By PMC Editor –By Margareth S. Aritonang in Jakarta
A nun observes photographs of victims of past human rights abuses in front of the State Palace in Jakarta during a weekly rally that is locally known as Kamisan. This rally was the 417th since 2007 and it demanded demanding the government resolve the cases. (Seto Wardhana )
After two years of running the country, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has still not fulfilled his campaign promise to address long-unresolved human rights abuse cases in Indonesia, a promise that is thought to have sealed his victory against his former contender Prabowo Subianto, who is implicated in the forced disappearances of pro-democracy activists in 1998.
“The government must fulfill its obligation to solve all cases of gross human rights violations that occurred in the past,” prominent human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis said at a discussion yesterday.
“The President will forever owe us that promise unless he keeps his word.”
The unresolved cases that Jokowi promised to address consist of the 1989 Talangsari massacre, the forced disappearance of anti-Soeharto activists in 1997 and 1998, the Trisakti University shootings, the Semanggi I and Semanggi II student shootings in 1998 and 1999, the mysterious killing of alleged criminals in the 1980s, the anticommunist massacres of 1965 and various abuses that took place in Wasior and Wamena in Papua in 2001 and 2003, respectively.
Activist Al Araf from the Jakarta-based human rights watchdog Imparsial cited a lack of political will to prioritise human rights among Jokowi’s administration as a core reason behind the lagging attempts to address the issues during Jokowi’s two-year presidency.
As the world will commemorate International Human Rights Day today, Al Araf called for Jokowi and his subordinates to make the resolution of human rights abuse cases one of the government’s priority programs.
“Otherwise Jokowi’s regime will be no different to his predecessors,” he said.
Pacific horror: A new Catholic report has shown allegations of recent military and police intimidation, beatings and torture, kidnapping and murder in the country.
ALLEGATIONS of recent military and police intimidation, beatings and torture, kidnapping and murder in West Papua, have been documented in a new Church report.
The report documents Muslims being radicalised in the once predominantly Christian Papuan provinces, and “very active” Muslim militias that burn down Papuan houses.
The report was compiled by the Brisbane Catholic Justice and Peace Commission’s Shadow Human Rights Fact Finding Mission to West Papua, following a visit to West Papua last month.
It has not yet been publicly released, nor comment sought from Indonesian authorities.
The report documents religious, social and economic discrimination including how the carve up of land for major development has benefited multinationals and excluded Papuans from ownership and jobs.
It refers to a slow motion genocide happening 250km north of Australia and states that “the Indonesians want to replace the Christian religion with Islam”.
The report author Josephite Sister Susan Connelly was accompanied to West Papua by Brisbane archdiocese’s Catholic Justice and Peace Commission executive officer Peter Arndt.
During their fact-finding mission they interviewed more than 250 community leaders in Jayapura, Merauke, Timika and Sorong.
Sr Connelly, a respected human rights advocate, likened her visit to West Papua to “stepping back twenty years when I first went to East Timor”.
“The same oppressive security presence everywhere, the same suspicion, bewilderment, frustration and sadness,” she said.
“The same fear. The same seemingly groundless hope.
“A man took my hands in his and said, ‘We are in danger’. That simple statement sums up for me the experience of the whole visit.
“The Papuan people have lost so much, and are facing erasure as a people, merely preserved as oddities of the past or artifacts to be photographed for tourist brochures.
“They realise that their land is considered more valuable than they are.”
The fact-finding team heard many accounts of alleged military and police brutality and murder.
“There is clear evidence of ongoing violence, intimidation and harassment by the Indonesian security forces,” Mr Arndt said on his return to Brisbane.
“That is especially the case for Papuans expressing their support for particular political points of view.
“Authorities want to close down any Papuan efforts to promote discussion about self-determination, and they have applied a military response to deal with the irrepressible desire of a large number of Papuans to promote their cause for freedom.”
Based on his interviews across West Papua, Mr Arndt (pictured) identified the instigators of alleged human rights violations as members of the Indonesian army including Kopassus, police including a special counter insurgency unit, Detachment 88, and Indonesia’s intelligence agency, BIN.
“Even demonstrations about social issues such as access to education get broken up by authorities,” he said.
The fact-finding team heard many examples of how the Indonesian Government pushed economic development, but ignored human rights.
“The Government has carved up the land and given it for exploitation to some 50 multinational companies,” the report said.
“The procedure is that the local government invites companies to come and gives permits.
“People are usually shocked when the companies come to sign a MoU (memorandum of understanding) with them, showing them the permit and the map.
