Natural and Man-made Disasters in West Papua

A trying two months in Manokwari

The latest major earthquake to hit Indonesia's West Papua region highlights the plight faced by people who struggle to cope with the compounded effects of man-made and natural disasters.

At one point more than twenty thousand people* were displaced by the 7.2 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes that struck Manokwari, West Papua on January 4th, 2009. While some have been able to return to their homes, many remain in makeshift camps, facing increasing risks of disease. While this natural disaster will be short-lived, it is overshadowed by the man-made disaster that has rocked this remote region since Indonesia gained control in 1963.

We need only look at the month before and after the earthquakes to understand the relative magnitude of the hardships that will continue to plague West Papua long after the earthquake damage is repaired.

Four people were killed by the Manokwari earthquakes. During the month of December, eight Papuans were killed by the TNI (Indonesian military) including an eight year-old boy. Two other deaths occurred in the predominantly Christian community of Manokwari just prior to the quake. The body of a Papuan man was found next to his undamaged motorcycle on Christmas Day, and the corpse of a priest was found tossed in a ditch on Jan. 1st, 2009. Both deaths were from head injuries and are alleged to be 'black killings' linked to Indonesian security forces.

On December 1st, the date Papuans consider their Day of Independence, ten thousand people** gathered for a prayer meeting in Nabire. It was closely monitored by the Indonesian police, as were the two thousand demonstrators who that same day marched through the streets of Manokwari calling for the return of fundamental human rights in West Papua, such as the right to display cultural symbols. For carrying the banned Morning Star flag, one man was arrested and beaten repeatedly by police.

Just four days after the earthquake, a group of men who have come to be known as the "Manokwari Eleven" were each sentenced to 3 to 3.5 years in prison for their involvement in March 2008 demonstrations in Manokwari protesting the new law 77/2007 which bans certain cultural symbols and ceremonies, including music and dance.

The Jayapura High Court concluded that leading peaceful demonstrations and speaking out in support of an independent West Papua was an act of makar (subversion) and therefore justified the heaviest possible sentences. Yet peaceful protest is a right protected by international human rights law, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Indonesia ratified in February 2006. This heavy-handed use of makar to criminalize peaceful dissent and cultural displays indicates a double standard. Indonesian legal reforms on free expression apparently have no bearing in West Papua where there is clearly a different set of rules. (The judges also opined that the accused were disrupting the work of development, and if allowed to continue, would "damage the consolidation of the ethnic culture of the Papuan people.")

The twelfth prisoner of conscience is 16 year old Silas Carlos Teves who was sentenced to four months in jail and eight months probation for displaying the Morning Star flag during the same protest. He was tried as an adult because Indonesia's Child Protection Law (2002) has yet to be implemented in Papua, where it still awaits provincial approval.

Richard Rumbiak, a spokesperson for the Australia West Papua Association, worries about these prisoners of conscience. "I fear for the safety of these innocent people in an Indonesian prison system famous for their use of torture and abuse against political inmates. They are not criminals."

Ironically, the 3-year sentences for the Manokwari Eleven are identical to the sentence meted out to a Kopassus officer convicted of assassinating West Papua's widely revered leader, Theys Eluay, in 2001.

The flagrant impunity enjoyed by Indonesian security forces is chiefly what enables the suppression of civil, political and human rights in West Papua. Officers indicted for gross human rights violations in East Timor and Aceh are at large and active, often honoured with important new military posts.

Five days before the Manokwari earthquakes, former Deputy Head of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) Muchdi Purwopranjono was found not guilty of all charges against him as the mastermind in the murder of human rights lawyer Munir Said Thalib, poisoned in flight by a Garuda Airlines employee with links to the agency.

The trial, which began in September, was considered a landmark case since it was the first time a high-ranking officer of the intelligence services had been brought to court. However, the prosecution failed to present taped conversations between Muchdi and the convicted killer, Garuda pilot Pollycarpus Priyanto. Several intelligence agents acting as witnesses retracted their testimonies, and another failed to show after multiple summonses.

