Tag: nonviolent action

KNPB Occupy Theys Eluay's grave to call for Referendum

Information received from KNPB:  Several hundred KNPB activists are currently occupying the gravesite of murdered independence hero Theys Eluay at Waena, near Jayapura in West Papua.

SMS messages say that the activists  are paying homage to Eluay as they continue to publicly call for REFERENDUM to genuinely determine the status of West Papua according to the universally recognised basic human right of self-determination.

They are also seeking an immediate audience with the visiting US Ambassador to Indonesia, Cameron Hume.

As the grave is on the land belonging to family of the late Chief Eluay, the police do not have a right to remove the activists.  However, it is not known if the Police are likely to follow the law or disperse the peaceful occupiers.

Please stay tuned for updates.

westpapuamedia.info

INDONESIAN ARMY ON STREETS IN TENSE WAMENA AS LOCAL CRISIS TALKS GO NOWHERE

INDONESIAN ARMY ON STREETS IN TENSE WAMENA AS LOCAL CRISIS TALKS GO NOWHERE

Nick Chesterfield, westpapuamedia.info

Photo Report: Warning Graphic Photos

(Wednesday, October 6, 2010). West Papuan people in Wamena are expressing fear after the shooting of community security guards by police on Monday.  In a show of force, Indonesian security forces have deployed hundreds of fully armed combat troops on the streets to prevent local people from gathering in protest against the police shootings of members of Petapa.
(Fully armed combat troops patrolling Wamena streets, Wednesday October 6, 2010.  Photos taken by witness in hiding)

A high level reconciliation team made up of has met briefly to try and avert any conflict but it has ended its meeting without any clear result.  Local activists fear that the Indonesian state is outraged by the threat of a community security guard providing protection to West Papuan people seeking to engage in acts of free expression.

On Monday, a detachment of community security guards attempted to seek an explanation with Airport police for the heavy handed seizure of uniforms.  Police at the Wamena North airport police station refused to provide an explanation , instead emerging firing live ammunition into the crowd after a missile was thrown breaking a single tooth of the Jayawijaya police chief I Gede Sumerta.  As retribution for the broken tooth, police pursued the crowd for over a kilometre, shooting dead Ismail Lokobal in the chest. Police then arrested another ten people.  Amos Wetipo and Frans Lokobal were shot in the head and wrist respectively after they refused to get out of the police truck when it returned to the station.  Shooting of unarmed and bound detainees is deemed by international law as an extrajudicial execution.

However, according to a local human rights team, Indonesian police are consistently refusing to take responsibility for the attack and pursuit on unarmed members of the Community Security Force Pentapa, nor are they accepting any responsibility for unprovoked shooting of detainees inside a police truck.  Instead they are blaming Pentapa for attacking the police post.  Indonesian police have told AFP that they will have to wait until an autopsy is conducted to determine the cause of death for the shot man.

(Note: westpapuamedia.info is publishing clear and obvious photos showing the gunshot wounds in Mr Lokobal’s chest.)

No Need for Autopsy

The crisis meeting was attended by Disaster Coordinator Wetipo Amos, Chairman of ELSHAM (Institute for the Study and Advocacy of Human Rights) Theo Hesegem, and other representatives of NGOs, church leaders and DAP, together with the Vice Regent of Jayawijaya, and members of Parliament.

Local West Papuan activists, who have asked not to be identified, have called on the Indonesian government to immediately send the military in Wamena back to their barracks and for police officers to take responsibility for their action.

westpapuamedia.info

Photos of DAP Commnity Security Guards

Related Stories:

WAMENA KILLING WAS EXTRAJUDICIAL MURDER: WITNESSES

BREAKING NEWS: INDONESIA SHOOTS 3, 1 DEAD IN WAMENA

Mobilising a Papuan peace force in Sabron by DAP!

BREAKING NEWS: INDONESIA SHOOTS 3, 1 DEAD IN WAMENA

BREAKING NEWS:

INDONESIA SHOOTS 3 COMMUNITY SECURITY GUARDS IN WAMENA, 1 DEAD

Nick Chesterfield, westpapuamedia.info

Monday, October 4 1800 AEST: Information has just been received from sources in Wamena that Indonesian security forces have shot dead three West Papuan men who were part of the newly formed civil people’s guard.   Members of Petapa, the indigenous non-violent security force formed by the Papuan Customary Council to protect West Papuan people engaging in peaceful free expression, were attempting to defuse a tense situation caused by an Indonesian police raid at 0800 local time this morning.

A crowd had gathered outside the Jayawijaya Police headquarters peacefully but vibrantly demanding the return of uniforms and legally approved paraphernalia for the Petapa, or Regional Indigenous Council Civil Bodyguard. Police officers escalated the situation without warning and with full force, as they came running from the Police office firing live rounds into the air and at the crowd according to witnesses interviewed by a local human rights team today.

ISMAIL LOKOBAL, 34, died after being shot in the heart outside the local DAP (Dewan Adat Papua, or Papuan Customary Council) office.  POLRI officers had chased the crowd, firing indiscriminately toward them, and chased down most of the victims as they attempted to seek refuge in the DAP office.

AMOS Wetipo, 42 was shot in the head, and FRANS LOKOBAL, 36 was shot in the wrist.  Both men are in a critical condition from bloodloss, but it is unknown at time writing if they have been provided medical treatment, or are likely to survive.LAORENS LOGO, 38; Johanis HESELO, 41; Aleks Wetapo, 35; Oto Wetapo, 36; all members of the Regional Indigenous Council Civil Bodyguard, have been arrested, severely beaten by Police and are being held at Polres Jayawijaya.  The situation is being described currently as extremely tense.  A dispersal order and curfew is being enforced, but it is unclear whether local people are going to accept the killings.

