Quantcast
Channel: AWPA Sydney
Viewing all 5294 articles
Browse latest View live

1) HoA with Freeport is big step, Jokowi argues against critics

July 16, 2018, 1:53 pm
$
0
0

2) Government oversells PT Freeport Indonesia agreement
3) Contrasting accounts of Indonesian genocide and betrayal in West Papua
4) Provincial health team takes more rest than work, says Kopkedat
5) SKP HAM urges the government to open democratic space for Papuan students
-----------------------------------------------



1) HoA with Freeport is big step, Jokowi argues against critics

Jakarta | Mon, July 16, 2018 | 03:26 pm




State-owned mining holding company PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) president director Budi Gunadi (third right) and Freeport-McMoRan CEO Richard Adkerson (third left) shake hands on Thursday after signing a heads of agreement on the divestment of PT Freeport Indonesia shares in Jakarta. Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan (left), Finance Minister Sri Mulyani (second left), Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar (right) and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Rini Soemarno witnessed the signing. (Antara/Wahyu Putro)


President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has called on the public not to underestimate the recent deal agreed between the government and US mining giant Freeport-McMoRan, which he believes is a breakthrough in the final stages toward divesting 51 percent of PT Freeport Indonesia's (PTFI) shares.
The President was referring to the heads of agreement (HoA) that the government, represented by state-owned mining holding company PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum), had signed on July 12 with Freeport-McMoRan.
“This was [the result of] a long process that took three and a half to four years to complete, and it was a tough negotiation. Hence, the HoA is big step [toward divestment] and we should be grateful,” he said on Monday at the State Palace in Jakarta.
Jokowi was responding to criticism from experts that accused the government of "overselling" the deal to the public, which could mislead them.
The President further said that Thursday’s HoA was the government's first step toward becoming the majority shareholder of PTFI, which manages Papua's Grasberg mine, the world’s largest operating gold mine.
However, Jokowi did not give a clear answer when asked whether the deal was binding or not, replying only that “it is a process”.
Separately, the Anglo-Australian miner whose participating interest is included in the divestment, stated clearly in its press release last week that the HoA was a non-binding agreement and that a binding one was expected to be signed before the yearend.
“Given the terms that remain to be agreed, there is no certainty that a transaction will be completed,” the release stated on the Rio Tinto website on Sunday. (srs/afr/bbn)

---------------------------------------

2) Government oversells PT Freeport Indonesia agreement

Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman
Jakarta | Mon, July 16, 2018 | 08:52 am
The agreement made on Thursday between PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) and United States mining company Freeport-McMoran Inc. (FCX) was largely welcomed by the government, which claimed that the future of PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) was now clearer.

It added that the heads of agreement (HoA) signed by FCX and Inalum, which represents the government, was binding and would assure stability for PTFI in terms of investments, tax issues, royalties and operational transitions.

However, law and economics experts have accused the government of overselling the deal and suggesting it would settle every issue relating to PTFI’s future operations in Papua.

University of Indonesia (UI) international law expert Hikmahanto Juwana pointed out that the HoA contained errors from a legal perspective.

He emphasized that the deal was not a stock trading agreement, but merely an agreement in principal and should be followed up with another contract.

“It must be thoroughly scrutinized because for lawyers, there is the adage ‘the devil is in the details’,” Hikmahanto said.

He believes that a done deal should be in the form of a sales and purchase agreement. 

In this case, the US$3.5 billion is payment to Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto for its 40 percent participating interest (PI), which would be converted into shares in PTFI, and $350 million to local miner PT Indocopper Investama, another local FCX subsidiary, which owns a 9.36 percent share in PTFI.

Only after the payment is made will Indonesia officially control 51 percent of PTFI’s shares and become the majority owner of the company, which operates the world’s largest gold mine. 

Both Rio Tinto and PTFI agreed with Hikmahanto, saying that Thursday’s agreement was merely one step toward completing the deal — which still has the possibility to collapse. 

Rio Tinto clearly stated in a press release distributed last week that the HoA was a non-binding agreement, and the binding agreement was expected to be signed before the end of 2018. 

“Given the number of terms that remain to be agreed, there is no certainty that a transaction will be completed,” the press release reads.

During a press conference on Thursday, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno assured that the deal was a binding agreement. 

“Unfortunately, the impression that government officials gave regarding the deal was overwhelming. It misled the people, who then posted messages [on social media] such as ‘Thank you, Pak Jokowi’ without fact checking [the deal],” said Drajad Wibowo, a senior economist at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef). 

Drajad, a politician from the National Mandate Party (PAN), which is known to be critical of the Jokowi administration, said the public should know that larger issues had yet to be finalized.

“I hoped the transaction will not overstretch Inalum’s finances, as the $3.85 billion deal is equivalent to 61 percent of the firm’s assets,” he explained. “Not to mention that Freeport still wants to control PTFI’s operations, even though Indonesia has become the majority owner.”

Hikmahanto added that the HoA was in violation of prevailing laws, because it gave Freeport operational rights until 2041.

According to Law No. 4/2009 on mineral and coal mining, no further agreement can be made when a contract of work (CoW), which Freeport technically still has, is due. Freeport’s CoW will expire in 2021. 

However, in February last year, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry issued a special mining permit (IUPK) for Freeport, saying the company had agreed to change its CoW into to an IUPK and agree to waive the benefit of a 50-year extension.

Freeport previously refused to comply, arguing that an IUPK was not a nail-down scheme because the stipulations, including the taxation scheme, can change according to a change in government regulation. 

“The investment stability agreement also contradicts Article 1337 of the Civil Code, which prohibits any deal that goes against a prevailing legislation,” Hikmahanto said. 

Meanwhile, non-governmental organization Mining Advocacy Network (Jatam) has taken a hard stance against the deal, believing that any agreement would have zero benefits for the people of Papua.

—————————————

3) Contrasting accounts of Indonesian genocide and betrayal in West Papua
BOOK REVIEW: By David Robie
By  - 
  
Two damning and contrasting books about Indonesian colonialism in the Pacific, both by activist participants in Europe and New Zealand, have recently been published. Overall, they are excellent exposes of the harsh repression of the Melanesian people of West Papua and a world that has largely closed a blind eye to to human rights violations.
In Papua Blood, Danish photographer Peter Bang provides a deeply personal account of his more than three decades of experience in West Papua that is a testament to the resilience and patience of the people in the face of “slow genocide” with an estimated 500,000 Papuans dying over the past half century.
With See No Evil, Maire Leadbeater, peace movement advocate and spokesperson of West Papua Action Auckland, offers a meticulously researched historical account of New Zealand’s originally supportive stance for the independence aspirations of the Papuan people while still a Dutch colony and then its unprincipled slide into betrayal amid Cold War realpolitik.

Peter Bang’s book features 188 examples of his evocative imagery, providing colourful insights into changing lifestyles in West Papua, ranging through pristine rainforest, waterfalls, villages and urban cityscapes to dramatic scenes of resistance to oppression and the defiant displays of the Morning Star flag of independence.
Some of the most poignant images are photographs of use of the traditional koteka (penis gourds) and traditional attire, which are under threat in some parts of West Papua, and customary life in remote parts of the Highlands and the tree houses of the coastal marshlands.
Besides the photographs, Bang also has a narrative about the various episodes of his life in West Papua.
Never far from his account, are the reflections of life under Indonesian colonialism, and extreme racism displayed towards the Papuan people and their culture and traditions. From the beginning in 1963 when Indonesia under Sukarno wrested control of West Papua from the Dutch with United Nations approval under a sham “Act of Free Choice” against the local people’s wishes, followed by the so-called ‘Transmigrassi’ programme encouraging thousands of Javanese migrants to settle, the Papuans have been treated with repression.
‘Disaster for Papuans’
Bang describes the massive migration of Indonesians to West Papua as “not only a disaster for the Papuan people, but also a catastrophe for the rainforest, eartyn and wildlife” (p. 13).
“Police soldiers conducted frequent punitive expeditions with reference to violation of ‘laws’ that the indigenous people neither understood nor had heard about, partly because of language barriers and the huge cultural difference,’ writes Bang (p. 11). The list of atrocities has been endless.
“There were examples of Papuans who had been captured, and thrown out alive from helicopters, strangled or drowned after being put into plastic bags. Pregnant women killed by bayonets. Prisoners forced to dig their own graves before they were killed.” (p. 12)


A book that provided an early impetus while Bang was researching for his involvement in West Papua was Indonesia’s Secret Warby journalist Robin Osborne, a former press secretary for Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan, the leader who was later ousted from office because of his bungled Sandline mercenary affair over the Bougainville civil war. Osborne’s book also influenced me when I first began writing about West Papua in the early 1980s.
After travelling through Asia, a young Peter Bang arrived in West Papua in 1986 for his first visit determined to journey to the remote Yali tribe as a photographer and writer interested in indigenous peoples. He wanted to find out how the Yali people had integrated with the outside world since missionaries had first entered the isolated tribal area just 25 years earlier.
When Bang visited the town of Angguruk for the first time, “the only wheels I saw at the mission station were punctured and sat on a wheelbarrow … It was only seven years ago that human flesh had been eaten in the area” (p. 16).
During this early period of jungle trekking, Bang rarely “encountered anything besides kindness – only twice did I experience being threatened with a bow and arrow” (p. 39). The first time was by a “mentally disabled” man confused over Bang’s presence, and he was scolded by the village chief.
Political change
Ten years later, Peter Bang again visited the Yali people and found the political climate had changed in the capital Jayapura – “we saw police and military everywhere” following an incident a few months earlier when OPM (Free Papua Movement) guerrillas had held 11 captives hostage in a cave.
He struck up a friendship with Wimmo, a Dani tribesman and son of a village witchdoctor and healer in the Baliem Valley, that was to endure for years, and he had an adoptive family.
On a return visit, Bang met Tebora, mother of the nine-year-old boy Puwul who was the subject of the author’s earlier book, Puwul’s World. At the age of 29, Puwul had walked barefooted hundreds of kilometres across the mountains from the Jaxólé Valley village to Jayapura, and then escaped across the border into Papua New Guinea. A well-worn copy of Puwul’s World was the only book in the village apart from a single copy of the Bible.
Years later, Bang met tribal leader and freedom fighter Benny Wenda who, with the help of Australian human rights activist and lawyer Jennifer Robinson, was granted asylum in the United Kingdom in 2003: “I felt great sympathy for Benny Wenda’s position on the fight for liberation. By many, he was compared to Nelson Mandela, although he was obviously playing his own ukelele” (p. 81)

Wenda and Filip Karma, at the time imprisoned by the Indonesian authorities for 15 years for “raising the Morning Star flag”, were nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.
Bang founded the Danish section of the Free West Papua Campaign and launched an activist Facebook page.
One of the book’s amusing and inspirational highlights is his secret “freedom paddle” on the Baliem River when Peter Bang used a yellow inflatable rubber boat and a pocket-sized Morning Star flag to make his own personal protest against Indonesia (p. 123). This was a courageous statement in itself given the continued arrests of journalists in West Papua by the military authorities in spite of the “open” policy of President Joko Widodo.
As a special section, Bang’s book devotes 26 pages to the indigenous people of West Papua, profiling some of the territory’s 300 tribes and their cultural and social systems, such as the Highlands communities of Dani and Yali, and the Asmat, Korowai and Kombai peoples.
Fascinating insight
This book is a fascinating insight into West Papuan life under duress, but would have benefitted with tighter and cleaner copy editing by the English-language volunteer editors. Nevertheless, it is a valuable work with a strong sociopolitical message.
Peter Bang concludes: “Nobody knows what the future holds. In 2018, the Indonesian regime continues the brutal crackdown on the native population of West Papua.”

In contrast to Bang’s authentic narrative of life in West Papua, Maire Leadbeater’s See No Evil book – launched yesterday – is an activist historical account of New Zealand’s shameful record over West Papua, which is just as disgraceful as Wellington’s record on Timor-Leste over 24 years of Indonesian illegal occupation (tempered by a quietly supportive post-independence role).
Surely there is a lesson here. For those New Zealand politicians, officials and conservative journalists who prefer to meekly accept the Indonesian status quo, the East Timor precedent is an indicator that we should be strongly advocating self-determination for the Papuans.
One of the many strengths of Leadbeater’s thoroughly researched book is she exposes the volte-face and hypocrisy of the stance of successive New Zealand governments since Walter Nash and his “united New Guinea” initiative (p. 66).
“A stroke of the pen in the shape of the 1962 New York Agreement, signed by the colonial Dutch and the Indonesian government, sealed the fate of the people of West Papua,” the author notes in her introduction. Prior to this “selling out” of a people arrangement, New Zealand had been a vocal supporter of the Dutch government’s preparations to decolonise the territory.
In fact, the Dutch had done much more to prepare West Papua for independence than Australia had done at that stage for neighbouring Papua New Guinea, which became independent in 1975.
Game changer
Indonesia’s so-called September 30th Movement crisis in 1965 – three years after paratroopers had been dropped on West Papua in a farcical “invasion” – was the game changer. The attempted coup triggered massive anti-communist massacres in Indonesia leading to an estimated 200,000 to 800,000 killings and eventually the seizure of power by General Suharto from the ageing nationalist President Sukarno in 1967 (Adam, 2015).

As Leadbeater notes, the bloodletting opened the door to Western foreign investment and “rich prizes” in West Papua such as the Freeport’s Grasberg gold and copper mine, one of the world’s richest.
“New Zealand politicians and diplomats welcomed Indonesia’s change in direction. Cold War anti-communist fervour trumped sympathy for the victims of the purge; and New Zealand was keen to increase its trade, investment and ties with the ‘new’ Indonesia.” (p. 22)
The first 13 chapters of the book, from “the Pleistocene period” to “Suharto goes but thwarted hope for West Papua”, are a methodical and insightful documentation of “recolonisation” and New Zealand’s changing relationship are an excellent record and useful tool for the advocates of West Papuan independence.
However, the last two contemporary chapters and conclusion, do not quite measure up to the quality of the rest of the book.
For example, a less than two-page section on “Media access” gives short change to the important media role in the West Papuan independence struggle. Leadbeater quite rightly castigates the mainstream New Zealand media for a lack of coverage for such a serious issue. Her explanation for the widespread ignorance about West Papua is simplistic:
“A major reason (setting aside Radio New Zealand’s consistent reporting) is that the issues are seldom covered in the mainstream media. It is a circular problem: lack of direct access results in a dearth of objective and fully rounded reporting; editors fear that material they do receive may be inaccurate or misrepresentative; so a media blackout prevails and editors conflate the resulting limited public debate with a lack of interest.” (p. 233)
Mainstream ‘silence’
Leadbeater points out that the mainstream media coverage of the “pre-internet 1960s did a better job”. Yet she fails to explain why, or credit those contemporary New Zealand journalists who have worked hard to break the mainstream “silence” (Robie, 2017).
She dismisses the courageous and successful groundbreaking attempts by at least two New Zealand media organisations – Māori Television and Radio New Zealand – to “test” President Widodo’s new policy in 2015 by sending crews to West Papua in merely three sentences. Since then, she admits, Indonesia’s media “shutters have mostly stayed shut” (p. 235).
One of the New Zealand journalists who has written extensively on West Papua and Melanesian issues for many years, RNZ Pacific’s Johnny Blades, is barely mentioned (apart from the RNZ visit to West Papua). Tabloid Jubi editor Victor Mambor, who visited New Zealand in 2014, Paul Bensemann (who travelled to West Papua disguised as a bird watcher in 2013), Scoop’s Gordon Campbell, Television New Zealand’s Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver and Tere Harrison’s 2016 short documentary Run It Straight are just a few of those who have contributed to growing awareness of Papuan issues in this country who have not been given fair acknowledgement.
Also important has been the role of the alternative and independent New Zealand and Pacific media, such as Asia Pacific Report, Pacific Scoop (both via the Pacific Media Centre), West Papua Media and Evening Report that have provided relentless coverage of West Papua. Other community and activist groups deserve honourable mentions.
Even in my own case, a journalist and educator who has written on West Papuan affairs for more than three decades with countless articles and who wrote the first New Zealand book with an extensive section on the West Papuan struggle (Robie, 1989), there is a remarkable silence.
One has a strong impression that Leadbeater is reluctant to acknowledge her contemporaries (a characteristic of her previous books too) and thus the selective sourcing weakens her work as it relates to the millennial years.
The early history of the West Papuan agony is exemplary, but in view of the flawed final two chapters I look forward to another more nuanced account of the contemporary struggle. Merdeka!
David Robie is director of the Pacific Media Centre and editor of Pacific Journalism Review. He was awarded the 1983 NZ Media Peace Prize for his coverage of Timor-Leste and West Papua, “Blood on our hands”, published in New Outlook magazine.
Papua Blood: A Photographer’s Eyewitness Account of West Papua Over 30 Years, by Peter Bang. Copenhagen, Denmark: Remote Frontlines, 2018. 248 pages. ISBN 9788743001010.
See No Evil: New Zealand’s Betrayal of the People of West Papua, by Maire Leadbeater. Dunedin, NZ: Otago University Press, 2018. 310 pages. ISBN 9781988531212.
References
Adam, A. W. (2015, October 1). How Indonesia’s 1965-1966 anti-communist purge remade a nation and the world. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/how-indonesias-1965-1966-anti-communist-purge-remade-a-nation-and-the-world-48243
Bang, P. (1996). Duianya Puwul. [English edition (2018): Puwul’s World: Endangered native people]. Copenhagen, Denmark: Remote Frontlines.
Osborne, R. (1985). Indonesia’s secret war: The guerilla struggle in Irian Jaya. Sydney, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Robie, D. (1989). Blood on their banner: Nationalist struggles in the South Pacific. London, UK: Zed Books.
Robie, D. (2017). Tanah Papua, Asia-Pacific news blind spots and citizen media: From the ‘Act of Free Choice’ betrayal to a social media revolution. Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa, 23(2), 159-178. https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v23i2.334


