Stop Silencing Papuans With The Separatist Stigma

Bintang Papua, 9 February 2011

[Abridged in translation by TAPOL]

Stop Silencing Papuans With The Separatist Stigma

The chairman of Commission A of the provincial legislative assembly, the
DPRP, Ruben Magai, has called on the police chief to stop using
political stigmatisation when conducting operations in Papua. Such
statements, he said, result in scaring the indigenous Papuan people and
trying to silence them.

These remarks followed a recent statement by a police officer [lower
down, it is clear that the statement was made by the police chief]
alleging that the OPM is present in the region of Degeuwo, on the border
between Paniai and Nabire,. where security disturbances have recently
occurred. Regardless of whether the police have firm evidence, such
statements are a form of character assassination, in a region that is
known to have abundant natural resources where investors would be keen
to invest, with the backing of the security apparatus.

'This kind of thing is very bad and should be corrected,' he said. 'It
is as if all the security disturbances are the work of separatists and
have nothing to do with injustice. When the term separatism is used in
Papua, it is clearly directed against the Papuans who live in the area.'

He warned of a high-level conspiracy by people in authority. All this
makes the indigenous Papuans harbour feelings of hostility towards
those who make such baseless statements.

The term NKRI (Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia) should not be
the exclusive property of people in officialdom. People throughout the
territory , including those living in the interior, should be able to
speak loud and clear about the NKRI.

But at a time when the state is engaged in a number of questionable
activities, including acts of violence against the population in the
interior as well as making all kinds of baseless accusations, such
things can only spread a feeling of insecurity and anxiety for isolated
communities in the interior who know very little about what is going
on. 'What they do know is that they are suffering from injustice as
well as the consequences of development which have destroyed their
natural resources.'

They are living without any guarantees for security in their old age,
which is something that should be taken into consideration, he said.

The age-long problems will remain unresolved as long as the security
forces pursue the approach of violence and intimidation, he said.
*
The Alliance of Intellectuals is also disappointed by the chief of police*

Similar views have been expressed by the Alliance of Intellectuals of
Suku Wolani Moni, who regret the statement made by the chief of police
to the effect that the OPM has a base in Degeuwo. An Alliance deputy
chairmen, Tobias Bagubau, said that a week ago the chief of police
promised that they would put an end to illegal logging in Degeuwo. 'As a
representative of the Wolani Moni people, I regret the police chief's
statement to the effect that the OPM is based in Degeuwo whereas in fact
there are no OPM members in Degeuwo.'

He said that he thinks the police chief is playing a new game of
distracting attention from all the unresolved problems. 'Please stop
making such allegations about the OPM in Degeuwo. What we want is for
the problem of illegal mining to be halted,' he said.

He said that he can't stop wondering why the police chief is always
making such statements which can only lead to widespread feelings of
dissatisfaction and result in insecurity for the state.

'If the OPM is indeed here, they should be arrested. After all, there
are plenty of members of the security forces based here,' he said.

ENDS

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