Nick

Comment on December 16th, 2006.

Hunted for Being Students: West Papua
– Nick Chesterfield July 2006

While the situation facing students in Australia is grim because of the actions of the Howard government, please spare a thought for your sisters and brothers, the students of West Papua. They have not been able to attend university or any educational institution in West Papua since March 16 this year, not because of lack of funding, but because they are all being hunted down and exterminated by the Indonesian military (TNI) for the crime of being Papuan and students.

I have just returned from a gruelling and harrowing mission to the West Papuan border to locate the entire university student body of West Papua, reportedly in hiding somewhere in the jungle to escape the brutality of the TNI. The results are not so good, with over 200 feared murdered, 23 in prison and 202 missing. We only accounted for 150 of these young leaders.

These students are just like you and me. They are students of law, health care, engineering, urban planning, arts, media, teaching and seminarians. They are young women and men who decided that they couldn’t stand to see the destruction of their country and the genocide of their people any longer, and took action.

Throughout the beginning of March this year, the West Papuan community organised protest against the giant US- and Rio Tinto owned Freeport Mine, the world’s largest mine. According to student leader from Timika: “Freeport mine is and had been the cause of human rights abuse, destruction of environment and is part of the problem; and the first place, we are the landowners and were not involved in the start of the Agreement. The Indonesians and America signed the Agreement without consulting the landowners,. That is why we students support the landowners to come to negotiations.”

Tens of thousands of people have been killed by the TNI security forces in the Freeport project area, funded at over US$50 million per year by Freeport McMoRan. The environmental devastation wreaked by the company is unparalleled, with poisoned tailings washed into the Aikwa river, poisoning all animal and plant life in its path and wider, and destroying medicine and food sources for the Kamoro and Amungme peoples. One can even see the tailings mess from space.

In this context, students from the main university, UNCEN Cenderawasih (Bird of Paradise) in Abepura, just outside of Jayapura, took to the streets to defend their wantoks. Students, including Indonesian supporters, had also just been involved in the occupations of the PT Freeport HQ in Jakarta, which resulted in most of that building getting destroyed in the process. The military were incensed at this challenge to their 43 years of impunity and so issued orders to take out this movement.

“We started protesting on the 15th, by blocking the roads to UNCEN. We continued on the 16th when we made the main demand to close the Freeport mine. The authorities didn’t respond to the demand, and the Brimob {special forces police) and POLRI started to divide us into two groups: 1 from {on} Jayapura side and 1 from {on} Sentani side; and {they} tried to break the roadblock {set up by the students}. Also at the time, there were negotiations undergoing with the police and military, and an airforce intelligence officer was in the protest. He threw the first stones at police to provoke violence. That is when the clash started. Polri and Brimob attacked with tear gas and bullets and were firing into the crowd, and then the students responded with stones and sticks, which is when the police and intelligence were killed. As I was one of the organisers of the demonstration, I know I would be a target, and will be killed. This is why we fled to PNG.”

This was captured on film by Father Peter Woods, who played it to the world when he got back to Australia a few days later. Immediately after the demonstration, students fled to the jungle behind the university where 16 bodies were later found at the most heavily guarded rubbish dump in the region. The TNI launched Operasi Wanyambe to hunt down and eliminate every West Papuan student at UNCEN, and in the words of Ali Murtopo, one of the founders of Kopassus, the creator of Jemaah Islamiyah in 1978, and the man who infamously said “vote for Indonesia or we will cut out your tongues” in the 1969 “Act of Free Choice”: “to kill a snake we have to kill all its babies”.

Students fanned out across West Papua, some hiding for a week, some heading east, and some trying to return to their houses only to find them burnt down and their families missing. The TNI were close behind them, and shot at sight. One group I met with described to me the helicopters chasing them and shooting randomly when they got to an area they had information the students were hiding in. One group tried to flee by boat, but the navy chased them down, rammed the boat and stabbed to death one student first in the water, then in the boat. They picked up three others and they are all in prison, being tortured daily.

Add to this, is a massive buildup of heavy combat military hardware to find the students, and to launch an invasion across the border to PNG. This is imminent. At each border crossing there are four tanks, and in an area where the students were suspected there are now 2500 soldiers hunt ing them down. From the north coast to Sengi, there are 14,500 troops, and 13,500 to the south coast. On the PNG side, there are, well, 5 (five) soldiers.

