RI condemns report by Aussie researchers on genocide in Papua
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."