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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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

Pedalling for Papua in NYC August 22, 2013

Pedalling for Papua
Thursday, August 22, 2013, 7:00pm
Maryhouse, 55 E Third St, New York City (Lower East Side)

for more information contact: etan@etan.org or call 917-690-4391

RSVP on Facebook

Pedalling for Papua is coming to New York City! A 12,000 kilometer international bicycling and performance tour, Pedalling for Papua aims to raise awareness of the 50 year old human rights and environmental abuse in the underreported region of West Papua.

As home to the bird of paradise, the second largest jungle remaining in the world, and our planet’s most bio-diverse marine zone, this beautiful region has been subject to what many observers have dubbed a slow-motion genocide. Tens of thousands of indigenous West Papuans have died as a result of the military presence and lack of development in their homeland.

This story needs to be told, and it will be. Over six months, Jeremy Bally will tour a multimedia performance on his bicycle through seven countries.

The show takes recorded conversations with West Papuan exiles, refugees and activists live on stage through an original animation. 

This is projected beside Jeremy as he narrates with original spoken word poetry and ukulele based hip-hop music.

Entry is by donation. See you there!

About the Performance
In January and February 2013, Jeremy Bally conducted a series of interviews with members of the West Papuan diaspora. Among those he spoke with were musicians, students, activists, and former political prisoners. All of them identified as either refugees or exiles themselves, or having been born to refugees.

Those interviews were recorded with permission, and have been transformed into a story of West Papua by West Papuans. Now set to original animation, their story is narrated on stage through ukulele based hip hop and spoken word.

We believe that stories, when told well, have the power to change the world. Our vision for this performance is that audiences are at once engaged, educated and inspired to participate in building a peaceful future for West Papua.

Pedalling for Papua on Facebook, Twitter

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Free Papua Political Prisoners
Support the Appeal of Filep Karma's Daughter Sign the petition today!

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see also

• Read the monthly West Papua Report
• Indonesia and West Papua Struggles

Making a difference

Rev. Elice Higginbotham

East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)

August  2013

Protester with signs outside ETAN's protest of the Appeal to Conscience award's ceremony in New York City. Photo by John M. Miller/ETAN.

Dear friend:

Do you ever wonder if signing a petition makes a difference?

Last spring, some shocked Indonesians informed ETAN that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was to be honored by the New York-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation, an organization dedicated (it said) to religious tolerance and human rights. Our immediate response was to organize protests against giving the "World Statesman Award" to SBY. Among other actions, we organized online petition that many of you signed.

I am writing to urge you to support ETAN by making a contribution today. Please go to www.etan.org/etan/donate1.htm to donate.

More than 2,000 of you spoke out against the award to SBY by signing ETAN’s petition. The petition motivated a spin-off in Indonesia, which gathered an additional 6,000 signatures, mostly from amazed, amused or outraged Indonesians. I was in Jakarta during this time and many Indonesians expressed their appreciation for ETAN's actions.

We weren’t surprised when SBY did, indeed come to New York to accept the “World Statesman Award.” Our old antagonist, Henry Kissinger, was on hand to present it at a big-ticket fundraising dinner. But so was ETAN’s “welcoming committee” of Indonesian, U.S. and other human rights advocates, who protested the award and spoke out about SBY’s real record on human rights, religious tolerance, and the rule of law in Indonesia.

Our actions helped to draw attention to Indonesia’s continued persecution of religious minorities and other human rights violations. For the first time the semi-weekly public protests by religious minorities in front of the National Palace in Jakarta drew regular media attention. Letters and other denunciations of the award from academics, rights activists, religious figures, and others generated news in Indonesia for weeks prior to the awards ceremony. Calls for SBY to make good on the promises he made in his acceptance speech continue to this day.

We were interested to learn just how “threatening” Indonesia’s diplomats find ETAN. We were told of a meeting among U.S.-based diplomats who blamed ETAN, among others, for the uproar about the award. We heard from Indonesians living in the New York area who had received offers of dollars and dinner to fill seats at the award presentation. Those bused in were forced to participate in a “counter-demonstration” aimed at covering up the truths that ETAN was exposing. We do not have access to the discretionary funds of the Indonesian Embassy; our protest was smaller, but all the more genuine.

Your signature made a difference. And so can your donation.

The “No Award for SBY” petition represents just one of ETAN’s deceptively modest efforts to keep Indonesia - and its continued military and economic support from the U.S. - in the public eye and before policymakers. These efforts have been making a difference for more than two decades and, with your support, will continue to do so.

Please contribute what you can. We depend on support from people like you. People who are dedicated to human and civil rights for the peoples of Indonesia.

Your financial contribution to ETAN will make a difference. With your help, ETAN can continue to:

• Keep you and others informed about violations of human rights, the role of corporate interests and other developments in West Papua through our monthly report,
  
• Respond to calls for action in response to reports of human rights violations,
  
• Provide firsthand reports on elections, legislation, economic development in Indonesia, West Papua, and Timor-Leste,
  
• Keep you aware of the influence of U.S. policy on events in Timor-Leste, Indonesia and West Papua – and keep U.S. and Indonesian policymakers aware that we are watching them.

Please see our website for information about our current campaigns.

Please give generously, so that together we can continue to make a difference. 
In solidarity,

Elice HigginbothamMember, Board of Directors, ETAN

P.S. Please consider becoming an ETAN sustainer by making a monthly donation by credit card. Help put ETAN on a firmer financial footing: information here.  

