Troop Withdrawal Necessary to Start Peace Talks: Komnas HAM

1) Troop withdrawal necessary to start peace talks: Komnas HAM
2) Dialogue Divide: Papuans Are Ready to Talk About a Different Future. Is Jakarta?
3) Komnas HAM Lists Abuses In Papua and Calls for Talks
4) Mimika district gov't preparing to buy PT Freeport stake

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http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/11/05/troop-withdrawal-necessary-start-peace-talks-komnas-ham.html

1) Troop withdrawal necessary to start peace talks: Komnas HAM
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sat, 11/05/2011 9:32 AM

The government must first withdraw its military and police personnel from Papua if it really wants peace talks to start, says the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

Komnas HAM deputy chairman Joseph Stanley Adi Prasetyo said that a troop withdrawal from Papua would be an “important step” to initiating peace talks between the government and local Papuans, arguing that military activities in Papua and West Papua had prevented dialogue from occurring in the conflict-riddled region.

“Before any dialogue [in Papua] can take place, the government must withdraw its troops,” Stanley said on Friday.

“By [withdrawing the troops], the government would make room for peace talks to occur. Besides, it could show the Papuans that the government was really serious about establishing dialogue with them,” he added.

Stanley said the “excessive numbers” of personnel deployed by the National Police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) had exacerbated problems in Papua, arguing that the so-called joint operations between the police and the military only prevented productive peace talks from occurring.

“Local-level leaders of the Free Papua Movement [OPM] have shown their willingness to compromise and start peace talks with the government many times,” Stanley said. “But [when they found out] the TNI and the police had continued shooting and committing human rights abuses against Papuans, [the OPM leaders] became angry again.”

Poengky Indarti, the executive director of human rights watchdog Imparsial, also questioned the government’s militant approach in Papua, pointing to the fact that the OPM was not as dangerous as other separatist movements the TNI had dealt with in the past such as the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Aceh.

“Truthfully speaking, [the OPM] is not as strong as the GAM in Aceh. [The OPM] lacks coordination among its leaders and its grassroots members. Besides, the OPM is not supported with ‘sophisticated’ firearms as the GAM was.”

Poengky argued that deploying TNI and police personnel to Papua might be related to the “business” of guarding the site belonging to US-based mining giant Freeport.

“Since [Freeport’s] security responsibilities were officially transferred from the TNI to the police in 2004, there has been infighting over that ‘business’ between the TNI and the police.”

Despite President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s pledge to not implement a militant approach to conflicts and separatist movements in Papua, the government has been notorious for using repressive and militant approaches in dealing with Papua and the OPM.

Three Papuans were found dead following the third Papuan People’s Congress in Abepura, Papua, after fully-armed police and TNI forces broke up the congress. The three bodies had been mutilated with severe stab wounds.

According to Imparsial, there are around 14,800 military personnel and 10,000 police officers deployed in Papua, a figure that many consider to be “excessive”, as Papua’s total population stands at only 3 million people, about 1 percent of Indonesia’s total population.

On Oct. 26, OPM international spokesman John Otto Ondawane warned against deployment of additional police or military officers to Papua, as it could “create devastating effects on civilian lives”.

Leaders of the West Papua people called on the government to withdraw security forces from the region, he said. (sat)

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http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/dialogue-divide-papuans-are-ready-to-talk-about-a-different-future-is-jakarta/476367
2) Dialogue Divide: Papuans Are Ready to Talk About a Different Future. Is Jakarta?
Oktovianus Pogau | November 05, 2011

The situation in Papua has taken a turn for the worse after last month’s forced dispersal of a pro-independence congress in Abepura. Six people were killed when 3,000 security officers descended on the gathering, and the violence continued in the weeks following. In all, 14 lives were claimed in October.

The situation desperately requires an intervention by the central government. Should the problem in Papua mistakenly be handled as a trivial one, it will be no surprise if the region follows the same path as East Timor and splits from Indonesia.

There are two choices: Either the government allows the Papuan situation to heat up, or it takes immediate and concrete steps to find a lasting solution that deals with the very root of the problem. The question is, how serious and how committed is the government to solving the conflict that is now setting the land of the paradise bird afire?

The government is giving the impression it is deliberately allowing the conflict in Papua to flare, and that it is actively seeking to sustain tensions.

In a national address on Aug. 16, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he would regain control over the situation and govern the land of Papua (read: Papua and West Papua) with his heart.

