2013 Timor-Leste Update Conference

2013 Timor-Leste Update Follow Up - IPS - ANU

Amb. Abel Guterres and Agio Pereira (Minister of State and of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers) on left. Ruth Nuttall (ANU) at the podium.

The 2013 Timor-Leste Update was the first to be held at the ANU and brought together leading and emerging scholars and policy analysts working on Timor-Leste to reflect critically on the prospects and challenges for the nation over the next 5-10 years. The main objective of the Update was to contribute to Australia's knowledge of, and engagement with Timor-Leste, by providing a public forum to discuss recent developments in Timor-Leste. The Update also aimed to strengthen relationships between scholars, government agencies, civil society organisations and research institutions working on Timor-Leste and to help build the profile and capacity of East Timorese researchers and policy analysts.

The 2013 Timor-Leste Update was hosted by the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program at the ANU, with funding from the ANU’s Research School of Asia and the Pacific, and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and it is hoped that the Timor-Leste Update will become a biennial event.

Click on the links below to access all the outputs and related material from the 2013 Timor-Leste Update:

• 2013 Timor-Leste Update - Podcast Series: Audio recordings of key sessions
• 2013 Timor-Leste Update - Participant Presentations
• 2013 Timor-Leste Update - Program
• Keynote Address - 'Peace and Prosperity', Agio Pereira, Timo-Leste Minister of State and of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers
• Video Interview  - Dr Lia Kent on the key aims of the 2013 Timor-Leste Update
• Press Coverage - 'Widening gulf a peril for the two East Timors', Sydney Morning Herald, 28 November 2013

Related Publications

• 'In Timor, a new house does not make a home', Joanne Wallis and Pyone Myat Thu.
• 'The Australian Seasonal Workers Program: Timor-Leste's case', SSGM In Brief 2013/13

Speakers included: Agio Pereira (Minister of State and of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers), Fidelis Magalhaes (Chief of Staff, Presidency of the Republic of Timor-Leste), Charles Scheiner (La’o Hamutuk); Meabh Cryan (Rede ba Rai); Ines Martins (La’o Hamutuk); Nelson Belo (Fundasaun Mahein); Catharina Maria; Jose Neves (Deputy, Anti-Corruption Commission Timor-Leste); Lurdes Bessa (Member of Parliament, Timor-Leste); Laura Soares Abrantes (Asia Pacific Support Collective Timor-Leste); Lia Kent (ANU);Sue Ingram (ANU); Michael Leach (Swinburne University), Gordon Peake (ANU) and more.

Panel on Sub-national development.

'via Blog this'

Tapol: Urgent Appeal: release Biak prisoners

West Papuan political prisoner Yohanes Boseren, currently on trial in Biak, is suffering from mental health problems thought to be related to the heavy beating he suffered when he was arrested. Human rights lawyers are calling for his immediate release and for him to be given the medical treatment he urgently needs. See appeal here.

Also Don't forget to sign ETAN's petition to unconditionally free West Papuan political prisoners.

Read the West Papua Report 

Message from Dili to Australia - Stop Stealing and Occupying the Timor Sea

Activists in Dili send a message to Australia about its theft of Timor's resources.

The photo within the photo is from an East Timor and Indonesia Action Network
demon at the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC in 2004. The struggle continues!

Read from the statement of the Timor-Leste based Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea:

Today, the Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea asks the Government of Australia to:
1. Stop stealing and occupying the Timor Sea, but show your good will as a large nation which
follows democratic prniciples to accept a maritime boundary which follows international law
principles.
2. Australia should set an example as a sovereign nation which respects and recognizes the
rights of Timor-Leste’s people.
3. Australia should not promote or continue neocolonialism against Timor-Leste’s people, who
have suffered this for centuries. We will no longer be your slaves.
4. The Abbott government should apologize to the Maubere people, who have been hugely
discriminated against by Australia from the past to the present. If not, we will continue to
demonstrate at the Australian Embassy for the indefinite future.

Read the full statement here

Background from Lao Hamutuk is here and from ETAN here.

Mandela, Indonesia and the liberation of Timor Leste

Nelson Mandela took on Suharto in his own house. He demanded to meet with imprisoned East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao during a 1997 visit to Jakarta. Mandela insisted that the meeting take place outside the prison.