The TNI are building camps with the militia in the Arso Wembi district amongst many others, and Laskar Jihad and Jemaah Islamiyah (the hard drinking “Muslim” fundamentalists) have started death squads. Since late February, over 40 people have been brutally murdered at night around Wembi, usually by their throats being slashed and then disemboweled.

One particular incident that occurred was when a young Papuan couple were coming back from the markets in Jayapura. On the evening of March 13, after dark, ninja militias stopped this young couple on the road just east of Arso, late because of breakdown, and killed them with swords. They disemboweled both of them, and allegedly then while still alive slashed their throat. They dumped them in a ditch, covered them with banana leaves, dumped their motorbike on top of them and covered that too with banana leaves. The next morning, our interviewee found them because of the amount of blood on the road, and after alerting their family, ran to PNG.

There is no connection between any of the victims apart from the fact that they are all Papuans and from the same region. The killings are completely terroristic, and completely random. This is clear evidence of a deliberate campaign of extermination of West Papuan people. These are acts that fit the legally accepted definitions of of genocide. The international community must act now. How many acts of Genocide does is take to make the world see that Genocide is happening?
When you think of your struggle with VSU, in West Papua even belonging to the student union is a death sentence for you and your family. One student had his mother captured by Kopassus, severely beaten for three days, burnt with cigarettes and sexually assaulted, and the whole family is under threat. Most students have a litany of losing family members to the military and all students have close relatives tortured at the hands of John Howard’s best friend. This is happening every day - Is it any wonder people will try to get out as quickly as possible to a safe place?

Currently 23 students are in prison for this without trial.

We can make a difference here in Australia and it is our support that will help end this genocide. The actions of our government in appeasing Indonesia are so shameful that even Johnny’s own party are splitting like the mountains around Freeport. The change of our Immigration law is the same as the Swiss border guards turning back the Jews to the Nazis. Will you stand by and let our nearest neighbor suffer the genocide that has been going on for 43 years, or will you do something about it. We – ordinary people - did it with East Timor, and we can do it again. We need every university in Australia to have activities around West Papua and to organise in solidarity with their sibling students on our doorstep. We need people to activate to bring these students to safety, or to make the conditions safe in their homeland. We have already managed to make a very spectacular intervention at the Rio Tinto AGM in Melbourne earlier this year, and get the issue staying on the front page of the corporate media. Let us together hear the cry of freedom of West Papua, raise the Morning Star Flag and Cry Merdeka!

Nick Chesterfield is a long time human rights activist and a coordinator with the Free West Papua Campaign Pacifica based in Melbourne. He can be contacted 0409 268 978

freepapua_pacifica@nym.hush.com

for more info, see www.freewestpapua.com

Nick

Comment on December 16th, 2006.

The Javanese Terror empire in West Papua

talk at
Militarism in the Asia Pacific
SoS 2006, UQ, BrisVegas, July 11, 2006
Story Body:

I was going to talk to you about the War on our own doorstep, and how the Indonesian military or TNI, have, as a client of Western capital, run roughshod over the rights of people in our region, and in West Papua in particular….

However this reality is certainly not that simple, and certainly the fault does lie exclusively with Australia the US and UK, and to think that we are at fault exclusively would be shortsighted at the least, and dangerous to boot. Rather it is an understanding that we are facing a beast with an ancient history of more than 3000 year old culture of impunity. This talk will obviously be just skimming the surface of something the Australian people must pay more attention to. In fact, this could easily be a book or a 13 part series (if anyone feels like making one, please see me after this!).

The key to instability in our region is the fact that the largest immediate threat is not a regular military force or this great phantom of Al Qaeda. It is also not the US, believe it or not. It is the TNI, an International Mafia of Terror. This military comes from the ancient Javanese caste of ksatria, or the warriors. If you are born a boy, and your father and grandfather are ksatria, then “destiny” will claim you. This is just the way it has been for a very long time, and the ksatria together with a brahmin caste, have forced the Javanese forced to adhere to this strange mix of Hinduism and Islam (the only form of Islam where the elite kept the caste system contraty to the Qu’ran). Observance of Human rights has never been a strong point, and many whole cities have been put to the sword over the last few thousand years.

