HRW Report Contradicts SBY’s Human Rights Claims

1) HRW report contradicts SBY’s human rights claims: Kontras

2) Govt provides Rp 2.9b for agricultural development in Papua

3) Local election rivalry claims 1 life in Papua

4) Wests a world apart in bloody bid for freedom

5) TNI Puts Brakes on Tank Talk as House Takes Aim



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http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/01/24/hrw-report-contradicts-sby-s-human-rights-claims-kontras.html

1) HRW report contradicts SBY’s human rights claims: Kontras

Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 01/24/2012 8:51 PM

Noted human rights group the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has praised the 2012 World Report issued by New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Kontras says the HRW re port depicts the true face of the human rights situation in Indonesia.

“The international community should not have taken the government’s repeated one-sided claims about democracy and human rights in the country as the only source. The HRW report reveals a series of human rights abuses in 2011 that the government has downplayed,” Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

“The world must not be hypnotized by what President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono claims, particularly when it comes to human rights protection,” he added.

HRW’s World Report 2012, which was released on Monday, concluded that use of excessive force by Indonesian authorities and attacks on religious minorities had been a lot worse in 2011 than in the previous year.

HRW also criticized the government’s failure to end militaristic approaches in addressing conflicts in Papua while investigation into the perpetrators of attacks against religious and ethnic minorities had not been thoroughly carried out.

“Incidents of sectarian violence are no longer isolated cases in Indonesia, but are taking place at an alarming rate,” HRW deputy director for Asia Elaine Pearson said.

“The Indonesian government needs to reverse course and start prosecuting violence against religious minorities and replace the discriminatory regulations that only encourage such attacks.” (mtq)

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http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/01/24/govt-provides-rp-29b-agricultural-development-papua.html

2) Govt provides Rp 2.9b for agricultural development in Papua

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Tue, 01/24/2012 6:50 PM

The Agriculture Ministry has allocated Rp 2.9 billion (US$325,000) in the 2012 state budget for co-administration programs in Biak Numfor regency, Papua.

Biak Numfor Agriculture and Livestock Agency head Absalom Rumkorem said on Tuesday that the fund was allocated to finance animal husbandry, agriculture and food security programs.

“The program is aiming to increase the level of production, productivity and crop quality, [as part of efforts] to achieve sustainable self-sufficiency,” he said as quoted by Antara.

Rumkorem said that the administration should use the budget to increase the availability of food made from livestock in a healthy, safe and clean way, to increase the added value of livestock products and competitiveness of the downstream industry, and to improve the marketing strategy and export level of agricultural products.

He added that the budget was also allocated for the development of human resources in the agricultural sector and for programs of product diversification and community-based food security. (drs/mtq)

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http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/01/24/local-election-rivalry-claims-1-life-papua.html

3) Local election rivalry claims 1 life in Papua

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura, Papua | Tue, 01/24/2012 7:47 PM

Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Wachyono announced that a clash on Saturday between supporters of rival candidates running for the Tolikara regent claimed one life.

The victim, identified as Yusuf Yikwa, 38, died after being struck by an arrow to his chest during the clash, which saw hundreds of rival supporters of the John Tabo-Hedi Suyanto and Usman Wanimbo-Amos Yikwa pairings fighting each other in Karubaga district, Tolikara regency, Papua.

“The supporters were initially involved in a war of words but it escalated into an exchange of arrows between them, killing one person,” Wachyono told reporters on Tuesday, adding that two people, identified as Yermias Kogoya, 18, and Pioga Wanimbo, 16, were injured during the incident.

The angry supporters also damaged the Karubaga district office and the Tolikara regent’s official house.

“The situation is safe at the moment. We have persuaded both parties not to continue the conflict because it will affect the local election,” he said, adding that the police were investigating the case.

The Tolikara election is currently in its campaign phase, while the voting process is slated to take place on Feb. 17.

Previously, on July 31 last year, 19 people died in Puncak regency, Papua, after supporters of competing candidates for district head ended up clashing. The Puncak election was subsequently postponed indefinitely following the incident. (swd/mtq)

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http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/opinion/post/-/blog/theburningissue/post/1930/comment/1/

4) Wests a world apart in bloody bid for freedom

By Kayt Davies

WA and West Papua have a few things in common. Apart from both having "west" in our names, we are both the resource-rich cash cows of our respective nations and we've both bandied about the word "separatism".

In WA, the secessionist movement is both part of our history and a pervasive sentiment that makes talkback radio listeners grumblingly ask "why should our minerals royalties be used to pay for hospitals in Victoria?".

Most West Australians are not serious about wanting to slice ourselves off from the rest of Australia. We can see the benefits, and no one disputes that we willingly signed up to Federation. But this feeling of wanting to keep what is rightfully ours, and not sharing it, is the core of the resistance to the mining tax. In our hearts we are separatists.

Meanwhile in West Papua, separatism is a word used seriously. Some, like rebel leader Jhon Yogi, take a military approach and lead a g roup armed with old rifles and bows and arrows.

Yogi is a hunted man, the likes of which a movie will be made about one day. In the past few months, the Indonesian military presence in West Papua has escalated. In a gunfight last month, a police officer was shot, allegedly by Yogi's men, and in retaliation his village was surrounded by paramilitary police on December 13 and burnt to the ground. In the following few weeks, 27 villages were burnt and more than 9000 people were chased into the jungles and foothills, where they worry about starving as the military forces them higher into the mountains to places where food is more scarce.

