West Papua Situation Must Be Raised by Australian Ministers

April 2, 2013

 Press Release :Australia West Papua Association


Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr and Defence Minister Stephen Smith are visiting Indonesia this week for regular ministerial talks. 

Although DFAT has said it raises concerns about the human rights situation in West Papua in recent replies to AWPA's letters we hope Sen Carr will again raise the situation in West Papua with his counterpart in Indonesia. In the past month there were a number of urgent actions released by the Asian Human Rights Commission concerning incidents of arrests and torture of Papuans including of a pregnant women and a 18 month old baby.

AWPA also hopes that our Defence Minister Stephen Smith will raise concerns about the actions of the security forces in West Papua and in particular about any members of Detachment 88 who have been trained by Australia that have been involved in security operations in West Papua, which is outside their brief.

We also hope they will request permission from the Indonesian Government to allow a cross-party parliamentary fact finding mission to West Papua to not only investigate the human rights situation in the territory but to see how Australia can help the West Papuan people in capacity building in the fields of health and education

by. Anne Noonan - AWPA

Akui Keberadaan Densus 88 Di Papua, Anggota DPR RI Kecam Menlu Australia

Update by Jubi

Anggota DPR RI, Mahfudz Siddiq (IST)

Jayapura)---Anggota DPR RI, Mahfudz Siddiq, mengecam Menteri Luar Negeri Australia Bob Carr yang menurutnya memiliki standar ganda, setelah Carr menyerukan penyelidikan terhadap pembunuhan Mako Tabuni, Wakil Ketua I Komite Nasional Papua Barat (KNPB).

Dalam wawancara dengan media Australia, The Age (30/8), Mahfudz Siddiq meminta Carr agar berhati-hati dengan pernyataan mereka karena bisa menunjukkan standar ganda yang dimiliki Australia.

"Menurut pendapat saya, itu terlalu jauh untuk Bob Carr menyebutkan pelatihan HAM bagi Densus 88. Apakah Australia memberikan komentar ketika aktivis Islam terbunuh atau terluka oleh Densus 88?" tanya Mahfudz.

Dalam wawancara yang sama, Mahfudz Siddiq, Legislator dari Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) ini juga mengkonfirmasi keberadaan Detasemen Khusus Anti-Teror (Densus 88) di Papua. Disebutkan oleh Mahfudz, keberadaan Densus 88 di Papua karena serangkaian kekerasan yang terjadi di Papua sudah bisa dilihat sebagai teror. Termasuk serangkaian kekerasan yang dituduhkan kepada Mako Tabuni selama ini.

"Itu yang membuat kehadiran Densus 88 dan keterlibatannya dalam beberapa kasus di Papua sebagai tugas mereka. Beberapa kasus di Papua Barat pada waktu itu sudah dilihat sebagai teror," kata Mahfudz.

Menlu Australia, Bob Carr, ketika wawancara live di Stasiun Televisi Australia, ABC, mengatakan bahwa Australia tak pernah ragu untuk terus mengangkat isu Hak Asasi Manusia (HAM) di dua provinsi Indonesia, Papua dan Papua Barat.

"Namun, sekali lagi, itu terjadi dalam konteks kita konsisten mengakui kedaulatan Indonesia atas Papua, dan pada saat yang sama menegaskan hak kita sebagai teman dan tetangga untuk mengangkat isu-isu hak asasi manusia - paling baru yang satu ini (keberadaan Densus 88 di Papua)." kata Caar. (Jubi/Victor Mambor

Etan: West Papua Report September 2012

This is the 101st in a series of monthly reports that focus on developments affecting Papuans. This series is produced by the non-profit West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) drawing on media accounts, other NGO assessments, and analysis and reporting from sources within West Papua. This report is co-published with the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN). Back issues are posted online at http://www.etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm Questions regarding this report can be addressed to Edmund McWilliams at edmcw@msn.com. If you wish to receive the report directly via e-mail, send a note to etan@etan.org.

SUMMARY

The West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) called on Secretary Clinton to raise concern about West Papua with Indonesian officials during her September 3 visit to Jakarta. Military operations there continue to disrupt and endanger the lives of Papuan civilians in Paniai. 

