RI condemns report by Aussie researchers on genocide in Papua

Ivy Susanti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia expressed displeasure over a report from a group of Australian researchers, who accuse the Indonesian Military (TNI) of committing genocide in Papua, and condemned the study as "baseless".

The University of Sydney's Center for Peace and Conflict Studies released a report on Thursday entitled Genocide in West Papua, which details eyewitness accounts of Indonesian military involvement in rape, arson and torture in the province.

While not directly calling into question the credibility of the research center, Marty Natalegawa, Indonesia's foreign ministry spokesman, suggested that they should concentrate on matters on their home soil rather than on international affairs.

"The report is completely baseless and does not contain even a hint of truth. The center would do well to stop pontificating and sounding like a broken record and should rather focus its so- called research on matters which are closer to home," he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Indonesia's deputy military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Bibit Santoso, dismissed the findings. "I believe that the study is incorrect and untrue. First of all, there are no militias in Papua and only Indonesian soldiers are stationed there," he told AFP.

He said the government had banned Muslim militants from operating in Papua and members of the Java-based Laskar Jihad hardline Muslim group, who once operated there, had "all been sent home."

"Testimonies by infiltrators claim some groups have links to extremist Islamic organizations," AFP quoted a summary of the report, suggesting the Muslim militants were being used to counter separatists among the territory's native Melanesian population.

The Center's director Stuart Rees was quoted as saying by ABC Online on Thursday that it had carried out four years of research to produce the report and asked the Australian government to take it seriously.

"We're saying that Australia is a signatory to the (UN) convention on genocide and that makes us have a legal obligation, as well as a moral obligation, to tell the wider public what is going on," Prof. Rees was quoted as saying.

The Center, along with the Papuan church and human rights investigators reported that the survival of the indigenous people was under serious threat if the concerns they raise are not addressed.

"Even though I am usually cautious about the use of the word genocide, this significant document details the destruction of a people, their land and prospects," Prof. Rees was quoted by AFP as saying.

The report details a recent increase in major military campaigns, which it said were "decimating highland tribal communities" already suffering from an explosion of HIV/AIDS infections and chronic underdevelopment.

The report quoted eyewitnesses who detailed acts of arson, theft and destruction of property, rape, torture and arbitrary disappearances during these campaigns.

It also said uncontrolled migration from Indonesia's main island of Java, and a "Papuan depopulation program" had created a rapid demographic transition, which could eventually see the Papuans become a minority in their own land.

"What will be of enormous concern to neighboring countries are revelations of the introduction of illegal arms, clandestine militia training and religiously based terrorist recruitment," the report said.

One of Papua's leading church figures, Rev. Socratez Yoman, was quoted as saying: "Wherever there are Indonesian soldiers, the militia and jihadists are there too. They are inseparable."

The report comes two days after Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised to seek a peaceful end to an insurgency in Papua.

The government signed a peace pact with separatist rebels in Aceh province on Monday, and Susilo said the government was now aiming to provide "special autonomy" for Papua.

Separatists proclaimed the state of West Papua on Dec. 1, 1962, but Indonesia took control of the mountainous, jungle-clad territory from Dutch colonizers the following year. The separatists, now split into badly coordinated factions, have been fighting a sporadic and ill-armed guerrilla war since then.

The president also added that no foreign "interference" would be accepted.

But Rees said on Thursday: "We now have a responsibility to say that enough is enough and that the human rights abuses documented in this report should be brought to the world's attention."