Indonesia itself is as mythological as the great Garuda. It is a community of communities held together, as always over the last several thousand years, by the glue of violent force, blind obedience and suppression by the Javanese empire. The fathers of Indonesia, were of course the puppet governors of the brutal Japanese occupation, and the history of Indonesia, both pre and post Suharto, has had a strong discrimination against non-Javanese. The only distinct commonality was the shared experience of brutal Dutch colonialism.

Indonesia itself was founded on a germ on an idea, that Land belonged to the people and not to a far distant metropolitan power, and no-one should have power over another. Many thousands upon thousands of brave patriots fought and died for the concept of self-determination and Merdeka! - which is a deep spiritual concept so much more than just independence and freedom. Merdeka is the clearest demonstration that there is nothing more powerful than when a people decide they will be free. However, this was not to last……

So what happened to the ideal?

It would be simplistic to just blame the West, although the pressures of the cold war certainly played a part, the CIA’s role in overthrowing Sukarno certainly contributed to this. Western support and silence - fear at upsetting the angry tiger – certainly initially armed the TNI to massacre over 5 million people (and growing) since 1965, and to militarily occupy East Timor, Aceh, the Malukus and of course West Papua. In 1953-57, all Dutch business was nationalised, and the Indonesian army were appointed (in particular the Speical forces), to manage the economy. They became the new capitalist class, and their interests were no longer serving the people (as was their revolutionary aim), but to serve themselves. Dynasties, most famously the Liem/Suharto dynasty, but also the Simbolens and the Prabowos, and the formation of the Darul Islamist movement which became Jemaah Islamiyah.

The history of the TNI shows one distinct pattern. Wherever their influence is to be felt, or there is money to be made, there is terror, dispossession, and bombings. To quote the International Crisis Group in its report “Recycling Militants in Indonesia: Darul Islam and the Australian Embassy Bombing”:

“The links of some of the West Java DI leaders with the army were reinforced in 1965-1966 when they were offered weapons in exchange for help in attacking suspected communists (PKI) in West Java, Aceh, and North Sumatra. Danu Muhamad Hassan reportedly even believed that a soon-to-be-notorious officer, Ali Moertopo, saved the DI leadership from annihilation in 1966 by intervening with Soeharto when he thought the latter intended to use the cover of the mass killings that year to wipe out other political enemies, including Darul Islam.6”

Jemaah Islamiyah was formed in 1978 by one of the Kopassus founders General Ali Murtopo to create terror to drive people away from supporting moderate Islam, as this wwas a threat to Suharto. The pesantaren or schools were formed and funded by the Yayasans or youth foundations run by the TNI, as they are to this day. Every act of terror is connected to the TNI, including (or especially) the Bali bombings.

According to Umar Abduh, convicted terrorist and former JI member : “So there is not a single Islamic group, either in the movement or the political groups that is not controlled by Intel. Everyone does what they say.”

That’s right, John Howard’s trusted friends in the region are the very ones who killed 88 Australians too. And his partner in the “War on Terror”, President Yudyohono (an indicted war criminal former commander of East Timor) is also a part of this. Why do you think they just released Abu Bakr Basyir?

The US economic machine is critical in both providing the cause and effect of the military occupation and domination of West Papua. To date, credible but very conservative estimates are of over 400,000 people killed in West Papua by the TNI, with Kopassus in control. There is one catalyst: the world largest mine, the Huge Freeport gold and copper mine.

Freeport mine is and had been the cause of human rights abuse, destruction of environment, institutional violence against women, and is part of the problem. Tens of thousands of people have been killed by the TNI security forces in the Freeport project area, funded at over US$50 million per year by Freeport McMoRan. The environmental devastation wreaked by the company is unparalleled, with poisoned tailings washed into the Aikwa river, poisoning all animal and plant life in its path and wider, and destroying medicine and food sources for the Kamoro and Amungme peoples. One can even see the tailings mess from space.

Freeport is the case in point. Freeport McMoRan, and their parent Rio Tinto, face a critical dilemma. Because they have fed the beast so greedily, it had grown accustomed to largess.

And herein lies the nub: just 20% of the TNIs funding comes from the state. The rest they have to grab through business activities and protection rackets. This business include, to name but a fraction: illegal logging with Rimbunan Hijau (see Terror-razing the Forest), oil palm plantations, illegal mining, methamphetamine production, export of designer drugs and steroid and other drug running (a large proportion of ecstasy in Australia still comes from the military in Indonesia, a drug that was and is infamously used to give to militias before they go on a orgy of killing – it ain’t a love drug!). Also all prostitution, most nightclubs and illegal breweries are controlled by the TNI (although to be on the safe side, they also run the Islamic Defenders Front that burn these places down.) They also own massive construction firms to rebuild the buildings burnt. It is, as the London Mafia say, “all a nice little earner”.

