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1) Vanuatu steps up UN bid for West Papua rights, new referendum

September 20, 2018, 12:57 am
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2) Polish man arrested in Papua denies conspiracy allegations
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1) Vanuatu steps up UN bid for West Papua rights, new referendum
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Indonesian security forces on a "sweep" operation searching for peaceful KNPB activists in the Timika district of Papua last weekend. Image: KNPB activist sources 
West Papua has been sidestepped by both the the Melanesian Spearhead Group and the Pacific Islands Forum. But, reports James Halpin of Asia Pacific Journalism, Vanuatu is undeterred as leading champion for the West Papuan cause and is pressing for United Nations support.
After the failure of the Pacific Islands Forum to move on the issue of West Papuan self-determination earlier this month, Vanuatu is now taking the issue to the United Nations next week
Vanuatu raised the plight of political prisoners charged with treason at a UN working group of arbitrary detention and involuntary disappearances, reports RNZ.
Ninety three West Papuans have been arrested this month for their involvement in peaceful protests.
Simply peacefully raising the Morning Star flag representing an independent West Papua risks 15 years’ imprisonment.
Vanuatu has traditionally been the major supporter for West Papuan self-determination but has recently stepped up his diplomacy with the appointment of Lora Lini, daughter of the late founding prime minister Father Walter Lini, as special envoy for West Papua.
Port Vila wants West Papua to be added to the UN decolonisation list. Netherlands New Guinea had previously been on the UN decolonisation list but was annexed by Indonesia in 1969 in controversial circumstances.
The UN decolonisation list, or officially the United Nations List of Non-Self-Governing Territories, engages member states in charge of those territories to move towards granting self-determination.
Tokelau on list
Currently, Tokelau, which is a dependency of New Zealand, is on the decolonisation list.
Support from the Melanesian Spearhead Group bloc is divided with the Papua New Guinean government declaring this week it would not support Vanuatu, reports the PNG Post-Courier.
The Pacific Islands Forum has failed to bring change for the issue of self-determination and West Papua.
“I can’t say there’s been a huge amount of success,” says Marie Leadbeater, spokesperson of West Papua Action Auckland and author of a recent book See No Evil: New Zealand’s Betrayal of the People of West Papua.
Vanuatu brought a draft resolution for the UN to the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru, reports the Vanuatu Daily Post.
The draft was labelled the “Realisation of the right of Papuan peoples’ self-determination in the former colony of the Netherlands New Guinea (West New Guinea)”.
However, the West Papua issue was not supported by other Pacific nations and was left off the outcomes document of the Forum, reports Asia Pacific Report.
Limited goals
The Forum has been a place to push for limited goals, such as fact-finding when it comes to West Papua.
Leadbeater says New Zealand following Vanuatu’s lead could be a “game changer”, but it is not willing to challenge Indonesian sovereignty.
Similarly, on the recent issue of returning the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, New Zealand did not support the case to be considered by the International Criminal Court.
Leadbeater is critical of the Ardern government not shifting policy towards West Papua self-determination, “realistically, so far they haven’t.”
At a meeting in Nauru as part of the Forum, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said New Zealand recognised Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua.
Peters added that New Zealand would follow PNG’s lead as its nearest neighbour, reports the Vanuatu Daily Post.
“I think as a Polynesian, or Melanesian or Pacific concept, the first person I’d be consulting on an issue like that is the nearest neighbour to the issue that might be a problem, namely PNG.”
Support from NZ MPs
However, Leadbeater did identify a large number of NZ government MPs who would support West Papuan self-determination, including all of the Greens and high profile Labour MP Louisa Wall.
Associate Professor Stephen Hoadley of the University of Auckland says that since West Papua’s integration into Indonesia in 1969, the cards have been stacked against them.
“You have to go back to 1963. The UN urged Indonesia to hold an act of free association. Indonesia allegedly manipulated the vote.”
Indonesia claimed that Papuans were not advanced enough to deal with democracy and instituted a meeting of tribal elders.
“They handpicked tribal leaders. This vote was contested by local folk who accused Indonesia of manipulation, bribes, and intimidation.”
After the flawed vote, Indonesia instituted a policy of transmigration into West Papua where Javanese were moved from Java to colonise less populated provinces around Indonesia, including West Papua. This policy was ended by current president Joko Widodo in 2015.
However, discrimination against the indigenous Melanesians had become endemic. For example, the courts were stacked with Javanese judges and Javanese got favourable preference.
Little appetite for criticism
Because of examples such as this, an independence movement sprang up in 1963 called the Free Papua Movement.
In the realm of international relations there was no appetite to criticise Indonesia in the 1960s.
Indonesia was sidelined during the cold war and US mining multinationals hadn’t started drilling in the province yet, says Professor Hoadley.
But, things haven’t changed in the past 50 years.
Dr Hoadley says liberal Western countries such as the Australia, New Zealand, United States, and the United Kingdom are status quo powers.
“If you redraw one boundary, then all boundaries are up for change. Better to leave things as they are.”
A consensus among Western nations is that Indonesia has “things under control” and their transgressions against human rights in West Papua are not bad enough to consider attention, claims Dr Hoadley.
Success story
After the end of the Suharto regime in 1999, Indonesia was seen as a success story; a Muslim country that has adopted political parties, elections, and freedom of the press.
“The US thinking is that they’re on a good track and we shouldn’t criticise them too much,” he says.
Ominously, nothing has come of the Rohingya genocide and there is no foreseeable future for West Papuan self-determination unless outside international influence or domestic upheaval forces Indonesia to start the process of decolonising.
James Halpin is a student journalist on the Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies (Journalism) reporting on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.



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2) Polish man arrested in Papua denies conspiracy allegations
4:16 pm today
A Polish man arrested in Papua province by Indonesian police has denied that he conspired to overthrow the government.

Jakub Skrzypski was arrested in Wamena last month on suspicion of arranging an arms deal with the West Papua Liberation Army.
A West Papuan man, Simon Magal, was arrested in Timika in connection to the Polish national.
Skrzypski's lawyer, Latifah Anum Siregar, told BenarNews that he has rejected all the accusations, and the conspiracy charges.
Latifah said her client had "never campaigned for the Papuan separatists nor did he support Papuan independence".
She said he had never been involved in any military training and was not an arms dealer.
This comes as police extended the Polish man's detention for 40 days for further investigation.
Police say Skrzypski could be charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government.
If found guilty, he could face life or 20 years in prison.
Latifah described the accusations as "reckless" and after meeting Skrzypski in recent days described her client as "depressed."
"We are still delving into the case," national police spokesman Brig. Gen. Dedi Prasetyo said, adding that the Pole would eventually be tried in Papua.
Dedi said Skrzypski was not a journalist and had only posted stories about Papua on Facebook and other social media networks.
"He's just an ordinary tourist, but he communicated with the Violent Criminal Group and offered to supply weapons and ammunition, but that has not happened and chances of that happening are slim," Dedi said, using the law enforcement term for the rebel group.
"He also told stories about Papua to his compatriots back in Poland in the hope that they would go viral," he said.
Skrzypski had received consular assistance from the Polish embassy in Jakarta. The embassy did not respond to an email sent by BenarNews.
Last week, a police spokesman told reporters that police seized hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a mobile phone and documents, which included information about the types of weapons and ammunition needed by the Liberation 
Army.

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1) Papuan vaccination shortfalls linked to government failure

September 20, 2018, 1:47 pm
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2) Indonesian president signs 3-year freeze on new oil palm licenses
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1) Papuan vaccination shortfalls linked to government failure 

7:46 pm on 20 September 2018 

A lack of vaccination in West Papuan communities has been linked to failures by Indonesia's health workers.
Recent Indonesian media reportssay Papuan parents in regions such as Tolikara are refusing to let their children be immunised, fearing that measles-rubella and polio vaccinations will cause disabilities or illnesses.
But an anthropologist at Australia's Deakin University with extensive Papua experience, Eben Kirksey, said there was widespread awareness in Papua of the role of vaccines in protecting children. The problem, he said, was often that health workers weren't doing their job to immunise children in rural communities.
Listen to more on Dateline Pacific duration 6:30
Add to playlist 
 
He said while in Papua in April he attended a community meeting in Tigi Barat district of Deiyai regency where 85 infants reportedly died of measles.
"All these people came together to make sense of this mass death that had happened the previous year, this involved again parents of the dead children, their extended family, church leaders, local government officials.

"They all told me their stories about their frustration in getting the government health service to do their job."
It had been over three years since this area had been covered by an immunisation programme. Families of children who died in the outbreak combined with others to run a concerted lobbying campaign at the local and provincial levels to try and get the immunisation campaign started.
"So at the point of my visit in April, it still hadn't happened," Dr Kirksey explained.
"Measles is a very cheap vaccine, and the parents knew this. They'd started to do their homework afer this epidemic and this outbreak. So they were basically just demanding that government roll out this programme."
The head of the Department of Health for Papua province, Aloysius Giyai, conveyed his frustrations with the local officials to Dr Kirksey.
"So in absense of these lower level officials, who were not implementing this province-wide programme, he (Giyai) has developed his own programme. It's called the Barefoot Doctor Programme," Dr Kirksey said.
"He's got a small team of medics that basically fly in to remote areas to deliver vaccines to respond to outbreaks... do the job that local officials were not doing.”

He said bureaucratic complexities and lack of transportation infrastructure were factors hindering health workers from being getting to rural areas to immunise Papuan children.
He conceded that another factor was probably a widespread distrust of the Indonesian government among Papuans.
"And this isn't just because of deaths that are happening in the realm of health. So in just this one area that I've been talking about, Mee Pago, there have been twenty-nine extra-judicial killings by Indonesian security forces since the year 2000.
"So people have a widespread distrust. But I think in general, the people I've met in the past couple of years are really keen to get their kids protected from these diseases.
"I've seen quite the opposite of what's being reported in the media, that parents are very keen to get their kids vaccinated, and engaged in this long campaign of advocacy and activism, just trying to get government to do their job."
Indonesia's health officials have in the past few months intensified efforts to distributemeasles, mumps and rubella vaccines in Papua's Asmat regency.
This was in response to a deadly measles outbreak in Asmat which reportedly killed 72 children. However measles is just one of a number of diseases that are contributing to Papua region's parlous infant mortality rate.
Mr Giyai and other health officials have been co-ordinating with counterpartsin neighbouring Papua New Guinea to prevent the spread of polio, which there is currently an outbreak of in PNG, across the border.

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    2) Indonesian president signs 3-year freeze on new oil palm licenses
    by on 20 September 2018
    • The moratorium has been in the works for a long time. President Jokowi first announced it more than two years ago, in the wake of the 2015 Southeast Asian haze crisis.
    • The moratorium will remain in place for three years. Environmentalists had called for there to be no limit on its duration.
    • The policy also mandates as sweeping review of oil palm licenses across the country.
    Indonesian President Joko Widodo has signed a moratorium on new licenses for oil palm plantations.
    The presidential instruction, signed on Sept. 19, will remain in place for no more than three years, according to the policy document, seen by Mongabay.
    Environmentalists previously called on Jokowi to impose no limit on the duration of the moratorium, arguingit should remain in place until it achieves its goals.
    The policy appears to constitute a freeze on the entire licensing process for oil palm plantations in Indonesia, the world’s top producer of palm oil, a ubiquitous commodity found in everything from chocolate to laundry detergent.
    It explicitly applies not just to new requests for licenses but also to projects that have obtained some but not all of the permits needed to begin operating.
    The signing of the policy comes more than two years after President Jokowi, as he is popularly known, declared he would impose it.
    Jokowi made the announcement in the wake of the 2015 fire and haze crisis, in which vast stretches of swampy peatland that had been drained and dried by the plantation sector burned for months, blanketing Indonesia and its neighbors in choking haze.
    In the past two years, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry has released several tracts of land from the country’s “forest zone” to oil palm companies. Most recently, dozens of square kilometers were handedto PT Sawit Makmur Abadi, a plantation company operating in the Nabire district of Papua province that has been linked to current and former senior police officials.
    At the same time, the land released for oil palm under the current administration pales in comparison to the enormous area that was rezoned during the tenure of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who served from 2004-2014.
    The policy constitutes not just a freeze on new licenses, but an order for the relevant central government ministries and regional governments to conduct a massive review of oil palm licensing data.
    The review is to be presided over by the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, which is supposed to report to the president every six months on the progress of the initiative.
    The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the country’s largest environmental NGO, welcomed the issuance of the moratorium but suggested the president should have signed it much earlier.
    Ideally, Walhi said in a statement, the moratorium would stay in place for 25 years, because “environmental recovery takes a long time.”
    Indonesia has one of the world’s highest deforestation rates, in large part due to uncontrolled expansion by the plantation industry. This has made the country of 250 million people a top greenhouse gas emitter.
    Corruption in the issuance of licenses for plantations is rife. Mines too; Indonesia is a top coal producer. When the president announced the moratorium on new oil palm licenses two years ago, he also said he would impose a moratorium on new coal mines, but this has yet to be implemented.
    Christian Purba, chairman of the executive board of Forest Watch Indonesia (FWI), an NGO, called the issuance of the moratorium a “good step,” although he thought it was lacking in some respects.
    One of these is law enforcement, he said. The policy makes no mention of Indonesia’s anti-graft agency or the police.
    “However, the moratorium as a presidential instruction will serve as a legal basis for rejecting any applications for new licenses from palm oil companies,” he told Mongabay.
    Christian called for data gathered under the permit review to be made available for public review. FWI is currently fighting the agrarian ministry over a Supreme Court order for it to release right-to-cultivate permits for plantation and farming businesses, known as HGUs, something the ministry has refused to do.
    A PDF of the order enshrining the moratorium can be downloaded here.
    Banner: A Bornean orangutan. The critically endangered species is being driven to extinction as the forests of Borneo are cleared by humans. 
    FEEDBACK: Use this formto send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.
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    West Papua betrayed 56 years ago

    September 20, 2018, 5:40 pm
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    West Papua betrayed 56 years ago

    On the 21st September in 1962 the UNGA debated the New York Agreement and voted to pass a Dutch-Indonesia resolution on it by 89 votes to none. There were 14 abstentions. 

    56 years later the West Papuan people still suffer under Indonesian rule.






    How have the West Papuan people fared since the Indonesian take over?
    Papuan Governor Lukas Enembe said on his recent visit to PNG
    "Every day my people are being killed," Mr Enembe said. "That's why I think… the military of Indonesia, the police of Indonesia, they've stopped thinking about the humanity in Papua.
    "Some people in the Highlands, and the coast, they come to me, they're crying, crying about what's happening in Papua. Humanity is very important.”
    The Governor claimed that West Papuans were dying at a disturbing rate through three main causes: because of neglected health services, because of the spread of HIV / AIDS, and because of alleged killings by the security forces.
    "We are becoming a minority... a lot of people they die. I don't know... is this by a system... I don't know."
    He said Indonesia had co-opted Papua's land, minerals and forest resources, while West Papuans were largely left without a say in the matter. According to him, that's part of the reason why Papuans sought to reconnect with PNG people, their Melanesian kin.  (RNZ Pacific report 20 Sept.)  https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/366810/governor-of-indonesia-s-papua-seeks-connection-with-png 

    Human rights abuses continue.
    Leading up to the recent Pacific Islands Forum,  there were a number of rallies held in West Papua to show support for and urging the PIF leaders to support Vanuatu’s call to bring the issue of West Papua to the UN. The security forces arrested a large number of the peaceful demonstrators. According to the ULMWP, 45 people were arrested in Sentani and 34 were reported arrested in Abepura. 
    The FWP Campaign also  reported that    up to 15 people were arrested on Saturday 8 Sept. when about  50 members of the Bintuni community held a demonstration supporting Vanuatu to push for a Resolution for West Papua at the Pacific Islands Forum and the UN   Indonesian police officers arrived immediately and dispersed the crowd and seized the West Papuan flag. 

