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1) CLEMENCY FOR UWAMANG, A TEST FOR JOKOWI

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2) PRISONERS IN NABIRE ABLE TO EARN A LIVING
3) “I AM A FATHER AND MOTHER” AND “NAGOSA” IN PAPUA FILM FEST
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1) CLEMENCY FOR UWAMANG, A TEST FOR JOKOWI



                                 Antonius Uwamang while undergoing trial in Jakarta court 11 years ago – Getty Images
Jayapura, Jubi – Legislator of Papua, Wilhelmus Pigai stated that after the lifelong sentence of the convicted, Antonius Uwamang from Cipinang Prison, Jakarta to Abepura Prison, Jayapura City, Papua succeeded, they are now trying to get the remission (reduction of punishment) or pardon fom the president to Uwamang.
Member of Commission I in the field of politics, law and human rights said, since last week, Anton Uwamang has been transferred to LP Abepura. The next struggle is to seek remission or pardon for Uwamang.
“Regarding remission, which is in the process, the submission of a criminal change from a lifetime to a temporary penalty, has been submitted and hopefully on August this year there is a certainty,” said Wilhelmus Pigai to Jubi, Sunday (July 30).

According to him, the transfer of Anton Uwamang to Papua will facilitate the family to monitor his condition and to visit him.
“For nearly 12 years Anton has been detained at the Cipinang prisons, the family has never visited him, we are grateful that our efforts and the family have asked Anton to be moved has been successful, he has arrived at LP Abe since Tuesday (July 25),” he said. .
He said, in addition to the transfer efforts from LP Cipinang to LP Abepura and the remission (reduction of punishment), he will also fight for pardon or pardon from the president for the convicted person who was charged for shooting in Mimika in 2002.
“So there are three things that we are fighting for: the transfer of detentions has succeeded, then the remissions and pardons are now in process and pending,” he said.
While Vice Chairman of Commission I, Orwan Tolli Wone said when one checked Uwamang track record during his time in Cipinang prison, he should naturally got remission.
“Uwamang is entitled to a remission like any other prisoner, that’s the right of citizens, especially during the duration of the sentence Uwamang has never been in trouble,” Orwan said.
Anton Uwamang was sentenced to life for the shooting of a convoy of employees of PT Freeport Indonesia, on August 21, 2002 which resulted in two Americans, Ricky Lynn Spier (44) and Leon Edwin Burgon (71) and Indonesian citizen Bambang Riwanto killed.
In addition to Anton, his colleagues Yulianus Deikme and Agustinus Anggaibak were convicted 15 years in prison. Yairus Kiwak, Rev. Isaac Onawame, Esau Onawame and Hardi Sugumol were charged eight years in prison.
A test for Jokowi
The struggle for clemency for Uwamang will be a test for Indonesian President, Joko Widodo. Although he once freed five Papuan political prisoners in May 2015, none of them are a lifelong convict. The president who is familiarly called Jokowi is also considered to never prove his government’s commitment to solve the problem of alleged violations of Human Rights in Papua, along with democratic space in Papua.
Setara Institute some time ago mentioned in the policy span, it is proven that President Joko Widodo has no policy in solving cases of human rights violations and democratic conditions in Papua. This can be seen from the absence of any regulations or legislation concerning human rights issues.
In contrast, Jokowi only political maneuvered by attempting to open partial democracy taps such as granting pardons to political prisoners, lifting up restrictions on foreign press, and forming a team to resolve human rights cases in Papua, have not solving the problems of Papua holistically.
“The presidential political steps seem ambiguous and contradictory. On one hand, the president grants clemency to five political prisoners and grants foreign press freedom. But on the other hand, the government made a massive arrest against the peacefull demonstration of the people of Papua. In fact, the President is actually planning to build a new territorial command and police mobile brigade, Navy base, and add more troops to Papua. This further demonstrates that governments is still present his militaristic and repressive approach to Papuan society, “said Bonar Tigor Naipospos, Deputy Director of Setara Institute.
In international forums, continued Naipospos, Jokowi runs a diplomacy ‘turn a blind eye’ by denying all complaints and information about human rights violations in Papua.
In many forums, the government is more defensive without adequate foundation. The international government’s arrogance by ignoring the human rights situation report is evidence of a denial of the humanist policy that Jokowi had promised.(*)
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2) PRISONERS IN NABIRE ABLE TO EARN A LIVING

1) 600 THOUSAND/DAY FOR OJEK SERVICE TO PNG RESIDENTS

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2) POLICE HAVE POCKETED NAME OF RIOTERS IN PUNCAK JAYA
3) AUGUST, HUNDREDS OF FOREIGN WORKERS TO ENTER PAPUA
4) BKKBN: FAMILY PLANNING IN PAPUA IS NOT TO LIMIT POPULATION
5) LUKAS ENEMBE AND KLEMEN TINAL AT THE TOP OF GOLKAR SURVEY

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1)  600 THOUSAND/DAY FOR OJEK SERVICE TO PNG RESIDENTS

                             PNG citizens usually buy their stuffs in Sota District, Merauke Regency, Papua – Jubi/Frans Kobun



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2) POLICE HAVE POCKETED NAME OF RIOTERS IN PUNCAK JAYA
Jayapura, Jubi – Papua Regional Police (Polda) has claimed the names of several suspected actors behind the riot between supporters of candidate pairs of regional election in Puncak Jaya (Puja), Papua, Saturday (July 29).
Head of Papua Police Public Relations, Kombes (Pol) A.M. Kamal said after the rioting in Kampung Legimut District of Pagaleme, the police immediately conducted the crime scene (TPK), identified and examined or questioned a number of witnesses.
“The situation (in Puja) is conducive now. We identified each group that carried out the attack, there were alleged invitations from people who we had pocketed their name for conducted illegal action,” said Kombes (Pol) A.M. Kamal, Monday (July 31).
According to him a number of Papua Police officers went off to Puncak Jaya, such as Dir Intel Polda Papua, Kabidkum Polda Papua, Wakasat Brimob and members of Brimob.
“They were deployed to communicate with each party and the top officials and invite them to ask conflicting communities to stop the fighting,” he said.
He confirmed that some of the 12 victims of recent Puncak Jaya clash were hit by arrows has brought down to Jayapura for further treatment. It’s just that he did not know exactly the identity of the victims who were brought to Jayapura.
“Yes, there are about three or four people now being treated at Bhayangkara Hospital, Jayapura City, at first we thought it was impossible because there was no plane on Sunday, but they can managed to chartering the plane because the condition had to be handled immediately,” he said.
Seven victims who were hit by arrows in a riot between supporters of Puncak Jaya election candidates brought to Jayapura, Sunday (July 30). They were treated in Bhayangkara Hospital, Kotaraja, Jayapura City and Yowari Hospital, Jayapura Regency.
Puncak Jaya Police Chief, AKBP Indra Napitupulu confirmed that some of the victims were evacuated to Jayapura to get medical treatment.
According to him, those who were evacuated were Litu Wonda, Yater Wonda, Endinus Wonda, Yatu Wonda, Itinus Wonda, Endelis Wonda and Yenus Wonda.
“The security forces are still on guard so that there will be no conflict between supporters of the candidate’s pair,” Napitupulu said.
Election in Puncak Jaya was followed by three candidate pairs, they are Yustus Wonda-Kirenius Telenggen, Hanock Ibo-Rinus Telenggen and Yuni Wonda-Deinas Geley. (*)
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3) AUGUST, HUNDREDS OF FOREIGN WORKERS TO ENTER PAPUA
Manokwari, Jubi – Hundreds of Chinese workers are expected to arrive in Manokwari, West Papua, in August 2017 as there will be a new plant construction in the area.
Abdullah, an officer at Manokwari Immigration Office of Immigration Section on Immigration Control at Manokwari said according to information he obtained from PT SDIC Papua Cement Indonesia, the company will build a new factory in Maruni, Manokwari.
“It is reported that in August the construction will commence and contractor will bring in labors from China in large numbers,” Abdullah said.
Following the planned arrival of foreign workers (TKA), he said, the Immigration Office has set up surveillance measures to ensure no immigration violations.
According to him, the supervision will be done starting from the airport and local port until the location of work and place to stay.
“We have been placing officers in both airports and ports, and we have formed a team of foreigners who will conduct raids regularly,” he explained.
Joint operations, he added, will be undertaken if it is necessary in the supervision and law enforcement on foreign workers in the company.
He added that foreign surveillance activities continue to be routinely conducted in five districts which are working areas of Manokwari Immigration Office.
In addition to the cement plant, supervision is also conducted at the location of oil and gas refineries conducted by BP Tangguh in Bintuni Bay Regency.
It also continues to oversee the flow of foreign tourists in a number of tourist attractions such as Butterfly Park in Arfak Mountains and Cendrawasih Bay National Park which includes Teluk Wondama and Manokwari Selatan.(*)
Source: Antara


1) EDITORIAL: Open Papua to the world

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2) Indonesian police shoot at Papuan villagers, killing 1

3) FAC ‘head in the sand’ over West Papuan suffering
4) Papua Sees Consecutive Infant Mortality Cases

5) Students rally for West Papuan independence in Bali
6) One man dead, several injured in West Papua shooting
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1) EDITORIAL: Open Papua to the world

EDITORIAL The Jakarta Post

Jakarta | Wed, August 2, 2017 | 08:07 am

The campaign for an independent Papua has been relentless and has made significant gains in past years. In January this year, the Free West Papua Campaign launched with great fanfare a global petition demanding an internationally supervised referendum for the region.
The petition will remain open until August this year and once it closes will be carried by a team of swimmers across Lake Geneva to be personally handed to the secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres. The campaign itself appears to have been designed by a techsavvy public relations team who also posted a YouTube video featuring pro-independence activist Benny Wenda calling for viewers to join the campaign.
The publicity stunt is a follow-up to the progress the movement has made in recent months. Last year, Free Papua activists managed to enlist an impressive cast of characters to support their cause, ranging from figures like Tongan Prime Minister Akilisi Pōhiva, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson.
The PR campaign followed what could be deemed as a coup for the independent Papua movement. In September last year, seven Pacific island nations raised the issue of human rights abuses in Papua to the UN General Assembly. Anecdotal observations have also shown evidence that the campaign to promote an independent Papua has gained steam in Australia and New Zealand. A senior Indonesian diplomat told of his experience of being confronted by a Pacific island student who was campaigning for a free Papua during a graduation event.
So, at almost every turn, we are being outmaneuvered by campaigners who want to see Papua separate from Indonesia. And yet the Indonesian government has done very little to counter it.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has made efforts to hasten development in Papua including rolling out the one-fuel price policy, which was aimed at boosting economic growth in Papua. Jokowi also signed off on a series of massive infrastructure projects in the region. Early in his administration, Jokowi made a gesture of reconciliation by releasing five political prisoners, a decision the President said was to aid conflict resolution in the restive region.
But none of these efforts have been viewed positively by the outside world because the government continues to cordon off Papua. Despite Jokowi’s pledge early in his administration to give foreign journalists greater access to Papua, his government has maintained a policy that makes it difficult for members of the international media to operate in the region. Today, an interagency “clearing house” continues to operate to vet requests from foreign journalists and researchers before they are permitted to travel to the country’s easternmost province. Earlier this year, two French journalists were deported from Timika, Papua, after failing to obtain a reporting permit.
By maintaining this restriction, the government is operating like a paranoid regime, afraid the outside world may find the skeletons it hides in its closet. If the government has done much to improve the lives of Papuans, why not show it to the world?

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2) Indonesian police shoot at Papuan villagers, killing 1
Associated Press  AUGUST 2, 2017 — 2:30AM

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian police shot at indigenous Papuan villagers, killing one person and wounding several others, including two children, during a confrontation that erupted after workers at a company in the remote area refused to take a dying villager to a hospital.
The parliament of the Deiyai area in easternmost Papua has called for the arrest of officers involved in the shooting Tuesday and the withdrawal of the mobile brigade, a police paramilitary unit.
The district chief, Fransiskus Bobii, said Wednesday that one person was killed and that he was trying to calm tensions between police and villagers. A police report said a 28-year-old man suffered multiple bullet wounds and died instantly. It said four others were wounded but Santon Tekege, a Catholic priest in Deiyai, put the number of wounded at seven, including two 8-year-olds.
Indonesia maintains a significant police and military presence in the volatile provinces of Papua and West Papua, a mineral-rich region where a decades-long separatist movement simmers and the predominantly Christian indigenous people resent an influx of Muslim Indonesians, who now outnumber them.
According to the police account, a village teacher asked workers of a company doing construction work in the area to help transport a sick villager but they refused because they feared being blamed if he died on the way.
Hours later, the man apparently died and villagers confronted the workers, taking one hostage, police said. Police went to the village, where they were attacked with rocks and arrows and responded with warning shots, the police statement said, without explaining the death and injuries.
The worker taken hostage is still missing, police said.
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3) FAC ‘head in the sand’ over West Papuan suffering

The 2016 human rights petition in the name of Maire Leadbeater called for the Government to advocate that the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression visit West Papua and for New Zealand to condemn the arrest and intimidation of peaceful protestors. The petition was endorsed by several human rights groups, academics and prominent Church leaders including the heads of the Anglican and Catholic Churches (Cardinal John Dew and Archbishop Philip Richardson). The Committee has turned down the petition’s appeal and instead opted for a conclusion that amounts to an ineffective ‘business as usual approach’ that amounts to little more than occasional inoffensive chats with Indonesian authorities and comments during the UN Universal Periodic Review process.
‘While I am pleased to hear that the Government does not deny that there are human rights breaches taking place in West Papua, I am appalled that Ministry officials have told the Committee that there is doubt about the practice of torture in West Papua. This flies in the face of extensive documentation from numerous human rights, church and academic reports all of which describe the practices of torture as endemic. The US State Department in its annual Country report on Indonesia also regularly records allegations of security forces killing and torturing civilians with impunity. Supporters of self-determination and freedom are particularly at risk as the 2001 murder of Theys Eluay, Chair of the West Papuan Presidium and the killing of Mako Tabuni, leader of the West Papua National Committee in 2012 illustrate. The most recent cases of young people being brutally beaten by the security forces took place in Nabire in July 2017. In this instance around a 100 young people were arrested over several days in response to peaceful protests - triggered by nothing more than the actions of a young man delivering leaflets.’
‘There is a growing consensus based on documented evidence that the indigenous people are experiencing ‘slow genocide’ as a result of Indonesian abuse, decades of displacement and the neglect of the basic health and environmental rights. But New Zealand is missing in action while other small Pacific nations such as Vanuatu, Tonga and the Solomon Islands stand up for the West Papuan people and their fundamental rights in the United Nations and at other international forums. ‘
West Papua Action Auckland notes that some members of the Committee advocated working with other Pacific countries at the UN. West Papua Action Auckland is now approaching all political parties seeking a clear policy statement on whether or not they support self-determination for West Papua. New Zealand’s shameful acquiescence in this horror story in our neighbourhood must end.