Suharto’s little brother, Liem Siew Liong (closely connected with the Malay Tiong family of Rimbunan Hijau infamy), was the creator of much of this. Liem Siew Liong was put in charge of Strategic Economic Planning. Suharto’s eldest son, Sigit, then married Liem Siew Liong’s daughter. After 300,000 people in Bali were turned into blood, Liem Siew Liong ran the majority of business in Bali. After the marriage, Liong divided the “Balinese” business empire between the Sigit “brand” (hotels, beer, nightclubs, drugs, tourism, prostitution and gambling, including the infamous “Tommy’s Laundry” Casino on Christmas Island, site of the new detention centre); Bambang “brand” (mega construction and sport); Tutut “brand” (mega bridge, road, infrastructure construction and military supplies and arms); Tommy brand (automotive and aerospace import and manufacturing). Suharto’s granddaughter, Shanti, was made to be the co-ordinator for all logging, forestry, pulp, paper and plywood and forest products manufacturing activity.

There is a such a historical connection with the founders of Kopassus, so we should be in little doubt that any economic operation in West Papua will always be a front for Kopassus and its penchant and plans for domination, subversion, terrorism and security disturbances.

Given this, whenever there is any threat to the TNIs control, it will crack down on the people hard. It is in this context that the West Papuan people, led by students just like you, took to the streets on March 15 and 16 to defend their wantoks against the human rights abuses and oppression generated by the Freeport mine and occupation of West Papua. Students from the main university, UNCEN Cenderawasih (Bird of Paradise) in Abepura, just outside of Jayapura, took to the streets to defend their wantoks. Students, including Indonesian supporters, had also just been involved in the occupations of the PT Freeport HQ in Jakarta, which resulted in most of that building getting destroyed in the process. The military were incensed at this challenge to their 43 years of impunity and so issued orders to take out this movement.

The events of March 16 were captured on film by Father Peter Woods, who played it to the world when he got back to Australia a few days later. Immediately after the demonstration, students fled to the jungle behind the university where 16 bodies were later found at the most heavily guarded rubbish dump in the region.

I have just returned from a gruelling and harrowing mission to the West Papuan border to attempt to locate the entire university student body of West Papua, reportedly in hiding somewhere in the jungle to escape the brutality of the TNI. The results are not so good, with over 200 feared murdered, 23 in prison and 202 missing. We only accounted for 150 of these young leaders.
Students fanned out across West Papua, some hiding for a week, some heading east, and some trying to return to their houses only to find them burnt down and their families missing. The TNI were close behind them, and shot at sight. One group I met with described to me the helicopters chasing them and shooting randomly when they got to an area they had information the students were hiding in. One group tried to flee by boat, but the navy chased them down, rammed the boat and stabbed to death one student first in the water, then in the boat. They picked up three others and they are all in prison, being tortured daily.
A key student leader described in harrowing detail the situation with his mother. “After the March 16 clash at UNCEN, and at the18th (Saturday), Intel (POLRI) arrested my mother, then took her from the house to the university. They wanted to kill her in front of the university but she was struggling and shouting hard, and so they took her to POLDA and tortured her, burned her with cigarettes and beat her up for three days at the gaol. After three days, KOMNAS HAM and MRP came to the Police station and took her out from the station in an unconscious condition. Right now, she reported all these facts to KOMNAS HAM, and the police are harassing her daily to find me. Her life is in danger. After this they sent the Intel and are still doing so, to find out where I am.”
It has been confirmed through various sources that this is the case, although we are trying to get through to KOMNAS HAM for access to their documents to expand on the circumstances and status.

The TNI are currently massing on the border, preparing for an invasion of PNG. There is a massive buildup of heavy combat military hardware to find the students, and to launch an invasion across the border to PNG.

This invasion is imminent, and this will draw us into a conflict. At each border crossing there are four tanks, and in an area where the students were suspected there are now 2500 soldiers hunting them down. From the north coast to Sengi, there are 14,500 troops, and 13,500 to the south coast. On the PNG side, there are, well, 5 (five) soldiers.