“If the villagers don’t agree to the proposal, the company goes back to the local government and returns with the police.”
Troubling times: A group holds a Free West Papua protest in Melbourne.
In the 1970s, ethnic Papuans accounted for 96 per cent of the population.
Today they are a minority 48 per cent, because of the rapid migration of Indonesians from other more populated islands such as Java.
The report found that Papuans were now marginalised economically at the expense of immigrants, the majority of whom are Muslims.
The report said there was “a movement for Muslims from Indonesia to replace Papuans in every sector”.
“The Indonesians want to replace the Christian religion with Islam. Many mosques are being built everywhere. They want Papua to be a Javanese Malay nation,” the report said.
“Radicalisation is happening in Papua, with some militias very active near the border with PNG.
“They burn down the Papuan houses. They are recruited as illegal loggers. Their camps and logging are well protected by the military.
“The military are certainly killing the people, and closed access to opportunity to Papuans in all areas of life constitutes a slow motion genocide.
“The general opinion encountered was that Indonesia is a total failure regarding Papua and is just another coloniser.
“The Indonesian Government does not give opportunities to Papuan people or protect them.
“It was said that most Church leaders try to deal with the problems one by one, but the whole picture should be looked at as a series of policies designed to overcome the Papuan people.
“In every sector of government the system is composed of Indonesian tactics to destroy the Papuans.
“Beatings and torture are used, but also the economic aspects of lack of opportunity, the sidelining of the indigenous peoples, the taking over of land by companies … are part of the plan.”
Accusations in the report
A young, wealthy businessman poisoned in 2015. He had financially supported building an office for the National Committee for West Papua, an independence-oriented group. He also funded Papuans being sent to international conferences.
A Papuan woman activist arrested in 2015 by police for holding a prayer service in support of an international conference in London. She and her group were interrogated for five hours.
In January this year, 27 Papuan palm oil workers were allegedly tortured by the Indonesian army’s special force Kopassus. The men had previously complained to their company bosses after they had not been paid for two months.
A man aged 35 who used to work for Papua’s Freeport gold mine was kidnapped in 2015, killed, and his body thrown on the street. There was no sign of torture and the police told his family that it was an accident.
Police and military broke up community activities such as prayer meetings.
In September 2015, 18-year-old Daniel Bowgow was killed. His father was a local prayer meeting leader.
People reported they couldn’t move freely at night to search for food for fear of being kidnapped. The military and police use Papuan informers to let them know of people’s movements.
Indonesian troops opened fire in West Papua and killed five civilians during disturbances on Monday, as Indonesia faces growing pressure over its occupation of the region.
The exact events that led to the deaths are difficult to trace, especially given media censorship and inconsistent reporting inside West Papua. It has been established that the shootings occurred in Paniai, where locals gathered to demonstrate at Karel Gobay Square. At least five people have been reported dead, with at least 12 wounded.
The cause of the protests is unclear. Local mediaquoted community leaders claiming that the unrest was provoked by the beating of a 12-year-old boy on Sunday night, while military spokesperson Rikas Hidayatullah claimed it was a political demonstration against the electoral commission.
The crowd “ran amok,” according to Hidayatullah, who added that the incident happened after the “police asked the military to help them.”
Activists for West Papuan independence began circulating a number of horrific pictures, that they claimed were taken at the scene of the shootings, on blogs and Twitter.
Indonesia occupied West Papua in 1963, following a colonial Dutch government. Ever since, the national Morning Star flag of West Papua has been banned and independence supporters have been suppressed. An estimated 100,000 West Papuans have died as a result of the occupation.
West Papua is a valuable strategic asset for Indonesia. It is home to the world’s largest known deposit of gold at Grasberg Mine, and is also a major palm oil producer.
Indonesia argues it secured the province fairly after a vacuum of internal leadership left the country completely ungoverned with no central authority. The UN did grant Indonesia control of West Papua in 1963, on the condition that a plebiscite on self-determination was held within six years.
In 1969, Indonesia organized a vote that surveyed 1,026 handpicked West Papuans. They voted to join Indonesia, and the other 800,000 West Papuans — who were considered “too primitive” and not consulted — were forced to go along with it.
News broke of Monday’s tragic shooting in Paniai just as West Papuan independence activist organizations announced they had unified after negotiations in Vanuatu. The new body, called the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, has been set up with the ambition of being recognized by the Melanesian Spearhead Group, an intergovernmental organization that advances the interests of the Melanesian peoples of the Pacific.
Papua Merdeka News 