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Received from Joyo Indonesian News
Sydney Morning Herald
July 8-9, 2000 Weekend edition
News Review: Papua's Bid Adds To Wahid's Woes
by Lindsay Murdoch
Seven Papuan leaders ushered into the presidential
palace this week were surprised with the reception
they received from Abdurrahman Wahid.
"The President welcomed us," said Tom Beanal, a
co-leader of the delegation that had travelled from
Indonesia's far-eastern province, formerly called
Irian Jaya.
Wahid listened intently as the men reported on a
landmark congress in the province's capital, Jayapura,
in late May, where 2,700 delegates renewed calls
for secession. But the delegates were careful not
to tell the President that Papuans had declared
their independence, an act regarded as treason in
Indonesia.
Instead they spelt out how the congress rejected
a 1969 United Nations-supervised "act of free choice"
and restated that Papuans obtained their freedom
on December 1, 1961. Splitting hairs, maybe, but
their presentation was conciliatory enough for Wahid
to agree to ongoing talks on the province's future.
"The President committed to holding a dialogue for
the best solution of Papua," said Willy Mandowen,
one of the delegates from the Papuan presidium council.
But agreeing to talk appears to be the only point
of agreement between Wahid's administration and
the majority of Papuans from 254 indigenous tribes
which the council represents.
Only swift and decisive action by Wahid will avoid
trouble in Papua.
The congress decided unanimously to campaign internationally
and in Indonesia for the province's independence.
This lifted already high expectations among a majority
of the 2.5 million people in the province that independence
was imminent.
But the Government, struggling to maintain stability
amid a series of crises, knows it would be committing
political suicide if it were to allow Papua to break
away.
Most observers believe that if an East Timor-style
referendum were held in Papua, the majority would
support independence. Papuans hold deep-seated resentment
at the arrival of non-indigenous newcomers who now
dominate business and hold the best jobs in the
regional government.
After decades of the central government's ripping
off the province's rich natural resources and its
repressive rule, people at the congress made it
clear they wanted independence and would fight for
it.
Indonesian military-backed militias similar to those
that caused mayhem in East Timor last year are starting
to operate in the west of the province.
Among many of Papua's tribal people a cargo-cult-like
thinking exists that independence arrives with the
raising of the Morning Star, the flag of the province's
independence movement.
Wahid is treading warily. He has ordered the stepping
up of development programs, replaced hardline military
and police commanders, allowed the province to be
officially called Papua and agreed to let the people
fly the Morning Star as long as it is together with
and below the Indonesian flag.
Wahid is right in keeping the lines of communication
open with the Papuan leaders. One of the most immediate
challenges for the Government is the successful
implementation of radical laws providing wide regional
autonomy to the provinces.
Under the laws introduced last year by former president
B.J. Habibie, the regions will be permitted to keep
most of the revenue from natural resources such
as forestry and mining.
But the extent to which autonomy will satisfy the
demands of the Papuans will not be known until after
it is introduced next year. In the meantime, Papua
will remain one of the country's flashpoints.
**********
West Papua Action held a Vigil in Dublin
to commemorate the Biak massacre on
Saturday July 1, 2000 at the entrance
to St. Stephen's Green.
Music was provided by Pádhraic Ó Láimhín
(uilleann pipes) and speeches given
by Tom Hyland and Dr. John May.
There was also a visual element to
the vigil with a Replica of Biak water-tower
where Indonesian troops opened fire
on unarmed West Papuans.
PRESS COVERAGE:
The Irish Times printed a notice of
the commemoration of the Biak massacre
on Friday June 30, and also printed
two notices on Sat. July 1, 2000 - one
on its Home News pages, and one in the
World News section.
National television channel TV3 covered
the event on its 5.30pm main news programme
with footage of the commemoration.
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The Guardian [UK]
Monday July 3, 2000
Papuans renew their drive for freedom
Indonesian province determined to secede by peaceful
means
John Aglionby in Jayapura
The independence movement in Papua, Indonesia's
eastern-most province, is holding talks with President
Abdurrahman Wahid after a year of reorganisation
and consensus-building in which it has already won
the right to call the area by its old name.
Members of the Papuan Praesidium Council are in
Jakarta for their first round of negotiations with
the president, knowing that the vast majority of
the 2.3m people in the province Indonesia used to
call Irian Jaya are fully behind their renewed call
for secession.
That was made abundantly clear at a colourful congress
in the provincial capital, Jayapura, last month.
