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1) Jokowi commits to settling past rights cases this year

January 9, 2016, 12:00 am
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2)  Featured Filmmaker: Asrida Elisabeth

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1) Jokowi commits to settling  past rights cases this  year 

Ayomi Amindoni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Sat, January 09 2016, 12:58 PM - 
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has expressed a commitment to resolve a number of past human rights violations by the end of this year.
In a dinner with journalists on Friday night, the President said he had ordered the coordinating politics, legal and security affairs minister, the attorney general, the National Police chief and the head of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) to seek comprehensive resolutions to unresolved cases of human rights violations.
The President himself did not mention which human rights violations in particular would be addressed.
In a move to show that he is different from his predecessors, Jokowi has repeatedly reiterated his commitment to settling past rights abuses. Nevertheless, he has been criticized for his poor performance on human rights, which is far from his election campaign promise to improve their protection in Indonesia.
Several human rights violations occurred in 2015: Christian-Muslim strife in Tolikara, the burning and demolition of Christian churches in Aceh Singkil, the fatal beating of an anti-mining activist in Lumajang, the creation of internal Shia and Ahmadiyah refugees because of intra-Muslim religious intolerance and the criminalization of freedom of speech and expression are among the cases.
Meanwhile, older unresolved rights cases include a 1989 massacre in Talangsari, Lampung, the forced disappearance of anti-Soeharto activists in 1997 and 1998, the 1998 Trisakti University shootings, the Semanggi I and Semanggi II student shootings in 1998 and 1999, the mysterious killings of alleged criminals in the 1980s, the communist purges of 1965 and various abuses that took place in Wasior and Wamena in Papua in 2001 and 2003, respectively. (bbn)

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2)  Featured Filmmaker: Asrida Elisabeth

by EM News — January 08, 2016
Asrida Elisabeth, an alumni of Papuan Voices, recently won the award for Best Documentary Film at Festival Film Dokumenter (FFD 2015) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This is EngageMedia’s exclusive interview with her.
Can you tell us a little about yourself?
My name is Asrida Elisabeth. I’m from Flores, East Nusa Tenggara Province, or NTT for short. Since 2011, I've worked in Papua with pastor Jhon Djonga as an assistant, to be exact. I was helping with activities outside the religious work and it just happened that the pastor was also an activist.
We documented many social problems, visited and screened films at many villages in Wamena. So many times, we went to areas that were very remote and without electricity. During our visits to these areas, we usually brought films to screen. For the areas which didn't have electricity, we carried gasoline for a generator. If there wasn't a generator, we will carry one ourselves too from our place..
What are your thoughts on the audio-visual medium as an advocacy tool?
For me, video has the power to enable people to grasp messages transferred through images because video is audio-visual. When we travel around, we screen films in many areas. When we were traveling and screening films, we asked people to express their opinions after watching them. This experience, having seen the power of video, enabled me to know that with audio-visual mediums we can easily share messages, any kinds of messages we want to share with the audience, to society.
In the beginning, we played educational videos, and noticed how people were so interested in this media. This media facilitated people to gather around. If we play films in villages or churches, people easily gather. Then, we thought, all of these films were brought here from another location. How about if we were the ones making films about our own people, and watch them together? After we have watch the films we could discuss about our own lives. So if there are certain issues in society, we can make a film and discuss it. 
Along the way, I made friends with people from Papuan Voices. Coincidentally, there was brother Frangky (FX Making). I met and learned from friends in EngageMedia. I first learned how to make films from them. Early on, I learned how to shoot, conduct a proper interview, camera positioning and so on. After that, I started to make my own videos that I sent to some film festivals. So I've had two videos produced independently.
I then saw an announcement by Project Change. And at that time it was a theme on women and marginal communities. That issue was not alien to me since I worked a lot with women and marginal communities in my work. And so there were a lot of things I could say on this theme. After the selection process, they accepted my idea. Then, finally, we started to produce the film to be more complete.

How have people reacted to advocacy films?
I saw society respond in many different ways and express diverse opinions. Usually, from my own experience, when I did screenings in many communities in Papua, most of the films are stories from different places, stories about health, education, or other topics.
People always reflected on these stories in relation to their own daily lives. Media helps people to open their eyes about their surrounding environment and look at problems that happen in it, that are related to the film that watch. So even though those films were brought from other places, when audiences tried expressing their opinions they really wanted to compare what's on the film and the life of the people in their area, within their context.
Could you tell us more about your film, 'Tanah Mama'?
I submitted the story of Tanah Mama to Project Change in 2013. Early on, I tried to show the daily lives of mama (the Papuan mothers) in the town of Wamena. As a matter a fact, I was working for one year in that area.
I wanted to showcase my subject, Mama Halusina, who also has a role as a village midwife. She helped other mothers in many villages to give birth, and sometimes the location is quite far away. Because of the lack of infrastructure and geographical isolation, many women and children, can't access the health facilities. Even in a situation where she needs to struggle for her own family, she still is trying to help other women. They are as poor as she is.
Well, about Mama Halusina... As we know, documentary film really depends on the situation of the character, who we want telling his/her story. Right in the middle of our research, Mama Halusina faced a problem. She was cast out of her village based on an accusation that she stole sweet potatoes that belonged to other people. So while my story was about a Mama who was a midwife, other things happened to my main character.
I was quite disoriented about how to film this problem and I shared my struggle with my mentor (Ucu Agustin). They told me that this story (about mama Halusina's conflicts) was also very interesting and doesn't divert from the original idea. It was still in the same line, about how women in Wamena struggle to survive. Then we moved to the pictures production and at that time we did it faster than our schedule. So after that, we got this version of Tanah Mama, the one we just saw.
What were the impressions of the audience after watching 'Tanah Mama'?
As usual, if we played it in front of activists, they would raise questions about what the government is doing in this area, what are the indigenous norms/laws on the roles of women, polygamy, women's access to land and other issues.
But when we screened it to the common people, based on what we experienced screening in Wamena, in Mama Halusina's village or villages nearby, people saw this film and reflected on their own lives. So this story reminded them of their actual experiences.
Why was the film withdrawn from the Melanesia Cultural Festival?
Actually, long before this festival, I was well-aware about the discourse on this "Melindo", Melanesia-Indonesia. It was a new word, created after President Jokowi took power. Before this, there was no talk about Melindo, or that in Indonesia there was a Melanesian identity.
And I was informed about how Papuan activists were struggling overseas. They tried to get some degree of acknowledgement of their lobby in the pacific region on Papua's fate. This lobby was quite strong and received good support from Melanesian nations who gathered as the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). After this activity, then came a discourse about the culture of Melanesian people in Indonesia.
This Melindo, according to Indonesia's government, included Papua, Papua Barat, Maluku, Maluku Utara, and NTT. I myself am from NTT. I see this event as only being about political interests, and not particularly keen to promote Melanesian culture. It was not about honoring Melanesian culture, but more about how Indonesia's government is trying to prove to the Papuan people that they are not the only one entity able to claim the Melanesian culture or race. There are many areas in Indonesia that are also part of Melanesian culture.
They wanted to prevent Papuan people from getting a place in a forum such as the MSG. The real reason behind why Papuan activists need to lobby Melanesian nations was about the struggle over thousands of human rights violations that happened on Papuan soil. These cases were never addressed or solved by Indonesia's government. These violations are still happening and continue without settlement. So the Papuans need to have their voices heard somewhere else. And when they started to get a platform, the Indonesian government came up with Melanesian cultural politics.
I assumed that my act to withdraw my film from this event was only a small step. I didn't want to be part of this activity. I can't let this Melindo use my film, as if I was supporting their ideas. Because since the beginning, many people have been asking about this Melindo event. As I'm also from NTT, these sort of activities clearly hurt the feelings of many people in Papua, where I'm working now.
Watch the trailer for 'Tanah Mama' here.
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1) WHERE IS THE JUSTICE FOR WEST PAPUAN?

January 9, 2016, 1:02 pm
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2) TRIBAL CHIEF URGES PAPUA GOVERNOR TO TACKLE DEGEUWO PROBLEM
3) ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AFFECT HEALTH IN PAPUA 
4) PRIVATE FLEET COMPANY SERVES TRANSPORTATION FOR OUTERMOST ISLANDERS
5) RAJA AMPAT AIRPORT RUNWAY TO BE EXTENDED
6) MORE THAN 1,300 TEACHERS TO RECEIVE RP 59 BILLION IN CERTIFICATION FUNDS
7) Police back out from Setya  investigation

8) Army strengthens border  security areas, considers  forming new military commands -



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1) WHERE IS THE JUSTICE FOR WEST PAPUAN?
Jan 09, 2016
Jayapura, Jubi – About 150 police personnel were deployed to hunt for the perpetrators of the attack on the Sinak Police Headquarters at Puncak Jaya Regency, Papua, which killed three officers. No one has been arrested as of Thursday.
The operation to chase the rebel group believed to be behind the attack on 28 December was led by Puncak Jaya Police Chief, Adjuct Senior Police Commissionaire Marselis.
Papua Police Spokesperson Senior Police Commissionaire Patridge Renwarin said the police identified two men suspected as the attackers.
“One was identified as the attacker while another one was identified to help open the rear door. Both have not arrested yet,” Renwarin told BeritaBenar on Thursday and added the sweeping operation was executed in three villages, namely Nigilome, Pamebut and Weni at Sinak Sub-district.
Papua Police Chief, the Inspector General Paulus Waterpauw said during their operation, the Police managed to find 19 bullets of 7.62×51 mm caliber, 7 ammunitions of AK 47, 44 ammunitions of 7.62×39 mm caliber, and 59 ammunitions of SS1 5.56×45 caliber.
The ammunitions were founded whent the Police inspecting the houses of two Sinak residents named Kalenak Murib and Iris Murib, he said without explaining whether both were arrested or not.

Houses Burned

An Agengen villager said due to the Police’s operation, some residents’ houses were burned and a man was shot dead.
“The security personnel who conducted the operation shot down a man suspected to be a member of Free Papua Movement on 3 January. The victim was Gombane Telenggen’s brother,” said a resident who declined to be named due to security reasons. Gombane Telenggen is one of 25 persons suspected attackers on Sinak Police Headquarters.
He added the Police also burned a kunume (man’s house) and some honai (houses). “Four honai were burned in Agenggen Village, while in Pamebut, the entire residents’ honai were burned down, except a church,” he said to jubi on Wednesday, 6 January.
Fire over the residents’ honai was also confirmed by a Papua youth leader, Natan Tebay. Even he said the Police scrutinized six villages in order to find the attackers on Sinak Police Headquarters.
“I got information from Sinak people about the security personnel coming to Gigobak, Agenggen, Cambera, Pamebut, Nigilome and Weni villages to find the rebel. Several households lost their houses because being fired during the raid,” said Tebay.
According to him, the residents of those villages do not know anything about the guns seizure and the shooting over the police officers at Sinak Police Headquarters.
“People should not receive the impact of this raid,” he said. When being confirmed, Papua Police Spokesperson admitted he received information about a citizen shot for suspected member of Free Papua Movement, but after checking, it was not true.
According to him, searching the victim, the Police and people were not found the body. He also denied the accusation said the Police burned houses during the raid.
“It’s not true. No houses were burned. People have also agreed that anyone who caught hiding ammunitions or guns would be penalized. The regent would give them ransom to those who return it,” said Renwarin.


Where is the Justice for West Papuan?


Paniai Customary Council, John Gobai, regretted the Police’s operation that caused the loss of people’s houses in Sinak. He said the security personnel are often not professional in doing operation that resulting victims among civilians.
“It has repeatedly happened all the time. In 2013, the similar thing was also happened in Paniai. Every passing vehicle would be raided. As a result, the situation in Paniai became disturbed,” he said.
“In Pugo Village, all people were left at that time because of fears. Their houses were burned for the reason that the security forces hunted the rebel group that they called the National Liberation Army – Papua Free Movement who involved in the gunfire with them at Waidide, Pugo Village, Paniai Timur Sub-district,” added Gobay.
He also questioned the Police for quickly appointed someone as Sinak Police’s attacker.
“Just within 1 x 24 hours after the attack on Sinak Police Headquarters, the Police personnel were directly deployed to search the perpetrators. Papua Police Chief even came directly to Sinak. And the Indonesian Police Chief accused Benny Wenda as the actor behind the attack,” he asserted.
“But what about the shooting over four high school students in Paniai at the early December 2014, after 1 x 365 days it had not been revealed yet. In fact the Police have no dare to suspect. Where is the justice for us, the indigenous Papuan?” Gobay questioned.

“Jokowi Concerns on Investment Only”

The security forces’ repressive acts and the slow resolution to the cases of violence towards the indigenous Papuan is also highlighted by the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG).
In the press release received by BeritaBenar in Papua, the Director of HRWG Rafendi Jamin accused the government under the President Joko Widodo to be more concerned on investment than the settlement of the cases of violence and human rights violations in Papua.
He said Widodo has shown the chronic fear in addressing the conflict and violence in Papua, so tends to respond it as the handling of the issue of separatism.
“It’s clearly reflected through repressive and security approaches that are still done excessively by the government. These approaches often sacrifice the civil society who actually does not understand about the real issues that’s going on,” he said. (Victor Mambor/rom)
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2) TRIBAL CHIEF URGES PAPUA GOVERNOR TO TACKLE DEGEUWO PROBLEM
Jan 07, 2016



                                              Illegal mining in Degeuwo – jubi


Nabire, Jubi – The vhairman of the Institute for the Development of Indigenous Peoples Tribe Wolani, Mee and Moni (LPMA SWAMEEMO), Thobias Bagubau, said the group would keep urging Papua governor Lukas Enembe to resolve the problem of illegal mining in Degeuwo.
“I’m trying to coordinate with the Papua governor,” he told the Jubi in Nabire on Tuesday (5/1/2016).
According to him, in 2014, Enembe told journalists that he would solve the problem of illegal mining in Degeuwo.
“I keep asking the governor to make good on his promise, because he himself said Degeuwo mining issues endangered for local peoples, and should be closed,” he said.
There are five cases at the illegal mining sites such as the problem administration. License issued by local government Paniai era Naftali Yogi, Yanuarius Dou till current Paniai Regent Hengky Kayame.
“The license issued did not follow the actual mining mechanisms. Surprisingly. When the government issued a permit, it also did not control either. Similarly, the letter issued by the mining minister also did not got through the procedure,” he continued.
Second, the alleged human rights violations. Indigenous peoples, the owners customary were beaten by officers on duty around the site.
Third, prostitution. He said many commercial sex workers infected with HIV-AIDS. Residents who have sex too infected with HIV until died.
Fourth, the seizure of natural resources, theft of aloes wood, gold making illegal seizure of indigenous lands, felling wild.
Fifth, the environmental degradation of indigenous peoples, EIA (analysis on the environmental impact), the loss of a source of clean water for Swamemo peoples.
“We’ve made a complete document. Advocacy results since 2003-2015 has been completed in one of accountability. We will deliver to President Jokowi, governor of Papua Lukas Enembe. already submitted to Papua Police chief Inspector, Paulus Waterpau. NGOs will become our partners. We will share approximately 30 more agencies,” he said. (Hengky Yeimo)
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3) ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AFFECT HEALTH IN PAPUA 

Jan 07, 2016



                                       Parents in Nduga who lost their children – Jubi


Jayapura, Jubi – Papua Provincial Health Director, drg. Aloysius Giyai said healthy living should start from ourselves by keeping the surrounding environment clean.
Reflecting from Nduga case, the main problem is the environment that is not properly maintained so that the seeds of the disease began to grow and infecting the human body.
“Healthy living needs intake of balanced nutrition and environment needs to support health,” said Aloysius some time ago in Jayapura.

Aloysius also added that health is a determining factor for the welfare of people.
“So many deaths were mostly caused by diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, malaria, and many more types of diseases that always haunt the people of Papua,” he said.
“Generally, people tend to pay attention to health when they are sick. Yet, it can be prevented as early as possible to maintain our environment clean,” he said.
Mika Manubui (38) agreed with his statements, but there are several factors that affect the health of the people of Papua.
“The factors, among others, factors such as culture, lifestyle, level of education, level of prosperity,” he said. (Roy Ratumakin/Tina)
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4) PRIVATE FLEET COMPANY SERVES TRANSPORTATION FOR OUTERMOST ISLANDERS
Jan 08, 2016

Biak, Jubi – In 2016, Private pioneering fleet company Mandala Sembilan provides marine transportation for people of Mapia, the outermost island of Supiori Regency, which neighbors the Republic of Palau.
“Since January 2016, Mandala Sembilan has transportation route for New Year for people on Mapia Island and its surrounding,” said a company staffer, S. Swabra, on Thursday (7/1/2016) in Biak.
He acknowledged the facility of marine transportation in 2016 for the return route Biak-Mapia Island, Biak-Numfor and Manokawari is a program of the Ministry of Transportation of the Republic of Indonesia.

In early 2016, added Swabra, Mandala Sembilan has transported passengers and goods to Mapia Islands. “The ship for Mapia islanders continues serving people as scheduled,” said Swabra.
Mapia Islands, which located in Supiori Barat Sub-district of Supiori Regency, is the islands with potential assets of marine resources and coconut plantation neighboring to the Republic of Palau. It consists of thirty households or 200 populations.
Based on data from the Directorate General of Marine Transportation of the Indonesian Ministry of Transportation, three boats, a private company’s boat Mandala Sembilan and two public boats KM Papua Satu and KM Papua Lima, will operate for the route Biak-Mapia Islands in Biak Numfor Regency in 2016. (*/rom)
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5) RAJA AMPAT AIRPORT RUNWAY TO BE EXTENDED
Jan 08, 2016

Manokwari, Jubi – The government will extend the runway of Marinda Airport in Raja Ampat from 1,200 meters to 2,500 meters.
“The plan will be realized President Joko Widodo recently launched Domini Airport passenger terminal Edward Osok in Sorong,” said West Papua Governor Abraham O. Ataruri at governor’s office, Monday (7/1/2016 ).
Head of Transport Department of Information and Communications of West Papua, Bambang Susanto Heriawan, said separately, said the extension of the runway is part of the government’s plan to make the international airport.
“Raja Ampat is a regional tourism destination, thus, airport conditions into consideration,” he said.
As for the development of Manokwari Rendani Airport, he added, will be made according the original plan will be extended from 2,000 meters to 2,500 meters. He added, Rendani airport runway extension plan, was submitted to the Minister of Transportation.
“Now, depending on the government’s efforts of West Papua province, Manokwari District and to seek the release of customary land,” he said. According to him, the release of customary land to be used as an extension of the airport runway is in process. (*/ Tina)
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6) MORE THAN 1,300 TEACHERS TO RECEIVE RP 59 BILLION IN CERTIFICATION FUNDS
Jan 08, 2016

Jayapura, Jubi – The head of the education department of Jayapura, I Wayan Mudiyasa, said that until the end of 2015, it has disbursed 59 billion Teacher Certification funds for Jayapura city.
“A total of 1,336 teachers who received the funds are already certified. The second term fund was paid Rp 36,244 billion and the 1st half of Rp 21.518 billion,” he said by telephone cellular on Sunday (7/1/2016).
He explained there is no problem for the certification of funds for primary education ie SD, Junior and Kindergarten, while for senior high school there are about 65 or 55 teachers left . “Hopefully in the near future, can be paid,” he added.

