of violence and citing a number of articles in
Indonesia’s criminal code. Media attempts to contact the police for
confirmation of the arrest were unsuccessful.

According to Anum Siregar, one of the lawyers acting for the eight, a
group of fifty personnel from the security forces had gone to the homes of two of the persons and told them that they must report to police headquarters in Papua. The two women, Leni Ebe and Popi Mauri, then contacted the lawyer to inform her of what had happened. The two women then reported to the police as requested, in the company of the lawyer.

The two had earlier received notification from the police that they
would be summoned as witnesses in connection with the strike action of the hospital personnel.

According to Anum Siregar, after being questioned for several hours by
the police as witnesses, the police changed tack and indicated that they were being held as suspects. Soon after, the police took the six others into custody.

According to Bintang Papua, the eight detainees have been subjected to prolonged interrogations while other personnel from the hospital have rallied in support of their colleagues. Anum Siregar accused the police of acting in violation of the rule of law, saying that the medical
personnel were only acting in defence of their legitimate rights. She
also said that the action by the police would have a negative effect on the provision of services for patients at the general hospital.

‘The impact will not be felt by officials in the province because they
never go to the local hospital for treatment on occasions when they fall ill but fly to Jakarta or overseas for treatment.’

She also said that the arrests had led to expressions of solidarity from
members of the medical profession throughout the Land of Papua in
protest against the actions of the police.

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Members of new MRP urged to resign

JUBI, 13 March 2011

The chairman of the West Papua Forum of Democracy (FORDEM), Salmon Yumame, has declared that the leaders of the MRP – Majelis Rakyat Papua – Papuan People’s Assembly – failed to have the courage to acknowledge to the public the mistakes made by the MRP in their commitment to the Papuan people. He accused them of being ‘banci’ or ‘perverts’ for misleading the people.

He said it was highly regrettable that the members of the MRP who had, together with the Papuan people, declared their firm rejection of the Special Autonomy Law 21/2001 which included the creation of the MRP, yet had allowed themselves to be nominated for membership of the second MRP. They had failed to have the courage to withdraw their names, so that the aspirations of the Papuan people could be comprehensively raised with the central government.

He expressed the hope that those who had already been chosen to become members of the MRP and were now waiting to be sworn in would withdraw and would, along with the Papuan people, demand that the central government respond to the eleven recommendations adopted in June 2010.

The recommendations were handed over to the Papuan Provincial
Legislative Assembly, the DPRP. He said that all the problems confronting the Papuan people were contained in those eleven
recommendations.

Salmon said that FORDEM will continue to organise peaceful actions,
press conferences and issue statements to express the aspirations of the Papuan people.

In June last year, the MRP, along with other components of the Papuan people, held a grand consultation which had resulted in the adoption of he 11 recommendations, which included calling for Freeport Indonesia to close down, for a dialogue between the Indonesian government and the Papuan people mediated by a neutral, third party, for the rejection of Special Autonomy and for a referendum.

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Demonstration rejects MRP and criticises GKI Synod

JUBI, 8 March 2011

Several hundred people took part in a demonstration outside the offices of the governor of Papua and the Papua provincial legislative assembly office criticising the position taken by one of the chairmen of the Synod of the GKI church in Papua, the Rev. Yemina Krey, STh.

The demonstrators said that the Rev. Yemina had previously expressed
her rejection of the election of a second-term MRP along with other
denominations, yet she had now signed a recommendation put out by
several church leaders.

Her views were highlighted in a poster carried by some of the
demonstrators accusing her of now doing something that was deceitful for the Papuan people.

The poster accused her of selling out the indigenous Papuan people.

Other banners carried by the demonstrators bore slogans that are
frequently seen and heard in Papua: Special Autonomy is a Total Failure; the Papuan People’s Right to Life under Threat; Halt the Election and Swearing in of the MRP as a puppet of Jakarta; and Jakarta must Speedily Respond to the 11 Recommendations adopted by the MRP and Papuan People’s Representatives in June 2010.

The calls rejecting special autonomy and rejecting the new MRP came from a number of local groups taking part in the demonstration, among others: Parjal, the Street Parliament; the West Papua National Committee, KNPB, Political Prisoners of Papua – tapol-napol; and Front Pepera PB, and the West Papuan People’s Front for Self-Determination.

The demonstrators first gathered outside the office of the governor of
Papua where they presented their aspirations. From there they went to the office of the Papuan provincial legislative assembly later in the
afternoon for the same purpose.

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