-----------------------------------------

4) Provincial health team takes more rest than work, says Kopkedat
Published
 18 hours ago 
on
 16 July 2018


Jayapura, Jubi – Chairman of Humanitarian Care Community for Remote Areas Papua (Kopkedat) Yan Akobiarek states despite education, public health services in Papua’s remote areas are still an issue.
Although the provincial health office has provided services to remote areas through several health programs such as Satgas Kaki Telanjang, Save Korowai and Nusantara Sehat, these programs have not well implemented.
“I think sending teams to remote areas is a good idea, but I get the impression that some team members only come for vacation, to work less and get more rest,” said Akobiarek told Jubi by phone on Tuesday (10/7/2018). For instance, he pointed out the team of Satgas Kaki Telanjang who are supposed to provide health service to villagers in Korowai. After the Ied al-Ftir break, their members are still not returning to their duty station.
Meanwhile, Maria Duwitau, the Vice Chairman of the Commission V on education and health of the Papuan House of Representative said doing health services in Papua, in particularly remote areas, is always connecting with a commitment. “No matter how greater of the offer, but without willingness and commitment, I think it’s useless,” Duwitau told Jubi not long ago. (*)
 Reporter: Arjuna Pademme
Editor: Pipit Maizier
——————————————————

5) SKP HAM urges the government to open democratic space for Papuan students
Published
 18 hours ago 
on
 16 July 2018


Jayapura, Jubi – Solidarity for the Victims of Human Rights Violation (SKP HAM) Papua urge the Indonesian Government to open democratic space for Papuan students and conduct a thorough investigation on sexual harassment by a police officer at Papuan dormitory in Surabaya on last Friday (6/7/2018).
The Coordinator of SKP HAM Peneas Lokbere said the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia of1945 in the Article 28E Paragraph 3 and the Law No. 39 of1999 on Human Rights Article 24 Paragraph 1 state, “Each person has the right to associate, assemble and express his opinions peacefully” but what have been occurred to the Alliance of Papuan Students is a violation against the constitution.

“The police and military officers and members of the civil service police unit came to student dormitory trying to stop the weekly discussion. The students also witnessed the security forces carrying long-barrier guns. It was such an ironic,” Lokbere stated in the press release received by Jubi on Wednesday (11/8/2018).
Further, he stated that according to the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) Surabaya, the incident occurred when the Tambaksari Sub-district Chief accompanied by the police, military and civil service police unit of Surabaya Municipality came to the dormitory in the inspection of civil registration. “However, when students and public attorney from LBH Surabaya asked for an official letter, the sub-district chief was not able to show it.”
Meanwhile, the Director of LBH Papua Simon Pattirajawane said what have done by the security forces, in this case, is a violation against the human rights. “The Human Rights Commission should immediately form an investigation team to investigate this alleged case of intimidation, terror and racism against Papuan students in several cities in Java, including Surabaya, Malang and Yogyakarta.” (*)
 Reporter: Hengky Yeimo
Editor: Pipit Maizier
---------------------------------------
↧
Search
↧

1) Indonesia a step closer to controlling Grasberg mine

July 17, 2018, 1:24 pm
$
0
0

1) Indonesia a step closer to controlling Grasberg mine

New agreement values mine's assets and provides a path for US miner Freeport's divestment but issues of management, arbitration and environment are still unresolved

By JOHN MCBETH JAKARTA, JULY 17, 2018 5:10 PM (UTC+8)




Indonesian police stand guard at the open-pit mine of PT Freeport's Grasberg copper and gold mine complex near Timika, in the eastern province of Papua, Indonesia. Photo: Antara Foto via Reuters /Muhammad Adimaja

The prolonged talks between the Indonesian government and Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold have passed another milestone with Freeport, partner Rio Tinto and state-owned holding company PT Inalum signing an agreement under which Rio Tinto will sell its stake in Papua’s fabulously rich Grasberg mine.
Coming a year after the two main parties agreed on a framework deal which President Joko Widodo’s administration over-optimistically hailed as a breakthrough, the new non-binding “Heads of Agreement” sets down a valuation of the mine’s assets and describes a pathway to 

Politically, it is the target Widodo was anxious to reach before the end of June as he gears up for the simultaneous April 2019 presidential and legislative elections. But it doesn’t resolve the key issues of managerial control over the mine, international arbitration and newly introduced environmental regulations.

Indeed, with analysts and social media commentators this time openly skeptical about the implications of the July 12 agreement, it appears to place more pressure on the government to get the final deal done before rather than after the elections as the opposition looks for ammunition to bring down the high-flying president.
Inalum will pay US$3.5 billion for Rio Tinto’s 40% participating interest in PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) and another US$350 million for the 
9.36% stake held by Indocopper Investama, a Freeport unit controlled on separate occasions by influential Indonesian businessmen Bob Hasan and Aburizal Bakrie, who once enjoyed close relations with storied former Freeport chairman Jim-Bob Moffett.
Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian mining giant, entered into an agreement with Freeport in 1996 that gave it the right to 40% of production above a certain level and 40% of all production after 2022 in exchange for investing in the Grasberg’s early underground block-caving operations that now make up more than a third of its output.
Added to the 9.36% stake the state already owns in the Indonesian subsidiary, converting Rio Tinto’s stake into PTFI shares through a subsequent rights issue will give it the controlling interest, which Widodo hailed as a “big leap forward” in allowing Indonesia to increase its income from the mine.

According to some reports, Inalum will receive US$5.2 billion in funding from a consortium of 11 foreign and domestic banks, including Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, BPP Paribas, Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFG, OCBC, SMBC, CIMB Niaga and state-owned Mandiri, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) and Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI).
Inalum chief executive officer Budi Gunardi Sadikan, who has said the company is putting forward US$1.5 million in equity, did not respond to an e-mailed request to confirm the amount, but the loan is still dependent on a sales and purchase agreement being executed in 30 days and reaching closure a month after that.
“Given the terms that remain to be agreed, there is no certainty that a transaction will be completed,” Rio Tinto said in a sobering statement. “Any final agreements will be subject to approval by the necessary government regulators and authorities.”
Wrapping up all the outstanding issues by early September when the 2019 presidential campaign officially gets under way will be no mean feat given the way the two sides have haggled over the one issue of managerial control for more than a year now without resolution.
Phoenix-based Freeport chairman Richard Adkerson has told negotiators from the finance, state enterprise and energy and mineral resources ministries that the company must continue to retain managerial as well as operational control to ensure conformity with the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Who will operate the mine itself is not an issue, but it is the management that will be in charge of parceling out the lucrative procurement contracts associated with the Grasberg’s current conversion from an open pit – which runs out of ore next month – to the world’s biggest underground mine with hundreds of kilometers of electric railway connecting to five different ore bodies.

Notorious for its rent-seeking practices, Indonesia scored only 37 out of 100 on Transparency International’s 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index, putting it in 96th place among 180 countries. Illustrating the slow progress that has been made in Indonesia’s so-called war on corruption, the country’s score has moved only five points in five years.
The index is mostly based on business perceptions and puts special emphasis on licensing and similar red tape issues, but Indonesia’s standing with the business community wasn’t helped by the US$173 million identity card graft case, which sent House Speaker Setya Novanto to jail for 15 years earlier this year.
Although he was later reinstated, Novanto was forced to resign as speaker in 2015 for allegedly conspiring with oil mafia kingpin Muhammad Reza Chalid to shakedown Freeport; in a secretly taped hotel conversation, Novanto was heard demanding PTFI shares in exchange for an early extension to Freeport’s contract.
Freeport has insisted on appointing the new PTFI president director, who will then assign responsibilities to the executives under him. Given the fact that an Indonesian has filled that post for decades, analysts are puzzled why the two sides can’t come up with an inventive solution that would address both their concerns.
PTFI hasn’t had a president-director since retired air force chief Chappy Hakim, reportedly a Widodo recommendation, resigned after only seven months in the job in February last year as the government sought to pressure Freeport into converting its Contract of Work (CoW) to a Special Business License (IUPK) four years ahead of its 2021 expiry date.
Nationalist politicians say with the state holding a controlling interest, Indonesia has every justification for wanting to take charge of management, although after using Freeport as a convenient scapegoat for decades that will put it in the direct firing line of Papuan activists demanding a greater share of the mine’s revenues.
Also missing from the public debate is a new situation where Inalum will have to come up with half of the cost of a new US$2.7 billion smelter and also half of the US$19 billion Freeport calculates is still needed for the underground expansion of the Grasberg, which will be a hefty recurring expense for at least the next four years as the company seeks to return production to current levels.
Freeport and Amman Mineral are in talks to build a joint-venture smelter on a 160-hectare site at Amman’s Batu Hijau mine in Sumbawa, where there is already a deep-water port.
Amman purchased the country’s second biggest copper and gold mine from Newmont for US$1.3 billion two years ago, but now needs an extra cash injection to exploit an adjoining concession.
Many in the mining community believe that once Freeport is under new ownership, the implementing regulations that have still to be attached to the amended 2009 Mining Law will drop the requirement to refine the last 5% of the mine’s copper and gold concentrate, which they say has never made a lot of sense anyway.
--------------------------------------------

2) Why It Took 50 Years for Indonesia to Control Its Own Gold Mine

Posted On 17 Jul 2018
By : 

After 50 years of operation, Indonesia now finally controls majority of stake at Grasberg copper and gold mine


Jakarta, GIVnews.com – The government and many Indonesians are in a great mood these days. Last Thursday (12/7), world mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. and Indonesia’s state-owned PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) signed a deal for the Indonesian government to acquire the controlling ownership of PT Freeport Indonesia (PT FI).
The agreement, which stipulates the divestment by Freeport-McMoRan of 51 percent of its share in PT FI, brought to an end of decades of acrimonious public demand for the government to take over the whole copper and gold mine in Papua, currently 90-percent owned by mining giant Freeport-McMoRan. PT FI is Indonesia’s largest mining venture which has been operating a large copper and gold mine in Papua’s Timika District over the past decades.
Public anger over the fact that Indonesia still owns only a 10-percent stake in PTFI had led political opponents of President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo to demand him to stop Freeport-McMoRan’s control of its mining venture in the country’s easternmost province. Some even claimed that PTFI and its Grasberg mine is a symbol of American imperialism and questioned why the government had done nothing to put it to an end.
Following is part of GIV’s English translation of an opinion article that was published by Kompasdaily (14/7) and was written by Ginandjar Kartasasmita, who is former minister of energy and mining (1988 – 1993) under the leadership of then President Suharto. Entitled Memahami Kontrak dan Divestasi Freeport (Understanding Freeport’s Contract and Divestment), the piece tried to explain why Indonesia had remained in a so weak position vis-à-vis Freeport-McMoRan. Also under Suharto, Ginandjar served as head of the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) and the speaker of the Regional Representative Council (DPD-RI) that was established after Suharto’s fall. Then coordinating minister for the economy, Ginandjar reportedly played a key role in encouraging Suharto to resign.

Understanding Freeport’s Contract and Divestment

by Ginandjar Kartasasmita
Freeport’s Grasberg mine is a large project that impacts the interests of many people. Accordingly, debates about Freeport’s contract extension have been so healthy and at the same time are highly necessary. However, such debates should be based on adequate knowledge about the Freeport issue. This writing is aimed to help support such knowledge and understanding.

Ginandjar Kartasasmita (Photo source: Beritasatu.com)
Freeport’s Working Contract (KK) was made based on Law No. 1 Year 1967 on Foreign Capital Investment. This contract was effective for 30 years from 1973 when the company started to formally operate in Indonesia. As such, the contract would expire in 2003.
Then, in accordance with the contract, in 1988, or 15 years before it expired, Freeport submitted a requested to extend its contract. It reasoned that there was an indication of mineralization on a new site, or Grasberg, which is part of its operational area. Freeport planned to invest about US$ 2 billion for the planned new project. As the $ 2 billion was quite a big amount, Freeport submitted its request for contract extension 15 years before its KK expired in 2003.
However, the government at that time viewed that the 1967 law contained weaknesses and was more favorable for Freeport. They included the fact that the company was listed in Delaware in the United States and accordingly was subject to American laws. Freeport had no obligation concerning the environment. On taxation, Freeport did not follow existing tax laws in Indonesia in terms of tax types and structures. Freeport had no ‘community development’ obligation. As a result, the presence of Freeport in Indonesia did not have direct impacts on the local community. In addition, the contract did not stipulate ownership transfer to Indonesian, the use of local workers and domestic processing of copper and gold.

Opportunity for correction

Accordingly, the government viewed Freeport’s request for KK extension as providing a good opportunity for making correction over the contract’s weaknesses. This was why the government decided that the ‘KK of Generation I’ be replaced with a new contract that was called ‘KK of Generation V’. Indeed, at that time the concept of the ‘KK of Generation V’ was being drafted. That is why it is not true to say that Freeport’s 1967 contract had been extended. What actually happened had been the annulment of the KK and the application of new contract stipulations.
Then, what followed were negotiations on all aspects of the new KK. Those negotiations resulted in the correction of a number of contract stipulations and this provided more benefits for the Indonesian state and nation. Those corrections included the stipulation of Freeport’s obligation to operate as a PT (Perseroan Terbatas), or a limited liability company that was listed in Indonesia. Accordingly, with such a new status, Freeport was obliged to abide by Indonesian laws; follow all the financial systems currently applied in Indonesia; and follow the country’s prevailing rules on environment protection.
In addition, the new contract obliged Freeport to divest up to 51 percent of its shares to Indonesian companies/nationals within a period of 20 years. And, five years after the contract was signed, 20 percent of Freeport shares must have been owned by Indonesian companies/nationals. Also, the mining firm was obliged to conduct community development for the welfare of the local people; build a smelter (currently one is already in operation in Gresik, East Java); optimally use local workers and goods/products; and set higher tariffs of averaged royalties.
Freeport accepted all those conditions and – after several rounds of negotiations which involved various government agencies and with House (DPR) approval and an approval letter from the President – KK of Generation V was put into effect by the end of 1991. Consequently, the premature annulment of Freeport’s KK of Generation I exactly benefit Indonesia because it stopped the mining firm’s excessive profits.

Government’s negligence?

Since the beginning the KK of Generation I the government had owned only about 9 percent share in Freeport. The company actually wished to divest another 20 percent but the then minister of finance decided that the government would buy only another one percent. This was because the government was financially unable to acquire another 10 percent as initially designed. The minister then proposed that the 10 percent share be sold to national private investors. And so Freeport divested the 10 percent to a national company. But, based on government regulation (PP) No. 20/1994, Freeport bought back the 10-percent share. As such, Indonesia’s share in Freeport is currently 10 percent, which is government-owned.
At this time, some people have questioned why the government had not just taken over Freeport’s Grasberg mine. Previously, there had been question why the Indonesian government had been so negligent that it created the 1967 KK, which benefitted Freeport so abundantly.
In fact, Freeport was the first foreign capital investor (PMA) in Indonesia. It entered Indonesia exactly when the country was trying to get out of its economic crisis in the 1960s. As Indonesia had run its administration and mobilize its economy, it was forced to fully rely on foreign assistance. The World Bank then placed Indonesia among the poorest countries in the world. It is in this context that we should now judge government policies in the past.
You may also be interested in this article: Digging the World’s Largest Gold Mine, What is Freeport?
↧

Media release. AWPA urges Julie Bishop to raise human rights situation with Jakarta

July 17, 2018, 3:46 pm
$
0
0
Australia West Papua Association (Sydney) 


18 July 2018


Media release. AWPA urges Julie Bishop to raise human rights situation with Jakarta


AWPA has written to the Australian Foreign Minister concerning recent worrying events in West Papua (letter below).
Joe Collins of AWPA said "we are very concerned about the security operation in the Nduga regency.  There has been a number of shootings in the past few weeks and as a result of these incidents extra security forces have being deployed to the area and are conducting a security operation to find those responsible for the shootings. Local people have reported that indicate that a police helicopter supporting the sweep was used to attack villages in the area. Large numbers of local people have fled because of the security operation. Up to 1000 security personnel are reported to be involved".