He further explained the problem the certification fund can not be paid due to Asked why there are still problems related to certification, Wayan suggests the problem is dilinieritas or not linear means certification upon submission of professionalism or part profession is not in accordance with the linear no problem so can not be paid.
“The government has taken appropriate steps for teachers teachers who are not linear or do not meet 24 hours. We have made a letter to the ministry of education, yet it has not been responded yet,” he continued.
Nurhadi, head of Senior High school division of education department said all teachers must be certified in 2016. He will continue to encourage the implementation of teacher competence
or a certified teacher.”Inevitably the year of 2018 all teachers must be certified,” he said. (Sindung Sukoco)

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7) Police back out from Setya  investigation
Fedina S. Sundaryani, Ina Parlina and Nurul Fitri Ramadhani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Headlines | Sat, January 09 2016, 6:16 PM - 

The National Police say that they will not launch a criminal investigation into former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto over his alleged attempt to broker a back room deal with PT Freeport Indonesia. 

National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti told reporters on Friday that investigators had already consulted with experts and concluded that there was no legal justification for launching a general crimes investigation as the conversation between Setya, Freeport Indonesia president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin and business tycoon Muhammad Reza Chalid did not violate any articles of the Criminal Code.

“We can’t charge them with slander against the President as the Constitutional Court abolished that article. We can’t pursue a case of slander against the President because the recording was not made public by Setya, but by the House ethics council hearings,” he said at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta.

Badrodin added that it was also impossible for the police to investigate allegations that Maroef had committed fraud because he did not do anything that could be considered a violation of the Criminal Code.

“This definitely has more indications of being a special crime, which is already being probed by the Attorney General’s Office [AGO],” he said. 

Late last year, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said reported Setya to the House ethics council for allegedly claiming to have won the approval of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla to secure shares and projects from Freeport in exchange for helping the company to extend its contract and continue operations at its gold mine in Papua, one of the world’s largest.

The report included a transcript and copy of a conversation between Setya, Maroef and Reza.

Following the report, the ethics council held a series of hearings, with testimony from Maroef, Sudirman and Setya himself, to determine whether he had committed a breach of ethics

However, Setya resigned from his post as House speaker before a decision could be made and will become Golkar Party faction leader pending approval.

The AGO has since launched an investigation into the case and claims that the parties involved in the conversation could be charged with conspiracy to commit corruption. Both Maroef and Sudirman have already been questioned while Setya is scheduled to be summoned next week. However, Reza has failed to answer two summons as he left the country days after the AGO announced its investigation. 

Setya has also filed a police report against both Sudirman and Maroef for alleged defamation and a violation of the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law by recording the conversation without his consent. 

However, he did not show up to give his testimony against Sudirman and Maroef on Friday, with his lawyer Firman Wijaya saying that Setya had clearly stated his case.

“Our police report is clear enough. It concerns slander, defamation and violation of the ITE Law. It may even come under the Intelligence Law as recording without notice is illegal unless conducted by a law enforcement body,” Firman said on Friday.

Meanwhile, after weeks of insisting that special permission from President Jokowi was required to summon Setya, Attorney General M. Prasetyo finally said on Friday that his office would press ahead with summoning Setya without such permission.

“I have ordered [prosecutors] to immediately summon him. [The questioning] will probably be conducted next week,” Prasetyo said on Friday. “I’d like to underline that we need no special permission from the President.”

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8) Army strengthens border  security areas, considers  forming new military commands -
Marguerite Afra Sapiie, thejakartapost.com, Jakarta | National | Sat, January 09 2016, 3:07 PM - 

The Indonesian Army will further strengthen military posts in the Indonesian regions bordering other countries with the objective of developing infrastructure and human resources, Army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Muhammad Sabrar Fadhilah said on Friday.
He also said the Indonesian Military would mull over establishing new Military Commands in Papua and Sulawesi.
According to Fadhilah, military posts in border regions now lacked military personnel and infrastructure that supported their mobility, such as roads, transportation and weapons systems, making the bases unable to effectively be at the forefront of safeguarding the country.
"We will improve the infrastructure and place more personnel, since they are the ones who will directly face threats of invasion or smuggling over the sea," Fadhilah told journalists. He gave as an example that currently only two military personnel were placed in a military post on Liran Island, the westernmost island of the Maluku province.
Border regions susceptible to attacks have become a priority, according to Fadhilah, particularly regions such as Maluku, Papua, the Kalimantan borders, Aceh (North Sumatra) and small islands that are mostly located in eastern Indonesia.
The form of development could not be standardized for all military posts in Indonesia, Fadhilah said, since the distinct conditions shaped what needed to be improved in each region.
"For example, speedboats for military personnel placed on islands will bring greater benefits for mobility than motorcycles," Fadhilah said.
Meanwhile, the Army would also aim to form Military Command (Kodam) 13 in Manado, North Sulawesi, to further intensify control of the border regions and to further enhance the security there.
Kodam 13 would oversee three regional commands (Korem) in Manado, Gorontalo province and Palu in Central Sulawesi. The Army would also establish more military district commands (Kodim), the creation of which would be based on necessity.
"This [the formation of new military commands] is for the sake of the national interest, particularly to safeguard Indonesia's sovereignty because the Indonesian Military is responsible to protect outer border regions," said Fadhilah.
The Army was also eyeing the formation of a new Kodam in West Papua to cover sensitive areas, but it was still in the assessment stage and would be developed in the future, Fadhilah added. (bbn)
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1) PAPUAN OFFICIALS URGED TO STOP THINKING OF THEMSELVES

January 10, 2016, 12:37 am
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2) RP 36.5 TRILLION REQUIRED FOR TRANS PAPUA ROAD PROJECT
3) SHIP PASSENGERS IN NABIRE UP TO 150 PERCENT 
4) Manhunt launched after  Papua jailbreak
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1) PAPUAN OFFICIALS URGED TO STOP THINKING OF THEMSELVES
Jan 07, 2016



                                           West Papuan in the remote area – Survival International

Jayapura, Jubi – Papuan Legislator Orgenes Wanimbo Tolli Wone reminded officials in Papua to not just think about themselves but also find solutions to public complaints.
He said both executive and legislative officials were elected by the people, so they should work for them.
“We can not just want to be praised but never see and care about the condition of the people. Therefore, we should discuss it together,” said Tolli Wone on last week.

As a form of concern, he held a Christmas with dozens of orphans in Sereh village and community surroundings.
He added, although he is not a legislator from Jayapura regency, Papua, but as a legislative member, he was burdened with the condition of the people in the neighborhood, especially the future of younger generation. “I have the burden of caring for orphaned children in my neighborhood.
They deserved to eating, drinking, getting a decent education. If we are only thinking of political interests, the people will be the victims. So officials should stop thinking of themselves,” he said.
Tolikara tribal chief in Jayapura regency, Nelson Jikwa said Orgenes was a good sample. He was able to pay attention to the people around him, without discrimination.
“He gave attention both Papuans from the mountains and coastal regions as well as people from outside Papua. He comes from the village, so he knows how lives in the community, “said Tabuni. (Arjuna Pademme/ Tina)
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2) RP 36.5 TRILLION REQUIRED FOR TRANS PAPUA ROAD PROJECT
Jan 07, 2016
Jayapura,Jubi – Trans Papua road project requires Rp 36.5 trillion. The fact was revealed in the signing of contract activities in the fiscal year 2016 in the Ministry of Public Works and Housing that was held via teleconference and attended by President Joko Widodo on Wednesday (6/1/2016).
On this occasion, the Vice Governor of West Papua Province Irene Manibuy expected the Central Government to deliver a higher installment for the project could be completed within 2018.
“Mr. President Joko Widodo, we expect the government could provide a larger amount to ensure the implementation would meet our expectation,” she said.
According to her, in implementing the road projects in both provinces of Papua and West Papua, it needs a large amount of budget due to its geographical conditions.
In addition to requesting the additional funding for Trans Papua road project, a native entrepreneur Martinus Doga Kurisi was also asked the government to provide bigger opportunities to Papuan entrepreneurs. “When given the opportunity, we are able to handle such big projects for the Ministry of Public Works,” he said.
For the fiscal year 2016, both provinces of Papua and West Papua received funding of Rp 81 trillion for 10,679 projects.
The signing of contract was also attended by Papua Attorney Chief Herman da Silva, Papua Provincial Secretary Herry Dosinaen and Cenderawasih XVII Regional Military Commander Herman Asaribab. (*/rom)
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3) SHIP PASSENGERS IN NABIRE UP TO 150 PERCENT 
Jan 07, 2016

Nabire, Jubi – Director of state-owned shipping firm PT Pelayaran Indonesia in Nabire, Bambang Budiono, ssaid that the number of ferry passengers to and from Nabire to celebrate Christmas and New Year increased by 100 percent.
He continued, the peak date for passengers traveling by KM Labobar ship on December 17.
“The increase has been 150 percent. While, in the low season, the number of passengers both to the East and West is 1000 up to 1800 passengers,” said Bambang Budiono to the Jubi in Nabire on last week.
“On December 17, the passengers of KM Labobar carried 3,000 passengers from Jayapura and around 2,000 traveled to Nabire. While the passengers who traveled to the West reached 3,500 people,” he said.
He added the Labobar ferry was the last ship for passengers who will celebrate Christmas to the West.
Separately, one of the passengers from Jayapura to Nabire destination, Abdul Gany, said the ship was very crowded with passengers. (Munir)
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4) Manhunt launched after  Papua jailbreak

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura | Headlines | Sun, January 10 2016, 2:33 PM -

Law enforcement authorities in Papua have deployed hundreds of personnel to hunt down 13 inmates that escaped from Abepura penitentiary in the provincial capital of Jayapura on Friday.

The massive manhunt was initiated because some of the fugitives are considered extremely dangerous due to their affiliation with a local separatist group.

In a phone interview with The Jakarta Post on Saturday, Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Paulus Waterpauw said the manhunt involved some 200 personnel from the police’s Mobile Brigade (Brimob) unit with support from local Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel.

Preliminary reports, he said, suggested that the fugitives had not left Jayapura at least in the first 24 hours after their escape.

“We have detected their [past] whereabouts. During our search yesterday [Friday], we found traces of food and areca nuts believed to have been eaten by the fugitives,” he said.

Paulus added that police and military personnel had also increased surveillance along the border between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG) in Skouw-Wutung, located some 40 kilometers east of Jayapura, to foil any attempt by the fugitives to enter the neighboring country.

“According to our experience, inmates escaping from Abepura tend to try and reach PNG. Should they manage to do so, this would make it difficult for us to hunt them down,” he said.

The 13 inmates escaped from the prison through the main door during visiting hours scheduled from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Before the escape, three inmates asked for permission to see the section head. 

As they were about to enter the relevant room, however, two of them turned another way to the 
visitors’ room. 

When an officer tried to stop them, one of the inmates threatened him with a sharp weapon before calling out other inmates.

The inmates then simultaneously broke through their doors within the facility and escaped through the main door.

“They seemed to have planned the escape,” the prison’s chief warden, Bagus Kurniawan, said.

Three of the fugitives — Usmin Telenggen, Kartu Kuning and Fredy Muyak — are members of the separatist group Free Papua Movement (OPM).

The three have been sentenced for life for their involvement in an armed attack on a police precinct in Papua’s Lanny Jaya regency. 

The 2012 attack left three police officers dead.

All of the remaining 10 fugitives, meanwhile, were serving prison sentences of at least 18 months for various crimes, including rape, theft, firearm possession and collective assault.

 “These fugitives can kill anyone, including ordinary people, using guns or sharp weapons. They are extremely dangerous,” Paulus said.

Paulus also called on other correctional facilities in Papua that house inmates convicted for serious crimes, like murder, to step up security precautions to avoid a similar jailbreak from happening.

“We are ready to help secure [the facilities] should their management ask us to do so,” he added.

In May 2010, 18 inmates fled from Abepura prison following a protest involving prison guards. The next month, 26 other inmates also managed to get out of the facility.

Bagus, meanwhile, argued that prison management had been struggling to maintain security at the facility, which currently accommodates 405 inmates, due to a lack of staff.

“In every work shift, our security team only consists of five people, much fewer than the ideal number of 10,” he said. -
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1) MSG Chair calls for Forum mission to Papua

January 11, 2016, 2:24 am
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2) Extra police sent to Papua
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1) MSG Chair calls for Forum mission to Papua
Updated at 1:37 pm today
The chairperson of the Melanesian Spearhead Group Manasseh Sogavare is calling on Indonesia to commission a fact finding mission to discuss the situation in West Papua with members of the Pacific Islands Forum.
The Solomon Islands prime minister made the call as he welcomed what he described as Indonesia's change of strategy on West Papua and its approach towards West Papuan separatists.
Alluding to last year’s release of high-profile Papuan freedom fighter Filep Karma, the Solomon Islands prime minister says the decision to release Mr Karma is encouraging and speaks well of the Indonesian president Joko Widodo's policies to bring peace to Papua.
Mr Sogavare however says Jokowi's three-pronged approach of welfare, security and dialogue must be consultative to avoid simply paying lip service to the indigenous people of West Papua.
He says the MSG remains committed to a spirit of positive and constructive dialogue to promote welfare and bring peace and security to West Papua.
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2) Extra police sent to Papua

Updated at 10:48 am today
Reports from Indonesia's Papua province say extra police have been deployed to a part of Puncak Jaya regency where three officers were killed in an attack late last month.
Tabloid Jubi reports that about 150 police personnel were deployed to hunt for the perpetrators of the attack on the Sinak Police Headquarters.
The Papua Police Chief, General Paulus Waterpauw has indicated that police believe they know who the suspects are and have homed in on their communities, searching also for stolen ammunition.
It's not clear whether the suspects have been found yet.
However local residents say that in their sweep operation, police have burnt a number of houses in up to six villages in the area.
Meanwhile, a large number of frightened villagers in the area have fled from security forces into the bush, according to the United Liberation Movement for West Papua.
The ULMWP claims at least two people have been killed in the police response which has also involved killing of livestock and harassment of innocent villagers.
The Papuan political organisation says the situation in Puncak Jaya has developed into a serious armed conflict, and has urged Indonesia's government to stop sending troops there.
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1) Infrastructure development in Papua needs good approach: LIPI

January 11, 2016, 12:39 pm
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2) Child mortality in Mbua Continues, Papua Provincial Health Director Apologizes
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1) Infrastructure development in Papua needs good approach: LIPI

Senin, 11 Januari 2016 16:41 WIB | 647 Views
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Infrastructure development and connectivity in Papua and West Papua needs good approach and communication with the local people, according to an Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) official.

"The government should approach the people of Papua and West Papua and communicate the issue of infrastructure development and connectivity with them. Otherwise, it is feared that they would reject the development and consequently they would accused of being anti government," Adriana Elisabeth, the Papua Study Team Coordinator at LIPI, remarked here on Monday.

Moreover, she noted that Papua was a conflict-prone region, with several remote villages that were yet to be connected through means of land transportation.

Elisabeth stated that infrastructure development and connectivity in Papua and West Papua should not raise suspicions among members of the local community that it was solely intended to benefit Jakarta.

"The approach needs to be taken to avoid raising suspicions among Papuans over the construction of roads in the interior areas. The local people need to be provided a clear understanding that connectivity is intended to boost the economy of Papua and West Papua," she affirmed.

According to Elisabeth, the Papuan people must be convinced that if connectivity improved, more investors would come to invest in Papua and West Papua, and the results would be experienced and enjoyed by them.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has affirmed that the improvement in connectivity and land transport infrastructure development in Papua and West Papua was aimed at boosting economic growth and welfare of the local communities.

During a visit to West Papua on December 31, 2015, the head of state noted that all districts and cities in Papua and West Papua will be connected through land transport by 2018.
(Uu.O001/F001)
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A google translate of article in suarapapua.com. be-aware google translate can be a bit erratic.
original bahasa link at
2) Child mortality in Mbua Continues, Papua Provincial Health Director Apologizes

By: Elisa Sekenyap | Monday, January 11, 2016 - 12:48 pm | 
Wamena, SUARAPAPUA.com --- Papua Provincial Health Director, drg. Aloysius Giyai openly stated very saddened and concerned about the cases of child deaths in the region Mbua, nduga regency, Papua, which has not ended to this day.
"On this condition, we are so sorry, but we also regret. If that failure and also we do not carry out our duties well, then our Papua Provincial Health Office or the District Health Office Nduga'm sorry, "said Giyai to suarapapua.com recently in Wamena.

As an indigenous child, he felt should deliver it because of the death of the children hope for the future of Papua was classified as Extraordinary Events (KLB).

According to doctors Allo, with this outbreak provide a valuable lesson for everyone to interpret it. And, in the future have to do an action that does not happen again.

"I said that to do preventive measures as it is not only a factor of health workers, but need a healthy housing, clean water, provision of food with good nutrition."

"With the assistance of the Parliament of Papua, we've been thrust to the Government of Papua to immediately do the recovery in the region Mbua and the Central Mountains of Papua in general," he said.

In addition, Giyai said, "We are also waiting for help medical personnel of the Provincial Government of Papua to routinely perform services in the region."

Former Director of the Abepura Hospital also questioned the President's visit to Nduga Jokowi recently.

According to him, the president not only melakan visit, the apparatus must be commanded to do something with real action for people Mbua and Nduga general.

