Overcoming Papua repression through peace

Overcoming Papua repression through peace

Carmel Budiardjo, London

Despite being chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights and
affirming its commitment to human rights, including self-
determination, at the recent Asian-African summit in Jakarta, the
Indonesian government has once again demonstrated its instinctive
mistrust of fundamental freedoms by its response to an
international meeting on West Papua.

Just a day after my colleague Aguswandi argued in this
newspaper that being hostile to foreign and domestic critics of
its human rights record harms Indonesia's reputation as an
up-and-coming democracy, on April 29 the government reportedly
attempted to stop a solidarity meeting convened in the
Philippines to discuss ways of supporting the human rights and
political aspirations of the West Papuan people.

The government's actions have once again highlighted its
repressive approach to the West Papua problem. Its efforts to
suppress freedom of expression and association internationally
reflect its far harsher policies on the ground where people are
murdered, tortured, disappeared or thrown into jail for
exercising similar rights or for being suspected "separatists".
National Commission on Humanrights (Komnas HAM), for example, has
found evidence that following a series of military raids against
alleged "separatists" in Wamena in 2003, as many as nine people
were killed, 38 were tortured and 15 others were arbitrarily
arrested and detained. Komnas HAM suggests that crimes against
humanity were committed.

Fortunately the Philippines meeting went ahead as planned from
April 29 to May 1 despite the verbal intimidation of participants
and direct appeals to the government in Manila and the Board of
the University of the Philippines where the event was held. The
meeting was attended by representatives from a number of Asian
countries, including Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, East
Timor, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines, as well as
delegates from the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the
United Kingdom and Ireland.

The international solidarity movement for West Papua is not
anti-Indonesia as alleged by foreign affairs spokesman, Marty
Natalegawa. It is pro-West Papua. Its objective is to support
the Papuan people in their search for peace, justice and
democracy.

One of the key concerns of the movement is to promote West
Papua as a "Land of Peace". This is an initiative supported by
religious leaders of all faiths, local politicians, tribal
leaders, the police in West Papua, the Indonesian-appointed
governor, and the provincial parliament. It rejects the
increasing militarization of the territory and aims to provide
space for political dialogue and create conditions in which human
rights are fully protected, impunity is ended and proper
attention is given to the economic, social and cultural needs of
the West Papuan people. It involves all people living in West
Papua and respects the diverse ethnic, racial and religious
nature of the society.

These should also be the central government's objectives and
it is difficult to understand why instead it persists with
repressive policies, such as the recent alarming decision to
increase the number of troops in the province to around 50,000.
The only conclusion to be drawn from this military expansion is
that the security forces are intent on exerting even tighter
control over the population as well as continuing to exploit the
business opportunities presented by West Papua's abundant natural
resources. The troop increase will also increase concern about
illegal logging activities involving local military units.

The Indonesian Army has a reputation for creating violent
incidents in order to provoke unrest and justify its continued
presence in the interests of security. The Papuans have shown
admirable restraint in the face of such provocation, but have
suffered grievously from military operations such as those
currently being conducted in the Puncak Jaya area of the Central
Highlands.

The potential for an escalation of the conflict has also been
heightened by Jakarta's failure to implement special autonomy and
its divisive attempt to split the territory into three or more
separate provinces.

Among the issues considered by the Manila meeting was violence
against women. Delegates called for stronger support for West
Papuan women's groups and for the implementation of national and
international laws to protect West Papuan women against all forms
of violence in the home and from Indonesian state forces.

The meeting also called upon Indonesia to allow immediate and
unfettered access to West Papua to the international media and
NGOs so they can see for themselves the conditions under which
the West Papuan people are living. It also called for the release
of all West Papuan political prisoners wherever they are being
held in West Papua or Indonesia.

West Papua as a "Land of Peace" should be the guiding
principle of Indonesia's policy towards West Papua and should
inform the approach of all international actors, including
foreign governments, transnational corporations, religious bodies
and non-governmental organizations. The Indonesian government
would be far better off responding positively to this initiative
than wasting time generating bad publicity by bullying the
foreign friends of West Papua.

The writer is a human rights advocate, who attended the
Philippines meeting and works for TAPOL the Indonesia Human
Rights Campaign in London.