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WEDNESDAY, 02 AUGUST, 2017 | 15:18 WIB
4) Papua Sees Consecutive Infant Mortality Cases

TEMPO.COJakarta - Deiyai district in Papua has seen a series of infant mortality cases in the past five months. The figure continues to rise as similar cases have also been found in more areas, from four to nine villages in Tiga Barat district.
Pastor Damianus Adii of Diyai Church said that 90 infants and five men died between March and July. “Three infants reportedly died in the past week alone in Digikotu village,” Damianus said yesterday, August 1.
Digikotu is one of four villages where infant mortality cases with measles-like symptoms were found last month. Aside from Digikotu, same cases were found in three other villages: Piyakedimi, Yinidoba and Epaniai. Infants reportedly suffered diarrhea, mouth injuries, bloodshot eyes and high body temperature for days before death.
Damianus said that medical examinations conducted by local doctors reveal that the toddlers died from a number of diseases, such as measles, diarrhea, upper respiratory tract infection and dysentery. Some died in the villages due to delayed medical treatment and others died at the hospital.
Delayed treatment was caused by the lack of medical facility in Deiyai district that only has 10 community health centers [puskesmas] and five doctors, Damianus said. The puskesmas only open four days a week. “We also experience water scarcity and the lack of basic medication,” he said.
Deiyai Regent Tance Takimai said that consecutive infant mortality cases were normal, not an outbreak. “They were caused by the lack of awareness about healthy lifestyle,” he said. Tance added that data from Health Office shows that only 27 infants died between March and July.
Mohamad Subuh, Director General of Disease Prevention and Control, the Health Ministry, said that infant mortality cases in Deiyai were caused by low awareness about vaccination. In 2016, only 5.5 percent of infants were vaccinated. “We have access issues so that the services have not been carried out routinely,” he said. Subuh has dismissed the report that the number of mortality cases has risen. He said that the latest data show that only 27 infants died from March to July due to diarrhea, lung inflammation, measles, dysentery, malnutrition, bug bites and allergies.
The National Commission on Human Rights commissioner Natalius Pigai has visited Tigi Barat district to learn more about the incident. He has criticized the central government for saying that infant mortality cases in the region were caused by ordinary diseases. “The root causes have to be examined; why is the number of infant mortality so high?” he said.
MITRA TARIGAN | INDRI MAULIDAR 

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5) Students rally for West Papuan independence in Bali
Ni Komang Erviani The Jakarta Post
Denpasar, Bali | Wed, August 2, 2017 | 03:00 pm

Around 30 students of the Papua Student Alliance (AMP) Bali held a rally on Wednesday to demand West Papuan independence.
They staged the demonstration at a location near the US Consular Agency office in Denpasar, Bali, as the police did not allow them to hold the rally in front of the office as initially planned.
AMP spokesman Wolker said the rally was held to commemorate the 48th year of the Papuan People’s Free Choice (Pepera) in 1969. “The Papuan People’s Free Choice was not democratic; [it was] full of terror, intimidation and manipulation. Severe human rights violations also occurred at that time,” Wolker said.
In a statement, AMP said that 175 out of 809,337 Papuans cast their vote in the Pepera in 1969 and that all of them had been "quarantined" before the voting day.
“Since then, [acts of] colonialism, imperialism and militarism have been committed by the Indonesian government,” it said in the statement.
The group’s activists held the rally at the US Consular Agency as they believe the US government interfered in the Pepera.
“Papua should get freedom,” they yelled during the rally.
They also demanded that the government shut down multinational companies' activities in Papua, such as those of Freeport, LNG Tangguh and Medco. Furthermore, they called for the release of Obby Kogoya, a Papuan student in Yogyakarta who was sentenced to one-year probation with four years' imprisonment if he reoffends during probation for resisting police arrest during a protest in Yogyakarta last year. (ebf
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6) One man dead, several injured in West Papua shooting


21 minutes ago 

Reports from West Papua say one man is dead and up to 16 people have been injured in a police shooting.
The local newspaper Tabloid Jubi reported seven children are among those who were injured in the incident in Deiyai district on Tuesday.
Four of the injured were airlifted to hospital in Nabire on Wednesday according to a human rights lawyer who deals with West Papua.
Tabloid Jubi reported the security forces were called to deal with a group who were complaining a company hadn't assisted when a man needed help to get to hospital after drowning.
The lawyer Veronica Koman spoke to an eye witness to the shooting and has seen photos of the injured.
"The company called Brimob (Mobile Brigade Corps). Brimob is a special taskforce of police and Brimob taskforce came and just shooting at people. As a lawyer I think it's not proportional, even if they were angry but it's not necessary to shoot randomly at people. Like children got injured,” Veronika Koman said.
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URGENT: Up to 17 people reportedly shot by the Indonesian military and police in Deiyai, 1 killed

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URGENT: Up to 17 people reportedly shot by the Indonesian military and police in Deiyai, 1 killed

AUGUST 1, 2017
We have received urgent, unconfirmed reports from Deiyai in West Papua that today up to 17 West Papuan people, including 6 children were shot by the Indonesian military and police. 


West Papuan man Marius Pigai was announced dead at the scene, 6 people are still being treated in Paniai Hospital in intensive care. 3 people are being treated in Deiyai and 7 children are still in recovery and being treated by their family.
Witnesses say the situation started when a group of friends were swimming in a river in Deiyai. One boy, Ravianus Douw- 24 years old, got into trouble and needed urgent medical attention, so the group of friends approached a local company to ask for help. The group were ignored and had to walk 10 kilometers for approximately 5 hours to find a car to take their friend to hospital. Ravianus died on the way to hospital.
More 
https://www.freewestpapua.org/2017/08/01/urgent-up-to-17-people-reportedly-shot-by-the-indonesian-military-and-police-in-deiyai-1-killed/


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An U/a from AHRC. The AHRC makes easy for people to respond to. 
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INDONESIA: Alleged brutal shooting and violence by the Paniai Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) in Papua
ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-106-2017


The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from our local partner in Papua Province. It speaks about an alleged brutal shooting and violence committed by the Paniai Police Mobie Brigade. It was carried out against local indigenous Papuans in Oneibo, South Tigi District, Deiyai Regency, Papua. Without any proper warning, the Police forcibly dispersed and shot the local indigenous Papuans who protested against the Putra Dewa Paniai Company. The protest was caused by the Company’s refusal to help local residents to support the life of an indigenous Papuan. He was in a critical condition after near drowning in the Oneibo River.


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SECURITY FORCES ALLEGEDLY SHOT 17 PAPUANS, ONE DEAD

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http://tabloidjubi.com/eng/security-forces-allegedly-shot-17-papuans-one-dead/

SECURITY FORCES ALLEGEDLY SHOT 17 PAPUANS, ONE DEAD
                                   Yulianus Pigai, one of the victims of shooting in Deiyai Regency August 1 2017 – IST

1) ONEIBO’S SHOOTING VICTIMS SENT TO NABIRE HOSPITAL

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2) NZ govt rejects West Papua human rights petition
3) KNPB YALIMO REJECTS THE CONSTRUCTION OF NEW POLICE STATIONS
4) LOTS MISINTERPRETATION ON TREASON ARTICLE, EXPERT SAID
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1) ONEIBO’S SHOOTING VICTIMS SENT TO NABIRE HOSPITAL


2) NZ govt rejects West Papua human rights petition
3 Aug
A parliamentary committee in New Zealand has turned down a call to push for a UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression to visit West Papua.
A human rights petition, organised by West Papua Action Auckland and supported by other human rights groups and Catholic and Anglican church leaders, had sought for New Zealand to condemn the arrest and intimidation of peaceful protestors.
A spokesperson for the petitioners Maire Leadbetter said the Foreign Affairs Committee had instead opted for what she calls a 'business as usual approach that will mean little more than occasional inoffensive chats with Indonesian authorities and comments during the UN Universal Periodic Review process'.
Ms Leadbetter said she was pleased the committee doesn't deny human rights breaches in West Papua, but she was appalled Foreign Affairs officials told the committee that there was doubt about whether torture occurs in West Papua.
She said this flies in the face of extensive documentation from numerous human rights, church and academic reports all of which describes the use of torture in West Papua as endemic.

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3) KNPB YALIMO REJECTS THE CONSTRUCTION OF NEW POLICE STATIONS

West Papua protest: Indonesian police kill one and wound others – reports

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Indonesian paramilitary police have shot and killed one person and wounded a number of others at a protest in a West Papuan village, according to human rights groups and local witnesses.
A 28-year-old man was reportedly killed during the incident in Deiya regency on Tuesday afternoon, and up to seven wounded, including at least two children. 
The regency’s parliament has reportedly called for the arrest of the officers involved, and for the withdrawal of the police mobile brigade, known as Brimob.
The incident began after workers at a nearby construction site refused to assist locals in taking a man to hospital, after he was pulled from the river.
After a five hour delay in sourcing another vehicle the man died on his way to hospital, according to local sources. Angry relatives and friends protested against the construction company, allegedly attacking a worker’s camp – believed to be primarily from Sulawesi – and destroying some buildings.
Authorities were called to the protest, and Associated Press reported police alleged protesters kidnapped a worker, which protesters denied. 
“The joint forces of police, mobile brigade police and army officers came. Did not ask questions but shot several youths,” Father Santon Petege told West Papuan information site, Tabloid Jubi.
“There were no warning shots at all,” witness, Elias Pakagesaid. “Officers immediately fired on the unarmed villagers.”
A human rights lawyer investigating the case, who requested to remain anonymous, also said there was no verbal warning from authorities, and she labeled the incident an extrajudicial killing.

“When they arrive they just shoot. They used guns and violence and shoot directly,” she said.
Unconfirmed reports said 17 people were shot by the police mobile brigade, including the deceased man and a number of children.
Pictures purported to be of the victims and seen by Guardian Australia show deep bullet wounds.
According to local media, police denied they shot directly at the protesters, but rather at the ground and hit four people after warning shots failed to calm the situation. 
The head of public relations for Papua police, Kombes A.M. Kamal denied anyone died other than a person who was critically ill, and alleged protesters had attacked an employee. 
A separate report quoted the spokesman as saying the police only fired rubber bullets. 
The lawyer said the police spokesman’s claims were not true, that the hospital doctor had recognised the injuries as bullet wounds, and that one young man died of his injuries, not an illness.
A police report cited by AP said a 28-year-old man died instantly after being shot multiple times.
Dr Eben Kirksey, a senior lecturer at UNSW, said there was often a “disinformation campaign” by authorities following incidents in West Papua.
Kirksey said history had shown investigations rarely translated into prosecutions, and prosecutions often saw light sentences. 
“If we look at the history, of when there is evidence of security force misconduct I don’t have much hope.”
The Asian Human Rights Commission called for a full transparent investigation by human rights groups, and for the officers to be held accountable.

There are frequent reports of violence and mass arrests by authorities against West Papuans, the indigenous people of an Indonesia-controlled region on the western half of an island shared with Papua New Guinea, and which has battled for independence for decades.
But information is difficult to verify, largely because of the restrictions on foreign media.
In 2015 Indonesian president Joko Widodo announced the lifting of the media ban for the province, but in reality, government clearing houses vet media visits and maintain restrictions. Two French journalists were deported earlier this year for reporting without the required visa.

“At almost every turn, we are being outmaneuvered by campaigners who want to see Papua separate from Indonesia. And yet the Indonesian government has done very little to counter it,” it said.
“By maintaining this restriction, the government is operating like a paranoid regime, afraid the outside world may find the skeletons it hides in its closet. If the government has done much to improve the lives of Papuans, why not show it to the world?”
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1) Relatives of Papua shooting victims call on police to take responsibility

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2) Indonesian police kill civilian, injure others in Papua during clash sparked by worker’s refusal to take dying man to hospital
3) Indonesia rights body urges end to abuses in Papua after police shooting
4) Floods hit Jayapura as city gets environmental award

5) Global Union Heads for Indonesia for Freeport Worker Cause
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1) Relatives of Papua shooting victims call on police to take responsibility

A relative of villagers in Indonesia's Papua region caught up in a fatal police shooting says they're calling for the police to take responsibility for the incident.
Amatus Douw's relatives were among victims shot in a confrontation with paramilitary police in the Deiyai district on Tuesday.
According to reports up to 16 people were also injured, some of them critically, among them teenagers.

Mr Douw is a pro-independence activist for West Papua and lives in Australia after obtaining political asylum in 2006.
He had been in contact with his family and he said the dead man's body was placed in front of the police office in Deiyai yesterday after the shooting.
"Without asking, without advocat(ing) the issue, they just shoot and shoot. Uncompromised. They are really sad and very worried," Said Amatus Douw.
Mr Douw said his people were worried because more police and military have been deployed to the district.
According to a BBC report police say warning shots were fired in the incident and they are investigating.
The parliament of the Deiyai area has called for the arrest of officers involved in the shooting and the withdrawal of the mobile brigade.
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2) Indonesian police kill civilian, injure others in Papua during clash sparked by worker’s refusal to take dying man to hospital

 


Indonesian police said Wednesday they shot dead one man and injured several other people during a clash in Papua sparked by a worker’s refusal to take a dying man to a hospital.
A confrontation broke out in Deiyai district in Indonesia’s easternmost province on Tuesday when a villager asked a group of workers at a company’s construction site to take the person to the hospital.
A worker denied the request, fearing he would be blamed if the patient died en route. This angered locals, who gathered at the site to confront the workers after the patient passed away.

Police deployed to handle the incident shot dead a 28-year-old man.
The shots also injured seven more people, including two children who sustained minor injuries. Three other people who were seriously injured have been flown to the neighboring district of Nabire for treatment.
Papua police spokesman Ahmad Mustofa Kamal said locals had thrown rocks at members of the police mobile brigade and injured 11 of them.
“We fired warning shots because the situation was dire, there were three warning shots,” Kamal told AFP, adding one of these hit Yulius Pigay and killed him.
The spokesman said police fired another shot at the ground. “Maybe somehow it hit people, the children got hit by bullet fragments.”
Hong Kong-based rights group The Asian Human Rights Commission condemned what it called police brutality in Papua.
Jakarta has long kept a tight grip on resource-rich Papua, with a heavy military and police presence.
But a low-level insurgency continues to smolder, with the Free Papua Movement fighting on behalf of the mostly ethnic Melanesian population.


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 Reuters

3) Indonesia rights body urges end to abuses in Papua after police shooting


AUGUST 3, 2017 / 8:42 PM / 8 HOURS AGO


JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's human rights commission on Thursday urged President Joko Widodo to end rights violations in the easternmost province of Papua after police were alleged to have killed one person and wounded 16 others while trying to quell a protest. 

The incident started on Tuesday when workers at a construction site in the province's Deiyai district refused to transport a man who had nearly drowned in a river to a hospital, according to local media Tabloid Jubi. 

Residents were angry when the man eventually died and attacked the workers' camp and assaulted police officers who were called by the company, the news website reported. 