Thousands of people from all the 254 indigenous
tribes and representatives of the migrants who live
in the province, which shares the island of New
Guinea with the independent state of Papua New Guinea,
decided unanimously to campaign for their own immediate
independence.
Many of the delegates, dressed only in penis sheaths
and feathered headdresses, trekked for more than
a week across glacier-covered mountains and barely
penetrable virgin rainforest to call for an end
to 31 years of Indonesian rule.
"It is not just me but all Papuans who are satisfied
by the result of the congress," the praesidium
chairman, Theys Eluay, said.
"We succeeded in reaching a consensus on our
aspirations and the praesidium now has the legitimacy
to take the struggle forward."
Mr Eluay stressed that, in contrast to its
own past activity and that of independence movements
in East Timor and Aceh, the new Papuan campaign
would be peaceful.
"We want to succeed through dialogue and negotiation,"
he said.
"We are determined not to resort to violence."
Contrary to many reports in the Jakarta press, the
congress's resolution did not commit the treasonable
offence of declaring independence.
Rather, it stated that the Papuan people obtained
their independence on December 1 1961, when the
Dutch finally left the last of the colonies formerly
known as the Dutch East Indies.
It also rejected the 1969 "Act of Free Choice",
the UN-sponsored process in which 1,025 community
leaders voted unanimously to integrate with President
Suharto's Indonesia, on the grounds that it was
"conducted to the accompaniment of threats, intimidation,
sadistic killings, military violence and amoral
deeds that gravely violated humanitarian principles".
Mr Eluay, who was one of the signatories, said they
had little choice but to sign.
"If we had not voted for integration our houses
would have been burned and our families slaughtered."
In the past two years the level of oppression has
declined significantly, although armed militia supporting
the Indonesian connection are starting to operate
in the far west of the territory, just as they did
in East Timor.
They have been involved in several violent incidents,
particularly in the town of Fak-fak. One day during
the congress security guards seized 14 pistols and
two homemade bombs from people trying to enter.
"It is the army and the political elite in Jakarta
trying to stir up conflict among us so they will
then have an excuse to intervene," said Denny
Yomaki, a senior figure in several local organisations.
Mr Wahid's policy somersaults seem to show Jakarta's
growing unease at the developments in Irian Jaya.
At first he supported the congress to the extent
of promising to open it, then pulled out at the
last minute, although he still gave 1bn rupiahs
(£75,400) to help finance it.
Since the congress ended, he has led the vocal disapproval
of its resolution. But he has intensified development
programmes in the province, and agreed to let the
Papuans fly their flag, the Morning Star, in public
as long as it is together with and below the Indonesian
flag.
In December he declared that the province should
revert to its original name, Papua. An independent
commission will be set up to investigate past human
rights abuses. But it is doubtful whether all this
will be enough to sway Papuans from their desire
for independence.
"The basic problem here is not one of money or
development," said Yohanes Bonay, director of
Jayapura office of the Institute for Human Rights
Studies and Advocacy. "It is all about the sovereignty
of the Papuan people over their own land. If the
people think they have to separate from Indonesia
in order to achieve that, then they will continue
their struggle until they do. It's up to Indonesia
to come up with an alternative."
Despite Mr Wahid's concessions, he is determined
to hang on to Papua, not only because of the billions
of dollars a year Jakarta gets from the area, but
also because he does not want it to precipitate
national disintegration.
But national cohesiveness holds little sway in Papua.
"We know that our cause is just and so we are
prepared to take as long as is necessary," Mr
Eluay said. "But we are determined that it will
only be a matter of time before we are completely
free."
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The recent HRW
report on Papua,
"HUMAN RIGHTS AND PRO-INDEPENDENCE
ACTIONS IN PAPUA, 1999-2000"
is available on the web at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/papua/
The Table of Contents and Summary of the report
follow:
May 2000 Vol. 12, No. 2 (C)
INDONESIA HUMAN RIGHTS AND PRO-INDEPENDENCE ACTIONS
IN PAPUA, 1999-2000
I. SUMMARY
II. RECOMMENDATIONS
III. BACKGROUND
IV. THE RISE AND FALL OF THE NATIONAL DIALOGUE ON
IRIAN JAYA
V. CRACKDOWN FOLLOWING THE OPENING OF THE NATIONAL
DIALOGUE
VI. RIGHTS VIOLATIONS FOLLOWING FLAG-RAISINGS IN
SORONG AND GENYEM
Genyem Sorong, July 5, 1999
Sorong, September 9
VII. PUBLIC MOBILIZATION AGAINST DIVISION OF THE
PROVINCE
VIII. DECEMBER 1 FLAG-RAISINGS AND THE CLASH IN
TIMIKA, The Clash in Timika
APPENDICES
I. SUMMARY
In December 1999, Indonesia's new President, Abdurrahman
Wahid, announced that he would watch the first sunrise
of the new century from the easternmost province
of Irian Jaya. It was an unusual choice-the province,
roughly the size of France, has a population under
two million in a country of over two hundred million,
and its capital, Jayapura, is some 3,500 kilometers
(2,100 miles) from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta-but
Wahid's announcement was clearly intended to signal
a major change of policy after more than thirty
years of authoritarian rule. At a ceremony at an
army base near Jayapura on January 1, 2000, Wahid
declared that the province would from that day forward
be called "Papua," an important gesture of reconciliation
toward the indigenous population of the province,
who call themselves "orang Papua" (Papuan people).