AWPA is urging the Foreign Minister to not only raise the ongoing human rights abuses committed by the Indonesian security forces in West Papua with the Indonesian Government but urging her to raise again the matter of a PIF fact-finding mission to West Papua at the upcoming PIF summit in Nauru in September. 


Fact-finding missions by the international community to West Papua can only help improve the human rights situation in the territory”. 

Ends.



--------------------------------------------------



The Hon Julie Bishop MP

Minister for Foreign Affairs

House of Representatives


Parliament House


Canberra ACT 2600



18 July 2018



Dear Foreign Minister,


On behalf of the Australia West Papua in Sydney, I am writing to you concerning recent worrying events in West Papua.  There have been a number of shooting incidentsin the past few weeksin the territory resulting in a number of deaths including the death of three residents who died in a clash between security forces and the OPM at Kenyam airportin the Nduga regency.  As a result of these incidents extra security forces have being deployed to the area and are conducting a security operation to find those responsible for the shootings.


A police helicopter supporting the sweep is reported by local people to have attacked villages in the area. Large numbers of local people have fled because of the security operation. Up to 1000 security personnel are reported to be involved.

The Jakarta Post (15 July) reported that human rights activists have urged the National Police and the Indonesian Military to withdraw their joint operation from Alguru in Kenyam, Nduga regency. The human rights organisations include the Papua Legal Aid Institute (LBH Papua) and the Papua chapter of the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi Papua). 


Amnesty International has also just realised a new report which claims that the Indonesian security forces have unlawfully killed at least 95 people in little more than eight years in the eastern provinces of Papua and West Papua, with the majority of perpetrators never being held to account for the crimes. 


The report, “Don't bother, just let him die": Killing with impunity in Papua, describes how police and soldiers have shot dead peaceful independence activists and protesters, as well as dozens of other Papuans in non-political contexts. Amnesty said killings have shown no sign of letting up since President Joko Widodo came to power in 2014.


Usman Hamid, who is Amnesty International Indonesia’s Executive Director, said:

“Papua is one of Indonesia’s black holes for human rights. This is a region where security forces have for years been allowed to kill women, men and children, with no prospects of being held to account. “Our research reveals that almost 100 people have been unlawfully killed in little more than eight years – about one person every month. This is a serious blot on Indonesia’s human rights record. “Now is the time to change course – unlawful killings in Papua must end. This culture of impunity within the security forces must change, and those responsible for past deaths held to account.”


In an opinion piece in the Jakarta Post (2 July) Usman wrote

“The tactics used by the country’s security forces may have changed since the fall of military rule in 1998, but in Papua — Indonesia’s easternmost, restive region — deadly violence from the use of excessive force by police and military personnel remains a constant threat “


Because Papuan students planned to show a film called Bloody Biak., 100 police and military personnel raided the student dormitory. For all the talk about Indonesia being a democracy, it would appear democracy does not apply to West Papua or the West Papuan people.


The 6th July was the 20thanniversary since the tragedy of the Biak Massacre.  On the 6 July in 1998 the Indonesian security forces attacked peaceful demonstrators in Biak, massacring scores of people. The victims included women and children. They were killed at the base of a water tower in the town where the West Papuan people had raised their national flag.  No security force personal were ever charged over the killings.


We urge you to raise the ongoing human rights abuses committed by the Indonesian security forces in West Papua with the Indonesian Government.


At the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) forum meeting in Port Moresby (2015), the PIF leaders requested Jakarta to allow a PIF fact-finding mission to West Papua. 

We also urge you to raise again the matter of a PIF fact-finding mission to West Papua at the upcoming PIF summit in Nauru in September. Fact-finding missions by the international community to West Papua can only help improve the human rights situation in the territory”. 


Yours sincerely 


Joe Collins
AWPA (Sydney)

↧

1) Papuan Liberation Movement wants dialogue

July 18, 2018, 1:39 am
$
0
0

2) ULMWP opens offices in West Papua

--------------------------------------------------


1) Papuan Liberation Movement wants dialogue

11:12 am today 


The United Liberation Movement for West Papua supports the idea of dialogue with Indonesia as long as it is mediated internationally, the movement's secretary says.
Indonesia's government of Joko Widodo has recently made overtures to West Papuan customary and civil society leaders for dialogue over a range of issues in Papua region.
Secretary Rex Rumakiek said the push for dialogue was not a bad thing.
"But dialogue internationally, not Indonesian type of dialogue that resulted in 1969's Act of Free Choice. That's the type of dialogue Indonesia wants. We are not going to go back to that approach," Mr Rumakiek said.
"We want an international dialogue and the best place to dialogue is the United Nations general assembly. Let us vote on the issue."
The movement hoped to have questions over the legitimacy of the self-determination act under which West Papua was incorporated into Indonesia debated by the UN General Assembly in the next year or two, Mr Rumakiek said.
Since being admitted to the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) in 2015 with observer status in the regional grouping, the movement has had more opportunities to engage with Indonesia, which enjoys associate member status in the MSG.
The dynamic between the two parties, however, is clearly strained, as Indonesia's government has characterised the movement as a separatist group that does not represent Papuans.
The full MSG members - Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia's Kanaks - have been working to facilitate dialogue between the movement and Indonesia
"We can talk direct to them with the MSG members as witnesses. That is what we call a third party" Mr Rumakiek explained.
"We cannot talk direct to Indonesia by ourselves, but with the MSG facilitating. We try to avoid other people speaking on our behalf. The MSG is trying to arrange for meetings (between the West Papuans and Indonesia's government)."
Meanwhile, the Australia-based Mr Rumakiek said the movement was disturbed by the reports from Papua's remote Nduga regency that Indonesian security forces and the West Papua National Liberation Army had exchanged gunfire in recent weeks.
Three people were killed in an attack on police at the local airport two weeks ago during regional elections. A faction of the Liberation Army - which is not directly linked to the United Liberation Movement for West Papua - claimed responsibility.
Following the attack, about a thousand extra police and military personnel deployed to Nduga as part of a joint operation.
They have been conducting an aerial campaign over the Alguru area in pursuit of the Liberation Army, with unconfirmed reports saying at least two Papuans have been shot dead and others injured in recent days.
The Indonesian aerial operations over Alguru echoed previous military operations in the area, which devastated the livelihoods of Papuan villagers, Mr Rumakiek said.
"They are applying the same strategy that they bomb villages and chasing the people who live in the bush, so the after effects are much more serious than the actual destruction itself," he said.
"Those people, when they come back to their village there will be nothing left for them to return to because the schools and clinics are destroyed and the churches are destroyed."
But in a statement, Indonesia's military said reports that security forces were conducting airstrikes or dropping bombs in Nduga were a hoax.
Military forces were working with police in "law enforcement activities" in Alguru, it said.
———————————————

2) ULMWP opens offices in West Papua


    •  
“We are ready and we want the world to know that we are not separatists as Indonesia calls us, we have our Executive, our Judiciary and our Legislative Arms in place.”
The Executive Committee of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) makes the above statement also to the Government and people of Vanuatu that they are ready to officially operate from their West Papua International Headquarters in Port Vila.
Speaking from Grand Hotel yesterday, ULMWP London-based Chairman Benny Wenda says the last six months have been transitional. In his latest announcement, the Chairman confirms the opening of three new ULMWP Offices in West Papua to be followed by four more shortly also in West Papua.
“I wish to confirm that what is happening within West Papua now regarding the opening of our offices in our home country goes to confirm that ULMWP is both an international and national organisational structure for the eventual freedom of the people of West Papua.
“It goes to prove that the claim by Indonesia that ULMWP is only for exiles is false,” he says.
Asked if those who operate the new offices should be fearful of reprisals by the Indonesian Military, the Chairman replies, “Our offices are owned and operated by our own people. Last year, our offices in Wamena and Fak Fak were targeted and it remains to be seen with the new openings.”
He says the Executive Director of ULMWP on the ground in West Papua is Marcus Haluk. He will be responsible for the seven offices when they all operate in the seven regents of West Papua.
Asked if it is a risk, he replies, “What is happening in West Papua now is as a result of what are taking place in other parts of the world. Look at what is happening in Palestine. People are not afraid anymore.
“It has come to a stage where if I have to die, I die but the cause will never die.”
Asked to comment on reports of the killing of three West Papuans, shooting at civilians by the Indonesian military from a helicopter gunship, and burning of houses, the ULMWP Chairman emphasises the importance for the world to sit up to the hypocrisy where Indonesia has been appointed a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, while its military has increased its presence in Nduga by 1,000 soldiers and police since last month, to hunt down members of the West Papua Liberation Army. The Chairman says history is repeating itself in the same regent after the present candidate for the next President of Indonesian, General Wiranto, allegedly led a massive operation in the area involving scores of West Papuans killed in the 1980s. ULMWP says the tactic currently deployed by Indonesia in West Papua reflects a nervousness on its own part that at long last, it is losing its historical stranglehold on West Papua.
“They even want to blame OPM guerrillas for the killing of the three civilians which is truly absurd as they cannot kill their own people in pursuit of freedom,” Chairman Wenda says.
“The fact of the matter is that Indonesia has been appointed to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and we ULMWP, oppose a terrorist state to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. Using a military gunship to shoot into villages, burning homes and chasing people into the bush defeats logic to allow Indonesia to sit as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.”
Leaked information from West Papua to Port Vila claims Indonesia is also nervous that a forty-kilo heavy booklet comprising 1,800,000 West Papuan signatures complete with individual IDs, which was presented to the UN General Assembly last year calling for freedom, will be debated by UN General Assembly in September this year.
“We are also relisting West Papua to the UN Decolonisation Committee and we hope that Vanuatu will also endorse our stand. This is why Indonesia has adopted a terror and trauma strategy with a shooting spree into any gathering of West Papuans in West Papua”, ULMWP alleged.
In conclusion the ULMWP Chairman is appealing to the people of West Papua to care for their organisation like “an egg” saying, it was hatched in Port Vila through the help of the Malvatumauri Council of Chiefs and people of Vanuatu.
For this reason it is vital for all independence factions and all affiliates to speak with one voice, sing the same song and walk the same talk for freedom which is coming soon.
“We have struggled and so many of us have died for the last 50 years for us to arrive where we are today. This unity must stand and stand strong. We have only one united organisation – ULMWP to take us to freedom,” says Wenda.
West Papua currently has a population of about 2.5 million people compared to Papua New Guinea’s 7 million. In 1970 PNG and West Papua were reported to be 50-50 in terms of population.
↧

1) Tommy Soeharto Listed for the Papua Legislative Candidacy

July 18, 2018, 3:20 pm
$
0
0

2) Indonesia, PNG foreign ministers to discuss border issues

3) Answers by Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Stef Blok to questions on the Amnesty International  article 
--------------------------



1) Tommy Soeharto Listed for the Papua Legislative Candidacy

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Berkarya Party Chairman and late-Soeharto’s youngest son, Hutomo Mandala Putra or Tommy Soeharto declared that he has listed himself as a Papua legislative candidate (caleg) for the 2019 general elections.
Tommy’s name was registered to the General Elections Commission (KPU) together with Berkarya Party’s 575 soon-to-be legislative candidates on Tuesday night.
The party’s secretary general Priyo Budi Santoso revealed the reason behind Tommy Soeharto’s candidacy in Papua. He claims that the people of Papua has a sense of enthusiasm and nostalgic towards Soeharto’s past administration under the country’s New Order.
“The enthusiasm of people in rural areas were outstanding, they welcomed (Tommy) with the spirit and memories of President Soeharto’s administration,” Priyo claimed.
Other than Tommy Soeharto, legislative candidates that Berkarya Party enlisted are actors Andi Arsyil and senior actress Paramitha Rusady.
Priyo said that there are many former Golkar Party members that chose to jump ship and join Berkarya Party for the 2019 legislative elections. “From the 575 names that we registered, 30 percent of them are former members of other political parties,” said the Berkarya Party secretary general.
DEWI NURITA
—————————————————————

2) Indonesia, PNG foreign ministers to discuss border issues

Reporter:   11 hours ago
    Jakarta  (ANTARA News) - Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi will have a bilateral meeting with her Papua New Guinea (PNG) counterpart Rimbink Pato on Thursday (July 19) afternoon to discuss several border issues.

    "PNG is one of Indonesia`s close neighbors; it is natural that both countries have a high intensity of relationships. PNG is not only a big country in terms of size but also in terms of economy," Foreign Ministry`s spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir told journalists during a press briefing in Jakarta on Wednesday.

    The management of Indonesia-PNG border regions is among topics that will be discussed between the two ministers, in addition to the establishment of Indonesia-PNG joint border committee.

    "We have a fairly long border area with PNG, and we are aware of the economic potential that can be developed for the welfare of people living in the border area," Nasir added.

    In addition to discussing border issues, Marsudi and Pato will also talk about bilateral economic cooperation, especially efforts to improve trade and investment.

    The value of RI-PNG bilateral trade in 2017 reached US$208.89 million, increasing from $179.2 million in 2016.

   "The two foreign ministers expressed concerns for (strengthening) trade cooperation, including efforts to improve the interaction between businessmen of both countries," Nasir concluded.

  
Editor: Bambang Purwanto

-----------------------------------------------------------
via regwestpapua list
3) Answers by Dutch Foreign Affairs Minister Stef Blok to questions on the Amnesty International  article ‘Indonesia : security forces have killed 100 peoples in Papoea’  by member of the house  Lilianne Ploumen (labour party). 17 July 2018.
Q1
Did you take notice of the Amnesty International article ‘Indonesia : security forces have killed 100 peoples in Papoea’ and the report ‘Don’t bother, just let them die: killing with impunity in Papua’ that was published on 2 July 2018?

A2
Yes

Q2
What is your reaction to the report?

A2
The Amnesty report refers to the situation in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. With that, the report specifically focusses on the violence committed there by security-forces (police and military staff) and the lack of independent and criminal investigation to these incidents.
The findings in the report are perilous. Amnesty reports 95 casualties in the period between January 2010 and February 2018 by such violence. The pith of the matter seems to be between 2012 and 2015. In this period over 10 fatalities per year were identified. The past recent years the number of fatal incidents seems to decline.
In general the cabinet states it is important for government security staff to execute their violence-mandate within the boundaries of proportionality and that there is a possibility for thorough and independent investigation. 

Q3 (combined with 6&7)
Did you have contact with the Indonesian government regarding the violation of the right to demonstrate and other human rights violations when police and military are deployed against peaceful protesters?

Q6
Are you prepared to mention this report, and the necessity for an independent inquiry to the Indonesian government during your upcoming visit? If not, why not?

Q7
During you upcoming visit, will you urge the authorities to undertake initiatives to stop the killing in Papua, amongst others by readjusting the violence-instructions of the police and military so they are in line with human rights? If not, why not?

A3,6,7

The human rights situation in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua knows several areas of concern, amongst others incidents of violence against civilians, but also the freedom of speech and the position of human rights defenders and (local) journalists. The human rights situations in Papua are frequently discussed in diplomatic communications with Indonesia, as well as during political consultations between the Netherlands and Indonesia in November 2017 and during the European Union-Indonesia human rights dialogue in February 2018.
During my visit to Indonesia on 3 and 4 July, I spoke with civil society organizations amongst them Amnesty International and the Indonesian minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi regarding the human rights situation in Papua and the content of the Amnesty International report. In the conversation with my Indonesian counterpart Marsudi I mentioned the importance of transparent investigation on the proportionality of (police) violence. Minister Marsudi indicated being familiar with the content of the report and reaffirmed that the development of Papua is a priority to the Indonesian government. To ad to that, the Indonesian government is also in contact with NGO’s , amongst them Amnesty International. The embassy of The Netherlands in Jakarta remains to follow the developments in Papua closely.

 Q4
Do you share the findings of Amnesty International that the ongoing police violence and impunity are undoing the effects of the community policing program, supported by the Netherlands? If not, why not? If  so, do you support the call from Amnesty for an independent investigation into all murders committed by security forces?

A4
The Netherlands is supporting the community policing programme of the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) on Papua and the Mollucas. This programme has set as a goal to improve the relations between police and the local population on Papua and the Mollucas. The programme focusses exclusively on unarmed neighbourhood police officers, who live in the local community  and are active to serve the civilians. The target group of the programme therefore are not the armed police officers, who according to the Amnesty report, are involved in the alleged extra judicial executions.  
The Dutch lower house was informed by letter on the progress and results of the community policing programme on 18 June 2018. In this letter it was reported that the programme achieved several positive results. The programme resulted in a specially designed human rights module which has been added to the curriculum  for community policing officers throughout Indonesia. Such results remain, with the findings of Amnesty International in mind, as relevant as ever. 

Q5
Is this report reason for you to increase the effectiveness of the Dutch financed community policing programme? If so, what steps will you undertake?