    Joe Collins of AWPA said, "its tragic that nearly sixty years after the betrayal of the people of West Papua by the international community they still suffer ongoing human rights abuses.
    However, it is also encouraging that West Papua is continuing to gain support not only in the Pacific region  but on the world stage as pacific countries, in particular Vanuatu continue to raise the issue at the UN “   
    A fact indicated by the Indonesia's government  proposing to spend $US4 million in funding towards influencing Pacific Island countries to change their position on Papua (RNZ Pacific 6/9/18). 
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    1) Papua Governor: No more conflicts in Puncak Jaya

    September 21, 2018, 1:15 am
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    2) Activists say Indonesia dragging its heels on indigenous rights
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    1) Papua Governor: No more conflicts in Puncak Jaya

    Published 10 hours ago on 21 September 2018 By admin


    Jayapura, Jubi – Papua Governor Lukas Enembe said Puncak Jaya District there should not be a stigma for Puncak Jaya District as a conflict area because it is not a killing field. In contrary, this area is safe and peaceful.
    “I governed this region once, so I know what people want. For that reason, I ask the local government officials to be able to take care of the community so to avoid more conflicts,” told Enembe to reporters on Thursday (09/13/2018) at the Office of the Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP).
    Furthermore, the governor said to avoid conflicts between different tribes and groups; the government officials should not also act to represent their personal or group interests.
    Separately, Papua Police Deputy Chief the Brigadier General Yakoubus Marjuki said that the police always try to use a subtle approach to solve conflicts in Papua.
    “This is our commitment because we want every region in Papua to always be safe and peaceful including in Puncak Jaya.” (*)
    Reporter: Roy Ratumakin
    Editor: Pipit Maizier
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    2) Activists say Indonesia dragging its heels on indigenous rights
    by  on 20 September 2018


    • Legislation of a long-awaited bill on indigenous rights continues to be mired in red tape, as activists accuse the government of stalling the process.
    • The start of deliberations in parliament was scheduled for Aug. 16, but has now been pushed back to Sept. 27 because the government has still not submitted an inventory of sticking points.
    • The government says it still needs input from various ministries, particularly on funding for programs under the bill, which it had previously cited as a reason for shelving the legislation.
    • The urgency to pass the bill comes as a study finds that at least a third of the carbon managed by indigenous communities in tropical and subtropical countries lies in forests where they lack legal title, putting them, their forests and the carbon they store at great risk.
    JAKARTA — Indigenous rights activists in Indonesia have expressed concern that the government is stalling the passage of a long-awaited bill on indigenous rights by tangling the legislative process in red tape.
    The government said in July that it had agreed with members of the House of Representatives to start discussions on the bill on Aug. 16. But the legislative docket seen by Mongabay shows the start of those discussions has been pushed back to Sept. 27.
    Still, the government says it expects the discussions to conclude by January next year, ahead of the bill’s passage into law.
    The bill is meant to be the follow-up to a landmark constitutional ruling in 2013 that rescinded state control over indigenous lands and gave it back to Indonesia’s indigenous peoples. Since then, various laws and regulations have been issued that touch on the issue of indigenous rights to some degree, but the central bill that would tie them all together remains locked in legislative limbo.
    The government proposed the initial start date for discussions on Aug. 16 with the caveat that a so-called problem inventory — a list of items that various ministries felt still needed to be ironed out — had to be compiled first.
    But it still hasn’t submitted the list to the House, says Luthfi Andi Mutty, the lawmaker behind the bill.
    “What we’d like to discuss is the problem inventory,” Luthfi told Mongabay. “And since the bill is an initiative of the House of Representatives, the problem inventory has to be made by the government.”

    ‘Deliberately stalled the process’

    Muhammad Arman, from the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), the main advocacy group for indigenous communities in Indonesia, said he had tried to obtain the list from the government, but to no avail.
    “We’ve asked the government and they said the list was with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights,” Arman, who heads AMAN’s policy advocacy, legal and human rights department, told a press conference in Jakarta recently. “That’s been the answer for the past four months. And when we’ve asked the ministry, no one answered.”
    The start of House deliberations on the indigenous rights bill is contingent on having the problem inventory ready. That, says Arman, leaves the ball squarely in the government’s court.
    “The problem at the moment now lies with the government, because even now the still list hasn’t been submitted,” Arman said. “We don’t know why. But we suspect it’s an attempt to ignore the rights of indigenous peoples … the government has deliberately stalled the process.”
    The Home Affairs Ministry, which is representing the government in discussion on the bill with the House, has already drawn up its own problem inventory, says Aferi S. Fudail, the ministry’s director for village administration.
    But the Office of the State Secretary, which reviews passed bills ahead of the president signing them, has ordered the Home Affairs Ministry to revise its list with input from Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and the Finance Ministry.
    “This process is important because the problem of indigenous peoples isn’t a problem for one ministry only, but it is a problem that all parties have to manage,” Aferi said.
    He said the government in particular needed input from the Finance Ministry regarding the allocation of funds from the state budget for indigenous peoples’ empowerment. The funding issue is a key point of contention, and has been cited by the Home Affairs Ministry to argue for shelving the bill entirely.
    A letter from the ministry, dated April 11, argues, among other points, that the bill is not needed, citing 16 other laws and regulations that address indigenous issues. It also said the bill would create other problems down the road, including putting unnecessary pressure on the state budget.
    Proponents of the bill say that recognizing indigenous peoples’ rights by passing a law dedicated specifically to that issue would not burden the government. Instead, they say, it will help the government resolve long-standing issues faced by indigenous peoples across the country stemming from land rights.
    For decades, indigenous groups in Indonesia have had their land rights denied by the government in favor of large plantation and mining companies. The government is obligated to relinquish control over state forest areas that fall within indigenous lands, per the 2013 Constitutional Court ruling. But to date, the government has recognized just 18 communities’ rights to their ancestral forests, covering a combined area of 164 square kilometers (63 square miles).
    This is far short of the 19,000 square kilometers (7,340 square miles) of land, home to 607 indigenous communities, that AMAN calculates must be rezoned as ancestral forests.
    Activists blame red tape for the glacial pace of progress, noting that only local governments can grant recognition of customary forests to indigenous communities through local bylaws. For a local administration to issue such a bylaw, it has to ensure that the indigenous people have been living in the area for a long time and that the customary land truly exists, among other conditions.
    Activists say they hope the national bill, once passed, can address these bureaucratic hurdles currently hindering the recognition of customary land rights.
    But until that happens, indigenous groups will continue to be at a disadvantage when fighting for their land rights against companies, according to AMAN’s Arman. He said government data showed clearly that land conflicts arising from a lack of legal recognition of indigenous communities and their lands were rampant across the country.
    At least 127 indigenous groups in 10 provinces are victims of criminalization from unresolved land disputes, AMAN data indicate, as their lands are taken over without their free and informed consent.
    “And these conflicts have resulted in the imprisonment of 262 people,” Arman said. “Some of them are still serving time in prison, while others have gotten out of prison.”
    There are also 1.2 million indigenous people whose lands fall within designated conservation areas and who are thus at risk of being resettled by the government, Arman added. He said the continued failure to pass the indigenous rights bill into law would lead to this very scenario; a 2017 presidential regulation clearly states that resettlement is the only way to resolve land tenure problems inside conservation areas.


    ‘Guardians of the Forest’

    Half a world away, in San Francisco, representatives of indigenous groups from Indonesia joined a protest march against climate change with their peers from the Amazon, Mesoamerica and Brazil. Together, these indigenous groups formed a coalition called the Guardians of the Forest.
    The march took place on Sept. 8, days before world leaders, researchers and activists arrived in the city for the U.N.-organized Global Climate Action Summit. During the march, the indigenous communities demanded that they be recognized as a part of the solution to climate change.
    Sardi Razak, who heads the AMAN chapter in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi province and took part in the march, said indigenous peoples had inherited the knowledge needed to protect the climate. In the case of Indonesia, he said in a press release, the passage of the indigenous rights bill therefore would give the government an invaluable ally in the fight against climate change.
    A new study released on the eve of the summit shows the crucial role that indigenous peoples play in managing the planet’s climate. The study, “A Global Baseline of Carbon Storage in Collective Lands,” led by Rights and Resources International (RRI), found that indigenous peoples manage nearly 300 billion metric tons of carbon stored above and below ground on their lands.
    That sequestered carbon, the study found, is equal to 33 years’ worth of worldwide emissions, given a 2017 baseline.
    The authors note that deforestation rates are significantly lower on native-occupied lands, but that governments often fail to recognize indigenous peoples’ legal claims to their land, thus jeopardizing their ability to manage it.
    “Evidence from the last decade shows that developing-country governments and the broader international community are not moving fast enough to recognize and strengthen the rights of forest peoples,” Alain Frechette, an author of the carbon analysis and RRI’s director of strategic analysis and global engagement, said in a statement.
    Failure to recognize indigenous peoples’ land rights could open up these lands to unbridled deforestation and release the sequestered carbon into the atmosphere, undermining the global pledge to reduce carbon emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
    “At least one-third of carbon managed by communities in tropical and subtropical countries lies in forests where the primary stewards lack legal titles, putting them, their forests and the carbon they store at great risk,” Frechette said.
     
    Banner image: Members of the Kombai indigenous community in Boven Digoel district, Papua province, Indonesia, during a media briefing in Jakarta. Indigenous communities like Kombai are fighting to get their rights recognized across Indonesia. Image by Hans Nicholas Jong/Mongabay.
    Article published by 
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    1) West Papuans in more danger from Indonesian Security Forces, ahead of UN General Assembly

    September 21, 2018, 1:24 pm
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    2) Demonstrations are scheduled to take place starting September 24th in West Papua while the UNGA is in session.
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    1) West Papuans in more danger from Indonesian Security Forces, ahead of UN General Assembly

    A message from the desk of Benny Wenda

    Ahead of next week’s 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Indonesian security forces have been executing a violent campaign to crackdown on freedom of expression in West Papua. Over the last week security forces have been systematically targeting, arresting, torturing, shooting and killing West Papuan people accused of supporting self-determination; activity which remains a crime under Indonesian law.
    On September 10th a joint operation between military and police began in the Tiom district. Reports by local West Papuans claim that five civilians, including a child, were persecuted by authorities. Local citizens also report that four villages were raided and their livestock was shot. It is believed that as a result of the raids at least forty people have fled from their villages and not have returned since escaping into the jungle.
    On September 15th in the city of Timika the local offices of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) and People’s Local Parliament (PRD) were raided without warrant by an estimated five hundred Indonesian security forces personnel. According to eyewitness reports, at least seven people were arrested, and one person was shot. During the raid offices were destroyed and property was confiscated. Footage from the incident also shows the Indonesian military shooting directly into KNPB and PRD regional headquarters.
    As Chairman of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) I regrettably must alert the world to the urgent human rights situation in West Papua. The mortal danger of Papuans increases each day that West Papua remains under Indonesia’s violent and oppressive control. These horrific accounts of what West Papuan people are currently experiencing are further evidence of the continuing campaign of violence. In one month at least ninety three West Papuans have been arrested for their involvement in peaceful protests.
    Among the recent reports is the most disturbing account of the death of a KNPB activist known as Daud. During the the September 15th raid of KNPB headquarters in Timika, Duad escaped and reportedly went missing for three days. On the 18th of September Duad’s mutilated body was found in the Tipuka village. Upon the recovery of Duad’s body family accounts say they observed obvious signs of torture as his hands and feet were cut off. I send my deepest condolences to Duad’s family and the entire KNPB community. We will continue to stand with you and expose the truth.
    Since West Papua was illegally occupied by Indonesia in the 1960s, over 500,000 indigenous Melanesian people have died in this slow Genocide. In addition to those who have been murdered and disappeared, countless more continue to be raped, tortured and abused to this day. As evidenced this week, the West Papuan people continue to be traumatised by Indonesia’s violence. Under Indonesian occupation, there is never justice for these arbitrary arrests and killings. While mass murder and torture in West Papua has been well documented for over 56 years these crimes are not investigated and the perpetrators are never brought to justice. In the name of our brother Duad, and every West Papuan who has senselessly lost their lives at the hands of Indonesian security forces, we must continue our fight to seek international intervention.
    Despite the ongoing attempts by the Indonesian government to stop freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, from 24th to 28th of September, there will be numerous demonstrations in West Papua and across the globe. In the face of danger, the people of West Papua will again be risking their lives to show the world they demand urgent international support to ensure our safety and freedom.
    On behalf of the people of West Papua, the ULMWP appeals to the international community to please be aware of the urgent situation in West Papua during this dangerous time of public expression. We need your help to shine a light on West Papua amid the darkness of Indonesia’s media blackout. Due to the restriction of journalists we must rely on public support to illuminate these unjust crimes against humanity. Please continue to send your photos of solidarity and share the truth about what is happening in West Papua.
    During the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) we call upon all UN member nations to support the West Papuan people and our fundamental right to self-determination. We send our deepest thanks and appreciation to all supportive UN member nations for their ongoing commitment to our mission.
    The ULMWP also appeals to the Indonesian government to immediately stop persecuting the people of West Papua. West Papuans must be allowed to freely and peacefully express our views and advocate for our freedom; rights afforded to us under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
    On behalf of the people of West Papua, the ULMWP demands that our fundamental right to self-determination must be fulfilled through an internationally supervised vote on independence; in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolutions 1514 and 1541 (XV).
    Please keep the people of West Papua in your hearts and prayers.
    Benny WendaChairman of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP)
    September 21, 2018

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    2) Demonstrations are scheduled to take place starting September 24th in West Papua while the UNGA is in session. Military operations are expected in reaction to these protests.
    Begin forwarded message:

    From: "Free West Papua Campaign"<free-west-papua-campaign@mx-au.keela.co>


    URGENT ACTION 


    Hi friends,


    Demonstrations are scheduled to take place starting September 24th in West Papua while the UNGA is in session. Military operations are expected in reaction to these protests.

    In the last week there have been increased military and police operations on peaceful West Papuans, accounts of raids, mass intimidation, torture, and the brutal death of KNPB activist, Daud. Daud was recently found dead and mutilated after police raided the KNPB offices last week.

    Please read statement and urgent message from Chair of the ULMWP, Benny Wenda, here.
    We are asking the world to be on alert and help to protect the human rights of all West Papuans during this time. Their lives could depend on it. Indonesia, we are watching you. 
    ACT NOW:
    1)  Make sure the world is watching West Papua during the UNGA. Alert the media and your networks about the demos, expected military action, and potential mass arrests.

    2) Follow FWPC Facebook and Twitter for updates, including live videos of the demos and share share share! 

    3) We are currently getting the numbers of the police stations where people are likely to be held if arrested. Calling the police stations could help get people released, especially if they know international eyes are watching.

    #WestPapua #LetWestPapuaVote #UNGA4WP #UNGA2018

    Thank you


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    ULMWP plans peaceful movements in seven indigenous territories

    September 22, 2018, 1:15 am
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    ULMWP plans peaceful movements in seven indigenous territories
    Published 5 hours ago on 22 September 2018 By admin


    United Liberation Movement for West Papua Action Committee (ULMWP) team – Jubi / Hengky Yeimo


    Jayapura, Jubi – ULMWP going to hold peaceful demonstrations in seven indigenous territories of West Papua on 24 – 28 September 2018.