As the ASEAN Charter comes into effect this month it remains to be seen if it will have sufficient powers to reign in the impunity enjoyed by Indonesia's security forces. After co-chairing the Bali forum on Asian democracy, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono may even be indicating a willingness on behalf of the Indonesian government itself to take a proactive role.

But just how much has Indonesia's human rights record improved since the fall of the Suharto dictatorship? In spite of notable improvements elsewhere in the archipelago, the TNI remain a stifling force in West Papua. According to an internationally recognized Manokwari NGO, when President Yudhoyono visited Manokwari on Jan. 2nd the TNI secured the area in a massive show of force. When the police went to investigate reports of a Morning Star flag hung behind a church, there were already "many" TNI members there and they had taken down the flag, which they still retain, obstructing the police investigation. There are no immediate West Papuan suspects.

In the camps around Manokwari, emergency relief is to a great extent being delivered by the TNI, the same army responsible for a series of military "sweep operations" in 2007 which destroyed villages in the Puncak Jaya region. Locals who attempted to return home to their gardens and domestic animals were shot (or worse), and thousands were forced to starve in the disease-infested swamps of the more remote highland regions. The Papua Customary Council reports up to 30 houses destroyed by a 500-man security operation in the central region of Papua last Jan. 18th. Why should the TNI feel differently about the people of Manokwari?

Cornell University's Indonesia journal estimated government funding of the TNI to be as low as 30 percent of their total revenue. Opaque TNI-owned "foundations" raise the rest from security services, logging concessions, and illegal businesses such as protection rackets, prostitution and gambling.*** There were clear indications that the TNI, a primarily self-funding institution, siphoned off or extorted a considerable portion of the relief money sent to Aceh in the immediate aftermath of the 2004 Asian tsunami. It is also widely believed that over the past seven years they have taken some of the Special Autonomy funds intended for local development.

Should we now expect probity and compassion from this corrupt institution in doling out aid to earthquake victims? Security forces long linked to gross human rights abuses are now cast in the role of protectors and comforters of quake-stricken West Papuans. Relief assistance will most likely be denied to those who are allegedly linked to human rights activities, and it will be used as a bargaining tool to buy secrets and fund growing militia activity. Manokwari residents may be more traumatized by the rescue operations than by the earthquake if aid is used to finance continued repression.

Like they did immediately after the 2004 tsunami, Indonesia is claiming international assistance is not necessary in Manokwari. While food, medicine and tents have been distributed to many of the refugees, Ignacio Leon-Garcia, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also stated that the West Papuan government approved 2.2 billion rupiah (US$199,000) and the central government 1.2 billion rupiah ($108,000) for relief and reconstruction efforts. Will the TNI once again misuse most of this cash, enriching themselves while basking in the light of positive public relations?

INDOPOV, a multi-year project supported by the World Bank and the UK Department for International Development Poverty Reduction Partnership Trust Fund, recently identified the Manokwari area of West Papua as having "the highest prevalence of poverty" in all of Indonesia. According to INDOPOV, "the region continues to register Indonesia's highest headcount poverty level of 38.7 percent. This is well above the country's second-highest headcount of 26.1 percent in NT/Maluku and the national average of 16.7 percent."

Years of centralist policies from Jakarta and over four decades of top-down development and militarized commerce have systematically drained wealth from one of the most resource-rich areas in West Papua, while trampling the rights of the local population. We have to wonder which is worse – disasters imposed on West Papua by Nature, or the continuing hardships imposed by Jakarta's heavy hand. Whatever the conclusion, it is clear that the two in tandem are destabilizing the region and causing suffering for all who live there.

FOOTNOTES:

* From INDONESIA: Displaced returning home after West Papua earthquakes
Humanitarian News and Analysis
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

** Reported in the Dec. 2008 West Papua Report, the 55th 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.

*** Human Rights Watch documented the heavy costs of Indonesian military businesses in "Too High a Price: The Human Rights Cost of the Indonesian Military's Economic Activities" Full report here. (2006)