Officers fired warning shots to disperse protesters, police spokesman for the Papua region A.M. Kamal said. He disputed the number of victims, saying police records showed nine residents, not 16, were wounded by the warning shots and one died from a wound in his leg. 

"President Jokowi should take the initiative and lead the settlement of humanitarian cases in the land of Papua through peaceful dialogue comprehensively .. within the framework of the unity of the Republic of Indonesia," Maneger Nasution, an official at Indonesia's Human Rights Commision, said in a statement, referring to the president by his nickname. 

The commission - a state institution in charge of research and mediation of human rights problems, independent from the government - has sent its members to Papua to investigate the incident, Nasution said. 

A presidential spokesman declined to comment. 

Natalius Pigai, another commissioner at the institution, called the incident "a serious human rights violation". 

A heavy handed approach by the police and military on behalf of companies "has happened for a long time, massively and systematically. More than 60 people have died because of cases like this," Pigai told Reuters. 

Police spokesman Kamal said its internal investigation unit and commission members had begun questioning construction workers on Thursday. They would interview police officers involved in the incident on Friday. 

Reports of human rights abuses often emerge from Papua, where a separatist movement has simmered for decades. 

The International Coalition for Papua in its 2017 report said there was a significant aggravation of the human rights situation in Papua in 2015 and 2016 compared to previous years. 

Indonesia took over the former Dutch colony after a widely criticized U.N.-backed referendum in 1969. Despite its rich resources, the province is among the poorest regions in Southeast Asia's largest economy. 

Reporting by Jessica Damiana and Stefanno Reinard; Additional reporting by Jakarta Newsroom; Writing by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Ed Davies and Christian Schmollinger


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4) Floods hit Jayapura as city gets environmental award
Jayapura | Thu, August 3, 2017 | 07:10 pm
Nethy Darma Somba The Jakarta Post
Heavy downpour since early in the morning caused flash floods in many areas of Jayapura on Thursday.

Residents of the Papua's provincial capital were shocked when they woke up in the morning only to find their homes inundated.

“I was lucky I woke up early today, otherwise my belongings would have been completely soaked,” said Agustine, a resident of Kotaraja in Abepura.

At least three schools had been closed due to the natural disaster, said Jayapura Education Agency head I Wayan Mudiyasa.

Even many students of schools that remained open opted to stay at home.

“I couldn’t go to school; my home is flooded,” said Gorion, a fourth-grader.

The overflowing Kali Acay River inundated residential areas and the Youtefa Market.

Vendors were scrambling to secure their items at the market.

Jayapura Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Tober Sirait said he had deployed personnel and rubber boats to help evacuate residents.

“We are helping to get residents to houses of relatives or friends that are unaffected,” he said.
Jayapura is one of the cities to receive the 2017 Adipura Award from the Forestry and Environment Ministry on Wednesday. The award is given to cities and regencies for achievements in cleanliness, healthiness and sustainable development.

The head of the Jayapura Environment Agency, Ketty Kailola, said the flooding could not be blamed only on extreme weather but also on the city’s poor drainage system. (bbs)
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5) Global Union Heads for Indonesia for Freeport Worker Cause

 


Representatives from some of the biggest unions in the world are heading to Jakarta to try to pressure Freeport-McMoRan Inc. to reinstate thousands of workers who have lost their jobs and, according to the local union, are now blocked from accessing hospitals, schools and banks.
Officials from Geneva-based IndustriALL Global Union and local unions are scheduled to meet with senior management from Freeport’s Indonesian unit, PT-FI, on Aug. 10, IndustriALL’s Adam Lee said by email.
Workers at Freeport’s flagship mine in Papua province downed tools on May 1 to protest layoffs and enforced furloughs that began during a government-imposed ban on the export of copper concentrate. In June, more than a month after exports had resumed, Freeport confirmed that 4,000 people, including 3,000 permanent workers and 1,000 subcontractors, had been “deemed to have resigned” after not showing up for work. Last month, the local union said about 5,000 workers will extend a strike until the end of August.
The labor dispute at Grasberg, the world’s second-biggest copper mine, has bolstered prices of copper, which is trading around the highest level since May 2015.

“It is simply not true that there is no strike,” IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Kemal Ozkan said in an email after Adkerson’s comments. “There is an officially declared, legitimate strike, which is now entering its fourth month. Freeport is using the strike as an excuse to fire more than 4,000 workers and to undermine the union.”
The Phoenix-based company is using the stand-off to replace higher-paid permanent workers with contract positions, according to Abraham Tandi Datu, general secretary of the Chemical, Energy and Mines Workers Union, or CEMWU.

Benefit Allegations

Terminated workers and their families no longer have access to education or health care, including hospital treatment, Datu said. The union alleges that Freeport has cut off financial assistance that allows employees’ children to attend local schools and pressured banks to suspend worker bank accounts. Many of the workers who have lost their jobs have loans at local banks, Datu said by email.
A document obtained from CEMWU gives a more detailed break-down of the shrinking headcount at Grasberg. Since the beginning of the year, more than 4,300 jobs have been eliminated through furlough, contractor workforce reduction and voluntary separation. That’s in addition to 4,220 jobs lost as a result of worker protests, bringing the total headcount reduction above 8,000, the data show. As of July, the Grasberg workforce, including contractors, was roughly 25,000, according to the document.

Illegal Strike

Asked to comment on the headcount numbers and allegations that terminated workers can’t access hospitals, schools or banks, Freeport spokesman Eric Kinneberg referred to the company’s second-quarter earnings statement in which it said high absenteeism had hurt mining and milling rates and that the May strike was illegal. As a result, protesting workers were deemed to have “voluntarily resigned,” the company said.
“PT-FI is also taking steps to increase its workforce in order to restore normal operating rates, ” Freeport said at the time.
The company’s local unit has invested $81.5 million in infrastructure projects for three highland villages surrounding the mine, according to the company’s web page. It has funded construction of houses, schools, clinics, churches and air strips.
Meanwhile, more than 300 workershave also been fired at PT Smelting, in East Java, after participating in a January strike, according to IndustriALL. As at Grasberg, they have been told they have “voluntarily resigned,” the union says. The smelter processes copper concentrate from Grasberg. PT Smelting is majority-owned by Mitsubishi Materials Corp. and 25 percent owned by Freeport’s Indonesian unit.
Next week’s “solidarity mission” is in the process of confirming meetings with PT Smelting, the Indonesian Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower, Lee said. The delegation will include senior officials from the National Union of Mineworkers, The Australian Workers’ Union, United Steelworkers and the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation.
IndustriALL represents 50 million workers in the mining, energy and manufacturing sectors around the world, according to its website.
Freeport is in the process of renegotiating conditions of its long-term presence in Indonesia with the government. Earlier this week, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan said the country will insist that local interests acquire a 51 percent state in PT-FI through divestment but will allow the miner to continue to operate the unit “until the Indonesian side is ready and professional.”
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Summary of events in West Papua for July 2017

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Australia West Papua Association (Sydney)

PO Box 28, Spit Junction, NSW 2088




Summary of events in West Papua for July  2017


(This update coves the last two weeks of July up to 4 August. Previous update ended 16 July).




Security forces open fire on villagers in Deiyai district
One person was killed and up to 17 injured including a number of children when the security forces opened fired on a crowed when responding to an incident in Deiyai district. The incident occurred when one of a number of men swimming in a river got into difficulty.  The villager asked a group of workers at a company’s construction site to take the person to the hospital.A worker refused the request, as he feared he would be blamed if the patient died on the way to hospital. This angered the locals, who gathered at the site to confront the workers. The security forces deployed to handle the incident fired at the villagers killing one and injuring others.Indonesia's human rights commission has sent its members to Papua to investigate the incident. In a Reuters report on the incident a “Police spokesman Kamal said its internal investigation unit and commission members had begun questioning construction workers on Thursday. They would interview police officers involved in the incident on Friday” 


Unlike pass shootings this incident is receiving mainstream coverage from many media outlets including RNZI, Reuters, AFP, and local media Tabloid Jubi.   A Guardian report on the incident at


The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) released an urgent action on the incident.  The AHRC has released a number of U/As in the past weeks and this is a way supporters  can help the people of West Papua by responding to these urgent actions. A number of West Papuan events 
are upcoming and  people are also encouraged to support these events (details at end of update). Another way people can help is to sign the petition and support the swim at  Sign & Share the Global Petition for West Papua here

An extract from the an editorial in the Jakarta Post (2 August) mentions the back the swim campaign
"The campaign for an independent Papua has been relentless and has made significant gains in past years. In January this year, the Free West Papua Campaign launched with great fanfare a global petition demanding an internationally supervised referendum for the region. The petition will remain open until August this year and once it closes will be carried by a team of swimmers across Lake Geneva to be personally handed to the secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres. The campaign itself appears to have been designed by a techsavvy public relations team who also posted a YouTube video featuring pro-independence activist Benny Wenda calling for viewers to join the campaign".

Responding to U/As, supporting events and signing petitions are away individuals can easily do and support the people of West Papua in their struggle for self-determination.



INDONESIA: Alleged brutal shooting and violence by the Paniai Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) in Papua

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-106-2017   
2 August 2017
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from our local partner in Papua Province. It speaks about an alleged brutal shooting and violence committed by the Paniai Police Mobie Brigade. It was carried out against local indigenous Papuans in Oneibo, South Tigi District, Deiyai Regency, Papua. Without any proper warning, the Police forcibly dispersed and shot the local indigenous Papuans who protested against the Putra Dewa Paniai Company. The protest was caused by the Company’s refusal to help local residents to support the life of an indigenous Papuan. He was in a critical condition after near drowning in the Oneibo River. Full U/A at
http://www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/AHRC-UAC-106-2017






Relatives of Papua shooting victims call on police to take responsibility

RNZI 4 August 2017

A relative of villagers in Indonesia's Papua region caught up in a fatal police shooting says they're calling for the police to take responsibility for the incident.

Amatus Douw's relatives were among victims shot in a confrontation with paramilitary police in the Deiyai district on Tuesday.

According to reports up to 16 people were also injured, some of them critically, among them teenagers. Mr Douw is a pro-independence activist for West Papua and lives in Australia after obtaining political asylum in 2006.

He had been in contact with his family and he said the dead man's body was placed in front of the police office in Deiyai yesterday after the shooting.

"Without asking, without advocat(ing) the issue, they just shoot and shoot. Uncompromised. They are really sad and very worried," Said Amatus Douw.

Mr Douw said his people were worried because more police and military have been deployed to the district. According to a BBC report police say warning shots were fired in the incident and they are investigating. The parliament of the Deiyai area has called for the arrest of officers involved in the shooting and the withdrawal of the mobile brigade.






INDONESIA: Papuan human rights defender insulted and intimidated by military command

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME
Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-096-2017

27 July 2017

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Theo Hesegem, a coordinator of Advocacy Network for Law Enforcement and Human Rights (JAPH-HAM) in Wamena, Papua, was intimidated and insulted by military officers of Jayawijaya regent, due to his advocacy efforts in the torture case of Mr. Niko Hisage. While there has been no military or police action to prosecute the military officers responsible for torturing Hisage, the military is now attempting to dissuade Mr. Hesegem for his efforts to seek justice for the victim. …………………




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INDONESIA: Teenage indigenous Papuan brutally assaulted

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-093-2017

 24 July 2017

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from its local partner in Papua about the torture of Albert Nawipa (15), a junior high school student. Nawipa was illegally taken by the police and brought to a police station near Potikelek market in Wamena. The police accused him of attacking a dancing show in Potikelek market. He was tortured by three police officers and subsequently hospitalized. His serious injuries have prevented him from enrolling in the Senior High School in Wamena regent. The police have yet to comprehensively examine the case, and no adequate remedies have been provided to Nawipa. 






Editorial Jakarta Post-Open Papua to the world
Jakarta | Wed, August 2, 2017 

The campaign for an independent Papua has been relentless and has made significant gains in past years. In January this year, the Free West Papua Campaign launched with great fanfare a global petition demanding an internationally supervised referendum for the region. The petition will remain open until August this year and once it closes will be carried by a team of swimmers across Lake Geneva to be personally handed to the secretary-general of the United Nations, António Guterres. The campaign itself appears to have been designed by a techsavvy public relations team who also posted a YouTube video featuring pro-independence activist Benny Wenda calling for viewers to join the campaign.


The publicity stunt is a follow-up to the progress the movement has made in recent months. Last year, Free Papua activists managed to enlist an impressive cast of characters to support their cause, ranging from figures like Tongan Prime Minister Akilisi Pōhiva, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and human rights lawyer Jennifer Robinson. The PR campaign followed what could be deemed as a coup for the independent Papua movement. In September last year, seven Pacific island nations raised the issue of human rights abuses in Papua to the UN General Assembly. Anecdotal observations have also shown evidence that the campaign to promote an independent Papua has gained steam in Australia and New Zealand. A senior Indonesian diplomat told of his experience of being confronted by a Pacific island student who was campaigning for a free Papua during a graduation event.

So, at almost every turn, we are being outmaneuvered by campaigners who want to see Papua separate from Indonesia. And yet the Indonesian government has done very little to counter it.


President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has made efforts to hasten development in Papua including rolling out the one-fuel price policy, which was aimed at boosting economic growth in Papua. Jokowi also signed off on a series of massive infrastructure projects in the region. Early in his administration, Jokowi made a gesture of reconciliation by releasing five political prisoners, a decision the President said was to aid conflict resolution in the restive region.

But none of these efforts have been viewed positively by the outside world because the government continues to cordon off Papua. Despite Jokowi’s pledge early in his administration to give foreign journalists greater access to Papua, his government has maintained a policy that makes it difficult for members of the international media to operate in the region. Today, an interagency “clearing house” continues to operate to vet requests from foreign journalists and researchers before they are permitted to travel to the country’s easternmost province. Earlier this year, two French journalists were deported from Timika, Papua, after failing to obtain a reporting permit.


By maintaining this restriction, the government is operating like a paranoid regime, afraid the outside world may find the skeletons it hides in its closet. If the government has done much to improve the lives of Papuans, why not show it to the world?




Students rally for West Papuan independence in Bali

Ni Komang Erviani The Jakarta Post

Denpasar, Bali | Wed, August 2, 2017 



Call for independence: Members of the Papua Student Alliance (AMP) Bali call for West Papua's independence in a rally in Denpasar, Bali, on Aug. 2. (JP/Ni Komang Erviani)


Around 30 students of the Papua Student Alliance (AMP) Bali held a rally on Wednesday to demand West Papuan independence.

They staged the demonstration at a location near the US Consular Agency office in Denpasar, Bali, as the police did not allow them to hold the rally in front of the office as initially planned. AMP spokesman Wolker said the rally was held to commemorate the 48th year of the Papuan People’s Free Choice (Pepera) in 1969. “The Papuan People’s Free Choice was not democratic; [it was] full of terror, intimidation and manipulation. Severe human rights violations also occurred at that time,” Wolker said.


