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Papuan Human Rights : Military Operations

Papua strike stirs pro-independence fervour
By WPNews
Nov 20, 2011, 11:32

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1) Indonesia ties good despite being tested
2) Papua strike stirs pro-independence fervour
3) RI, US agree on $600 mln cooperation project
4) Freeport employee shot dead
5) Indonesia to Buy 24 Refurbished US F-16 Fighters

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http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/indonesia-ties-good-despite-being-tested-20111119-1nogc.html

1) Indonesia ties good despite being tested
Karlis Salna, AAP South-East Asia Correspondent
November 19, 2011 - 7:49PM

AAP

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has pointed to the growing strategic significance of Australia's relationship with Indonesia as she prepares for a meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Bali.

However, she has also conceded that the relationship has also faced some significant tests since Dr Yudhoyono's celebrated visit to Australia in March 2010.

It was during that visit that Dr Yudhoyono delivered his landmark address to the federal parliament, and that Australia and Indonesia agreed on annual talks between the leaders of both countries, the first of which will take place on Sunday.
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"Having this first leaders' level summit is a sign of the growing strategic partnership between our two countries," Ms Gillard said on Saturday in Bali ahead of a series of bilateral meetings and plenary sessions at the East Asia Summit (EAS).

"But overall the relationship is a strong one and we are going to keep building on that strength for the future."

Despite the positive outlook, the prime minister said there had also been some issues the two leaders had needed to work through over the past 12 months, including the ban on cattle exports to Indonesia, and more recently, issues related to the incarceration of minors from both countries.

The meeting with Dr Yudhoyono comes as a 14-year-old Australian boy, arrested in Bali on October 4 for alleged possession of a small amount of marijuana, faces a possible three-month jail term.

He will be sentenced on Friday.

"That matter is due to return to court on the 25th of November so it's not in the interests of this young boy for me to make any commentary of the legal case itself and I won't," Ms Gillard told reporters in Bali.

Ms Gillard's government is also currently continuing to deal with the delicate issue of the detention of Indonesian minors in Australia and awaiting trial for people-smuggling offences.

While some estimates have put the number of Indonesian juveniles detained in Australia at as many as 100, Ms Gillard said on Saturday it was her understanding the number of cases where age was an issue now stood at 17.

Several have already been released.

"Processes are already under way so this has already been started but I will be saying to President Yudhoyono that we do want to work co-operatively with Indonesian authorities including Indonesian police to do what we can to speed up the determination of people's ages," Ms Gillard said.

For Australia's part, Ms Gillard said she would raise the issue of Papua, about which rights groups have voiced concerns as recently as last week in relation to human rights abuses on the part of the Indonesian military.

"There is a need to continue to address human rights questions in the area and president Yudhoyono has been very clear about his intentions that any questions of human rights abuses are investigated.

"We very much welcome the progress Indonesia is making in that area."

The comments came on the sidelines of the EAS and on the back of the ASEAN Summit, both of which have been dominated by a diplomatic arm wrestle between the US and China, fuelled by an increasingly tense dispute over the resource-rich South China Sea.

Ms Gillard on Saturday downplayed the significance of the stand-off between the two superpowers and its implications for Australia's relationship with both countries.

"It is possible and we will continue to have our alliance with the United States and our friendship with China. I believe that is what will be on display here and beyond, that we will be working with both the United States and China," she said.

Ms Gillard was also set to join Dr Yudhoyono later in the day in presenting a joint-paper promoting co-operative disaster management between nations across the region.

The prime minister also intended to raise the eurozone crisis and the need for more work to be done towards opening trade barriers and kick-starting the Doha Round of global trade talks.
© 2011 AAP
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http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2011/11/201111194134492932.html
2) Papua strike stirs pro-independence fervour

Exclusive report on eastern Indonesian region wracked by dispute over wages and calls for autonomy.

Last Modified: 19 Nov 2011 16:53

Human rights organisations have called on Barack Obama, the United States president, to address abuses in West Papua during the his visit to Indonesia.

The campaign, headed by US-based group Human Rights Watch, comes after several months of unrest in the eastern Indonesian province.

A central issue facing Papuans is their alleged ill treatment by the Indonesian unit of the US mining company Freeport-McMoRan.

Step Vassen, Al Jazeera's Indonesia correspondent, reports that the workers at the gold and copper mine, who earn an average of $1.50 per hour, are demanding a pay rise of 300 per cent. Freeport Indonesia has offered them an increase of only 35 per cent.

