West Papua: Did The East Timor Tragedy Teach Us Nothing?

By Jennifer Robinson (update)

Jennifer Robinson (photo Rt.com)

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (Pacific Scoop, June 25, 012) – As violence escalates in West Papua, one cannot help but recall East Timor and wonder how much worse it must get before Australia, New Zealand and the international community will act.

Tensions are at breaking point in the easternmost province of Indonesia after the police shooting of independence activist Mako Tabuni.

Human rights activists report Tabuni was unarmed when shot six times by the Australian-trained Detachment 88 forces. Tabuni was deputy chairman of the West Papua National Committee, an organization advocating independence and the right to self-determination under international law. Tabuni had also been campaigning for an investigation into a recent spate of military killings.

The shooting follows years of violence. At least 16 people have been killed in the past month, according to human rights groups, and hundreds of homes raided, with many burnt to the ground. Thousands are reported to be evacuating, seeking refuge in the forest or heading for refugee camps in Papua New Guinea. Credible reports of human rights violations by Indonesian security forces have emerged, including torture, excessive use of force and extrajudicial killings.

Yet Indonesia’s State Intelligence Agency chief, Lieutenant-General Marciano Norman, placed blame on the Free Papua Movement, "foreign agents" and local residents for the violence.

The President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, played down the events. As Indonesia obfuscates and Australia remains silent, West Papua bleeds.

While most Australians are proud of our role in ending 24 years of bloody Indonesian occupation in East Timor, we should not forget it came after a long history of accepting Indonesian assertions of sovereignty while ignoring human rights abuse on our doorstep.

Wide-eyed innocence

After East Timor, we cannot claim any wide-eyed innocence regarding West Papua.

Australia is now bidding for a place on the United Nations Security Council on the basis of our alleged "human rights-based foreign policy," highlighting our role in East Timor while trying to keep a lid on our history of inaction there.

The federal Attorney-General has refused freedom of information requests for the release of diplomatic cables dating to the 1970s – cables that a University of NSW professor, Clinton Fernandes, says will show Australian complicity in concealing the mass starvation of Timorese.

Are we now making the same mistakes with West Papua? Few are aware of Australian and UN involvement in West Papua 30 years before the intervention in East Timor.

Like East Timor, West Papua was annexed by Indonesia in circumstances that violated international law. Comparisons are made, and with good reason.

Both territories are made up of distinct minorities. Both are rich in natural resources. Both have struggled for self-determination. Like East Timor, West Papua had a UN vote for self-determination, only the outcome could not have been more different.

Sham vote

In 1999, East Timor got a proper vote and won independence (not before an estimated 200,000 Timorese had died). But in 1969, West Papua got a sham vote and became part of Indonesia.

Last month, East Timor celebrated 10 years of independence or, as the Timorese say, 10 years since the international community recognized their independence.

But an estimated 400,000 Papuans have now been killed after more than 40 years of Indonesian oppression and abuse.

This year, Indonesia faced international condemnation for the imprisonment of West Papuan leaders for peacefully calling for independence. When asked if Australia had raised concerns with Indonesia, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Bob Carr, responded by admitting that "before I could raise the subject…

The Indonesian Foreign Minister nominated that they have a clear responsibility to see that their sovereignty is upheld in respect of human rights standards," and Carr "was impressed by that."

In responses eerily similar to statements made by Gareth Evans about East Timor during Indonesian rule, Carr warned members of Parliament "against foolishly talking up" West Papuans’ right to self-determination because it "threatens the territorial integrity of Indonesia" and "would produce a reaction" towards Australia. It would be a foolish foreign affairs minister who did not learn from our mistakes in East Timor.

Australia should, at a minimum, reconsider military aid to Indonesia and call for them to allow media and international organizations access to West Papua to investigate abuses and facilitate peaceful dialogue.