In a statement, AMP said that 175 out of 809,337 Papuans cast their vote in the Pepera in 1969 and that all of them had been "quarantined" before the voting day. “Since then, [acts of] colonialism, imperialism and militarism have been committed by the Indonesian government,” it said in the statement.


The group’s activists held the rally at the US Consular Agency as they believe the US government interfered in the Pepera. “Papua should get freedom,” they yelled during the rally. They also demanded that the government shut down multinational companies' activities in Papua, such as those of Freeport, LNG Tangguh and Medco. Furthermore, they called for the release of Obby Kogoya, a Papuan student in Yogyakarta who was sentenced to one-year probation with four years' imprisonment if he reoffends during probation for resisting police arrest during a protest in Yogyakarta last year. (ebf





Call for ACP-EU Resolution on West Papua

By Jonas Cullwick Jul 28, 2017 Vanuatu Daily Post



The Co-president of the EU, Cecil Kashetu Kyenge, addressing the opening session of the Pacific regional meeting of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly last week. By Jonas Cullwick


Last week’s 14th Pacific Regional ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Port Vila issued a five-point position of the issue of West Papuan independence.

It says Parliamentarians of the ACP-EU Parliaments can voice their concern and they can support Papuan rights, including the right to self-determination by rallying to the call from the 8 Pacific Island Countries for justice and respect for the right to self-determination.

They can get regional and global intergovernmental bodies such the African Union, CARICOM and other regional and sub-regional multilateral bodies to pass resolutions and restrict commercial and other relations with Indonesia.


As member states of the United Nations ACP–EU countries can insist on an internationally supervised referendum on independence (or at least the re-listing of West Papua as a non-self-governing territory).


Support with one voice the proposed resolutions in the upcoming Joint ACP-EU parliament meeting in month of October and also the resolution on West Papua to be adopted at ACP Council of Ministers meeting in November 2017; And call on ACP-EU Parliamentarians to urge their respective governments to address the issue of West Papua at the multilateral level and assist Indonesia to resolve this 54 year crisis.







NZ govt rejects West Papua human rights petition

RNZI 3 Aug 2017

A parliamentary committee in New Zealand has turned down a call to push for a UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression to visit West Papua.


A human rights petition, organised by West Papua Action Auckland and supported by other human rights groups and Catholic and Anglican church leaders, had sought for New Zealand to condemn the arrest and intimidation of peaceful protestors. A spokesperson for the petitioners Maire Leadbetter said the Foreign Affairs Committee had instead opted for what she calls a 'business as usual approach that will mean little more than occasional inoffensive chats with Indonesian authorities and comments during the UN Universal Periodic Review process'. Ms Leadbetter said she was pleased the committee doesn't deny human rights breaches in West Papua, but she was appalled Foreign Affairs officials told the committee that there was doubt about whether torture occurs in West Papua. She said this flies in the face of extensive documentation from numerous human rights, church and academic reports all of which describes the use of torture in West Papua as endemic.





CLEMENCY FOR UWAMANG, A TEST FOR JOKOWI

Jul 31, 2017


      Antonius Uwamang while undergoing trial in Jakarta court 11 years ago – Getty Images

Jayapura, Jubi – Legislator of Papua, Wilhelmus Pigai stated that after the lifelong sentence of the convicted, Antonius Uwamang from Cipinang Prison, Jakarta to Abepura Prison, Jayapura City, Papua succeeded, they are now trying to get the remission (reduction of punishment) or pardon fom the president to Uwamang. Member of Commission I in the field of politics, law and human rights said, since last week, Anton Uwamang has been transferred to LP Abepura. The next struggle is to seek remission or pardon for Uwamang. “Regarding remission, which is in the process, the submission of a criminal change from a lifetime to a temporary penalty, has been submitted and hopefully on August this year there is a certainty,” said Wilhelmus Pigai to Jubi, Sunday (July 30).

According to him, the transfer of Anton Uwamang to Papua will facilitate the family to monitor his condition and to visit him. “For nearly 12 years Anton has been detained at the Cipinang prisons, the family has never visited him, we are grateful that our efforts and the family have asked Anton to be moved has been successful, he has arrived at LP Abe since Tuesday (July 25),” he said. .
He said, in addition to the transfer efforts from LP Cipinang to LP Abepura and the remission (reduction of punishment), he will also fight for pardon or pardon from the president for the convicted person who was charged for shooting in Mimika in 2002. “So there are three things that we are fighting for: the transfer of detentions has succeeded, then the remissions and pardons are now in process and pending,” he said.

While Vice Chairman of Commission I, Orwan Tolli Wone said when one checked Uwamang track record during his time in Cipinang prison, he should naturally got remission.

“Uwamang is entitled to a remission like any other prisoner, that’s the right of citizens, especially during the duration of the sentence Uwamang has never been in trouble,” Orwan said.

Anton Uwamang was sentenced to life for the shooting of a convoy of employees of PT Freeport Indonesia, on August 21, 2002 which resulted in two Americans, Ricky Lynn Spier (44) and Leon Edwin Burgon (71) and Indonesian citizen Bambang Riwanto killed. In addition to Anton, his colleagues Yulianus Deikme and Agustinus Anggaibak were convicted 15 years in prison. Yairus Kiwak, Rev. Isaac Onawame, Esau Onawame and Hardi Sugumol were charged eight years in prison.

A test for Jokowi

The struggle for clemency for Uwamang will be a test for Indonesian President, Joko Widodo. Although he once freed five Papuan political prisoners in May 2015, none of them are a lifelong convict. The president who is familiarly called Jokowi is also considered to never prove his government’s commitment to solve the problem of alleged violations of Human Rights in Papua, along with democratic space in Papua.


Setara Institute some time ago mentioned in the policy span, it is proven that President Joko Widodo has no policy in solving cases of human rights violations and democratic conditions in Papua. This can be seen from the absence of any regulations or legislation concerning human rights issues.

In contrast, Jokowi only political maneuvered by attempting to open partial democracy taps such as granting pardons to political prisoners, lifting up restrictions on foreign press, and forming a team to resolve human rights cases in Papua, have not solving the problems of Papua holistically.

“The presidential political steps seem ambiguous and contradictory. On one hand, the president grants clemency to five political prisoners and grants foreign press freedom. But on the other hand, the government made a massive arrest against the peacefull demonstration of the people of Papua. In fact, the President is actually planning to build a new territorial command and police mobile brigade, Navy base, and add more troops to Papua. This further demonstrates that governments is still present his militaristic and repressive approach to Papuan society, “said Bonar Tigor Naipospos, Deputy Director of Setara Institute. In international forums, continued Naipospos, Jokowi runs a diplomacy ‘turn a blind eye’ by denying all complaints and information about human rights violations in Papua.

In many forums, the government is more defensive without adequate foundation. The international government’s arrogance by ignoring the human rights situation report is evidence of a denial of the humanist policy that Jokowi had promised.(*)





Papuan student jailed for resisting arrest in Yogyakarta

 

Yogyakarta | Thu, July 27, 2017 | 06:00 pm




Dozens of Papuan students stage a rally in support of Obby Kogoya in front of the Yogyakarta District Court on July 27. (JP/Bambang Muryanto)

Obby Kogoya, 22, a Papuan student in Yogyakarta, has been sentenced to jail for resisting arrest by police officers during a protest in July last year.

Yogyakarta District Court sentenced Obby to four months’ imprisonment suspended for one year during a hearing on Thursday. The judges said the Papuan activist was found guilty of committing violence against police officers, a violation Article 212 of the Criminal Code (KUHP).

“The defendant does not need to serve his four-month imprisonment but if he breaks the law during his one-year probation, he must serve his jail sentence,” presiding judge Wiwik Wisnuningdyah said.

Obby, deputy coordinator of the Tolikara Student Group in Yogyakarta, is now the first Papuan student in the City of Students to have received a prison sentence because of political activism.

Obby refused to obey police orders when they asked him to stop his motorcycle on his way to the Kamasan Papuan Student Boarding House compound on Jl. Kusumanegara, Yogyakarta, to attend a peaceful rally to celebrate the Papuan People’s Free Choice (Pepera) anniversary on July 15, 2016.

The sentence was lower than that demanded by prosecutors, who sought a six-month sentence suspended for one year for the Respati Yogyakarta University (Unriyo) student.


Obby, via his lawyer Emanuel Gobay from the Yogyakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH), said he would first consider the sentence before deciding whether to file an appeal. (ebf)







CHILD POVERTY IS THE HIGHEST IN PAPUA AND WEST PAPUA

AdminJul 27, 2017



Jakarta, Jubi – The highest child poverty rates is in the provinces of Papua, West Papua and East Nusa Tenggara, respectively 35.57 percent, 31.03 percent, and 26.42 percent. While the lowest rates were in the provinces of Bali, DKI Jakarta and South Kalimantan, respectively at 5.39 percent, 5.55 percent, and 6.06 percent. This was revealed in the launching of Child Poverty Analysis Book and Deprivation of Basic Rights of Children in Indonesia by BPS (Central Bureau of Statistics) with The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Jakarta, Tuesday (July 25).

 Head of the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) Suhariyanto emphasized the importance of database related to child poverty so that policies taken by the government can be effective to overcome the problem.

According to him, poverty is one of the root causes of children’s obstacles to grow and develop based to their maximum potential. Growing in poverty affects children’s health and nutrition, educational attainment and psychosocial well-being of children.


As of March 2016, the poor population in Indonesia reached 28.01 million people where 40.22 percent of them are children that is 11.26 million of people.

Based on the National Socioeconomic Survey (Susenas) March 2016, nationally, the percentage of poor children in Indonesia is 13.31 percent. Almost half of poor children in Indonesia are in Java, which is 47.39 percent.


Demographics and household characteristics are also very influential with child poverty in Indonesia.  Children living in households with five or more household members are at a higher risk of becoming poor than those living in households with fewer than five households. Child poverty is measured through a broader and mulitidimensional aspect, such as the difficulty of access to adequate housing, nutritionally adequate food, health and education services, and the right to receive birth registration. Head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), Bambang Brodjonegoro, said that sustainable development should start with the children.





Freeport Indonesia mine workers extend strike for fourth month

 JAKARTA/TORONTO (Reuters) - An estimated 5,000 workers at the giant

July 22, 2017

Grasberg copper mine operated by Freeport-McMoRan Inc's (FCX.N) Indonesian unit will extend their strike for a fourth month, a union official said on Friday, in an ongoing dispute over layoffs and employment terms.  The escalating labor issue comes as Freeport, the world's largest publicly traded copper miner, is snarled in a lengthy and costly dispute with Indonesia's government over rights to the Grasberg copper and gold mine. Freeport resumed copper concentrate exports from Grasberg, the world's second-largest copper mine, in April after a 15-week outage related to that row, but a permanent solution is yet to be found. 

Copper prices CMCU3 hit a 4-1/2 month peak on Friday, fueled by strong growth in top consumer China, a weak dollar and worries about supply disruptions. 

Freeport is pushing back against revised government rules that require miners to pay new taxes and royalties, divest a 51-percent stake and relinquish arbitration rights. The Arizona-based miner wants an 'investment stability agreement' that replicates the legal and fiscal rights under its existing agreement. 


Freeport Indonesia union industrial relations officer Tri Puspital told Reuters on Friday that the strike was extended because there is still no solution for worker concerns. The strike began in May after Freeport laid off some 10 percent of its workforce to cut costs. In May, Freeport said that mining and milling rates at Grasberg were affected by the strike, and investors will look for more information when the company reports second-quarter financial results July 25. 

Indonesia said last week it would invite Freeport chief executive Richard Adkerson to Jakarta this month to try to settle a dispute, but a company spokesman would not confirm whether he would attend. Freeport shares were down about 1 percent on New York at $12.93 Friday morning. Reporting by Wilda Asmarini in Jakarta, Susan Taylor in Toronto and Maytaal Angel in London; Editing by Andrea Ricci https://www.reuters.com/article/us-freeport-mcmoran-indonesia-strike-idUSKBN1A61VJ


Global Union Heads for Indonesia for Freeport Worker Cause

 

Representatives from some of the biggest unions in the world are heading to Jakarta to try to pressure Freeport-McMoRan Inc. to reinstate thousands of workers who have lost their jobs and, according to the local union, are now blocked from accessing hospitals, schools and banks.
Officials from Geneva-based IndustriALL Global Union and local unions are scheduled to meet with senior management from Freeport’s Indonesian unit, PT-FI, on Aug. 10, IndustriALL’s Adam Lee said by email.


Workers at Freeport’s flagship mine in Papua province downed tools on May 1 to protest layoffs and enforced furloughs that began during a government-imposed ban on the export of copper concentrate. In June, more than a month after exports had resumed, Freeport confirmed that 4,000 people, including 3,000 permanent workers and 1,000 subcontractors, had been “deemed to have resigned” after not showing up for work. Last month, the local union said about 5,000 workers will extend a strike until the end of August.......


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Fifty years in the making: Refugees in Australia’s first Manus camp offered PNG citizenship


http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/07/14/fifty-years-making-refugees-australias-first-manus-camp-offered-png-citizenship








The re-emergence of old power in Indonesia






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1) ’A Tragic, Forgotten Place.’ Poverty and Death in Indonesia's Land of Gold

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 2) Indonesia’s Unresolved Police Killings in Papua
3) Komnas HAM Condemns Police Shooting Unarmed Civilians in Papua
4) ONEIBO’S VICTIMS SHOT BY LIVE AMMUNITION
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Report includes photos
1) ’A Tragic, Forgotten Place.’ Poverty and Death in Indonesia's Land of Gold


An illegal gold miner sifts through sand and rock as he pans for gold in Timika, Papua Province, Indonesia, on Feb. 4, 2017. Ulet Ifansasti—Getty Images

 
10:11 PM ET

 
When Bardina Degei cooks dinner, she doesn’t use a stove. She rarely even uses a pot. In her wooden home in Enarotali, the capital of Paniai regency in the restive Indonesian province of Papua, the housewife usually just places a sweet potato — known locally as “nota”— directly into the fireplace.

After half-an-hour, the charred tuber is retrieved and devoured with eager, unwashed hands. Degei sits on the mud floor — she has no furniture — which is where she also performs her daily chores, such as washing clothes with murky water from the nearby swamp. A bucket in a roofless room serves as a latrine. As the youngest of her husband’s four wives, she has been assigned no fields to tend. (Polygamy is common here.) Of course, working late can be dangerous: Most of the village men are unemployed and many drink heavily, plus there are the soldiers. “No one dares to walk around the village after 5 p.m.,” she says.

It’s a rare glimpse of daily life in the highlands of Papua, a former Dutch colony that was absorbed into Indonesia in 1969 following a controversial referendum, when just 1,026 elders were forced to vote though a public show of hands before occupying troops. An existing movement agitating for independence against Dutch rule swiftly turned its ire against the Jakarta government, which maintains tight control over the region, barring foreign journalists or rights monitors. In 2003, the province was officially split into Papua and West Papua, with independent Papua New Guinea occupying the eastern part of the island.