The controversial Grasberg mine is reportedly the most profitable in the world, yet the miners say their salaries are far lower than international norms.

Papuans have been protesting over their alleged treatment by Freeport and some have resorted to illegally extracting gold from a broken pipeline that belongs to the company.

Up to 20km of pipes were vandalised after thousands of miners went on a strike more than two months ago. The broken infrastructure has paralysed the mine and pushed some impoverished Papuans to search for gold on their own.

Two striking workers were shot by police and three were killed by unidentified gunmen in October.

On Friday, unidentified gunmen killed a mining company guard and wounded two policemen in a patrol car near the mine, according to Wachyono, a spokesperson for the Papua province police who uses only one name.

US concern

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Saturday from Jakarta, Andreas Harsono, Indonesia consultant at Human Rights Watch, said Papua has had to endure at least five waves of violence since it was taken over by the Jakarta government.

"They feel they are being treated as a colony of Indonesia," he said. "The Indonesian government had promised to give special autonomy to Papua ... but Papuans do not feel this has happened."

Harsono said the issue with Freeport is very contentious , and has been so since the company entered Indonesia in the late 1960s.

"Indonesia officially took over Papua in 1969, but gave Freeport the contract for Papua beforehand," he said. Harsono said Papuans argue that Indonesia signed a contract for land that was not theirs to give away.

Another sensitive issue concerns the reaction of the Indonesian government to a pro-independence gathering that took place in Papua last month. Security forces broke it up, leaving three people dead and over a hundred others injured.

When Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, expressed concern about abuses in Papua last week, the Indonesian government responded with irritation. Now, with Obama visiting, Indonesia has said Papua is not on the agenda, but many people believe it is an issue that cannot be avoided.



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http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/11/19/ri-us-agree-600-mln-cooperation-project.html
3) RI, US agree on $600 mln cooperation project
Antara, Bali | Sat, 11/19/2011 5:11 PM
A | A | A |
Indonesia and the United States have agreed on a US$600 million cooperation project under a so-called "Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact" in support of environmentally friendly and sustainable development in the former.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and US President Barack Obama announced the agreement in a joint statement to the press following their bilateral meeting at the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center (BNDCC) here on Friday.

"Indonesia is thankful to the US for the Millennium Comprehensive Partnership worth US$600 million to support environmentally friendly development," President Yudhoyono said.

The cooperation was designed to assist Indonesia in developing clean energy, food and public health programs as well as in modernizing goods and service procurement process.

President Yudhoyono said the Indonesia-US relations had been improving since the two nations signed a comprehensive partnership agreement a few years ago.

In the political, legal and security fields both nations had been engaged in various activities such as dialogs, military education and training including the US grant of F-16s to Indonesia, he said.

Both nations also had signed a trade and investment agreement to increase investment and trade ties between the two nations, he said.

President Yudhoyono also expressed Indonesia`s wish to become a US strategic partner in building democratic cooperation which pays respect for human rights.

Meanwhile, President Obama said his visit to Bali for the 6th East Asia Summit was a concrete example of the US focus on the Asia-Pacific region to get better involved in the regional organization.

He shared Yudhoyono`s view that relations between the two countries had been improving since the signing of the comprehensive partnership agreement.

He said the signing of a commercial agreement between Boeing and Lion Air at Grand Hyatt Hotel in Bali earlier in the day was an example of the ever increasingly closer cooperation between the two nations in the economic field.

Under the agreement, Lion Air is planning to buy 200 Boeing planes for at least US$2 billion.
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http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/11/19/freeport-employee-shot-dead.html
4) Freeport employee shot dead
Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura | Sat, 11/19/2011 9:45 AM
A | A | A |
In another shooting at the PT Freeport Indonesia (PT FI) gold and copper mining area, a driver, Feri William, died after being shot in the head by unidentified gunmen at Mile 51 at around 1 p.m. on Friday.

Feri was driving three police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officers from Mile 68 to Mile 32 Lowland. As they arrived at Mile 51, the car was shot at from the left hand side of the road and Feri sustained a bullet wound to the head. The three Brimob members were also injured by splintered glass.

“The victim died at around 4 p.m. at the Kuala Kencana clinic,” Papua Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Wach-yono told The Jakarta Post.

In a text message sent to the Post, PT FI spokesman Ramdani Sirait confirmed he had received reports of the shooting in which an employee was killed. “We at PT FI express our heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family,” he wrote.