    Ice Murib, the spokesperson of action committee for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), stated in a press conference held in the Papuan Customary Council, Expo Waena on Wednesday (08/19/2018).
    The central theme is to give full support to Vanuatu and other Pacific countries to address the issue of West Papua to the UN General Assembly 2019.
    “We will conduct a peaceful movement in indigenous territories of Mamta and Animha on 24 September 2018 centred in Hollandia (Jayapura), whereas the same activities in other regions will be on the following dates,” said Murib.
    Murib further said the delegations of ULMWP and Vanuatu are going to attend the 73rd UN General Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. So far, Vanuatu has made a resolution enforcing the rights of self-determination for West Papua to be submitted at the hearing.
    “They will also mobilise support from other countries to promote self-determination for West Papua,” continued Murib.
    For this reason, he appealed to all people including students, civil servants and those who are care of independence to participate in the movement. “You can do whatever you want to celebrate it. Pray, do orations, give speeches and so on.”
    In Jayapura, the rally will start from different points namely Expo, Lingkaran Abe and Dok V and then the mass will gather at Perumnas 3 Waena. (*)
    Reporter: Hengky Yeimo
    Editor: Pipit Maizier
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    Copy of Signed opened letter for West Papua De-Colonization

    September 23, 2018, 1:10 am
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    Below is an  open letter to Vanuatu’s Foreign Minister Ralph Regenvanu  

    for West Papua De-Colonization 

    Note. Could not attach PDF file to blog so printed it and scanned.
    Joe

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    From: Anne Pakoa 
    Subject: Copy of Signed opened letter for West Papua De-Colonization
    Date: 21 September 2018 at 5:19:53 PM GMT+11
    To: Ralph Regenvanu 

    Dear Honorable Minister, 
    The International Peace Day organised by the Vanuatu Young Women For Change and Vanuatu Human Rights Coalition went well with over 100 people attended and contributed to super outcomes including an open advocacy letter to call on our global CSO colleagues to lobby their government to support your statement next year on the decolonization for West Papua. 

    Please find attached the signed copy of the open advocacy letter. 

    Kind regards, 

    Anne Pakoa 
    Founder and Secretariat
    Vanuatu Human Rights Coalition 
    P.0 Box 1709, Port Vila, Vanuatu 

    Amplifying the soft timid voices via Rights -based approaches! 



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    Indonesian police intimidate West Papuans ahead of demonstrations

    September 23, 2018, 1:33 pm
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    https://www.freewestpapua.org/2018/09/23/indonesian-police-intimidate-west-papuans-ahead-of-demonstrations/


    Indonesian police intimidate West Papuans ahead of demonstrations

    SEPTEMBER 23, 2018
    Pilipus Robaha, Deputy Chair of SONAMAPPA (National Solidarity Youth and Student Movement)  has been targeted and warned by a Jayapura chief of police intelligence unit on the eve of  a peaceful demonstration planned for Monday, 24 Sept, at Dok 8 near the river. Several demonstrations are being planned in every province of West Papua. The purpose of the peaceful actions are to publicly support  Vanuatu during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)as they address the human rights abuses and the self-determination aspirations of West Papua.
    Police visiting Robaha at his home informed him that a “demonstration could not be held because Kapolres (city police) did not give permission for the action.”
    Robaha explained to police “the action is endorsed by the ULMWP  organising committee.” He added that “Edison Waromi is a political leader having called for peaceful action, therefore it is our duty to organise the rally.” Police responded with an added warning not to hold the rally.
    The police statements to Robaha are consistent with the conversations had with ULMWP Legistlative Committee Chairman Edison Waromi  on Saturday. The day before the Robaha incident,  Waromi was picked up by police at his home and taken in for questioning.

    At this time none of the pro-independence groups organizing in West Papua have made an announcement to cancel any of the planned demonstrations. Unfortunately, because Indonesian security forces consistently resort to violence and intimidation tactics to oppress peaceful protesters, we are still anticipating mass arrests and brutality against the hundreds of thousands of West Papuans expected to participate in demonstrations this week.


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    1) West Papua province is number one ranked for 2017 Environmental Quality Index

    September 24, 2018, 2:54 am
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    2) Noken system in Papua’s elections is still debated
    3) Deputy Minister of Japan visits Biak Numfor
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    http://tabloidjubi.com/eng/west-papua-province-is-number-one-ranked-for-2017-environmental-quality-index/

    1) West Papua province is number one ranked for 2017 Environmental Quality Index
    Published 10 hours ago on 24 September 2018 By admin

    Jayapura, Jubi – West Papua Province is first ranked for the Environmental Quality Index (IKLH) in 2017 at national with a percentage of 85.69 per cent, followed by West Kalimantan and Papua Province with 81.47 per cent.
    The Head of Economic Affairs at the Center for Strategic Policy of the Ministry of Forestry’s Environment (KLHK), Abdul Muin said the index, which is part of KLHK strategic plans throughout 2015 – 2019, of both Papua and West Papua Provinces is still above the national average target for 2018.

    “There should be an effort to maintain and increase the environmental quality index for both provinces to create a healthy environment,” Muin said in Jayapura, Tuesday (09/18/2018).
    Further, he said the island of Papua is one of the world’s central attention, especially the environmentalists, due to its global tourists’ destinations. Thus, the concept of sustainable development is one of the primary keys to improving the quality of the sustainable environment. “This includes in the national action plan,” he said.
    Moreover, he said even though the environment is one of the primary support of the sustainable development in addition to the economic, social and governance pillars, at the national level the index of environmental quality still underrated because its value is still unstable (changes all the time).
    “This should not be a concern of the ministry of environment, but all stakeholders, both legislative and executive bodies, need to be involved as well as mandated in Act 23 of 2014 concerning the regional governance,” he said.
    Separately, the Assistant of People’s Economy and Welfare Noak Kapissa said Papua Provincial Government have a strong commitment to restricting the impact of the greenhouse gas emissions through coordination with government and non-government institutions at regional and international levels.
    Moreover, he said, Papua Provincial Government, through the Governor’s Decree Number 105/2015, already formed the Papua Low Carbon Development Task Force (PLCD-TF), which actively involved in the climate change issues in the land of Papua. (*)
     
    Reporter: Alex Loen
    Editor: Pipiet Maizier 

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    2) Noken system in Papua’s elections is still debated
    Published 10 hours ago on 24 September 2018 By admin
    Jayapura, Jubi – The Constitutional Court (MK) has acknowledged and endorsed the Noken System in the elections in accordance with the Decree of the Constitutional Court Number: 47-48 / PHPU.A-VI / 2009 and the article 18B paragraph (2) of the 1945 Constitution.
    However, this system is still considered to cause some conflicts among local communities because it forces many candidates to think and work hard to get sympathy from people living in such areas applied to this system.
    Although the Papua General Election Commission (KPU) has issued the technical guidelines in 2013 regulating the use of noken instead of the ballot box in the election, Metusalak Ifandi, the Chairman of Papua Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), admits the noken system is still a potential source of conflicts in the local election in Papua.
    “The implementation in the field is totally different from the technical guidelines. This should be addressed by KPU. Of course, there needs a coordination between KPU and Bawaslu regarding the technical implementation including the regulations because we only refer to their guidelines,” he answered Jubi on Tuesday (9/18/2018) in Jayapura.

    Multi-interpretation and the need of review
    The noken system is considered valid if the noken is hung on the wood located in the polling station. Voters must come to the location and should not be represented by others to put the ballot into the noken. After the voting, the ballots must be counted on location but still need to be punched (to authorize), not like the voting process in other regions where the noken system is not applied, voters punched the ballot at the same time they put it into the ballot box. That’s why, according to Papua Bawaslu, the noken system often leads to misinterpretation.
    “According to the Constitutional Court, the use of the noken system to substitute the ballot box is to respect the tradition of the local community,” said Metusalak.
    Meanwhile, Theodorus Kossay, the Chairman of KPU Papua, said KPU Papua considers three aspects towards the application of the noken system, namely reviewing this system with academics, establishing the standard operating procedures and stimulating the use of this system.
    “These three aspects were carried out to give weight to the implementation of the noken system and provide education to the people living in 14 districts that use the noken system,” he said. (*)

    Reporter: Roy Ratumakin
    Editor : Pipiet Maizier




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    https://en.antaranews.com/news/118852/deputy-minister-of-japan-visits-biak-numfor
    3) Deputy Minister of Japan visits Biak Numfor
    Reporter:   4 hours ago

    Biak, Papua  (ANTARA News) - Deputy Minister of Japan Masahisa Sato visited Biak Numfor, Papua Province, on Monday, to strengthen cooperation with the Indonesian Government.

    The Japanese official was pleased to be able to visit Biak Numfor District for the first time.

    He said Biak is a special place for Japan, as some fallen Japanese soldiers had been buried there during World War II.

    "I hope this working visit to Biak Numfor District would intensify bilateral ties with the Indonesian Government, in general, and with Papua Province as well as Biak Numfor, in particular," Sato stated.

    Acting Biak Numfor Regent Herry Ario Naap greeted the Japanese deputy minister and expressed hope for closer bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

    Biak had helped return the remains of fallen Japanese soldiers, he noted.

    He called for cooperation between Biak and Japan in the fields of education, aviation, fishery, and tourism, among others.

    During the visit to Biak, Sato was accompanied by Director of second South East Asia Division Shingo Myamoto and Secretary of the State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Isao Tezuka

    Several diplomats of the Japanese embassy in Jakarta who were also part of the visit included Deputy Chief of Mission Keiichi Ono, First Secretary (economy) Daisuke Inoue, and Second Secretary (politics) Katnonori Tsunoda.

    The Indonesian foreign ministry`s officials accompanying Sato were Diplomatic Security Director Teguh Wardoyo, Yosep Tutu, and Veronika Vonny, among others.

     (T.SYS/B/KR-BSR/C/S022) 24-09-2018 11:32:00 
    Editor: Andi Abdussalam
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    1) 67 arrested following peaceful actions supporting Vanuatu at the 73rd General Assembly of the United Nations

    September 24, 2018, 1:36 pm
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    2) US ambassador learns so much from people in Timika
    3) Saonu welcomes talks on economic ties with Papua 
    4) News Feature - Optimizing sago to achieve food security

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    1)  67 arrested following peaceful actions supporting Vanuatu at the 73rd General Assembly of the United Nations


    ULMWP
    67 arrested following peaceful actions supporting Vanuatu at the 73rd General Assembly of the United Nations

    Action Committee REPORT 
    Arrest of 67 People in Action Supporting Vanuatu and Pacific Countries Bring West Papua Problems to the 73rd General Assembly of the United Nations 
    On this day, Monday 24 September 2018 arrests of Papuans who are carrying out support actions for Vanuatu and Pacific countries to bring the West Papua issue to the United Nations General Assembly.
    Arrests carried out by the Indonesian National Police who were fully armed.
    We report the following Arrests that occurred at three different gathering points:

    Chronology

    Waena Expo Taxi Round
    At 08.30 Papuan Time (WP) Mass Action had gathered at the gathering point. While the Police are on standby. At 09.22, Mass Action performed speeches at the venue. Then the police went to the mob. The Field Coordinator negotiates with the police.
    At 10.02 WP, the Police Arrested the Mass of Action and took them to the Jayapura Police Station.
    Jayapura Science and Technology University Campus Page (USTJ)
    At 10.30 WP, students gather on the campus yard while giving speeches.
    At 11:45 WP, Indonesian Police entered the USTJ Campus page and Arrested Students. Then the table was taken to the Jayapura Resort Police Station.
    Abepura, Depan Merpati
    At 11:10 WP, Mass Action gathered at Jalan Biak, in front of SMA Negeri 1 Jayapura. And start the long March to the front of the Abepura Post Office.
    At 11:20 WP, Mass Action arrived in front of the Abepura Post Office and began to make speeches.
    At 11:34 p.m. WP, the police went to the mob and immediately arrested them.
    Beating
    The police beat a student named: Petrus Kosamah, Student of Jayapura Science and Technology University (USTJ), Semester III, Civil Engineering Department. The beating was carried out on the USTJ Campus page using a rattan in the right eye.

    Full report at 
    https://www.ulmwp.org/arrest-of-67-people-after-peaceful-actions-supporting-vanuatu-at-the-73rd-general-assembly-of-the-united-nations


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


    https://en.antaranews.com/news/118873/us-ambassador-learns-so-much-from-people-in-timika

    2) US ambassador learns so much from people in Timika

    Reporter:   3 hours ago
    Timika, Papua (ANTARA News) - The United States Ambassador to Indonesia, Joseph R. Donovan Jr., has stated that he learned a lot through the conditions he encountered in Timika and Tembagapura sub-districts during his working visit to Mimika District, Papua Province, from September 21-24, he said here on Monday.

    During his four-day visit, Donovan met the Amungme and Kamoro community leaders. They are two tribes in Papua, which own the customary rights of lands in Timika.

    He also met officials from the Indonesian Armed Forced (TNI) and the National Police.

    In addition, Donovan also visited several places, namely, a reclamation center of PT, Freeport Indonesia at mile 21 and the Freeport employee training center in Kuala Kencana.

    The ambassador also met the Freeport Indonesia employees from the United States in Tembagapura and visited Mitra Masyarakat Hospital owned by Amungme and Kamoro People`s Development Institutions.

    "I witnessed PT Freeport Indonesia`s operations directly in Timika and Tembagapura sub-districts along with their complexity," Donovan said.

    When meeting US Freeport employees in Tembagapura on Sunday (September 23), Donovan said Americans appreciated their interaction with the Indonesian people, especially with the indigenous Papuans who worked with them at Freeport.

    According to the US workers, Papuan people really respect and appreciate foreigners.

    Donovan said such conditions could be found across all American companies operating in Indonesia, where American workers have a close relationship with the local people. The social relationship is established through various activities such as training and education programs.

    "For example, in Tembagapura, Freeport provides 10 thousand scholarships for Papuan students to continue their studies in Indonesia and other countries," he said.


    Reporting by Jeremias Rahadat
    Editing by Libertina
    Editor: Otniel Tamindael



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

    3) Saonu welcomes talks on economic ties with Papua 

    By EREBIRI ZURENUOC
    September 24, 2018The National
    MOROBE Governor Ginson Saonu has welcomed discussions on possible economic and trade partnerships with the Papua province of Indonesia.
    In a visit to Lae on Thursday, Governor of Papua Lukas Enembe said he was looking at expanding economic cooperation between the two provinces, especially within the Mamose region.
    “I have been entrusted by the Central Government (of Indonesia) to strengthen relations within the region,” he said.
    “I hope that the region will give me the support to make this plan happen. Morobe and other provinces in the Mamose are closer to Jayapura.
    “That is why we need to have connectivity, particularly through shipping and airline services.”

    Enembe said in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Cooperation (Asean), Indonesia was behind other countries,
    “Thailand and the Philippines are better than Indonesia, especially in trade,” he said.
    “That is why we need cooperation with the Pacific region to make a significant progress. The main game for us in the Pacific region is PNG.” Enembe said other aspect of cooperation included sports such as rugby, and the possibility of importing 20,000 head of cattle from Morobe in 2020 during a national sporting event.
    Saonu said he was happy that Enembe has mentioned opening direct air access and flight routes from Lae to Jakarta leading on to Singapore and other international destinations.
    “I give my commitment to facilitate for the economic and tourism development opportunities both at the provincial and national level,” Saonu said.
    “Morobe will provide support for you. I request for cooperation in education and language.
    “I want to work with you to provide opportunities for our students to improve their education. Let us assist each other with education scholarships.
    “Because of our mutual interest, it is better to close the language barrier.
    “I am willing to supply you English teachers and learning materials and in exchange you supply me with Bahasa (Indonesia) teachers and learning materials.”
    Saonu requested that a team from Morobe visit the Freeport mine in Papua.

    ————————————————

    4) News Feature - Optimizing sago to achieve food security
    Reporter:   3 hours ago

    Jakarta, (ANTARA News) - Sago has been a staple food in numerous parts of Indonesia for centuries, and for its importance, sago is also known as the hidden white pearl.