For decades, the name had been all but taboo as
the embodiment of forbidden aspirations to political
and cultural autonomy.(*1)
Since coming to power in October 1999, the Wahid
government has introduced significant reforms in
Papua in the face of widespread demands for independence.
In addition to the name change, which has yet to
be officially endorsed by Indonesia's parliament,
the government has declared that peaceful expression
of pro-independence sentiment will no longer be
punished as it had been in former years, and it
released over sixty Papuans from jail as part of
a nationwide amnesty for political prisoners. The
government's actions, however, have not been consistent
and abuses have continued. While it has permitted
a number of peaceful demonstrations, which usually
take the form of symbolic raising of the "Morning
Star" flag signifying an independent Papua, other
such rallies have been forcibly dispersed by police
with resulting injuries to demonstrators. Likewise,
even as Indonesia's Minister for Law and Legislation
announced on December 13, 1999, that all Papuan
political prisoners would be released, five men
involved in a peaceful flag-raising which had taken
place in the town Genyem on July 1, 1999, were charged
with rebellion by a state prosecutor in Jayapura.
Although those charges subsequently were dropped,
at the time this report was being prepared authorities
were continuing investigations into a series of
peaceful flag-raising ceremonies held throughout
the province on December 1, 1999 and nine people
already had been named as suspects.
Human Rights Watch takes no position on Papuan claims
to self-determination, but it supports the right
of all individuals, including independence supporters,
to express their political views peacefully without
fear of arrest or other forms of reprisal. To the
extent individuals are arrested and imprisoned for
peaceful participation in symbolic flag-raising
ceremonies, such treatment constitutes arbitrary
arrest and detention in violation of international
standards. According to the U.N. Working Group on
Arbitrary Detention, which visited Indonesia in
February 1999, the majority of individuals then
facing charges in connection with flag-raising ceremonies
in Irian Jaya were being held for peaceful expression
of their views and, as such, their detention was
arbitrary and in violation of international law.
Under the new administration, the number of cases
is down, but Indonesia has continued to prosecute
organizers of peaceful protests.
Papua, Indonesia's largest province, comprising
more than one-fifth of the country's total land
area, was first put under Indonesian control in
1963.
It was formally incorporated into Indonesia in 1969
in a still controversial, U.N.-approved process.
For many years, the province was categorized as
a military combat zone (Daerah Operasi Militer or
DOM; literally, Military Operations Area) and under
an effective state of martial law, ostensibly because
of the threat posed by the Free Papua Movement (Organisasi
Papua Merdeka or OPM), an armed group engaged in
a generally low level guerrilla campaign for independence
from Indonesian rule. At the same time, many Papuans
sought to express their support for independence
through peaceful means, notably the symbolic public
raising of the "Morning Star" flag which had first
been flown openly when local people sought to free
the territory from Dutch colonial rule in 1961.
Under Soeharto, who ruled Indonesia for thirty years
until forced to resign by popular protests in 1998,
such flag-raising ceremonies and other pro-independence
manifestations were ruthlessly suppressed. Demonstrators
were forcibly dispersed and assaulted, and leading
activists were subjected to arbitrary arrest and
detention. Such activists frequentlywere prosecuted
and imprisoned under harsh laws dealing with subversion
and rebellion, as well as the notorious "hate sowing"
articles of the Indonesian penal code. Indigenous
Papuans, who are Melanesians and darker-skinned
than the numerically and politically dominant Javanese
and members of most other ethnic groups in Indonesia,
were also subject to ethnic and racial discrimination.