"I also do not know his actions after he made a visit there, because I am also not a committee in the president's visit. But this outbreak, so there must be a direct order from the center to do and say these funds and this stuff, not just talk about it, "he said.

Meanwhile, the Coordinator of Solidarity Fatalities Mbua (SKJM), Arim Tabuni was deeply upset over poor conditions that continue to occur in Mbua.

Arim hope, soon there is concern of the Central Government, and the Government of Papua Province nduga regency.

"Nowadays people have no hope of living longer, they just missed how to get good health care and ongoing. If left 1 to 5 months, this condition will worsen the survival of communities in the region Mbua, "Arim said.

To get the health support and other assistance from the international and national levels and in Papua, said Tabuni, SKJM has opened several shelters humanity, including in Wamena and Jayapura City.

Another thing delivered Emat Ngwijangge, one of the representatives of the District Health Office Nduga. He said, so far it in Mbua have difficulty in many ways, including geographical factors, as well as medical personnel in the field.

"The difficulties we experienced there are health personnel and supporting equipment. That there is only one health center nurse Mbua former first mission and two midwives. Because of the conditions, we of services that handle, especially me and some of my colleagues, "said Emat to suarapapua.com in Wamena.

The last death rate delivered Nduga District Health Office until January 2016 as many as 55 people. Meanwhile, the number of deaths recorded SKJM many as 54 children.

ELISA SEKENYAP
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1) CPJ. Indonesia denies media visa for France 24 reporter

January 12, 2016, 12:51 pm
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2) Indonesia Urged to Lift Ban on French Journalist After Papua Documentary
3) RSF URGES INDONESIA TO LIFT BAN ON FRENCH REPORTER CYRIL PAYEN

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Committee to Protect Journalists
1) CPJ. Indonesia denies media visa for France 24 reporter
Bangkok, January 12, 2016 - The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Indonesia's refusal to issue a media visa to French journalist Cyril Payen. The Bangkok-based senior reporter for France 24 television received notice of the denial from Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs without explanation on Friday, he told CPJ.
The Indonesian government's decision follows the broadcast of Payen's documentary, "The forgotten war in Papua." The film, broadcast by France 24 on October 18, examined allegations of state-sponsored human rights abuses and conflict-related casualties over the past 25 years in the country's eastern Papuan provinces.
President Joko Widodo announced last May that his government would allow foreign journalists to report unrestricted from Papua, breaking a decades-long virtual blackout on international news coverage of the restive region. Payen applied for and received the required media permits to report from Papua, and reported freely from the region for about a week last July, he told CPJ.
"Indonesia's move to deny France 24 reporter Cyril Payen a journalistic visa smacks of retaliation for his critical reporting," said Shawn W. Crispin, CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative. "President Widodo should make good on his previous pledge to improve access to Indonesia for foreign journalists by reversing this arbitrary and ill-conceived decision."
CPJ advocated for the removal of the foreign media restrictions as an important precondition for Widodo to achieve his campaign vow to bring peace and prosperity to Papua and West Papua provinces. The region has been locked in a long-simmering struggle between Indonesian security forces and the secessionist Free Papua Movement.
Foreign journalists have been targeted for harassment under Widodo's rule. British filmmakers Rebecca Prosser and Neil Bonner were held in custody for nearly five months before being sentenced in November to two and a half months in prison for violating the terms of their tourist visas. They were first apprehended by the Indonesian navy while reporting a documentary on piracy commissioned by the magazine National Geographic.
Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan in November 2015 told CPJ that Widodo's administration was committed to ensuring the press has free access to Papua.

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2) Indonesia Urged to Lift Ban on French Journalist After Papua Documentary
By : Edo Karensa | on 12:49 PM January 12, 2016
Jakarta. Media freedom organization Reporters Without Borders has condemned the Indonesian government for imposing a ban on a French journalist after releasing a documentary on the conflict in Papua.
The group called on President Joko Widodo to honor his promise of opening up the restive province to foreign media.
Bangkok-based reporter Cyril Payen was able to visit Papua in mid-2015 after obtaining all the necessary authorization. But the French Ambassador in Jakarta was summoned to the Indonesian Foreign Ministry after Payen’s documentary, “Forgotten War of the Papuas,” was broadcast by France 24 on Oct. 18, 2015.
In November, Indonesian officials in Bangkok notified Payen he was now "persona non grata" in Indonesia. Last week, he was told his request for a visa to make another documentary had been rejected.
“We firmly condemn this flagrant violation of media freedom and this discrimination against an independent journalist who has committed no crime,” Benjamin Ismaïl, head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk, wrote in a statement.
Ismail said the move against Payen demonstrates the election promise of President Joko Widodo to open up Papua to foreign journalists was deceptive.
“We urge him to keep this promise and to let foreign journalists do their job without having to fear surveillance, censorship or reprisals by the authorities,” he added.
Foreign journalists have long complained of the lengthy and complicated process to obtain permits to report on Papua, the only place in the country where such permission is required.
Permit issuance is rare with each request reviewed by over a dozen government agencies, including the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) and the Indonesian military.
Indonesian ranked 138th from 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index with a rating of 40.99, behind Thailand, Timor Leste and Brunei.
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HTTP://EN.RSF.ORG/INDONESIA-RSF-URGES-INDONESIA-TO-LIFT-BAN-ON-11-01-2016,48723.HTML

3) RSF URGES INDONESIA TO LIFT BAN ON FRENCH REPORTER CYRIL PAYEN

PUBLISHED ON MONDAY 11 JANUARY 2016.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the Indonesian government’s refusal to let French journalist Cyril Payen visit Indonesia following the documentary he made about West Papua, the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea, that France 24 broadcast last October. RSF points out that Indonesian President Joko Widodo promised to allow foreign reporters to visit West Papua.
A Bangkok-based reporter specializing in Southeast Asia, Payen was able to visit West Papua in mid-2015 after obtaining all the necessary authorizations before setting off.
But the French ambassador in Jakarta was summoned to the Indonesian foreign ministry after Payen’s documentary, entitled “Forgotten war of the Papuas,” was broadcast on 18 October.
Indonesian officials in Bangkok then told Payen in November that he was now persona non grata in Indonesia. And finally, he was notified last week that his request for a visa to make another documentary had been turned down.
“We firmly condemn this flagrant violation of media freedom and this discrimination against an independent journalist who has committed no crime,” said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.
“President Joko Widodo has hereby demonstrated that his election promise to open up West Papua to foreign journalists was pure deception. We urge him to keep this promise and to let foreign journalists do their job without having to fear surveillance, censorship or reprisals by the authorities.”
Foreign journalists and NGOs were long denied access to West Papua, which was forcibly annexed by the Indonesian armed forces 50 years ago.
Two French journalists, Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat, were arrested while preparing a report there in August 2014. After being held for more than two months, they were sentenced on 24 October 2014 to two and a half months in prison for violating Indonesia’s immigration law.
It was under the same draconian law, whichRSF has repeatedly condemned, that two British journalists, Rebecca Prosser and Neil Bonner, weresentenced to two and a half months in prisonon 3 November 2015 for violating the terms of their visas.
They had already spent more than 150 days in police custody when they were finally sentenced. Travelling on tourist visas, they were arrested by the Indonesian navy on 28 May 2015 while filming a reenactment of pirates attacking an oil tanker for a documentary commissioned by National Geographic.
Indonesia is ranked 138th out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.
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1) The Struggle for Merdeka in West Papua

January 12, 2016, 10:53 pm
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2) VIDEO: RSF urges Indonesia to lift Papua ban on French journalist


pacific.scoop.co.nz/2016/01/the-struggle-for-merdeka-in-west-papua/

1) The Struggle for Merdeka in West Papua

16:13 January 13, 2016 0 comments 

Press Release – Robert J. Burrowes
It has been argued that nonviolent struggles to liberate occupied countries such as West Papua, Tibet, Palestine, Kanaky and Western Sahara have failed far more often than they have succeeded but that secessionist struggles (that have sought …The Struggle for Merdeka in West Papua
Robert J. Burrowes
It has been argued that nonviolent struggles to liberate occupied countries – such as West Papua, Tibet, Palestine, Kanaky and Western Sahara – have failed far more often than they have succeeded but that secessionist struggles (that have sought to separate territory from an existing state in order to establish a new one) conducted by nonviolent means have always failed. See ‘Why Civil Resistance Works: The strategic logic of nonviolent conflict’. http://cup.columbia.edu/book/why-civil-resistance-works/9780231156820
However, this argument fails to properly take into account one crucial variable: the quality of the nonviolent strategy that has been used. Given that none of the cases cited above, for example, has ever planned and then systematically implemented a comprehensive nonviolent strategy of liberation/secession, it is accurate to observe that struggles that largely (but not necessarily wholly) reject the use of violence and then use a randomly selected and applied range of tactics, most of which are not violent, have ‘failed far more often’ or have ‘always failed’ to achieve the desired outcome.
In essence, the failure is one of strategy, not of nonviolence per se. And if we fail to identify the problem correctly, we inaccurately assign the blame for failure.
In Jason MacLeod’s new book, ‘Merdeka and the Morning Star: civil resistance in West Papua’, http://www.uqp.uq.edu.au/Book.aspx/1374/Merdeka%20and%20the%20Morning%20Star-%20Civil%20Resistance%20in the failure to develop a comprehensive strategy of any kind, violent or nonviolent, to liberate West Papua is overwhelmingly evident. And MacLeod does an excellent job of identifying why this has happened as he provides us with an overview of the history and geopolitical circumstances of the occupation of West Papua as well as a history of the resistance, both violent and nonviolent, to this occupation. He then identifies what still needs to happen if Papuans are to develop and then effectively implement a comprehensive nonviolent strategy to achieve the richly textured and multifaceted merdeka to which they aspire.
MacLeod, an Australian, has spent an enormous amount of time in West Papua since 1991 and the reason for this is explained early in the book with a compelling personal story that gives his commitment to West Papua both focus and depth. He has been actively involved in their struggle as a student (learning about the history and culture of West Papua), scholar (observing and documenting the origin and history of the occupation by interviewing key personnel and reading important documents), compassionate consultant and teacher. He has also spent time in Indonesia and travelled to many countries in search of the knowledge necessary to better understand why Indonesia occupies West Papua while most of the rest of the world either supports the occupation or does nothing.
Like all occupying powers, but particularly one that is a borderline ‘failed state’, the Indonesian elite cares nothing about West Papua, simply treating it as a resource (particularly for forest and mineral products which it can steal and then export) while subjecting Papuans to the usual abuses of occupation: lack of political recognition and participation, state violence, discrimination, racism, economic marginalisation, large-scale industrial development at the expense of traditional landowners, denial of access to health, welfare, education and other human rights, unfettered migration of Indonesians to displace/dilute the indigenous population, as well as police, paramilitary and military violence, including torture, to repress Papuan dissent.
Moreover, of course, the Indonesian elite ensures that West Papua is relatively isolated from media scrutiny, access to international agencies and diplomats (even though many western states are well known to oppose any indigenous struggle for self-determination, given it would only raise questions about their own subjugated indigenous populations).
A key feature of this occupation, which is worth emphasizing, is the Indonesian government’s facilitation of resource extraction by large transnational corporations such as Freeport-McMoRan/Rio Tinto and BP among a host of others, including a dense network of Chinese, Malaysian and Korean timber and mining companies. In this context, it is also worth noting the corrupt involvement of the Indonesian police and military in the occupation by securing financial kickbacks for providing ‘security’ to these corporations. This highly profitable corruption ensures the enthusiastic complicity and brutality of the police and military in support of the occupation.
But these are not the only problems, as MacLeod makes clear: ‘There are also significant internal movement challenges’ including significant mistrust and disunity between the various parties of the resistance both within and outside West Papua, lack of resources, inadequate political analysis, and lack of strategic planning and coordination.
In many ways, MacLeod notes, West Papua is a worst-case scenario: ‘internationally isolated and internally divided indigenous peoples facing a genocidal occupying army’.
Nevertheless, ‘Papuans continue to dream, plan and act in pursuit of self-determination and decolonisation’ with significant diplomacy, lobbying and legal work at the international level (particularly among Melanesian allies in the Pacific), a variety of local victories through women’s and worker actions within West Papua and, most notably, a clarity and agreement about the root causes of the conflict in West Papua.
Moreover, there is an emerging consensus about the desire for self-determination, respect for their rights as indigenous peoples, greater trust and unity among Papuans symbolised by the formation of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua in December 2014, and a gradually emerging consensus about the nature of their liberation strategy with many prominent Papuans articulate in their advocacy of nonviolent struggle and many organisations publicly committed to it. In the words of Reverend Benny Giay: ‘Resisting without violence is not something foreign to us, it is part of our history’. And from Reverend Herman Awom: ‘Even when we were imprisoned we tried to keep a nonviolent struggle.’
The final section of MacLeod’s book provides a compelling explanation of how Papuans might systematically address the problems they face in developing and implementing a comprehensive nonviolent strategy of liberation. It reflects the work of a thoughtful scholar who has both listened well to the needs and aspirations of the people of West Papua, knows and understands the many obstacles that need to be overcome and who has consulted the literature on nonviolent struggle and in other relevant fields.
It was in 1961 that Papuans first raised their Morning Star flag. It is still illegal to do so. Will Papuans achieve their precious merdeka and see the Morning Star flag fly freely over West Papua? Not without a struggle. But the commitment to make that nonviolent struggle more strategic has never been clearer. And it is this commitment that will make the difference. One day, West Papua will be free.
Biodata: Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is author of ‘The Strategy of Nonviolent Defense: A Gandhian Approach’. http://www.sunypress.edu/p-2176-the-strategy-of-nonviolent-defe.aspx His email address isflametree@riseup.net and his website is at http://robertjburrowes.wordpress.com
ends
Content Sourced from scoop.co.nz
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http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/pacific-media-watch/video-rsf-urges-indonesia-lift-papua-ban-french-journalist-9535
2) VIDEO: RSF urges Indonesia to lift Papua ban on French journalist



Video: Human Rights Watch
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Item: 9535
PARIS (Reporters Without Borders/Pacific Media Watch):  Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the Indonesian government’s refusal to let French journalist Cyril Payen visit Indonesia following the documentary he made about West Papua, the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea, that France 24 broadcast last October.
RSF points out that Indonesian President Joko Widodo promised to allow foreign reporters to visit West Papua.
A Bangkok-based reporter specialising in Southeast Asia, Payen was able to visit West Papua in mid-2015 after obtaining all the necessary authorisations before setting off.
But the French ambassador in Jakarta was summoned to the Indonesian Foreign Ministry after Payen’s documentary, entitled Forgotten War of the Papuas, was broadcast on October 18.
Indonesian officials in Bangkok then told Payen in November that he was now persona non grata in Indonesia. And finally, he was notified last week that his request for a visa to make another documentary had been turned down.
Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk, said:
“We firmly condemn this flagrant violation of media freedom and this discrimination against an independent journalist who has committed no crime.
“President Joko Widodo has hereby demonstrated that his election promise to open up West Papua to foreign journalists was pure deception. We urge him to keep this promise and to let foreign journalists do their job without having to fear surveillance, censorship or reprisals by the authorities.”
Foreign journalists and NGOs were long denied access to West Papua, which was forcibly annexed by the Indonesian armed forces 50 years ago.
Two French journalists, Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat, were arrested while preparing a report there in August 2014. After being held for more than two months, they were sentenced on 24 October 2014 to two and a half months in prison for violating Indonesia’s immigration law.
It was under the same draconian law, which RSF has repeatedly condemned, that two British journalists, Rebecca Prosser and Neil Bonner, weresentenced to two and a half months in prison on 3 November 2015 for violating the terms of their visas.
They had already spent more than 150 days in police custody when they were finally sentenced. Travelling on tourist visas, they were arrested by the Indonesian navy on 28 May 2015 while filming a reenactment of pirates attacking an oil tanker for a documentary commissioned by National Geographic.
Indonesia is ranked 138th out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.


France 24's Cyril Payen ... barred by Indonesia.
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1) AHRC. Urgent action-Three indigenous Papuans arbitrarily arrested, tortured and currently waiting for an uncertain justice

January 13, 2016, 11:12 am
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2) Ministry Denies Ban Towards Foreign Journalists in West Papua
3) Islands in focus: Whooping cough kills 55 Papuan children - 
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1) AHRC. Urgent action-Three indigenous Papuans arbitrarily arrested, tortured and currently waiting for an uncertain justice

An urgent action from the ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION concerning three indigenous Papuans who were arbitrarily arrested, tortured and who are currently waiting for an uncertain justice.
The appeal below. The AHRC makes kit easy for people to respond to the appeal with sample letter etc.

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Dear Friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a local network in Papua regarding the arbitrary arrest and torture of three indigenous Papuans, namely ElieserAwom (26), Yafeth Awom (18) dan Soleman Yom (24). They were arrested by four police officers in plain clothes at 11 pm in Deplat, Base-G Jayapura. The police officers drove the three men in a silver car in the direction of West Sentani. On the way they were tortured, intimidated and forced to admit that they had stolen a motorcycle.

CASE NARRATIVE:

On 27 Augsut 2015, four police officers in plain clothes arbitrarily arrested three Papuan men named Elieser Awom (26), Yafeth Awom (18) dan SolemanYom (24) in Deplat, near the Base G Beach in Jayapura, Papua province. The arrest was not carried out in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure (KUHAP), because they had no arrest warrant or clear evidence of the involvement of the victims in a criminal offence.

At 11 am, Yafeth, Elieser and Soleman were walking from the mini market near BLK (Work Training Center) to their homes. On the way, a silver Toyota Avansa was seen parked nearby. As the three men were walking, four police officers approached them and forced them to enter their car. They did not produce an arrest warrant letter. One of the police officers wore the trousers of his police uniform (celana Dinas) and carried a gun while the other officers wore civilian clothing and carried a knife and a revolver.

Inside the car the police officers beat the victims, tortured them with a lighted cigarette and forced them to confess their involvment in a motorcycle theft…….