A5
As stated in my answer to the house  on march 16 2018, the current Dutch contribution to the community policing programme lasts until June 2019. To strengthen the effects of the programme, the programme was extended in 2017 with an emphasis on decreasing external funding and increasing undertaking of activities by the communities and the police themselves.
The phasing out results are positive thus far. From august 2017 until April 2018 32,4% of the funding was raised by local sources. The goal is to eventually phase out completely  and letting community policing programmes run itself independently. I see no reason at this point of phasing out to take further steps to improve the effectiveness of the programme.

Please read or download the official press release here (Dutch):

Translation Pro Papua
-----------------------------------
↧
↧

1) Military could only arise trauma among locals

July 19, 2018, 1:34 pm
$
0
0


2) Solidarity of Lamentations of Humanity Alguru Asked Apparatus Withdrawn from Nduga
3) Indonesia’s Papua Coverup Reflex Prompts Police Dormitory Raid
4) Freeport’s one percent fund cannot guarantee Kamoro’s future
5) Palm Oil From Indonesia's Shrinking Forests Taints Global Brands: Report
-------------------------------------------




1) Military could only arise trauma among locals



                         Student activists from BEM Uncen and PMKRI speak during press releases. -Jubi / Doc

Published 8 hours ago on 19 July 2018 By admin
Jayapura, Jubi – Chairman of Student Executive Board of the Cenderawasih University (BEM UNCEN) Paskalis Boma asks Papua Police to withdraw officers from Nduga District to prevent people from trauma.
He said the attack by the police officers occurred in Langguru and Kenyam on 11 July 2018 was very violent. “Nduga is part of Indonesia. If the police want to attack the National Liberation Army and Free Papua Movement (TPN/OPM), they shouldn’t harm the civilians,” he told Jubi on Wednesday (19/7/2018).
Further, he said the military’s attack in Nduga District was excessive as they attacked unarmed people whereas they were well-equipped. “People don’t carry weapons; they can’t fight back. They can’t do it because they are the citizens of Indonesia. This incident remains a scar and is rooted in the hearth of the local Nduga community. It only arises a fear.”
Meanwhile, Benediktus Bame, the Chairman of the Catholic Students Association of Indonesia (PMKRI) St Efrem Jayapura, the government could apply some human approaches towards the TPN/OPM. “The action taken by the government officials was very excessive. It would only arise a fear among the local people,” he said. (*)
Reporter: Hengky Yeimo
Editor: Pipit Maizier
———————————————————————

A google translate. Be-aware google translate can be a bit erratic.
Original bahasa link at

2) Solidarity of Lamentations of Humanity Alguru Asked Apparatus Withdrawn from Nduga
Penulis Redaksi - 19 Juli 2018






JAYAPURA (PT) - Dozens of students who joined in Alguru's Humanitarian Solidarity Solidarity in Nduga staged a peaceful demonstration at the Papua Parliament Office on Thursday (19/7/18).

They asked the security forces to withdraw from Nduga after the invasion of Alguru village.

In fact, they also urged the government to be responsible for the victims of Alguru civilian shootings.

"The governmt is immediately responsible for the restoration of civilian security conditions in Nduga," he said
Coordinator of action, Remes Ubruangge when delivering speeches before the Speaker of Papua House, DR. Yunus Wonda, SH, MH accompanied by Ruben Magai, Nason Utty, Laurenzus Kadepa, Elvis Tabuni, Gerson Soma, Emus Gwijangge and John Ronsumbre and representatives from Komnas HAM RI Sandrayati Moniaga, SH.

In addition, the demonstrators also urged the government to immediately open access for the establishment of the Fact Finding Team and immediately withdraw non-organic and organic troops from Nduga.

It is said, people just want to live in the country without terror and now the people of Alguru grieve.

"We will boycott Presidential Election 2019 if President Jokowi can not solve the problem of human rights violations that occurred in Papua," koar one of the student representatives when delivering his oration.

In his statement, the demonstrators conveyed three things namely, urging Jokowi to stop military operations in Nduga.

Then urged the President to remove the Chief of Police, Chief of Police of Papua, Commander of the TNI, Pangdam XVII / Cenderawasih because they are considered to have committed human rights violations against civilians in Nduga.

In addition, urging the Presdien to open access for independent human rights workers to Nduga to obtain facts, as well as to open access to humanitarian aid in Nduga, and to urge the Australian, British, Dutch and other governments to immediately stop military assistance to TNI / Polri to Indonesia.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the Papua House, Yunus Wonda who received the aspirations of the students said, since the incident in Nduga his side had taken a stand and demanded the withdrawal of all troops in Nduga.

"We will continue to urge people's lives back to normal. We've done what we have to do, "explained Yunus Wonda.

"All security forces must be withdrawn from Nduga," he said.

According to him, not only the responsibility of the House of Representatives of Papua Nduga, but all members of the House of Representatives of Papua.

"Whatever the reason, all the security forces must be withdrawn from Nduga, because there is not a military operation area," he asserted.

In the same place, Komnas HAM RI, Sandrayati Moniaga who attended the demonstration to convey deep sorrow to the people who are victims of the case teraebut.

Both Nduga victims and victims occurred in other areas of Papua.

"For Komnas HAM, all human beings are equal, whether he is Papuan or not, for us all the same," he explained.

Admittedly, the problem in Nduga is not just happening in Papua but in other areas such as Aceh, Maluku, Kalimantan and Java are also experiencing the same thing.

"Until now thousands of victims have not received justice. So the government is responsible for solving this problem, "he said.

"We are an independent institution will continue to encourage the government to follow up. A statement from our listeners we hear and we will continue to convey, "he concluded. (fig / dm)



-----------------------------------------------

3) Indonesia’s Papua Coverup Reflex Prompts Police Dormitory Raid
July 19, 2018 2:26PM EDT

Michelle Winowatan Intern, Asia Division

Dozens of Indonesian military and police personnel raided a student dormitory in Surabaya on July 6 to stop the screening of a documentary about security force atrocities in Papua. It’s the latest example of the government’s determination not to deal with past abuses in the country’s easternmost province.

Authorities Cite ‘Hidden Activities’ to Cancel Screening of Papuan Film 
Security forces carried out the raid following social media postings about the planned screening of “Bloody Biak.” The film documents the security forces opening fire on a peaceful pro-Papuan independence flag-raising ceremony in the town of Biak in July 1998, killing dozens. They said the dorm raid was necessary to prevent unspecified “hidden activities” by Papuan students.


The raid is emblematic of both the Indonesian government’s failure to deliver on promises of accountability for past human rights abuses in Papua and its willingness to take heavy-handed measures to stifle public discussion about those violations. The government of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has not fulfilled a commitment made in 2016 to seek resolution of longstanding human rights abuses, including the Biak massacre and the military crackdown on Papuans in Wasior in 2001 and Wamena in 2003 that killed dozens and displaced thousands. Meanwhile, police and other security forces that kill Papuans do so with impunity.


Media coverage of rights abuses in Papua are hobbled by the Indonesian government’s decades-old access restrictions to the region, despite Jokowi’s 2015 pledge to lift them. Domestic journalists are vulnerable to intimidation and harassment from officials, local mobs, and security forces. The government is also hostile to foreign human rights observers seeking access to Papua. Last month, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said he is “concerned that despite positive engagement by the authorities in many respects, the Government’s invitation to my Office to visit Papua – which was made during my visit in February – has still not been honoured.”

The raid in Surabaya signals the government’s determination to maintain its chokehold on public discussion of human rights violations across Indonesia. This suggests that the government’s objective is to maintain Papua as a ”forbidden island” rather than provide transparency and accountability for human rights abuses there.

----------------------------------------------

4) Freeport’s one percent fund cannot guarantee Kamoro’s future

Published 8 hours ago on 19 July 2018 By admin
Jayapura, Jubi – The Secretary for the Government, Politics, Law and Human Rights Commission of the Papua House of Representatives Mathea Mamoyao, who is also a Kamoro native, said ‘one percent fund’, 1% of Freeport’s gross revenues go to the local tribes, does not guarantee the sustainable future of those tribes.
“I don’t know whether this compensation is still there or not. I don’t want certain people took advantages on it, while people are still living under the poverty,” she told Jubi on Wednesday (18/7/2018).

Further, she said what she wants is a guarantee for the Kamoro tribe to live in a better condition in the future. But the fact is the education and health services in the Kamoro region is still poor. “For all the times, I’ll keep talking about it, because as a native, I don’t want the young generation of my tribe not to survive in the future,” she said.
Meanwhile, the board of Meepago Customary Council John NR Gobai said indigenous peoples as the tenure landowners collect the promise of the Indonesian Government on the bargain involved Freeport, the Central Government and the landowners on 4 September 2017.
“At that time, the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Ignatius Jonan agreed to accommodate the request of Amungme tribe asking Freeport to give a reimbursement of 1% fund which they received as the Corporate Social Responsibly funds into larger value shares,” he said. (*)
Reporter: Arjuna Pademme
Editor: Pipit Maizier

---------------------------------------
5) Palm Oil From Indonesia's Shrinking Forests Taints Global Brands: Report
By : Fergus Jensen and Bernadette Christina Munthe | on 6:01 PM July 19, 2018
Jakarta. Palm oil sourced from illegally cleared rainforest areas in Indonesia has flowed through traders to major consumer goods brands despite widespread commitments to cease purchases of non-sustainable oil, a new report says.
Palm oil companies Royal Golden Eagle (RGE), Wilmar, Musim Mas Group and Golden Agri Resources sold oil from 21 "tainted" mills to more than a dozen global brands including Nestlé and Unilever, according to the report by Eyes on the Forest (EoF), a coalition of environmental nongovernmental organizations, including WWF Indonesia.
In spot checks since 2011, EoF used GPS tracking to follow trucks carrying palm oil fruit, known as fresh fruit bunches, to mills from plantations within Tesso Nilo National Park and the Bukit Tigapuluh protected forest areas in central Sumatra.
"All companies bought directly or indirectly from at least some of the 21 implicated mills," according to the report, which calls for traceability on palm oil to be improved and to be extended to plantations that supply mills.

Forest cover on Sumatra Island, home to endangered tigers, orangutans and elephants, had declined by more than half to 11 million hectares in 2016 from the 25 million hectares it had in 1985, as palm oil and other plantations have expanded and encroached on protected areas.
Nestlé said in an emailed response it was "committed to tackling" deforestation. A company spokeswoman said the firm was working with partners to transform the palm oil industry "further down the supply chain."
Unilever said by email it publicly disclosed suppliers and mill details and was committed to increasing traceability in the palm oil supply chain "and to working with our suppliers and partners to resolve issues."
Unilever also said it was examining "details behind the investigation to determine the right approach and next steps."
Environment Ministry spokesman Djati Witjaksono Hadi said smallholders, "not companies," owned plantations in national parks.
Hadi referred further questions on the mills to the ministries of agriculture and industry, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Similar issues were highlighted in earlier EoF reports including in 2016, but a lack of strict supervision by traders has led to more forest clearing and illegally grown palm oil entering global supply chains despite their commitments to improve traceability and stop deforestation, the report said.

Traceability
"We acknowledge that it's really challenging to get traceability beyond the mill and going right down to the plantation source," Elizabeth Clarke, WWF global palm oil lead, told Reuters. "But it's absolutely paramount that they do this."
Among those mentioned in the report, Wilmar International was accused of buying palm oil from Citra Riau Sarana (CRS) whose three mills were found to have bought fresh fruit bunches from Tesso Nilo in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017, even though Wilmar sold its 95 percent stake in CRS in 2014.
"Whatever action they've been taking, it hasn't fixed that particular mill, and this is what we're asking these particular individuals to do," the WWF's Clarke said.
Responding to the report, Wilmar said it had "continued to engage with CRS and to monitor their traceability system" from 2014. "While there was progress made on traceability, we have stopped purchasing from them since June 2018 for other reasons," Wilmar said in an emailed statement.
But Wilmar said it had not received "a clear confirmation from the authorities which companies are illegal in the landscape" despite making a request to the Environment Ministry.
CRS could not immediately be reached by phone for comment.
Sime Darby Plantation, also named in the report, said it had 94 percent visibility of its supply chain "which provides key customers access to traceability information that can help them make informed choices about the palm oil products that they purchase."
It also said it was working with nongovernmental organizations to eradicate deforestation for the remaining 6 percent.

Daniel A. Prakarsa, head of downstream sustainability at Sinar Mas Agribusiness and Food, a subsidiary of Golden Agri, said the company considered 39 percent of its output to be fully traceable, and was targeting full traceability from the 427 mills of its suppliers by 2020.
"Our policy is to help suppliers to comply. Not just [saying] 'this is our standard, you must comply, otherwise we stop [buying],'" he said.
Musim Mas Group did not immediately respond to a written request for comment. On its website, the group says it is working with smallholders and other stakeholders along the supply chain to achieve sustainable palm oil production.
Clarke from the WWF said trading firms "need to make it very clear to the mills that they won't buy from them until they can provide assurance that it is 100 percent legal."
Reuters
-------------------------------
↧

Pato reaffirms PNG's position on West Papua to Jakarta

July 20, 2018, 2:24 pm
$
0
0
Pato reaffirms PNG's position on West Papua to Jakarta
38 minutes ago 


Papua new Guinea's Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato says he has reaffirmed his country's support for Indonesian control of West Papua.

PNG foreign minister Rimbink Pato meets his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi in Indonesia, 19 July 2018 Photo: Rimbink Pato office

It was one of the points of discussion in Mr Pato's meeting with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi on Thursday night in Jakarta.
Mr Pato provided some clarity to the Indonesian government on what he said was some recent misreporting on the issue of PNG's stance on West Papua.
Other matters discussed in the bilateral meeting were Indonesia's assistance to PNG in its preparations for hosting the APEC leaders summit in November
Mr Pato said he was grateful that Indonesia successfully proposed PNG to host APEC 2018 and for its support in hosting the event.
He said they had a useful discussion on cooperation for the economic development of the PNG-Indonesia border regions, and on planning for the first PNG- Indonesia Ministerial Forum.
According to Mr Pato, he reaffirmed Papua New Guinea's longstanding and permanent position on the status of the West Papua and Papua provinces of Indonesia.
"They are an integral part of the Republic of Indonesia," he said.
"There has been some misreporting on this issue. Papua New Guinea's position has not changed and there is no intention to ever change it."
--------------------------
↧

1) Dialogue with Indonesia is not the answer for West Papua: ULMWP

July 21, 2018, 1:25 pm
$
0
0

2) Indonesia’s Papua ‘cover-up reflex’ prompts police dormitory raid

------------------------


1) Dialogue with Indonesia is not the answer for West Papua: ULMWP


  • The United Liberation Movement speaks with one voice and with one clear message.
    “We demand the freedom of our people and nation from colonial rule is delivered to us through a genuine act of self-determination, in the form of an internationally supervised vote,” Benny Wenda, Chairman of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) conveyed in a statement yesterday.
    “Our position also remains crystal clear that there is no room for dialogue with Indonesia; the time for that has long passed. Instead, as pointed out yesterday by Secretary Rumakeik, the only place for ‘dialogue’ on the issue of West Papua is the floor of the UN, where the wrongs of the past must now be corrected.”
    The ULMWP seeks to remind key players at the UN of the legacy of failure they inherit, as well as their sacred duty under their Charter to ensure the decolonisation process is completed by giving the West Papuan peoples their inhalable right to self- determination.
    The ULMWP chairman noted that Secretary Rumakeik’s comments echoed the sentiment expressed by PNG’s Prime Minister and current Chair of the MSG, Peter O’Neill, who recently stated he would like to encourage others to take the issue of West Papua to the UN. “We are encouraging that this be put to the decolonisation committee of the United Nations,” he also said.
    The recent reports from Amnesty International and the International Coalition for Papua, that both highlight the huge number of extrajudicial killings carried out by Indonesian Security forces against our people, should show the international community why ULMWP dialogue with Indonesia is not possible. It would also be a betrayal of our people and the 500,000+ who have lost their lives under Indonesian occupation.
    “The only solution is for us to be allowed a genuine act of self-determination, through an internationally supervised vote,” the chairman concludes.
—————————————

2) Indonesia’s Papua ‘cover-up reflex’ prompts police dormitory raid
By  - 
  

A video of a demonstration marking the bloody Biak massacre of 6 July 1998 staged last year. Video: BBB Times
By Michelle Winowatan
Dozens of Indonesian military and police personnel raided a student dormitory in Surabaya on July 6 to stop the screening of a documentary about security force atrocities in Papua.
It is the latest example of the government’s determination not to deal with past abuses in the country’s easternmost province.
Security forces carried out the raid following social media postings about the planned screening of the documentary Bloody Biak (Biak Berdarah).
The film documents Indonesian security forces opening fire on a peaceful pro-Papuan independence flag-raising ceremony in the town of Biak in July 1998, killing dozens.