While Indonesian rule brought unprecedented economic
development, it also resulted in an influx of immigrants
from other parts of Indonesia and caused resentment
among Papuans as the benefits went disproportionately
to foreign investors and these immigrants.When Soeharto
was forced from power in May 1998, many of these
long repressed sentiments could be made public for
the first time.
When he took over following Soeharto's resignation,
President B.J. Habibie initially made efforts to
recognize and apologize for the human rights violations
committed under his predecessor. But the new administration's
willingness to acknowledge past abuses in general
terms was not accompanied by concrete measures to
establish justice or redress for the victims. In
the meantime, demands for independence mounted.
The strength of pro-independence sentiment was unmistakable
as early as February 1999, when 100 leading Papuan
leaders met with President Habibie to initiate what
was being hailed as a "National Dialogue" on Papuan
concerns. But the leaders presented President Habibie
with a single demand: independence. This clearly
shocked and displeased the Habibie government, which
had encouraged the National Dialogue up to then,
and the process was soon suspended. In April 1999,
the government reverted to the methods used during
the Soeharto era, attempting to round up independence
supporters and censor discussion of the subject.
The crackdown included bans on expression, assembly,
and association, arbitrary arrests, and widespread
intimidation of independence supporters.
With nationwide demands for democratization still
mounting across Indonesia, however, opposition voices
could not easily be silenced. The result was an
uncertain atmosphere in which, even as the crackdown
was underway, Papuan leaders continued to assert
their right to advocate Papuan independence. In
July and September 1999, at least four demonstrators
were seriously injured, one of whom subsequently
died in custody, and thirty-two were arrested after
police moved in to disperse what had intially been
peaceful flag-raising ceremonies.
In October 1999, following democratic elections,
a new government took office in Indonesia under
President Abdurrahman Wahid, and promptly initiated
a number of reforms. Openly acknowledging the errors
of the past, the new administration moved quickly
to allow greater freedom and to permit the open
expression of pro-independence views. Peaceful Papuan
flag-raisings, which had been broken up under Soeharto
and Habibie, were now permitted and were held without
police interference in at least a dozen places in
Papua on December 1, 1999. The next day, however,
there was a violent clash between police and demonstrators
at a flag-raising in Timika in which six people
were shot by police and dozens were injured. When
he met local community leaders at Jayapura on December
31, President Wahid assured them that flag-raisings
and other peaceful expression of pro-independence
views should and would be considered protected acts
of free speech. At the same time, Wahid stated unambiguously
that the Indonesian government was not prepared
to accede to Papuan demands for independence.
During a visit to Irian Jaya in December, 1999,
Indonesia's new minister for human rights, Hasballah
Saad, acknowledged the link between the past lack
of accountability for human rights abuses suffered
by Papuans and the growth of the separatist movement
within the territory, and announced that a new center
for human rights study and advocacy would be established
in Irian Jaya. "If human rights are not respected
. . . that could in turn provoke people to ask what
maintaining the unity of the Republic is for," Saad
was quoted as saying. "This circumstance could in
turn encourage people to fight for an independent
state."(2)
This report details violations of civil and political
rights in Papua from the beginning of 1999, including
those associated with the National Dialogue and
subsequent symbolic flag-raising ceremonies. At
the outset, it provides an overview of independence
demands, then describes the rise and fall of the
National Dialogue and the crackdown that followed.
It also reviews developments since President Abdurrahman
Wahid came to power in October 1999.
As this report was being prepared, Human Rights
Watch learned of disturbing developments in Merauke
and Nabire in which groups of armed Papuan neighborhood
patrols (Satgas Papua) clashed with police and troops,
an incident in Fak Fak in which villagers clashed
with the entourage of a local government official,
and communal violence in Entrop, near Jayapura,
in which a Papuan mob attacked non-Papuan shopkeepers.
There were also reports that, in response, non-Papuan
transmigrant residents in the province were being
provided with firearms by government officials,
and that, in at least one district, an East Timor-style
pro-government militia was being set up. These reports,
if true, make it all the more imperative that respect
for basic civil and political rights and strict
implementation of the distinction between peaceful
advocacy and violent criminal acts be made components
of any long-term solution in Papua. Although the
Indonesian government has recognized such rights
in principle, it has not yet consistently respected
those rights in practice.
(*1) The names "Papua" and "Irian Jaya" are used
interchangeably in this report to refer to the province.
(*2) "Rights abuses fed separatism in Irian Jaya,"
Jakarta Post, December 10, 1999; "Indonesia proposes
rights center in Irian Jaya," Radio Australia, December
9, 1999.
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