Details


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WEDNESDAY, 13 JANUARY, 2016 | 16:42 WIB
2) Ministry Denies Ban Towards Foreign Journalists in West Papua

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta -Deputy Foreign Minister Abdurrahman Mohammad Fachir denied that the Foreign Ministry has imposed a ban against foreign journalists from entering Papua to cover human rights cases. According to Fachir, journalists can enter Papua regardless of reporting material. "There is no ban," said Fachir on Wednesday, January 13, 2016.
Fachir said that foreign journalists will be treated like state guest. For example, the journalists will be questioned about their purpose of visit and whom they will meet during their stay in Indonesia. "But there is no supervision or ban," said Fachir.
Previously, French journalists Cyril Payen was barred from entering Papua after his documentary titled 'Forgotten War of the Papua' was broadcasted on October 18, 2015. Later on November 2015, Payen was declared as a persona non grata and was forbidden to enter West Papua although President Joko Widodo had already revoked the ban on May 2015.
Last year, two French journalists, Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat, were sentenced to prison after they were caught trying to make a documentary about separatist movement in West Papua.
TIKA PRIMANDARI
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3) Islands in focus: Whooping cough kills 55 Papuan children - 

The Jakarta Post, Jayapura | Archipelago | Wed, January 13 2016, 3:21 PM

The deaths of 55 children in Mbuwa district, Nduga regency, Papua, between November 2015 and January have been attributed to pertussis, or whooping cough, a highly contagious respiratory disease.

“Based on the results of lab tests conducted by the Health Ministry the minister has announced that the deaths of the children in Mbuwa were due to pertussis,” said Papua Health Office head Aloysius Giay in Jayapura on Tuesday. 

The illness continues to infect children in Mbuwa. Papua People’s Assembly (MPR) member Luis Madai said five children had reportedly died from the disease between the end of December last year and early this month.

“Based on the report from the Nduga Health Office, 55 children died of the disease. The latest report stated that five more children died from the end of December to early January this year,” said Madai. 

Since the deaths were reported in Mbuwa, the Health Ministry, the Papua Health Office and children’s welfare groups have made strenuous efforts curb the outbreak. -
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A simple way we can all support West Papua. Download new film

January 14, 2016, 5:07 pm
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How to help West Papua 
Punks for West Papua ( P4WP) have released  their new film on West Papua. Many people ask how can they  help West Papua. A simple way people can help  is by downloading the film. The funds raised are being generously donated to the West Papuan umbrella organisation , The United Liberation Movement For West Papua (ULMWP) . In a series of nation wide gigs last year the Punks raised over $6000 for the ULMWP. All people can help the West Papuan struggle by supporting this initiative. 

Please forward on through your networks.
Film can be downloaded at 

www.punks4westpapua.com
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1) 15 PERCENT OF REGIONAL BUDGET ALLOCATED FOR HEALTH DEVELOPMENT

January 16, 2016, 10:35 pm
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2) SECURITY FORCES CLOSE ENTRY POINTS TO PNG IN HUNT FOR ESCAPED PRISONERS
3) MILITARY READY TO SUPPORT CLEARING TO MAKE WAY FOR 150 HECTARES OF PADDY FIELDS IN NABIRE REGENCY
4) Electricity Supplies Affect Human Development Index In Papua 
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1) 15 PERCENT OF REGIONAL BUDGET ALLOCATED FOR HEALTH DEVELOPMENT
Jan 13, 2016
Wamena, Jubi – Papua health chief Drg. Aloysius Giay reminded Papua’s regional heads to allocate 15 percent of the Regional Budget for health development.
He said in Wamena on Tuesday (12/01/2016) that budget allocation for health development is mandated in the Law 21/2001 on Papua Special Autonomy.
“I ask to the regional and municipal governments to allocate at least 15 percent of their total budget for health services development. It is the mandate of Papua Special Autonomy Law,” he said.
Related to this issue, he also reminded the regional heads and their officials to not reduce the allocated budget for health sector. Without adequate budgetary support, he said, the health development in many regencies and municipality in Papua would not be well implemented.
As the result, he said, such regions would difficult to provide the basic health services, moreover to deal with epidemic diseases that might lead to death of citizens as it was occurred recently at Mbua Sub-district, Nduga Regency.
“If the Regional Health officials proposed the Budget Plan for health services, I ask the regent or Regional Planning Development Agency or Regional Finance Agency to not reduce the figures,” he said.
Giay also reminded all stakeholders whose tasks and responsibilities are taking care the public services, especially related to the health services, to work seriously.
Until now, Papua Health Office is still waiting further confirmation from the Animal Husbandry Office on the result of laboratory tests on mass chicken death before the extraordinary case of dozens of infant mortality in that area. (*/rom)
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2) SECURITY FORCES CLOSE ENTRY POINTS TO PNG IN HUNT FOR ESCAPED PRISONERS
Jan 13, 2016
Jayapura, Jubi – Following the escape of thirteen prisoners from Abepura Prison on 8 January, the joint Police and Military forces deployed in hunting and chasing the prisoners moved restrict their space by closing at least thirty-one byways or known as rat lines, unofficial road access to Papua New Guinea.
The Military Regional District 172/PWY Commander, Colonel Infantry Sugiyono said those byways are located in Skow border area, Jayapura Municipality and Keerom Regency. He said the security forces needs to anticipate those road accesses since criminals frequently used it to cross the land.
“We will continue to restrict surveillance along the rat lines by intensifying patrols. We have authority to close it because people who used to take these roads have no good intention, therefore we oblige to pay more attention, in particular through the nearest post towards the rat lines,” Commander Sugiyono
told reporters after the launching of 1701 Regional Military Media Center on Tuesday (12/1/2016).
He said an indication of prisoners taking the roads is very large; moreover there is close affiliation among people living in the Indonesia-PNG border area.
“Earlier the rate lines along the Indonesia – PNG border has been our attention, but the escape of thirteen prisoners lead us to improve the patrols. In assisting the Police to hunt those thirteen prisoners, Regional Military District 172/PWY deploy 1,400 soldiers of three battalions,” he said.
Papua Police Chief, Inspector General Paulus Waterpauw similarly said the Police and Military have restricted those areas since Friday evening (8/1/2016). (Arjuna Pademme/rom)
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3) MILITARY READY TO SUPPORT CLEARING TO MAKE WAY FOR 150 HECTARES OF PADDY FIELDS IN NABIRE REGENCY
Jan 12, 2016

Nabire, Jubi – The acting Nabire regent has launched a paddy field extension project of 150 hectares in Nabire Regency on Monday (11/1/2016).
The project would start in February 2016 by clearing land intended for cultivation, said the Head of Nabire Agriculture and Plantation Office, Yasor V. Sawo at the allocated paddy field located at Wanggar Sari Village of Wanggar Sub-district, Nabire Regency, Papua.
This preparation of paddy field, according to him, is targeted to be done in June or July 2016 and ready for planting.
He added the preparation process would be fully done by Army Engineering Directorate while the Nabire Agriculture and Plantation Office has obligation to supervise and monitor the implementation of work until ready for planting.
“Land clearing, weeding, paddy bedding, irrigation, patches and so on are the Army’s responsibilities,” he said.
While the funding source for the land clearing and this preparation is derived from the State Budget of the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture of the fiscal year 2016. “The unit cost per hectare is Rp 20 million. If it’s multiplied with 150 hectares, the total is approximately Rp 300 million,” he said.
At the same place, the 1705 Paniai Military District Commander Lieutenant Air Defense Artillery Yulian Iskandar said the military personnel are always ready to support the agricultural program in Papua, in particular in Nabire Regency.
“Because it has been planned in the program of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Indonesian Army through a Memorandum of Understanding to improve the paddy field in Nabire Regency,” he said.
“And obviously as soldiers in the 1705 Paniai District Command, together with Denzipur 12-OHH (Engineering Battalion), we will execute the work,” he said. (Munir/rom)
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4) Electricity Supplies Affect Human Development Index In Papua 
Jan 13, 2016

Jayapura, Jubi – Energy and Mineral Resources Office said the low human development index in Papua was the result of unequal distribution of electricity.
“HDI in Papua is low, even lower than West Papua Province. Let’s review, it is certain worst in the regions with no electricity,” the Head of Papua Energy and Mineral Resources Office, Bangun Manurung, said in Jayapura on Tuesday (12/1/2016).
Manurung said his office has mentioned about the Solar Power Plant and Micro-hydro Power Plan to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, but he thought the ministry has different reactions than any other ministry.
It is different because of other ministries have given tasks or delegated responsibilities to those worked in provincial or regional levels, but the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources want to solve the problem on their own, while this problem has been delivered continuously.
“Perhaps it is because of small population in Papua, therefore it does not become their major priority in the nationwide electricity improvement. Although I am not certain about their reason,” he said.
However, Papua Energy and Mineral Resources Office would continuously urge the ministry to allow the ministry and institutional budget could be allocated for Papua, it would be better if Papua prepares a Detail Engineering Design.
“HDI in Papua is obviously not determined by road access but electricity supplies. Therefore, we should move together to stand for this,” Manurung said.
Earlier, the General Manager of State Electricity Company Region Papua and West Papua, Robert Sitorus said to meet the needs of electricity supplies in Papua, the company is planning to build a Gas Power Plant of 240 Megawatt capacities that would be centralized in Jayapura Municipality, Merauke Regency and Mimika Regency. (Alexander Loen/rom)
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1) A decade on, asylum-seekers’ struggle for West PapuaA decade on, asylum-seekers’ struggle for West Papua

January 17, 2016, 11:52 am
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2) Civil Resistance in West Papua
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1) A decade on, asylum-seekers’ struggle for West PapuaA decade on, asylum-seekers’ struggle for West Papua
THE AUSTRALIAN JANUARY 18, 2016 12:00AM 
Deborah Cassrels  Journalist



Marike Tebay and Adolf Moro, who escaped West Papua by boat 10 years ago. Picture: Aaron Francis

Under cover of darkness, 43 West Papuan asylum-seekers clambered aboard a dugout canoe at midnight. The cue to flee Indon­esian persecution in the province of West Papua in January 2006 was urgent.
They had been subjected to brutal repression at the hands of the Indonesian regime.
Reports of government-sanctioned murders, political assassinations, imprisonment and torture were common.

Yesterday, many refugees marked the anniversary of their life-changing escape with a canoe and kayak re-enactment on Melbourne’s Yarra River.
Mostly strangers in 2006, the tight-knit “family’’ — some of whom have married within their community, had children, separ­ated and achieved university degree­s since their odyssey — has nurtured an undying desire for self-determination.
Seven of the group tell The Australian in Melbourne of their journeys and the perilous four-day crossing that nearly cost them their lives and provoked a diplomatic crisis between Jakarta and Canberra. Lost in stormy seas, they exhausted food and water supplies, despairing as they prayed for deliverance.

On January 17, to their resound­ing relief, they spotted land but worried that they had inadvertent­ly strayed back to Indon­esian territory.
“We would have been killed,’’ says Adolf Moro, 32, father of a six-year-old son born in Australia, owner of a small business and an engineering and business student at RMIT.
As it transpired, they were drifting off Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula, oblivious to the fact that their arrival presaged a rift with Indonesia over concern that Australia was tacitly supporting Papuan independence.
Jakarta warned that bilateral co-operation to stop people-smuggling operations and counter­-terrorism were under apprais­al. Amid accusations of appeasement, then prime minister John Howard agreed to change immigration procedures to ensure future boat arrivals would be processed offshore.
While trying to guess their locati­on, the 43 noticed telltale crocodile warnings and signs depicti­ng Australia’s unofficial emblems: emus and kangaroos.
It was a moment of sublime joy. ‘‘We were in Australia! We were so excited,’’ says Marike Tebay, 28, from Papua’s central highlands. Huddled beneath a tree on the beach, Tebay was so ravenous she ate the ants crawling beside her. The eerie calm was short-lived: media soon hovered in helicopters, the navy and Australian Federal Police arrived. ‘They pointed a gun at us. I was petrified,’’ she says.
For three months they were on Christmas Island as Australian Immigration officials deemed their claims genuine, granting them temporary protection visas.
Now most — two returned to West Papua — call Australia home but would prefer to live in their homeland, if it gains independence.

A low-level separatist insurgency has been waged in the former­ Dutch colony since Indon­esia took control of the province in 1963.
West Papuan deaths resulting from Indonesian military and police violence are disputed, says Indonesian Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Har­sono, but estimates vary at between­ 100,00 and 500,00.
Carrying Australian citizenship and permanent protection visas, the Papuans are scattered across the country, with a large nucleus in Melbourne. Some have never returned to West Papua; others have sporadically, and those who do complain of being followed and intimidated.
Yet it’s still home. “I’m living in exile. We’re still struggling for West Papua’s freedom,” says Moro.
Echoing an overarching sentiment of the group, he aims to impar­t the skills learned in Australia and democratise the remote far-eastern island.
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2) Civil Resistance in West Papua
By Jason Macleod Global Research, January 13, 2016
West Papua is a secret story. On the western half of the island of New Guinea, hidden from the world, in a place occupied by the Indonesian military since 1963, continues a remarkable nonviolent struggle for national liberation. 
In Merdeka and the Morning Star, academic Jason MacLeod gives an insider’s view of the trajectory and dynamics of civil resistance in West Papua. Here, the indigenous population has staged protests, boycotts, strikes and other nonviolent 

This is the first in-depth account of civilian-led insurrection in West Papua, a movement that has transitioned from guerrilla warfare to persistent nonviolent resistance. MacLeod analyses several case studies, including tax resistance that pre-dates Gandhi’s Salt March by two decades, worker strikes at the world’s largest gold and copper mine, daring attempts to escape Indonesian rule by dugout canoe, and the collection of a petition in which signing meant to risk being shot dead.
Merdeka and the Morning Star is a must-read for all those interested in Indonesia, the Pacific, self-determination struggles and nonviolent ways out of occupation. [Order the book by clicking on the image of it on the right]

West Papuans Testify

We have come to testify. There is much that we want the world to know.
We want you to travel with us to the remote places of Papua—Wamena, Paniai, the Jayawijaya Highlands, the Star Mountains, Mindiptana, Timika, Arso, Mamberamo, Biak, Merauke, Asmat and many other places. We want you to hear stories of suffering from the mouths of ordinary people. Our memories are clear and sharp.
‘In this river our father was murdered’
‘On that mountain slope there used to be villages. They were destroyed by the military’
‘On that open field, our old men were forced to burn their koteka [penis sheaths] because they were considered primitive’
‘In the past that mountain was ours, now people have destroyed our mother’
We want you to travel with us to the sites of the massacres. We want to testify about the killings and the beatings with rifles.
We want to testify about the people who were disappeared, those who were imprisoned and those who were tortured.
There have been many forms of torture – the burning, the stabbing of the genitals, the rape of women.
These are some of the injustices that we want the world to know.
On some days bombs have fallen like rain. We have been up against Hercules aircraft and helicopters and boats. They had overwhelming power.
And after the massacres or murders, the injustices always continue.
Rather than acknowledge the truth, they tell lies.
The perpetrators are promoted not punished, while the victims are dragged into court.
Some of us have spent years in prison. One of us was jailed for 15 years simply for raising our Morning Star flag.
Over years we have faced one injustice after another and then another.
There has been violation after violation since 1963. Entire villages have been destroyed. And Papuan people have been turned against other Papuans.
Injustices continue to this day. Today we face human rights violations, economic injustice, and every week thousands more migrants come in white ships and planes. We are becoming a minority in our land.
Those who resist face continuing discrimination. We are excluded from employment, education and health care. And for women, it has been worse.
They suffered the rapes and assaults and then even more. They were shamed by their own families and often marriages broke apart. These are forms of double injustice and women’s suffering that no one should ever have to face.
These are just some of the injustices that we are testifying to today.
We want the world to know about this.
We also want to testify to the effects of these injustices
Some of our bodies bear the scars.
And so do our souls. We will never forget the sound of the killings.
Some of us still feel the fear. For those who fled we don’t know if we will be safe when we return.
Other survivors have been left with physical disabilities and troubles in the mind.
The rapes brought shame – so much shame that some women did not seek medical help.
And sometimes survivors may feel guilty for being alive. The killings can make us doubt that we have a right to live.
There have been effects for children too. Fear came to the children who did not go to school for months.
When the foreigners have taken our land, cut down our forests and destroyed our rivers, this destruction affects us too. The loss of our sacred places has brought sickness to our people.
And sometimes we feel like we are slaves in our own land. Some of us have to struggle everyday just to feed our families and send our children to school.
But there is more that we want you to know.
We want you to know our testimonies of remembrance.
We are survivors and also witnesses. We have always remembered those who were killed. We will remember them until we die.
There are many ways that we do this.
We have cultural ways of joining in memory and in prayer. We place stones or wreaths of flowers. And there are traditional songs that we use to connect us with those who have died and with the ancestors. These are songs we can sing to those who have passed. We do this in a quiet place, a garden, a beach.
Or we remember through making statues of our loved ones, or photos, or lighting candles. We commune with our ancestors.
But we never forget them. They are with us. Those of us who are still alive have a responsibility to keep progressing the struggle. I have dreams of those who were killed in the jungle. They come to me in my dreams and they encourage me to keep going. I dreamt of them just last week. I listen to their voices.
If they knew that we were meeting together now, if they knew that we were gathering this testimony, they would be very happy. This would mean something to them.
They have gone over there to another world. We will always remember them.
We also want you to know the stories of our resistance, action and rescue
Our people have a long, long history of resistance. We Papuans have been resisting outsiders for centuries. Back to the 1850s, the Dutch who were seeking to protect their spice trade, faced more than 40 Papuan rebellions – both violent and nonviolent. Diverse tribes came together to resist. Angganeta Menufandu, a Konor (indigenous prophet) from Biak Island, led a mass defiance of government and mission bans on wor (ritual singing and dancing) and urged her followers not to pay taxes and to withhold labor. When the Japanese invaded, towards the end of World War Two, they were initially welcomed but, after acts of cruelty, the movement for a free and independent West Papua began again. The killings and massacres began in these times. And our resistance continued.
Our struggle for freedom continued after WWII when the US drove the Japanese out of West Papua at the cost of thousands of lives. And since 1963 we have resisted Indonesian government rule.
We remember our long history of resistance. This history raises us up.
We carry it on.
Many of us have formed organisations of action. We come together for survivors of human rights abuses, for women, for people all over Papua.
We form resistance groups. We are students, young people, older people, women, men, religious leaders and traditional leaders. We take action on behalf of those who are living and those who are no longer alive.
Some of us, who witnessed massacres, were involved in acts of rescue on the days when bullets were raining down, and when the sky was on the fire. After the Biak Massacre our family gave shelter to two men who were fleeing for their lives. My father gave them his clothes. He sat my sisters on their laps. We sat down quietly and we opened all the doors and all the windows. When the soldiers came in with all their weaponry, we stood there shaking. As they held their guns at us, and asked us if we were hiding anyone, we said no. We were all shaking, my father, my sisters, myself, but we survived, and the two men survived too. For four days they stayed with us. We had almost no food but my mother found a way to feed us. We are survivors, rescuers and resistors.
Right across Papua, and for so many years, we have continued to resist, to rescue and to raise the Morning Star. When we cannot fly our flag we have painted it on our bodies, stitched it into noken string bags. When one of us was imprisoned for 15 years for raising our flag, he was offered amnesty if he apologised, but he refused. ‘Why should I say sorry? I have done nothing wrong. It is the Indonesian state who has to say sorry. And not just to me but to all the Papuan people. They have to return our sovereignty.’
And even though it is risky for us there are many times we have come out on to the streets in our thousands, even in our tens of thousands, to demand freedom.
These are just some of our stories of resistance. There are stories of resistance all over Papua.
We want you to know that building unity is not easy – but we are doing it
The Indonesian government and corporations use many methods to divide us. To turn Papuans against Papuans. If some people raise their voice, the company will come – or the government will come – and say, ‘Hey come into the office, let’s talk.’ They then give that person money, or a scholarship, or a good job. These are some of the ways our opponent uses to break our resistance.
But we keep taking steps to come together. There is a long history to this. When the Amungme have a problem we build a traditional house. In this house – this Tongoi – people come, sit down and talk. We invite every leader and chief from every village. People come together in one mind. When people then go out of the Tongoi they are going to bring a change. These are traditional ways of calling up assistance. In our culture, no one can stand up by themselves. Everyone needs everyone.
So we keep taking steps to come together. We have now formed the United Liberation Movement for West Papua. Inside this United Movement are the National Federal Republic of West Papua (NFRWP), the West Papua National Coalition of Liberation (WPNCL), National Committee for West Papua (KNPB), National Parliament for West Papua (PNWP) and other non-affiliated groups. We are strengthening our struggle and as we do so more and more people join us. People in other Pacific nations are raising their voices.
Our resistance is like a mat or noken – many strands woven together to become one.
Our resistance is like a spear, sharp and dangerous.
Our resistance is like a drum that speaks with the voices of the ancestors.
We want you to know about Papuan skills in survival
Despite all the injustices we have faced, we are survivors and we have many skills. We are wise about when to speak, when to stay quiet, and when to sing our songs. Some of these songs were written in prison for the future of West Papua. Some of our singers have been arrested and murdered. But we continue to sing freedom.
We also have our dances. We wear our traditional dress, and dance traditional Papuan dances. Our Papuan culture helps us to love and care for one another. When we live inside our culture we are free.
We have prayer, faith in Jesus Christ, and God as our witness.
And we have each other. We are among friends and we want to acknowledge all those who have stood with us.
There are other Papuan survival skills too.
Like mothers’ skills of endurance. Mothers who sell fruit and vegetables to feed their families and send their children to school display their produce on hessian mats by the side of the road. Rain, hail, sun and dust they sit. They survive.
Some of us travelled by canoe with 43 others all the way to Australia to seek another life. Years later, some of us sailed back to West Papua with the Freedom Flotilla. The West Papuans, Aboriginal elders and other Australian supporters on board the Flotilla carried a message of peace and solidarity, and reignited ancient connections.
And we have skills in humour, in jokes and in laughter. Even in the hardest times, we pray, we sing, we dance, and somehow we find a way to laugh.
We want you to know about our hopes and our dreams
We carry a big hope together … a free West Papua. We have held onto this hope for many, many years.
As we lift up these injustices to the light, then all the other cases will also be lifted up.
And we carry a hope for justice – international justice, western justice, West Papuan justice, spiritual justice.
That is why we are testifying today.
We are sharing with you testimonies of injustice.
We are speaking about the effects of these injustices.
We are sharing testimonies of remembrance.
We are sharing stories of resistance, action and rescue.
We are sharing the ways we build unity.
We are sharing our Papuan survival skills.
And we are testifying to our hopes and to our dreams.
What we are testifying here has been an open secret. We have always known this, God has always known this, but now you will know it too.
This means that now you are also witnesses.
So these stories and our hopes will now also be carried by you.
Thank you.
Jason MacLeod is an organiser, researcher and educator. He is the author of the just-published book ‘Merdeka and the Morning Star: civil resistance in West Papua’. Order his book here.
This testimony was written in collaboration with Mama Tineke and Daniel Rayer, two West Papuan activists who survived the Biak Massacre, and David Denborough from the Dulwich eCntre. It contains the voices of many of the people of West Papua Jason has collaborated with and is in part based on a similar testimony developed for the Biak Massacre Citizens Tribunal.
The original source of this article is Global Research
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1) NO PAPUAN HAS INDONESIAN SOUL : PAPUA GOVERNOR

