Australia West Papua Association (Sydney)

PO Box 28, Spit Junction, NSW 2088

AWPA update. July 2010

The 41st Pacific Islands Forum will be held in Port Vila, Vanuatu between 3-6 August. A number of organizations including AWPA have called on the PIF leaders to put West Papuan on the agenda and raise concerns about the human rights situation in West Papua with the Indonesian government (press releases/letters below).

Dear Friends,

Please help us help humanity by reading and encouraging other adults to read the graphic novel at www.papuanvoices.com. (Does not yet work on mobile phones.)

The Illustrator and I have chosen to release the first three chapters (60 pages) now, given the urgency of the content but also because we can update and add to this "flip book" over time. (Try your scroll wheel to flip pages.)

If you care about disappearing cultures and biodiversity, you can help raise the world's awareness of West Papua by forwarding this appeal to your friends and colleagues, or by letting them know about this through Facebook, Twitter or word-of-mouth.

If you enjoy the beautiful illustrations in this book and you come to appreciate the global significance and dire urgency of its story, please tell others about papuanvoices.com.

The Author

TAPOL press release, 9 July 2010

Dialogue a must for Papua

Papua is in a state of heightened tension following a series of events that culminated in a mass rally yesterday by thousands of Papuans at the provincial parliament, the DPRP, in Jayapura.

The demonstration and similar actions in other locations across the territory were intended to increase pressure on the DPRP to support a recommendation by the Papuan People's Assembly, the MRP, to 'return' Papua's 2001 special autonomy law to the central government in Jakarta.

By S. EBEN KIRKSEY

source: http://www.counterpunch.org/kirksey06242010.html

President Obama turned his back on Indonesia recently — canceling his visit there for the second time this year. His mother, Ann Soetoro, was a cultural anthropologist who spent much of her adult life helping economically-marginalized people of Indonesia. If she were still alive, she might well be disappointed in her son.

(Klik di sini untuk versi bahasa Indonesia)

Indonesia: Stop Prosecuting Peaceful Political Expression

EU-Indonesia Human Rights Dialogue Should Take up Cases of Imprisoned Activists

June 22, 2010

(Jakarta) - The Indonesian government should immediately release the more than 100 Papuan and Moluccan activists imprisoned for peacefully voicing political views, and change laws and policies to protect freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The government should act now to ensure that a European Union-Indonesia dialogue on human rights scheduled for June 29, 2010, in Jakarta will get off to a successful start, Human Rights Watch said.

The 43-page report, "Prosecuting Political Aspiration: Indonesia's Political Prisoners," is based on more than 50 jailhouse interviews with political prisoners conducted between December 2008 and May 2010. It describes the arrest and prosecution of activists for peacefully raising banned symbols, such as the Papuan Morning Star and the South Moluccan RMS flags. The report also details torture that many say they have suffered in detention, especially by members of the Detachment 88/Anti-Terror Squad in Ambon, as well as police and prison guards in Papua, and the failure of the government to hold those responsible to account.

‘Indonesian democracy stops in papua’

Autonomy isn't Independence

by Philippe Pataud Celerier
Le Monde Diplomatique, June 2010

Indonesian nationalists deny all ethnic and religious claims for separatism in the vast archipelago that makes up their country. But in Papua, people feel exploited, and threatened with cultural, and demographic, annihilation

Journalists Raise Voices in Protest Over French Colleagues Detained in Papua
Nivell Rayda
source: Jakarta Globe - May 25, 2010

Local members of the media have condemned Tuesday’s detention of two French journalists in Papua, saying the move undermined freedom of the press. Victor Mambor, chairman of the Papua chapter of the Independent Journalist Alliance (AJI), said the government had crossed the line. “We are condemning the government move to keep the journalists from doing their work. There should not be any limitation to what the reporters can or cannot cover as long as it does not violate press laws,” he said.

Resource-Rich West Papua, But Who Benefits?

The Jakarta Post - Friday May 14, 2010
by:Carmel Budiardjo

Indonesia is these days praised as a success story among the countries of Southeast Asia, with growth figures that compare favorably with its neighbors and an absence of conflict. It is also the largest country in the region which enjoys an abundance of natural resources that have lured foreign companies to its shores. Since the fall of Soeharto in 1998 and the end of his dictatorship, economic progress has fostered a growing middle class.

A referendum in East Timor 18 months after his exit secured that country’s independence after 25 years of devastating occupation, while in the other conflict-ridden province, Aceh, where thousands of people died from 1976 till 2004, a peace agreement has secured it an era of reconstruction, thanks largely to the devastating tsunami in December 2004 and to the agreement reached a year later between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and Jakarta.

However, the situation in its most easterly region, West Papua, is far from satisfactory and rarely draws international attention except when shooting incidents take the lives of foreigners employed by a mining company which is recognized as being Jakarta’s largest taxpayer.

OPM Military Wing Calls For UN-Mediated Dialogue
The Jakarta Post, Monday, March 15, 2010

The military wing of the separatist Free Papua Movement (TPN-OPM) said it welcomed dialogue with Jakarta as long as an international organization, preferably the UN, acted as the mediator.

U.S. Training of Kopassus: A Bad Idea Whose Time Has Not Come

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) warned President Barack Obama against renewing any U.S. training for Indonesia's notorious special forces.

"Training Kopassus will set back efforts to achieve accountability for past and recent human rights violations and will do little or nothing to discourage future crimes," said John M. Miller, National Coordinator of ETAN. "This is a bad idea whose time has not come."

The Obama administration is considering resuming training of Kopassus and may announce a change in policy when President Obama visits Indonesia later this month.

"It's impossible to credit Kopassus with human rights reform when it retains active duty soldiers convicted of human rights violations," said Miller. These include soldiers convicted of killing West Papuan leader Theys Eluay and the kidnapping and disappearances of Indonesian activists in 1997 and 1998.