Enarotali is as remote as it is desolate; the journey here involves a 90-minute flight from the provincial capital Jayapura to Nabire, and then a stomach-churning five-hour drive by hire car. (There is no public transport.) The town of some 19,000 people consists of wooden houses ringed by bamboo fencing, corrugated iron roofs transformed by rust into varying tawny shades.

 
Very few Indonesians have made the journey here, let alone journalists, and practically no foreigners. Before Christian missionaries arrived, Mee Pago Papuans worshiped a God named Uga Tamee. There were other changes, too. “We were not used to wearing these clothes,” says Degei, indicating her vividly colored, hand-woven turban, dark shirt and a bright skirt. “Before, we only wore leaves on our bodies.”

 
Papua is Indonesia’s poorest province, where 28% of people live below the poverty line and with some of the worst infant mortality and literacy rates in Asia. But it is also Indonesia’s land of gold. The world’s largestand most profitable gold mine, Grasberg, owned by Phoenix-based Freeport McMoran, lies just 60 miles from Paniai, a highland province around the size of New Jersey and home to 153,000 people. In 2015 alone, Freeport mined some $3.1 billion worth of gold and copper here. In addition, Papua boasts timber resources worth an estimated $78 billion.

These riches are, however, a source of misery for Papuans, ensuring Indonesia’s powerful military maintains a suffocating presence. A 2005 investigation in The New YorkTimes reported that Freeport paid local military personnel and units nearly $20 million between 1998 and 2004, including up to $150,000 to a single officer. Papuan calls for greater autonomy threaten this golden goose, and are dealt with mercilessly.

 
 
According to rights activists, more than 500,000 Papuans have been killed, and thousands more have been raped, tortured and imprisoned by the Indonesian military since 1969. Mass killings in Papua's tribal highlands during the 1970s amounted to genocide, according to the Asia Human Rights Commission.

 
Indonesian police arrested more than 3,900 peaceful protesters in the region last year alone. We Will Lose Everything, a 2016 report by the Archdiocese of Brisbane, contains testimony of atrocities committed the previous year, such as extrajudicial executions, torture — rape and electrocution are especially popular, according to another report — and the brutal crushing of peaceful demonstrations. “It’s difficult to count the number of victims as incidents happen every week,” says Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher for Human Rights Watch.

The screws have tightened as Papua’s resources bring an influx of settlers from elsewhere in Indonesia. The province’s 3.5 million population is 83% Christian, but the demographic is changing as Muslim economic migrants arrive from Indonesia’s populous islands of Java, Borneo, Sumatra and Sulawesi. Javanese warung canteens sell fried chicken and gado-gado mixed-vegetables served with peanut sauce. Local people struggle to compete.

“The migrants started to sell chicken and vegetables in the traditional market cheaper than the local Papuans,” explains Abeth You, a 24-year-old Paniai native who moved to the provincial capital Jayapura for work. “It made the native Papuans — the mama-mama [the women] of Papua — lose their market.”

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, vowed to address the inequalities and rights abuses in Papua during his election campaign in 2014. The former carpenter secured 27 of Papua’s total 29 districts — including Paniai — on the way to the Presidential Palace in Jakarta. But precious little has changed in Papua, and today local people feel betrayed.

“Our hearts have been broken because in 2014 we voted for Jokowi, with the expectation that he would fulfill our hopes for justice to be restored,” You says.

 
 
‘It Was Crowded, Many Shots Were Fired’

In fact, Paniai suffered a nadir just two months after Jokowi’s October inauguration. On Dec. 7, 2014 a group of 11 children were outside singing Christmas carols in front of a bonfire in Enarotali when two Indonesian soldiers on a motorbike broke through the gloom. The startled children told them that they should turn on their headlights.

One of the soldiers took umbrage at their tone and later returned with four soldiers, according to local Pastor Yavedt Tebai. The soldiers, who had been drinking, chased and beat the group with their rifle butts, said victims and witnesses. Then one of the soldiers fired into the group of children.

One child, 16-year-old Yulianus Yeimo, was beaten so badly he fell into a coma.

A couple of hours later, the nearby government Election Commission building was set ablaze, and things escalated the following day. About 1,000 young Papuan men, women and children gathered on a soccer field in front of the local police station and military command center to demand justice. They carried ceremonial hunting bows and performed the waita dance — running in circles and simulating birdsong — of Papua’s Mee Pago tribe. Some protesters started hurling stones at police and military posts.

 
As tempers grew more heated, an order was sent to the soldiers through internal radio: “If the masses offer resistance more than three times, shoot them dead,” it said, according to an official document seen by TIME that has not been released to the local media.

Yeremias Kayame, 56, the head of the Kego Koto neighborhood of Enarotali, saw the impending danger and appealed for calm, imploring the crowd to go back home. Nobody was in the mood to listen. “When I turned around I suddenly got shot in my left wrist,” he told TIME on the porch of his brightly painted wooden house.

Kayame still doesn’t know who fired but says the bullet came from the ranks of amassed soldiers. “It was crowded, many shots were fired,” he adds.

 
Local man Alfius Youw was hit three times, according to his cousin who witnessed the shootings. “I ran to him and examined his body to make sure it was him,” Yohanes, who like many Indonesians only goes by one name, told TIME somberly. “I saw he was dead … I kissed him.”

The Papua Police Chief Inspector General Yotje Mende told reporters that his officers were only “securing” their station because it was under attack.

“We have to defend ourselves when people threaten to kill us,” Papua Police spokesperson, Commissioner Pudjo Sulistiyo said in 2015. “It’s a matter of life and death.”

According to Human Rights Watch, five young protesters were killed and many more injured.

‘I’m Afraid of Being Arrested by the Military, Afraid to be Shot’

News of the killings only filtered through to Jakarta the following day. Three weeks later, Jokowi gave an impassioned speech in Jayapura, where he expressed sympathies with the victims’ families and vowed to address the historic abuses in Papua. “I want this case to be solved immediately so it won’t ever happen again in the future,” he said.

Security Minister Wiranto said in October 2016 that he was setting up a non-judicial mechanism to settle historic human-rights violations. But the excuses started almost immediately. "Most of the violations occurred a long time ago. Some were in the '90s and in early 2000s. The point is we are committed to addressing these violations, but there are processes to go through," he said.

Then Wiranto backtracked when speaking to TIME in Jakarta on June 5, saying he has no plans to establish a grievance mechanism in Papua. Instead, “All will be [settled] by law,” he said.

Wiranto, who the U.N. has indicted for “crimes against humanity” relating to more than 1,000 deaths during East Timor's bloody 1999 independence vote, said that 11 cases of human-rights violations in Papua have already been settled, including the Paniai incident.

Families of the Paniai victims greeted such claims with grim incredulity. “I’ve been interviewed four times for the past three years, but there has been no progress at all,” Yohanes says. “I’m tired.”

He says that years later, he still lives in fear. “I’m afraid,” he says. “I’m afraid of being arrested by the military, afraid to be shot.”

His brother Yacobus echoed the view that people in Paniai are fearful of discussing the incident. He says he was beaten by the military after helping to bury four of the victims. “After burying the bodies, the military came looking for me,” he says.

‘A Tragic, Forgotten Place’

The shootings haven't stopped. On Tuesday, Indonesian police shot at villagers in Paniai's neighboring Deiyai regency. One person died and 17 others were wounded, including children, during a confrontation between villagers and the manager of a construction company who refused to help transport an unconscious man to hospital.

The man, 24-year-old Ravianus Douw who drowned while he was fishing in a nearby river, died on the way to hospital. Incensed villagers protested in front of the company's site office. Police said the villagers threw rocks at officers, who responded by firing warning shots. But locals say the mobile brigade (Indonesian paramilitary police) began shooting at the crowd, killing one.

“We were so panicked, we are afraid there will be revenge,” 29-year-old Dominggu Badii, who lives near the hospital and witnessed the injured being hurried in, tells TIME. “I have been hiding in my house for two days."

The Deiyai parliament has called for the officers involved to be held to account and the police mobile brigade to be withdrawn from the area.

Paniai has always been a troublespot for the Indonesian government. The lack of meaningful development feeds the discontent of the tribal Mee, Moni, Dani, and Damal peoples, who live sprawled across Papua’s verdant central highlands. Many joined the Free Papua Movement (OPM), the rebel army that claims to defend the rights of the Papuans by launching sporadic attacks and kidnapping raids on Indonesian soldiers. Some of the top OPM leaders hail from Paniai, including Tadius Yogi and Daniel Yudas Kogoya.

In response, thousands of people in Paniai have been arrested and arbitrarily detained by the military in recent years, under the guise of “safeguarding national sovereignty.” Some never reappear. Among the people of Papua, Paniai is known as “a tragic, forgotten place.”

Poverty feeds the discontent. The little rice on sale in Enarotali is too expensive for locals to buy. Bread is just as out of reach. People here grow everything they eat: mainly nota plus some fruit and leafy vegetables. Farming is the job of the women, who each can maintain four or five fields of the sweet potato. They usually keep most of the harvest for the family, with the rest sold in the local market. Ten pieces of nota cost only 10,000 Indonesian rupiah (75 cents).

Over time, economic inequalities have grown between the native Papuans and the new migrants, who have arrived in greater numbers since the opening of a new air routes to Nabire Airport. What few jobs exist typically go to the better-educated and wealthier migrants. Papuans rarely have the capital or the necessary skills to run their own businesses competitively.

“The young people are not interested to stay in the village ... because there’s no jobs or money here,” says John Gobai, the chairman of the tribal council of Paniai.

‘They Don’t Need Money, They Just Want Justice’

Isolation keeps the world’s eyes off Papua. In addition, reporting restrictions for international media remain tight. Earlier this year, French journalists Franck Escudie and Basille Longchamp were deported from Papua for a “lack of coordination with related institutions” despite having been granted rare permission to film.

According to Phelim Kine, Deputy Asia Director of Human Rights Watch, Jokowi’s election campaign pledges to lift reporting restrictions to boost transparency and development have not been realized. “There are new hazards for foreign journalists attempting to report from Indonesia’s restive easternmost provinces of Papua and West Papua: visa denial and blacklisting,” he said in a statement.

The lack of press scrutiny means international pressure on the Indonesian government has been largely limited to Papua’s immediate neighbors. In March, six Pacific nations — Tonga, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands, and the Solomon Islands — urged the U.N. Human Rights Council to investigate the “various and widespread violations” in Papua, including the Paniai shooting. These same countries have historically backed the OPM.

 
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir shrugged off the group’s allegations, telling journalists in Jakarta, “In Indonesia, a democratic system still applies and there's free media so it’s hard for the evidence of human rights cases to be covered up.”

Local people want more foreign governments to take note. When an official delegation from the Netherlands, headed by the nation’s human rights ambassador Kees Van Baar, visitedJayapura on May 4, local people broke their silence, beseeching, “We want freedom,” according to a source who also attended the meeting but who asked to stay anonymous.

Indonesia has another presidential election in 2019, but Papuans say they are unlikely to vote again for Jokowi. “Jokowi is a person who has good intentions, but he is surrounded by the people who are involved in the Paniai shooting,” says Gobai, the tribal council chairman.

He wants Jokowi to know that the Paniai people, aside from living under the looming threat of a rapacious military, wallow in destitution, with paltry education and health services.

Gobai says the Paniai people, like other Papuans, consider their vote to Jokowi as a “debt” he must repay. “They don’t need money, they just want justice,” he says.

Despite the threats and intimidation, families of the Paniai shooting victims carried out one last symbolic act of defiance: burying one victim's body on land just opposite the police and military station. Knowing that justice may never be served, at least they won't let those responsible forget their crimes. “A member of our family has been killed,” says Yacobus, head bowed. “What else could we do?”


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August 3, 2017 4:47PM EDT

 2) Indonesia’s Unresolved Police Killings in Papua
Media Access Restrictions Compound Accountability Deficit

Indonesia Researcher

 
The police account of the incident is that police opened fire using rubber bullets on rock-throwing protesters who “ran amok” and ignored repeated demands to disperse. Police say that three other protesters were wounded in the incident allegedly sparked by the refusal of PT Putra Dewa Paniai construction company workers to transport a local villager to a hospital.

Papuan villagers have a different story. They say that the police opened fire on the protesters without warning and that, in addition to killing Pigai, wounded seven people, including two children. Papuan social media is rife with photographs of shell casings allegedly found at the site, implying that police fired live rounds rather than rubber bullets. Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights (KOMNAS HAM) has announced an investigation.

We will probably never know what really happened in Deiyai. That’s because the government obstructs the watchdog function of a free press by severely restricting access for foreign media to Papua despite a May 2015 pledge by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to lift those restrictions. Indonesian journalists in Papua, particularly native Papuans, who dare to report on “sensitive” topics, including security forces’ abuses are highly vulnerable to official harassment, intimidation and violence. The result: competing allegations of official wrongdoing about security force violence that are immune to media scrutiny.

Papuans have learned that official promises of independent investigations by agencies including KOMNAS HAM go nowhere. Exhibit A is the official response to the December 8, 2014 security force killing of five Papuan youths in Enarotali in Papua’s Paniai regency. Despite three separate official investigations into the shootings, bolstered by Jokowi’s December 2014 pledge to thoroughly investigate and punish security forces implicated in those deaths, there has been zero accountability.

On Wednesday, the English-language Jakarta Post newspaper published an editorial, “Open Papua to the World.” The editorial argued for lifting media restrictions in Papua stating, “By maintaining this restriction, the government is operating like a paranoid regime, afraid the outside world may find the skeletons it hides in its closet.” Until the government follows that advice, killings of Papuans such as Yulius Pigai will continue without accountability.

Correction

An earlier version of this Dispatch misspelled the first name of the victim. The Dispatch has been changed to reflect this.

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 FRIDAY, 04 AUGUST, 2017 | 13:32 WIB
3) Komnas HAM Condemns Police Shooting Unarmed Civilians in Papua

TEMPO.COJakarta - The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has condemned police shooting of unarmed civilians in Deiyai, Papua, on Tuesday, August 1. President Joko Widodo is urged to address the conflict in Papua.
“Komnas HAM strongly condemned the shooting incident,” Komnas HAM commissioner Maneger Nasution said in a written statement received by Tempo yesterday, August 3.
Papua Police spokesperson said that the incident started when locals attacked a construction camp in Tiga Selatan District, Papua. The police who guarded the area later fired warning shots that hit the residents.
The commissioner has called for a professional and independent police investigation. “Whoever did it, whatever the motive was, and whoever the intellectual actor was, must be held responsible,” he said.
Maneger has also urged President Joko Widodo to take more serious actions to resolve conflicts in Papua, to take the initiative and lead the investigation into cases of human rights abuse in Papua.
Komnas Ham said that the cases ought to be resolved through dialogue in a peaceful, comprehensive and dignified manner.
EGI ADYATAMA
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4) ONEIBO’S VICTIMS SHOT BY LIVE AMMUNITION

DEIYAI, JUBI – AS POLICE QUOTED BY VARIOUS MASS MEDIA SAYING THE BULLETS THAT HIT SOME VICTIMS IN ONEIBO VILLAGE, TIGI DISTRICT, DEIYAI REGENCY, PAPUA WERE RUBBER BULLETS, THE WITNESSES AND DOCTORS IN DEIYAI HOSPITAL ARGUED DIFFERENTLY, SINCE THE REALITY PROVES OTHERWISE.