East Timor should remind us of the hefty price of turning a blind eye to repression in the mistaken belief that it serves stability in our region. As a Deakin University academic, Scott Burchill, has long argued, it is not only "a dereliction of our ethical duty, it is politically short-sighted and usually results in blowback."

Jennifer Robinson is an Australian human rights lawyer in London. The article was first published in The Age. Pacific Scoop
All editorial and news content produced under the principles of Creative Commons. Permission to republish with attribution may be obtained from the Pacific Media Centre - pmc@aut.ac.nz

MPs praised for passing bill

Speaker of Parliament Sir Allan Kemakeza says he’s please MPs support the 2012 supplementary budget.

He said the passage of the bill means money the government had previously spent without parliament approval has now been legalised.

 

It also means the government will now be able to spend money it had asked parliament for during the remaining three months of this year.

Sir Allan said besides the bill, three other motions were tabled before the parliament session that were adjourned for Thursday this week.

They are the motion of no-confidence that was later withdrawn, a motion for the establishment of a special select committee on West Papua, and the motion of adjournment.

The West Papua motion seeks parliament’s approval for a select committee to look into the desire of indigenous West Papuans for self-governance, the human right situation in West Papua, Solomon Islands foreign Policy on West Papua and the official position on West Papua’s fight for independence, and other related matter.

Parliament will resume on October 20 during which next year’s budget will be tabled.

By Elliot Dawea - Solomonstarnews.com/news/

Indonesian parliament moves to defuse West Papuan ‘time bomb’

Prites

Indonesia’s House of Representatives has set up working committees to address the tense security situation in Papua and West Papua provinces.

Mahfudz Sidik, chairman of House Commission I, which oversees foreign and security affairs, said the two working committees were formed last week as part of the commission’s follow-up to a visit by legislators to the two provinces three months earlier in response to a string of armed attached blamed on pro-independence activists.

Mahfudz, from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said the establishment of the committees was expected to prompt the government to take action, including initiating dialogues to address the underlying causes fueling the secessionist sentiment in the country’s easternmost provinces.


He said the commission had identified several fundamental issues that needed to be resolved, the main one being the general lack of trust among indigenous Papuans toward the central and local governments.
Another is the perceived redundancy of the presidentially appointed Unit for the Acceleration of Development in Papua and West Papua (UP4B). Other factors include long-held grievances over the discrimination against indigenous Papuans and the local governance crisis typified by the stalled gubernatorial election process.

“All these fundamental problems have been allowed to fester without any solutions,” Mahfudz said.
“If we continue to ignore them, we will be arming a time bomb.”

 Source: Pasific Scoop

Aktivis Kemerdekaan Papua Barat Ingin Indonesia keluarkan dari MSG

Aktivis Kemerdekaan Papua (foto ilustr)