    Sago palm is also an important food source for the people of Papua, Maluku, and Sulawesi, in addition to tubers which are consumed based on area of living.

    Besides its importance and high wild productivity, the sago has

    a high content of carbohydrate that could support food security in Papua, and Indonesia in general.

    When sago is developed properly to support the food security in the country, the government will not have to promote the cultivation and distribution of rice to support and feed the locals.

    Hence, the National Resilience Council (Wantanas) is now making every effort to develop Papua`s natural resource potential to support the local to national food security.

    When receiving the Wantanas officials at his office in Jayapura on Monday, Papua Governor Lukas Enembe remarked that the development of sago and coffee in Papua, known as the "Land of Cenderawasih," became the concern of Wantanas to improve the economic sector of the local community.

    The governor noted that it was necessary to develop sago in Papua because it is a community need as a food ingredient, while coffee has a huge potential in the local economy.

    However, Enembe said the development of sago and coffee in Papua needs to be accompanied by the qualified human resources in its processing.

    "For this reason, assistance is needed for human resources in Papua to be able to process and develop sago and coffee in the future," the governor said.

    The officials of National Resilience Council visited Papua to find out the existing natural potentials, including sago, to be developed into supporting food security for local communities, and promoting diversification of food to reduce the dependence on rice.

    Promoting the diversification of food will make the public realize that they have many other staple foods, such as cassava, corn, tubers, and sago, in place of rice, to assure their food security.

    Recent research indicated that when sago is grown under organized farming practices, it has a potential yield of 10-15 metric tons of dried starch per hectare per year.

    This starch yield per hectare is approximately three to four times higher than that of rice, and that means sago can play an important role in promoting food security.

    In addition to Papua, the people of Konawe district in the Indonesian province of Southeast Sulawesi had turned to sago as their favorite culinary delights.

    In Konawe district, sago palm also provides strong economic, cultural and environmental advantages in rural areas where it is grown.

    Because sago has become a favorite culinary, of course the need of this staple diet will be even greater, so the people who have sago plant land were encouraged to maintained it and do not replace it with other plants.

    Sago palm can grow in swamps and wet land which are not suitable for agricultural production. It is tolerant to drought and floods. It increases farm household income and employment through the production of confectionery and cookies, roofing material from leaves and the production of woven mats and handicrafts.

    The Sago worm cultured from old sego trunks is a local delicacy with high market value. Additionally it contributes to slowing the pace of global warming through its year-round carbon dioxide absorbing function.

    Hence, the people should not damage the existing crops or sago forests, because it is a promising source of income amid the decrease of sago land.

    Last year, the Konawe district government provided sago management equipment for the community groups in order to develop the welfare of sago plant owners.

    In order for residents to process sago no longer in the traditional way, there was a kind of small-scale processing plant in the district.

    The potential of local food from sago like sinonggi, can be used as a local commodity and could be a business to improve the economy of the community.

    Hence, the Konawe district government is also focusing on the development of sago cultivation to save the plant from being extinct.

    Sago is one of the staple foods in some districts in Southeast Sulawesi that is increasingly threatened with extinction, so public awareness needs to be raised to save the sago plant in order to remain sustainable.

    Therefore, the local community has been called on to preserve sago fores in a sustainable manner because it is a food reserve for them.

    Sago is the staple food of the people of Konawe since time immemorial. Even without rice, the people there can consume sago for survival.

    Therefore, the local people had been encouraged to preserve sago forest, and do not destroy it for agriculture and other development interests.

    Sago plants not only serve as food reserve, but also protect the water source for the life of the local community in general.

    In light of this, the indigenous people of Papua, Maluku, and Sulawesi can unite to reject irresponsible parties who want to turn sago forests into oil palm plantation.

    Sago can be a solution to make Indonesia self-sufficient in staple foods, because it does not require a large plot of land and is able to grow without any intensive care.

    Sago has a high carbohydrate content and is easy to digest, and of better quality compared to rice.


    Editing by INE

      
    Editor: Otniel Tamindael
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    Polish globe-trotter blunders into Indonesia-Papua conflict

    September 25, 2018, 2:49 am
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    Polish globe-trotter blunders into Indonesia-Papua conflict

    By Stephen Wright | AP September 24 at 10:18 PM
    JAKARTA, Indonesia — To the Indonesian government, the 39-year-old factory worker and globe-trotting Polish traveler is a danger to the state, a man who plotted with shadowy gunmen to foment revolt in isolated eastern jungles.





    In this undated photo released by Papua representative office of the National Human Rights Commission, Polish national Jakub Skrzypski, left, who is detained and charged with treason on accusation of assisting Papuan independence supporters and separatist fighters talks with the head of Papua Representative Office of the National Human Rights Commission Frits Ramandey, right, at his detention house at the regional police headquarters in Jayapura, Papua province, Indonesia. Skrzypski was arrested in Wamena in Papua province in late August along with four Papuans that police said had ammunition and described as linked to “armed criminal groups,” authorities’ usual description of Papuan independence fighters. The 39-year-old factory worker faces up to 20 years in prison if he’s found guilty. (Papua Representative Office of the National Human Rights Commission via AP) (Associated Press)


    But to his supporters, Jakub Skrzypski is just an idealistic tourist with no money to his name, a man with an oddball combination of sympathies for right-wing and liberation causes. Even Indonesian police say it’s unlikely Skrzypski could have arranged the arms deal they say he promised to make with rebels.
    But Skrzypski, who is charged with treason, still faces up to 20 years in prison if he’s found guilty. His detention was extended by 40 days on Sept. 17 as police prepare their case against him.
    He was arrested in Wamena in Papua province in late August along with four Papuans who police said had ammunition and described as linked to “armed criminal groups” — the authorities’ usual description of Papuan independence fighters.

    “The true jungle is in Papua, and I’ve been there, among lizards, mosquitoes, leeches” and other stuff, Skrzypski wrote on Facebook while on the second of back-to-back trips to the region in July and August.
    The case highlights Indonesia’s extreme sensitivity about the low-level but long-running insurgency in the Papua region, which occupies the western half of the island of New Guinea. Though most nations recognize Indonesia’s sovereignty over the territory, the Papuan independence movement has vocal sympathizers in numerous Pacific island and Western countries.


    Indonesia annexed the Dutch-controlled half of the island in 1963 when the Netherlands was preparing indigenous Papuans for self-rule. Decades later, though, large areas of the mountainous jungle territory still remain outside of Jakarta’s control. Police and military personnel are frequently attacked and killed by rebels, while Indonesian security forces have been accused of dozens of unlawful killings in the past decade, including targeted slayings of political activists.
    Police say Skrzypski had been in contact for a “long time” with Papuan independence supporters and separatist fighters. They say he planned to publicize their cause on social media and promised to help supply them with weapons.
    “We have strong evidence that he was guilty in helping the armed criminal group in Papua,” said the province’s police chief, Martuani Sormin. “No one should disturb the integrity of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia, whether he is a foreigner or local. Anyone who violates the law in this country must be dealt with.”


    But evidence of an actual plot against the Indonesian state appears flimsy.
    Photos police cited of Skrzypski with guns were taken at a recreational shooting range in Switzerland, where he has lived since 2008, said his Indonesian lawyer, Latifah Anum Siregar, and a Polish friend, Artur Sobiela.
    Siregar said Skrzypski denies any wrongdoing. The case against him is “very weak,” she said.
    Civil society organizations have also protested his arrest and the arrest several days later of a 29-year-old Papuan student, Simon Magal, who met Skrzypski and communicated with him on Facebook.
    “While Mr. Skrzypski’s choices may have been irresponsible and regrettable, his circumstances appear those of an idealistic and naive traveler and not one of a criminal,” the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network and London-based rights group Tapol said in a joint statement.


    They said Magal’s arrest was excessive and he’d “simply been dragged in by the actions of Mr. Skrzypski.”
    National police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said Skrzypski had unfettered access to an “armed criminal group” in Papua that had designated a liaison to meet and escort him on his trips to the region.
    Skrzypski encouraged the group to fight against the Indonesian government and also promised weapons, but even Prasetyo acknowledged it was “very unlikely” he could do that.
    “We consider this case to be quite serious because it involves a foreign national,” he said.
    Two friends said Skrzypski, a long-term resident of Switzerland, where he moved for economic opportunities, is an avid traveler who’s fascinated by other cultures. In one online profile, he lists about 50 countries he’s visited.
    Skrzypski’s Facebook page indicates he supports right-wing European nationalist movements and is also interested in ethnic groups that have faced state persecution or genocide, including Armenians and Kurds.

    In 2017, he traveled to both Armenia and the Kurdish-controlled area of Iraq. On Facebook, he follows some high-profile figures in the Papuan independence movement. Rafal Szymborski, who describes himself as the coordinator of the Free West Papua Campaign in Poland, has protested his arrest online. Szymborski didn’t respond to emailed questions.
    Some of Skrzypski’s postings indicate a sympathetic interest in Julius Evola, an Italian fascist philosopher who decades after his death remains an influence on neo-fascists. He supported a “sovereign money” movement to dismantle the Swiss banking system that was defeated in a referendum this year, and also posted photos of himself wearing an ultra-nationalistic “Defend Helvetia” T-shirt that superimposes an automatic rifle over a map of Switzerland.
    Artur Sobiela, a friend from Skrzypski’s hometown of Olsztyn in Poland’s northeast, said Skrzypski had traveled to Indonesia numerous times and has many friends there but “isn’t on any side of Indonesian-Papua conflict.”

    He said it was “nonsense” that Skrzypski was plotting to undermine the Indonesian state.
    “He hasn’t any money for supporting any political groups in any region in the world,” said Sobiela, who has known Skrzypski for nearly two decades.
    “He’s working all year in Switzerland as a regular worker in a factory near Lausanne and saved part of his salary for traveling,” Sobiela said. “In Switzerland, he hasn’t house, car and other property. His only property are books, music records.”
    ___
    Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini in Jakarta and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.
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    1) Vanuatu's move and ULMWP at the UN General Assembly session

    September 26, 2018, 1:24 pm
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    2) Yahukimo, the entrance of gold miners to Pegunungan Bintang Province
    3) Indonesia, Australia hold bilateral meeting during UN General Assembly



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    From Free West Papua Campaign facebook page 

    1) Vanuatu's move and ULMWP at the UN General Assembly session
    Tabloid JUBI reports
    UN Headquarters, New York, United States, this time has a special meaning for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) who is a member of the Vanuatu official delegation.
    The annual meeting which was opened on Tuesday (11/9) by the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterez and attended by various world leaders, was only attended by the ULMWP envoy who joined Vanuatu's state delegation on Monday (8/24). Representatives of ULMWP in the Vanuatu delegation included Benny Wenda (as executive chairman of ULMWP), Rex Rumakiek (secretary) and Jennifer Robinson, a British international lawyer who was incorporated in the International Lawyers for West Papua (ILWP).
    "We are grateful because this time ULMWP can officially join the Vanuatu delegation. This is all due to the hard work, prayers and struggles of all the people and the Papuan fighters in the country and everywhere who are waiting for liberation from the oppression of Indonesian colonialism," said Benny Wenda accompanied by Rex Rumakiek after the Vanuatu delegation consisting of Charlot Salwai (Prime Minister), Ralph Regenvanu (Minister of Foreign Affairs) and Odo Tevi (Vanuatu ambassador to the United Nations) attended the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly this year. According to Wenda, the ULMWP representative had previously specifically met with Odo Tevi, Ambassador Vanutu to the United Nations to discuss and prepare strategic matters that would be presented at the UN General Assembly this time as well as in the context of political lobbying. "The Ambassador of Vanuatu is very welcoming of our meeting. He hopes that the Papuan people and all components of the Papuan liberation struggle must unite. Because unity towards the ideals of national liberation is the main key," explained Wenda, who currently lives in Oxford, England, because of asylum. political.
    Meanwhile, Rex Rumakiek, the ULMWP secretary who had arrived in New York from Australia the day before to attend the General Session, invited all components of the Papuan people to unite in support of the ULMWP as a platform for the struggle that Vanuatu has now recognized.
    "The Papuan people and all components of the Papuan fighters no longer repeat the history of the divisions that have been made by the senior senior fighters. Let us together support Vanuatu's move to bring our problems to the United Nations," said Rumakiek who is also a senior Papuan fighter who now lives. in Australia.
    Referring to the petition about the referendum which was signed by 1.8 million people of the West Papua people and had become a controversy because it was denied directly by Rafael Ramirez, as chairman of the UN Special Decolonization Commission (C-24) in September 2017, Rumakiek explained this actually it has become one of the written efforts that the Papuan people have shown an attitude of wanting to be free from Indonesian colonialism.
    "Although the petition itself is not a valid mechanism in decision making at the UN, the struggle and attitude reflected in the presence of the petition needs to be appreciated as evidence that Papuans want independence," Rumakiek said in the ULMWP forum representing the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation group. (WPNCL).
    He added that not only because of the controversy over the petition, making the people and components of the West Papua struggle fragmented. Rumakikek advised that the unity that had been formed in the ULMWP and now progressing because it was supported by Vanuatu along with a number of South Pacific countries needed to be supported by all components of the Papuan people at home and abroad.
    Vanuatu, according to its state protocol, has included several names to be part of their delegation team to guard the struggle for West Papuan self-determination in the 73rd UN General Assembly in 2018 such as; Jacob Rumbiak (spokesman for ULMWP), Melinda Janki (chairman of the International Lawyers for West Papua / ILWP) and Laura Lini as Vanuatu's envoy for West Papua and a daughter of the South Pacific figure, Walter Lini.
    However, due to failure, some of these names have not been able to join Vanuatu's official delegation to attend the 73rd UN General Assembly in 2018 at the UN General Headquarters in New York
    Vanutu, as an archipelago in the South Pacific, has for three decades been a strong supporter of West Papua's political struggle for independence from the Indonesian occupation. A small country located in the east of Australia, northeast of New Caledonia, west of Fiji and south of the Solomon Islands, regularly continues to fight for ULMWP membership status in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) group but fight for the right of self-determination for the people of West Papua in regional Pacific Island Forum (PIF) to the UN level.








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    2) Yahukimo, the entrance of gold miners to Pegunungan Bintang Province

    Published 20 hours ago on 26 September 2018 By admin



    Yahukimo community with six tribal chiefs came to Yahukimo Local Parliament (DRPD) Office asking for the determination of illegal mining – Jubi doc


    Jayapura, Jubi – Yahukimo Regent Abock Busup said that Dekai City, the capital of Yahukimo District, is one of the entrances for miners to get to the mining site in Kawe Village, Awimbon Sub-district of Pegunungan Bintang District, Papua Province.
    “The local government of Pegunungan Bintang allows the mining activity in Kawe Village. However, those miners come through Dekai,” said Busup in Jayapura last week.