January 18, 2016, 12:31 am
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1) NO PAPUAN HAS INDONESIAN SOUL : PAPUA GOVERNOR
2) Abbott and Turnbull make Howard look compassionate
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1) NO PAPUAN HAS INDONESIAN SOUL : PAPUA GOVERNOR
Jan 17, 2016
Jayapura, Jubi – In the courtyard of Governor Lukas Enembe’s residential compound located in Angkasa, an elite neighborhood in Jayapura, Papua, two Christmas trees of 3 meters height stood in delightful decorations. The balcony provided the view of the sea and hills covered in fog to the heavy rain on 15 December 2015.
After waiting for about five hours, Tempo was allowed to come in. Wearing predominantly orange and beige Papuan motif batik, Enembe confessed he was not fit after visiting Freeport’s mining tunnel in Timika on 1 December.
“I didn’t use an oxygen mask at that time, so I had shortness of breath. Doctor advised me to undergo infusion, it’ll take for a minute,” Enembe told Maria Rita Hasugian, Tempo journalist, in an interview in the living room of his official residence.
For around two hours, Enembe answered the questions from Tempo on the strengthening of the role of Papuan young generation in voicing independence of Papua, awful conditions in several regencies, special autonomy, and the ownership of Freeport’s shares. The governor spoke softly and laughed out of loud several times. The former Puncak Jaya Regent—region known as the territorial of the National Liberation Army—Papua Free Movement led by Goliath Tabuni—said he is still the same person when he was Puncak Jaya Regent who talked loud, blunt, not contaminated with the interests of others. Here is the interview.
How is the political situation in Papua with calls growing louder among youth for Papuan independence?
From beginning, Papuans are politically different with people in other regions. Freeport’s contract of work in Papua already existed in 1967. Papua has not been integrated with Indonesia. The integration was in 1969. Papuans, in particular those in the coastal area, were promised to build their own country. It was actually triggering Papuans to keep fighting until today. It created remarkable political barriers and could never shape Papuans’ soul that we are Indonesian. Until today it’s never materialized. Jakarta thought Papuans are foolish, discriminated them while they are actually human beings. They (Papuans) completely understand, they understand the history and so on. They are very smart.
So, What should Jakarta do?
Jakarta enforced its own ways. It’s not right. Any problems could be solved if Papuans had self-determination what is the best for them. But if it was enforced, it could not be happened, it continues to happen from generation to generation. We looked at the Papuan history that from the start the political barriers are already existed. So Papua needs proper regulation to organize themselves to feel being part of Indonesia. It should be done independently, not by Jakarta, because we are humans. Such as the Law No. 21 (Special Autonomy Law) is not well implemented. Therefore Papuans increasingly don’t believe it. We asked Jakarta to trust on Papuans. If not, their perspectives on Jakarta and Indonesia-nationalism would be faded.
Has there been any change in Jakarta’s policies towards Papua now?
In the era of President Soeharto, Jakarta was very arrogant. In the New Order era, there was a Military Operation Territorial, and so on. Now, Indonesia is changing from time to time. It’s not the past. It could not be done through violence. The access of information is now opened. Today if we do something in Tolikara, the world would be informed immediately. So, there are the roots of problem that have not resolved yet. It made the new generation, the generation who born in 70-es are those who felt the oppression, experienced the military operations. They were born under the New Order system, which is centralistic and repressive, such as Benny Wenda whose mother was killed.
Many approaches taken by the government to get Papuans’ trust, but so far it’s not work out. Do you have any concrete suggestion?
I have opinion like this: there are many groups in Papua that existed only for their short-term personal interests, but claim they are great, have access, but there are also those who defense for the interests of Papua. So, to build a trust to Indonesia, it needs a regulation to revise the Special Autonomy Law through a new regulation. We fix some shortages through new regulation. What was happened during the time is it’s almost not implemented.
Once there was an evaluation?
Evaluation has never been conducted. You offer the Special Autonomy Plus? We are enforcing it to become Prolegnas (National Legislature Program) 2016. Hopefully the government will approve it, talk about this issue. The affirmative rights of Papuans are included in this law, especially Papua development. Currently, in the condition of rich in Papua, Papuans are poor. Jakarta does not make Papua as an object of exploitation of natural resources. But it is applied for the greatest people’s progress and prosperity. It should be fight. We have understood that people come to Papua for camouflage. Freeport is the evidence. All people actually wanted to approach Freeport. So if there are people who come for business interest, personal interest, taking the natural resources, the people of Papua would only wacth, they could only pray: Lord, thy own way of work has determined them. Papuans actually knew how greedy are those people to fight for the land of Papua.
There are systematic Papuan organizations for Papua independence such as KNPB and ULMWP. What do you say about this phenomenon?
Our brothers thought Jakarta could not longer be counted. That’s I thought. Therefore they expressed their voice to the international level. Hopefully Jakarta could understand it as something that should be resolved in Papua. There must be something big to be done in Papua in order to make Papuans obey to the country and have a feeling of being Indonesian, have character as Indonesian, have equal capacity like others, not feeling poor, not feeling dumb.
Where does the government have to unravel this?
It is costly for reconciliation due to some political agendas needs to be thoroughly settled from Jakarta. For instance, if you want solve problem in Papua, invite them and discuss with them. Did you mean a dialogue? It is a dialogue in the sense of building togetherness of Indonesia, to build Papua. It should involve all components, including the opposite groups. It doesn’t mean we want a separation. But Papuans regard this dialogue as an effort to separate from Indonesia, it’s wrong.
In your opinion, the opposite groups want a dialogue?
I think they would. For example the Papua Peace Network has already worked, if possible involve all components including those who oppose us. What worries of this dialogue that has not been implemented until now? It would probably lead us to the options of referendum or independent. Because dialogue in the sense of Papuans means the independence.
The existence of TPN-OPM (West Papua Liberation Army-Papua Free Movement) is quite tense lately?
Everyone got killed was often enough to accuse them (as perpetrator). It’s bad stigma for Papuans. Not everyone in Papua are TPN-OPM, but whenever the murder was occurred, TPN-OPM was accused. It cannot be generated. It’s a part of State’s apparatus that affected the national situation. I asked to my colleagues to be careful in placing themselves as security forces in Papua. Stop making trouble, Jakarta will feel disturbed.
Do you think that you are not being respected as leader in Papua?
Tolikara case was a set up. It might have a certain purpose. Do not think Papuans are stupid, no. They knew.
Until now the ballistic test of shooting case in Tolikara never been revealed to the public. Why?
All incidents occurred in Papua have never been revealed. The ballistic test was nonsense.
Then how to uncover the truth?
The truths, justice to discover cases occurred in Papua have never been happened. People just got killed like that. It is said the perpetrators were hunted, but where? Every shooting incident has never completely settled. Not thoroughly, entirely done.
In your opinion, what is exactly behind those incidents?
The great plan is Jakarta for taking control over Papua to take our potential natural resources. Imagine that from 1969 until now, all those potencies have been taken; illegal logging is still happened as well as illegal fishing. And illegal mining is also occurred since certain people only manage it, or it just took out and here considered as no man’s land.
How big is the tolerance of Papuans towards the current situation?
Jakarta should not forget that indigenous people live in Papua. If it’s destroyed, it still be revive, their history is existed from time to time. Papuans were dismissed, the number of immigrants was increased, it is not becoming problem because Papuan nature is alive. Jakarta shouldn’t use this method to destroy Papua. The impact of this problem could become a time bomb in the future.
You met the Minister of Politic, Legal and Human Rights Affairs related to Freeport’s share at the early of last December. What did you say to him?
Papua’s reaction is clear, it is the right moment for the extension of work of contract 2021. We have expressed the provincial government’s aspiration. We have 17 proposed items that have been discussed in the final period of the President Yudhoyono. And we said the same thing to Jokowi. An important point of 17 points is shareholder. The government should have a right regulation to get the shares. The participation of Papua government as shareholder should be determined this time. We might find a right pattern, probably such as Mahakam Block. Both Papua Government and indigenous Papuans must earn permanent dividend each year. We still discuss this issue.
Papua is impressed insecure, that foreign journalist could not enter Papua until now.
Who bans? Papua is safe indeed. Have you complaint to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs because foreign journalists are not allowed to Papua? Here we declare to any journalists, you are allowed to come. The access has been opened. Nothing is hidden now. Foreign journalist could come to other regions, why should they not be here?
There is information that the DOM status has not been officially revoked?
I don’t know whether it has been revoked or not. It looks still applicable. When did it revoke, we don’t know.
You make a policy concerning to the allocation of autonomy funding that 80 percent to regional governments and 20 percent to provincial government. But in Wamena, the hospital condition is poor, in Tolikara it’s reported the high teachers’ absence that they only come just ahead to the exam. Do you know about this?
Well, this policy of 80:20 was only running for a year. About Rp 4 trillion was allocated to regency. It’s only a first stage. No thorough evaluation at this stage. Indeed, it depends to each regent. If they really want to implement their vision-mission, they should allocate budget in accordance to Special Regional Regulation, that is 20-30 percent for education, 30 percent for health, and 20 percent for economic development. Strict to regulation therefore they can focus to their objective, management and targets. I believe we can gradually fix it. If the regents are not focus, have no future perspective towards their achievable target, the regions were going to die and people would suffer.
Have you find irregularities in the use of special autonomy budget?
Bappeda (Regional Planning Development Agency) made a report; it is still one year implementation. So we have not been evaluated. We will form a bigger team to evaluate the implementation of 80 percent budget in the second year. The team will be consisted of many stakeholders.
There is information about misuse of rice for poor program. Do you have any report about profiteering?
We knew. It was occurred from here or from the logistic warehouse in Wamena. How is the mechanism of rice distribution?
It should be done from here (Jayapura) to Logistic Office in Wamena. So was it happened in Wamena or from here, we would carefully see it. If it was occurred in Wamena, the weaknesses are at regional logistic office or its officials. Has it been investigated?
No, there is no investigation so far. We have to form a team. It is an outstanding violation. There should be an investigation in Wamena, whether the Jayawijaya Government know about it or not, or it was played by logistic officials.
Have you received a report?
No. I just heard. It means the weakness is in Wamena. We should find out whether the Jayawijaya Government got involved, that they are the actor. Many have complaint about it, but it’s still ongoing.
How to address the expensive cost of basic commodities in the central highland?
Well, it’s normal. As long as the industry has not been built in Papua, it would be costly. What kind of economic activities to address the high cost of basic commodities for people? It must be an industry in Papua. We talk about the construction of smelter, it would affect to the building of other industry. Therefore it could reduce the prices. As long as there is no industry, the prices of goods are still expensive. Nothing is cheap in the highland.
Any intervention to reduce prices?
We talk about building an industry. Because the mode of transportation there is airplane, so our intervention is open the road access. Hopefully in 2018 we could open the entire road access. Left only the asphalting phase. If the road access was opened, it would open up the economic activities surround the central highland.
What do you say about the situation in Papua?
We want Papuans to consider them as Indonesian; it must start from Papuans, then followed by the government’s act about how it prepares time and opportunity for Papuans. Do not use Jakarta’s ways in here. What is Jakarta’s ways? It is like enforcing the will without listening Papuans. There is no policy from Jakarta without involving all institutions that established by State in Papua. To our brothers in the opposite group, we must convince them in soft way that could be trust by Papuans, through bargaining approach.
When their heart were cut, do you think how much of percentage of Papuans currently to support the Republic of Indonesia?
If their heart were cut, they would say: I want freedom (laughing). They must speak like that.
Certainly it’s not easy to establish a country…
Therefore we hope the Jakarta Government to give affirmation with fully attention towards Papuan people. From the regulation aspect, do not make laws to harm Papuans. In 2020, Papua will be the host of National Sports Event. We encourage people to more think about the sports instead of politic. We must push young people to be passionate to compete in sports event. Therefore this region not just continuously talks about the political issues, like we are the hostages. Papuans also should be independent, not depend on the central government. So there are restoration, independent and prosperity. (*)

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2) Abbott and Turnbull make Howard look compassionate
JAN 18, 2016 1:11PM
Ten years ago this week 43 asylum seekers made landfall on Australia’s Cape York Peninsula after fleeing persecution at the hands of military and police in Indonesian-controlled West Papua. What happened next is hard to imagine occurring today.
After several months on Christmas Island (where they were enthusiastically welcomed by locals) the group had their asylum claims accepted and were given permanent protection by the conservative Howard government.
The controversial move angered Indonesia and was seen as a gesture of support by the Australian government for West Papua’s independence movement. It was a bold move by Howard — but it was the right one. Australia has long turned a blind eye to Indonesia’s ongoing persecution and torture of the indigenous population in West Papua, our closest neighbour.
Compare that to the treatment received by a group of seven West Papuans who arrived by boat in the Torres Strait in 2013, under the Abbott government.
The group, which included a 10-year-old boy, was quietly shuffled off to a squalid refugee camp on Papua New Guinea’s porous border with Indonesia, where they claimed their lives were in danger. Their asylum claims were not even considered.
During Howard’s decade in power, immigration procedures were tightened, conditions in detention centres were notoriously bad, and asylum seekers were shamelessly politicised.
And yet, it’s a measure of how low Australian has sunk in its treatment of refugees that, 10 years on, even the Howard years are starting to seem mildly humanitarian in comparison.
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1) West Papua independence leaders plan to open an office in Honiara, Solomon Islands.

January 18, 2016, 12:05 pm
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2) BREAKING: Freeport Indonesia’s Chief Maroef Sjamsuddin Resigns
3) Freeport Indonesia boss  resigns
4) LP3BH Executive Director meets the Ambassador of the USA
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Published On anuary 18 2016 Posted by PNG Today



1) West Papua independence leaders plan to open an office in Honiara, Solomon Islands.