Vanuatu berbasis gerakan kemerdekaan Papua Barat sekali lagi menerapkan untuk menjadi pengamat resmi dalam Grup Spearhead Melanesia.(Sumber: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/)
Dan pada saat yang sama mereka ingin Indonesia menanggalkan status pengamat di dalam tubuh sub-regional.
Juru bicara gerakan, Dokter John Ondawame mengatakan Indonesia tidak pernah seharusnya status pengamat parut resmi dalam MSG.
Dia mengatakan aplikasi Papua Barat akan diserahkan pada KTT dijadwalkan berikutnya MSG pemimpin di Kaledonia Baru tahun depan.
Dokter Ondawame mengatakan mereka memiliki kesempatan yang lebih baik dari sekarang sedang diberikan status pengamat mengikuti perubahan kebijakan MSG internal.
Presenter: Hilare Bule
Pembicara: Dokter John Ondawame, dari kantor Papua Barat diplomatik di Vanuatu
ONDAWAME: Tujuannya adalah untuk mengirimkan aplikasi untuk MSG sehingga MSG yang dapat mengabulkannya status pengamat, karena ada pedoman baru dalam kebijakan MSG bahwa gerakan pembebasan Papua Barat dapat mengajukan permohonan untuk status pengamat dalam MSG. Ada kemungkinan untuk memungkinkan kemungkinan-kemungkinan baru. Tidak seperti tahun-tahun sebelumnya, kita tidak dapat menerapkan, dan ketika Anda menerapkan di masa lalu saya tidak berpikir kita bisa mendapatkan, namun sekarang kemungkinan karena kebijakan baru berubah dalam MSG juga. Pedoman baru memungkinkan kami untuk menerapkan untuk menjadi, untuk diberi status pengamat dalam MSG.
Bule: Jadi, ketika orang Papua Barat mengirimkan kembali aplikasi mereka untuk memperoleh status pengamat dalam MSG?
ONDAWAME: pertemuan MSG akan diselenggarakan di Noumea tahun depan. Jadi sekarang kami sedang mempersiapkan aplikasi kita untuk menyerahkan sebelum itu.
Bule: Dalam hal perjuangan rakyat Papua Barat untuk mendapatkan kemerdekaan mereka, apa yang akan menjadi dampak dari memperoleh status pengamat dalam MSG?
ONDAWAME: Pertama-tama dampaknya akan bahwa pertama-tama kita harus menghapus Indonesia dari status pengamat dalam MSG, karena Indonesia tidak memiliki hak untuk berada di sini sebagai pengamat dalam keluarga Melanesia. Kedua untuk membangun hubungan yang lebih kuat, untuk membawa kembali anak yang hilang dari Papua Barat yang di 96 ini sudah hukum, kembali ke keluarga Melanesia, kita harus meletakkan dasar. Ketiga, adalah kita ingin juga mengembangkan ide baru pembangunan politik budaya, ekonomi,, kita harus meletakkan dasar untuk mengembangkan mereka bagian penting dari pembangunan di masa depan.
Bule: Apakah saat ini dukungan keseluruhan dari negara-negara anggota MSG terhadap perjuangan masyarakat Papua Barat?
ONDAWAME: Setidaknya di tingkat pemerintah ada simpati, tetapi tidak ada satu lagi yang membawa kita serius, mengambil posisi dalam masalah ini. Tetapi pada tingkat masyarakat kita tahu ada dukungan di semua lapisan masyarakat, baik di Papua Nugini, Kepulauan Solomon, Fiji, Vanuatu, Kanaki, besar, dan saya yakin masalah ini tidak dilupakan oleh masyarakat dan pemerintah dari masing- negara di Melanesia.

Indonesia Terkorup Di Asia Pasifik

Foto Ilustrasi Korupsi

Indonesia menjadi negara paling korups dari 16 negara di kawasan Asia Pasifik menurut survei persepsi korupsi 2011 terhadap pelaku bisnis. Survei dilakukan oleh Political & Economic Risk Consultancy yang berbasis di Hongkong.

Demikian diungkapkan Kepala Satuan Tugas Sosialisasi Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) Guntur Kusmeiyano, Rabu (22/2/2012), dalam seminar pemberantasan korupsi di Kota Pontianak, Kalimantan Barat.

Pemerintah RI, sedang mengikuti irama lepas papua dari Indonesia

Opini by Turius wenda

Turius wenda

 Realita menunjukan bahwa lepasnya papua hanya tunggu waktu, walaupun pemerintah indonesia anggap papua sudah final (harga Mati) dalam keutuhan NKRI.

Papua menjadi daerah konflik dan kontroversial dari tahun 1969 sejak jejak pendapat (Pepera), Hasil Penentuan pendapat rakyat (pepera) menjadi kontrovesi internasioanal, ini di lihat dari proses pemilihannya sangat tidak demokratis atau di bawah pengawasan militer indonesia yang memaksakan para yang terlibat untuk bergabung dengan indonesia di bawah mocong senjata.