Security forces said the dorm raid was necessary to prevent unspecified “hidden activities” by Papuan students.
The raid is emblematic of both the Indonesian government’s failure to deliver on promises of accountability for past human rights abuses in Papua and its willingness to take heavy-handed measures to stifle public discussion about those violations.
The government of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has not fulfilled a commitment made in 2016to seek resolution of longstanding human rights abuses, including the Biak massacre and the military crackdown on Papuans in Wasior in 2001 and Wamena in 2003 that killed dozens and displaced thousands.
Killing with impunity
Meanwhile, police and other security forces that kill Papuans do so with impunity.
Media coverage of rights abuses in Papua are hobbled by the Indonesian government’s decades-old access restrictions to the region, despite Jokowi’s 2015 pledge to lift them.
Domestic journalists are vulnerable to intimidation and harassment from officials, local mobs, and security forces.
The government is also hostile to foreign human rights observers seeking access to Papua.
Last month, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said he was “concerned that despite positive engagement by the authorities in many respects, the government’s invitation to my Office to visit Papua – which was made during my visit in February – has still not been honoured”.
The raid in Surabaya signals the government’s determination to maintain its chokehold on public discussion of human rights violations across Indonesia.
This suggests that the government’s objective is to maintain Papua as a ”forbidden island” rather than provide transparency and accountability for human rights abuses there.
Michelle Winowatan is a Human Rights Watch intern. The Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project monitors Asia-Pacific rights issues.
—————————————————
↧
Search

1) Indonesia firebombs West Papuan village

July 22, 2018, 1:32 pm
$
0
0

2) The ULMWP opens new office in Merouke, West Papua

3) Thirty one inmates break out of Jayapura jail
---------------------------------------------------------



1) Indonesia firebombs West Papuan village
GLW July 22, 2018
Indonesia &
West Papua
Indonesia has repeatedly fire-bombed a highland village in West Papuam, where indigenous Papuans have lived for thousands of years, the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) said in a July 16 statement.
ULMWP spokesperson Jacob Rumbiak severely criticised the Indonesian government for its ongoing strafing the village of Kalguru since the June 27 local government elections. Rumbiak called for the United Nations to intervene and mediate talks.
Video has emerged of military-helicopters circling the flaming village after the election, and extra military, police and intelligence were sent to the isolated highland region ahead of the elections.
“The Indonesian government’s incineration of Kalguru is the republic’s scorched-earth policy at work; leaving us with a mass of heritage-charcoal and hundreds of women and children in the forest without food and medicine,” Rumbiak said.
ULMP said that no one knew how many had been killed by Indonesia’s recent attacks this month. 

————————————————

2) The ULMWP opens new office in Merouke, West Papua





July 14, 1969, was the first day of the the Act of free Choice’s execution in Merauke, so in this moment we, the ULMWP Legislative of the Anim- Ha Region and Legislative Tribes of the Anim-Ha Region, West Papua, along with the people of West Papua inaugurate the ULMWP Office of the Anim- Ha, Merouke, West Papua. We express the attitude of the 30 Indigenous peoples tribes in Anim-Ha to reject the Act of free Choice (PEPERA), and to support the full manual petition of West Papua in 2017 with a total of 1.8 million signatures.
The inauguration of the office of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) was officially opened by ULMWP legislative secretary, Sir. Eliaser Anggaigon in the Anim-Ha Region, Merouke, West Papua. After opening its doors to the public the organising leadership of the ULMWP in Merouke addressed the crowd by releasing the following statement:
Statement to reject the Act of free choice (PEPERA) 1969 in West Papua because it is not a true act of self determination.
The right of self-determination for the people of West Papua is the solution!
The dispute over West Papua between the Netherlands and Indonesia in the 1960s brought the two countries into negotiations that ended in an agreement that came to be known as the New York Agreement. This Agreement consists of 29 Articles governing 3 kinds of things. Among them are articles 14-21 regulating self determination based on International practice of “one man one voice” (one man, one vote). And articles 12 and 13 governing the transfer of the administration of West Papua to the United Nations Temporary Executive (UNTEA) and then to the Government of Indonesia, which took place on 1st May 1963. Then colonial Indonesia called it the Day of Integration or the return of West Papua into Indonesia’s lap.
Prior to that, on September 30th, 1962 the Rome Agreement was pinned down so that Indonesia would encourage development and prepare for the implementation of the Act of Free Choice in West Papua in 1969.
Nevertheless, in practice, Indonesia actually mobilised its military on a large scale to West Papua to dampen the Free Papua Movement. They organised Special Operations (OPSUS), which were chaired by Indonesian General Ali Murtopo, and was tasked with winning the West Papuan People’s self determination (PEPERA) for Indonesia. But this was followed by military operations against the West Papuan people such as Operation Sadar, Operations  Kancil,  Operation Bhratayudha, Operation Tumpas and Operation Pamungkas .
As a result of these operations, violations of the political rights of the Papuan people are tremendous with enormous destruction of the West Papuan people. Detention, murder, manipulation of Papuan political rights, sexual harassment, cultural abuse, racism and crimes against humanity within these 6 years, 1963-69. This continues to happen until this decade. More ironically again, on April 7, 1967 the first working contract with PT. Freeport McMoran, an American mining company and its allies, was signed by the Suharto regime which claims the territory of West Papua for the Government of Indonesia 2 Years before the Act of free choice (PEPERA), West Papua’s right of self determination was implemented. So it can be ascertained, whatever the way and whatever the reason, it had been decided that West Papua should be included in the power of the Government of Indonesia’s colonialism.
Exactly on the July 14th, 1969, the Act of free Choice (PEPERA) was started in Merauke and was ended on August 2, 1969, in Jayapura. At that time, the total population of West Papuan indigenous people numbered about 809,337 people, and they all had the right to engage in the Act of free choice (PEPERA), but it did not happen and we were represented by only 1,025 people. Those who have been selected to be involved in the Act of free Choice were quarantined by the Indonesian government and only 175 people gave their opinion.
Indonesia implemented the undemocratic Act of free Choice (PEPERA), full of terror, intimidation and manipulation along with the occurrence of gross human rights violations that occurred systematically at that time.
The practice of colonialism was then applied by the Government of Indonesia to the present time to dampen the aspirations of West Papuan people for freedom. When West Papua was annexed into the framework of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), the struggle and effort of the people of West Papua was not broken. Almost eternally long, West Papuans have struggled to regain their rights and dignity as human beings who have been killed by the colonial system of Indonesia.
In the long journey of West Papua’s struggle, to respond to the needs of the struggle, the West Papuans have intelligently formed a representative forum under the name of United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP). In 2017, the ULMWP has gathered West Papua people’s signatures through a Manual Petition from all areas ofWest Papua. The petition is one part of the West Papuan people’s protest against the Act of free Choice (PEPERA) which was not in line with International practice. West Papuans from all regions of Anim-Ha have also signed the petition, with a total of 213,423 signatures from our area.
The West Papuan people firmly state that the representatives of the Pepera Council from the Anim-Ha Region (Merauke) involved in the Act of free Choice (PEPERA),1969, were unlawful representatives. Now the West Papuan people of the Anim-Ha Region, West Papua, represented by 213,423 [Two Hundred and Thirteen Thousand Four Hundred Twenty-Three] people who signed the petition demand that the violation of Political Rights that occurred 49 years ago must be reviewed and that a new vote be held with international supervision.
Based on the historical reality that the West Papua people’s political rights have been brutally silenced, the enduring desire of the West Papuan people to be free and independent in our homeland and free from existing colonisation. On the 49th anniversary of the Act of free choice (PEPERA) which is very contrary to international practice, the legislative of the ULMWP, Anim-Ha Area with West Papua people states that:
1. We, the Indigenous Peoples with the Legislative Representatives of ULMWP and the Tribes The ANIM-HA region firmly reject the act of free choice [PEPERA] in 1969 and immediately request a Referendum for West Papua under international legal and political supervision.
2. We, Indigenous Peoples with Legislative Representatives ULMWP and the Tribes ANIM-HA territory fully supports the West Papua People’s manual petition 2017 with 1.8 million signatures.
3. We, the Indigenous Peoples together with Legislative Representatives of the ULMWP Tribe ANIM-HA territory demand to the United Nations, the Netherlands, USA and Indonesia that they immediately open a free political space based on international legal standards, so that West Papuans can implement the referendum again.
This is the statement of attitude that we make.
We will continue to speak out against all forms of colonialism, oppression and exploitation that are taking place in West Papua until the West Papuan people gain true and lasting independence!


----------------------------------------------
3) Thirty one inmates break out of Jayapura jail
Reporter:   8 hours ago

Sentani, Papua (ANTARA News) - Police clarified on Sunday that a total of 31 inmates have broken out of the Doyo Baru Narcotics Prison of Wibu Sub-District, Jayapura District, Papua, not 25 prisoners as reported earlier.

Jayapura District Police Head Adjunct Senior Commissioner Victor Mackhon told ANTARA here on Sunday that he had earlier received report that 25 inmates from the prison had escaped.

After conducting an investigation, police found that 31 prisoners have fled on Sunday morning at 10 a.m local time, he said.

They broke the jail`s Cenderawasih 1.1 block by knocking the trellis of the room ventilation and used the trellis as a ladder to climb the jail`s wall.

"The total number of prisoners who escaped was 31, two of which had been recaptured. The other 29 are still hunted by the police and prison officials," he said.

Reported by Musa Abubakar
(a014/ )
(T.SYS/C/A014/C/R013) 
Editor: Heru Purwanto
----------------------------------
↧
↧

1) State-run Banks Will Not Fund Freeport Divestment

July 23, 2018, 2:38 am
$
0
0

2) Indonesia escalating violence against West Papuans 
3) Melanesian Spearhead Group failing - Ralph Regenvanu  
4) 32 foreign diplomats enjoy visit to Raja Ampat: Yembise



---------------------------------------------

1) State-run Banks Will Not Fund Freeport Divestment

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - State-owned mining holding company INALUM has announced the financial backing to acquire 51 percent of Freeport Indonesia’s shares will be funded by foreign banks so as not to disrupt the rupiah echange rate.
“We do not want to affect the rupiah’s conversion because the transaction will be conducted overseas utilizing US dollars. INALUM and Freeport Indonesia’s income are in dollars, which is why it will not disrupt the exchange rate of the rupiah,” said INALUM head of corporate communications Rendi Ahmad Witular today.
However, Rendi stopped short of pinpointing which foreign banks would be invloved in the funding. 
Earlier, the head of the Association of State-Owned Banks (Himbara), Maryono, said four state-owned banks would not participate in funding INALUM. He added that the funding would possibly be done by privately-owned or foreign banks.
“Yes, the reason is to flow cash into Indonesia from other countries that will increase our foreign exchange,” said Maryono.
On Thursday, July 12, the Indonesian government represented by INALUM ratified the head of agreement for Freeport McMoran Inc share sales and the participation rights for Rio Tinto in Freeport Indonesia to INALUM.


-----------------------------

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1807/S00082/indonesia-escalating-violence-against-west-papuans.htm

2) Indonesia escalating violence against West Papuans

Monday, 23 July 2018, 4:53 pm
Press Release: Catherine Delahunty
Press release - Indonesia escalating violence against West Papuans 
23/7/2018
Reports and footage of villages burning from Indonesian military strikes in West Papua in the last week indicate a new escalation in violence against West Papuans according to solidarity group, West Papua Action Auckland [WPAA] 
“ The exact locations and number of civilian injuries and deaths are hard to quantify, but the Alguru village area has clearly been under violent attack and many families have fled into the forest with no support. Our organisation is deeply concerned about this escalation and has written to the New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs calling for him to immediately raise the need for in independent investigation of these events. If security forces in the highlands are attacking communities with or without Indonesian Government endorsement they must be stopped. As a neighbour we cannot just sit in silence while villages are firebombed. The Prime Minister hosted President Widodo of Indonesia recently and made some small reference to human rights concerns. This is far a from adequate response to the ongoing situation in West Papua whereby human rights and self determination are actively suppressed. The latest incidents show the Indonesian Government allowing state violence against communities and our Government needs to speak out against this,” said WPAA coordinator and former MP Catherine Delahunty. The group is still waiting for a response from the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
ENDS
———————————————————

3) Melanesian Spearhead Group failing - Ralph Regenvanu
4:53 pm today


Vanuatu's Foreign Minister says he's lost faith in the Melanesian Spearhead Group because of a lack of consensus and political engagement.
The group had become especially contentious after including Indonesia in 2015, which had clashed with United Liberation Movement for West Papua, which holds observer status.
In an interview with Australian thinktank the Development Policy Centre, Ralph Regenvanu, said the MSG was disappointing and becoming less relevant.
"That consensus approach to decision making is failing in the MSG. Vanuatu's been consistently saying that it's not happy with the way that decisions are made, that they're not made in the consensus manner, and that's continuing."
Mr Regenvanu said if the group returns to its purpose it could become relevant again.


————————————

4) 32 foreign diplomats enjoy visit to Raja Ampat: Yembise
Reporter:   3 hours ago

Sorong, W Papua (ANTARA News) - Some 32 foreign diplomats, participating in the 2018 diplomatic tour to Raja Ampat District in West Papua Province, enjoyed their visit, according to Women`s Empowerment and Child Protection Minister Yohana Yembise.

The foreign envoys were captivated by the view of Raja Ampat from the Piaynemo top, the minister stated here, Monday.

They also lauded the environmental preservation efforts made owing to the local, traditional, and cultural wisdom, she pointed out.

Yembise expressed hope that the foreign ambassadors and diplomats would spread the word around on Raja Ampat`s scenic beauty in their countries.

The minister is optimistic that the diplomatic tour would help to increase the number of foreign tourists to Raja Ampat.

"Let us preserve the underwater natural scenery of Rapa Ampat, so we can benefit from sustainable tourism for the sake of the children and grandchildren," she emphasized.

The Indonesian archipelago of Raja Ampat, fondly monikered the "living Eden" or "paradise on Earth," was earlier a lesser-known tourist spot, familiar only to intrepid travelers and avid divers.

A crown jewel of Indonesia, Raja Ampat has crystal-clear turquoise waters and isles that are covered by thick, green carpets of dense forests and mangrove swamps.

Located in the Coral Triangle, the heart of the world`s coral reef biodiversity, between the Pacific and Indian oceans in eastern Indonesia`s West Papua Province, the world is now taking notice of Raja Ampat after the Indonesian government intensified its tourism promotion here.