Kopassus has always been the angkatan anjing penjagga (army guard dog) for Suharto and has always had its eyes on the resource of Papua New Guinea, ever since Suharto commanded Operasi Mandala, the invasion of West Papua. We must stand up against it. Even people in the ADF have asked people in Australia to get behind West Papua, as we do owe them our freedom. Tens of thousands of Papuans died defending us in World War Two, we owe them our very existence. Isn’t it time we fought for them?

Australian people must take action now, and be prepared. Kopassus wants war, and maybe some wars do need to be fought, albeit with different means, that are sustainable and non-violent, future building, not future destroying. The alternative is the total genocide of a people, again. We have true power in the countries that buy the goods from Indonesia, and it is time to take some strategic economic action by targeting their money makers. The Free West Papua campaign has come a long way in six months, and we need more people to take up the call and join with us.

We can make a difference here in Australia and it is our support that will help end this genocide. The actions of our government in appeasing Indonesia are so shameful that even Johnny’s own party are splitting like the mountains around Freeport. The change of our Immigration law is the same as the Swiss border guards turning back the Jews to the Nazis. Will you stand by and let our nearest neighbor suffer the genocide that has been going on for 43 years, or will you do something about it. We – ordinary people - did it with East Timor, and we can do it again. We need every university in Australia to have activities around West Papua and to organise in solidarity with their sibling students on our doorstep. We have already managed to make a very spectacular intervention at the Rio Tinto AGM in Melbourne earlier this year, and get the issue staying on the front page of the corporate media. We need volunteers and head inside. Let us together hear the cry of freedom of West Papua, raise the Morning Star Flag and Cry Merdeka!

Papua Merdeka!!!

Nick

Comment on October 28th, 2008.

Talk at International Indigenous Solidarity Gathering CERES Melbourne October 25 2008

Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all here at this inspiring gathering. I must obviously begin by a acknowledging the traditional owners of country on which I now stand, the Wurundjeri of the Kulin nations. As a man of proud Kaurna descent, I am humbled also for the opportunity to speak on the situation of our Melanesian wantoks in West Papua and PNG, and their attempt to resist the brutality of the Indonesian military’s genocide. I am honoured also to meet with strong and proud indigenous warriors for peace and justice, and activists from both sides of our Pacific. I greatly hope that we can truly start putting into place alternatives based on traditional Law and custodianship to the world of capitalist greed and destruction that is falling down around us as we speak.
Wantok means family, one talk, and Papuan people are our family. Our Lands have only been separated by a shallow gap for the last 8000 years since the water rose, but our connections and trade have continued for a lot longer, and to this day. Aboriginal people and Papuan people share the same stories, a lot of common language, and many of the same animals and plants are present on the Lands we care for. Our experiences of colonialism have been intertwined, and our want to reclaim our Lands is identical.
Of course it is this difference in the way we look after our Land as our own family that is the reason that those who seek to subjugate and plunder always come into conflict with the peaceful and nurturing ways of Indigenous people. It is the wish to preserve what is not only sacred but absolutely critical for human survival that drives all of our peoples’ here to fight for justice and freedom, not just for our own lives, but for the future of all humanity and the planet. Our survival across this planet is entirely dependent on West Papuan people being able to protect the forests: it is where our oxygen, and our rain comes from. Without Papua, no monsoons, no climate, no rain in China or Australia, nothing to temper the warming waters, the cyclones that get fiercer. No rain, no food. No Food, No economy. No economy, No civilisation, no humanity. Nothing much, just the air we breathe, and the substance that is more precious than gold. No one else but West Papuan people know how to look after the ground of their ancestors, so they must manage it. At this stage of Emergency Planet Earth it is critical to realise that the people best placed to manage our Mother Earth’s second largest primary forests . Free West Papua or death for the planet – why is there still an argument?
Today I wish to speak with you about the role of the Indonesian military in repression and genocide, especially in regard to what they continue to subject West Papuan people to, and the imminent threat that this heavily armed mafia pose to peace and human security and dignity right across the wider Pacific region. The Invasion of West Papua in 1963 came about from the underhanded involvement of neo-colonial mining interests in the US and UK – Freeport and Rio Tinto – using John F Kennedy to force the former colonial power Holland to hand over to the new Javanese colonial oppressor. Using the Cold War threats of the then Indonesia President Sukarno to ally himself with Russia, the US informed him of the existence of the world’s largest copper and gold deposits centred around the highest and scared mountains of our continent (which of course is the Australian continent). The Freeport mine today is the largest on Earth, and is also the site of some of the worst mining devastation on the planet, and the cause of a genocide which probably exceeds even that of the devastation suffered here. It is acknowledged that it is not mass killings and incinerators with death camps, however it has been described as a slow genocide by suffocation.
The “accepted” international figure is a highly conservative 100,000 people since the 1960s, though the true number may never be known. However if we consider that prior to invasion West Papua’s population was neck and neck with PNG, we can examine the demographic realities that even Indonesia census data can attest to. Since 1971, West Papuan population growth has been at an average rate of only 1.67% per annum, when compared to the Indonesian “Settler” growth of 10.5%pa. Across the border in PNG however, relatively free at this stage from Indonesian brutality (though not entirely), the growth has been at 2.6%. According to Jim Elmslie at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University, who has examined the demographics of genocide in West Papua closely, “If the Papuans under Indonesian control had enjoyed the same growth rate as those in independent Papua New Guinea, 2.6%, their population would be 2,122,921, or 564,126 more than it was in 2005. This demographic discrepancy can be directly attributed to Indonesian rule.”
There have been several major phases of the genocide in West Papua, and the Indonesian machine has become smarter in its execution over the years. From the direct air bombardments of Highland villages right through the 1970s by the OV10 Broncos – which was many highlanders first contact with an outside snivelisation – to the widespread parasite introduction in pigs (the main food source) which is still ongoing; to the introduction of a poison drink called Alexander in the vast oil palm plantations which have been cleared out of people’s traditional lands, to the direct shooting and disappearances; there are many ways in which the Javanese terror empire is attempting to empty the land of its custodians.
Papuan people often remind me that the reason the white man and his Javanese proxies are so brutal in their naked greed to remove Papuan’s from their land is for what lies beneath. “Papua is a mountain of gold sitting on an ocean of oil, and clothed in the most luxuriant timber, home to the most beautiful animals this world has to offer.” Since the days of the Portuguese, colonialism has been blinded by Papua’s gold, a curse of nature to the custodians.
The Indonesian military, whose corruption and Java King warlordism lies at the core of all human rights abuses in our immediate region, has long sought to profit off the natural resources of Papua. This is driven by the TNI‟s need to find operational funding (only 30% of its budget is from the Indonesian government, the rest is from TNI owned and controlled business). Primarily operated by the elite and brutal Kopassus special forces, the balance of their budget is made up through extra curricular activities, such as illegal logging, drug manufacture, prostitution, money laundering, human trafficking and illegal mining.. Every sector of the legal and illegal economy is controlled by TNI figures.
Putting aside the fact that the President, General Yudhoyono, is an indicted multi millionaire war criminal, even he is leading a charge to cease the TNIs involvement in business. Having a military of hundreds of thousands of soldiers with a mercantile focus is a very very dangerous thing for peace anywhere in the world, as they create conflict to make money.. As the TNI is divesting itself of Indonesian illegal business interests, it is increasing interests in countries outside the DPRs jurisdiction. It is this prime motivation that corrupt elements of the TNI have sought to control a great deal of the lucrative trading opportunities the Western Pacific offers, especially in natural resource exploitation. It has been operating so brazenly in violation of local and international laws with such a high degree of organisation that it can legitimately be called Organised Crime. Our region is now faced with a rogue militarised criminal force that operates as a Mafia in uniform.