    According to him, the access from Dekai to Kawe Village can be reached in about twenty minutes by land transport and aeroplane. This easy access has made the miners from other regions in Papua or even from outside of Papua tends to choose Dekai as the entry point to the mine site.
    “The migrant miners fly to Dekai before continuing their journey to Kawe Village by land transport,” he said.
    However, the gold mine is not only existed in Pegunungan Bintang, but also in Yahukimo District, which forced an indigenous group joined in IS-UKAM (The Association of Una, Kopkaka, Arumtap, Arupkor, Mamkot and Momuna tribes) who urge the determination of mining activities in this area.
    The Secretary of IS-UKAM Timeus Aruman said the mining companies in this area are suspected to bringing in many workers from other islands of Indonesia, namely Java, Sulawesi, Sumatra and Kalimantan.
    Meanwhile, the Chief of Una-Ukam Tribe Yakobus Kisamlu similarly said his community has refused the illegal mining and stated that two gold minings in Kawe Village of Awimbon Sub-district of Pegunungan Bintang District and Yahowimo Village of Suntamon Sub-district are prohibited, and UKAM community as the owner of land rights reject the mining companies.
    The Determination of People’s Mine Site
    Abock Busup also said that he was trying to close the people’s mine site in his region. However, he further said the closure of this mine site needs further study and analysis. The government also needs to listen to suggestions and inputs from many stakeholders to find out the benefits and drawbacks of a gold mine site in this area.
    ‘If there is a dispute or victims, who will be responsible? So, this needs to be reviewed, a prior study before establishing a regulation to address these problems,” he said.
    The local parliament, according to him, has formed a Special Committee (Pansus) and sent a letter asking the owners of five helicopters that had been carrying the miners into the mining area to stop the operations of their helicopters.
    “On 17 September 2018, we have sent a letter to ask the helicopters to keep staying in Yahukimo,” he said.
    It’s to avoid conflict because the local community might suspect the helicopters are used to transport people to the mining location. “If there is a conflict, people will accuse it as human rights violations, or they will accuse the government of not paying attention and many other reasons even though the government was already strict,” he said.
    The location of people’s mine site in Yahukimo, he said, is in Seredala Sub-district. It takes 30 minutes by land from Dekai, the capital of Yahukimo District. “Indeed, up to now the (mining) activities continue to run, but they have been reduced,” he said.
    Meanwhile, Papua Governor Lukas Enembe recently also stated that he refused illegal mining in Papua because it damages the nature of Papua. “From now on there will be no illegal activities in Papua because Papua is now under the supervision of the United Nations (UN),” said Enembe.
    Moreover, the governor said the Papuan People’s Assembly (MRP) keeps a letter from the UN to protect the forests and land of Papua. “The point is that there should be no illegal activities including illegal fishing, illegal logging and illegal mining as well. All those activities should be banned on Papua’s land,” he said. (*)
     
    Reporter: Arjuna Pademme
    Editor: Pipit Maizier
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    https://en.antaranews.com/news/118936/indonesia-australia-hold-bilateral-meeting-during-un-general-assembly
    3) Indonesia, Australia hold bilateral meeting during UN General Assembly

    Reporter:   15 hours ago

    New York, (ANTARA News) - Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi held a bilateral meeting with her Australian counterpart Marise Payne on the sidelines of the 73rd UN General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York on Tuesday.

    The opportunity was the first time for Foreign Minister Retno to meet Marise Payne in her new position as Australian Foreign Minister replacing Julie Bishop.

    Previously Foreign Minister Retno had known Payne well when the latter served as Australia's defense minister.

    "This is an asset for me to continue the good collaboration that I have done with Julie Bishop and now with Maurice Payne," Retno said.

    In the bilateral meeting the two ministers discussed, among others, the results of the visit of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison to Indonesia last month including the issue of Australia-Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

    In addition, they also discussed about Indonesia's invitation for Australia to attend the Our Ocean Conference which will be held in Bali in October.

    In general, no bilateral issues were discussed in depth, because the meeting symbolically symbolized a new partnership because Payne currently holds a portfolio as Australia's foreign minister, Retno said.

    "I also thank Australia for working well with Indonesia, helping Indonesia in the collaboration of the Pacific Islands Forum and Australia always consistently emphasizes respect for Indonesia`s territorial integrity," Retno said.

    Reporting by Aditya Eko Sigit Wicaksono
    Editing by Othniel Tamindael, Fardah 
    Editor: Sri Haryati

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    1) Answers sought over death of Papuan machete suspect

    September 27, 2018, 12:39 am
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    2) Papua Governor says will facilitate Morobe Governor to visit Freeport
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    1) Answers sought over death of Papuan machete suspect
    Activists demand probe into how man accused of chopping off someone's hand died while in Indonesian police custody





    Family members mourn over the body of Yudas Gebze at his home in Ilwahab, in Papua’s Merauke district. (Photo supplied)

    Ryan Dagur, Jakarta  Indonesia  September 26, 2018


    Human rights and church activists have called for an investigation following the death last week of an indigenous Papuan who died in police custody.

    Yudas Gebze, from the Malind tribal group died on Sept. 14, a day after he was arrested in Ilwahab, in Papua province's Merauke district for allegedly chopping off a man's right hand with a machete.

    He had spent three months on the run prior to his arrest following the alleged machete incident.

    In a joint statement, Amnesty International Indonesia and Pusaka, an Indonesian NGO working for indigenous people's rights, called for a prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigation into allegations of torture leading to Gebze's death.

    They said several wounds to his head, hands, thighs, and back were the result of torture by security forces. 

    According to police spokesman, Ahmad Musthofa Kamal, Gebze died from a heart attack.

    "Injuries to his body were not the cause of death, he died of a heart attack," he claimed, citing an autopsy report.

    He claimed Gebze fell on broken glass while trying to resist arrest. Police took him to hospital, where he died a few hours later.

    Yosafat Franky from Pusaka told ucanews.com on Sept. 25 the police's version of events did not sufficiently explain the wounds and that photos of Gebze reveal that he may have been the victim of torture.

    He cast doubt on the autopsy because a doctor from the police forensic team carried it out. 

    Members of the victim's family witnessed the autopsy but the absence of an independent forensic expert breached impartiality requirements, he said.

    "A prompt, independent and impartial investigation is required to avoid similar cases from occurring," he said.

    The dead man's family said they want a fact-finding team to investigate the case and present its findings in court.

    Human rights defender, Father John Djonga, said the police must show transparency when handling cases such as these.

    "Based on the long history of violence against the Papuan people, there is lack of trust in Indonesian authorities," he told ucanews.com.



    According to Amnesty International Indonesia there have been 95 cases of extrajudicial killing in Papua since 2010. Of those cases 85 were indigenous Papuans.

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    2) Papua Governor says will facilitate Morobe Governor to visit Freeport


    Published 10 hours ago on 27 September 2018 By admin


    Jayapura, Jubi – Ginson Sauno, the Governor of Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) asked Papua Governor Lukas Enembe to facilitate the visit of Morobe Provincial Government to the mine site of PT. Freeport Indonesia in Timika.
    He conveyed this during a dinner that held by Morobe Provincial Government in Lae City on Thursday (09/20/2018) to welcome the governor and the contingent of Papua provincial government.

    “Morobe’s capital, Lae City, often hosts some national events on mining. Therefore, we ask the Governor of Papua to facilitate us visiting PT. Freeport Indonesia,” said Governor Sauno.
    Morobe is crucial for PNG because it has main ports in the Pacific region, agricultural industry and plantations, as well as cattle and poultry farms, mining and other major industries. So,  it provides and distributes most of the daily needs of the national community.
    Geographically, Morobe is a province located on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea with a population of around 750,000 people living in 33,705 km² area. As a result of the division of the Southern Highlands Province in 2012, the province becomes the most populous province in PNG which consists of Huon Peninsula, Markham River, Delta and the coastal areas along the Huon Bay.
    In responding the request of Governor Saonu, Governor Enembe promised to facilitate a team of Morobe Province to visit the mining site of PT. Freeport Indonesia. “As far as known, we just gained 10 of 51 per cent of Freeport’s shares. So I will help to facilitate the visit of Governor Morobe and his team,” said the governor.
    Besides visiting PT. Freeport Indonesia, Governor Saonu also offered Governor Enembe the teaching and learning exchange program. According to him, the main obstacle for two provinces in the collaboration is language. Therefore, Morobe Province will send their English teachers to Papua, and in turn, Papua Province will send the Indonesian language teachers.
    Meanwhile, for the student exchange program, Governor Saonu offers a scholarship program for Morobe students who want to continue their higher education in Papua.
    Governor Enembe has very welcomed this offer. “We have sent many Papuan students abroad for study. So we will follow up the offer from Governor Saonu soon,” he said.
    He also regretted not being able to meet with Governor Saonu last year to sign the Letter of Intent (LoI) because at that time he had to report to the President of Indonesia in Jakarta.
    “I also regret not being able to bring my office staff because I was just appointed as a governor for the second period a few days ago,” he added.
    Regarding the demand of beef supply in PON (National Sports Event) 2020, Governor Saonu has a positive response.  “We are ready to supply meat for PON 2020. We have the largest cattle farm in PNG as well as the chicken farm. This cooperation will benefit the two provinces,” said Governor Saonu.*
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    1) Indonesia now holds majority of shares of Freeport

    September 27, 2018, 1:03 pm
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    2) Freeport, Rio formally yield control of giant Grasberg mine to Indonesia
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    https://en.antaranews.com/news/119002/indonesia-now-holds-majority-of-shares-of-freeport

    1) Indonesia now holds majority of shares of Freeport

    Reporter:   2 hours ago
    Jakarta, (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian government officially became the majority shareholder at PT Freeport Indonesia following the signing of a number of agreements at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources here on Thursday.

    "Yes, the divestment process in PT Freeport has now been finished, leaving only the administrative process that has to be completed by Freeport and Inalum," Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan said, after witnessing the signing of the agreements.

    Indonesian state-owned mining holding company PT Inalum, Freeport McMoRan Inc. (FCX) and Rio Tinto signed a number of agreements to follow up the Head of Agreement regarding the sales of CFX shares and Rio Tinto`s participating right in PT Freeport Indonesia to PT Inalum here on Thursday.

    The agreements include PT FI`s divestment agreement, PT Rio Tinto`s shares sales and purchase agreement, and an agreement on PT FI shareholders.

    The agreements were signed by PT Inalum`s president director Budi G.Sadikin and FCX`s CEO Richard Adkerson, witnessed by Minister Jonan, State Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno and Finance Minister Sti Mulyani.

    Under the agreements, PT Inalum`s shares at PT FI have now increased from 9.36 percent to 51.23 percent, while the regional governments of Papua will receive 10 percent of 100 percent shares of PT FI.

    The change in the shareholding will be official after payment of US3.85 billion (Rp56 trillion) to CFX, which is to be completed before the end of this year.

    "Following the signing of the agreements, the government will issue IUPK (mining license) for a period of 2x10 years until 2042," Jonan said.

    PT FI`s obligation to build a copper smelter with a capacity of 2 to 2.6 million tons would continue to be monitored and evaluated with regard to its progress, Jonan said, adding that the project was expected to finish in less than five years.

    Minister Rini Soemarno said Inalum`s commitment to meeting the target of the settlement of the divestment was worth praising.

    Finance Minister Sri Mulyani, on the other hand, said, "With regard to support investment for Freeport and Inalum, the government had given certainty regarding tax obligations and non-tax obligations at national and regional levels that must be met by PT FI."

    With the conclusion of the divestment process, and following a change from a working contract (KK) to a mining business license (IUPK) system, it is assured that PTFI`s contribution to state income will be larger in the aggregate.

    Reporting by Afut Syafril Nursyiwan
    Editing by Yoseph Haryadi

      
    Editor: Suharto
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    2) Freeport, Rio formally yield control of giant Grasberg mine to Indonesia
     |   |


    Freeport McMoRan (NYSE:FCX) and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) signed Thursday final agreements that give Indonesia a majority stake in their Grasberg copper mine, the world's second-largest, and which would be transferred to the state-owned mining company PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum).
    The "definitive" and "binding" agreements end a long-drawn-out, three-way dispute over the mine, centred on bringing Indonesian ownership up to 51%, a main requisite set by the government to allow Freeport-McMoRan, operator of Grasberg, to keep doing so.
    It could also bring closure to years of disagreements between the Phoenix, Arizona-based copper miner and the country’s government, which last year curbed output at the mine, impacting metals prices worldwide.

    The transfer of majority shares to Inalum will happen once the miner makes a payment of $3.9 billion to Freeport and Rio Tinto, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan said in a statement.
    As announced earlier this year, once Inalum becomes Grasberg's majority stakeholder, the government will issue a special mining license extension to Freeport allowing ore extraction until 2041.
    The permit, known as an IUPK, is the “government’s commitment to maintaining the investment climate so as to provide certainty and security to foreign investors to invest in Indonesia,” minister Jonan noted.
    The authority added that Freeport’s local unit will have to build a copper smelter with a capacity of 2 to 2.6 million tons per year, which should be completed in less than 5 years.
    PT Freeport Indonesia is already drafting a roadmap to manage all environment-related issues surrounding the facility, Minister for Environment and Forest Siti Nurbaya said in the statement.

    Government's victory

    Today's deal is considered a victory for President Joko Widodo, who faces re-election in 2019 and who has insisted that mining companies must divest majority stakes in order to continue operating in the country.
    Grasberg, the world’s second-largest copper mine and fourth largest gold operation, is transitioning to an underground operation, set to reach full capacity by 2022, when it will produce 160,000 tonnes per day of ore.
    The additional Deep Mill Level Zone block cave mine, currently under construction, is projected to contribute an additional 80,000 tonnes per day of ore once at full capacity, expected in 2021.
    Currently, Grasberg’s reserves are estimated to be worth about $14 billion. Lasst year it accounted for 47% of Freeport’s operating income, according Bloomberg Intelligence.
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    1) Heads of State of Tuvalu and Marshall Islands include West Papua in their UN address

    September 28, 2018, 2:05 pm
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    2) Vanuatu 

    3) Indonesia
    4) Vanuatu steps up UN bid for West Papua rights
    5) Freeport shifts focus to smelter construction after reaching divestment deal
    6) Freeport, Rio Sell Majority Stake in Grasberg Mine to Indonesia
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    1) Heads of State of Tuvalu and Marshall Islands include West Papua in their UN address

    SEPTEMBER 28, 2018
    At the 73rd Session of the United Nations General Assembly Prime Minister Sopoaga of Tuvalu and President Hilda Heine President of the Republic of Marshal Islands both addressed West Papua in their General Debate speeches that prioritized such important topics as Climate Change, Nuclear Testing, Trade, and National Security. Vanuatu is expected to be the next to speak about West Papua during the morning session on Friday September 28th. Vanuatu will join Samoa, Fiji, and Solomon Islands representing Pacific Island nations on Friday. Papua New Guinea and the Philippines will speak on Saturday September 29th
    ---------------------------------
    2) Vanuatu 


    Vanuatu championing self-determination for New Caledonia and West Papua

    SEPTEMBER 28, 2018
    Today during the general debate of the 73rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, Prime Minister of the Republic of Vanuatu, Charlot Salwai Tabimasmas, spoke clearly and emphatically in support of decolonization for New Caledonia and West Papua. In the prime minister’s progressive speech he also prioritized Vanuatu’s improvements on women’s health, the serious threat of climate change, reform of the UN’s human rights system,  de-nuclearization and sustainable ocean conservation. 
    Here are the prime minister’s remarks on New Caledonia and West Papua:
    “Madam President, Since the establishment  of the United Nations some 750 million people from more than 80 former colonies have achieved political independence. However, the situation of millions of others aspiring to self-determination remains desperate.
    Vanuatu places a crucial importance on the work of the special Decolonization Committee. The elimination on all forms of colonialism must remain a top priority on the United Nations agenda, in the spirit of the United Nations charter. 
    New Caledonia is in the process of determining its destiny through a referendum which will take place on November 4th, 2018. We call on the international community to support the right of the people of New Caledonia to participate fully in this referendum, and above all, to ensure that it takes place in a free and fair manner. 
    Madam President, the international community has witnessed violence and violations of human rights that have been suffered by the people of West Papua. We call on the Human Rights Council to investigate these human rights abuses.
    We also call on our fellow leaders of the world to pay greater attention to these inhumane acts, and together with Indonesia, to put an end to all forms of violence and find common ground with the populations to establish a process that will allow them to freely express their choice.” 
    See Prime Minister Tabimasmas’ full speech here:
    https://www.freewestpapua.org/2018/09/28/vanuatu-championing-self-determination-for-new-caledonia-and-west-papua/