Editor: Otniel Tamindael
-----------------------------

↧

1) Pacific regionalism, climate finance, and women in politics: in conversation with Hon Ralph Regenvanu

July 23, 2018, 1:06 pm
$
0
0

2) Students ask for Jokowi’s promises following an attack in Nduga

3) INDONESIA: Papuan human rights defender intimated and threatened by Yahukimo Regent’s campaign staff

4) Indonesia still has too much corruption, says Soeharto's son
5) Jayapura police arrest six escaped drug inmates
-------------------------------------------

http://www.devpolicy.org/pacific-regionalism-climate-finance-women-in-politics-conversation-hon-ralph-regenvanu-20180724/?print=print

DEVPOLICY Blog Published on July 23, 2018

1) Pacific regionalism, climate finance, and women in politics: in conversation with Hon Ralph Regenvanu

By Tess Newton Cain and Ralph Regenvanu

During a recent trip to Port Vila, Tess Newton Cain caught up with Hon Ralph Regenvanu, Minister for Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and External Trade in the Vanuatu Government. Listen to a podcast of their conversation here, or read a transcript here. For the highlights of their discussion, read on…
Minister Regenvanu describes himself as a Port Vila citizen. He has lived for most of his life in the capital of Vanuatu, other than for a period of time when he was studying in Australia (he holds an Honors Degree in Anthropology and Development Studies from ANU).
He spent more than a decade as Director of the Vanuatu Cultural Centre, prior to a return to university in 2007, this time to study Law at the University of the South Pacific. Then his political career took off:
Halfway through my degree, I stood for election, and I got in at the end of 2008 as an independent candidate. And myself and the others who were with me in the political journey set up the Graon mo Jastis Pati in 2010.
This is Minister Regenvanu’s third term in Parliament and he has held a number of portfolios since 2008. He took over as Minister for Foreign Affairs in December 2017.
So, what are Vanuatu’s foreign policy priorities and what would he like to see his ministry achieve during his tenure as its leader? Significantly, the Minister points to internal matters as being more significant than external issues:
The biggest issues of this ministry are not so much external issues. The biggest issues of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are the internal coordination of the government so that we can strategically approach our international relations and diplomacy. So, at the moment, it is quite difficult to effectively strategise about how Vanuatu places itself in the world, especially the most important thing for us on the horizon is the LDC graduation in 2020.
The minister explained that he thinks there are more opportunities for Vanuatu to work strategically bilaterally, regionally and globally. This is what will be required as the impacts of Least Developed Country (LDC) graduation take effect after 2020. Therefore, he is focused on getting the internal infrastructure right between his Ministry, the Prime Minister’s Office (which is responsible for aid coordination), the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fisheries and Biosecurity (which has carriage of the EDF11 program).
Politics in Vanuatu and voter behaviour tends to focus on the hyper-local issues so how can the work of the Foreign Minister and his Ministry be translated into messages that resonate with the urban voters of Port Vila, which is where Minister Regenvanu’s constituency sits?
…the best way to really make people appreciate our foreign relations is, of course, all the aid projects, right? And being able to show that they are well chosen, have high impact on the lives of people, that they’re conducted in a manner which is transparent, and they’re done efficiently. And that brings me back to what I originally said about being very strategic in how we organise ourselves internally to get projects, attract the right kind of projects and the right kind of conditions that we want.
The second aspect of foreign affairs that the Minister believes resonates with voters is one that is essentially part of the DNA of Vanuatu:
There is, of course, the very popular issue in Vanuatu of West Papua, and that’s also something which governments need to take heed of, in terms of the very, very popular support for the independence of West Papua in Vanuatu, which is translated into one of our foreign affairs objectives.
A third, emerging, narrative is around the growing awareness of the impacts of climate change in Vanuatu. On that note, we discussed recent statements the minister had made regarding climate finance and, in particular, the issue of compensation for loss and damage.
He expressed a certain amount of frustration with the actions (or lack thereof) of developed countries in relation to some key issues:
You’ve got to play the game that you yourself agreed to. So, when it comes to the Green Climate Fund, for example,… it’s a very poor effort by the developed countries who’ve said that they would contribute. Let alone, talking about loss and damage, which has absolutely no contributions, even though that was also an agreement made by all the countries…
I reminded the Minister he had previously expressed to me a degree of scepticism about the value of regional organisations such as the Pacific Islands Forum and the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF). What are his current views on this?
I think the Pacific Islands Forum is definitely useful, especially in terms of articulating common positions and being a conduit for development finance, accessing larger facilities and so on… I can’t say the same about the MSG [Melanesian Spearhead Group]. I think the MSG is… it’s disappointing, to say the least and there’s a question of its relevance.
The Minister accepts that Vanuatu has a particular interest in the MSG, but says that ongoing support depends on management decisions made in the next little while. Whilst the decision on the membership application of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua is top of that list, there are other concerns around management of the organisation as well. As for the PIDF?
We’re currently not a member. And we’re just — I suppose we’re just watching it to see — we’re really more invested in the Forum at this stage.
Last, but not least, we turned to the issue of increased participation of women in political decision-making. This is an issue on which Minister Regenvanu has long been very vocal. Further to his contribution to getting temporary special measures included in municipal elections in Port Vila and Luganville, what is next in this space?
…the next step is going for political party legislation, which is what we’re working on now, to get a new bill through Parliament, which provides for the regulation of political parties. At the moment, we have nothing like that in Vanuatu. So, just a very simple law that says you have to register a political party according to certain criteria… And then in that legislation, I think, is room to create measures… by which women can get more representation.
Minister Regenvanu continues to be a prominent and influential member of the Vanuatu Parliament and Government. We will be watching his political progress with interest.
http://www.devpolicy.org/pacific-regionalism-climate-finance-women-in-politics-conversation-hon-ralph-regenvanu-20180724/

Date downloaded: July 24, 2018

—————————————————————

http://tabloidjubi.com/eng/students-ask-for-jokowis-promises-following-an-attack-in-nduga/
2) Students ask for Jokowi’s promises following an attack in Nduga
Published 17 hours ago on 23 July 2018By admin










Students joined the Solidarity for Nduga in a protest to refuse
military settlement in Nduga – Jubi/Doc
Dekai, Jubi – Dozens of students who are members of the Association of Students from the Papuan Central Highland 
of Indonesia (AMPTPI) urged the President Joko Widodo to solve some problems occurred following the attack by the
 military in Nduga on 11 July 2018.
Samuel Lokbere, the Chairman of the Student Association of Nduga said the conflict involved gunfire between the 
West Papuan liberation army and Indonesian security force has caused trauma for the local people in Nduga.
“Military operation in Alguru village is a real threat for civilians. Despite disturbing, it also increases the fear among
Nduga people who are still traumatic with the similar incident occurred in Mapenduma in 1995-1996,” Lokbere stated 
in a press release recently.
Meanwhile Efer Lokobal, the Chairman of AMPTPI Manado, North Sulawesi, also regretted the failure of the 
President Joko Widodo to fulfil his promise during his presidential campaign for solving the human rights issues in Papua.
“Until now the President of Indonesia failed to solve the human rights issues in Papua. Lately, even there are many 
shooting incidents against civilians everywhere.” (*)

Reporter: Piter Lokon
Editor: Pipit Maizier




------------------------------------------------
Note.AHRC makes it very easy to respond to their U/As

http://www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/AHRC-UAC-040-2018

3) INDONESIA: Papuan human rights defender intimated and threatened by Yahukimo Regent’s campaign staff

  
July 18, 2018
ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM
Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-040-2018
send-button.gif
July 18, 2018
---------------------------------------------------------------------
INDONESIA: Papuan human rights defender intimated and threatened by Yahukimo Regent’s campaign staff

ISSUES: Human rights defenders, terror, intimidation, rule of law
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the terror and intimidation experienced by Mr. Theo Hesegem, a Papuan human rights defender. Prior to this intimidation, Theo advocated against the Yahukimo Regent’s abuse of power in unlawfully dismissing 199 village heads. While this has been reported to the authorities, no action is being taken.
CASE NARRATIVE:
On 25 June 2018, Mr. Theo Hesegem, a senior and credible human rights defender from Papua, was threatened and intimidated by the campaign team of the Regent of Yahukimo, Mr. Busop MA. According to Mr. Theo, the campaign team, a total of four people, came to Theo’s house. They came by two cars and parked in front of the house without any permission.
ahrc-uac-040-2018-01.pngWhen they reached the house, the four people suddenly shouted that they will kill Theo. Without enough evidence, they accused Theo of stealing money belonging to Air Garam village, Kurima district, Yahukimo regency. Although Theo said he does not know anything about the money, the four persons insisted that Theo has stolen the money.
According to Theo, this intimidation is related to his advocacy for 199 village heads who had been dismissed by the Regent of Yahukimo on 26 April 2018. Theo told the media that this dismissal violated Law No 6 of 2014. This provoked the Regent’s anger.
While Theo has communicated this problem to the Papuan governor and the Chief Police of Papuan Regional Police Office (Kapolda Papua), Police Inspector General Boy Rafli Amar, as of yet nothing has been done to address the problem.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Theo Hesegem is a prominent human rights defender from Wamena, Papua. He is the coordinator of a local human rights organization in Wamena, and a consistent advocate against various human rights cases in Papua. Previously, the AHRC had issued an urgent appeal related to military intimidation against Theo: Papuan human rights defender insulted and intimidated by military command
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the authorities listed below. Ask them to ensure that the intimidation and death threats against Mr. Theo Hesegem must be stopped. The police and local government of Papua have to immediately address the problem. In addition, the police should investigate any form of terror and intimidation committed by the Yahukimo Regent’s campaign team.
The AHRC will write a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders calling for his intervention in this matter.

To support this case, please click here: 
SAMPLE LETTER:
Dear ___________,
INDONESIA: Papuan human rights defender intimated and threatened by Yahukimo Regent campaign staff

Name of victims: Theo Hesegem

Names of alleged perpetrators: Yahukimo regent and his campaign team

Date of incidents: 25 June 2018

Place of incident: Papua
I am writing to voice my deep concern regarding the terror and intimidation experienced by Mr. Theo Hesegem, a Papuan human rights defender. Prior to this intimidation, Theo advocated against the Yahukimo Regent’s abuse of power in unlawfully dismissing 199 village heads. While this has been reported to the authorities, no action is being taken.
On 25 June 2018, Mr. Theo Hesegem, a senior and credible human rights defender from Papua, was threatened and intimidated by the campaign team of the Regent of Yahukimo, Mr. Busop MA. According to Mr. Theo, the campaign team, a total of four people, came to Theo’s house. They came by two cars and parked in front of the house without any permission.
When they reached the house, the four people suddenly shouted that they will kill Theo. Without enough evidence, they accused Theo of stealing money belonging to Air Garam village, Kurima district, Yahukimo regency. Although Theo said he does not know anything about the money, the four persons insisted that Theo has stolen the money.
According to Theo, this intimidation is related to his advocacy for 199 village heads who had been dismissed by the Regent of Yahukimo on 26 April 2018. Theo told the media that this dismissal violated Law No 6 of 2014. This provoked the Regent’s anger.
While Theo has communicated this problem to the Papuan governor and the Chief Police of Papuan Regional Police Office (Kapolda Papua), Police Inspector General Boy Rafli Amar, as of yet nothing has been done to address the problem.
Therefore, I respectfully request you to ensure that the intimidation and death threats against Mr. Theo Hesegem must be stopped. The police and local government of Papua have to immediately address the problem. In addition, the police should investigate any form of terror and intimidation committed by the Yahukimo Regent’s campaign team.

Yours Sincerely,
……………….
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. Mr. Joko Widodo
President of the Republic of Indonesia
Jl. Veteran No. 16
Jakarta Pusat
INDONESIA
Tel: +62 21 3458 595
Fax: +62 21 3484 4759
E-mail: webmaster@setneg.go.id

2. Mr. Yasonna Laoly
Minister of Law and Human Rights
Jl. HR Rasuna Said Kav. 6–7
Kuningan, Jakarta 12940
INDONESIA
Tel: +62 21 525 3006, 525 3889
Fax: +62 21 525 3095

3. Dr. Mualimin Abdi SH., MH
Director General of Human Rights
Office of the Director General of Human Rights
Jl. HR Rasuna Said Kav. 6–7
Kuningan, Jakarta 12940
INDONESIA
Tel: +62 21 5253006
Fax: +62 21 5253095

4. General Pol. Drs. H.M. Tito Karnavian, M.A., Ph.D
Chief of National Police (KAPOLRI)
Jl. Trunojoyo No. 3 KebayoranBaru, Jakarta Selatan 12110
INDONESIA
Tel: +62 21 384 8537, 726 0306
Fax: +62 21 7220 669
E-mail: info@polri.go.id
5. Ms. Poengky Indarti
Commissioner of the National Police Commission
Jl. Tirtayasa VII No. 20
KebayoranBaru, Jakarta Selatan
INDONESIA
Tel: +62 21 739 2315
Fax: +62 21 739 2352
E-mail: secretariat@kompolnas.go.id, skm@kompolnas.go.id

6. Professor. Amzulian Rifai S.H, LL.M, PhD
Chairperson of Ombudsman of Republic of Indonesia
Jl. HR. Rasuna Said Kav. C-19 Kuningan (GedungPengadilan TIPIKOR) Jakarta Selatan
INDONESIA
Tel: +62 21 52960894/95
Fax: +62 21-52960904/05
7. Mr. Kahar Muzakir
Chairperson of the Commission III of The House of Representative
Ketua Komisi III DPR RI
Gedung Nusantara II DPR RI, Lt I
JalanJenderalGatotSubroto, Jakarta,
INDONESIA
Telp : +62 21 -5715566, +62 21-5715569, +62 21-5715864
Fax : +62 21 5715566
8. H. Bambang Soesatyo, S.E., M.B.A
Chief of the Indonesian House of Representative
Gedung DPR/MPR RI
Jl. Gatot Subroto No. 6
Jakarta
INDONESIA
Tel: + 62 21 5715509; 5715344; 5715621
Fax: + 62 21 5714469, 5734389

9. Mr. Abdul Haris Semendawai
Chairperson of the Agency for Victims and Witness Protection
Lembaga Perlindungan Saksi dan Korban (LPSK)
Jalan Raya Bogor KM. 24 No. 47-49, Susukan, Ciracas, RT.6/RW.1, Susukan, Ciracas, Kota Jakarta Timur, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta 13750
Tel: +62 21 29681560
Fax: +62 21 29681551 / +62 21 29681557
10. Mr. Ahmad Taufan Damanik
Chairperson of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM)
Jl. Latuharhary No. 4-B
Jakarta 10310
INDONESIA
Tel: +62 21 392 5227-30
Fax: +62 21 392 5227
E-mail: info@komnas.go.id
11. Inspector General Pol Boy Rafli Amar
The Chief of Police Area of Papua [KAPOLDA]
Jalan. Sam Ratulangi No. 8, Papua 99112
INDONESIA
Tel: +62 967 531014
Fax : +62 967 533763

Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Program
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)
send-button.gif

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
AHRC-UAC-040-2018
Countries :
Campaigns :
Issues :
    —————————————————————————————


4) Indonesia still has too much corruption, says Soeharto's son

Gayatri Suroyo and John Chalmers Reuters

Bogor, West Java, Indonesia | Mon, July 23, 2018 | 09:51 pm

The youngest son of former Indonesian President Soeharto, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, said on Monday he is leading a party into elections next year because two decades of reform have failed to move the country on from corruption, collusion and nepotism.
"The Berkarya Party is here because, after 20 years of 'Reformasi', the truth is: it is not going in a better direction, there is no real plan for when Indonesia will become a developed nation," he said.
"That's why we are here to correct that," he told Reuters in a hotel outside Jakarta that he owns, adjacent to a motor racing circuit he promoted in the 1990s.
In response, Widodo's economic adviser, Ahmad Erani Yustika, told Reuters the administration had made some fundamental improvements in the economy, such as building new infrastructure and increasing food production for self-sufficiency.
President Soeharto, who ruled Indonesia with an iron fist for 32 years, was forced from office in 1998 as the world's fourth most populous nation descended into economic and social chaos.
Much of the blame for that crisis focused on the nepotism and corruption that became the hallmark of Soeharto's later years in power and which saw family members and close associates amass fortunes and come to dominate Indonesia's economy.
Tommy, a former racing driver with a playboy reputation who is now 56, was found guilty in 2000 of graft relating to a land deal in a verdict that was later overturned.
He was sentenced in 2002 to 15 years in jail for paying a hitman to gun down and kill the supreme court judge who had convicted him in the corruption case. His term was later reduced on appeal and by remissions, and he was released in 2007.
With no suggestion of irony, Soeharto said graft had remained a national scourge under President Joko Widodo, who is expected to seek a second term in next April's general election.
"At the start of 'Reformasi', people said we have to be free of corruption, collusion and nepotism, but now public officials are still caught red handed," he said.
Asked if he had any ambition to become president or vice-president himself, Tommy said his only aim was to secure as many of parliament's 575 seats as possible for his Berkarya (Working) Party, and he had set a target of 80. He himself plans to contest in the impoverished eastern province of Papua.
Changing Perceptions
Suharto family members have made repeated attempts in the past to get into politics, often seeking to tap into nostalgia about the unity and security under Suharto's government, which was backed by a military that crushed any sign of revolt.
Tommy said he would campaign on social media to change young voters' perceptions about his family.
"This negative perception is not correct because President Soeharto was never pronounced corrupt," he said, speaking on the sidelines of a party conference and, like all the delegates, dressed in Berkarya's signature colour, bright yellow.
"They said he was like Marcos and there are billions of dollars in Europe, etcetera. But after all the checks, there is no such money," he added, referring to former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Tommy said he had served a sentence for his conviction and now had the same right as any other citizen to enter politics.
He declined to put a figure on his net worth, repeatedly saying that the question should be put to the tax authorities.
Tommy, whose party has promised to make Indonesia self-sufficient in food, said there is not enough control over its farm industry.
He also criticised Widodo's government for "opening up its arms too widely" to Chinese investment without involving local contractors and workers.
——————————————
5) Jayapura police arrest six escaped drug inmates
Reporter:   6 hours ago


Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA News) - The Jayapura Police has again taken into custody six prisoners, who had escaped from the Doyo Baru Narcotics Prison in Wibu Sub-District, Jayapura District, Papua, on Sunday.

"We have arrested the six inmates from locations around Doyo and Sentani," Jayapura Police Chief Adjunct Senior Commissioner Victor Mackbon stated here on Monday.

The police had deployed 30 personnel at several locations, including the border area, Sentani airport, and Jayapura port, to help in the search of the inmates.

"The police and officials of the prison have continued to hunt down the inmates," he added.

He called on the families of the inmates to remain cooperative and share with the police any information on the whereabouts of the escaped prisoners.

Earlier, on Sunday, 31 inmates had broken out of the Doyo Baru Narcotics Prison in Wibu Sub-District, Jayapura District, Papua.

They broke the jail`s Cenderawasih 1.1 block by knocking down the trellis of the ventilation room and used it as a ladder to scale the jail`s wall.

A total of 31 prisoners escaped of which two were recaptured earlier.

"Until now, we continue to hunt them down around a forest in Sentani," an official of Doyo Baru prison Hernowo remarked.

