1) TPN-OPM leader Goliat Tabuni support the struggle ULMWP
2) ”Punks For West Papua” Documentary Filmmaker Praises Media Attention to West Papuan Cause
3) COMMENTARY: Jokowi should not cave, must tell Freeport to sell 51% stake, or else
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A google translate. Be-aware google translate can be a bit erratic.
Original bahasa link at
1) TPN-OPM leader Goliat Tabuni support the struggle ULMWP
News Portal Papua No. 1 | Jubi,
Ceremony SK 7 Kodap in the Highlands of Papua in Kodap Kwiyawagy - Doc. TPN / OPM
Jayapura, Jubi - National Liberation Army (TPN) West Papua Free Papua Organization (OPM) led by General Goliath Tabuni declared officially supports the entire agenda of the struggle of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP).
"TPNPB OPM fully supports ULMWP become a full member in MSG on the grounds that the people of West Papua is not Malay we are Melanesians," said Tabuni through a statement read by the command of Operation TPNPB OPM Lekagak G.Telegen in recording the video sent to the editor Jubi January 6 2017.
Telenggen read the statement at a ceremony Decree 7th Regional Command (Kodap) in the Mountains of West Papua. The delivery ceremony took place at the Headquarters SK Kodap Kwiyawagy attended by thousands of people, hundreds of military TPN-OPM on December 19, 2016.
Seven leaders of the regional command in attendance. Brigjend. Murib military commander of regional command Sinak. Kwiyawagy Kodap Commander Brigadier General. Biliru Murib and Ilaga Kodap Commander Brigadier General. Peni Murib and operations commander TPN-OPM Lekagak Telenggen menyeruhkan political elite in ULMWP stopped the fight factional interests.
"Leaders ULMWP, NRFPB, WPNCL and PNWP segerah stop the race (compile) the cabinet and the constitution of their respective countries," he said in a statement.
Because, he said, TPN-OPM does not recognize all of the cabinet and the constitution belongs to the faction. TPN-OPM only recognize the constitution of July 1, 1971. To the race, the race deplore TPNPB interests which greatly hindered West Papua People's struggle for liberation from colonial rule.
Tabuni through general operations it also called on the Regional Command (Kodap) in all regions of West Papua implementing stages of the revolution. Revolution stages in accordance supreme commander command December 11, 2012 in Tingginambut.
"The revolution that stage should be embodied in the national unity of command in the whole area of the mountains, the coast of West Papua for the purpose Papua Merdeka not ask for autonomy, division or ask to eat and drink," he said.
He said, the armed resistance and military TPNPB Indonesia, will not stop before the entrance of the UN peacekeeping mission in West Papua. Therefore, it menyeruhan to the countries of West Papua supporters around the world, that segerah urged the UN to send troops to Papua Peace to a stage of self-determination for the people of Papua melalalui referendum.
Representing seven Kodap Mountains region of Papua, Kwiyawagy Kodap Commander Brigadier General. Biliru Murib says it is ready to implement the stages of the revolution. Stages of revolution within the limits of its territory.
One langkaha definitely him, the Indonesian military could not enter the territory. The risk of cross-border is a war. He said he did not hesitate to pull out of ammunition.
"If the Indonesian military was caught crossing a region that had stakes, TPNPB still be shot dead," he said without specifying the area clear and unequivocal.
Civil society, the secretary of the Papua Customary Council Lapago region, Dominic Surabut, said none of the group of Papuans did not support the struggle ULMWP.
"All elements including indigenous peoples mandate to ULMWP struggle," he said when asked to comment.
He said, when asked the guerrilla war being waged TPN-OPM, DAP does not intervene in military matters. DAP just set the realm of indigenous territories with the focus of civil strife city.
"War was an armed military affairs but we must understand that the Papuan struggle has now more advanced. The struggle of humanity and human rights through diplomatic channels, "he said. (*)
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday 10th January 2017
2) ”Punks For West Papua” Documentary Filmmaker Praises Media Attention to West Papuan Cause
In recent days since the widespread coverage of Indonesian military halting cooperation with Australian Defence, the award winning “Punks For West Papua” documentary filmmaker Anthony ‘Ash’ Brennan has been invited to speak with several media outlets including Sydney radio station 2SM, Canberra’s 2CA and 2CC. Speaking to 2SM’s Grant Goldman, Brennan said “This latest action by Indonesia has given media coverage to the West Papuan cause. It’s very pleasing to see Australia is finally talking about West Papua... The Lombok Treaty signed in 2006 needs to be reviewed. As long as Indonesia continue with human rights abuses in the West Papua, how the Australian Government possibly respect Indonesia's sovereignty of the Province?”.
The conflict in West Papua goes largely unreported by mainstream media primarily due to a media ban which is aggressively enforced by local security forces despite president Joko Widodo claiming to lift foreign media restrictions in 2015. That this latest threat to suspend cooperation with Australian Defence was not actually meant to be public knowledge also highlights the need to have journalists on the ground reporting these activities to the world that the Indonesians seem so desperate to hide.