Security forces raided a student dormitory beating students; initial reports indicate at least one student died in the assault. A religious leader and long-time resident in West Papua paints a bleak and deteriorating picture of conditions there. Indonesian security forces continue to rely on armed force to address Papuan dissent according to religious leaders. 

A detailed report explores the dire humanitarian consequences posed by the proposed sale of U.S. Apache helicopters to the Indonesian military. A new project to provide easy access to information on Papuan prisoners of conscience/political prisoners is being organized. Amnesty International has issued an alert regarding the recent detention of Yusak Pakage.

 A Papuan member of the Indonesian parliament (DPR) decries failure of the body to create human rights mechanisms in West Papua as mandated by Special Autonomy legislation passed in 2001.

Contents:

• WPAT Calls on U.S. Secretary of State To Raise Critical Issues With Indonesian Leaders
• TNI Sweep Operation in Paniai
• Another Brutal Security Force Assault on Papuan Students
• Long-Time Resident of West Papua Paints Bleak Picture of Conditions
• Indonesian Government Increasingly Resorts to Military Means to Address Protest
• "Obamacopters" Pose Threat to Papuans
• New Project Will Focus on Papuan Prisoners
• Amnesty International Issues Urgent Alert Regarding a Papuan Prisoner
• Indonesian Parliament (DPR) Failing Papuans

WPAT Calls on U.S. Secretary of State To Raise Critical Issues With Indonesian Leaders

The West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) wrote on August 31 to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton concerning key issues regarding West Papua on her September 3 visit to Indonesia. The text of the letter follows:
More: West Papua Report September 2012

Clinton urges dialogue in Indonesia's Papua

US Secretary H. Clinton and RI Secretary Marty N. (photo AFP)

JAKARTA — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Monday on Indonesia to pursue dialogue and ensure autonomy for restive Papua but made it clear that the United States did not support independence.

Clinton, who rattled nerves in Indonesia last year by voicing concern over human rights, praised the government even as she urged more efforts to resolve the long-running conflict.

Papua -- a vast, mineral-rich province that shares an island with Papua New Guinea -- has a population ethnically different from most Indonesians. Jakarta annexed the former Dutch colony in 1969 and has since faced a low-level insurgency.

"We believe strongly that dialogue between Papuan representatives and the Indonesian government would help address concerns the Papuans have and assist in resolving conflicts peacefully," Clinton said in Jakarta.

"Of course we deplore violence of any sort in Papua and when it does occur there should be full and transparent investigations under the rule of law," she told a joint news conference with Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa.

Clinton urged implementation of Indonesia's 2001 declaration of autonomy for the troubled region. Local activists charge that the autonomy has never been carried out and that their rights have not improved.

Clinton stressed: "We support the territorial integrity of Indonesia and that includes Papua and West Papua provinces."

"We think that there has been an enormous amount of good work done by the Indonesian government and we're going to continue to work with them and raise issues as that becomes necessary," she said.

Human rights groups have accused Indonesian authorities of arbitrary arrests and attacks on civilians in Papua, which is shut off to foreign media.

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr similarly said Sunday that Canberra rejected Papua independence despite concerns over human rights, warning that separatist activism by Australians could "completely rupture" relations between the two countries.

US President Barack Obama's administration has been eager to build ties with Indonesia due to its vast size, embrace of democracy and moderate brand of Islam, but advocacy groups have warned not to ignore human rights.

 Source:The Associated Press (AFP)

Human rights lawyer defends West Papuan activism

Australian human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson speaks to Jim Middleton about West Papua's struggle for independence from Indonesia.

Pers. ABC Report

Australia has raised hackles in Jakarta over Canberra's response to an ABC 7.30 report accusing an Indonesian counter-terrorism unit of human rights violations in West Papua.

Australian Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, has called on Jakarta to investigate the killing of a West Papuan activist, Mako Tabuni, allegedly by members of a unit called Detachment 88, which has received training and support from the Australian Federal Police.

Jennifer Robinson is an Australian lawyer best known for her role in helping fight efforts by WikiLeak's Julian Assange to avoid extradition from Britain.

But for a decade she has also been deeply involved providing legal assistance and advice to West Papuan activists seeking autonomy, and in some cases independence from Indonesia. 