Reported by Musa Abubar
(S022/INE)
(T.SYS/B/KR-BSR/C/F001) 




Editor: Heru Purwanto
-----------------------------
↧

1) 21 Papuan regencies receive MRP vaccines

July 24, 2018, 2:10 am
$
0
0

2) Pacific countries need sustainable partnership: VP
3) Papua, Mimika must buy Freeport shares: Inalum
4) Waste Bank Kenambai Umbai started from a desire of clean city
-------------------------------------------------------

1) 21 Papuan regencies receive MRP vaccines
Nethy Dharma Somba
Jayapura | Mon, July 23, 2018 | 10:05 pm

Twenty-one out of 29 regencies and cities in Papua have received measles, rubela and polio (MRP) vaccines.
“The remaining eight regencies have yet to receive the vaccines,” Papua Health Agency vaccination division head Togu Sihombing said on Monday.
In addition to the measles and rubela vaccines, the government is also adding polio vaccines to the program because of a polio outbreak in neighboring Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Five regencies and cities in Papua -- Jayapura city, Keerom, Pegunungan Bintang, Boven Digul and Supiori -- share a border with PNG.
Togu said the agency had implemented the vaccination program dissemination in 26 regencies but not to the regencies of Yahukimo, Paniai and Central Memberamo.
“The three regencies have yet to implement the program dissemination because we are waiting for the right time,” he said.
 He revealed that 14 regencies have low vaccination coverage due to them being in remote areas and a lack of awareness among residents about the program.
Papua Customary Community Council deputy chairman Weynand Watoti suggested that the government should involve traditional leaders to increase residents’ awareness of the program.
“People still believe in customary and religious leaders. The campaign would be more effective if it involved them,” he said.
———————————————

2) Pacific countries need sustainable partnership: VP
Reporter:   7 hours ago

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Countries in the Pacific region need strong and sustainable partnership with other countries including Indonesia, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said here on Monday.

"Countries in the Pacific region would not be able to overcome their challenges in human and maritime development sustainably by themselves," he said when speaking at Forum Indonesia Parliamentary Partnership (IPPP).

The first forum of meeting between the Indonesian parliament and those of countries in the Pacific region discussed "Human Development and Maritime Sustainability" .

It was attended by House Speaker Bambang Soesatyo, Deputy Speakers Fadli Zon, Agus Hermanto, Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Agency chairperson Nurhayati Ali Assegaf and several other parliamentary members.

Speakers from the Pacific countries who attended the meeting include Wesley W. Simina from Micronesia, Jiko Luveni from Fiji, Tebuzi Uaai from Kiribati), Cyril Buraman from Nauru), Kenneth A. Kedi from Marshall Islands, Japsper Nasiu from Solomon Islands, Fatafehi Fakafanua from Tonga, Gaston Tong Sang from French Polynesia, John Simon from Papua New Guinea, Lecourieux Yoan from Caledonia.

Referring to the meaning of Pacific which is tranquil, Kalla hoped partnership between Indonesia and the Asia Pacific countries could give peace and tranquility for developing the region together to make it advanced.

"Many think the sea separates us while in fact the Pacific connects us and so problems being faced in the Pacific countries are similar," he said.

House speaker Bambang Soesatyo said when opening the forum that the meeting between Indonesia and countries in the Pacific region was part of Indonesia`s efforts to strengthen its diplomacy in the international forum as has been taken by President Joko Widodo to boost its role in the development of the Pacific region.

Reported by Riza Harahap
(H-YH)
(T.SYS/B/KR-BSR/B/E002) 
Editor: Heru Purwanto


---------------------------------------------

3) Papua, Mimika must buy Freeport shares: Inalum
Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman
Jakarta | Tue, July 24, 2018 | 09:30 am

The regional administrations of Papua province and the Mimika regency must purchase their 10 percent shares in gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), which operates the Grasberg mine in Papua, state mining holding company PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) has said.
But Inalum president director Budi Gunadi Sadikin has said Inalum would help the local administrations in obtaining loans and that they could pay the installment with dividends from PTFI.
“We will pay for all initial transactions and the installments will be from the dividends. However, if [the administrations] have the funds, there is no need for a loan,” Budi said on Monday.
The shares would be distributed to the Papua and Mimika administrations after the divestment process was completed and Inalum took control of 51 percent shares in PTFI.
In January, the central government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Papua and Mimika administrations on distributing 10 percent shares of PTFI to the two local administrations.
The Finance Ministry has said that the funds to finance the 10 percent stake would use neither the state budget nor the regional budgets.
Meanwhile, during a meeting with the House of Representatives on Monday, it was revealed that Inalum and the Papua and Mimika administrations planned to establish a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to hold 25 percent shares of PTFI.
Inalum would hold 60 percent of the SPV, while the Papua and Mimika administrations would hold the other 40 percent. (bbn)
——————————————————

4) Waste Bank Kenambai Umbai started from a desire of clean city
Published
 5 hours ago 
on
 24 July 2018



Sentani, Jubi – Wawa Farah, the Director of the Waste Bank ‘Kenambai Umbai’ where located in Jayapura District, has the fruit of the spirit to create a clean environment for Jayapura District and Jayapura City. It’s a reason she established a waste bank.
“I was touched and moved by the beauty of the land of Papua as featured in Edo Kondologit’s song, a little paradise that fell to the earth,” she said in Sentani on Saturday (21/7/2018).
She explained that each plastic waste has the different price, it goes approximately Rp 1,500 to Rp 2,500 per kilogram.
“The most expensive is a sort of mixed-type plastic such as cracked basin, whereas used plastic bottles are considerably cheaper between Rp 1,000 and Rp 1,500 per kilogram,” she said.
Meanwhile, Rina, a worker at the Waste Bank Kenambai Umbai, said workers are not only sorting out of the garbage but also going out around of Sentani City (Jayapura District) to collect used plastic bottles from kiosks or machine shops.
“Yesterday we had to go around the city to collect the garbage. We came to several machine shops to buy used oil bottles and some shops to collect the used mineral water bottles.” (*)
Reporter: Yance Wenda
Editor: Pipit Maizier
-------------------------------
↧

1) Meet Tommy Suharto, son of a dictator turned democrat

July 24, 2018, 12:50 pm
$
0
0

2) Indonesia passes anti-terrorism law after suicide attacks on churches
-----------------------------------------
1) Meet Tommy Suharto, son of a dictator turned democrat
By James Massola & Karuni Rompies 24 July 2018 — 10:01am
Bogor: He has beaten corruption charges, spent time in jail for ordering the assassination of a Supreme Court judge, made a fortune that once ran to $US800 million ($1 billion) off the back of government concessions and grown up in the shadow of a nearly-all powerful father who ruled and shaped Indonesia for 31 years.
And now Hutomo Mandala Putra, much better known as Tommy Suharto,  wants Indonesians to vote for him.

The youngest son of Indonesia's longest-serving president, recently confirmed as a parliamentary candidate in Papua province for the April 2019 elections, has a new(ish) party machine, Berkarya, and has his sights set on winning 80 seats in the 575 member national parliament (they plan to stand a candidate in every seat).
Suharto told Fairfax Media on Monday that he had broken with Golkar, the party of his father and still a formidable machine in Indonesia's electoral politics, because "first of all, Golkar has moved away from its initial mission because they no longer put people's interest as priority".
"Instead, they fight more for the interest of the party elite and for power. In the end pragmatism is high so party ideology and character are no longer there," he said.
"Indonesia must become a strong agrarian country supported by strong industry. It means we should not only work to be self-sufficient, rather Indonesia, with such huge land, should become a world food barn [an exporter of food].”

Like so many other candidates, Suharto's message is tightly-targeted one for the orang kecil, the so-called little people of this sprawling nation.
Both Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and the man considered most likely to challenge him again, the failed 2014 presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, stress the need for food security, too -  a popular aspiration in Indonesia, where memories of the 2011 live cattle export ban imposed by Australia still linger.
But Suharto's dose of nationalism is measured with a dash of reassurance for an international audience wondering whether Australia's near neighbour might be about to turn further inward.
"I think Indonesia and Australia can co-operate because Indonesia has a huge need for meat, however we should have actual self-sufficiency in meat, especially beef, because we have a very big land. But cattle farming in Indonesia is not as good as in Australia," he said.

"So we should work together so that Indonesia can learn about the technology from Australia on how to run cattle farming."
Suharto's party has targeted 80 seats - one for each of the 80 electoral districts in the country - which amounts to about 13.9 per cent of the national vote, but "as a new party, it's quite challenging", he conceded.
In fact, according the Australian National University's Indonesia expert Associate Professor Marcus Mietzner, Suharto's new party could struggle to claim any seats in Parliament at all.
That's because to claim seats a party must also reach a threshold of four per cent of the national vote.
Mietzner said that was unlikely to happen because "he doesn’t connect with the electorate, he doesn’t connect with political elites and the electoral threshold is quite high this time".
Other "equally unappealling" potential candidates own TV stations or newspapers, Mietzner said.
"[Suharto] lacks all of that. He would have to do really well to win 40 seats, about half of what he wants."
Four per cent of perhaps 200 million registered voters is a tall order for any political party, Mietzner said, particularly one running candidates for Parliament for the first time, and in an environment where there is "no particular [president] Suharto nostalgia at the moment".
Under Indonesia's election laws, Suharto is not banned from running for Parliament because his corruption conviction was overturned.
And the prohibition on people convicted of crimes that carry a jail term of more than five years (he received 15 years but served about four for his role in ordering the murder of judge Syarifuddin Kartasasmita) also contains a get-out clause that lets people stand for Parliament if they are up front about their track record, according to the Jakarta Post.
Suharto has been famously litigious when the details of his past have been raised in the media.
He successfully sued national flag carrier, Garuda Indonesia, in 2011 after a translator for the English-language version of the airline's magazine added a footnote to an article about one of his resorts that noted his previous conviction.
Given his legal problems in the past, does this son of an autocrat-turned-democratic candidate support freedom of the press?
"Very much, that's why you are here, you are free to talk to me," he said with a laugh.

James Massola Facebook Twitter Google+ James Massola is south-east Asia correspondent, based in Jakarta. He was previously chief political correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, based in Canberra. He has been a Walkley and Quills finalist on three occasions.
------------------

https://religionnews.com/2018/07/24/indonesia-passes-anti-terrorism-law-after-suicide-attacks-on-churches/

2) Indonesia passes anti-terrorism law after suicide attacks on churches

Nithin Coca  July 24, 2018


5 Min Read


JAKARTA, Indonesia (RNS) — Weeks after a radicalized Muslim family committed suicide attacks on churches in the city of Surabaya, Indonesia, the country passed an anti-terror law meant to prevent more attacks and foster the majority-Muslim country’s tolerant culture.
The May 13 attack, which killed 13 churchgoers and a security officer and took place days before the start of Ramadan, was the deadliest terrorist attack in Indonesia since a 2002 bombing in Bali. Then, the target was foreign tourists. This time it was Indonesian Christians, a minority who make up about 10 percent of the population, according to the 2010 census. Many feared that the attacks were a sign that the country’s religious diversity is under threat.

“Indonesia prides itself on its tradition of moderation, but intolerance is growing in a way that is making some fear for their hard-won democracy,” said Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, based in Jakarta.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo — a moderate Muslim who campaigned for the presidency with an image of a clean, populist politician — responded swiftly to the attacks, vowing a tough crackdown on terrorists. Key to that was his strong call for the passing of an anti-terror law.

“President Widodo promoted the importance of a stronger state capacity to respond to radicalism,” said Rafiqa Qurrata A’yun, a lecturer in the department of criminal law at the University of Indonesia. “One of his statement(s) in the media indicated the attacks were a result of the weak coercive power and preventive measures in countering terrorism.”

The anti-terror law expands the power of Indonesia’s military and police to take further actions against potential terrorists and those spreading radical ideology. Under the law, the Indonesian National Police can conduct pre-emptive arrests and detain people for being members of a group declared a terrorist organization. The law makes it an official offense to join a militant group overseas, such as the so-called Islamic State. It also expands the role of the Indonesian armed forces into domestic security.

In the weeks following Surabaya, government forces used their expanded power under the new bill to arrest dozens of suspected terrorists across the country. On June 22, Aman Abdurrahman, an Indonesian recruiter for the Islamic State, was sentenced to death for his role in inspiring the Surabaya bombers. The country last conducted a terror-related execution a decade ago. Days later, the police said they foiled two planned terrorist attacks, killing three suspects.So far, Jokowi’s crackdown seems to be working politically. In regional elections on June 26, after both the attacks and the passing of the bill, Jokowi’s coalition defeated Islamist candidates in four of the country’s five most populous provinces, putting him in a strong position ahead of presidential elections in April 2019. Jokowi enjoys strong support from many of Indonesia’s religious minorities, some of whom told Religion News Service that things are back to normal and that they feel safe attending church.

Jokowi has worked tirelessly to brandish his Islamic credentials while also tackling the rise of right-wing Islamism, which he has called anti-Indonesian. Last July, he issued a government regulation that expands the power of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights to disband groups that have ideologies deemed threats to national security and unity. The regulation was used to disband Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, an organization with ties to the Islamic State.

The anti-terror bill was introduced in Parliament more than two years ago, after an attack in a Jakarta shopping area, but it stalled for various reasons, including concerns by human rights watchers that the bill could be used to suppress peaceful activists. Some human rights groups do not support the new law.

“It is obviously an overreaction to the Surabaya attacks,” said Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher for Human Rights Watch. “The quick deliberation … allowed a definition of terrorism that could be used to target peaceful political activities of indigenous groups, environmental advocates and religious or political organizations.”

The concerns are ones Indonesia knows only too well. It was just 20 years ago that the country became a democracy, after the strongman rule of Suharto, a general who was in power for more than three decades. Empowering the military and having a loose definition of terror could put too much power in the hands of those who perpetuated atrocities in the not-so-distant past, said Harsono.

“Indonesia has many areas with deep roots of violence and impunity,” said Harsono. “We still have not sought the truth of the 1965-66 massacres (nor what happened in) Aceh, Papua and East Timor.”
Others believe that the new law mostly addresses the concerns of human rights groups, but worry about its focus on security.

“The passed law seems to be more receptive to human rights principles compared to the first draft bill,” said Abdil Mughis Mudhoffir, a Ph.D. candidate in politics at the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute. “Unfortunately, this new law still promotes the security approach that will not be effective and even counterproductive in addressing religious radicalism.”

For Jones, the key to reducing terrorist attacks in Indonesia and stemming rising intolerance will be the efficacy of deradicalization efforts, which need to be reformed due to the fact that women and children participated in the most recent attacks — something unprecedented in Indonesian history.“The Surabaya bombings may be a one-off horror, and we may not see family suicide bombers again anytime soon,” said Jones. “But they could also be a useful wake-up call to seriously evaluate existing programs to make them more effective by involving whole families.”
-----------------------------


↧
↧

Photos -Rally in support of 'Witness K' and lawyer Bernard Collaery in Sydney

July 25, 2018, 2:07 am
$
0
0



Rally in support of 'Witness K' and lawyer Bernard Collaery in Sydney



























































































From GLW Facebook page
Pics from the Sydney protest against the prosecution of 'spy with a conscience''Witness K' and his lawyer Bernard Collaery outside the Commonwealth Offices in Sydney today. They allegedly revealed secret information about the Australian Secret Intelligence Service bugging cabinet rooms of the Timor Leste government during critical Timor Sea oil and gas negotiations in 2004. Photos by Peter Boyle for Green Left Weekly.
https://www.facebook.com/greenleftweekly/photos/ms.c.eJxFjskNwEAIxDqKOAfov7EokGW~;1hxmFXi6BCUBkId~;kMZaVXaAowFwQEhYqKQusE5Y7kbNKB0A7Urti85L7otJVywu~_CrK~_2LRlfAV407QNdUxrRWjMfUXeUcwVQ~-~-.bps.a.1326580510807138.1073742138.226910324107501/1326585270806662/?type=3&theater

----

Background

Human Rights Watch article

Australia: Don’t Prosecute for Exposure of Misconduct

Whistleblowing Former Spy, Lawyer Face Hearing for Revealing Bugging Operation

(Sydney) – Australian authorities should not prosecute a former Australian spy and his lawyer for exposing government wrongdoing, Human Rights Watch said today. The Magistrates Court in the Australian Capital Territory is scheduled to hold a hearing setting out next steps in the case against barrister Bernard Collaery and “Witness K” on July 25, 2018................