“This is a 5.56 PIN caliber bullet, not a rubber bullet, dont slip the tongue, it’s live ammunition, this is the proof,” Elias Pakage, one of the victims’ families showed the bullets to Jubi reporter in Deiyai ​​Hospital emergency room, Wednesday (August 2).
He said, he has the evidence and will keep them properly for law enforcement purposes. “This is 5.56 PIN calibers. Who is this belongs to? ZThe police or mobile brigade police?” he asked.

Elias claimed to know about bullets because he was a former soldier. He asked the Police leadership not to make things up by issuing unfounded statements.
He mentioned the name of Regional Papua Police’s speaker which he thought was deceived by his own men.
“Head of Public Relations of Papua Police, should see himself first before he talked to the mass media, I think he was cheated by his men in the field,” he said.
Doctor Selvius Ukago, head of the Deiyai ​​hospital admitted that he had seen evidence brought by the community when the victims were delivered.


"The bullet in my victim’s body has not been seen because we could not conduct operation, but I see the bullet proof brought by the public that is a 5.56 PIN caliber,” he said.
Previously, Head of Public Relations of Papua Police, Pol Kombes Ahmad Kamal said that only rubber bullets (rekoset) were used by police and Brimob in Deiyai shooting ​​ and the warning shot into the air was ignored by the masses. Kabid Humas also said no casualties were killed. But in fact, a victim died only 10 minutes after being brought to the hospital.
Meanwhile, the body of Yulianus Pigai, the victim killed by shootings, was placed in the core of Tigi Police Station in Wednesday (2/8/2017) morning by the family. The action was a symbol of protest against the sooting by the police and brimob.
The victim’s family, Elias Pakage, said the body might not be buried if there was no serious response from the police and Brimob, and PT. Dewa Putera Paniai, the company who invited the apparatus to disperse the citizens.
“We will leave the body of Yulianus here alone, he will not be buried, let them (the police) ’eat the corps’, they (the police) killed because they want to eat him,” shouted Elias Pakage in front of Mapolsek Tigi, on Wednesday (2/8/2017).
Regional aassistant of Deiyai government, Simon Mote said, in order to solve the problem he has invited the families of victims and officials to find a solution for the corpse to be buried.
“We mediate with the families of the victims first. It is not good to let the corpse decompose in front of the the station, we will talk about it,” said Simon Mote.
“We public  all to stay calm and find a solution whether to bury him at home or public graveyards, where it is important to save the soul and body of this deceased, let him rest in peace,” he said.
Deiyai’s chief tribe, Frans Mote, said the protest want to tell public and demand the police to have an understanding that man is a creation of God, who cannot be killed carelessly.
“We are both human, created by God, why there is a shooting to kill the victim again. That is why the people put the body in front of the polcie station. Weshould immediately find a solution. The obvious thing is the police and Brimob officers under the leadership of Tigi police chief, should be responsible,” he said.
Until the news is written, reportedly the body of Yulianus Pigai is finally buried by the family in his home village, on Thursday (August 3). (*)
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1) Shooting in Deiyai, Haluk: Colonial Face For 56 Years

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2) MANY HEAVY EQUIPMENTS HIDDEN INSIDE OIL PALM PLANTATION

3) JAYAPURA FLOODED
4) NEEDED, REGULATION OF INDIGENOUS PAPUAN WORKERS IN BUSINESS

5) Papua to hold Baliem Valley Festival
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A google translate. Be-aware google translate can be a bit erratic.
Original bahasa link at
1) Shooting in Deiyai, Haluk: Colonial Face For 56 Years
By Suara Papua - August 4, 201701

JAYAPURA, SUARAPAPUA.com - The shooting incident against Papuan civilians in Kampung Oneibo, Deiyai ​​District, Papua, Tuesday (1/8/2017) and then, part of the series of genocide by the colonial state through armed forces.
This statement was made by Markus Haluk, a young Papuan figure, who admitted he was very disappointed with the brutal actions of Brimob and Tigi police attacked the residents with "rain of bullets" at the camp site of PT. Son of the God of Papua.
"What happened to the people of Papua in Deiyai ​​yesterday August 1, 2017, is the face of colonial Indonesia that continues to happen during the 56 years annexation of Papua. Indonesia has and continues to perpetrate human rights violations on the people of Papua which resulted in the genocide process, "he said through a press release sent to the editor of suarapapua.com, Friday afternoon.
Haluk did not forget to express their sorrow for the death of the victims as a result of the shootings by members of the police and Brimob Indonesia.
"To the victim who is undergoing treatment, I pray and hope it will be recovered quickly through the current medication."
In response to the bloody tragedy, Haluk asked the UN Human Rights Council members to hold a special session to form an independent investigative team to investigate indications of genocide in the Papuan people of Melanesia in West Papua from 1963-2017.
He also revealed his assessment of the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Ir. Joko Widodo during the period of leadership.
"The president has failed to solve political and human rights problems in Papua. During the 34 months of its leadership, violence after violence continued in Papua. The life expectancy of the Papuan people on their land is at its lowest point, "he said.
Therefore, Haluk emphasized, "In line with the preamble of the 1945 Constitution, Pancasila and international instruments, it is now time to recognize the right of self-determination for the Papuan people."
He continued to hope for the support of people's prayers and solidarity from the Pacific (Melanesia, Polynesia, Micronesia, Australia), the people of Indonesia, Asia, Europe, America, Latin America, Africa, the Carribea to save the remaining 1.5 million Papuans as well as the exercise of self- Papuans.
Pewarta: CR-3 / SP

Editor: Arnold Belau
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2) MANY HEAVY EQUIPMENTS HIDDEN INSIDE OIL PALM PLANTATION
Jayapura, Jubi – According to the Provincial Revenue Management Board (Bapenda) of Papua Province, many contractors are hiding their heavy equipment inside palm oil plantations to avoid paying taxes.
Gerson Jitmau, Head of Bapenda said that in general, those contractors who usuallly do not pay the heavy equipment tax are engaged in mining, road and palm oil infrastructure development.
“We will withhold the contractor’s permission which is proven not to pay the tax on heavy equipment operating in Papua,” Gerson told reporters in Jayapura on Wednesday (August 2).
According to him, Bapenda has formed a team of builder consist of police and prosecutors, who served to look for the owners of heavy equipment that does not pay taxes in the field.
“The team, chaired by the Regional Secretary of Papua, based at regional police office will record the contractors who do not pay taxes,” he said.
In response, Gerson appealed to corporate leaders to be obedient in paying heavy equipment taxes. The government will provide strict sanctions for any taxpayers who are reluctant to pay.
This is one of the efforts to increase local revenue, he said.
Meanwhile, Assistant for Economic Affairs and People’s Welfare of Papua, Elia Loupatty asked Bapenda Papua to improve its performance, especially in terms of tax levies.
“Even the smallest amount of taxes should be collected, received and managed well,” said Elia as he also appealed the taxpayers to not forget paying theirtaxes according to the rules applied.(*)

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3) JAYAPURA FLOODED
Sentani, Jubi – The impact of heavy rain since Wednesday night (August 2) the City of Jayapura and surrounding areas are flooded, a number of public facilities inundated with water and sand material, and trees are float drifted by flood.
The highway from Sentani to Waena is filled with sand and stone materials and mud. This resulted in hundreds of vehicles from Sentani direction to Waena forced to make a long line of queues on the street. The same thing happened in Kampung Harapan and Nendali East Sentani roads.
Yorgen a resident who are cleaning the pile of material said that the material descended from the mountain due to the rain poured the city of Sentani since the night.

“So the rain starts to fall at night around 21.00. Later at dawn at around 03:00 in the morning rain started heavily,” said Yorgen in Sentani, Thursday (August 3).
Purnomo, retailer of gasoline at Sentani-Waena road segment admits that heavy rains are usually brought down material from the mountains.
“A few weeks ago it was like this, the materials from the mountain brought down all the way to the highway and caused the traffic flow to be interrupted, forced the vehicle to Waena and Sentani to queue while waiting for the road to be cleared,” he said.
Not only in Sentani and Waena, Jayapura City was flooded with water since early in the morning. Entrop to Autonomous Roads are flooded to the level of adult waist. As a result, the street is disconnected. Most of the vehicles switched to alternative way.
Head of Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) Jayapura City Bernard Lamia admitted that the current flood have inundated a number of areas around the city. According to him, the worst part is in Entrop Southern Jayapura, Abepura District, Youtefa Market and Organda.
“Even the water level has reached about one meter so there are some locations where the residents have to be evacuated,” said Lamia, as quoted by Antara, while promising to provide rubber boat assistance to BPBD Papua.
The government has not built a good drainage to accommodate the flow of water when the rains come. So it caused the water overflowed into the road and make traffic congestion and piles of material waste from the mountain. (*)
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4) NEEDED, REGULATION OF INDIGENOUS PAPUAN WORKERS IN BUSINESS
Wamena, Jubi – Jayawijaya Regency’s government together with provincial government of Papua are formulating special regulations to provide job opportunities for indigenous Papuan (OAP) job seekers especially in Jayawijaya.
Head of Manpower, Industry and Trade Department of Jayawijaya Regency, Semuel Munua said that they are now discussing it with investors operating in Jayawijaya.
“We want to make a regulation that will be published in the regent’s decree for the utilization of local personnel, because we see that in retails andcontractors sector are rarely use indigenous Papuans labors,” Munua told reporters in Wamena, Wednesday (August 2).
For that the government facilitate a meeting with hoteliers, restaurants and kiosks, which Semuel hopes to have input on labor issues in Jayawijaya.
“We will also provide training for job seekers, so that employment providers can accommodate Papuan labor,” he said. He added that there is a need for regular training for indigenous job seekers so that they can compete with migrant job seekers.
Meanwhile, Head of Subdivision of Working Conditions of Papua Province, Melky Bosawer explained, this is in accordance with the Law no. 13/2003 on employment, and the government’s duty is to conduct technical assistance and training on management of the company or employees regarding the recruitment of manpower.
For local workers employed in each company in Papua alone, according to Melky the presentation in is unstable because every year there are changes that makes regulation of each district is also different.
“We also expect the regent’s policy so that there is a regulation in order to train indigenous Papuans,” he said.(*)


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5) Papua to hold Baliem Valley Festival
Jakarta | Fri, August 4, 2017 | 01:13 pm
Papua is set to hold the Baliem Valley Festival from August 8 to 11 in Baliem Valley, Jayawijaya Mountains.
With the theme 'Art of Dance & War', the festival will showcase the Papuan war tradition and traditional dances including the War Dance.
“The War Dance is a hundred years old dance, visitors can take part in the dance if they want to,” said Tourism Minister Arief Yahya.

Some of the Papuan tribes such as Dani, Yali and Yani will take part in the festival where they will perform a mock tribal war battle.
The traditional festival that was first held in 1989 is very popular among travel photographers from abroad.
“Visitors can also directly interact with the indigenous people of Papua and there are plenty of beautiful sceneries that you can enjoy there,” added the Ministry's Archipelago Marketing Development deputy, Esthy Reko Astuti.
Other activities that will be presented at the festival include traditional music performance using Pikon, karapan babi (pig races), theater performance, arrow and spear competition, Sikiki and Puradaan game, cooking demo and handicraft exhibition.
Not only famous for its beautiful scenery and interesting tradition, Baliem Valley is also the place where visitors can see mummies. Three mummies are preserved in Kurulu District, another three are preserved in Assologaima District and one is preserved in Kurima District.
These mummies are the bodies of previous tribal chiefs and commanders of the Dani tribe, the majority tribe in Wamena. They are being preserved using a traditional method and can last up to hundreds of years. (asw)
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1) Workers' lives be damned as Trump seeks to milk Papua New Guinea gold mines

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2) People "sad and worried" after shooting death in West Papua
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1) Workers' lives be damned as Trump seeks to milk Papua New Guinea gold mines

He focuses on extractive industries with disregard for human rights

Alec Dubro | FPIF 

The is a massive scar 14,000 feet atop West Papua’s part of New Guinea’s Central Cordillera. It’s is the world’s biggest, most profitable gold mine and the world’s third biggest copper mine, with estimated reserves of $100 billion.

Some 20,000 people work there, making it the largest employer on the divided island and the largest source of revenue in all of  Many of those engaged in the dangerous work of mining come from the 40,000-year-old indigenous community of New Guinea, a people the Indonesian authorities are slowly pushing into non-existence.

In 1962, the Indonesians, with the connivance of the US, grabbed the western half of  Since then, the destruction of the environment and the local communities has advanced as Indonesians displace the indigenous population and scramble over valuable resources. Although has barred a full accounting, there have been hundreds of thousands of deaths—many in the most brutal and deliberate fashion.

Responsibility for the destruction and slow now rests securely with the Indonesian government. But the continues to defer to its ally in the same way it does to, say, Saudi Arabia: in short, weak complaints and no action.
But to see how the current administration does bring its power to bear on Indonesia, let’s turn to yet another scandal involving  Last April 20, made an unexpected trip to where he discussed one pressing matter of business with his hosts: The in 

Right now, is grappling with the mine owners and operators, Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan, trying to abrogate a treaty from the Suharto era that ceded control to the Americans. Jakarta has wrested 50 percent of the mine. Now it and wants it all, essentially threatening to expropriate Grasberg, which is the largest source of income in all of 

Enter  Unlike the previous president, Trump never lived there nor does he speak Indonesian. But he does own two hotel projects going up in Java and Bali. And Trump is working in partnership with Indonesian billionaire, Hary Tanoesoedibjo, known in the media as Hary Tanoe or, simply, Hary. He’s also known as the Indonesian 

According to Forbes, Tanoe “built his fortune—estimated $1.1 billion—in real estate and media on a mountain of debt. He tweets nonstop to more than 1 million followers. He stages beauty pageants. He loves reality TV. He has a glamorous wife.” And Tanoe’s considering a run for the presidency. Trump and Tanoe are close enough that the Indonesian attended Trump’s inauguration, even as he remains embroiled in a series of scandals and fights with the government.

But Trump is more directly tied to Grasberg through billionaire wheeler-dealer Carl Icahn. The former corporate raider is Trump’s good friend and, according to Trump, one of “the great businessmen of the world.” In January, Trump named Icahn “special adviser to the president on regulatory reform.” Although the role has no official standing, it worked magic for Icahn: his oil company, CVR, “saved about $60 million in the first quarter because of expectations that the federal government will ease a regulation involving renewable fuels.”