Transcript:

 

JIM MIDDLETON: Jennifer Robinson, welcome to the program.

JENNIFER ROBINSON, LAWYER: Thank you very having me Jim.

JIM MIDDLETON: Let's start with this: an influential Indonesian legislator has rebuked Bob Carr for seeking an inquest into the killing of Mako Tabuni. They're branding him a terrorist, at least the Indonesian legislators are, and are accusing Australia of double standards, raising questions about this episode but then being more than happy when Detachment 88 tracked down jihadist and bomb makers in Indonesia. What do you think about that?

JENNIFER ROBINSON: There's absolutely no hypocrisy involved whatsoever. And in fact, this is actually very revealing about Indonesian government's perception of peaceful West Papuan activists who are speaking out on behalf of their people for self-determination.

The Australian Government is right to institute an investigation into this, when you have forces designed to be countering terrorism being turned against domestic dissidents and peaceful activists. In no way can you compare Mako Tabuni to jihadists. He was a peaceful activist, a leader of his people. And all he was doing was criticising the government for their human rights abuse, seeking accountability for that abuse and putting forwards the West Papuan's desire for self-determination. This is not a crime and it's not terrorism.

JIM MIDDLETON: Isn't this the problem for Australia, though, it wants to help Indonesia combat Muslim extremism and then it turns out that the people they're training, Detachment 88, are also using what they've learned from Australia in West Papua?

JENNIFER ROBINSON: It is a difficult problem, and one that can be combated, I think, by imposing certain human rights conditionality in the military aid that we provide. If Indonesia is unable to assure our government that the assistance we provide does not contribute to human rights abuses then we shouldn't be providing it at all.

JIM MIDDLETON: Julian Assange's future may still be up in the air but you've not been without success in another extradition case. Tell us a little about the withdrawal of an Interpol Red Notice against West Papuan independent leader Benny Wenda who, of course, is currently in exile in Britain.

JENNIFER ROBINSON: Benny Wenda is a leader in exile of the West Papuan independence movement. He was 10 years ago a political prisoner and later sought refuge in the UK where he was granted political asylum. Almost 10 years later the Indonesian government sought an international arrest warranted for his arrest for precisely the same politically motivated challenges for which he was granted asylum in the United Kingdom.

Ten years ago I worked on his case when he was a political prisoner in Indonesia, and I provided the witness statement that supported his asylum application in the UK. So it was of great concern to me that a refugee living abroad could still be persecuted by their home state through the use of the Interpol arrest warrant system. And as it turns out it is a very common occurrence. We've been very fortunate in that two years later, with the help of Fair Trials International, we've been able to challenge that politically motivated Interpol arrest notice and it has been taken down.

JIM MIDDLETON: And what was it that you learned at the original trial, I think in Jayapura, which enabled the case to be brought which subsequently led to Interpol withdrawing the Red Notice?

JENNIFER ROBINSON: During the course of that trial, the prosecution was unable to adduce any reliable evidence that placed Benny at the times and the places where they alleged he had been to commit various criminal offences.

JENNIFER ROBINSON: They produced witness statements, witness statements that we couldn't identify those who had made them, they wouldn't bring them to the court for cross-examination. And there was widespread accusations and belief amongst the defence team that evidence had been fabricated.

So basically the purpose of my statement was to show that, in the course of the trial that I sat through and assisted on, there was no credible evidence put forward to form the basis of the Interpol arrest notice indeed the original charges in Indonesia.

JIM MIDDLETON: You describe this as a test case for Interpol. Interpol concluded, in withdrawing the Red Notice, that the case had been predominantly political. What implications then do you think this might have for the whole use of Red Notices by Interpol?

JENNIFER ROBINSON: Fair trials International has used Benny's case with our help to become a test case and to be the first case of a longer campaign in seeking to have the Interpol notices internationally that have been sought for dissidents around the world taken down. So his is hopefully the first of many.

But it raises fundamental questions about Interpol and the international oversight. What you have is essentially an international police body in France which is not subject to the judicial review of the French courts, but also there is no judicial body at the international level through which you can challenge those warrants.

All that you have available to you is internal Interpol committees. And in my view this is insufficient, there ought to be judicial oversight. Happily we were successful in this case and I hope that Benny's case, and we believe that Benny's case will become an example for many other dissidents living around the world who have suffered the persecution that he has as well.