Perdebatan tentang sejarah PEPERA 1969 dilanjutkan karena peristiwa rekayasa PEPERA ini merupakan akar masalah Papua  yang sebenarnya dan dipermasalahkan oleh seluruh rakyat Papua sampai hari ini.

Comrades defy Emerson to join Greens in West Papua talks

Foto ilustrasi

ANGRY Labor MPs revolted yesterday and joined a cross-party parliamentary support group for West Papua despite warnings from the Acting Foreign Minister to steer clear of the meeting.

During yesterday's Labor caucus meeting in Canberra, Craig Emerson told MPs they should not attend a meeting of the International Parliamentarians for West Papua, which was organised by the Greens. Mr Emerson told backbenchers it was government policy that the province should remain part of Indonesia.

But several MPs including Laurie Ferguson of NSW, Fremantle's Melissa Parke and Claire Moore, Labor senator for Queensland, said that they planned to attend a meeting of the group anyway.

International MPs campaign to help West Papuans keeps building

Papuan Culture

A New Zealand MP who is part of the the International Parliamentarians for West Papua movement says the growth of the network can help foster change in Indonesia’s troubled eastern region.

Parliamentarians from Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand are expected to attend the Australia launch of the International Parliamentarians for West Papua outside parliament house in Canberra tomorrow.

Politisi Australia dan Pasifik Siapkan Gerakan Papua Merdeka

Bintang Kejora (sbr google)

Bergejolaknya 'bumi' Papua belakangan ini ternyata mendapatkan perhatian serius dari dunia internasional. Bahkan, bagi beberapa negara yang memang kerap menyatakan dukungannya terhadap Papua agar memisahkan diri dari Indonesia, seperti Amerika Serikat dan Australia.

Dan kini, informasi terbaru mengungkapkan bahwa sejumlah anggota Parlemen dari Australia dan sekitar Pasifik membuka sebuah babak baru, yakni semacam kelompok politisi internasional yang tujuannya cuma satu: mendukung Papua untuk Merdeka.

Wakil-wakil dari Vanuatu, Selandia Baru,

Human rights abuses and the question of genocide in West Papua

Asia-Pacific Journalism, Pacific Media Centre

18 January, 2012

Published:http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/human-rights/west-papua

 

Papua Human Rigths (foto PMC)

After a period of Dutch control, possession of West Papua was handed to Indonesia in a deal brokered by the US. This deal, known as the New York Agreement of 1962, promised West Papuan self-determination which led to the 1969 Act of Free Choice. This act, later branded as the “Act of No Choice”, was stripped of any legitimacy as a little more than 1000 hand-picked West Papuans representing a population of close to one million voted unanimously under military threats and coercion to retain Indonesian sovereignty. Reported incidents of human rights abuses inflicted on the West Papuan people at the mercy of the Indonesian military includes widespread violence, killings, torture, disappearance, rape, sexual violence, transmigration schemes, forced relocation, and the spread of infectious diseases such as HIV which has seriously harmed the existence of the West Papuan people. This article is a newspaper analysis of the Jakarta Globe, The New Zealand Herald, and The Sydney Morning Herald media coverage. Nigel Moffiet reports.

Indonesian Forces Raid Papuan Independence Rally - 6 Dead

Article: Pacific Media Watch 
Indonesian Forces Raid Papuan Independence Rally - 6 Die, 17 Missing 
By Step Vaessen
October 25, 2011

Jakarta - Indonesian forces have raided a national congress of the West Papuan independence movement, reportedly killing six of its supporters and arresting hundreds more.

Exclusive Al Jazeera footage on Pacific Media Centre Online shows Indonesian forces opening fire as they clamped down on the three-day peaceful Third Papuan People's Congress in the outskirts of Jayapura last Wednesday.

Human rights groups say at least six people were killed while police claim only two died. Seventeen people are reportedly still missing

Amnesty International is asking the government to release the arrested leaders, who have been charged with treason.