The “Punks For West Papua” documentary has been one of the rare opportunities for local Papuan filmmakers to have their footage aired to the public, and the Free West Papuan campaign has provided links and information calling on supporters to ask their local government members to support media freedom in this troubled province:
With demand increasing for viewings of the “Punks For West Papua” documentary, another tour of screening events will be announced soon including dates in Sydney, Canberra, Newcastle and Murwillumbah, with all proceeds going to the Free West Papua Campaign.
For further media information, please contact P4WP Publicist:
DEBORAH GANN – RESERVOIR PR+MGMT AUSTRALIA
T: 0481 264 077
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3) COMMENTARY: Jokowi should not cave, must tell Freeport to sell 51% stake, or else
Rendi A. Witular The Jakarta Post
Jakarta | Tue, January 10, 2017 | 09:00 am
Hardly any other element exerts the same level of attraction for mankind than gold. Economist John Maynard Keynes coined the commodity as a “barbarous relic”, yet people in modern times will still kill for it.
It is perhaps the interminable allure of gold that has once again placed gold and copper producer PT Freeport Indonesia, a unit of politically wired United States miner Freeport McMoRan Inc. (FCX), in a far more superior curve when dealing with Indonesia.
Freeport, Indonesia’s oldest foreign investor and biggest taxpayer, operates the world’s biggest integrated gold and copper mine in Indonesia’s most remote and poorest province, Papua, generating 98 percent of FCX’s consolidated gold sales and 19 percent of the company’s copper supply worth more than US$2.7 billion in 2015.
Since commencing operations more than five decades ago, Freeport is synonymous domestically with gold, not copper, and is usually perceived with suspicions. All affairs related to the company have always been political, with many Indonesian politicians and activists referring to it as a symbol of US economic imperialism in Indonesia.
Given the enormity, coupled with the geopolitical dynamic where several US policymakers have affiliation with the company, it is hard not to suspect the “Freeport factor” to be at play nowadays in the government’s upcoming plan to bend the 2009 Mining Law just to allow the company, and a few others, to continue to elude a ban on raw and partly processed mineral exports.
Indonesia has been under global investor scrutiny in the past couple of weeks as they await to see whether the country is committed to indiscriminately enforcing the rule of law as it rushes to decide whether to maintain the current relaxation or to fully enforce the ban, as mandated by the law before the Jan. 11, 2017 deadline.
The law stipulates that mineral ore miners must complete their smelters by 2014, when the export ban should have been fully put in place. The smelters are expected to bring in added value to the end products, as opposed to exporting ore in its raw or partly processed form.
However, because none of the proposed smelters had been completed, including one by Freeport, the deadline was extended to 2017 by president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono through a government regulation, allowing Freeport and its fellow US miner Newmont to continue the exports despite no progress in their smelter constructions.
If President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo maintains the relaxation, he will draw criticism similar to that raised in 2014 when Yudhoyono was accused of violating the law because a government regulation cannot overrule a law.
However, a circulating draft government regulation has indicated the President may continue with the relaxation as well as provide many clauses that appear to benefit Freeport more than others.
For example, according to the draft regulation, Freeport will not only be able to resume its exports but the company will be allowed to sell its shares based on a new calculation that will see the price soaring to a level where domestic buyers cannot afford them.
Perhaps it is a mere coincidence that the draft was churned out after a letter from US Senator John McCain to Jokowi on Dec. 23, demanding Indonesia to facilitate Freeport, and the appointment of US billionaire Carl Icahn in late December as special adviser on regulatory reform to US president-elect Donald Trump. Icahn is a major FCX shareholder.
Regulatory privileges for Freeport are not without precedent. Based on its contract of work (CoW ), the company was required to sell 51 percent of its shares to local shareholders by 2011.
However, a string of regulations were issued along the way that eventually allowed Freeport to dodge the requirement to this date, and almost no officials have made a big deal out of it. FCX owns 90.64 percent of the company, while merely 9.36 percent is owned by the Indonesian government.
No one expects Freeport to cease operations or to pull out from the country, as it is in the best interest of all to see the company remain profitable and employ many Papuans.
However, the fairness surrounding deals with Freeport have always been put into question.
Jokowi can continue with the ease in the export ban to facilitate Freeport, but he should not throw in the towel by not demanding more, particularly to force it to immediately sell 51 percent of its shares to local shareholders as stated in the CoW.
After all, Freeport has always demanded that the government abide by the CoW, and it is fair to request Freeport to similarly do so.
The main stake at play is no longer smelter construction and export permits, but divestment. This is where Freeport tends to hide from its obligations and uses other issues to distract the public from the real one.
Perhaps the President needs to be reminded that such divestment is obligatory under the 1945 Constitution, Article 33 point 3: The land, the waters and the natural resources within shall be under the powers of the state and shall be used to the greatest benefit of the people.
With many of his signature policies running aground, the last thing Jokowi wants is to be on the list of Indonesian leaders that have caved to US business interests.
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