But Fair Trials International is currently working on that and are calling for anyone who is in the same situation to get in touch with them so they can help them.

JIM MIDDLETON: We had better leave it there. Jennifer Robinson thank you very much indeed.

JENNIFER ROBINSON: You're welcome.

Australia's West Papua bind

Change won't come easily for West Papua, writes Professor Damien Kingsbury. But as long as Australia demurs on the issue, it will continue to be linked to human rights abuses there.

Densus 88 di latih Australia

It seems that no matter how cordial Australia's relationship with Indonesia is, or how much it is desired to be so, perennial issues continue that call aspects of that relationship into question.

Critically, the gap between how Australia officially engages with Indonesia and how that engagement is more widely viewed within Australia continues to test the relationship.

This has again been illustrated with the continuing human rights problems experienced in West Papua, which have been the subject of a report on the ABC's 7.30.

That story highlighted the role of the Indonesian police anti-terrorist squad Special Detachment 88 ('Detasemen Khusus 88', usually abbreviated as Den 88), which receives support from the Australian Federal Police.

 Source: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4231042.html

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said that official representation to the Indonesian government had been made about specific issues concerning Den 88's activities in West Papua. But, as with foreign ministers before him, he has been caught between having to balance Australia's often tricky relationship with its largest near neighbour with widely accepted fundamental values that inform Australian public life.

Den 88 was established in 2003 following the Bali bombing in which 88 Australians were killed. As well as receiving Australian support, Den 88 is supported by the US State Department's Diplomatic Security Service and is mostly trained by former US special forces members, under the CIA, at Megamendung, 50 kilometres south of Jakarta.

Part of the rationale for establishing Den 88 was that, at a time of growing Islamist terrorism in Indonesia, Indonesia's key counter-terrorism unit, the army's Kopassus (Special Forces) Group 5 (renamed Duty Unit 81 Counter Terrorism), had itself been deeply implicated in widespread human rights abuses and the employment of terrorist tactics.

Following Indonesia's democratisation and a reduction of army control, it was regarded as more appropriate to 'civilianise' domestic counterterrorism by handing it to the police.

However, Indonesia's police force, only removed from military control in 2000, has continued to have a paramilitary function. In regions such as West Papua, it also continues to operate within the military chain of command. There is much evidence to implicate Den 88 in a string of serious human rights violations, including murder, torture and kidnapping.

Importantly, too, while Indonesia has undergone a process of democratisation and its conflicts elsewhere have been effectively resolved, West Papua remains quarantined from most of those changes. In this respect, the history of impunity by the army and police continues largely unaffected in West Papua.

The underlying problem has been that president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono used up much political capital on the Aceh peace settlement and has since been stymied over West Papua. Military reform, and effectively reform of the police, has also stopped. Both continue to reflect many of the repressive characteristics of Indonesia's pre-democratic period.

West Papua remains the most important source of significant 'offline' income for both the army and the police, through legal business as well as 'grey' and illegal activities. As a result, they are both deeply reluctant to see the West Papua conflict resolved; repression and reaction in West Papua continue to serve the financial interests of the army and the police.

President Yudhoyono's limited attempt at a political settlement in West Papua have been without any of the politically expensive concessions that were granted to help resolve the Aceh issue. West Papuan activists have, unsurprisingly, rejected such efforts as insincere.

That the West Papuan activists' language is often couched in terms of 'liberation', and that the Morning Star flag continues as their primary symbol, is seen as a provocation by Indonesian nationalists. This is all the justification the army, and the police, require to act in ways that would no longer be tolerated anywhere else in Indonesia.

Within Jakarta, the resource-rich West Papua is seen as a problem that does not require real efforts to fix while it continues to be hugely financially profitable to the Indonesia state. Similarly, knowing that even a reformist leader such as President Yudhoyono has little scope for movement in West Papua, Indonesia's international friends, such as Australia and the US, continue to demure on the issue.

The problem is, however, that this diplomatically realpolitik position continues to be confronted by widely held competing views outside Indonesia. Until enough of Indonesia's friends act strongly enough in concert to assist President Yudhoyono and other reformists to re-start the country's reform process, organisations such as the US and Australian-supported Den 88 will continue to be implicated in serious human rights abuses which most Australians deeply oppose.