PACNEWS Digest: Forum Leaders Urged to be Clear about Maohi Nui’s Reinscription

The Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) is calling on Pacific Forum Leaders to be clear about their stand on Maohi Nui’s bid for “reinscription” on the United Nations decolonisation committee's list.

PCC noted that the communiqué of the recent forum meeting concluded a vague statement regarding Maohi Nui’s bid.
Maohi Nui President, Oscar Temaru had sought the forum leaders backing after a resolution passed by a majority of the Assembly for such a move.

Pacific cannot be truly free until West Papua is free, say activists

West Papuan protesters demonstrate at Auckland University when UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a speech. Photo: Henry Yamo / PMC

Asia-Pacific Journalism, Pacific Media Centre

14 September, 2011

Henry Yamo

“Free West Papua” ... the Pacific isn’t free until West Papua is free. That is the four-decades-old West Papuan slogan that reverberated for a week as the Pacific islands countries gathered for the 42nd Pacific Islands Forum in New Zealand.

Harawira: On Maori Profile and West Papuan Progress at PIF

Press Release – Pacific Media Watch

Harawira Condemns Lack Of Maori Profile – Welcomes West Papuan Progress. Outspoken MP and long time Pacific issues advocate Hone Harawira has condemned the lack of Maori representation at this week’s Pacific Islands Forum – but is encouraged …http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2011/09/harawira-condemns-lack-of-maori-representation-welcomes-west-papuan-progess/

By Alex Perrottet

AUCKLAND (Pacific Scoop/Pacific Media Watch): Outspoken MP and long time Pacific issues advocate Hone Harawira has condemned the lack of Maori representation at this week’s Pacific Islands Forum – but is encouraged by the words of Ban Ki-moon on West Papua.

The leader of the recently formed Mana Party said there was nothing at the official opening of the Forum at the Cloud to suggest that it was held in Aotearoa.

“There was no karakia to start the process, no formalities,” he said. “Even the MCs were taken from the Pacific, which is fine, but there was no hint of Maori representation.” He said there should have been some indigenous representation from Australia as well as New Zealand.

“It was kind of embarrassing. Maori seemed to have been specifically excluded from the process.”
Harawira pointed out that there were no iwi leaders present, no representatives from Parliament such as Pita Sharples of the Maori Party, and not even the Governor-General, Sir Jerry Mateparae, or the Maori King.

He also said there was no reason why Maori leaders could not be included in smaller meetings.
“I’ve attended these meetings in the past and they are usually more informal. This was very formal, very structured – and, dare I say it, very European,” he said.

Pacific Islands Forum ignores elephant in the room -- West Papua

Maire Leadbeater, spokesperson for the IHRC, during her trip to West Papua.Photo: Indonesia Human Rights Committee NZ

Opinion:

by,

Maire Leadbeater

The Melanesian people of West Papua, neighbours to Papua New Guinea,  say they belong to the Pacific region and that it is their home geographically ethnically, and culturally.

But since Indonesia took control of the territory in 1963 they have been excluded from regional meetings.

[This week], Papuan representatives will try to be heard from the margins of the Pacific Island Forum when the heads of state meet in Auckland, New Zealand.
The forum leaders used to make a reference to the ongoing human rights abuses in West Papua in their annual communiqués but for  the  last four years they have sidestepped the issue altogether.

Unfortunately, this is not a sign that the situation has improved for West Papua.  Documents leaked recently to Australian newspapers show how the Indonesian Kopassus Special Forces run a vast network of spies to maintain their control of the region.

NZ, Australian human rights groups call for UN probe on West Papua

West Papuan protesters picket the Pacific Islands Forum summit hotel venue yesterday. In the centre is Paula Makabory. Photo: Henry Yamo / PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – by Alex Perrottet

Fifteen human rights and social justice movements based in Australia and New Zealand today called on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to immediately appoint a special United Nations representative to investigate the alleged human rights violations in West Papua and its political status.