Their leader Jacob Rumbiak arrived in Honiara on Friday to further discuss the intention with local supporters.

A member of the Solomon Islands Solidarity Group for West Papua Lily Chekana told the Sunday Star an office space was already allocated for West Papua.

She said the office was located inside the headquarters of Guadalcanal Province at Kukum, east Honiara.

Chekana also added a plot of land in Honiara had been set aside for the West Papua office.

Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has been a staunch supporter of the West Papua independence cause.

As chair of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), he ensured West Papua was accorded observer status at the MSG summit held in Honiara last year.

West Papuan leaders were welcomed by their local supporters on arrival at Henderson Airport on Friday.




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2) BREAKING: Freeport Indonesia’s Chief Maroef Sjamsuddin Resigns
Freeport Indonesia CEO Maroef Sjamsoeddin. (Antara Photo/Widodo S. Jusuf)
By : Muhamad Al Azhari | on 8:30 PM January 18, 2016
Updated at 9:30 p.m. to add details, quotes from government official
Jakarta. Maroef Sjamsuddin, President director of Freeport Indonesia, the local unit of US mining giant Freeport McMoRan, has resigned, a spokesman told the Jakarta Globe on Monday.
Riza Pratama, spokesman at the Indonesian miner, confirmed the resignation through text message to the Jakarta Globe.
Earlier, the Jakarta Globe received an internal memo, believed to be sent by the US Freeport McMoRan's president Richard Adkerson, which said Robert Schroeder, a director and executive vice president at Freeport Indonesia, has been appointed as interim to assume Maroef's management responsibilities.
Riza has yet to reply to an enquiry from the Jakarta Globe on the interim appointment.
Freeport Indonesia — which operates Grasberg, one of the biggest copper and gold mines in the world — has recently been embroiled in a major political scandal, after Maroef reported claims to Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said that then-House of Representatives Speaker Setya Novanto had attempted to extort the mining giant.
Setya allegedly requested a stake in the company's divestment plan, estimated to be worth billions of dollars, in exchange for "high level" lobbying to allow the miner to seal contract extensions before its concession ends in 2021.
Reuters reported on Jan. 14, quoting an energy ministry official, that Freeport Indonesia has submitted a divestment price to the Indonesian government for an additional stake in the company.
Freeport Indonesia is required to sell a 10.64 percent stake of the giant Grasberg copper and gold complex in Papua island to the Indonesian government as part of the process to secure permits to operate beyond 2021.
The US parent valued its Indonesian asset at $16.2 billion, Bambang Gatot, the ministry’s director general of coal and minerals, was quoted by Reuters as saying.
He added that the divestment offered to the Indonesia government was worth $1.7 billion.
Bambang told reporters on Monday that the government will respond to the offer within 60 days of it being made, and that agreeing on the price isn't an "easy thing" to do.
The ministry will report to the finance ministry and in the case of the central government passing interest in the offered shares, it will be offered to state-owned enterprises.

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3) Freeport Indonesia boss  resigns
Ayomi Amindoni & Anton Hermansyah, thejakartapost.com, Jakarta | World | Mon, January 18 2016, 10:43 PM 
PT Freeport Indonesia president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin resigned from his position on Monday, Freeport Indonesia spokesman Riza Pramata has confirmed.
"That's correct. He resigned today," Riza told thejakartapos.com on Monday night.
According to a memorandum sent to Freeport Indonesia employees on Jan. 18, Maroef explained that his resignation was because his employment contract as Freeport Indonesia president director had expired.
Although Freeport McMoran offered him an extension on his contract, Maroef—who was associated with Freeport recording scandal involving former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto—decided not to remain with the company and tendered his resignation.
"I have handed in my resignation as the president director of PT Freeport Indonesia," Maroef stated in a written statement.
Before serving as Freeport Indonesia president director, Maroef was State Intelligence Agency (BIN) deputy head from 2011 to 2014. On Jan. 7 2015, he left the agency to take the helm of Freeport Indonesia, replacing Rozik B. Soetjipto.
Maroef was appointed directly by the chairman of the board of Freeport-McMoRan, James Robert Moffett, who also resigned from his position last month.
Along with Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said, Maroef testified in front of the House's ethics council in hearings on the case, which ended with Novanto's resignation as House speaker. (ags)
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4) LP3BH Executive Director meets the Ambassador of the USA
 On Sunday 17th January 2016, I had the opportunity of meeting His Excellency, Ambassador Robert Blake of the USA when he was on a visit
to Manokwari.

   At the meeting which lasted about 45 minutes, Ambassador Blake asked me about the views of my organisation, the LP3BH. Ambassador
Blake asked me about the general situation in West Papua and recent developments as well as the human rights situation here in West Papua
and he also wanted to know about the policy of President Joko Widodo towards Papua and West Papua.

  I told the Ambassador that the situatiion here continues to be highly unsatisfactory in view of the many cases of human rights
violations, none of which had been dealt with in a court of law. I referred in particular to the various laws and regulations that
were now in force, such as Law on Human Rights 39/1999 and Law 26/2000 on Human Rights Courts. In addition, I drew his attention to Law
21/2001 on Special Autonomy for the Province of West Papua, as amended by Law 35/2008.

  I referred in particular to a number of cases of grave human rights violations such as the Wasior Case (2001), the Wamena Case (2002), the
Paniai Case (8th December (2014), the Tolikara Case (2015) when eleven civilians were shot and wounded, whereas none of these cases has been
dealt with in a law court.    Ambassador Blake was very concerned about all these incidents and
the failure up to the present day by the Government of Indonesia to deal with any these cases.

  Ambassador Blake said that his government would guarantee that all those who had ben responsble for these violations would be excluded
from any its governmental programmes related to education and human rights.

  Speaking as a lawyer and a Human Rights Defender, I submitted a written report to Ambassador Robert Blake, hoping that this would be
handed over to the US Government.   I also told Ambassador Blake that these matters were now being
seriously considered by various governments which were members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) and members of the Pacific Islands
Forum. I drew his attention to the fact that the United Liberation Movement for West  Papua had been gratned obsever status  by the MSG
in June 2015.

  The result of all this was that these various regional state groups had  pressed for a fact-finding  human rights mission to be sent to
West Papua and Papua.

  I also expressed the opinion that all these serious cases should be considered by the Government of the USA as the only way to strengthen
democracy and peace throughout the Land of Papua.

  With regard to the security situation in the Land of Papua, I stressed that the security forces now based in the Land of Papua
should be instructed not to used firearms to handle the situation in the Land of Papua.but to deal with these incidents with peaceful
means, instead of using the force of arms.    I also urged the US Government to exert pressure on the Government
of Indonesia, under President Joko Widodo to respond to the peaceful moves that had been taken by Papuan  NGOs to resolve the social
conflicts in the Land of Papua.

Peace
Yan Christian Warinussy, Executive-Drector of the LP3BH, Institute for
Research, Investigation and the Delopment of
Legal Aid, Recipient of the John Humphrey Freedom Award, 2005, Canada.
Translated by Carmel Budiardjo, Recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, 1995.
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1) PUNKS FOR WEST PAPUA INTERVIEW

January 19, 2016, 2:29 am
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1) PUNKS FOR WEST PAPUA INTERVIEW
2) Papua ESDM Fine with Freeport Indonesia CEO Resignation
3) Robert Schroeder interim  Freeport Indonesia boss
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1) PUNKS FOR WEST PAPUA INTERVIEW
 Anthony Ash Brennan  (P4WP)   interviewed on RADIO PORT DOUGLAS

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HTTP://EN.TEMPO.CO/READ/NEWS/2016/01/19/055737411/PAPUA-ESDM-FINE-WITH-FREEPORT-INDONESIA-CEO-RESIGNATION

TUESDAY, 19 JANUARY, 2016 | 11:58 WIB
2) Papua ESDM Fine with Freeport Indonesia CEO Resignation

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Head of Energy and Mineral Resource Department (ESDM) in Province of Papua, Bangun Manurung, said the resignation of Freeport Indonesia CEO Maroef Sjamsoeddin will not cause issues for the Papua government that has been striving to get ownership of Freeport share. 
 
“What’s important is that Freeport Indonesia has the duty and obligation according to a work contract and obeys the laws and regulations that applied,” Bangun told Tempo on Monday, Jan 18.
 
Currently, the government of Papua is striving to get ownership of Freeport share after 50 years operating in Papua. Previously, Papua Governor Lukas Enembe said Papua’s participation as shareholder in Freeport must be decided this year. 
 
“The government and the indigenous people of Papua should have a dividend every year. That is what we are still discussing,” Lukas told Tempo on Dec. 16, 2015.
 
Bangun claimed he does not know the reason why Maroef stepped down from his position. “This is the first time that a Freeport Indonesia CEO has resigned,” he said.
 
Maroef only worked three months as the CEO of Freeport Indonesia. Bangun rarely communicated with Maroef related to Papua’s share negotiation of the US mining company.
MARIA RITA


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3) Robert Schroeder interim  Freeport Indonesia boss
Ayomi Amindoni, thejakartapost.com, Jakarta | National | Tue, January 19 2016, 3:57 PM - 

PT Freeport Indonesia director and executive vice president Robert C. Schroeder has temporarily taken charge as president director of the mining giant, following the resignation of Maroef Sjamsoeddin from his position yesterday.

"For a while, Robert Schroeder who currently serves as director and executive vice president will take over Maroef's responsibilities. All officials of the company who previously reported to the president director will report to Robert Schroeder," said Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. president Richard C Adkerson in an internal memo sent to Freeport Indonesia employees on Jan. 18.

Freeport was in the process of appointing the new president director of its subsidiary company in Indonesia, he added.

However, PT Freeport Indonesia spokesperson Riza Pratama declined to comment. "Just wait," he told thejakartapost.com.

Adkerson also said that Maroef had submitted his resignation on Jan. 18 for personal reasons and the company had accepted the resignation. "Maroef had served as Freeport Indonesia president director for a year, and he was representative of Freeport Indonesia in its relations with the Indonesian government, the authorities, Papua people and our human resources," he stated.

According to a memorandum sent to Freeport Indonesia employees on Jan 18, Maroef explained his resignation was because his employment contract as president director had expired. Although Freeport McMoran offered him an extension on his contract, Maroef declined to remain with the company and tendered his resignation.

Maroef was appointed directly by the former chairman of the board of Freeport McMoran, James Robert Moffett on Jan. 7, 2015, replacing Rozik B. Soetjipto. Before serving as Freeport Indonesia boss, Maroef was State Intelligence Agency (BIN) deputy head from 2011 to 2014.

Lately, Maroef was associated with the scandal involving former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto, who was alleged to have sought favors from Freeport Indonesia in return for an extension of its contract of work. Along with Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said, Maroef testified before the House's ethics council in hearings into the case, which ended with Novanto's resignation as House speaker.

Maroef's resignation came as the issue of the continuation of Freeport's operations in Papua remains unresolved. Currently, Freeport has proposed an extension of its contract, which is due to end in 2021, until 2041.

However, according to Law No. 4/ 2014 on minerals and coal mining, the submission of a new contract extension can only be made two years prior to the expiry of the contract, in Freeport's case in 2019. (bbn)(+)
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1) New Freeport boss must obtain government approval -

January 19, 2016, 4:29 pm
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2) No Building Market, Mama-Mama Paniai Sell on Roadside
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1) New Freeport boss must  obtain government approval - 
Ayomi Amindoni, thejakartapost.com, Jakarta | National | Tue, January 19 2016, 8:35 PM - 
Gold mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) has been reminded that it must report any changes in its board of directors to the government and seek its approval.
"In accordance with the contract of work, any change in directors must be approved by government," Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry director general of minerals and coal Bambang Gatot Ariyono told thejakartapost.com on Tuesday.
The government can approve or reject a new president director of the company appointed by Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc., he said, adding that PTFI had yet to formally report the resignation of its president director, Maroef Sjamsoeddin.
In an internal memo sent to Freeport Indonesia employees on Monday, Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. president Richard C. Adkerson said “Freeport is in the process to appoint the new president director of its subsidiary company in Indonesia.”
PTFI director and executive vice president Robert C. Schroeder will temporary take over as president director of the mining giant, following the resignation of Maroef on Monday.
"For a while, Robert Schroeder who currently serves as director and executive vice president will continue Maroef's responsibilities. All officials of the company that previously reported to the president director will report to Robert Schroeder," Adkerson said in a statement.
Adkerson also stated that Maroef had handed in his resignation on Monday for personal reasons and that the company had accepted his resignation.
According to a memorandum sent to Freeport Indonesia employees, Maroef explained his resignation was because his employment contract as president director had expired. Although Freeport McMoran had offered him an extension on his contract, Maroef decided not to remain with the company.
"I have handed in my resignation as the president director of PT Freeport Indonesia," Maroef stated in a written statement. (bbn)
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A google translate of article in suarapapua.com. Be-aware google translate can be a bit erratic.
original bahasa link at

2) No Building Market, Mama-Mama Paniai Sell on Roadside

Oleh : Stevanus Yogi | Senin, 18 Januari 2016 - 16.03 WIB 



              Mama-mama Paniai was selling along the edge of the highway. (Photo: Stephen Yogi / SP)


Paniai, SUARAPAPUA.com --- Market Enarotali, Paniai, Papua, located in Iyaipugi, until now it still looks like a vast area once devoured by the flames a few months ago.
Due to the lack of local government efforts to rebuild the burnt market, mama-mama Paniai choose along the edge of the highway as a place to sell.
 
"Want selling where again, the market is on fire. This is a fitting place for our sales, "said Mrs. Naomi Mote, to suarapapua.com Monday morning (18/01/2016).
 
According to Naomi, since selling on the roadside, he and his friends feel uncomfortable.
 
"During our sales here, we feel uncomfortable at all. Rain and hot days we received the net. Yes that's the risk, what else would make, "said the mother of six children.
 
Since the market on fire on September 30, 2015, he said, local authorities still do not give a signal when the market will be rebuilt.
 
"The market was on fire four months ago. But during this government never know the love of our market when it will be rebuilt. So, yes we wait, "he said again.
 
On the same occasion, other Paniai mama, mother Mia Tekege, regretting the attitude of the local government more care of personal interests rather than the public interest.
 
"Rebuild the market was right for the common good of all the people Paniai, why not create a local government. So do not take care continues to private interests so as not to forget the public interest, "he said with exasperation.
 
Separately, intellectuals origin Paniai, Samuel Yogi, suspect if the government keeps a close eye on the condition of self and mama-mama Paniai, there is a disguised attempt of the government at that location.
 
"Stasus ownership obvious locations, which have is the government itself. Now the problem is difficult what and what if this keeps up his condition, I suspect, lest want to be private property, "said Sem.
 
According to Sem, all owned by the government both in form and of any kind is wholly owned by the people and must cater to the need of the people.
 
"No government of the people, by and for the people anyway. Thus, the location of the market if you want to be seen from the sound of this slogan, the owner is all the people Paniai. Therefore, the government should not have the lure of certain at that location. "
 
"What is there now, like it or not, like it or not, the government must wake up immediately market as usual. Poor mama-mama, day-to-day repose selling land and roofed the sky, "revealed Sem.
 
Editor: Oktovianus Pogau
 
Stephen YOGI
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Search

1) Papua Activists Discuss Freeport With US Ambassador

January 20, 2016, 11:20 am
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2) US ambassador concerned about West Papua abuses
3) LEADERS MUST BE ON SAME PAGE ON PAPUA’S EDUCATION
4) SARAH BOMBING NOT SCARY PAPUANS WHO LIVE IN ‘RADICAL GROUP’ TERROR
5) PAPUANS URGED NOT TO BE PROVOKED BY TERRORISM
6) HUNDREDS OF TEACHERS STORM MERAUKE CONCIL BUILDING
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1) Papua Activists Discuss Freeport With US Ambassador

Papuan activists rallying at the Freeport Indonesia headquarters in Jakarta in November 2015. (Reuters Photo/Garry Lotulung)
By : Robert Isidorus | on 7:01 PM January 20, 2016
Jayapura. Papuan activists met with US Ambassador to Indonesia Robert Blake in the provincial capital on Tuesday to discuss human rights, politics and US-owned Freeport Indonesia.
“The US ambassador said that Papua was important to the US, and he felt it was necessary to pay a visit to Papua. He wanted to know about Papua's human rights and political condition,” Yuliano Languwuyo, coordinator of local organization Justice, Peace and Unity Secretariat (SKPKC), said after the meeting on Tuesday night.
Yuliano said the organization was told in mid-2014 that the restive easternmost province of Indonesia would have civilian leaders and see a steady downgrade of military presence in the area.
"If they disappeared, so would the violence. But it never happened," he said.
Tight military monitoring of Freeport Indonesia sites on the island have a largely negative impact on locals, including reports of violence from officers, Yuliano said.
"We asked the ambassador if Freeport had any control over security, and if they [security personnel] have any training in human rights while performing their duties. They have to be trained by the National Commission on Human Rights [Komnas HAM] so they will be less violent when protecting the areas," he said.
Blake reportedly questioned the necessity of human rights training and refused to comment on Freeport's security, Yuliano said. Blake also refused to take questions from reporters after the meeting.
The meeting was held at a restaurant in Jayapura's East Sentani district and was attended by Yuliano, chairman of the Papuan NGO Cooperation Forum Septer Manufandu, Papua Komnas HAM chairman Frits Ramandey and Papuan Peace Network activist Neles Tebay.