Of course we applaud the commitment of Indonesia’s number one citizen. I think Yudhoyono has already come up with the measures and steps that are most prudent and that would be acceptable to both Papua and Jakarta.

In the book “Papua Road Map,” Muridan Satrio Widjojo, along with several other researchers at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that one of the root causes of the problem in Papua is the issue of the incorporation of Papua into the Republic of Indonesia, which was, and still is, resented by most Papuan people.

Papuans reject the results of the consultation of the Papuan people that took place in 1969 (the so-called Act of Free Choice) because it was not implemented in a fair, honest and democratic way, as it violated the principle of “one man, one vote” as agreed in the New York Agreement of 1963.

In order to implement this so-called referendum, Indonesia chose 1,025 people — indigenous Papuans and non-Papuans — to represent the 800,000 Papuans at the time. They were asked to choose between integration within Indonesia or separation through self-determination, as an independent and sovereign nation.

Almost all chose integration within Indonesia. Later on, it was revealed that they “chose” under threat and were held at gunpoint by the Indonesian military.

Papua then “officially” became part of Indonesia in 1969 — 24 years after Indonesia had proclaimed its own independence — through United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2504.

The other event at the root of the problem is the contract of work between the Indonesian government and the company Freeport-McMoRan, which came into force in early 1967, two years before Papua formally joined Indonesia.

The issue of integration of Papua into Indonesia and the presence of Freeport on Papuan soil represent a major problem, and there should be room for dialogue between the central government and Papuans. All stakeholders in Papua should be called upon to participate in the dialogue. And it goes without saying that the dialogue should be mediated by a third party or a neutral state.

The dialogue proposed by the Papuans would not be much different from the dialogue the government entered into to reach a lasting settlement in Aceh at the end of 2006, following the Indian Ocean tsunami.

When the demand for dialogue over Papua became increasingly prominent, the government “answered” by creating a special unit called the Unit for the Acceleration of Development of Papua and West Papua (UP4B) through a presidential decree. The unit was approved by Yudhoyono in late September, and retired military officer Lt. Gen. Bambang Darmono was appointed chairman.

The mandate stipulated in the UP4B decree does not differ much from that found in the 2001 Law on the Special Autonomy of Papua. But the special autonomy law’s authority was greater, and it included Papua in its entirety.

The law, which was compiled and drafted with the participation of only a few Papuans, received stiff opposition and was considered a total failure. The UP4B was established unilaterally by the president, together with a few people who are allies of Jakarta.

I fear the implementation of the UP4B program will only create new problems in Papua. An actual synchronization between the Law on the Special Autonomy of Papua and the UP4B is an issue that has not even been raised, especially in discussions with key Papua figures, which would give it legitimacy in the eyes of the people of Papua.

Papuans have been ready to hold a dialogue with the government since the Papua Peace Conference (KPP) in Jayapura in early September. The convening of the conference indicated the willingness and the readiness of the Papuans to make peace and to discuss a better future, and most important, it showed their commitment to uphold Papua as a land of peace.

My anticipation grew because Papuans had chosen the representatives from the region who would sit at the negotiating table if only Jakarta were to open the door to dialogue.

Still Papuans are waiting to learn whether a dialogue between Jakarta and Papua, mediated by a neutral third party, will be held. The faster, the better.

Oktovianus Pogau is an official with the National Committee for West Papua (KNPB). He blogs at pogauokto.blogspot.com.
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3) Komnas HAM Lists Abuses In Papua and Calls for Talks
Camelia Pasandaran | November 05, 2011
Marten Luther Norotao was among the participants at last month’s Papuan People’s Congress. When police cracked down on the event on Oct. 19, he was slammed in the back of the head with a rifle butt.

An officer is alleged to have then forced the muzzle of his gun into Marten’s mouth and fired. The bullet shattered his teeth and ripped through his cheek. Miraculously, he survived.

Not as lucky was Martinus Yoristouw. He was shot in the buttock, but the bullet slalomed up toward his rib cage. He did not survive the wound.

There was no mercy for the women either. Salomina Mantanoi tried to flee the officers, but they caught her and allegedly beat her.

“The list is long,” Ifdhal Kasim, chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), told the Jakarta Globe on Friday.

“There was Yuliana Yeuw, who suffered a gunshot to her leg; Dolfianus Boikawai, who was whipped with a rattan rod and rifle-butted. There were many others who were tortured but haven’t been identified.”