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    video in english
    west Papua mentioned just over 11min in
    Statement Summary: 

    H.E. Mr. Charlot Salwai Tabimasmas, Prime Minister 
    28 September 2018
    Statement Summary: 
    CHARLOT SALWAI TABIMASMAS, Prime Minister of Vanuatu, highlighted the many achievements of the United Nations in the past seven decades, noting that extreme poverty had been reduced by half and “more girls are in school than ever before”. Women, particularly in rural areas, are contributing to the global economy and the health of mothers and children have improved.  However, overshadowing those achievements are the United Nations failures, including the inability of the Security Council to take decisive action on Syria.  Calling on that organ to demonstrate leadership in preserving global peace, he welcomed the reform efforts of the Secretary‑General.
    Turning to human rights, he noted that every country must have a resilient national human rights system to achieve meaningful success in development.  The Pacific region has committed to strengthening its climate resilience.  As the earth rapidly approached a point of no return as evidenced by heatwaves, extreme droughts and the frequency of weather phenomena, it was crucial to take concerted action.  According to the World Risk Report of the United Nations University, Vanuatu is the country most at risk in the world in terms of exposure to natural disasters, which is putting tens of thousands of its citizens’ lives at risk.  If greenhouse gas emissions remain at the present level, there will be increasing costs to deal with, he cautioned.
    Developed counties had committed to mobilize $100 billion for climate finance for vulnerable countries by 2020, he continued.  Yet, how this will be achieved remains unclear.  Calling for the adoption of a specific road map for the collection of those funds, he stressed, “climate change will not wait”.  In addition, more flexible access to climate funding was crucial.  The Pacific region cannot afford to see the Paris Agreement relegated to the archives of the United Nations.  That represented a real danger for the survival of their future generations.  Calling on the parties to the Agreement to step up their determination, he noted that as the largest oceanic continent, the Pacific islands are focusing on sustainable policies for the sound management and conservation of the oceans.  Welcoming proposals to support those regional efforts, he highlighted the work of the Pacific Islands Forum. 
    While 750 million people from more than 80 former colonies had achieved political independence over the past seven decades, the aspirations of millions of others were still denied, he noted.  Commending the work of the Organization’s Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee), he said that decolonization must remain on the United Nations agenda.  New Caledonia is in the process of determining its own destiny, he said, calling on the international community to support their right to participate fully in the upcoming referendum which must take place in a free and fair manner.  Further, the Human Rights Council must investigate the human rights abuses in West Papua.
    Ensuring national sustainable development was a priority for his country, he said, adding that Vanuatu’s Sustainable Development Goals are people‑focused and flexible so that it could achieve a balance between the three dimensions.  Eradication of poverty is essential.  Nonetheless, the country cannot shoulder that responsibility alone.  The difficulty of that task is amplified because Vanuatu gets exposed to natural disasters in increasing number, including recent volcanic activity in one of the islands that led to evacuations.  Expressing gratitude to development partners who helped the country at this time, he noted that Vanuatu would graduate from least developed status in 2020, and asked them to continue supporting the country.
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    3) Indonesia
    Statement
    BY THE HEAD OF DELEGATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA 
    AT THE GENERAL DEBATE OF THE 73RD SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY 
    Extract
    "Madam President,
    To create peaceful, sustainable and equitable societies, all countries must respect international law and principles of the UN, including respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.
    In this connection, Indonesia strongly deplores the attempts of one country to support or even worst... become part of the separatist movements.
    This act of hostility has no place in the UN system.... An act which is clearly in violation of UN principles.
    For far too long... Indonesia has chosen to build friendly relations with this particular country, including in showing our solidarity and sympathy during difficult time.
    But when such hostile acts continue... Indonesia will not remain silent.
    Indonesia will not let any country undermine its territorial inte rit .
    Like any other sovereign country, Indonesia will firmly defend its territorial integrity... I repeat: will firmly defend its territorial integrity. "
    Full statement

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    4) Vanuatu steps up UN bid for West Papua rights
    Published 20 hours ago on 28 September 2018 By admin
    By James Halpin
    West Papua has been sidestepped by both the the Melanesian Spearhead Group and the Pacific Islands Forum. But, reports James Halpin of Asia Pacific Journalism, Vanuatu is undeterred as leading champion for the West Papuan cause and is pressing for United Nations support.
    After the failure of the Pacific Islands Forum to move on the issue of West Papuan self-determination earlier this month, Vanuatu is now taking the issue to the United Nations next week
    Vanuatu raised the plight of political prisoners charged with treason at a UN working group of arbitrary detention and involuntary disappearances, reports RNZ.
    Ninety three West Papuans have been arrested this month for their involvement in peaceful protests.
    Simply peacefully raising the Morning Star flag representing an independent West Papua risks 15 years’ imprisonment.
    Vanuatu has traditionally been the major supporter for West Papuan self-determination but has recently stepped up his diplomacy with the appointment of Lora Lini, daughter of the late founding prime minister Father Walter Lini, as special envoy for West Papua.
    Port Vila wants West Papua to be added to the UN decolonisation list. Netherlands New Guinea had previously been on the UN decolonisation list but was annexed by Indonesia in 1969 in controversial circumstances.
    The UN decolonisation list, or officially the United Nations List of Non-Self-Governing Territories, engages member states in charge of those territories to move towards granting self-determination.
    Tokelau on list
    Currently, Tokelau, which is a dependency of New Zealand, is on the decolonisation list.
    Support from the Melanesian Spearhead Group bloc is divided with the Papua New Guinean government declaring this week it would not support Vanuatu, reports the PNG Post-Courier.
    The Pacific Islands Forum has failed to bring change for the issue of self-determination and West Papua.
    “I can’t say there’s been a huge amount of success,” says Marie Leadbeater, spokesperson of West Papua Action Auckland and author of a recent book See No Evil: New Zealand’s Betrayal of the People of West Papua.
    Vanuatu brought a draft resolution for the UN to the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru, reports the Vanuatu Daily Post.
    The draft was labelled the “Realisation of the right of Papuan peoples’ self-determination in the former colony of the Netherlands New Guinea (West New Guinea)”.
    However, the West Papua issue was not supported by other Pacific nations and was left off the outcomes document of the Forum, reports Asia Pacific Report.
    Limited goals
    The Forum has been a place to push for limited goals, such as fact-finding when it comes to West Papua.
    Leadbeater says New Zealand following Vanuatu’s lead could be a “game changer”, but it is not willing to challenge Indonesian sovereignty.
    Similarly, on the recent issue of returning the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, New Zealand did not support the case to be considered by the International Criminal Court.
    Leadbeater is critical of the Ardern government not shifting policy towards West Papua self-determination, “realistically, so far they haven’t.”
    At a meeting in Nauru as part of the Forum, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said New Zealand recognised Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua.
    Peters added that New Zealand would follow PNG’s lead as its nearest neighbour, reports the Vanuatu Daily Post.
    “I think as a Polynesian, or Melanesian or Pacific concept, the first person I’d be consulting on an issue like that is the nearest neighbour to the issue that might be a problem, namely PNG.”
    Support from NZ MPs
    However, Leadbeater did identify a large number of NZ government MPs who would support West Papuan self-determination, including all of the Greens and high profile Labour MP Louisa Wall.
    Associate Professor Stephen Hoadley of the University of Auckland says that since West Papua’s integration into Indonesia in 1969, the cards have been stacked against them.
    “You have to go back to 1963. The UN urged Indonesia to hold an act of free association. Indonesia allegedly manipulated the vote.”
    Indonesia claimed that Papuans were not advanced enough to deal with democracy and instituted a meeting of tribal elders.
    “They handpicked tribal leaders. This vote was contested by local folk who accused Indonesia of manipulation, bribes, and intimidation.”
    After the flawed vote, Indonesia instituted a policy of transmigration into West Papua where Javanese were moved from Java to colonise less populated provinces around Indonesia, including West Papua. This policy was ended by current president Joko Widodo in 2015.
    However, discrimination against the indigenous Melanesians had become endemic. For example, the courts were stacked with Javanese judges and Javanese got favourable preference.
    Little appetite for criticism
    Because of examples such as this, an independence movement sprang up in 1963 called the Free Papua Movement.
    In the realm of international relations there was no appetite to criticise Indonesia in the 1960s.
    Indonesia was sidelined during the cold war and US mining multinationals hadn’t started drilling in the province yet, says Professor Hoadley.
    But, things haven’t changed in the past 50 years.
    Dr Hoadley says liberal Western countries such as the Australia, New Zealand, United States, and the United Kingdom are status quo powers.
    “If you redraw one boundary, then all boundaries are up for change. Better to leave things as they are.”
    A consensus among Western nations is that Indonesia has “things under control” and their transgressions against human rights in West Papua are not bad enough to consider attention, claims Dr Hoadley.
    Success story
    After the end of the Suharto regime in 1999, Indonesia was seen as a success story; a Muslim country that has adopted political parties, elections, and freedom of the press.
    “The US thinking is that they’re on a good track and we shouldn’t criticise them too much,” he says.
    Ominously, nothing has come of the Rohingya genocide and there is no foreseeable future for West Papuan self-determination unless outside international influence or domestic upheaval forces Indonesia to start the process of decolonising. (Pacific Media Centre)
    *James Halpin is a student journalist on the Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies (Journalism) reporting on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.


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    5) Freeport shifts focus to smelter construction after reaching divestment deal
    News Desk The Jakarta Post
    Jakarta | Fri, September 28, 2018 | 04:48 pm
    After reaching a divestment deal on Thursday, gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) will now focus on a smelter construction plan, which is required for the company to obtain the special mining permit (IUPK) that is needed to operate the Grasberg gold and copper mine in Papua.
    “The smelter is part of our agreement. So if the divestment is completed, we will turn to [smelter] construction,” PTFI vice president of corporate communications Riza Pratama said in Jakarta on Thursday as reported by kompas.com.
    He said PTFI had showed a commitment to constructing a smelter through engineering design and land preparation processes at the planned location of the smelter in Gresik, East Java.
    After years of negotiations, Indonesia signed on Thursday an agreement with American mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX), on the purchase of a majority stake in PTFI, which operates the gold and copper mine.
    To conclude the deal, however, state mining holding PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum), which represents the government in the talks, needs to settle a payment of US$3.85 billion to FCX and Rio Tinto Group within six months.
    The planned smelter in Gresik would manufacture 60 percent of the total copper concentrate mined from Grasberg, while another 40 percent would be manufactured at the existing smelter in Gresik.
    When asked if PTFI would continue with the plan to construct a smelter in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, Riza said it was still in the works.
    The company is currently assessing the feasibility of constructing a smelter on the island. (bbn)
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    6) Freeport, Rio Sell Majority Stake in Grasberg Mine to Indonesia
    By : Wilda Asmarini and Bernadette Christina Munthe | on 12:12 PM September 28, 2018
    Jakarta. Global mining giants Freeport McMoRan and Rio Tinto have struck a binding accord to sell a majority stake in the world's second-biggest copper mine, Grasberg, to Indonesia's state mining company, Inalum for $3.85 billion.
    The sale brings Freeport close to ending more than nine years of often fractious negotiations with Indonesia over ownership rights to Grasberg.
    The agreement gives the parties six months to close the deal and process several permits including those related to antitrust laws in China.
    Inalum chief executive Budi Gunadi Sadikin said at a press conference his company would be ready to complete the transaction in November.
    Several matters must still be resolved before the share transfer, he said. "There are documents, administrative permits and there is the money," Budi added.
    After the transfer Inalum will hold a 51.23 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia, which will then be issued with a special mining permit for Grasberg, ending its existing operating contract for the mine.
    Inalum has the option of financing the transaction using a combination of bank loans, bonds, and internal cash reserves, Budi said, noting that the composition would depend on interest rates at the time of the deal.
    Freeport McMoRan chief executive Richard Adkerson told reporters the deal signed on Thursday (27/09) is a "definitive sales and purchase agreement," which he hoped would end the controversy surrounding Freeport's business in Indonesia.
    "This completes the negotiations and fixes and binds issues that were not dealt with," he added. "Now the next step is to go to closing."
    "We've responded to the government's ambitions, so our hope is that this allows us to stabilize our operations," Adkerson said.
    Rio holds a 40 percent participating interest in the Grasberg mine, which will be converted to an equity stake that will be transferred to Inalum, as part of the transactions.
    Freeport Indonesia executive vice president Tony Wenas earlier said he hoped the deal would be closed "this year."
    Freeport has been at the crossfire of debates on Indonesia's natural resources management for decades and today's deal should give some relief to the country. Inalum's Budi tweeted after the signing:
    reuters
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    1) Pacific leaders call out Indonesia at UN over West Papua

    September 30, 2018, 2:38 pm
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    2) Bad state of education in the Indonesian province is what makes it the country's poorest, says its new governor

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    1) Pacific leaders call out Indonesia at UN over West Papua
    Three Pacific leaders have called out Indonesia at the UN for their human rights abuses in West Papua.



    10 minutes ago  
    Vanuatu's prime minister Charlot Salwai, a long time supporter of West Papuan self-determination, told the General Assembly in New York that decolonisation must remain on the UN agenda.
    He said the Human Rights Council must investigate human rights abuses in the Indonesian provinces.
    The Marshall Islands president, Hilda Heine, told the assembly's 73rd session that the Pacific Islands Forum supported "constructive engagement" with Indonesia on the issue.
    While Tuvalu's prime minister Enele Sopoaga continued his call for recognition of the indigenous people.
    "The United Nations must also engage with the people of West Papua to find lasting solutions to their struggles."
    Indonesia rejected what it called attacks on its sovereignty with vice president Muhammad Jusuf Kalla demanding respect for its territorial integrity.
    He added that he "deplores" countries supporting separatist movements.
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    Improving education is an uphill battle in Papua

    2) Bad state of education in the Indonesian province is what makes it the country's poorest, says its new governor

