Papuans fleeing RI, a `forgotten people'

Papuans fleeing RI, a `forgotten people'

Michael Perry, Reuters, Sydney, Australia

Tens of thousands of Papuans who fled Indonesia into neighboring
Papua New Guinea (PNG) fearing abuse by the military have become
a forgotten people, living in a stateless limbo for two decades,
according to a new report.

The report by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)
said the bulk of Papuans who began fleeing in the mid-1980s
remain unprocessed as refugees, living substandard lives in
jungle camps, fearful of eventual repatriation.

Margaret Piper, executive director of the Refugee Council of
Australia and one of the authors of the report, said on Tuesday
the international community had forgotten the Papuans as
attention shifted to refugees in places like Rwanda and Bosnia.

"For the best part of two decades people have crossed the
border and been left in a state of legal limbo -- a state of not
being able to enjoy their economic, social and cultural rights,
their rights to a livelihood, education and proper health care,"
Piper said at the release of the third ICJ report on the Papuans.

Indonesia's resource-rich eastern province of Papua, formerly
known as Irian Jaya, is a separatist hotspot, but Jakarta has
ruled out independence, determined to keep the world's most
populous Muslim nation united.

Amnesty International has accused Indonesian forces of grave
human rights violations in Papua. Seven members of Indonesia's
elite special forces were jailed in April for involvement in the
killing of Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay in 2001.

Some 12,000 Papuans crossed into Papua New Guinea in the 1980s
when separatists and the Indonesian military clashed and the flow
of border crossings continues.

"The human rights situation in West Papua is such that this
problem of West Papuans seeking refuge in Papua New Guinea will
not go away for some time," said another author Elizabeth Evatt.

The ICJ report Seeking Refuge: The Status of West Papuans in
Papua New Guinea said tens of thousands of Papuans now lived in
scores of authorized and unauthorized jungle camps inside the
Indonesian-PNG border. It said thousands of children had been
born stateless in the camps since the first crossings.

Jakarta wants the Papuans repatriated, arguing many are
separatists or rebel supporters, but PNG has so far refused.

"The most important recommendation of this ICJ report is to
stress there should be no forced repatriations of any border
crossers who may be at risks of human rights violations,"
Australian politician and ICJ member Duncan Kerr told reporters.

The ICJ said administrative problems in cash-strapped PNG, a
South Pacific nation struggling with political and economic woes,
had stalled the processing of Papuans seeking refuge.

The ICJ said 3,600 Papuans lived in one camp of 34 square
kilometers, with the nearest hospital 13 hours away. Another
12,000 live in 11 settlements scattered from the Ok Tedi River to
the Fly River, establishing small gardens on land made available
by local PNG villagers who see them as "Melanesian brothers", but
disputes frequently arose over land and pigs.

"The situation is fragile. The situation is potentially
disastrous -- there is a lack of land, an economic base, and
there is tension between local landowners...," said Kerr.