The violence all came two hours after the conclusion of the congress, where participants declared an independent West Papua and raised the banned Morning Star flag. They also declared their own currency and national language, and elected Forkorus Yoboisembut, chairman of the Papuan Customary Council (DAP), president of the West Papua National Authority.

The brutality of the crackdown prompted Komnas HAM to conduct an investigation. As was widely expected, the rights group has highlighted several clear instances of human rights violations by the security forces.

“The first is the violation of the right to life,” Ifdhal said.

“Three people were found dead near the location after the crackdown, with gunshot wounds. We haven’t been able to confirm whether [they were killed] by the police or military, but we demand that police forensics investigators do an examination and send the bullets to a laboratory for ballistics checks.”

Those found dead in a field near the local military headquarters have since been identified as Demianus Daniel Kadepa, Yakobus Samonsabra and Max Asa Yeuw.

Komnas HAM said the second human right violated was the right to live free from torture and violence. Ifdhal said many congress participants had been kicked, beaten and shot, which the commission described as a violation of the police’s standard operating procedures.

“The third violation is that of the right to property, because the security forces confiscated mobile phones, laptop computers, printers, cameras, cars, motorcycles and millions of rupiah in cash,” Ifdhal said.

“The fourth is the right to feel secure. The officers raided a Catholic monastery and seminary. They shot at the building and broke the windows when the monks refused to hand over alleged separatists to the police. This has resulted in many Papuans being afraid to go out because of the continued security checks and raids.”

In addition to the findings from its probe, which cleared the gathering as legal, Komnas HAM has also drawn up a list of recommendations for the president and the police to follow up on.

“We want the president to accelerate the dialogue with Papuan people who represent all tribal groups,” Ifdhal said. “The government should discuss the actual conditions faced by Papuans, instead of presuming that the Papuan people are only demanding independence. The Unit for the Acceleration of Development in Papua and West Papua [UP4B] must work effectively and quickly. It must be able to accelerate development, a lack of which has caused a disparity in welfare.”

Another recommendation was for the government to evaluate the placement of what many critics contend is an excessive security presence in the area.

“We also recommend that the National Police chief investigate those officers who violated the human rights in this case,” Ifdhal continued. “He should also should call a halt to the ongoing security checks and raids. If the police want to uphold the law, they should do so according to the Criminal Code.”

The commission’s recommendations have no binding power.

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http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/77258/mimika-district-govt-preparing-to-buy-pt-freeport-stake
4) Mimika district gov't preparing to buy PT Freeport stake
Fri, November 4 2011 18:19 | 262 Views
Timika, Papua(ANTARA News) - Five-percent stake in mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia, is bought by the Mimika district, administration deputy administrator H Abdul Muis, said here Thursday.

He said the district administration was eyeing a 9.38 percent stake in PT Freeport that was previously owned by Indo Copper company.

"We are ready to buy PT Freeport shares. If we are allowed to buy a two- or three-percent stake, it would be very meaningful. We are also ready to buy a five-percent stake," Abdul Muis said.

He said the Mimika district administration wished to acquire shares in PT Freeport not merely for financial gain but also to give the company whose mines are located in the Mimika region a greater sense of belonging.

The Mimika district administration had already conveyed its wish to PT Freeport's management and received a positive response.

However, the matter also needed to be discussed with the Papua provincial administration which was also interested in acquiring shares in the copper, gold and silver mining company, Abdul Muis said.

"Our wish to buy PT Freeport shares did not arise in connection with the ongoing Freeport workers strike because we have been interested in a Freeport stake since 2009," Abdul Muis said.

PT Freeport had no problem with our wish provided that we first coordinate with the Papua provincial administration to make an agreement on the percentage of shares each of us would buy," Abdul Muis said.

As a first step to realize its Freeport shares purchasing plan, the Mimika district administration had requested a consultant in Jakarta to conduct a study on its plan.

The Mimika district administration had also presented a draft bylaw to the Mimika legislative council to establish a regional limited liability company named PT Mimika Investama Holding Company.

PT Mimika Investama Holding Company would eventually do the shares purchase and manage them on behalf of the Mimika district government.

The Mimika legislative council had in principle approved the local government's plan to acquire PT Freeport shares and formed a Special Committee on the divestment of PT Freeport shares.

The special committee chaired by Luther Wakerkwa had conducted a comparative study in West Nusa Tenggara province and held a number of meetings with relevant ministries in Jakarta. (*)
Editor: Aditia Maruli

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