From Mandela, Indonesia and the liberation of Timor Leste | The Jakarta Post:

"Unlike many, Mandela remains loyal to the principles of Bandung that included the right to self-determination. Indeed, contrary to leaders of Indonesia’s New Order, he threw his full weight behind the liberation of Timor Leste."

"The defining moments for Mandela and Xanana were at the expense, slowly but surely, of Soeharto." 

West Papua Report December 2013 - Religious Transformation, crackdown, Freeport, autonomy, Vanuatu speaks out andmore

Latest West Papua Report is now available here

CONTENTS

In this edition's "Perspective," Dr. Charles Farhadian describes the transformation of the religious landscape of West Papua, in particular the role of the Indonesian government in the shift of the region from predominantly Christian to predominantly Muslim.

This month's "Update" leads with the police crackdown on West Papuan demonstrators which left at least one Papuan dead, many injured and many under arrest. WPAT sources in Papua New Guinea report that Papuan rights supporters foiled efforts by national police to arrest Port Moresby Governor Powes Parkop for flying the Papuan Morning Star Flag on December 1. Two reports look at the mining giant Freeport McMoRan, including its "greenwashing" activities. Moana Carassas, Prime Minister of Vanuatu, raised the plight of the people of West Papua at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka. A prominent Indonesian journalist called for greater transparency by the Indonesian government in dealing with West Papua.  A regional journal reports on West Papuan activists in carrying their message to the nations of the Pacific.

In "Chronicle," we note condemnation of recent police violence in West Papua by Amnesty International and the West Papua Advocacy Team. The impact of the recent "Freedom Flotilla" is considered in a comprehensive essay. West Papuan voices are largely absent in the ongoing reconsideration of special autonomy for West Papua.  An OpEd by ETAN board member Andrew de Sousa looks at the role of the "School of the Americas" in training military officials who have notorious human rights records. A regional conference examined policing practices.

Powes Parkop, Governor of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea's capital region, was presented with the John Rumbiak Human Rights Defenders Award" for 2013. Parkop (center, holding plaque), with Jennifer Robinson and Benny and Maria Wenda in Port Moresby.

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Indonesia and the School of the Americas

Indonesia and the School of the Americas:

excerpts:

"Inside Indonesia impunity continues to reign supreme: despite some modest gains in reforming the military over the past decade, regular human rights violations continue in West Papua and elsewhere, and the U.S.-created Detachment 88 acts like a death squad, killing suspected terrorists at will. Past crimes continue to go unpunished, with those responsible enjoying prominent positions: Prabowo has formed his own political party and is a leading contender for president, Sjafrie Syamsuddin is a vice-minister, and Lumintang is set to be the next ambassador to the Philippines. General Wiranto, indicted in Timor for his role as head of the military in 1999, is also planning a presidential run."

SoA Watch

"It is clear that the Pentagon has also failed to absorb the lessons of the past. With the State Department as a willing ally, human rightsconditions on U.S. military training and other assistance to Indonesian security forces have been systematically dismantled. Despite its rights rhetoric, the Obama administration, like its predecessors, has put made engagement with Indonesia’s security forces a priority. This is what makes actions like the annual mobilization against the SOA so important.
"When the School of the Americas is finally closed it will be an important victory for its victims across the Western Hemisphere, Indonesia, and the world. However, its end must be followed by larger moves to dismantle the system of training which supports atrocities across the globe – including full accountability for those who committed past atrocities, and for those who trained and equipped them."

'via Blog this'

ETAN on anniversary of Santa Cruz massacre

November 12 is the 22nd anniversary of the Santa Cruz massacre. On November 12, 1991, Indonesian troops opened fire on a memorial procession - turned into a peaceful pro-independence demonstration - at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste. More than 270 mostly-young Timorese were murdered.

As we have often noted, the media coverage of the massacre was a key turning point in Timor's long struggle for independence. It led to the founding of ETAN and similar groups, energize UN and Portuguese diplomacy, and led to some sanctions on Indonesia. In the U.S., ETAN built on the initial cut-off of military training for the Indonesian military. Eventually, all military assistance was cut off in 1999 as Indonesian troops and militia ransacked the Timor in the aftermath of the historic vote that led to independence.

On the 20th anniversary of the massacre ETAN observed that:

"While Timor-Leste is now independent, its people will not be able to overcome their tragic past without knowing what was done with their relatives’ and friends’ bodies. Ongoing impunity for decades of systematic Indonesian military and police atrocities keeps the East Timorese and Indonesian people from consolidating their democracies and moving on with their lives."