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2) US ambassador concerned about West Papua abuses
Updated at 8:17 pm on 20 January 2016


The United States ambassador to Indonesia, Robert Blake, visits West Papua. Photo: West Papua Media
Fresh from a trip to West Papua, the United States Ambassador to Indonesia reportedly expressed concern about human rights abuses in the country's remote, eastern region.
As part of his trip, Robert Blake visited Manokwari in West Papua province where he met with the Executive Director of the Institute for Research, Investigation and the Development of Legal Aid, Yan Christian Warinussy.
Mr Warinussy says the ambassador asked him about recent developments and the human rights situation in West Papua and Papua provinces.
He says he told Mr Blake that the situation continued to be highly unsatisfactory in view of many cases of human rights violations which had not been dealt with in a court of law.
Ambassador Blake was reportedly very concerned about such incidents and said that his government would push for those who had been responsible for these violations to be excluded from any US-linked local programmes related to education and human rights.
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3) LEADERS MUST BE ON SAME PAGE ON PAPUA’S EDUCATION
Jan 17, 2016
Jayapura, Jubi – The poor state of education in Papua, especially in remote areas, is again in the spotlight.
A member of Commission V of the Papua Legislative Council for Education and Health Affairs, Natan Pahablol, said it requires a good will of policy makers to change this situation in Papua.
The leaders at both provincial and regional/municipal levels must share the same perception and intention to change the situation. He said although the Papua Governor has intention and motivation to improve the education in Papua, but it would not be optimal if his officials didn’t pay attention to it.
“It needs a good intention, particularly among the regional heads in Papua, to improve the quality of education. However, if the regents have intention but his officials have no similar intention, it would be the same.
All policy makers should gather their will. It’s not only for the governor, regents or mayor, but also applied for their subordinates,” Pahabol told Jubi by phone on Saturday (16/1/2016).
According to him, the government needs a fixed strategy to improve the education in Papua, because it is important and necessary to build Papua in the future.
“It’s useless if the education grant is budgeted each year if there is no intention among the stakeholders to change the education in Papua,” he said. He also expected the government through provincial and regional/municipal offices to see the situation on the ground. Do not only rely on reports and data on papers. “If they only rely on reports and data, it’s the same. Those who made reports and data might be lie,” he said.
In the final review of the Papua Regional Budget meeting held in last December, the Commission V Chairwoman Yakoba Lokbere said she fully supported the Papua Provincial Government to improve many programs including education and health sectors. She said the education in Papua does need serious attention. Do not let this condition to continuously happen and harm the Papua young generation. (Arjuna Pademme/rom)
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4) SARAH BOMBING NOT SCARY PAPUANS WHO LIVE IN ‘RADICAL GROUP’ TERROR
Jan 16, 2016
Jayapura, Jubi – A Papua legislator, Laurenzus Kadepa, said the terror that hit Jakarta is familiar to Papuans, because they have been living in terror for a long time.
“Every time people in Papua, especially indigenous Papuans, are living in terror threats with many stigmas attached to them. IS or other radical organizations, bombing perpetrators are just ordinary things for Papuan people,” said Kadepa through text message to Jubi on Friday (15/1/2015).
The member of Commission I of Papua Legislative Council for Politic, Security, Legal and Human Rights Affairs, said there had been a series of attacks against indigenous Papuans. Many of innocent indigenous Papuans have lost their lives in various ways: being shot, kidnapped and through other violence, but the perpetrators have never been revealed.
“From time to time, the unclaimed bullets keep terrorize the indigenous Papuans. We don’t know whose bullets belong to, which group involved. They were often called the Unknown People. They also could be categorized radical, caused death of innocence people. Don’t know what is their purpose,” he said.
He said now the indigenous Papuans are not fully safe. Many threats stalk. Every time they could lose their life in various ways, in many stigmas. “My words for Papua people are always being aware on the terror threats for any groups in Papua. Radical group has been long in Papua,” he said.
Bomb explosion occurred in Sarinah shopping area at Jalan MH Thamrin, Central Jakarta on Thursday (14/1/2016) that killed five allegedly perpetrators and two civilians, while 26 people were reportedly injured.
The Indonesian Police Spokesperson, Inspector General Anton Charliyan confirmed two of five death terrorists were recidivists on terrorism case. They have been sentenced for two years in prison. “The identity of five perpetrators could not be publicly announced, even their initial. Because we worry the reveal could disturb the investigation process. Their bodies are currently kept in the Police Hospital. We will give announcement in the right time, even though it’s only their initials,” said Anton Charliyan as cited from many media. (Arjuna Pademme/rom)
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5) PAPUANS URGED NOT TO BE PROVOKED BY TERRORISM
Jan 16, 2016

Jayapura, Jubi – Papuans have been urged not to be provoked by the terrorist attack that occurred in the area of ​​Sarinah Thamrin, Jakarta on Thursday (14/1/2016).
The assistant for Economic Affairs and Social Welfare Secretary Papua Province, Elia Loupatty, said in Jayapura Friday (15/1/2016) that all parties in Papua should remain calm and and always provide information to the authorities if they find things that are suspicious.
“I think our officials are well-prepared and the public has anticipated it. If there may be things that are suspicious, should immediately notify it because the participation of the community is very important,” he said.
In response, Loupatty expects full participation of the community to be able to tell, if there occurs matters in suspicious.
According to him, besides participating, people are also expected to assist the work of the authorities in maintaining security in Papua.
“I hope all people who live in Papua to provide comfort and take part in maintaining stability and security in Papua. We should jointly maintain order and security in Papua,” he said.
He added, government hopes anyone or any group who lives in Papua to not create fear and chaos in Papua
“Go home, if you want to mess up, because we are here is fine, do not infuriated the people of Papua,” he said.
Earlier, the governor of Papua Lukas Enembe urged the groups that go to Papua with the intention of disturbing public order and security in Indonesia’s easternmost province, to immediately leave the earth of Paradise.
“I ask groups who enter Papua to disturb public stability and security, immediately leave Papua,” said Enembe. (Alexander Loen/Tina)
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6) HUNDREDS OF TEACHERS STORM MERAUKE CONCIL BUILDING
Jan 13, 2016
Merauke, Jubi – Hundreds of teachers from elementary to high schools stormed the office of the Regional Representatives Council (DPRD) in Merauke to protest the government failure to pay them 3 T (remote, isolated and farthest) benefits for 2015.
The teachers were received by the Deputy Chairman of the Parliament of Merauke, Marotus Solikah and Chairman of Commission A, Moses Kaibu and also head of education Yohanes Samkakai.
One teacher, Marius Dumot, demanded the relevant office to immediately settle the payments.
“We feel, we are not given attention properly. So we come here to convey our aspirations to be resolved,” he said on Tuesday (12/1/2016).
The teacher also asks additional other income of the central and local levels. Because it is the rights of the teachers who have been carrying out duties in the villages.
A teacher, Maria Theresia said in 2007. until 2012, the former head of Department of Education and Merauke, Vincent Mekiuw been pledged incentives. however, until now she never got it.
“We’ve been waiting for over the years, but never given,” she stated.
Head of Education and Teaching Merauke, Yohanes Samkakai said that the payment of benefits 3 T given to civil servants who go beyond the normal work load as well as serving in a remote area and the farthest. Such payments, followed by a decree (SK) Merauke Regent.
Further, he said, the payment of benefits 3 T from January to December 2015, refers also to the monthly report from the principal, where a duty of the teacher in question. (Frans L Kobun/Tina)
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Congratulations to Ash and the Punks for a great night at the film launch

January 21, 2016, 2:33 am
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Congratulations to Ash and the Punks for a great night at the film launch at Waywards in Newtown.
One can only imagine the time and effort Ash put into this doco which will take the issue to a new audience.
In a series of nation wide gigs last year the Punks raised funds for the ULMWP. Funds raised from the doco will also go to support West Papua. Two screens were set up at the venue and great time had by all. A few photos below from  the event below.
People can help the West Papuan struggle by supporting this initiative. The Film can be downloaded at 


                                                     Ash introduces film


                                                                 From the doco

From Facebook









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1) US signals concern about West Papua forests

January 21, 2016, 12:37 pm
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2) Team evaluating share price of PT Freeport Indonesia: Minister Sudirman

3) Freeport’s price unrealistic,  assumes contract extension:  House members -

4) MBUA CASE NEEDS SERIOUS HANDLING
5) Indonesia urged to take  concrete action over past  human rights abuses - 
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http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/201786287/us-signals-concern-about-west-papua-forests

1) US signals concern about West Papua forests 

Updated at 5:24 pm on 21 January 2016

The US Ambassador to Indonesia has visited West Papua and indicated American interest in helping to keep the endangered forests of Papua region intact.
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Transcript

The United States government has indicated it wants to help protect the endangered forests of West Papua.

This follows a trip to the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua this week by the US Ambassador to Indonesia, Robert Blake.

Among a range of consultations he had while in the remote region, Mr Blake met with Papuan activists in Jayapura on Tuesday 19/1/16 to discuss issues such as human rights.

Mr Blake also discussed ongoing, rampant clearance of forest and peatlands in Papua which has some of the world's last remaining substantial tracts of rainforest.

One of the people Mr Blake talked with was Father Neles Tebay of Papua's Catholic Justice and Peace Secretariat who spoke to Johnny Blades.
NELES TEBAY: In the meeting between the US Ambassador and we Papuan activists, the US ambassador was keen to know about the present situation in Papua. He wants to know about issues related to forests because of the climate change personal commitment on climate change made in Paris last year and how it can be implemented in Papua. So he discussed about how to keep the Papuan forests intact. Because the Papuan forests are considered as the world's lungs. So once the lungs are destroyed, it is not only the Papuans or only the Indonesians but the internatinoal community who will pay the price.

JOHNNY BLADES: Did he give you any sign that the US can do something to help with the rights or the forests?

NT: Yeah, I think he's willing, he's at least willing to help, of course in collaboration with the government of Indonesia, and the local government here, also in collaboration with some local NGOs.

JB: But what practically can the Americans do?

NT: I think he might raise the issue with the government of Indonesia. In the meeting, he didn’t say he's committed to help the Papuans through local government or GOs, but in my understanding, knowing the destruction of forests in Papua and its implications, he might raise the issue in his conversations with central government of Indonesia in Jakarta.

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2) Team evaluating share price of PT Freeport Indonesia: Minister Sudirman
Kamis, 21 Januari 2016 19:39 WIB |
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Minister Sudirman Said an evaluating team is will determine the share price of Freeport Indonesia.

"I would not comment on the price . There are experts for that," the minister said in reply to a question here on Thursday.

He said the government has asked for expert opinions of two state owned securities companies PT Danarakesa and PT Mandiri Sekuritas.

"Let us rely on them as they have accountable methods of evaluation," he said.

He said the ESDM ministry would take part in looking for an appraiser, ADDING, "We would wait for the result of evaluation by the two valuers named by the BUMN minister Rini Soemarno."

"We hope to get the result of valuation by March," he added.

PT Freeport Indonesia, which has large copper and gold mines in Papua, already set the price for 10.64 percent stake it is to divest this year at Rp23 trillion (US$1.7 billion).

Rini, however, said the price is too high especially as the prices of the commodities produced by the U.S. company are on the decline.

Sudirman said Freeport has not given dividends to its shareholders in the past three years on shrini8king profit.

Whether the dividends would be paid or not depending on the decision in the shareholders meeting, he said.

Acquisition of the 10.64 percent stake would give the government significant voting power of 20 percent, he said.

Currently the government has 9.36 percent stake in Freeport.

Freeport is required under its contract to divest 30 percent of its shares to the government or Indonesian companies named by the government.

Divestment is to be made by phases -- 20 percent this year and the rest in 2019.

This year divestment is only 10.64 percent as the government already has 9.36 percent stake in the subsidiary of the U.S. mining giant Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold.
(Uu.H-ASG/A014)
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3) Freeport’s price unrealistic,  assumes contract extension:  House members -
Ayomi Amindoni, thejakartapost.com | Business | Thu, January 21 2016, 10:56 AM - 
House of Representatives Commission VII overseeing the energy sector has described a share value that PT Freeport Indonesia offered to the Indonesian government as unrealistic.

Freeport Indonesia must explain the basis of valuation for the offering price of US$1.7 billion (Rp 23.69 trillion) for 10.64 percent of its shares to the government, said Commission XI member Ramson Siagian.

"We want a realistic calculation. They must give a realistic offer, by taking into account the updated market situation," Ramson said in a meeting with Freeport Indonesia at the legislative complex in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The price, he continued, was too high as the market value of Freeport McMoran was currently around $4.8 billion, amid a fall in the share price in the market to around $3.85 per unit.

Likewise, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker Fallah Amri urged the government to review the price as it was made based on the company's assumption.

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's minerals and coal director general, Bambang Gatot Ariyono, said the government would form a special team to calculate a fair price for the stake.

"The $1.7 billion was based on the assumption the company made. However, that is not the government’s benchmark. It will be evaluated by the team," Bambang said.

Meanwhile, Freeport Indonesia vice president Clementino Lamori confirmed that the share price offered to the government was calculated assuming Freeport Indonesia continued operations after the contract was renewed in 2021.

"Including the investment of $4.3 billion for underground mining and $15 billion for the development of underground mining," he said.

Freeport Indonesia must sell the government a 10.64 percent stake in the huge Grasberg copper and gold mine in Papua as part of the process to extend its operating contract beyond 2021.

Under current regulations, the central government will be first in line to purchase the shares, followed by Papua's provincial and regency/municipal administrations, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and local administration-owned enterprises.

They have to express their interest within 60 days after Freeport's offer. If none are interested, the right to buy the shares will be taken over by private Indonesian companies. (ags)(+) - 
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4) MBUA CASE NEEDS SERIOUS HANDLING
Jan 17, 2016


Medical staff taken sample of blood of Mbua residents – Jubi

Jayapura, Jubi – Papuan youths and activists grouped under Solidarity with Mbua Victims (SKJWM) urged the government to seriously deal with the disease caused by pertussis virus that has hit the region since last October.
“We urge the Central Government, especially the Indonesian Ministry of Health, Papua Provincial Health Office and Nduga Health Office to be more serious in handling the case occurred in Mbua, because until the early of January the victims reportedly was still occurred,” said the SKJWM Coordinator Peneas Lokbere told reporters on Saturday (16/1/2016). in KontraS Jayapura Office.
Lokbere with activists from IPMNI, AMPTPI, FIM, GMKI, PMKRI, PK, FPHAMP, GempaR, SKP Fransiskan, and SKP HAM-Papua said the Indonesian Ministry of Health, Papua Health Office and Nduga Health Office are those who most responsible to search the cause and announce what disease or virus causing the death of more than 50 Mbua residents.

“Besides pertussis virus, it might be another virus that has not yet detected. Because the death of residents in Mbua, Dal and Mbulmu Yalma sub-districts was followed the death of cattle and pets as well as plants,” he said.
In addition, this solidarity has some points to endorse the stakeholders to pay attention to Mbua case, including to urge the Papua and Nduga legislative councils to immediately form a special team or special committee to ascertain how many humans and animal that mysteriously died.
“The government also should provide some medical specialists, nurses and medical facilities including required drugs logistic, because we have reported about expired medicines distributed there,” he said.
Further, the Central Government and both Papua and Nduga government must pay attention on water sanitation and proper housing for local residents.
“We saw that only the Military and Police to provide food aid, we think it’s not right because the government who suppose to be most competent in handling the case has impressed to slowly react,” he said.
In separate place, the Papua Provincial Health Office Chief, Aloysius Giay told Jubi in his office that the medical team has been prepared to depart to Nduga Regency.
“It is a follow up action and we have sent two pediatricians, nurse, housewife and nutritionist. Currently we are still checking the budget availability from provincial budget amounted 1 billion allocated to Nduga Regency,” he said.
When asked about what virus that cause the death of dozens of toddlers, he said can not give a conclusion as he can only receive data from the survey team 1 and team 2 of the Ministry of Health and Provincial Health Office that stated the cause of death is pertussis disease.
“It’s pertussis from bacteria that affect the lungs and trigger a long-drawn pneumonia that accumulated by several factors,” he said.
Regarding to the number of victims due to this case, he said the information is still confusing.
“The survey 1 and 2 stated the number is 38 people but another team said 42. While the religious, customary and community leaders reported the number is 72. But when we gave the Freeport’s aid to the region, it revealed the number is 55 people,” he said. (Roy Ratumakin/rom)
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5) Indonesia urged to take  concrete action over past  human rights abuses - 
Liza Yosephine, thejakartapost.com, Jakarta | National | Thu, January 21 2016, 3:01 PM - 
The government must take a real step toward settling unresolved human rights abuses by first issuing a national apology to the victims and their families in a bid to move forward as a nation, a non-governmental organization has said.
The International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) called on President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to issue a government regulation arranging settlement of the past human rights violations that still shadow Indonesia as a country.
“President Jokowi should apologize to the victims and their families since they have been victims of past government policies, as well as to Indonesia in an acknowledgement of past wrongdoings so that we can all move on as a nation,” INFID senior program officer for Human Rights and Democracy Mugiyanto told thejakartapost.com on Wednesday.
An official statement of regret can be the initial step toward the resolution of the past human rights violations, such as 1965 Communist purge, the Talangsari killings, the Tanjung Priok incident, the students murdered during the 1998 movement, along with forced disappearances, the Wamena and Wasior incidents in Papua, up to the murder of human rights activist Munir.
"An apology was necessary because such a statement indicates a commitment from the government that such acts would not be repeated again in the future," he said adding that that the step must be followed by the fulfillment of victim’s rights for truth, justice and reparations.
A thorough and fair settlement begins with the revelation of the truth, Mugiyanto said, highlighting that it was important for people to know what happened behind those events.
Mugiyanto himself was a student leader in the anti-Suharto reform movement in 1998 and was one of the pro-democracy activists who was kidnapped and later released alive.
President Jokowi vowed to settle all past human rights violations by mid-year.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan suggested for the settlement would be made through a non-judiciary mechanism to speed up the process, explaining that a lack of evidence might hamper the investigation if the cases were to proceed to a legal settlement.
Equality
Another urgent suggestion put forward by INFID was the need for the government to accelerate the preparation of a roadmap in pursuit of reducing the Gini ratio – a measure of income inequality – from 0.41 to 0.36 as included in the National Mid-Term Development Plan (RPJM).
Citing an example from Brazil, which took 15 years to obtain that goal, INFID program manager Siti Khoirun Nikmah stressed the urgency of immediate concrete action.
"A 0.05 point drop is an ambitious goal that has been set to be reached within five years and the government has already wasted time throughout 2015," she said.
The organization's executive director, Sugeng Bahagio, expressed hope that the government will take into consideration INFID's suggestions in shaping their policy developments toward a better path throughout this year. (rin)(+)
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1) Indonesia’s Papua Reporting Paranoia

January 22, 2016, 1:53 pm
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2) MSG Chair to facilitate Indo-Papua discussion
3) US AMBASSADOR’S VISIT TO PAPUA SHOULD CONTRIBUTE TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION

4) US continues cooperation with Indonesia to combat terrorism

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1) Indonesia’s Papua Reporting Paranoia