Previously, on Nov. 16, two PT FI employees, Medi Pungus and Makkasau, were slightly injured when the car they were traveling in was shot at by unidentified gunmen at Mile 51.

The series of shootings has caused grave concern among PT FI employees at work and raised tensions. “We are tired of being haunted by these shootings,” said Lita, a PT FI employee, when reached by the Post.

According to Lita, who has worked at PT FI for 15 years, no amount of money could compensate for the lack of safety.

“We have families and children. We need a sense of safety while working. A high salary means nothing without a sense of safety,” she said.

She hoped that the Indonesian government could provide better security for workers. “From the bottom of my heart, I appeal to the President to listen to our cries. We are also humans who need a sense of safety. We are not sitting targets. I appeal to the President, let this be the last shooting,” she said.

According to Lita, the shootings, which have been taking place since 2003, have caused particular anxiety ever since two employees, Harry Siregar and Max Mansawan, were shot and killed and later set on fire by unidentified gunmen on April 7, 2011.

“Ever since then, the shootings have intensified but why can’t they be stopped right now?” she asked.

Separately, in Jayapura, an interactive dialogue, organized by the 1701 Jayapura Military Command at the Hotel Relat Jayapura on Friday, participants raised doubts about the 50-year integration of Papua into
Indonesia.

Prosperity was far below expectations and the special autonomy that had been granted had not changed the lives of native Papuans, especially those at the grass-roots level, it was claimed.

“My parents are still naked in the village; where are the special autonomy funds?” asked Pegunungan Tengah tribal chief Bion Tabuni.

According to Tabuni, what the government has done, especially during the Papuan special autonomy era, has not been of immediate benefit to the lives of the common people, who still wonder whether they can eat three times a day, benefit from electricity or have a decent home.

The people’s wishes, said Tabuni, were simple. They wanted to have enough food to eat, free education, healthcare and a sense of security.

“Previously, during campaigns, leadership candidates promised many things, but after they got elected they forgot everything. Don’t they ever feel guilty about lying to the people?” he asked.



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http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/indonesia-to-buy-24-refurbished-us-f-16-fighters/479570
5) Indonesia to Buy 24 Refurbished US F-16 Fighters
November 19, 2011
The United States plans to supply 24 refurbished F-16C/D fighter aircraft to Indonesia, the presidents of the two countries announced in Bali on Friday on the fringes of an Asia-Pacific summit.

It was the second militarily significant announcement of President Barack Obama’s ongoing nine-day Asia-Pacific trip.

The upgraded Lockheed Martin Corp F-16s will give Indonesia a “much-needed” capability to protect its sovereign airspace, the White House said in a “fact sheet” that emphasized the relatively low price tag, put at $750 million by the Pentagon.

Under a separate tightening of ties with Australia, US Marines will start rotating through northern Australia next year, eventually growing to a 2,500-strong task force, the two governments said during a visit by Obama before he flew to neighboring Indonesia for the summit with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said Jakarta was seeking more capable F-16s able to carry out operations “in the outermost border regions of Indonesia.”

The air force’s existing fleet of 10 F-16 A/Bs cannot do this, the agency said in a mandatory notice of the tentative deal to the US Congress. It put the estimated cost at $750 million. The aircraft are from excess US inventory.

“The proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security of a strategic partner that has been, and continues to be, an important force for economic progress in Southeast Asia,” the notice to lawmakers said.

The White House said the plan was to start deliveries by July 2014, as requested by Jakarta. The deal would help boost Indonesia air defenses significantly “without compromising the defense budget and other national priorities,” it said.

The transfer of F-16C/D models to Indonesia may raise new questions about Obama’s refusal to meet Taiwan’s standing request for 66 new F-16C/Ds of its own to help deter China, which regards the island as a rogue province.

The Obama administration in September notified Congress of a proposed $5.85 billion weapons package for Taiwan, including upgrades of 145 F-16 A/B fighters but none of the C/D models that Taiwan has sought.

Obama said on Thursday in Canberra the US military would expand its presence in the Asia-Pacific despite budget austerity, declaring the United States was “here to stay” as a Pacific power that would help shape the region’s future.

The F-16 deal involves the overhaul of 28 United Technologies Corp Pratt & Whitney engines including spares. The aircraft will have the most advanced “Modular Mission Computer” produced by Raytheon Co, along with improved radar, avionics and the capability to carry and field more advanced weaponry and sensors, the White House said.

© Copyright by w@tchPAPUA

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