Franciscan International Criticises Indonesian Action in Papua at UN

GENEVA - Franciscans International (FI) is urging the United Nations to put pressure on Indonesia to disband terrorist-run paramilitary groups it says the government supports in the province of West Papua.

"The presence in Papua of Eurico Guterres, one of the architects involved in organising terror wrought by militias in East Timor in 1999 is a cause for grave concern," FI and the Office for Justice and Peace in Jayapura, Papua said on Monday.

The concerns were circulated in a three-and-a-half page critique of
Indonesia on the opening day of the annual UN Commission on Human Rights
(CHR). The meeting - from 15 March to 23 April - is the premiere
international forum for monitoring and setting standards for human rights
around the globe.

Franciscans International and its partners in Papua are most critical of
Indonesia's "efforts - covert or overt - to create militia or paramilitary
groups that serve political purposes and fuel horizontal conflicts in the
Papua community". The Franciscans also deplore the appointment of a noted
human rights violator as regional police chief in Papua.

"The indigenous Papuans are among the most marginalized and victimised
people in Indonesia," says the FI paper. It says there have been "a number
of negative developments" in the province's human rights situation over the
past year, including an increase of violence and intimidation.

Papua became a province of Indonesia in 1969. Franciscans working in the
area say the Indonesian government has perpetrated human rights abuses,
repression, and the confiscation of ancestral lands over the past forty
years.

The Franciscans calls on the CHR to "urge the government of Indonesia to
immediately ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights".

Indonesia is one of 53 member countries of the Commission.

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UNITED NATIONS
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

60TH SESSION, UN GENEVA

15 MARCH - 23 APRIL 2004

POSITION PAPER

A.1. 2003 Background
The UN Commission on Human Rights (CHR) ended its 59th session in April 2003
by making only limited advancements - indeed, it even took significant steps
backwards. Several of the Commission's decisions gave one the impression
that it is a
place where human rights violations are politely tolerated, rather than
severely
criticised.
For example, the concerted effort by the African Group to defeat
resolutions on Sudan
and Zimbabwe remain a cause for serious alarm. Also troubling was the
Commission's unwillingness to address situations in other countries - such
as China
and Indonesia - where human rights are routinely violated. Equally
regrettable was
the Commission's decision not to send the Office of the High Commissioner's
report
on Colombia to the UN General Assembly, despite the well-documented increase of
human rights violations in that Latin American country.

Mar. 15, 2004
...

B. 3 Indonesia

In 2003, Papua (also known as "Irian Jaya" or "West Papua"), the easternmost
province of Indonesia bordering on independent Papua New Guinea, experienced a
number of negative developments, including: conflicting central government
policies,
increase of violence and intimidation, and impunity. The implementation of
Special
Autonomy in Papua, which has been encouraged by many concerned governments,
has been halted in favor of a division of the province into two (or more)
separate
provinces.

State-sponsored violence and intimidation has escalated in the province. On
4 April
2003, security forces targeted the local population after an arsenal was
broken into,
with people killed, tortured and detained. On a September 2003 visit, the
National
Commission for Human Rights reported strong indications of human rights
abuses by
the Indonesian Army (TNI) and demanded a reinvestigation of the incident.

Franciscans International is extremely concerned that two of the architects
of the East
Timor tragedy of 1999-Eurico Guterres and Col. Timbul Silaen-are now in Papua.
Eurico Guterres led a feared pro-Jakarta militia with the support of Indonesian
security forces in East Timor, which was clearly responsible for murder,
summary
execution, torture, enforced disappearances, rape and other serious crimes.
Guterres
was sentenced by Jakarta's ad hoc human rights court on East Timor in November
2002 to 10 years in prison, but is out on appeal (which can take many
years). He
presently organizes a new militia group, the Red and White Defense Front (Front
Pembela Merah Putih, or FPMP), in Timika. Charges were brought against Col.
Timbul Silaen, former Indonesian police chief of East Timor, for complicity
in the
carnage wrought by Indonesian security forces and their militias. However, a
government-sponsored court cleared Silaen of all charges, including serious
human
rights abuses. He presently serves as the Head of the Regional Police in Papua.

Moreover, impunity remains the norm for the perpetrators of human rights
abuses,
since investigations are often not completed or do not take place at all.
To make
matters worse, there are numerous inconsistencies in trials of suspects of
criminal
acts, such as the verdict handed to the local civilian suspects in the
Wamena case who
have been tried by a civilian court. They received a verdict of 20 years to
lifetime
imprisonment, while military suspects who have been tried for the same
crime by a
military court have been handed a verdict from 6 to 14 months in prison.
Another
example is the delay of the official trial on human rights abuses in the
Abepura case;
the delay is mainly caused by the reluctance of the police authorities to
hand in the
two main suspects in the case. Still another example is the intransigence
of the authorities to investigation of the shooting of 2 schoolteachers
from the USA and their
Indonesian colleague in the Timika area in August 2002.

Franciscans International, in cooperation with the Office for Justice and Peace
(Jayapura), calls upon the Commission on Human Rights:

(1) To monitor the human rights situation in Papua and apply pressure upon the
Government of Indonesia to put an end to all efforts-covert or overt-to create
militia or paramilitary groups that serve political purposes and fuel
horizontal
conflicts in the Papua community;

(2) To urge the Government of Indonesia to end impunity by investigating
cases and
bringing them to trial in line with international norms and standards;

(3) To urge the Government of Indonesia-now a member of the Commission on
Human Rights-to immediately ratify the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural
Rights.

http://www.franciscansinternational.org/resources/unhrc2004/FI_Position_on_HRC_04.pdf

FI Geneva Office
P.O.Box 104
1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland
Phone: +41.22.919.40.10
Fax: +41.22.740.24.33
E-mail: geneve@fiop.org
Web: www.franciscansinternational.org
Alessandra Aula, author.