More to the point, Icahn is also the largest shareholder in with 91.6 million shares worth over $1 billion, or 6.33 percent of total shares. When Jakarta moves to weaken Freeport, Icahn’s stake sinks.

So, it’s not entirely surprising that Pence was on assignment for Trump, Inc. And within hours after Pence departed, Jakarta relented… somewhat. Freeport McMoRan was granted a six-month reprieve from takeover. Freeport wasn’t entirely happy, but it had benefited from a presidential intervention.

The ongoing scandal, though, isn’t the machinations of Trump and Jakarta. Rather it’s the reluctance—bordering on refusal—of Washington to do anything effective to alleviate the and destruction in 

There have been some past efforts: USAID projects in West Papua, notations by the State Department in its reports, occasional congressional hearings. But all are constrained by the geopolitical relationship with, ironically, the world’s largest Muslim nation.

Washington needed an anti-communist during the Cold War—which led to the Sukarno massacres of 1965. And Washington now needs as a defence against China. The lives of the Papuan people are simply an inconvenient obstacle. Trump, Icahn, and Freeport will play their games, but the Pentagon will ultimately prevail.
Alec Dubro is a writer based in Washington, DC.


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2) People "sad and worried" after shooting death in West Papua

From 5:04 am on 4 August 2017  
A relative of villagers in Indonesia's Papua region caught up in a fatal police shooting says they're calling for the police to take responsibility for the incident.
Amatus Douw's relatives were among victims shot in a confrontation with paramilitary police in the Deiyai district on Tuesday.
According to reports, one man is dead and up to 16 people have been injured.
Tabloid Jubi reported the security forces were called to deal with a group who were complaining a company hadn't assisted when a man needed help to get a dying man to hospital.

Mr Douw is a pro-independence activist for West Papua and lives in Australia after obtaining political asylum in 2006.
He has been in contact with his family and said the dead man's body was placed in front of the police office in Deiyai after the shooting.

1) UN urged by Vanuatu to act on West Papua human rights

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2) FREEPORT SAYS IT IS READY TO PAY THE WATER TAX DEBT
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UN urged by Vanuatu to act on West Papua human rights
Vanuatu has urged the United Nations to take action on Indonesian human rights abuses in West Papua.
Speaking during a debate of the UN general assembly in New York, a Vanuatu representative said his government continued to receive reports of human rights violations in Papua.
Setareki Waqanitoga said hundreds of Papuans were recently arrested by Indonesian police for holding peaceful demonstrations.
Mr Waqanitoga welcomed acknowledgement of the Papua situation by UN Special Rapporteurs on basic rights.
But he called on the UN Human Rights Council to do more.
"We call on the council to work with the Indonesian government to allow the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression to visit West Papua to get the objective and independent view of the situation on the ground in that region," he said.
"(We) also call on the government of Indonesia to grant free and full access of international journalists to West Papua, and allow a human rights fact-finding mission by the Pacific Islands Forum to visit West Papua."

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2) FREEPORT SAYS IT IS READY TO PAY THE WATER TAX DEBT

Jayapura, Jubi – PT Freeport Indonesia declared its willingness to implement the result of Tax Court Decision Number Put-70853 / PPMXVB / 24/2017 dated January 18, 2017 ie paying Water Tax to the Government of Papua Province amounting to Rp5.3 trillion.
The agreement was reached in a meeting of Facilitating Payment of Surface Water Tax (PAP) of Tax Court Result between the Provincial Government of Papua and PT Freeport Indonesia, which was facilitated by the Directorate General of MoHA Regional Finance Development on Friday (4/8/2017) in Jakarta.
“The most important point formulated as a result of this meeting is that in the near future, Freeport must meet with the Governor of Papua to discuss payment in stages, as long as it is not contrary to the legislation and Court Decisions,” said Head of the Papua Regional Revenue Management Agency, Gerson Jitmau in a press release in Jayapura, Sunday (6/8/2017).
The first point of the three contents of the agreement stipulates that Freeport is obliged to pay the Surface Water Surface Tax (PAP) from 2011 to July 2017, including administrative sanctions in the form of a 100 percent penalty of the total tax based on appeal in accordance with Law No.14 / 2002.
According to him, the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Home Affairs has confirmed, there are no longer negotiating meetings in Jakarta because the tax court decision has been fixed with permanent legal force.
“So Freeport must immediately coordinate with the Governor of Papua to make the payment.” It’s been 50 years since it operates, so Freeport should not neglect its obligation because it is also to support the will and welfare of the people of Papua, “said Jitmau.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Commission III of the Papua Parliament, Carolus Bolly, appreciated all parties who were quite persistent in fighting for the right of the Papuan people, approximately three years, in the case of the PAP dispute. He also hopes the PTFI receive and run the agreement together.
Previously, in February 2017, Papua Governor Lukas Enembe asked PT Freeport Indonesia to implement the Indonesian Tax Court’s decision regarding the payment of surface water taxes, but it was ignored.
PTFI’s tax lawsuit was filed by the Papua Government to collect PT Freeport’s tax-paying shortfall as submitted by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) in its audit results, which questioned PTFI’s tax-paying shortfall on surface water used from 2011 to 2015.
The local government then sent a letter to Freeport to immediately settle the tax shortfall, but PTFI rejected it and filed a lawsuit with the Indonesian Tax Court.
“Praise God, the lawsuit was rejected. Well now it must be resolved, “said the Governor. (*)

Editor: Zely Ariane
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1) Police chief dismissed following deadly shooting in Deiyai

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2) Indonesia's environment minister proposes meeting to tackle forest fires
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1) Police chief dismissed following deadly shooting in Deiyai
Jayapura | Mon, August 7, 2017 | 06:32 pm
Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Pol Boy Rafli Amar has stripped First. Insp. HM. Raini of his position as Tigi Police chief following a fatal shooting incident implicating police personnel in Deiyai regency, Papua, on Aug. 1.
Yulianus Pigai, 28, was found dead with several gunshot wounds to his body while at least nine others sustained injuries when police personnel tried to disperse an angry crowd that had destroyed a construction camp of a contractor firm near the Oneibo River.
Boy has also retracted the Mobile Brigade (Brimob) personnel from Tigi.
“They will arrive in [provincial capital of] Jayapura today for further investigation at the Papua Police headquarters. A new Tigi Police chief will be installed in the next few days,” the former National Police spokesman said in Jayapura on Monday.
An investigation team led by Papua Police’s internal affairs division head has been scheduled to hold a case screening with the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to examine facts and evidence, Boy added.
On Sunday night, civil societies and activists held a candle light vigil at the Perumnas II Waena residential complex in Jayapura as an expression of concern over the incident.
“The shooting has tarnished Indonesia’s independence day that will be celebrated this month,” rally coordinator Abner Waine said.
Timika Bishop John Saklil also condemned the shooting, calling it an abuse of state apparatus to attack civilians and a cruel crime against humanity.
“All perpetrators must be held to account and tried in the human rights court,” he said. (bbs)

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http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/indonesia-s-environment-minister-proposes-meeting-to-tackle-9100748
2) Indonesia's environment minister proposes meeting to tackle forest fires

AKARTA: Indonesia may soon hold a coordination meeting to tackle the forest fires in various parts of the country, according to Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar.
Local news portal detik.com quoted Siti Nurbaya as saying she proposed the meeting to President Joko Widodo after meeting him at the Presidential Palace on Monday (Aug 7).
"I will follow this up with the Cabinet Secretary,” she said. “I will immediately send out the letters to ask for a coordination meeting with all the heads of districts, especially in the fire-prone areas."
Authorities have detected an increase in the number of hotspots in Indonesia's eastern most province of Papua. The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said satellite images on Monday showed 93 hotspots in Papua, up from just seven the day before.
In a statement on Monday, BNPB said most of the forest fires occurred in the regencies of Merauke and Mappi.
Across Indonesia, a total of 158 hotspots were detected on Monday, down from 282 on Sunday. A substantial decrease in hotspots in fire-prone provinces like South Sumatra and Riau was also recorded.
There were only two hotspots in South Sumatra recorded on Monday, down from 23 on Sunday, while in Riau 1 hotspots was counted – down from 16 the day before.
"The number of hotspots from forest fires continue to fluctuate. Rain and firefighting efforts in Sumatra and Kalimantan have helped reduce the hotspots," said BNPB's spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho.
Source: CNA/ek
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/indonesia-s-environment-minister-proposes-meeting-to-tackle-9100748

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1) Local police chief in Papua loses stripes after fatal shooting

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1) Local police chief in Papua loses stripes after fatal shooting
2) Officials meet to prepare for Pacific Forum summit
3) PAPUAN ENVIRONMENTALIST, ALEX WAISIMON AWARDED WITH KALPATARU
4) PAPUA REGIONAL POLICE: BRIMOB RESPONSIBLE FOR DEIYAI’S SHOOTING

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1) Local police chief in Papua loses stripes after fatal shooting
A local police chief in Indonesia's Papua has been stripped of his position following last week's fatal shooting in Deiyai Regency.
Yulianus Pigai died and and up to 16 others were injured when police tried to disperse an angry crowd that had destroyed a construction camp in the area.
The incident followed the death of a local villager who had needed help from the construction firm to get to hospital.
The Jakarta Post reported the Tigi Police chief N. Raini had been stripped of his position and Mobile Brigade personnel had been recalled from the area.
The paper reported an investigation team led by Papua Police's internal affairs division head was investigating with the National Commission for Human Rights.
According to the Jayapura-based news agency Tabloid Jubi the police have apologised and weapons of the officers involved have been confiscated.
"Papua Police apologized for the incident in Deiyai, we apologize to the people of Papua, especially the families of the people who were hit by officers," Papua Police Chief Inspector General Boy Rafli Amar told the agency.
Civil society groups and activists held a candle light vigil in Jayapura on Sunday night to express concern over the incident.
The Jakarta Post reported Timika Bishop John Saklil also condemned the shooting, calling it an abuse of state apparatus to attack civilians and a cruel crime against humanity.
"All perpetrators must be held to account and tried in the human rights court," he said.

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2) Officials meet to prepare for Pacific Forum summit
The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat is counting down to its 48th leaders' summit next month in Apia with a series of meetings for government officials this week in Samoa.
The two-day Forum Officials Committee meeting begins on Tuesday, which sets the agenda for the leaders to discuss.
Officials from the Small Island States are also meeting to look at progress on the five priority areas identified at last year's leaders' meeting in Palau.
There'll also be a meeting of the Forum's 14 countries who are members of the African Caribbean and Pacific group of nations that receives aid and development assistance from the European Union.
A key matter for that group to discuss is the establishment of a new deal to succeed the Cotonou Agreement, the funding arrangement which expires in 2020.
Foreign ministers will also meet to discuss working together to advance the Forum's foreign policy priorities and to strengthen the voice of the Pacific in international affairs.

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3) PAPUAN ENVIRONMENTALIST, ALEX WAISIMON AWARDED WITH KALPATARU


Sentani, Jubi – One of the 10 recipients of Kalpataru’s top award of fighter and environmentalist 2017, Alex Waisimon, emphasized that saving the cenderawasih is directly related to forest protection.
Alex Waisimon is the driving force of the Isyo Hills Nature Lover Group of Repang Muaif Village in Nimbokrang District of Jayapura Regency, which protects the forest area around Isyo’s of 19 Ha.
“Endemic animals such as Cenderawasih (bird of paradise) are in this guarded forest, (because) it has been around for so long that we have to protect them from irresponsible hands,” Alex Waisimon told Jubi on Thursday (August 3) and explained that within the forest there are tens to hundreds of endemic Papuan animals.

Alex received the award directly from President Joko Widodo in Jakarta (2/8).
Alex admitted he deeply moved by the award given by the President of the Republic of Indonesia.
“In the future there will be more Papuan people who have to get this award … and for that it needs hard work,” he said, hoping that what he received would becomes the motivation for all people in Papua, specifically Jayapura Regency.(*)
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4) PAPUA REGIONAL POLICE: BRIMOB RESPONSIBLE FOR DEIYAI’S SHOOTING

Jayapura, Jubi – Papua Regional Police pledged to guard the completion of the shooting incident case in Kampung Oneibo, Deiyai ​​Regency Papua and to settle the case according to legal procedure.
This was conveyed by criminal investigation directorate of Papua Police, Kombes Pol Henri Simanjuntak before conducted crime scene in Kampung Oneibo, Saturday (August 5).
“Brimob (police mobile brigade squad) has also claimed that the gunmen are their members, this mean that they are open. So let’s work together to get the process done,” he said.
He claimed that the police did not conceal the embarrassing event, let alone the incident happened with many people witnesses.
Deiyai ​​parliament member Alfred Pakage on the occasion asserted that for the future there could be no more shooting of his people, because God created man in the world to protect and care for each other.
“My people should not be killed. There should be no shooting instructions. I am very sad; my people were killed like animals,” he said.
He warned Human right commission (komnas ham) of Papuan Representatives who conduct investigation to be serious about handling the case until it goes to the court.
Brimob firing within 15 meters
On a separate occasion, Head of Oneibo Village, Marius Pakage told Jubi that the Brimob officers who shot civilians in Deiyai ​​shot them within 15 meters.
“After shooting dead, the Brimob says ‘where do your weapons?’ Brimob fired at a distance of 15 meters. When the shootings, I stand in between the children (shooting casualties) and Brimob then I lift my hands as a peace sign. At that time I wear my clothing complete with Garuda (Indonesia official symbol of state),” explained Marius Pakage who is also one of the victim witnesses in the incident.
He recounted, the Brimob who were then using the complete attribute (black shirt) came from the side of PT. Dewa corporate camp. Then, they turned back with patrol vehicles (four cars), one truck, one Hilux double gardan car owned by the company.
Shortly thereafter, the shooting took place. The shooting did not aimed to the air because he felt some guns pointing at him. So did the children standing around him.
“Suddenly I see the children were falling, some of them ran to the water to col their wounded bodies from  the heat out of the bullets,” he explained. (*)
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Jokowi’s Political Prisoner Problem

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https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/08/09/jokowis-political-prisoner-problem

Jokowi’s Political Prisoner Problem

Andreas Harsono 
Indonesia Researcher
The Indonesian government has been doing something remarkable over the past year with its political prisoners in Papua and West Papua provinces: Releasing them.

There are currently only between one and five Papuan political prisoners behind bars compared to a tally of 37 at the end of August 2016, according to Human Rights Watch sources. The exact number of Papuan political prisoners still in prison is uncertain because the Ministry of Law and Human Rights has declined to respond to a Human Rights Watch request for an official total of those prisoners.

The Ministry’s reticence to confirm that reduction is curious, not just because it means freedom for dozens of Papuans unfairly prosecuted and imprisoned for merely exercising their rights of freedom of expression and association. It also indicates that President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is making good on a pledge to release Papuan political prisoners as a means “to stop the stigma of conflict in Papua.”

