News about Indonesia

The ignored Papuan war on PNG’s border
by: Arthur Williams

Source: asopa.typepad.com

“Every day planes come in, vomiting migrants” - West Papuan eyewitness

I HAVE WATCHED the West Papua story for many years but especially since Epel Tito lost the Defence Ministry when he named Indonesia as PNG’s most likely future enemy. He’d also said he was ashamed at the treatment of the Melanesian people by their own government in Jakarta with its transmigration (now called in-migration) policy of swamping PNG’s brothers and sisters with non-Melanesians.

He said he was also ashamed with the lack of support for West Papuan independence by PNG, the biggest Melanesian nation, which shares a common border with the Indonesia colony. Only tiny Vunuatu had the balls to stand up for these unhappy people.

Journalist's death overshadows launch of Papua food project
Press Release by TAPOL and DTE

11 August 2010 - The death of a local journalist has increased concerns about a giant food estate launched today in Merauke, Southeastern Papua by Indonesia's Minister of Agriculture.

TAPOL and Down to Earth, the International Campaign for Ecological Justice in Indonesia are calling for a moratorium on the food project, known as MIFEE (Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate) until independent assessments of the political, economic, socio-cultural, environmental and gender impacts of the project have been undertaken.

The suspicious death of the journalist, Ardiansyah Matra'is, in late July, following threats against him, has been linked to his coverage of this week's local elections for the district head in Merauke.

Source: the Economist

Aug 9th 2010, 9:40 by Banyan

SLOWLY but surely, Papua is emerging as a serious international problem for the otherwise well-liked Indonesian administration of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The latest report on the region by the International Crisis Group (ICG), a think-tank, shows how the government’s own missteps are escalating tensions, which, in turn, will draw increasing foreign attention. The specific issue the report focuses on is the fate of “SK14” , a decision taken last November by the Papuan People’s Council, or Majelis Rakyat Papua (MRP). This recommended that elections for some senior local-government posts be reserved for indigenous Papuan candidates—ie, migrants from Java, the most populous island, and other parts of Indonesia would be excluded.

‘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

 
From www.etan.org/news

SBY Implicated in Cover Up of Ambush Murder of U.S. Citizens

1 July, 2009 - Previously secret U.S. State Department documents implicate the President of Indonesia in a probable cover-up in an ambush in West Papua. The documents show Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is running for reelection on July 8, maneuvering behind the scenes to manage the investigation into the August 2002 murder of three teachers—one Indonesian and two U.S. citizens.

West Papuans recently announced a foundational consensus on their legal defence and right to declare national sovereignty, thereby asserting their fundamental human rights and ancestral ownership of land. (The consensus has global significance in that West Papua remains on a scale similar to the Amazon in terms of what is being lost - diversity of local species and tribal societies, and the amount of oxygen produced by the "lungs of Asia".)

A series of powerful earthquakes struck Manokwari, West Papua, on Sunday, January 4th, killing four people and injuring dozens more. Hundreds of buildings were damaged, leaving countless people homeless. The runway of Manokwari's Rendai Airport was split in two while two prominent three-story hotels in the town centre, the Mutiara and Kalidingin, collapsed.

20 years in Prison for Pollycarpus

Press Release, January 25th 2008

This afternoon, the Supreme Court sentenced Pollycarpus to 20 years in prison because for his culpability in Munir’s murder. This decision (No. 109/PK/PID/2007) was made by five judges without a dissenting opinion. Bagir Manan was chairman and the other members of the bench consisted of Djoko Sarwoko, Haripin Tumpa, Djoko Sarwoko, Parman Suparman, and Paulus E. Lotulung.

Important New Collection of Papuan Papers Announced from University of Oxford Refugee Studies Centre (RSC)>

Former Indonesia airline chief on trial over murder of activist

Ian MacKinnon, south-east Asia correspondent
Wednesday October 10, 2007
Guardian (UK)

The former president of Indonesia's state-owned airline Garuda went on trial yesterday accused of conspiracy to murder a political activist who died three years ago. Indra Setiawan is accused, along with a senior Garuda staff member, Rohainil Aini, of aiding the main suspect in the murder of Munir Thalib, who died after being poisoned with arsenic on an international flight.

Mr Thalib, 38, a human rights lawyer who was an outspoken critic of the military's tactics in quelling dissent in East Timor, Aceh and Papua, died on board a Garuda flight bound for Amsterdam in 2004. A Garuda pilot, Polycarpus Priyanto, was convicted of the murder in 2005 and jailed for 14 years, but the sentence was quashed by the supreme court last year because of a lack of witnesses and evidence.