Despite Widodo’s promise of an “opening,” journalists are still being kept out of Papua.
By Phelim Kine January 22, 2016
There are new hazards for foreign journalists attempting to report from Indonesia’s restive easternmost provinces of Papua and West Papua (generally referred to as “Papua”): visa denial and blacklisting. Just ask Bangkok-
based France 24 TV correspondent Cyril Payen.
On January 8, the Indonesian Embassy in Bangkok informed Payen that it had denied his application for a journalist’s visa for a reporting trip to Indonesia’s Papua province. The denial was not wholly unexpected. On November 8, Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials notified the French Embassy in Jakarta that they considered Payen’s previous reporting, which focused on pro-independence sentiment in the region, “biased and unbalanced.” Rather than engaging with Payen and France 24 to publicly challenge the report’s alleged inaccuracies, the Indonesian government took the punitive and disproportionate step of a threatened visa ban for an unspecified period of time for any France 24 journalists seeking to report from the country.
Payen’s predicament highlights the glaring gap between the rhetoric of Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s announced “opening” of Papua and West Papua (commonly referred to as “Papua”) to foreign media and the far grimmer reality for journalists still blocked from reporting there.
Official reprisals for reporting on Papua that displeases the government are a threat to journalists and their sources alike.
A week after Marie Dhumieres, a Jakarta-based French correspondent, returned from a Papua reporting trip in October, police detained a Papuan activist who had travelled with her along with two of his friends. Police interrogated the trio for 10 hours, demanding details of Dhumieres’ reporting trip. Police subsequently released the men without charges. Dhumieres expressed her dismay in a tweet to Jokowi: “So Mr @jokowi, foreign journalists are free to work anywhere in Papua but the people we interview get arrested after we leave?”
None of this should be happening.
After all, last May, Jokowi announced a long overdue lifting of the 25-year de facto ban on foreign media access to Papua. That policy change was supposed to put an end to placing foreign journalists in legal limbo through the denial of Papua reporting applications outright or a failure to approve them.
But Payen and Dhumieres’ experiences highlight the disconnect documented in a November 2015 Human Rights Watch report between Jokowi’s policy objectives and the fierce opposition of some elements of the Indonesian government and security forces to opening Papua to foreign media.
Since Jokowi’s announcement, a series of senior government officials have publicly contradicted that policy change. They include National Police spokesman and Senior Commander Agus Rianto. On May 12 he asserted that the government would continue to restrict foreign correspondents’ Papua access through an entry permit system. Rianto justified the need to maintain foreign media access restrictions to Papua to prevent foreign media from talking to “people who opposed the government” as well as to block the access of “terrorists” who might pretend to be journalists as a means to travel to Papua.
On May 26, Minister of Defense Ryamizard Ryacudu warned that foreign media access to Papua was conditional on an obligation to produce “good reports.” Ryacudu did not precisely define “good reports,” but he explicitly equated foreign journalists’ negative reporting on Papua with “sedition” and threatened expulsion for any foreign journalist whose reporting displeased the government.
These statements reflect a deeply rooted perception among many Indonesian government and security agency officials that foreign media access to Papua is a recipe for instability in a region already troubled by widespread public dissatisfaction with Jakarta and a small but persistent armed independence movement. The challenges to media freedom in Papua are compounded by obstacles faced by Indonesian journalists – particularly ethnic Papuan reporters. Local journalists who report on sensitive political topics and human rights abuses are often subject to harassment, intimidation and violence by officials, members of the public and pro-independence forces. Conversations with Indonesian bureaucrats and government officials about the tenacity of official obstacles to foreign media access to Papua routinely reference East Timor and a persistent suspicion that the presence of foreign media and human rights activists in East Timor helped pave the way to that former Indonesian province’s independence in 2002.
Indeed, the government’s obstacles to Papua access extend beyond journalists. The security forces closely monitor the activities of international groups that the government permits to operate in Papua – those that seek to address human rights concerns get particular scrutiny. International NGOs such as the Dutch development group Cordaid that the government asserts are involved in “political activities” have been forced to cease operations, their representatives banned from travel to the region.
Government restrictions on foreigners have extended to United Nations officials and academics Indonesian authorities perceive as hostile. In 2013 the government rejected the proposed visit of Frank La Rue, then the UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, because he insisted on including Papua on his itinerary. Foreign academics who do get permission to visit the region have been subjected to surveillance by the security forces. Those perceived to have pro-independence sympathies have been placed on visa blacklists.
Lout Pandjaitan, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, the security minister, said on November 11 that he would take action if he were given evidence that government or security officials were obstructing foreign journalists from going to the Papua region. “Come back to me, and if it’s necessary, we will fire them,” he said.
The experience of Cyril Payen, Marie Dhumieres and other foreign journalists suggest that it’s time that Pandjaitan deliver on that promise.
Phelim Kine is the deputy director of Asia division at Human Rights Walk and a former Jakarta-based foreign correspondent.
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2) MSG Chair to facilitate Indo-Papua discussion
Updated at 3:07 pm on 22 January 2016
The chair of the Melanesian Spearhead Group has offered to facilitate a meeting between the Indonesian government and the United Liberation Movement for West Papua.
West Papua has seen a low-level separatist war since Jakarta took over the former Dutch colony in the 1960s.
Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare made the proposal in Honiara this week to a ULMWP delegation led by their secretary general Octo Mote.
The memberships of both Indonesia and the ULMWP were the highlight of last year's MSG summit in Solomon Islands with the former securing associate membership and the latter observer status in the sub-regional Melanesian body.
Mr Sogavare says he believes it is important that the MSG engage Indonesia in dialogue with the ULMWP to gauge its thinking on the issues facing its Melanesian Papua region.
Meanwhile the ULMWP has indicated its desire to establish an office in Papua to further engagement with Indonesia and to try and do away with assertions from Jakarta that it only represents exiled Papuans living abroad.
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3) US AMBASSADOR’S VISIT TO PAPUA SHOULD CONTRIBUTE TO CONFLICT RESOLUTION
Jan 19, 2016

Jayapura, Jubi – Papua legislator Rube Magai a visit by US ambassador to Indonesia Robert Blake to Papua should not only involvr sight-seeing but also focus on resolving the conflict.
He said the United States should not only think about its own interests, but also participate in pushing for an end to the conflict in Papua.
Moreover Papua has three trum cards as reasons to seek independence: Freeport’s contract, human rights violations since 1963 to present and the political status of Papua that has been scrutinized by the international community, in particular Pacific countries.

“Those three things have close links with Papua’s history that has not been resolved until now. The ambassador should not only come to visit, but also to participate in solving problems in Papua. During the time those who played the game in Papua are the United States and Indonesia for the sake of investment and potencies of natural resources in Papua,” Magai told Jubi on Monday (18/1/2016).
Related to Freeport’s issue, according to him, the company signed its first contract with Indonesia in 1967 or before Papua integrated with Indonesia in 1969, but never involved the indigenous Papua as landowners. About human rights violations in Papua, he said, it was occurred since 1963 to present and the Indonesian Government has not resolved it.
“The third problem is Papua’s political status. Until now its political status continues to discuss in every meeting of Pacific countries, such as in MSG and Pacific Forum Island (PIF). In MSG, Papua is currently obtained status as observer. Papuan issues have not only taken to regional level but also to international level and even to the United Nations,” he said.
He said it is now depending on the US to react on Papua, whether they would detain their ego for the sake of investment, that is the Freeport to continue sacrifice the indigenous Papua or they have a political action to push the resolution of many problems in Papua.
During the time, he added, the United States saw the Freeport as big investment; while the indigenous Papua are becoming victims and the Indonesian Government is being ignorant.
“These three issues are Papua’s ace cards. Though the Indonesian Government was silent, the politic in Papua is still running. The Central Government should immediately solve the human rights violations that were occurred since 1963 to present. Then about Freeport’s Contract of Work, it is the crime of the United States and Indonesia. The investment problem should be solved separately according to the issues. Do not blend it or politicized,” he said.
Earlier, the Chief Representative of Human Right Commission Papua Region, Frits Ramandey stated he would run a dialog with the Ambassador of the United States for Indonesia, Robert Blake Jr. He though the ambassador would question about human rights agendas.
“Clearly the Human Right Commission has an interest to clarify about human rights cases, but also ask for some sort enforcement (intervention) from the US Ambassador for Indonesia towards several cases handled by the Human Rights Commission that have not been resolved,” said Ramandey. (Arjuna Pademme/rom)
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4) US continues cooperation with Indonesia to combat terrorism



Jumat, 22 Januari 2016 17:09 WIB | 613 Views
Sentani, Papua (ANTARA News) - The US government continues to cooperate with the Indonesian government to combat the threat of terrorism.

"I would like to explain that the US government stands side by side with Indonesia to counter the threat of terrorism," the United States Ambassador to Indonesia Robert O. Blake informed journalists here on Friday.

The ambassador offered condolences to the families of those killed during the bomb blasts and shootout that took place in a Starbucks cafe and near a police post in Jalan Thamrin, Central Jakarta.

"On behalf of the Government of the United States, I offer condolences to the families of those who were killed," he stated.

In addition, Blake lauded the performance of the police for handling the attacks swiftly. As a result, the police could minimize casualties during the incident.

Blake and his entourage met several Papuan activists, Papuas governor, and its police chief.

They also visited numerous villages in the district of Jayapura. 

The ambassador is scheduled to meet Commander of the Military Regional Command (Kodam) XVII/Cenderawasih Maj. Gen. Hinsa Siburian tonight.

With regard to his visit to the Komba Elementary School, the ambassador was keen to observe the performance of the USAID program, which has been running in the past few years in the areas of education and health.

Earlier, the ASEAN member states had expressed their full support to the Indonesian government to combat terrorism following the attacks in Jakarta, Indonesia, on January 14, 2016, which led to the loss of innocent lives, injuries, and damage to property.

In a written statement received by ANTARA on Friday, the ASEAN has encouraged Indonesia to bring the perpetrators of the heinous act to justice. 

The ASEAN remains united and committed to working with the international community to further intensify cooperation necessary to tackle terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever, and by whomsoever it is committed.  

The ASEAN extends its deepest sympathies and condolences to the Indonesian government and people, especially to the families of the victims of this attack.

The ASEAN member countries commend the swift and courageous actions of the Indonesian security forces in response to the attack.

The bomb attacks and series of shootings in Jakartas business district on Thursday led to seven fatalities and injuries to 20 others.(*)
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1) U.S. Ambassador discusses human rights with church leaders in Papua

January 23, 2016, 1:31 pm
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2) National scene: Freeport  contributes to RI: US Ambassado
3) Islands in focus: Papua  Police probe cop’s alleged  suicide -
4) PAPUA LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL TO FORM SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO HANDLE FREEPORT’S MINING BOUNDARIES
5) MBUA RESIDENTS NEED MORE HEALTH WORKERS
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1) U.S. Ambassador discusses human rights with church leaders in Papua

abtu, 23 Januari 2016 15:39 WIB


Jayapura (ANTARA News) - U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia Roberth O Blake held a meeting with Papuan church leaders here on Saturday.

No reporters were allowed to cover the meeting such as one the ambassador had earlier with leaders of local non governmental organizations.

The meeting that began with breakfast at the Swiss-BelHotel was attended by chairman of PGGP Socrates Sofyan Yoman, chairman of KINGMI Papua 
priest Benny Giay, deputy chairman of Sinode GKI Priest Yemima Krey and other church leaders from Papua Barat.

Priest Socrates Sofyan Yoman said after the meeting discussions with the ambassador ranged from the present condition in Papua and human rights issue.

"We discussed a a number of things with the ambassador such as human right issue in Papua," he said.

Blake and his group had been here on a working visit since Tuesday this week, meeting regional authorities and non governmental organizations.

On Tuesday Blake met with leaders of Justice , Peace and Totality of Creation (SKPKC) Yuliano Languwuyo at a restaurant in Sentani with discussion focused on human rights issue.

Languwuyo said Blake told him that he wanted to see political situation and human right practices in Papua.

He said he told the ambassador there was no progress in including in the protection of human rights in Papua.

Militarism and violence continued even under a civilian leader, he said referring to President Joko Widodo (Jokowi).

He said he told Ambassador Blake that the military is concerned more with the security of large companies like Freeport Indonesia and BP at Teluk Bintuni, Papua Barat.

PT Freeport Indonesia is a subsidiary of the U.S. mining giant Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold having larger copper and gold mines in Papua, and the British-based BP is
 operating a large gas reserves at Teluk Bintuni and a liquefied natural gas plant in Tangguh in that area.
(Uu.H-ASG/O001)

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2) National scene: Freeport  contributes to RI: US Ambassado
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Sat, January 23 2016, 5:15 PM - 
JAKARTA: PT Freeport Indonesia in Papua has been a major contributor to improving the local economy in the province as well as the national economy, US Ambassador to Indonesia Robert O. Blake has said.

“I have been away from Jakarta for a week and did not receive the latest information on Freeport, but I can say that the company has made a major contribution to Indonesia by employing 30,000 people and by paying a significant amount in taxes to the country,” Blake said as quoted by Antara.

Blake made the statement in response to a question on reports that PT Freeport Indonesia’s president director Maroef Sjamsoeddin’s had resigned from his post.

The ambassador declined to comment further on the issue.

“Things related to Maroef’s resignation and Freeport are the internal matters of the company, so I have no authority to comment on it,” Blake affirmed.

Maroef was appointed directly by the former chairman of the board of Freeport McMoran, James Robert Moffett, on Jan. 7, 2015, replacing Rozik B. Soetjipto. Before serving as the Freeport Indonesia boss, Maroef was National Intelligence Agency (BIN) deputy head from 2011 to 2014.
Maroef resigned following the brouhaha involving former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto, who was alleged to have sought favors from Freeport Indonesia in return for an extension on its contract of work. 


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http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/22/islands-focus-papua-police-probe-cop-s-alleged-suicide.html
3) Islands in focus: Papua  Police probe cop’s alleged  suicide -
The Jakarta Post, Jayapura | Archipelago | Fri, January 22 2016, 3:21 PM - 
Keerom Police in Papua are investigating the motive behind the death of Brig. Irian Mulyono, who allegedly shot himself dead early Thursday. 

The 30-year-old Irian, who was a Keerom Police office for seven years, was found dead in his house in Skamto district in Keerom at 1 a.m. local time on Thursday by Petrus Ruwey, 54, and Siama, 50, who also live in the house.

“The two witnesses were woken by the sound of gunfire. They ran to the living room and found the victim dead on the floor. A firearm was found 2 meters from his body,” Keerom Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Tober Sirait said, adding that Irian died with a gunshot wound to the chest. 

Tober said police investigators were investigating the motive behind the alleged suicide. “The officer was not known to have any problems at the office,” he said.

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4) PAPUA LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL TO FORM SPECIAL COMMITTEE TO HANDLE FREEPORT’S MINING BOUNDARIES
Jan 21, 2016
Jayapura, Jubi – Papua Legislative Council will form two special committees to tackle the issue of territorial borders and mining boundaries in Papua.
Papua legislator Thomas Sondegau said these committees would respectively handle the Freeport’s mining boundary and regional/municipal border areas.
“Freeport’s Boundary Committee will handle the Freeport’s mining boundary. For instance, to manage the boundary between Mimika Regency and Puncak, Nduga,

Paniai and Intan Jaya. It is also to observe the Freeport’s expansion area, whether it goes to other regional border area or so on. During the time people only knew that Freeport operates in Amungme and Kamoro tribes’ territory,” Sondegau said on Wednesday (20/1/2016).
While, according to him, the Freeport’s underground mining area has crossed to other tribe’s territory such as Moni’s territory in Intan Jaya Regency, Nduga’s in Nduga Regency, Mee’s in Paniai Regency and Dani’s in Puncak.
“Do not only refer to Freeport’s open mining area, but also its underground mining area. The special committees are established to look further on Freeport’s mining area whether it is still in the Amungme’s territory or already cross to others’ territory,” he said.
He said if it has cleared, Papua Legislative Council will coordinated with the regional governments and relevant tribes as well in order to accommodate the customary communities’ interest.
“The establishment of Special Committee had decided in the Papua Parliament’s plenary last year. Five of seven fractions of Papua Legislative Council approved it, namely Hanura, Democrat, PDI Perjuangan, PKB and Golkar,” he said.
Meanwhile the Deputy Chairman of Commission I of Papua Legislative Council, Orgenes Wanimbo Tolli Wone said the Commission I will concern to resolve many disputes related to boundary issues involved regencies/municipal in Papua. (Arjuna Pademme/rom)
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5) MBUA RESIDENTS NEED MORE HEALTH WORKERS
Jan 21, 2016






Medical staff taken sample of blood of Mbua residents – Jubi

Jayapura, Jubi – Papuan legislator of Nduga constituency, Emus Gwijangge said Mbua residents currently need health workers to provide health care and immunization for children.
According to him, up to now 74 children have died. But people only got assistance from two paramedics trained by missionary instead of the government’s health workers.
“These two paramedics are certainly not able to serve the whole residents. So immunization and medical treatment is not optimal. Papua Police team actually helped people by providing immunization and mass treatment, while both provincial and regional health offices have not done anything. There are plentiful
foods and medicines; but how could people But how could people take it without medical staffs to advise them,” Gwijangge told on Wednesday (20/1/2016).
He said as a native who was born and grown up at Mbua Sub-district, he felt disappoint with Nduga regional government and parliament. He reminded all related stakeholders to not only wait for the budget, directly go observe on the ground. Do not let this condition spreads out to the nearest sub-districts.
“But I’ve heard that Nduga Regional Government didn’t allocate Mbua case in the regional budget for current year. Well, for whom the budget was allocated? In fact, the budget was allocated for community. I just returned from the sub-district few weeks ago. People’s condition is very concerned,” he said.
He thought the Nduga Regional Government seems laidback with this issue, though, according to him, Papua Governor has provided Rp 1 billion grant to Nduga Regional Government. “The grant has been transferred in late December after the meeting of Papua Provincial Budget 2016. Do not restrain it. It should be utilized for public needs in Mbua sub-district,” he said.
Mbua Sub-district chief, Erias Gwijangge, similarly said it was useless if the local government provided medicines to people without medical staffs.
“If the medicines provided without medical staffs, how could people know how to take the medicines? Also, I want to use the governor’s aid to hire the medical staffs to give medical treatment for residents,” said Erias Gwijangge. (Arjuna Pademme/rom)
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