Professor Damien Kingsbury is Director of the Centre for Citizenship, Development and Human Rights at Deakin University, and has written widely on Indonesian politics and security. View his full profile here.

Australia presses Indonesia on Papua killing

Canberra called on Wednesday for an Indonesian inquiry into the killing of a Papuan independence leader but could not say whether Australian-trained counter-terrorism police were involved in the death.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said senior Australian officials had pressed Indonesia on the death in June of Mako Tabuni, a leader in Papua's fight for independence from Jakarta allegedly killed by Indonesia's anti-extremist squad.

Tabuni's supporters told Australian media he was gunned down by plain-clothes officers from Detachment 88, a counter-terrorism squad formed after the 2002 Bali bombings and partly trained and resourced by Australia.

Carr said Australian police included human rights training in their work with the Indonesian police but "we don't run the counter-terrorism forces" and there was a limit to Canberra's responsibility for their activities.

 Source: http://news.yahoo.com/australia-presses-indonesia-papua/

He could not confirm whether Detachment 88 had been involved in Tabuni's death but said several top-level representations had been made to Jakarta calling for a "full and open" investigation into the shooting.

"We think the best way of clarifying the situation is for an inquiry," Carr told ABC Television.

"We think it would be in the interest of Indonesia in particular and in the interest of their human rights record in the Papuan provinces."

Carr stressed that the calls came "in the context of us consistently recognising Indonesian sovereignty over Papua, and at the same time asserting our right as a friend and a neighbour to raise human rights issues".

"Even when they're dealing with people who may have used violent means, who are accused of using violent means, our strong position with Indonesia is that the legal process should be open and that the people accused of these offences should be treated with due process," he said.

Carr said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa had been "very responsive".

Australian police said it only provided funding to the Indonesian forces for specific counter-terrorism initiatives, though it had "gifted" cars, telecoms and computer equipment worth Aus$314,500 (US$325,810) over two years.

"The Australian Federal Police is not aware, nor been informed, that Detachment 88 is specifically targeting independence leaders in Papua and West Papua," it said in a statement.

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Australia wants transparency as TNI sends troops to Papua

by. Bagus T. Saragih and Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post

Foreign Minister, Bob Carr / AFP

The Australian Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, raised sensitive issues relating to alleged human rights abuses and violence in Indonesia’s poorest province, Papua, during a meeting with his Indonesian counterpart, Marty Natalegawa, on Monday.

Marty said that Carr told him that Australia wanted the Indonesian government to promote transparency in matters concerning Papua.

“But he also reiterated the principal position of Australia: that it recognizes Indonesia’s integrity and sovereignty which includes Papua,” Marty said at his office after the meeting with Carr.

The Australian media had reported that Carr was aware of the human rights issues in Papua, and would bring the issue up in his Indonesian visit.

Carr arrived in Indonesia on Friday, and has since visited several projects funded by the Australian government in Yogyakarta, including a village hit hard by Mount Merapi’s eruption in 2010.

“We’ve quietly worked with the Indonesians to see that there, as elsewhere, reasonable standards of human rights protection are maintained,” Carr said in Yogyakarta.

The Papua issue has remained a sensitive issue for most Indonesian politicians, particularly when it comes to the role of Australia.

Many have regularly blamed Australia and the Western countries for meddling in the province’s affairs, alleging that they have engineered the worsening security through their sponsored NGOs.

Indonesia’s obvious concern is that Papua may end up breaking away from Indonesia as in the case of Timor Leste, which benefited from intense advocacy and support from Australia and the West world before its independence from Indonesia in 2002.

The government has also remained the subject of criticism for failing to resolve the prolonged violence in Papua, including a series of deadly shootings.

Dozens of civilians, police and military personnel have been killed in various locations in Papua over the past few months.

The latest bloody incident was the killing of a soldier and two civilians last week.

With the killing remaining mostly unresolved, the Indonesian Military (TNI), the police and the intelligence services have also been blamed by human rights activists for having a role in allegedly creating the security instability in the province for their own ends.