In May 2015 Jokowi took the unprecedented step for an Indonesian head of state to personally present clemency documents authorising the release of five Papuan political prisoners at Abepura prison in Papua’s provincial capital of Jayapura. At that ceremony, he announced that the release of those prisoners was “just the beginning” of an official effort to empty Papua’s prisons of political prisoners, with an aim to “create a sense of peace in Papua.”

Six months later, the government released Filep Karma, a Papuan political prisoner who became an international symbol of the Indonesian government’s abuse of Papuans’ rights of freedom of expression and association. Karma has noted that the release of Papuan political prisoners is the result of targeted legal mechanisms, including clemency and sentence reductions, that previous Indonesian administrations had generally denied Papuan political prisoners.

The Indonesian government has legitimate security concerns in Papua stemming from the ongoing, low-intensity conflict with the armed separatist Free Papua Movement (Organisasi Papua Merdeka or OPM). But the government’s disproportionate response to that threat has included decades-long restrictions on access to Papua by foreign media, academics, and observers as well as a failure by security forces to distinguish between violent acts and peaceful expression of political views.

Unfortunately, Jokowi’s moves to purge Indonesia’s prisons of Papuan political prisoners will prove short-lived unless the government abolishes the abusive laws against makar, or treason, that put those prisoners behind bars in the first place. The government has long wielded Articles 106 and 110 of the Indonesian Criminal Code to impose multi-decade prison terms on peaceful protesters advocating independence or other political change. Many such arrests and prosecutions are of activists who peacefully raise banned symbols, such as the Papuan Morning Star and the South Moluccan RMS flags. (Human Rights Watch takes no position on the right to self-determination, but opposes imprisonment of people who peacefully express support for self-determination.)



And Papuans have a lot to complain about in terms of a lack of accountability for decades of abuses by the security forces. Heavy-handed responses to peaceful activities have resulted in numerous human rights violations.

Over the past decade, Human Rights Watch has documented dozens of cases in which police, military, intelligence officers, and prison guards have used unnecessary or excessive force when dealing with Papuans exercising their rights to peaceful assembly and association. Although the government announced in April 2016 the creation of a task force to develop a roadmap to investigate and resolve more than a dozen Papua’s most serious past human rights abuses, it has failed to provide it with the authority and funding to do so.

And the Jokowi government has itself failed miserably to provide accountability for more recent abuses. Exhibit A is the December 8, 2014 killing by security forces of five Papuan youths in Enarotali in Paniai regency of Papua. Despite three separate official investigations into the shootings—bolstered by Jokowi’s December 2014 pledge to thoroughly investigate and punish security forces implicated in those deaths—there has to date been zero accountability. And despite official pledges of a thorough probe into the August 1, 2017 police killing of 28-year-old Yulius Pigai of West Papua’s remote Deiyai regency, we will likewise probably never know the circumstances of his death.

Meanwhile, Jokowi is turning a blind eye to the plight of Indonesia’s other political prisoners, from Ambon in the Moluccas (Maluku) archipelago. A total of 13 Moluccan political prisoners, the last of 28 prisoners convicted for treason for performing a protest dance in June 2007, remain behind bars in the prisons of Nusa Kambangan and Porong on Java, roughly 3,000 kilometres from Ambon. That distance, and the onerous financial expense of travel between Ambon and those prisons, mean that those 13 men, mostly farmers and fishermen, have not seen any family members since their 2009 transfer. The isolation has inflicted profound emotional, psychological, and emotional stress on both the prisoners and their families.

In April 2016, Indonesia’s Minister of Law and Human Rights Yasonna Laoly orally committed to a visiting Human Rights Watch delegation in Jakarta to arrange those prisoners’ transfer to detention facilities in Ambon. But more than a year later, they remain behind bars, far from their loved ones, with no hope of seeing their families until their sentences elapse in 2027.

Jokowi’s efforts to release political prisoners are a long overdue positive change, but Indonesia can’t claim to be a democratic, progressive state while still locking up citizens for merely expressing their rights of freedom of expression and association.

1) Indonesia denies claims of Papuan rights

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http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/336920/indonesia-denies-claims-of-papuan-rights-restrictions
1) Indonesia denies claims of Papuan rights

2:59 pm today 
The Indonesian government has again rejected claims that rights to the freedom of expression and assembly are restricted in Papua region.
Through its embassy in New Zealand, Indonesia has raised issue with reported comments by Vanuatu's government in United Nations forums that basic human rights of West Papuans are being infringed.
Vanuatu has repeatedly called for UN action on human rights violations by Indonesian security forces in Papua.
It has drawn particular attention to arrests of Papuans for participating in public demonstrations.
However, a Minister Counsellor at Indonesia's embassy, Wanton Saragih, denied that Papuans were being arrested for exercising their basic rights such as freedom of expression.
Mr Saragih disputed reports on RNZ and elsewhere that over a hundred Papuans were arrested and harshly treated by police last month in the Papuan city of Nabire.
"On 6 July dozens of people were brought into the police station in Nabire on allegations and complaints that they played a part in distributing brochures calling for unlawful actions," he said.
"The authorities determined that the group did not provide proper notification or hold a permit for holding protests."
Mr Saragih said the Papuans were treated with respect and dignity by police who released them by transporting them to where they had come from on the following day.

He explained that demonstrations were common events across many Indonesian cities.
"The rights of the public to peacefully voice their opinions are protected by the Law," the counsellor said, suggesting that representations by Vanuatu about Papua in international fora were unhelpful.
"Vanuatu should also be contributing positively to the progress and welfare of the people of Papua and West Papua."


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2) Baliem Valley Cultural Festival breaks national and world records

Jakarta | Thu, August 10, 2017 | 01:32 pm

The ongoing Baliem Valley Cultural Festival (FBLB) currently held in Baliem Valley, the Jayawijaya Mountains from August 8 to 11 has broken national and world records for the throwing of more than 1,359 sege (traditional spear).
Sege is a war instrument made of wood and has the length of 2.5 meters and the diameter between 5 to 7 meters. The spear is usually painted in black but some tribes decorate it with white and red colors. For hunting purposes, the spearhead is smeared with poison, however, all spears for the festival were painted in black with the tip of the spearhead were made less sharp and poisonless. 
“This Sege-throwing activity made it into the national record number 3344/ORI/Agustus/2017 that was signed by Agung Elvianto and World Record Holders Republic (RHR) that has the main office in London. These records were given to Jayawijaya administration for the throwing of 1,000 sege that was done simultaneously,” said Jayawijaya tourism department head Alpius Wetipo.
Throughout the 28 years, FBLB has been held, this is the first time the spear-throwing activity is included in the festival.
A total of 1,359 men took part in the activity that attracted around 50,000 tourists. Only men were allowed to participate, however the total of men from the 14 participating districts were less than 1,000, the committee then decided to allow tourists to participate as well.
Themed 'Art of Dance & War', the festival showcases the Papuan war tradition and traditional dances including the War Dance. Some of the Papuan tribes such as Dani, Yali and Yani are taking part in the festival where they will perform a mock tribal war battle. (asw)

NZ government rejects calls for ‘public, unequivocal’ stand for West Papua

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https://asiapacificreport.nz/2017/08/10/nz-government-rejects-calls-for-public-unequivocal-stand-for-west-papua/
NZ government rejects calls for ‘public, unequivocal’ stand for West Papua

By  -August 10 2017
New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee has dismissed a call for the government to make a stand and address the ongoing human rights situation in West Papua.
This comes in response to a 2016 petition spearheaded by West Papua Action Auckland’s Maire Leadbeater which urges the government to take a “public and unequivocal” stand and condemn Indonesia’s arrest and intimidation of peaceful protesters and end the state sanctioned torture and killing of West Papuans.
The committee stated the United Nations Universal Periodic Review process and engagement with Indonesia directly remain the appropriate channels to make New Zealand’s views known on such issues, although it agreed with Leadbeater the “fundamental human rights of freedom of speech and assembly must be upheld”.
Some of the committee also felt the government should support a call for working through the UN alongside Pacific nations to better address the human rights abuses in the Indonesian province.
“We encourage the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to continue monitoring the human rights situation in West Papua, and to raise any concerns it may have,” the committee said.
But such a position has been criticised as a “business as usual” approach.
“I am appalled that ministry officials have told the committee that there is doubt about the practice of torture in West Papua.
Torture practices ‘endemic’“This flies in the face of extensive documentation from numerous human rights, church and academic reports all of which describe the practices of torture as endemic,” Leadbeater said.
Leadbeater’s comments come after the committee’s report revealed The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade feels the killings of alleged separatists by Indonesia are “random acts of violence rather than systematically planned or organised acts”.
The petition, endorsed by several human rights groups, academics and leaders of the Anglican and Catholic Church, also calls for the government to push for the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression to visit West Papua.
Although the report notes such a visit would be consistent with increased international transparency, it does not appear New Zealand will propel this as the ministry continues to stand by its position which recognises the sovereign integrity of Indonesia and its territorial jurisdiction over West Papua.
Despite ongoing criticism from groups such as West Papua Action Auckland, the ministry states it monitors the human rights situation in West Papua through diplomatic reporting from New Zealand’s embassy in Jakarta and has repeatedly called on Indonesia’s government to grant journalists and NGOs further access to West Papua.
New Zealand has also been criticised for its alleged lacklustre stance regarding calls for West Papua to be included on the UN’s list of nations to be decolonised.
“New Zealand is missing in action while other small Pacific nations such as Vanuatu, Tonga and the Solomon Islands stand up for the West Papuan people and their fundamental rights,” Leadbeater said.
Pacific leads wayThe Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Tuvalu and Palau have all called for UN intervention in West Papua while New Zealand has so far remained silent.
West Papua Action Auckland is not taking the report as a defeat, however, and will continue fighting for West Papua’s independence.
The group stated it is now approaching all political parties ahead of New Zealand’s election in September seeking a clear policy statement on whether or not they support West Papua’s quest for self-determination.
“New Zealand’s shameful acquiescence in this horror story in our neighbourhood must end.”

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1) Freeport: Mining Giant accused of denying workers health care

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1) Freeport: Mining Giant accused of denying workers health care


1) Freeport: Mining Giant accused of denying workers health care,

 trade unions involved in dispute

Posted earlier today at 7:18am


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Archival documents show the British Government – like Australia and the U.S. – actively assisted Indonesia cover up crimes against humanity in East Timor. Dr Adam Henry reports.
In recent research in the National Archives (UK) regarding the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and East Timor, three things emerged repeatedly.........

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1) Poverty, land rights feature at film festival in Indonesia's Papua

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1) Poverty, land rights feature at film festival in Indonesia's Papua

Jessica Damiana

August  11, 2017 / 8:26 PM / 10 HOURS AGO

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua hosted its first independent film festival this week, showing documentaries on social issues such as land rights and grinding poverty, but steering clear of the highly sensitive subject of separatism. 
The festival, hosted by a local filmmakers' community, screened 10 amateur documentaries in the town of Merauke on Aug. 7-9. The organizer said the festival attracted 600 people. 
The organizers, Papuan Voices, said the festival aimed to show "a new perspective that places Papua as a subject in seeing and determining its own future and contributing to ending the injustice in the land of Papua".

Papua is one of the poorest regions in Indonesia despite being rich in resources like natural gas, copper and gold. 
It has suffered an often violent separatist conflict since it was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticized U.N.-backed referendum in 1969. Dutch colonial rule ended in 1963. 
Organizer Urbanus Kiaf said by telephone that all the films were passed by Indonesia's censorship board without being cut or censored, but plain-clothed police attended some screenings. 
"They asked for explanations of what the story was for each of the films and they asked for a list of names of the organizing committee, but otherwise they just watched," he said.
Kiaf said the poverty shown in the films was a symbol of "economic and intellectual oppression" and how Papuans often lacked land rights, after selling to investors cheaply.
One example was the film that won third place.
Director Elisabet Apyaka said her film, "For Novalinda and Andreas", showed how a single mother had raised her two children by selling taro, banana and betel on a small patch of rented land. 
"This shows that Papuan women are the head of families here, they get up early to do house chores, work in their garden and feed their kids," Apyaka said. 
The fact that the festival went ahead was a sign of progress in Indonesian President Joko Widodo's efforts to open up Papua, said Human Rights Watch's researcher Andreas Harsono, adding that it would have been banned in the past. 
Widodo has given clemency to a number of political prisoners in Papua who were unfairly prosecuted and imprisoned for exercising their rights of freedom of expression, Harsono said. 
However, a report by the International Coalition for Papua said there was a significant aggravation of Papua's human rights in 2015 and 2016. 
Rights groups also recently accused police of lethal force on people protesting against a construction company, by shooting dead one person and wounding 16. 
Additional reporting and writing by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Ed Davies and Nick Macfie

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2) Ministers tight-lipped on Freeport meeting

Jakarta | Fri, August 11, 2017 | 01:17 pm
Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan met on Thursday to discuss ongoing negotiations between the government and Freeport Indonesia, however no further information about the meeting was disclosed.
The government and Freeport have been discussing a number of issues related to the conversion of Freeport’s contract of work to a special mining license.
The Finance Ministry’s fiscal policy head, Suahasil Nazara, refused to provide information after exiting the meeting.  
While rushing to his car, the energy ministry's mineral and coal director general, Bambang Gatot Ariyono said, “Nothing new came up during the meeting.”
Read also: Freeport yet to extend operating permit: Ministry
Earlier in the day, Suahasil said four issues were to be discussed with Freeport; operational continuity, smelter development, state revenue and divestment. The issues have been discussed for months between representatives of the government and the copper and gold miner in Papau.
During his visit to the United States in late July, Jonan said Freeport McMoRan CEO Richard Adkerson had requested a meeting with Sri Mulyani to discuss investment certainty in the country. (dea/mrc/bbn)

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3) Kontras records rampant abuse by police officers

Jakarta | Wed, August 9, 2017 | 06:30 pm
The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) recorded 115 cases of physical abuse allegedly committed by police personnel against civilians over a period of 11 months.
“The highest number of cases of abuse committed by police officers is at the level of police precincts,” Kontras researcher Ananto Setiawan said as quoted by kompas.com in a press conference on Wednesday.
Kontras reported that at least 88 cases of abuse took place in police precincts across Indonesia from the period of June 2016 to May 2017.
At least 20 cases occurred at sub-precinct police offices and eight at the provincial police level, he added.
Ananto went on to say that most cases of physical abuse occurred during the interrogation of suspected criminals.
He said police officers often argued they needed to use physical force to extract information or make suspects admit their crimes.
“In fact it's possible that in many cases they [the suspects] did not commit crimes but were forced to admit to them,” Ananto said.
The researcher said it often happened that police officers bribed the victims or their families after committing the abuse.
In some cases, the responsible officers simply ignored the victims, Ananto said, adding that many officers were still able to evade sanctions despite committing abuse. (afr/ebf)

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