Much remains to be done. A year ago, we noted that:

"Impunity for decades of systematic Indonesian military and police atrocities prevents both countries from consolidating the rule of law as they transition from  military dictatorship do democracy."

We continued to to urge the U.S. Congress and the Obama administration to respond to the recommendations of Timor-Leste's Commission for Truth, Reception and Reconciliation, especially "its calls for an international tribunal to try perpetrators of crimes against humanity during the Indonesian occupation, reparations from Indonesia and other countries that supported the occupation, and restrictions on foreign assistance to the Indonesian military."

And we urged the U.S. and others to press Indonesia "to immediately release all information that can help identify and locate those who were killed or disappeared during the occupation,."

For more information on the massacre see http://etan.org/timor/SntaCRUZ.htm. ETAN on the web: http://www.etan.org. Twitter: etan009

West Papua Report November 2013: Divesting Freeport, MIFEE, MSG, New Provinces, Travel Restrictions, 1970s Massacres

West Papua Report
November 2013

CONTENTS

This month's PERSPECTIVE covers the growing international movement for divestment in Freeport-McMoran. This reflects growing international concern on the mining operation's violations of human rights and ecological destruction in West Papua.

UPDATE looks at a new report that details the Indonesian military's use of U.S. and Australian provided aircraft to devastating effect on Papuan civilians in the 1970's. A plan to create new Papuan provinces will further disenfranchise West Papuans. Despite claims by the governor of Papua province, severe Indonesian government restrictions on journalists and other international visitors to the region remain in place. An Indonesian military-linked businessmen reportedly bribed Solomon Island officials in advance of Melanesian states consideration of a Papuan application for membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). International NGOs and others have written to the MSG urging the regional Melanesian organization to accept the application. Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) continues to face criticism.

In CHRONICLE we note the publication of two important books dealing with West Papua; new statements by ETAN and WPAT, and a new report on the impact of the proliferation of new political districts in Papua.

Read full issue here: http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/2013/1311wpap.htm

ETAN and WPAT on Obama's Upcoming Trip to Indonesia

UPDATE: Obama is not going to Indonesia because of U.S. government shutdown. Our criticisms of U.S. policy to Indonesia remain; the policy needs to change.

Read: ETAN Urges President Obama to Put Human Rights at Center of U.S.-Indonesia Relations During Upcoming Visit to Indonesia

excerpts:

“The U.S. must not ignore injustice and human rights violations to advance narrow strategic and economic interests that have little to do with the well-being of the U.S. or Indonesian people,” said ETAN National Coordinator John M. Miller. “While much has changed in Indonesia since the Suharto dictatorship, U.S. security assistance does not promote further change. Instead it encourages impunity and further violations of human rights.” 

“We are calling for a new relationship between the two countries built on an honest assessment of the bloody past,” said Miller. “Instead of offering more weapons and more training to Indonesia’s military, President Obama should suspend this assistance until there is an end to abuses and real accountability for past human rights crimes.”

We are calling for a new relationship between the two countries built on an honest assessment of the bloody past.

Since Obama's last visit to Indonesia, the human rights situation has deteriorated in West Papua and religious intolerance has grown.

“President Obama can send a strong message against impunity by making clear he and and other senior U.S. officials will not to meet with any Indonesian politicians -- including likely presidential candidates, such as retired generals Prabowo and Wiranto -- who have been credibly accused of human rights and other crimes,” said Miller.

The two presidents.

Read: West Papua Advocacy Team Open Letter to President Obama

excerpts: 

This year marks 50 years of Indonesian rule over West Papua, which had previously been a Dutch colony slated for independence. Half a century of Indonesian rule has seen West Papua subjected to crimes against humanity, according to numerous credible human rights reports. Half a century of colonization of one people by the armed forces of another has taken place. Half a century of ongoing conflict has been the result. To resolve the conflict peacefully, international mediation is needed. West Papua was delivered to Indonesian rule as a result of American mediation, which confers upon the United States a special responsibility to act to resolve the current conflict peacefully.

and

The increasing militarization of West Papua indicates that there is no let-up in sight to the half-century of widespread violations of basic human rights in West Papua. If Indonesia is democratizing, the reverse is the case in West Papua.