Papua is home to the operations of US-based Freeport McMoran, one of the world’s biggest gold miners, and London-based energy company BP.

With the protracted violence, Papua has probably the world’s highest ratio of police and soldiers to civilians.

With around 2.85 million people, Papua has more than 20,000 TNI personnel and 25,000 police officers, according to a source at the Defense Ministry. These numbers exclude intelligence officers from various agencies.

The TNI is building up its forces in Papua by sending more troops to help secure the border with neighboring Papua New Guinea (PNG), which has been used as a refuge by members of the Free Papua Movement (OPM).

The Wirabuana Military Command in Makassar, South Sulawesi, shipped 620 personnel on Monday to Merauke, Papua, to help secure the borders and infuse a “nationalist spirit” in the remote communities there.

“Their task is to ensure order, guard the border, and develop a nationalist spirit there. The troops will be there for a one-year tour of duty,” said Wirabuana commander Maj. Gen. Muhammad Nizam.

Menlu Carr akhiri kunjungan di Indonesia

Menteri Luar Negeri Australia, Bob Carr, dan Menteri Luar Negeri Indonesia, Marty Natalegawa, berjanji untuk meningkatkan upaya menangani penyelundupan manusia.

Menlu Australia Bob Carr bertemu Menlu RI Marty Natalegawa.

Keduanya bertemu sebelum Senator Carr mengakhiri kunjungan resmi pertamanya ke Indonesia.

Senator Carr meninggalkan Jakarta hari ini setelah selama lima hari meninjau proyek-proyek bantuan dan bertemu dengan Marty Natalegawa.

Mereka membahas berbagai masalah pada hari Senin.

Natalegawa mengatakan, Indonesia dapat berbuat lebih banyak untuk menangani penyelundupan manusia.

"Tapi kami berusaha sebaik-baiknya pada tingkat nasional, bekerjasama dengan Australia dan negara-negara sahabat lainnya, untuk mematahkan operasi para penyelundup manusia," katanya.

Senator Carr mengatakan, mereka juga setuju untuk bekerjasama dalam operasi penyelamatan kapal-kapal pencari suaka yang tenggelam di laut.

"Kita akan menjajaki suatu program pertukaran spesialist SAR," katanya.

Dua kapal pencari suaka dalam perjalanan ke Australia karam bulan Juni lalu, menewaskan lebih dari 90 orang.

Menlu Bob Carr juga mengemukakan keprihatinan tentang hak asasi manusia di Papua.

Ia mengatakan, kedaulatan Indonesia di Papua tak perlu dipersoalkan lagi dan ia ingin jurnalis asing diijinkan masuk ke Papua.

"Indonesia menerima argumen tentang tranparansi yang lebih besar, kunjungan oleh jurnalis, misalnya, dan memahami bahwa hal itu akan menghindarkan salah pengertian tentang bagaimana Papua ditangani."

 

 Sumber: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/

 

Australia Asks Indonesia for More ‘Transparency’ on Papuan Human Rights Issues

Photo AFP

Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr will meet today with his Indonesian counterpart, Marty Natalegawa, after vowing over the weekend that his country was cognizant of human rights issues in Papua.

Carr arrived in Indonesia on Friday and has since visited several projects funded by the Australian government around Yogyakarta, including a village hit hard by Mount Merapi’s eruption in 2010. Speaking to the media on Saturday, Carr reiterated Australia’s long-held recognition of Indonesia’s sovereignty in Papua.

“But we quietly work with the Indonesians to see that there, as elsewhere, reasonable standards of human rights protections are maintained,” said Carr, who is on his first visit to Indonesia in the capacity as foreign minister.

When asked if he supported calls for foreign journalists, who are effectively banned from visiting Papua, to be allowed to travel to the province, he said: “More transparency would help and not hurt the Indonesian case.”

Indonesia has been criticized for failing to solve bloody conflicts and a series of deadly shootings in the eastern province.

As well as Papua, the foreign ministers will discuss how Jakarta can help stop the flow of asylum seekers to Australia, and how both countries can work together to root out people smuggling.

“Yes, the asylum seekers [issue] seems to be high on the agenda,” Indonesian Foreign Ministry official P.L.E. Priatna confirmed on Sunday.