    September 29, 2018
    Benny Mawel, Jayapura  
    Indonesia
    Papuan children study at Kleublouw Elementary School in Sentani Timur, in Jayapura district. (Photo by Benny Mawel)
    Abraham Hubi, thinks he's a very lucky boy to be studying at St. Antony of Padua, a Franciscan-run school in Sentani not far from Papua's provincial capital Jayapura.
    The ninth grader who comes from a small, remote village in the hills says it is nothing short of a miracle considering he was still unable to read or write after going through elementary school.
    That was why he didn't mind having to do another preparatory year before finally attending the Catholic-run junior high school, which he said offers him his only realistic chance of a better future.
    "After leaving elementary school I could only pronounce words and letters. But now I can read and write," he said.
    Illiteracy is a major problem in Papua, with many children unable to read or write despite having finished elementary school.
    There are many reasons for this, but the most serious are a shortage of teachers and school facilities.
    The shortages come as a surprise to many observers considering Papua — besides its natural wealth — has received billions of dollars over the years from central government to help support its special autonomy status.
    Local authorities in Papua say they have tried to improve education through programs such as building schools in remote areas. However, critics say they were not supported by sufficient numbers of teachers.
    Many Papuan children live in remote villages, however, the good schools are located in cities, said Gabriel Payong, 28, the principal at St. Anthony's school.
    He said the best solution for these Papuan students, particularly at elementary and secondary levels, is boarding.
    St. Anthony's offers boarding which enables students to focus more on their studies, according to Payong.
    "This kind of school is useful for children from villages, who are economically poor but have the will to learn," he said.
    He also said boarding school helps make Papuan children responsible people, through the rules and regulations they live by.
    "Here students can study, become involved involve in every day things, and we can monitor their progress," he said.
    Make use of autonomy fund
    After his inauguration at the state palace in Jakarta on Sept. 5 — together with other newly elected governors — Papua Governor Lukas Enembe said that over next five years he and his deputy, Klemen Tinal, would focus on improving education in the province.
    He said he would introduce better educational infrastructure in districts and municipalities, as well as offer more scholarships to native Papuans to pursue further studies.
    "There are many Papuan children who don't get a proper education," Enembe said.
    He said this was the root cause of poverty in Papua, making it the poorest province in Indonesia.
    According to the Central Statistics Agency a high proportion of the 26 million Indonesians officially listed as poor live in Papua.
    "In the next five years, we expect to see more people being educated," said Enembe.
    According to Professor Baltazar Kabuaya from Cendrawaih University, in Jayapura, local government efforts to improve education and other services will likely succeed if there is strong leadership and a will to better manage natural resources and the special autonomous region fund.
    Since Papua was given special autonomy status in 2001 in part to help build the province economically, central government has provided more than US$3 billion in additional funding, and plans to provide more in the years before the special status expires in 2025.
    The province is home to 3.6 million people, of whom 61.3 percent are Protestant, 21 percent Catholic, and 17.4 percent Muslim.
    Kabuaya said the autonomy fund is a large amount when taking the size of the province's population into account so there should not be any excuses for not providing better education for Papuans.
    "Otherwise, Papua will be back to square one, after special autonomy status runs out," he said.
    More scholarships
    This year the provincial government in cooperation with the Ministry of Education is offering scholarships to more than 1,000 native Papuans to pursue higher education at various universities.
    All are expected to graduate in teaching and to be placed in secondary and tertiary education.
    Ferige Uaga, 28, a medical student in Jayapura, said he appreciated Governor Enembe's good intentions regarding the scholarships, but said they do not go far enough.
    Scholarships should not only be given to those pursuing a career in education, but also in other fields.
    "Offering scholarships must be objective, and also free from nepotism," she said
    Benyamin Lagowan, 28, another medical student, said more people are desperately needed in the health sector so more scholarships in this field should also be a priority.
    "Many clinics don't have doctors, so it makes sense the government should support those wanting to become doctors," he said, adding that schools will certainly need health workers too to ensure students are healthy.
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    1) Indonesia hits out at Vanuatu at the UN over West Papua

    October 1, 2018, 2:35 am
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    2) Timika residents raise funds for Central Sulawesi`s quake victims
    3) Freeport gets another monthly permit extension
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    https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/2018664896/indonesia-hits-out-at-vanuatu-at-the-un-over-west-papua

    1) Indonesia hits out at Vanuatu at the UN over West Papua

    From Dateline Pacific, 3:02 pm today 

    Indonesia has lashed out at Vanuatu over its representations about West Papua at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. In what has become an annual fixture, Pacific leaders have voiced concern about human rights in Indonesia's Papua region, known widely as West Papua. But, as Johnny Blades reports, Vanuatu's persistent criticism of Indonesia over its Papuan provinces has touched a nerve with Jakarta.




    TRANSCRIPT

    Vanuatu's prime minister Charlot Salwai, a long time supporter of West Papuan self-determination, told the General Assembly in New York that decolonisation must remain on the UN agenda. He said the international community had witnessed violence and violations of human rights suffered by West Papuans, and called on the Human Rights Council to investigate.His words are translated:
    "We also call on our fellow leaders of the world to pay greater attention to these inhuman acts, and together with Indonesia to put an end to all forms of violence and find common ground with the populations to establish a process that will allow them to freely express their choice."
    Indonesia denies the claims of flagrant abuses against Papuans by the country's military forces. In its right of reply, Indonesia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dian Triansyah Djani targeted Vanuatu's links with the West Papuan independence movement.
    "This country argues that based on these factors injected into their minds by criminal individuals that the two provinces (Papua and West Papua) have to be debated at the United Nations. We fail to understand the motive behind Vanuatu's intention in supporting a group of people who have striked terror and mayhem in so many occasions, creating fatalities and sadness to innocent families of their own communities."
    He said Vanuatu's accusation of abuses in Papua was unacceptable.
    "No country in this world is free from human rights or development challenges. But accusing others of human rights violations when one has so many problems of its own is like the pot calling the kettle black."
    Earlier, in reference to Vanuatu's statements, Indonesia's vice president Muhammad Jusuf Kalla condemned what he described as an act of hostility against its territorial integrity.
    "This act of hostility has no place in the UN system. An act which is clearly in violation of UN principles. Indonesia will not let any country undermine its territorial integrity. Like any other sovereign country, Indonesia will firmly defend its territorial integrity."
    In rejecting Vanuatu's push for West Papuan self-determination, Indonesia has referred to a United Nations resolution from 1969. Resolution 2504 took note of the so-called Act of Free Choice, a controversial referendum which was the culmination of the former Dutch New Guinea's incorporation into Indonesia. The West Papuan independence movement says that because the plebiscite was not formally approved by the UN, and was not based on universal adult suffrage, Papuans should be granted a legitimate self-determination process. Vanuatu was not alone in urging the UN to address Papuans' historic grievances, with Tuvalu's prime minister Enele Sopoaga among those calling for recognition of the indigenous people.
    "The United Nations must also engage with the people of West Papua to find lasting solutions to their struggles."
    The Marshall Islands president, Hilda Heine, also told the general assembly's 73rd session that Pacific Islands countries supported "constructive engagement" with Indonesia on the issue.
    ————————————————
    2) Timika residents raise funds for Central Sulawesi`s quake victims

    Reporter:  1 hour ago
    Timika, Papua (ANTARA News) - Catholic and Muslim community members in Mimika District, Papua, organized a mass prayer and fundraising activities for those affected by the 7.4-magnitude earthquake and tsunami that hit certain parts of Central Sulawesi, Friday, (Sept 28).

    The residents of Timika, the capital city of Mimika District, have organized a mass prayer at different houses of worship while conducting fundraising activities to help the earthquake and tsunami victims in the city of Palu and Donggala District.

    Parish priest of the Catholic Church of Santo Stefanus Sempan Maximilianus Dora OFM stated here on Monday that the Catholic community members prayed for the residents of Palu and Donggala District, who lost their beloved and properties due to the natural disasters.

    Meanwhile, local community members have also conducted fundraising activities by assigning volunteers at several intersections and sending them to schools, houses, markets, mosques, and to crowded places around Timika for collecting public donations.

    Agung, the fundraising coordinator, noted that the fundraising has been conducted from Saturday (Sept 29) to Thursday (Oct 5) during which the donated funds will be distributed to the needy in the disaster zones through the Timika-based alms agency.

    As of Sunday, a total of Rp110,526,000 was collected by the fundraising volunteers.

    "We welcome all residents of Timika, who want to donate a sum of money for our brothers and sisters in Central Sulawesi," Agung, who is also a member of Arema Timika Family Community, remarked.

    The earthquake that hit several parts of Central Sulawesi Province on Friday afternoon was followed by tsunami, which had badly smashed the coasts of Palu and Donggala District.

    The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) recorded that, as of Sunday at 1 p.m. Western Indonesia Time, the earthquake and tsunami had killed 821 people in Palu and 11 others in Donggala District.

    In response to this catastrophe, President Joko Widodo had expressed his condolences to those affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

    On the meantime, National Police Spokesman Brig. Gen. Dedi Prasetyo had earlier remarked that a large number of rotting corpses of the earthquake and tsunami victims in the disaster zones would be buried in mass graves on Monday.

    "Most of the corpses have started rotting, so we are going to bury them in mass graves as quickly as possible to prevent the risk of spread of epidemic diseases," he stated.

    The rescue workers of a joint-emergency task force have been working hard to evacuate the dead victims and survivors from the rubble of damaged and destroyed buildings in the disaster zones, he noted.

    At the same time, the police and military personnel had been dispatched to safeguard several gas stations and minimarkets around Palu to prevent them from being looted.

    "The police and military personnel will secure the gas stations and minimarkets to prevent a number of local people, in need of food, from looting them," he added.

    Reporting by Evarianus Supar
    Editing by Rahmad Nasution

      
    Editor: Bustanuddin
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    3) Freeport gets another monthly permit extension
    Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman The Jakarta Post
    Jakarta | Mon, October 1, 2018| 02:40 pm
    The government has issued another temporary permit extension for gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) as the divestment process of shares from Freeport-McMoran (FCX) to state-owned mining holding company PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) is still incomplete.
    The temporary special mining permit (IUPK) is being issued by the government as the previous temporary permit expired on Sept. 30. PTFI has already had a monthly temporary IUPK since February 2017. The issuance of the permanent IUPK is pending the completion of the divestment process.
    Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry mineral and coal director general Bambang Gatot Ariyono said in Jakarta on Monday that the temporary IUPK would take effect on Oct 1 and would end in late October.
    Inalum signed last week agreements with United States-based mining giant FCX, a parent company of PTFI, on the purchase of a majority stake in PTFI, which operates the gold and copper mine in Papua.
    To conclude the deal, however, Inalum, which represents the government in the talks, needs to settle the payment of US$3.85 billion to FCX and the Rio Tinto Group within six months.
    When the deal is completed, Inalum, which represent the Indonesian government, will increase its ownership of PTFI shares from 9.36 to 51.23 percent.
    Freeport is also seeking a contract extension to operate the mine for 2 x 10 years after its current contract of work (CoW) expires in 2021.
    “Each [period] is conditional and has different requirements. So if they demand an extension up to 2031, we could give it directly, but if they demand up to 2041, it is OK as long as the company can meet the requirements,” he added.
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    1) Indonesia accuses Vanuatu of 'inexcusable' support for West Papua

    October 2, 2018, 1:33 pm
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    2) REINFORCING INDONESIA–AUSTRALIA DEFENCE RELATIONS: THE CASE FOR MARITIME RECALIBRATION
    • 3) Kayaking Raja Ampat


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    1) Indonesia accuses Vanuatu of 'inexcusable' support for West Papua
    Indonesia says Vanuatu’s support for West Papuan self-determination ‘clueless’

    Helen Davidson
    Wed 3 Oct 2018 04.00 AES

    Indonesia has accused Vanuatu of challenging “friendly relations” between the two countries and supporting separatist movements, after it offered support to West Papua at the United Nations.
    Vanuatu has long been a supporter of the rights of West Papuans in their movement for independence from Indonesia.
    On Monday Indonesia used its second right of reply at the 73rd UN general assembly to mount an excoriating attack on Vanuatu over its support for West Papuan self-determination, calling it “clueless”.
    “Although being disguised with flowery human rights concern, Vanuatu’s sole intention and action are directly challenging the internationally agreed principles of friendly relations between states, sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said the Indonesian representative, Aloysius Selwas Taborat.

    Taborat said Vanuatu repeatedly supported separatist movements and he questioned its behaviour as “an internationally law abiding” nation.
    “This inexcusable support to separatist individuals is clearly shown by the inclusion by Vanuatu of a number of persons with serious criminal records and a separatist agenda in their delegation to the UN.”
    Taborat said the people of Papua had “once and for all reaffirmed Papua is an irrevocable part of Indonesia” and that it was “final, irreversible and permanent”, referring to the 1969 UN resolution that noted the so-called Act of Free Choice.
    Many West Papuans consider the move an illegal annexation by Indonesia and a separatist insurgency has run for decades.

    The controversial referendum, which saw 1,026 hand-picked individuals vote to remain with Indonesia, is repeatedly dismissed as not being either representative or a free vote.
    Vanuatu’s prime minister, Charlot Salwai, who has long supported West Papuan self-determination – had last week called for the Human Rights Council to investigate human rights abuses in the region – claims Indonesia denies.
    West Papuan activists are routinely arrested and jailed, and there are frequent allegations against Indonesian forces of violence, extrajudicial killings, torture and mistreatment of protesters. Verified information is difficult to obtain as Indonesia does not allow the free movement of press in the region.
    Last week the Tuvalu prime minister, Enele Sopoaga, also gave support to West Papuans at the 73rd general assembly, calling for recognition of West Papuans and engagement “to find lasting solutions to their struggles”.

    Hilda Heine, the president of the Marshall Islands, said the recent Pacific Islands Forum had given support for the “constructive engagement” by forum countries with Indonesia on elections and human rights in West Papua.
    “Decolonisation and human rights are both important issues in the Pacific islands region,” she said.
    Indonesia’s vice-president, Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, did not name Vanuatu in his first response but labelled it an “act of hostility” that had “no place in the UN system” and was a violation of UN principles.
    “Indonesia will not let any country undermine its territorial integrity,” he said. “Like any other sovereign country, Indonesia will firmly defend its territorial integrity.”
    Last September a banned petition calling for a free vote, signed by 1.8m West Papuans and smuggled out of the region, was delivered to the UN’s decolonisation committee, which monitors progress towards decolonisation and independent rule.
    West Papua was removed from the decolonisation committee’s agenda in 1963.

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    2) REINFORCING INDONESIA–AUSTRALIA DEFENCE RELATIONS: THE CASE FOR MARITIME RECALIBRATION
     LOWY INSTITUTE ANALYSES | 2 OCTOBER 2018 

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
    Indonesia and Australia are increasingly important strategic anchors in the Indo-Pacific region, as recognised by the recently announced Indonesia–Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Yet historically, bilateral defence ties between the two countries have been volatile. This Analysis makes the case for a maritime recalibration of Australia’s defence engagement activities with Indonesia to stabilise defence relations. The process of recalibrating defence relations, however, cannot proceed in a historical vacuum. The evolution of Australia’s Defence Cooperation Program (DCP) with Indonesia since the 1960s is examined in order to understand how the relationship could be recalibrated.
    Three broad changes to DCP activities are recommended: reform existing DCP education and training programs to focus on joint maritime challenges; formulate long-term plans for the ‘conventional’ modernisation of the TNI, including tri-service integration, maritime security operations, and defence industrial collaboration; and increase maritime-related exercises, both bilaterally and multilaterally, and consider joint TNI–ADF exercises built around challenges in the maritime domain. …..



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    • 3) Kayaking Raja Ampat
    • Written by  Daniel Allen
    • Published in Explorers 2 Oct 2018
    In the Indonesian archipelago of Raja Ampat, new measures to protect marine biodiversity are now bearing fruit. Daniel Allen takes to the area’s teeming waters to see the effect such measures are having
    From the sun-drenched deck of Euphoria, Equator Island is a long line of soaring limestone sugarloafs. Their bases undercut by the limpid waters of the Indo-Pacific Ocean, a series of cliffs rise up sheer and high, pockmarked with caves and topped with headdresses of verdant jungle. As the Indonesian pinisi (a two-masted wooden sailing ship) approaches the shore, crescents of sand swing into view, while frigate birds perform languid circles overhead.
    Those who visit Raja Ampat can expect such encounters on a daily basis. An equator-hugging cluster of more than 1,500 small islands, cays and shoals fringing the north-west tip of the Indonesian province of West Papua (the westernmost part of the island of New Guinea), its name, meaning ‘four kings’ in Bahasa Indonesian, describes the quartet of main islands – Misool, Salawati, Batanta and Waigeo.
    Raja Ampat’s majesty is not lost on experienced kayaker, explorer and self-styled ‘expedition engineer’ Matt Edwards. Back in 2014 the Canadian was organising camping trips in the southern part of the archipelago when he learned about a more northerly island called Wayag which sounded like a paddler’s utopia. Edwards promptly hired a local fishing boat to take him there, together with four adventurous friends. When their exploration of Wayag was finished, the group spent the next two weeks kayaking back.
    ‘That return journey was thrilling but tough, with some extended sea crossings,’ says Edwards. ‘It was then that I began to see the possibilities of using a boat as a mother ship, sailing between the northern islands of Raja Ampat and then exploring each of them via kayak.’…………..
    --------------------------
    ↧

    1) Lack of shackling data reflects Papua's poor mental health services

    October 3, 2018, 1:05 pm
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    2) AI-U/A: ACTIVIST SHOT BY POLICE DENIED PROPER MEDICAL CARE: YAKONIAS WOMSIWOR

    3) TAPOL and ETAN Joint Statement - UN General Assembly 73: Correcting the Record On Human Rights Violations in West Papua

    4) Indonesia: Shackling Reduced, But Persists Oversight Crucial to End Abuse of People with Disabilities

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



    1) Lack of shackling data reflects Papua's poor mental health services
    3:46 pm on 3 October 2018  

    Lack of data on Papua region in a new report on shackling across Indonesia highlights the dearth of mental health services in the eastern-most provinces.