We therefore recommend that on your trip to Indonesia, you:

1. Press for a dialogue between the Indonesian government and West Papuan civil society, with international third-party mediation, along the lines of the successful international medication of the Aceh conflict in 2005. Current policy is not advancing dialogue. Internationally-mediated dialogue is a growing call from civil society voices in both West Papua and Indonesia.
2. Halt military assistance to the Indonesian security forces. United States cooperation with the most brutal elements of the security forces encourages the climate of impunity, and United States sale of Apache helicopters increases the repressive capacity of the security forces in West Papua. Cooperation with the Kopassus Special Forces and Detachment 88of the Indonesian National Police should be suspended pending an improvement of the human rights situation in West Papua and the initiation of dialogue, and the agreement to provide Apache helicopters should be cancelled. Non-military ties should continue to expand but military cooperation be made conditional on respect for human rights in West Papua, as it was with respect to the Timor-Leste situation prior to Timor-Leste's independence.
3. Press for open access to West Papua by international observers, NGOs and others, so that the conflict will no longer be hidden.
4. Support efforts from within Melanesia to address the root causes of the conflict in West Papua, the denial of self-determination and the persistence of repressive policies by the Indonesian security forces.
5. Press President Yudhoyono to order a halt to security forces' violations of the human rights of West Papuan civilians, and hold security personnel accountable for their crimes by laying charges, where evidence merits, in civilian courts.

West Papua Advocacy Team

Air quality permit issued for Holbrook potash mine

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality officials announced today that an air quality permit has been issued to American West Potash, the first permit to be issued for a large, proposed potash mining operation 30 miles southeast of Holbrook in Navajo County.  [Right, lease/ownership map of the Holbrook basin potash play.  AWP lands in purple on east side of Petrified Forest National Park in pale yellow]

The permit incorporates all applicable state and federal regulations and all appropriate pollution control requirements, monitoring and record keeping provisions to ensure protection of human health and the environment. While not required by air quality regulations, American West Potash addressed ADEQ’s request to work with the United States Forest Service and the National Park Service to document that the project would not adversely impact air quality at Petrified Forest National Park, which is located in close proximity to the project site.

American West Potash expects to begin construction of the mine in early 2015 and hopes to begin potash production in late 2017 or early 2018. The company anticipates creating  more than 750 full-time positions  and another nearly 200 jobs are expected to be created by outside businesses that will provide goods and services for mine operations.

“This mine could add nearly 1,000 much needed jobs to northeast Arizona’s economy and our air quality permit is highly protective of human health and the environment,” said ADEQ Director Henry Darwin. “This is an excellent example of how all parties can work together to protect the environment and grow the economy.”

American West Potash LLC, headquartered in Denver, Co., owns mineral claims covering an area of 32,000 acres in the Holbrook Basin. The company has estimated that as many as 2.5 billion tons of potash could be extracted in the next 60 years from the region. Potash contains potassium in water soluble form that is used in fertilizers throughout the world.

      

In addition to the air quality permit, American West Potash is expected to need an aquifer protection permit, an Arizona Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (AZPDES) permit  and possibly other permits from ADEQ before construction activities can begin.

[This post is the ADEQ news release]

Invitation to participate in global survey of mining jurisdictions

The Fraser Institute, Canadian public policy think-tank, conducts an annual survey of how miners and explorers rate the investment climate of jurisdictions around the world. The results identify the countries, states and provinces whose policies create the greatest barriers to investment in the mining sector. The 2012/2013 survey results can be accessed here.

To participate in this year’s survey, please click here. To find out further information about the survey, please contact Alana Wilson, survey coordinator, at +1(604)688-0221 Ext.547 or alana.wilson@fraserinstitute.org.

 

Officers, managers, and other experts with mining exploration and development companies, and their advisors, are asked to complete the 2013 survey questionnaire with respect to jurisdictions about which they are knowledgeable. Participation is electronic, at:  2013 Mining Survey

The Survey of Mining Companies: 2012/2013 (published February 2013) ranked the investment climate of 96 jurisdictions around the world based on the opinions of mining executives representing 742 mineral exploration and development companies. Participating companies reported exploration spending of $6.2 billion US in 2012 and $5.4 billion US in 2011.

They have shortened the survey questionnaire this year and it can be completed in less than 15 minutes. Participants will be thanked by receiving an electronic copy of the survey at the time of its release, as well as being entered into a draw to win $1,000 (USD) if they provide their contact information. All information collected through the survey remains confidential. 

[excerpted from Fraser Institute materials]