More information as it comes to hand.

(c)  West Papua Media Alerts 2010.

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KNPB to continue to press for a referendum – plus comment

KNPB will continue to press for Referendum

Bintang Papua, 30 September 2010

Jayapura: The spokesman  of the Komite Nasional Papua Barat – National Committee of West Papua, Mako Tabuni, speaking at a press conference, said that political dynamics were moving fast at present at a time when calls for a referendum are spreading throughout  Papua. In a democracy, this is an issue that must be accepted by the Indonesian state and the Indonesian people, together with the Papuan people.

The KNPB, as a national medium of the views of the Papuan people will continue to press for a referendum as the final solution to resolve the political status of West Papua, because this can resolve all the problems in Papua and it represents the best possible solution for the Papuan people. Without a referendum, the Papuan people’s problems will never be resolved.

He said that since Indonesia calls itself a democratic state based on the Pancasila, it can surely understand why the Papuan people are calling for a referendum. Many human rights abuses have been committed in the past and have persisted for 48 years, during which time the military forces have directly or indirectly caused great suffering for the Papuan people.

With the issue of a referendum having become so heated, the KNPB will continue to struggle for this demand.

With regard to the hearing held recently (in Washington)  which was attended by a number of Papuan leaders, including the chairman of DAP, Forkorus Yoboisembu, Herman Awom and others,  nothing has been forthcoming from the US suggesting that it does not support a referendum.

Mako Tabuni said that he is still awaiting reports about the activities of Papuans such as Nicolas Messet and Albert Yoku who were also present at the congressional hearing, nor has there been any official report regarding the results of the hearings. [Note: Verbatim reports of all the discussion have been widely circulated.]

Regarding telephone communications that have been reported by irresponsible elements that have been reported by the media in Jayapura to the effect that the issue of referendum has been rejected, these are quite untrue and provocative, because there has been no official announcement from the US Congress to the effect that a referendum is unacceptable.

Even if that were the case, the KNPB and the  Papuan people will continue to struggle for their political demand because this is their right, and it is a matter that cannot be determined by the Indonesian elite.

[Comment:  If the KNBP says that it is waiting for the decision of the US Congress in response to the call for a referendum, this reflects a misunderstanding of how the US congressional hearing mechanism works. The hearing was itself an unprecedented event, the first time that a US congressional body held a public discussion on the question of West Papua. The verbatim reports of the hearing, including all the testimonies and the discussions between the chairman of the Asia-Pacific sub-committee and members of the audience have been widely circulated, as well as the views of the US government. Everything is in the public domain. The US Congress itself cannot be expected to make a statement on an issue that was discussed by one of its sub-committees.

It now depends on organisations like the KNPB which support the call for a referendum in West Papua to translate these documents into Indonesian so that they become widely known in West Papua and Indonesia. By doing this, they can strengthen support for a referendum in Indonesia and internationally while at the same time revealing the strength of feeling about the issue to the Indonesian government. Arguably, the sudden decision of the SBY government to dispatch a large team of ministers to West Papua for the purposes of making an  ‘evaluation’ is a sign that the government is beginning to understand the strength of feeling and support for the West Papuan people’s demand.  TAPOL]

AHRC: INDONESIA: President ignores parliament while protesters are arrested over major human rights case

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AHRC-STM-204-2010
September 30, 2010

A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission

INDONESIA: President ignores parliament while protesters are arrested over major human rights case

On September 28, 2009 the House of Representatives issued several recommendations to the President to bring the perpetrators of the infamous student disappearances of 1998 to justice. Human rights activists who protested against the inaction of the president in Jakarta with a tent action in front of the presidential palace were arrested during the evening of September 27, 2010. The Asian Human Rights Commission strongly condemns the arrest of human rights defenders after a peaceful protest.

Between 1997 and 1998, 24 students and other activists were abducted by the Army Special Forces Command for their involvement in the struggle for change and democracy in the so-called New Order government of that time. Until the final fall of the New Order regime in 1998 massive human rights violations and political oppression marked the history of Indonesia. The National Human Rights Commission had conducted inquiries into the abduction and disappearance of the protesters in 2006 and passed the case into the Human Rights Court process as established by a special law. However, the required follow up of the attorney general has never taken place who claimed that the parliament and the president would have to take action first.

While Parliament made its recommendations one year ago, it is the President who is now delaying justice in the case by not taking any action to implement the Parliament’s recommendations after one year. The recommendations were:

1. the president to issue a presidential decree to establish an ad hoc human rights court on the case of the student disappearances of 1997/98;
2. the president to establish the whereabouts of 13 victims of the event, who are still missing until today;
3. full remedies to be given to the victims and victim’s family;
4. the government to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Several human rights groups including the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS) have voiced their demands to the president on several occasions. On Monday this week the civil society speakers held a peaceful protest event in front of the presidential palace voicing their demands. At around 6pm 30 protesters including family members of the disappeared students of 1997/98 were arrested and brought to the Central Jakarta Police Station. They were released only around midnight.

On September 28, 2010 the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto promised KontraS that government will do their part in following the recommendations of the parliament. Would the case be brought up as a political issue, Mr. Djoko worried, the opposition parties in the parliament may use it to “hit” on the President.

The AHRC condemns the arrest of human right defenders and victim’s family members after peaceful protest action and is very disappointed with the negligence from the President and the Attorney General’s Office side in regard to the case student disappearances of 1997/98. The perpetrators continue enjoying immunity while the victims and their families have not received compensation.

# # #

About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

Asian Human Rights Commission
19/F, Go-Up Commercial Building,
998 Canton Road, Kowloon, Hongkong S.A.R.
Tel: +(852) – 2698-6339 Fax: +(852) – 2698-6367
facebook/twitter/youtube: humanrightsasia

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