The TNI is the lead facilitator of logging in both West Papua and PNG. The entire infrastructure, security, logistics, labour, shipping, protection rackets, corruption, intimidation, village burning and random killings that is required for illegal logging can only be carried out with the involvement of an organisation with the capability of a foreign occupying national military force.
A particularly insidious aspect of the industry is the alleged creeping involvement of Indonesian military personnel (serving or retired). Anecdotal evidence suggests that TNI influence has spilled over the border from Indonesian occupied West Papua and into the money trough of PNG‟s forests. Heavily involved in all aspects of the economy in West Papua, the TNI now seems to have „expanded‟ its operations into PNG. Indeed the „democratization‟ of Indonesia since Suharto‟s fall has led to civilian attempts to reign in the TNI‟s business interests; now the TNI is under pressure to find new sources of funding outside of Indonesian government control, such as in PNG‟s valuable forests.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that TNI forces are acting in PNG just as they are in West Papua: providing security and logistical support to commercial operations and savagely repressing landowners when they complain about or try to oppose the loggers. Besides direct security concerns for the welfare of villagers there are reports of associated criminal activities connected with the logging companies including: sexual exploitation and slavery; the intentional spreading of HIV-AIDS; smuggling of guns into PNG; corruption of PNG public servants – customs; police; politicians etc. Allegations of corruption to the highest levels are rife, and they all swirl around the logging industry.
To back up the threat the TNI have made to PNG, there have been over 15 incursions and cross border incidents this year alone. There is genuine fear that Kopassus and TNI will seek to consolidate control in Papua, and even spread into PNG formally. There is a significant military build up at Skou and Arso near the border, and the regional PNG police commander has warned PNG citizens not to travel into West Papua lest they be murdered by the TNI.
According to information received by our networks, the identical situation is happening right across Papua, in areas identified as being support bases for the independence movement (ie, from the border to the sea, and in areas where there exists a major economic interest of the TNI, such as the oil palm plantations). Furthermore, with the proposed expansion of the military run oil palm industry in Papua, we will see more and more resource based conflict. On the ground, the temptations are too great to allow full transparency and discipline from the military oil palm companies. We have seen many instances in which the oil palm industry is deliberately fostering unrest in the areas in which it is operating, albeit on a scale of gradual attrition rather than mass murder. Members‟ previous work has uncovered a pattern of systemic and systematic abuse of local traditional owners by the companies operating in the area, most specifically by the KorIndo plantations in the Boven Digul and Mappi areas close to the border, but also in the Arso and Wembi districts adjacent to the northern border. Our network is concerned that the placement of militarised and paramilitarised mega oil palm plantations so close to the border is not simply for reasons of ideal plantation conditions and naked profiteering, but is also being used as a pretext for territorial (read economic) expansion into adjacent border areas of PNG. It is clear what happens when people without guns stand up to people with guns, and the flow on effects of this for our region will be disastrous.
Of course no systemic killings, dispossession or genocide would be happening without the blind consumerism of the West and those who seek to emulate the West’s materialism. The lovely red timber that is the latest must have outdoor furniture is that colour because it contains the blood of Papuan people.
It should come as no surprise to learn that the Australian Government supports the genocide in West Papua. Our interests are purely in maintaining the billions of dollars for Australian companies’ profit from Indonesia, and our mining companies such as Rio Tinto and BHP are the prime. The Lombok Treaty passed after our wantoks arrived on Cape York, which outlawed the support of “separatist” movements in West Papua. SO I must say that this gathering is illegal and you are all separatists now for even being in the same room as anyone who walks with West Papuans, sorry for not telling you before you committed an offence So any gubbas here better arrest us all now or your l.o.r.e. is worthless.
Indonesian and Australian defence companies will jointly build military equipment for both countries in the near future under a partnership that may ease Indonesia’s dependence on weapons imports. SO THIS IS WHAT THE KRUDD GUBBAMENT IS ALL ABOUT. Instead of stopping or even raising concerns about human rights atrocities by the Indonesian military, we are helping them make them guns, bombs, tanks and bombers to slaughter innocent people across Indonesia and West Papua. I think the time has come to legitimize every form of non-violent action to stop this immoral trade from occurring any more in our name. I have my monkeywrench ready.