Australian officials and civil society groups have complained that Indonesia is not doing enough to combat syndicates smuggling people to the country.

On Saturday, Carr said he wanted to “levitate” the dialogue between Australia and Indonesia to a higher level, beyond “transactional” matters of people smuggling and drugs cases.

Australia is the largest provider of foreign aid to Indonesia, and increased its contribution again in this year’s budget. 

Source:http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/

 

Australia mengupayakan solusi Papua

Menteri Luar Negeri Australia Bob Carr mengatakan, ia tanpa gemar-gembor bekerjasama dengan Indonesia mengenai issue hak asasi manusia di Papua.

Merlu AU. Bab Carr (Photo Radia-AU)

Kerusuhan telah tercetus lagi di Papua di bulan-bulan terakhir ini, dengan tentara dituduh membunuh seorang tokoh separatis ketika berusaha menangkapnya dan melakukan kekerasan di sebuah desa kecil.

Senator Carr, yang saat ini sedang dalam kunjungan empat hari di Indonesia, mengatakan, standar hak asasi manusia akan lebih baik jika sistem peradilan diperkuat.

"Dan Menteri Luar Negeri Indonesia Marti Natalegawa menerima itu dalam pertemuan pertama kami Maret lalu ketika saya baru dilantik sebagai Menteri Luar Negeri. Dan saya menghargai ketulusannya dan ketulusan Presiden,: kata Senator Carr.

Ini adalah kunjungan pertama Menlu Carr ke Indonesia, dan ia mengatakan ingin meneruskan upaya yang sudah dibangun oleh pemerintah sebelumnya.

Carr juga ingin meningkatkan hubungan bukan hanya dalam kerjasama seperti penyelundupan manusia.

Kemarin ia meninjau proyek-proyek yang dibiayai Australia. Bob bertemu dengan Menteri Luar Negeri Marti Natalegawa hari Senin.

Sumber: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/

Carr seeks better relations with Indonesia

Foreign Minister Bob Carr says he wants to "levitate" the dialogue between Australia and Indonesia to a higher level, beyond "transactional" matters of people smuggling and drugs cases.

In his first official visit to Indonesia as foreign minister, and ahead of talks with senior officials in Jakarta next week, Senator Carr has also insisted he will not be silent on the issue of human rights in Papua.

The foreign minister was speaking at the village of Umbulharjo, which is still recovering from the effects of when the archipelago's most active volcano, Mt Merapi, erupted in 2010.

A bridge in the village was destroyed by lava as a result of the devastating eruption, which killed 353 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more.

It has since been rebuilt under a grants program funded by Indonesia, with $200 million in Australian assistance over four years.

Australia is the largest provider of foreign aid to Indonesia, and increased its contribution again in this year's budget.

However, Senator Carr said the assistance provided to Indonesia was not about ensuring co-operation on matters such as asylum seekers.

"I want to levitate the Australia-Indonesia relationship above these regular transactional issues of people smuggling, live cattle exports and Australians who are charged with drug offences," he said.

"Our relationship with this most populous and important of our neighbours - it's about far more, far more than those occasional irritant issues."

Despite the sensitivity of the asylum seeker issue for Australia, and the continuing unrest in Papua, the foreign minister warned he would not stay silent if there were concerns over human rights abuses.

"We recognise Indonesia's sovereignty in the Papuan provinces but at the same time we've got a dialogue about what they do in response to any unrest in those provinces," he said.

"And we think Indonesian sovereignty is something that can be firmly stated without doing anything that breaches human rights standards."

It was in fact his Indonesian counterpart, Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa, who raised the issue of Papua in their first meeting in Australia, Senator Carr said.

The two men are set to hold further talks in Jakarta next week.

"He stated his interests in this even before I got to the subject on the agenda. I think that says a lot about Indonesia's recognition of the Australian focus on human rights.

"So, absolutely do we recognise Indonesia's sovereignty. It's in the Lombok Treaty, there's no argument about that.

"But we quietly work with the Indonesians to see that there, as elsewhere, reasonable standards of human rights protections are maintained."

When asked if he supported calls for foreign journalists, who are effectively banned from venturing to Papua, to be allowed to travel to the province, he said: "More transparency would help and not hurt the Indonesian case."

Source: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/