According to West Papua media reports, four fully armed combat battalions are searching the area for Yogi but he is eluding and frustrating them.

While Yogi is swashbuckling, he is not the main attraction of the separatist movement. The real power players are the ones behind the peaceful People's Congress held on October 16-19. About 3000 West Papuans attended despite the meeting being surrounded by a ring of military with tanks and machineguns.

On the last day, Forkorus Yaboisembut and Edison Waromi were appointed president and prime minister of independent West Papua but as their positions were announced the gunfire started. In the melee at least seven people were sho t dead and 800 were arrested, including the new appointees. Yaboisembut and Waromi are in custody awaiting trial for treason.

From where we stand it's easy to be baffled by their actions. Why is Yogi hiding in the jungle?

Why did these people adopt these titles if they knew it would lead to imprisonment and torture?

This is where it helps to draw comparisons. In WA, we are part of a nation by the choice of our predecessors. But what if the last century had ended differently and we had bee n gifted to Indonesia to appease it for some reason, like Papua was given to Indonesia in the 1960s to discourage it from siding with Russia in the Cold War? What if we had been given no say in the decision?

Or if we'd not only been given no say, but 1000 people were rounded up and threatened with death or mutilation if they didn't vote yes? Would we feel even more irritated about our mineral resources being used to fund hospitals and roads in the rest of the country?

Here we love our mines and miners. The companies pay good wages because miners work hard in harsh places. But how would we feel about the companies if our miners were being paid less than $1.50 an hour? Would that justify them doing what the Freeport miners did last year - strike for three months to get a pay rise? And what would we have them do if the company agreed to pay them $7.50 an hour but refused to guarantee that they won't be hunted down and shot for striking in the first place?

The final question is how would we feel about Australia, the country right next door, if we filmed our friends and neighbours being arrested, tortured and killed and sent the footage to the media in Australia and if the Australian Government ignored us and carried on talking to Indonesia as if we didn't exist? As if what was happening was just made up by a few crazy activists, and if instead they were so chummy with Indonesia that they invited their soldiers over for training and gave them gifts of millions of dollars worth of military equipment.

If you think about it like this, the West Papuans are just like us. History has not been as kind to them, but their responses resonate with the range of things that we would probably do in similar circumstances. On the whole, they've had enough and want a different future.

In 2001, Indonesia bowed to international pressure and gave them a special autonomy package, but it was just a piece of paper. Nothing changed.

That's why Yogi is in the jungle and wh y Yaboisembut and Waromi did what they did in October, knowing it would land them in prison. They're hoping the international pressure will ramp up and this time wind back the violence and the resources stripping for real.

Dr Kayt Davies is a senior lecturer in journalism at Edith Cowan University

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http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/tni-puts-brakes-on-tank-talk-as-house-takes-aim/493398

5) TNI Puts Brakes on Tank Talk as House Takes Aim
Ezra Sihite | January 24, 2012

The Armed Forces chief said on Tuesday that a final decision had not been made on a widely panned $600 million plan to buy secondhand tanks from the Netherlands.

“The Leopards [tanks] are still being discussed, but what is clear is that this is still just one of several armament options and not yet final. We are still studying what would be the most appropriate course of action,” Adm. Agus Suhartono said.

Speaking at the House of Representatives, Agus said Indonesia needed battle tanks but officials were still discussing which type to buy.

“Please, do not turn this into an issue, as if there is discord between the government and the House of Representatives,” he said. “We are still looking for the best solution, what the needs are and which battle tanks are the most appropriate.”

Susaningtyas Nefo Handayani Kertopati, from House Commission I, which deals with defense issues, said the German-made Leopard tank was not suitable for the geographic conditions in Indonesia.

“We should consider our geography and conditi ons when buying weaponry. Is the Leopard what we need?” the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura) lawmaker said.

She said a Leopard tank weighed more than 60 tons and could be too heavy for the country’s bridges and roads to handle.

But beyond such concerns, she said, the military should prioritize local industry.

Mohammad Syahfan Badri Sampurno, a member of Commission I from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), said that besides being unsuitable for the geography here, the tanks were fuel guzzlers.

He said state arms manufacturer Pindad was preparing a battle tank prototype that deserved the first look from the military.

“If imports are necessary, the government should look for countries that do not tend to dictate to us too much on arms purchases,” Syahfan said.

A majority of Dutch lawmakers have said they oppose the sale of the Leopards to Indonesia, citing Jakarta’s problematic human rights record.

Ichsanuddin Noorsy, a researcher with Gadjah Mada University’s Anticorruption Study Center, said on Monday that the $600 million deal to buy 100 Leopard tanks would leave Indonesia dangerously dependent on foreign funding and technological support.

He said the purchase would be made through an export credit, putting Indonesia in debt to the Netherlan ds and making it reliant on the country for maintenance and upgrade support.

Army Chief Gen. Pramono Edhie Wibowo, however, told lawmakers that if the Leopard deal was approved there would be a transfer of technology that would benefit armament and military equipment production in the country.

“Currently, Indonesia does not have MBTs [main battle tanks], so how can we develop our military industry?” Pramono said.

“[The Dutch] will not transfer the technology if we do not buy from them.”

He added that the Army was also studying an offer from the German military for the same tank type.

Additional reporting from Suara Pembaruan
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