Protest When Kissinger Gets Intrepid Freedom Award

May 23, 2013. 5:30 pm

Protest When Kissinger Gets Intrepid Freedom Award 
The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

Pier 86, 12 Ave. & 46 Street
New York City

Join ETAN and other organizations in protesting Henry Kissinger's appearance at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum. Kissinger - whose government career involved denying people their freedom and democratic rights - is slated to receive the Intrepid Freedom Award for - we kid you not - "his distinguished career defending the values of freedom and democracy." The ceremony also will honor David Koch, executive vice president of Kansas-based Koch Industries, Inc.

Sponsoring organizations include: ETAN, Big Apple Coffee Party, Chelsea Neighbors United to End the War, War Resisters League/NYC,Veterans for Peace Chapter 34, War Criminals Watch/World Can't Wait; more to come

Remind people about Henry Kissinger's sordid history concerning East Timor, West Papua, Vietnam, Cambodia, Chile, Cyprus, Bangladesh, Angola and elsewhere.

Let us know your coming on Facebook

On December 6, 1975, then Secretary of State Kissinger and President Gerald Ford visited Jakarta. At their meeting, Ford gave Indonesia's dictator Suharto an explicit go ahead for the invasion of East Timor and Indonesia invaded the next day. According to East Timor's Commission on Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) up to 180,000 died as a direct result of the illegal invasion and occupation. Declassified and leaked documents show that Kissinger understood that Suharto was balking at invading, concerned that the U.S. would cut off its supply of weapons and military training. Kissinger guaranteed continuation of weapons shipments. According to Timor-Leste's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation as many as 180,000 people died as a result.  For more on Kissinger's role in East Timor click here. 

Indonesia invaded West Papua, then Netherlands New Guinea, in 1961. Henry Kissinger, in his capacity as the Secretary of State, played a personal role in insuring that West Papuans were not given the opportunity to have a genuine independence referendum in 1969. The sham "consultation" that took place instead, the so-called

"Act of Free Choice," condemned the West Papuan people to decades of terror under an Indonesian military occupation, which continues today. Kissinger later served on the Board of Directors of Freeport McMoRan, the U.S. company which controls one of the world’s largest copper and gold mine in West Papua. Kissinger defended the company’s interests in post-Suharto Indonesia.

Hold Kissinger Accountable leaflet: Educate about Kissinger's role in Indonesia's illegal and brutal invasion of East Timor and Indonesia's annexation of West Papua Print out and distribute at future demonstrations (PDF)

There will also likely be a demonstration the evening of May 30 in New York City, should the Appeal of Conscience Foundation go forward with its Statesman of the Year award to Indonesia's president. Stay tuned. In the meantime, sign the petition. 

Groups Call on U.S. to Condemn Indonesian Attacks on Peaceful Demonstrations in West Papua

Contact: Ed McWilliams, West Papua Advocacy Team, +1-575-648-2078, edmcw@msn.com
John M. Miller, National Coordinator, ETAN, +1-917-690-4391, etan@etan.org

May 3, 2013 - The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) and West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) strongly urge the U.S. government to condemn the unwarranted assault by Indonesian government security forces on peaceful May 1 demonstrations in West Papua. They called for U.S. security assistance to be curtailed, absent an end to such egregious human rights violations and credible prosecution and sentencing of the perpetrators of these crimes among Indonesia's military, police, and "anti-terror" forces.
 
Widespread nonviolent Papuan protests commemorating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations 1963 handover of West Papua to Indonesian control were met with security force brutality. At least two West Papuans were killed; many more were wounded and/or detained.

On May 2, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay "expressed serious concerns over the crackdown on mass demonstrations across Papua." Her statement said "These latest incidents are unfortunate examples of the ongoing suppression of freedom of expression and excessive use of force in Papua. I urge the Government of Indonesia to allow peaceful protest and hold accountable those involved in abuses.

Demo in Jayapura, May 1 (photo: Dawn Treader via http://westpapuamedia.info/ )

ETAN and WPAT, noting the close relations and expanding security relationship between Washington and Jakarta, call on President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to press the Indonesian government to end its suppression of freedom of expression in West Papua and to hold those responsible for violence against civilian demonstrators accountable before civilian courts. 

The U.S. should also urge Indonesia to allow visits by UN Human Rights Special Rapporteurs, as the Indonesian Government agreed to do in late 2012, and more generally end restrictions on travel there by international observers. The planned visit by Frank La Rue, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, remains stalled over Indonesian government restrictions that would prevent him from visiting political prisoners in West Papua and elsewhere.

ETAN and WPAT also urge the appropriate committees and subcommittees of the U.S. Congress to hold hearings examining the impact of expanding security ties between the U.S. and Indonesia and possible violations of the Leahy law. This is especially urgent given the continuing and even worsening violations of human rights by the Indonesian military and other security forces targeting Papuans seeking to exercise rights guaranteed them by international treaties and covenants. Legislation to curtail or fully suspend this assistance should be on the agenda for such hearings.

The latest attacks are the latest human rights violations that have continued unabated since Indonesia took control of the territory 50 years. These crimes are part of a larger pattern of repression and impunity perpetrated by troops and police armed and trained by the U.S.

This statement is also supported by the West Papua Action Network.

ETAN was formed in 1991. The U.S.-based organization advocates for democracy, justice and human rights for Timor-Leste, West Papua and Indonesia. ETAN on the web: http://www.etan.org. Twitter: etan009. The West Papua Advocacy Team is a U.S.-based NGO composed of academics, human rights defenders and a retired U.S. diplomat. Both organizations co-publish the monthly West Papua Report. http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm 

see also

• Read the West Papua Report
• West Papua Advocacy Team Urges Unrestricted Visit by UN Special Rapporteur
• U.S.-Indonesia Security Assistance 

Police anti-demonstration apparatus in a show of force, Jayaura, May 1, 2013
(Photo: SuaraPapua.com)