Representatives of the groups, meeting at the at Nga Wai o Horotiu marae at AUT University for the past two days, have called for Ban to follow up on his statements yesterday at a joint press conference with NZ Prime Minister John Key.

Replying to a media question, Ban had said that that the West Papua issue should be discussed by the Decolonisation Committee of the UN General Assembly. This comment has encouraged the supporters of West Papuan independence.

“Whether you are an independent state or a non-self governing territory or whatever, the human rights is inalienable and a fundamental principle of the United Nations,” Ban said.

He also said he would “do all to ensure” that human rights were respected in West Papua.

The group’s statement also called for the UN to “persuade the Indonesian government to allow free access to West Papua for media representatives from the international community and for non-governmental human rights organisations.”

Harawira discusses West Papua with Ban Ki-moon

By Lloyd Burr

Mana Party Hone Harawira is trying to initiate mediation between the Indonesian 

Government and the indigenous people of West Papua by the UN (NZPA pic)

Mana Party leader Hone Harawira took the opportunity to talk about the indigenous affairs of Indonesia with foreign delegates at the Pacific Islands Forum in Auckland yesterday.

Mr Harawira called for the United Nations to support peace talks between the indigenous people of the Indonesian province of West Papua and the Indonesian Government.

One of the delegates he spoke to at the Forum was United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Harawira says he “took the opportunity with both hands”.

Mr Harawira released this press statement this morning:

It’s not often that you get to meet somebody as important as Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations so Hone Harawira, MANA leader and MP for Tai Tokerau, took the opportunity with both hands.

West Papuans still mourning with their Morning Star after 42 years

Paula Makabory and other West Papuans and supporters protest today. Photo: Alex Perrottet / PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Alex Perrottet

Before the beating of Pacific drums and the festive yelps of the Rarotongan dancers, passionate cries of “Free West Papua” were the first sounds to break the new day of the Pacific Islands Forum in Auckland.

At Queen’s Wharf, a posse of West Papuans and their supporters held placards and shouted slogans. Paula Makabory, a visiting human rights activist with the Institute of Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights, was among the group, which also included a gagged West Papuan man inside a bamboo cage.

Maire Leadbeater, spokesperson for the Auckland-based Indonesia Human Rights Group, held the Morning Star flag aloft – it is banned in West Papua and those who fly it face arrest and imprisonment.

Leadbeater said the West Papuans have been continually denied a genuine act of self-determination.

“The 1969 ‘Act of Free Choice’ was a fraudulent procedure under which only 1,022 men were permitted to take part,” she said.

Pacific Islands Forum opens with a protest

PM. Australi and Sekjen UN/ Pasific Forum

The Pacific Islands Forum formally opened this morning - the only signs of controversy a protest in support of West Papua outside.

The leaders of the Forum countries were greeted by school children singing as they entered the Cloud.

Forum Secretary General Tuiloma Neroni Slade opened the Forum with a speech emphasising the risk climate change posed. He thanked UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon for his visit to the Forum and for ensuring climate change was uppermost in the minds of leaders.

Prime Minister John Key - now the Forum chair - spoke of New Zealand and Australia's responsibility to support the "family" in the Pacific.

interview Sekjen PBB Ban Ki Moon and Jurnalis

Sekjen UN Ban Ki-Moon/Pasific Forum

Extract from Ban ki moon press conference, Pacific Islands Forum, 7 September 2011

Question:  [unclear] With regards to human rights - for more than forty two years, there’s a struggle in West Papua as people seeking their government in the province of West Papua

What is the United Nations stand on that?

BKM:  This issue should also be discussed at the Decolonisation Committee of the United Nations General Assembly
And when it comes again, whether you are an independent state or a non-self-governing territory or whatever, the human rights is inalienable and a fundamental principle of the United Nations.
We will do all to ensure that people in West Papua, their human rights will be respected.

Does he support United Nation's Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's statement regarding human rights in West Papua that "we will do all to ensure that people in West Papua, their human rights will be respected"?