In the face of the absolute greed and brutality that the Indonesian military cannot seem to shake itself out of, the merest sign of resistance is enough to bring the full force of terror on any West Papuan. Raising the banned Morning Star flag continues to be a fundamental focal point for all expressions of cultural identity for West Papuan people. West Papuan people are routinely subjected to harassment and harsh treatment by the TNI for practicing traditional cultural beliefs. During the recent World Indigenous Day gathering On August 9, which was the UN World indigenous day, West Papuan people were holding a massive, but peaceful celebration of their identity in Wamena in the Baliem Valley, which of course is the site of the world’s oldest continuous civilisation and agriculture for the last 30,000 years. As a community leader was ending a welcoming ceremony, a group of West Papuans spontaneously unfurled four flags: The flags of the United Nations, Indonesia, and the Morning Star, and an SOS banner. The crowd of over 30,000 people reacted with hope and showed their happiness, whereupon without warning the Police opened fire into the crowd and above their heads. They shot dead a Papuan tribal and civil society leader, Opinus Tabuni, 35. It is testament to the peaceful intent of West Papuan people that despite repeated provocations by the intelligence personnel and police, the crowd remained peaceful, as they have already seen too much bloodshed. It was only after thousands of people had gathered and the police saw a Morning Star waving that they opened fire on the crowd, accusing them of separatism. Indeed, it has become a habit of the security forces in Papua to legitimise the use of the word separatism in order to silence and murder Papuans, because the word separatism is used as a highly effective and untouchable shield.’
As the late Papuan tribal leader Theys Eluay (murdered by Kopassus in 2001) said, “why this talk of separatism. We were never a part of Indonesia, so how can we separate?”
Since March 3 of this year, a major militarised crackdown on peaceful dissent is occurring in West Papua, as West Papuan people have begun rolling demonstrations and peaceful action publicly rejecting Special Autonomy and calling for a referendum on West Papuas future. Hundreds of activists have been rounded up, and the TNI‟s counter operations are causing great fear and displacement amongst the population, amid worrying signs of major crackdown occurring across West Papua. Family and tribal members of detainees have been targeted and terrorised by special joint task forces of Police, Intel and TNI. So far, over 100 people are languishing in inhuman conditions and facing torture daily across West Papua after being charged with Rebellion (Makar), Sedition, and threatening the security of the state. Their trials are still ongoing, and it is likely that they will be sentenced from 20 years to life for peacefully raising a flag.
West Papuan’s have been consistently defying new laws banning the display of the Morning Star Flag. Colonel Bahiruddin Siagian - who was Indicted by the UN Serious Crimes Unit for Crimes against Humanity, specifically for his role in the carnage in East Timor of 1999 - has hosted meetings and mobilisation of militias together with special joint task forces to attack and detain any persons displaying the outlawed Morning Star flag even a patch or picture of a Morning Star, or even crown pigeon feathers. This is contrary to Indonesian law, which under Law 77 which specifically allows the display of cultural symbols. Jakarta’s new edict on banning these symbols contravenes their own law. Our networks are receiving multiple reports from the border regions that indicate the militias present in these areas are stepping up their activities in light of a “green light” for public operations by the TNI. According to the head of the POLRI for Papua province, “The Morning Star flag is the separatists’ flag and the separatists are the enemy of the State. The Indonesian people will confront any enemy of its State, and the TNI as the main component of the State certainly will fight against the enemy”.
This became Operation Mambruk (after the crown Pigeon, a cultural icon amongst those banned above), led by the Indonesian intelligence service (BIN) and involving the military and police, sweeping villages for any “separatist symbols”. The Head of Jayawijaya Police, AKBP Marolop Manik, said this was necessary because “the voice of freedom which blows like a wind is a threat to the State disintegration and is dangerous for community security and stability in Papua and West Papua province, especially in Jawijaya regency”
One positive happened though. After this meeting, we campaigned internationally on Siagian’s status, and Interpol put him on the Red List, when he was finally removed from command just a few months ago. Of Course Jakarta will not hand him over, but it means that he cannot enjoy his large business holdings in Australia, and New Zealand.
However, even the Indonesian government has tried to rein in the brutality of the police and military. The defence minister recently said in a joint press conference that raising the flag should be considered an attempt to seek attention rather than an act of separatism, and that Jakarta must address the roots of the Papuan’s discontent rather than simply punish them. “We should seek a dialogue with them instead of punishing them. Only through dialogue will we know what they want. Punishing them will only spark antagonism”.
Which is precisely the point West Papuans have been trying to make for years. It is indicative of the fragile state of so-called democracy in Indonesia that the TNI are not interested in listening.
The question has to be asked though, if the “civilian” government in Jakarta has consistently been attempting to discipline the military and temper its brutality, corruption, business interests and culture of impunity, and has failed in all attempts, does this indicated that the TNI is by definition, a rogue military out of control. The world needs to recognise this, and the danger the TNI pose to the rest of the planet.
The tide is turning however. West Papuan people are daily taking to the streets, with mass mobilisations. They are not fearful anymore, and have heard that voice of freedom coming from their own throats. They have heard that people are listening, and they are emboldened.
Freedom will come, and the bird of paradise will fly free. Papua Merdeka!

STOP PRESS: the flagraisers who had been held in inhumane conditions for raising the Morning Star in Manokwari, were last night sentenced to eight months prison (instead of the prosecution’s call for twenty years), and with time already served, will be out in the next two weeks.

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