    Human Rights Watch's new report is titled Indonesia: Shackling Reduced, But Persists.
    When its research began two years ago, the NGO found that 18,800 people with mental health conditions in Indonesia were shackled.
    It said the number has since dropped to 12,800, as Indonesia's government has taken important steps to end shackling.
    The NGO's disability rights researcher, Kriti Sharma, said it was telling that the government had no data on shackling from Papua.
    "When we started the research we found that Papua and West Papua (provinces) were one of the areas where there was a real dearth in mental health services.
    "There was a gap not only at the level of community mental health, but also at the level of psychiatric hospitals and mental health professionals. Two years later not much seems to have changed.
    "The data is collected through grassroots community workers, and in the absence of those networks, they are unable to collect data," she explained.
    In the absence of data, Ms Sharma admitted it was difficult to come to conclusions about the state of people with mental health conditions in Papua.
    "But what we do find is as soon as there are no services where access is difficult, where there's a lack of mental health professionals, families do resort to shackling, and that's what I fear for Papua."
    The practice has persisted in Indonesia despite a 1977 government ban on shackling, which the NGO said was because of stigma and the lack of community-based support or mental health services.
    However, Human Rights watch has credited Indonesia's government with making serious efforts to counter shackling and the lack of community-based mental health services.
    By the start of last year, the Health Ministry rolled out a community outreach programme in which health workers use a "family-based approach," going house to house to collect data, raise awareness, and provide services relating to 12 measures of family health, including mental health.
    As of last month, the programme had reached 16.2 million - around 25 percent - of households across the country.
    The data collected indicates, however, that only 16 percent of people with psychosocial disabilities surveyed have access to mental health services.
    ————————————————————

    2) INDONESIA: ACTIVIST SHOT BY POLICE DENIED PROPER MEDICAL CARE: YAKONIAS WOMSIWOR

    , Index number: ASA 21/9186/2018
    Papuan political activist, Yakonias Womsiwor, has been suffering from severe pain in both his legs for more than two weeks after being shot by police. Despite being unable to stand as a result of the gunshot, proper medical care has been denied by police.

    View report in English

    DOWNLOAD PDF






    https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa21/9186/2018/en/


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


    PDF


    UA: 177/18 Index: ASA 21/9186/2018 Indonesia Date: 3 October 2018
    URGENT ACTION
    ACTIVIST SHOT BY POLICE DENIED PROPER MEDICAL CARE
    Papuan political activist, Yakonias Womsiwor, has been suffering from severe pain in both his legs for more than two weeks after being shot by police. Despite being unable to stand as a result of the gunshot, proper medical care has been denied by police.
    On 15 September 2018, the local Mimika Police Force shot Yakonias Womsiwor in both legs when a joint police- military forces raided the office of the KNPB (National Committee of West Papua) Timika branch, a pro Papua independence organization. Nine members of KNPB were arrested.
    During the arrest, the police shot two KNPB members, claiming they had threatened the police with sharp weapons. Yakonias Womsiwor suffered three bullet wounds to his thighs, two to his shinbones and one to the sole of his foot. The other KNPB member was shot in his right leg once. After the arrest, the police brought the two men to a hospital in Timika city to clean the wounds and put bandages on them. Three days later, the police brought them again to the hospital to clean the wounds and changed the bandages.
    As a result of the gunshots, Yakonias Womsiwor cannot stand and, according to his lawyers, still suffers from severe pain, raising concerns that the wounds may have affected his bones. All requests by his lawyers for better medical care, have been rejected by the police.
    The police released the other seven KNPB members, without charge, later on the day of their arrest. Yakonias Womsiwor and the other man who suffered a gunshot wound are being detained at the Mimika Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) headquarters and have been named as suspect on suspicion of possessing sharp weapons under Article 2(1) Law No. 12/1951 on Emergency and threatening a law enforcement official with violence under Article 214 of Indonesia’s Criminal Code.
    Article 10(1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights obliges states parties, including Indonesia, to treat all prisoners humanely. The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules) provide that prisoners needing treatment not available in the prison hospital, clinic or infirmary must be treated by an appropriate civil institution, and that all healthcare treatment must be free of charge.
    Please write immediately in English, Bahasa or your own language urging Indonesia authorities to:
    •   Ensure that Yakonias Womsiwor immediately and fully receives all medical treatment he may require;
    •   Ensure that Yakonias is protected from torture and other ill-treatment and is provided with regular access to
    his family and lawyers.
    PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 9 NOVEMBER 2018 TO:
    Papua Regional Head of Police
    Irjen Martuani Sormin
    Papua Regional Police Headquarters Jl. Sam Ratulangi No. 8
    Papua Province
    Indonesia 99115
    Fax: +62 96 753 3763
    Twitter: @HmsPoldaPapua     Salutation: Dear Inspector General
    Head of Presidential Staff Office (KSP) General (Retired) Moeldoko
    Gedung Bina Graha
    Jl. Veteran No. 16 Jakarta Pusat
    DKI Jakarta Indonesia 10110 Twitter: @KSPgoid
    Fax: +62 21 345 0009
    Email: webmaster@ksp.go.id     Salutation: Dear General
    And copies to:
    Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM)
    Mr. Ahmad Taufan Damanik
    Jl. Latuharhary No. 4B, Menteng
    Jakarta Pusat, DKI Jakarta Indonesia 10310
    Fax: +62 21 392 5227
    Email: info@komnasham.go.id
    Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country. Please insert local diplomatic addresses below:
    Name Address 1 Address 2 Address 3 Fax Fax number Email Email address Salutation Salutation Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. 


    ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
    Over the last few years the KNPB (National Committee of West Papua) have organised mass demonstrations in several cities in Papua to call for self-determination for Papuans, including possible independence from Indonesia through a referendum. KNPB claims their political strategy is non-violent, but some reports indicate that their members have engaged in violence.
    Amnesty International has also documented the use of unnecessary and excessive force and firearms as well as torture and other ill-treatment against political activists and others accused of being linked to pro-independence groups, including members of KNPB. Accountability for such acts is rare, and at most security personnel receive disciplinary sanctions.
    The Indonesian authorities have an obligation under international law to treat all prisoners humanely, including by providing them with adequate medical treatment. Similarly, Article 17 of the Indonesian Government Regulation No. 32/1999 on terms and procedures on the implementation of prisoners’ rights in prison requires the prison authorities to provide access to adequate medical treatment.
    Name: Yakonias Wamsior Gender m/f: m
    UA: 177/18 Index: ASA 21/9186/2018 Issue Date: 3 October 2018 
    ———————————————————

    3) TAPOL and ETAN Joint Statement - UN General Assembly 73: Correcting the Record On Human Rights Violations in West Papua and the 1969 UN Resolution Regarding ‘Act of Free Choice’

    2 OCT 2018

    London, New York, 2 October 2018
    TAPOL and the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) condemn yet another wave of mass arrests1 during the opening week of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The mass arrests clearly contradict the statement of the Republic of Indonesia in their first “right of reply” during the General Assembly that there are not “frequent and systematic human rights violations” in West Papua.2 We also disagree with Indonesia’s claim that UN Resolution 2504 of 19693 has settled the issue of West Papua’s political status.
    In late September, Indonesian security forces arrested 89 West Papuans and many more were beaten.4 One West Papuan is being investigated for treason. Their alleged crime was to have peacefully demonstrated their support for the United Liberation Movement of West Papua and for the Republic of Vanuatu which planned to speak about human rights and the right to self-determination at the UNGA session. (An additional 39 Papuans were detained in Malang, East Java on 30 September for demonstrating in support of self-determination.5) This problematic trend of unlawful mass arrests of peaceful protesters was highlighted two years ago, when the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination delivered two early warnings to Indonesia.6 These warnings arose from 5,361 unlawful arrests of West Papuan peaceful protesters in just one year alone.7 No other group has suffered such treatment at the hands of the Indonesian state. Hence, there have been systematic human rights violations in West Papua in the past, but they continue.
    A total of 221 West Papuans were arbitrarily arrested this past September.8 Five people were tortured by Indonesia’s security forces,9 including one killed while in police custody in the same month.10 
    West Papuans are not only discriminated against in their own ancestral territory of Papua, but in other provinces of Indonesia. There have been racially motivated attacks by state-backed gangs against West Papuan student dormitories in Surabaya,11 Yogyakarta12 and Malang,13 as well as assaults by security forces in Manado and Tomohon.14 West Papuans are routinely prevented from holding public discussions and peaceful protests in Java and other non-Papuan parts of Indonesia.
    Those who seek to document violations and defend the victims of human rights in West Papua live in fear. These human rights defenders face a range of physical threats and other measures, aimed at obstructing their work. Indigenous human rights activist, seeking to protect ancestral lands in South Sorong15 or Boven Digoel,16 expose illegal mining in Koroway, or publicising military sweeps, house-burnings and other severe human rights violations in remote villages in Mimika or Nduga risk criminalization by Indonesian authorities.17
    Several past cases of serious human rights violations in West Papua have been highlighted by Indonesian President Joko Widodo for resolution. These have been investigated by Indonesia’s own National Commission on Human Rights, yet those responsible have gone unpunished. These include the 1998 Biak Massacre of more than 15018; the torture, rape and killing of 50 West Papuan in Wasior in 200119; and the military sweeping of villages in Wamena in 2003.20
    Indonesia has also failed to protect the social, economic, and cultural rights of West Papuans. Five tribes in Papua’s Keerom Regency were declared extinct in August.21 Earlier this year, the Indonesian government reported that almost one hundred West Papuan children had died from malnutrition22 and an estimated 15,000 West Papuans currently suffer from malnutrition.23 A BBC journalist was expelled from West Papua while she was covering this tragedy.24 Not long after that, an Australian student was blacklisted from entering Indonesia due to her previous study on West Papua.25 A Polish tourist charged with treason is currently sitting in jail in Jayapura awaiting trial,26 and a West Papuan is facing the same charge merely for meeting him.27 
    Indonesia has still not fulfilled its promise to invite a team of UN Human Rights investigators to visit West Papua.28
    It is long-overdue for the UN to revisit its unfulfilled obligation to ensure a proper decolonization of all peoples with regards to West Papua. Contrary to Indonesia’s delegate claim, the 1969 UN Resolution on West Papua29 did not have universal support. It was debated at great length over three sessions and the final vote was marked by 30 abstentions. This was because the coerced ‘Act of Free Choice,30 was recognised to have been procedurally flawed. UN members voted to acknowledge the agreement between Indonesia and the Netherlands regarding West Papua. The process allowed West Papua’s fate to be dictated by two foreign colonising governments. The West Papuans were props in a charade; no real effort was allowed to ascertain their true wishes. 
    The UN has an obligation to revisit this morally unacceptable outcome, arrived at through an event in which only 1,026 handpicked West Papuans were pressured to raise their hands in assent to a proposition they had no hand in drafting.31 That deeply flawed process was a stark abrogation of the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority’s responsibility to oversee a just decolonisation. The UN should have ensured that process adhered to the universally recognised standard of one person, one vote.
    *TAPOL and ETAN take no official position on the political status of West Papua. We support the right and aspirations for West Papuan people to decide their own future.
    References:……..

    ———————————————————

    4) Indonesia: Shackling Reduced, But Persists Oversight Crucial to End Abuse of People with Disabilities
    Human Rights Watch 
    October 2, 2018 12:00AM EDT
    (Jakarta) – The Indonesian government has taken important steps to end the practice of shackling people with mental health conditions, Human Rights Watch said today. But many people remain locked up in institutions instead of being able to live in the community………….

    —————————————————

    ↧

    1) UK city considers honouring West Papuan leader

    October 4, 2018, 12:04 am
    $
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    2) Civil society condemns mass arrests of West Papuans
    --------------------------------
    1) UK city considers honouring West Papuan leader
    4:19 pm today  
    The chairman of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, Benny Wenda, is being considered for the Freedom of Oxford award.

    West Papuan independence leader Benny Wenda. Photo: RNZI/ Koroi Hawkins
    Mr Wenda and his family are based in the United Kingdom city where he was granted asylum in 2002 after fleeing Indonesian rule in West Papua
    The Oxford Student reports that the city's council was this week set to debate whether to grant the award to Mr Wenda in recognition of his long fight for indigenous rights.
    He has been campaigning extensively on the international stage for West Papuan independence, and helped establish a Free West Papua office in Oxford.
    Other notable recipients of the award include the former British Prime Minister Clement Attlee, as well as former South African president Nelson Mandela.
    However, Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi was recently stripped of her Freedom of Oxford honour due to the Rohingya refugee crisis in her country.
    ---------------------------
    2) Civil society condemns mass arrests of West Papuans
    12:13 pm today  
    There's been condemnation from civil society of another series of mass arrests of West Papuans by Indonesian police.
    Two organisations concerned with human rights, the UK-based TAPOL and US-based East Timor and Indonesia Action Network, say the arrests contradict claims by Indonesia at the United Nations.

    West Papuans arrested by Indonesian police, held at the Jayapura City Police Headquarters, 27 September 2018 Photo: Elfira/Cepos
    In late September West Papuans were arrested in Jayapura after demonstrating support for the United Liberation Movement of West Papua.
    They were also demonstrating support for Vanuatu's move to speak at the UN General Assembly about human rights abuses in Papua.
    Vanuatu's prime minister Charlot Salwai also spoke about Papuans' right to a legitimate self-determination process. Additionally, at least two other Pacific Islands leaders told the UN of their concern about the rights situation in Papua.
    This was met with condemnation by Indonesian officials in their right of reply who denied there were "frequent and systematic human rights violations" in West Papua.
    But the NGOs said systematic violations, including mass arrests of peaceful protestors, continue unabated in West Papua.
    Two years ago, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination warned Indonesia about a problematic trend of unlawful mass arrests of peaceful protesters. In that year alone, 5,361 arrests of West Papuan peaceful protesters were recorded.
    Tapol and the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network say "no other group has suffered such treatment at the hands of the Indonesian state" as West Papuans.
    They say a total of 221 West Papuans were arrested last month in relation to demonstrations advocating for self-determination.
    The NGOs say there were several cases of the detainees being tortured, including one man who the Association of Human Rights Lawyers for Papua was tortured by air force members.
    Meanwhile, Amnesty International has urged Indonesian authorities to conduct prompt and independent investigations into allegations of torture leading to the death of a Papuan in custody in Merauke District last month.

    Indonesian police were unavailable for comment, but have said that citizens who demonstrate with a permit face arrest. Additionally, Indonesia's military chiefs have often spoken of crushing anyone expressing so-called 'separatist' intent.
    Meanwhile, in addition to the arrests in Papua last month, an additional 39 Papuans were detained in Malang, East Java at the weekend for demonstrating in support of self-determination.
    The NGOs add that there have been racially motivated attacks against West Papuan student dormitories in Indonesian cities of Surabaya, Yogyakarta and Malang, as well as assaults by security forces in Manado and Tomohon.
    ---------------------------

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