----------------------------------

↧

1) Indonesia Reaffirms Fiji Ties

July 25, 2018, 2:43 am
$
0
0

2) PNG's West Sepik governor wants to boost cross-border trade
----------------------------------------



1) Indonesia Reaffirms Fiji Ties
by FONUA TALEI JAKARTA, INDONESIA
July 25 11:37 2018 

The Indonesian Government has reaffirmed its stance to continue economic co-operation with Fiji.
Speaking to 10 foreign journalists in Jakarta on Monday, Indonesian Vice Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Mohammad Fachir said co-operation in the blue economy was vital for maritime nations because of the similarities they shared as archipelagic countries.
The “Blue Economy” is an emerging concept which encourages better stewardship of our ocean or “blue” resources. 
It highlights, in particular, the close linkages between the ocean, climate change and the wellbeing of people.
Mr Fachir said infrastructure on land and between islands were pertinent and as a result the current Indonesian Government planned to build a total of 32 sea ports in the next five years.
“Every country has its own interests, but they have an effect on other countries. We continue to make ourselves central and united when we engage with others,” he said.
Ten journalists from Fiji, Bangladesh, India, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and the Solomon Islands are part of the Journalist Visit Programme (JVP), which is organised by the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The programme aims to connect the Indonesian people with other countries through exchange of information.
“The more your people know about our potential and the more our people know your potential there will be exchange and there will be benefits,” Mr Fachir told journalists at his Jakarta office.
“You are very instrumental in sharing information and delivering messages and we need your assistance to promote the exchange and connection between our people and the world.”
During the course of 10 days the group of journalists will visit different cities in Indonesia, including Labuan Bajo, Bali and Yogyakarta.

On Monday the group visited the Jakarta Smart City office and were shown an application of a smart city concept designed to optimise the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to control various resources in the city of Jakarta more effectively and efficiently.
Members of the group were told that the concept would lead to maximum public service, provided solutions to problems and supported sustainable development.
After the visit to the smart city the delegation paid a courtesy call on the deputy governor for culture and tourism affairs and the vice minister for foreign affairs.
The day ended with a visit to the Peacekeeping Centre of the Indonesian National Defence Forces, where journalists were briefed by the Deputy Commandant Colonel Aldrin Mongan.
The centre was established in 2007 after a request from the United Nations for Indonesia to be part of UN peacekeeping missions.
Colonel Mongan said so far this year Indonesia recorded two deaths among more than 33,000 soldiers on deployment to more than 30 missions. 
Edited by Epineri Vula
Feedback:  fonua.talei@fijisun.com.fj


-----------------------------


2) PNG's West Sepik governor wants to boost cross-border trade

7:25 pm today 


The governor of Papua New Guinea's West Sepik province is seeking to boost agricultural trade with neighbouring Indonesia.
West Sepik abuts PNG's international border and hosts the main land access to Indonesia's Papua province, at Wutung on New Guinea's north coast.
PNG people frequently cross the border at Wutung to visit markets just inside Indonesia to buy a range of goods.
In comparison there's not a lot of trade coming the other way, said the provincial governor Tony Wouwou.
"We are trying to establish some things like cacao and vanilla going there, so we can get some of the cash back," said Mr Wouwou.
"But in the meantime, there's a lot of people from here, Papua New Guinea buying a lot of things from them, like groceries and food items, that's what's going on here.
Tony Wouwou said he hopes to visit Indonesia soon to talk with its government about co-operative ventures.
He said included in this was a proposal for Indonesia to take electricity from the planned Fried River copper and gold mine in his province.
A Chinese-owned company PanAust has lodged a special mining lease application for the Frieda River project.
A hydro-electric dam to generate the power required for the project is being considered as a source for power across the border.
---------------------
↧
Search

1) Fijian Delegation For Indonesia Meeting

July 26, 2018, 1:44 am
$
0
0

2) Indonesia participates in exercise in Australia

-----------------------------------------------

1) Fijian Delegation For Indonesia Meeting
by Parliament of Fiji
July 26 11:00 2018 
A Parliament delega­tion is in the Repub­lic of Indonesia for the Indonesia-Pacific Par­liamentary Partnership (IPPP) meeting on Human Development and Maritime Sustainability.
Led by the Speaker Dr Jiko Luveni, the meeting is aimed at strengthening co-operation and partnership among neighbours in the Pacific as they face common geographical and global challenges of this century.
This co-operation and partnership is based on the principles of respect­ing the territorial integrity and sovereignty of States as enshrined in the Char­ter of the United Nations.
The meeting also recog­nises the strong historical relations that the people possess as well as the op­portunity to deepen people-to-people relations.
The meeting is attended by more than 80 Speakers and parliamentarians from the Republic of
Indonesia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Is­lands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru,
Palau, Papua New Guin­ea, Samoa, Solomon Is­lands, Tonga, Tuvalu, French Polynesia and New
Caledonia.
The Fijian delegation in­cludes the Assistant Minis­ter for Rural and Maritime Development and
National Disaster Manage­ment Joeli Cawaki and Op­position Member of Parlia­ment Mere Samisoni.
Source:Parliament of Fiji


----------------------------------


https://en.antaranews.com/news/116858/indonesia-participates-in-exercise-in-australia
2) Indonesia participates in exercise in Australia
Reporter:   6 hours ago

Kupang, E Nusa Tenggara (ANTARA News) - Indonesia has sent four of its US-made F-16 fighter jets to participate in the Exercise Pitch Black Royal Australia Air Force in Darwin, Australia.

"We have sent four F-16s to participate in the exercise," commander of the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto told newsmen here on Wednesday.

He was at the El Tari airbase here for an hour before departing to Australia for a high-level meeting.

"I am travelling to Australia not because of the exercise but to attend a high-level meeting, which is an annual meeting between Indonesia and Australia," he remarked.

Various issues from logistics to personnel, intelligence, and other security-related matters would be discussed at the meeting.

Regarding the two-yearly exercise, he hoped Indonesian forces would gain good results.

A number of aircraft has already left for Darwin to prepare before being involved in the exercise on Monday, which is attended by 16 countries.

The four F-16s are from Squadron 3 at Iswahyudi airbase in Madiun, East Java.

Reported by Kornelis Aloysius Ileama Kaha
(H-YH/INE)
(T.SYS/B/KR-BSR/C/E002) 
Editor: Heru Purwanto
-----------------------
↧

1) MSG no place for West Papua talks - director general

July 27, 2018, 1:35 am
$
0
0

2) Asmat People: Portraits of Poverty in Indonesia’s Papua Region
3) Papua Coffee Festival 2018 will be held in August
---------------------------------------

1) MSG no place for West Papua talks - director general

2:15 pm today 


Melanesian Spearhead Group director general Amena Yauvoli says political discussions about West Papua don't belong in the organisation.
Mr Yauvoli told the Fiji Times human rights issues relating to West Papua should be dealt with by international organisations.
Speaking during a working group meeting in Nadi on Thursday, he said the MSG's common enemy is crime and politics should be set aside.
Earlier this week Vanuatu Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu said the MSG was failing because of a lack of political engagement.
----------------------------------


2) Asmat People: Portraits of Poverty in Indonesia’s Papua Region
Ryu Zaki and Keisyah Aprilia 
 Agats, Indonesia, and Jakarta 
2018-07-26



180726-ID-papua3.jpeg
Slideshow
Despite visits by President Joko Widodo to the country’s poorest region, Asmat children in Tomor village still suffer from malnutrition and lack of access to education, July 22, 2018. [Ryu Zaki/BenarNews]



The village of Tomor, where rivers weave like snakes through thick forest, is so remote that its 500 residents have no regular access to education and health services supplied by the government.
A BenarNews team used a speedboat to visit Tomor, one of the far-flung villages of Asmat, a regency in Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua, where health officials said 790 children were stricken with malnutrition and a measles outbreak in January, killing at least 72 of them.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo ordered medical teams and military paramedics to deliver supplies and medicine to remote villages on Jan. 15, after news spread about the measles outbreak. About three weeks later, the health ministry declared that the health crisis was under control.
Papua, home to one of the world’s biggest copper and gold mines, is one of the nation’s poorest regions and is where a low-level armed separatist movement has simmered for decades. Its adult literacy rate is the lowest among all of Indonesia’s provinces.
Papua’s Asmat people used to spend months in the forest to find food, historians said, but cultural changes began taking place in the 1950s when Christian missionaries arrived, dramatically changing the diet of the semi-nomadic tribes.
Donatus, a resident who uses only one name, told BenarNews that his three children had died from measles and malnutrition. They did not receive medical treatment, he said.
“We have big hopes that government would give us closer attention,” Donatus, 42, said.
“Otherwise, we just have to accept our fate.”
———————————————

3) Papua Coffee Festival 2018 will be held in August

Published
 3 hours ago 
on
 27 July 2018



Jayapura, Jubi – Entrepreneurs, communities, farmers and coffee lovers from various regions are invited to participate in Papua Coffee Festival 2018 which will conduct in Jayapura City from 3 to 4 August 2018.
“We will present Arabica coffee of Wamena, Moenamani coffee of Nabire, Pegunungan Bintang coffee and Robusta coffee of Yapen Islands,” explained the Head of Economic Development Team of Bank of Indonesia Papua Representative Office, Adi Purwantoro in Jayapura City on Tuesday (24/7 / 2018).

Meanwhile, the Assistant Economic Development Team of Bank Indonesia Papua Representative Office, Galih Budi Utomo, said Bank Indonesia collaborate with the provincial government, banks, coffee community, and entrepreneurs in this event.
“We hope the festival would not only about celebration but to boost the growth of coffee business in Papua,” said Galih. (*)
Reporter: Sindung Sukoco
Editor: Pipit Maizier
---------------------------
↧
↧

1) BMA Supports the Arts and Culture Festival in Nabire

July 28, 2018, 1:03 am
$
0
0

2) Asian Games -- Sorong, West Papua locals eagerly welcome torch relay
-------------------------------



1) BMA Supports the Arts and Culture Festival in Nabire

Published 4 hours ago on 28 July 2018By admin



Kaido or Pikon, one of the traditional musical instruments in Papua that will be present at the Cultural Festival. – Jubi / IST

Nabire, Jubi – Badan Musyawarah Adat (BMA/Customary Board) of Yerisiam Gua and Wate tribes support the Arts and Culture Festival on 6 – 7 August 2018 in Nabire.
The festival is a program of the Ministry of Underdeveloped Village and Transmigration that organised by the National Unity and Political Institution (Kesbangpol).

Daniel Yarawobi, the tribe chief of Yerisiam Gua, said he is very supportive and appreciate the government program that will promote the Papuan culture.
“This is a breakthrough, so we fully support this,” he told Jubi in Nabire on Wednesday (7/25/2018).
Meanwhile, the tribe chief of Wate Alex Raiki also gives his appreciation. “I appreciate this. I hope it would not stop here but will continue to strengthen the culture and prevent it from extinction,” he said. (*)
Reporter: Titus Ruban
Editor: Pipit Maizier


----------------------------------


2) Asian Games -- Sorong, West Papua locals eagerly welcome torch relay
Reporter:   4 hours ago
Sorong, W Papua, (ANTARA News) -- Locals in Sorong, West Papua warmly welcomed the Asian Games torch relay as it passed through the province, Antara observed on Friday.

The Minister of Villages, Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration, Eko Putro Sandjojo, led the torch relay on Friday, which started at the Main Naval Base XIV Sorong and finished at the Sorong Mayor`s Office. The torch relay was held in the city of Waisai in Raja Ampat sub-district, West Java province the previous day.

A light rain fell during the event, but it did not discourage the runners and athletes, which consisted of military personnel and members of the Sorong police force as well as the minister himself, from finishing the run.

Citizens cheered for Eko and welcomed him with West Papuan traditional dances as he ran the relay.

"I saw for myself how enthusiastic the people were and it was really contagious, which is why I ended up joining the run," he said after lighting up the Asian Games flame at the Sorong Mayor`s Office.

He expressed hope that the Asian Games torch relay will awaken the Indonesian athletes` spirit of togetherness and encourage them to aim for victory, to help the country finish in the top ten in the quadrennial event.
  

Editor: Yosep Hariyadi
----------------------------
↧

1) Amien Rais Calls for Freeport`s Closure, Luhut: Not Easy

July 29, 2018, 12:45 am
$
0
0

2) Indonesia-Australia commanders meet up to intensify defense cooperation
--------------------------------------
1) Amien Rais Calls for Freeport`s Closure, Luhut: Not Easy

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan has asked Amien Rais, a former speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), to desist from making any statement demanding the closure of Freeport Indonesia. 
"See it first, it’s not that easy to close it,” said Luhut in Wisma Hijau, Depok, Friday, July 27.
Amien argued that Freeport had committed an environmental crime, thus he was against the extension of its contract and demanded the mine be shut for good. 
Luhut said the government would deal with the problems, including violations that Freeport could have committed. 
Luhut explained the government could not revise the rules or agreements that were made decades ago. “If we look for the mistakes then we will also look for past mistakes, it should not be like that,” he said.
Previously, on July 12, Freeport McMoran Inc. agreed on the release of 51-percent shares of its subsidiary, PT Freeport Indonesia, to Holding Mining Industry PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminum (Persero) or Inalum. The holding company will complete the purchase in the next two months.
PT Inalum president director Budi Gunawan Sadikin said the transaction value amounted to US$3,85 billion. Inalum will spend US$3,5 billion on purchasing 40 percent of Rio Tinto’s participation rights in PT Freeport Indonesia.
-----------------------
2) Indonesia-Australia commanders meet up to intensify defense cooperation
Dian Septiari
Jakarta | Sat, July 28, 2018 | 01:15 pm
Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto met his Australian counterpart Gen.Angus Campbell on Friday during the sixth annual Australia-Indonesia High Level Committee meeting in Darwin, Australia.
In their first encounter since assuming their roles, Hadi and Campbell agreed to an extensive program of navy, army and air force joint exercises and engagement activities for 2019 and 2020 period.
They also recognized that people-to-people ties were critical to developing a strong and mutually beneficial relationship and agreed to establish a regular program of contacts and exchange visits between young officers.
“We emphasized the importance of increasing the complexity of bilateral military exercises, enhancing information sharing and growing practical maritime security cooperation in the Indian Ocean,” Hadi and Campbell said in a joint statement on Friday.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Indonesian and Australian special forces cooperation.
Following the meeting, the two chiefs signed a joint letter of endorsement for the Indonesian Australian Defense Alumni Association (Ikahan), which plays an essential role in deepening people-to-people links between the two defense forces.
The two chiefs noted the participation of Indonesia’s Air Force F-16 aircraft in Exercise Pitch Black as one of the many examples of Australian-Indonesian Defense cooperation.
Hadi also visited Australian Defense facilities hosting the US Force Posture Initiatives (US FPI), where he talked with Australian and United States officials about the important contributions the US FPI makes to security and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. (dmr)
----------------------------
↧

Congratulations to the people of Vanuatu on their 38 years of Independence

July 29, 2018, 4:06 am
$
0
0


Vanuatu Independence Day-July 30, 1980

    

The Australia West Papua Association congratulations  the people of Vanuatu on their 38 years of Independence.

AWPA  also congratulates the People and Government  of Vanuatu  on their courageous stand on the issue of West Papua. 


The West Papuan people and their supporters  hold Vanuatu in high esteem for raising the human rights situation in West Papua at the UN and in other international fora.  Vanuatu sets an example that others should follow.







-----------------------------------------------------


↧
Viewing all 5294 articles
Browse latest View live
More Pages to Explore .....
Search

Latest Images

New $4.5 million East Bay trail path will connect bicyclists, pedestrians to...

New $4.5 million East Bay trail path will connect bicyclists, pedestrians to...

April 18, 2024, 11:05 am
Photographer Gifts for Clients / Print Packaging / 4x6 Photo Box by...

Photographer Gifts for Clients / Print Packaging / 4x6 Photo Box by...

April 17, 2024, 6:48 pm
Deepfake Video of Aamir Khan circulates Online

Deepfake Video of Aamir Khan circulates Online

April 17, 2024, 3:07 am
Very Hungry Caterpillar™ Shirt: World of Eric Carle™+ Little Goodall by...

Very Hungry Caterpillar™ Shirt: World of Eric Carle™+ Little Goodall by...

April 14, 2024, 8:14 am
Have you seen Michael Wines? Burien man has been missing since Saturday,...

Have you seen Michael Wines? Burien man has been missing since Saturday,...

April 12, 2024, 3:59 pm
Stay Salty POTS Awareness Stretchy Stacking Bracelets | Set of Three|...

Stay Salty POTS Awareness Stretchy Stacking Bracelets | Set of Three|...

April 11, 2024, 5:27 pm
19 Reader-Favourite March Purchases — From Steals To Splurges

19 Reader-Favourite March Purchases — From Steals To Splurges

April 11, 2024, 5:07 am
Fake lip ring, silver lip ring, simple lip ring, unisex lip ring by AIRlab

Fake lip ring, silver lip ring, simple lip ring, unisex lip ring by AIRlab

April 9, 2024, 4:00 pm
People's Blog • First Pictures of the Eclipse ! ! !

People's Blog • First Pictures of the Eclipse ! ! !

April 8, 2024, 1:08 pm
People's Blog • First Pictures of the Eclipse ! ! !

People's Blog • First Pictures of the Eclipse ! ! !

April 8, 2024, 1:08 pm