Saturday, August 8, 2015

1) Forum leaders to talk West Papua

2) Marie Leadbeater: Defence ties with Indonesia valued over Timor Leste justice

3) Insight: Determine gold  output ahead of Freeport  deal -
4) National scene: Lawmaker  alleges Jewish conspiracy  in Papua 
5) Tolikara Incident Reveals Indonesian Law’s Anomaly
6) Jayapura City Government Launches School Feeding Program Based Local Food
7) Schools in PNG to Teach Indonesian
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http://www.solomonstarnews.com/news/regional/7793-forum-leaders-to-talk-west-papua

1) Forum leaders to talk West Papua

PACNEWS - INCREASED regional awareness of alleged violence and human rights violations in West Papua has convinced the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat’s Specialist Sub-Committee on Regionalism (SSCR) to recommend that it becomes one of the five priority issues to be the agenda of the Pacific Forum Leaders when they meet in Papua New Guinea next month.
The recommendation will go before the Forum Officials Committee (FOC) for a final endorsement, when it meets in Suva next week. 

SSCR documents obtained by PACNEWS reveal the Sub-Committee decided to act after an ‘increasing groundswell of support in the region for the people of West Papua, reflected in part by the media, particularly social media.’ 

In addition, the Sub-Committee received three strong submissions from various interest groups around the region advocating the peaceful resolution of the struggles of the people of West Papua. 

In recommending the Sub-Committee’s suggestion for the agenda issues, Forum Secretary General, Dame Meg Taylor said since the Leader’s statement in 2006, ‘proponents suggest that the human rights situation has deteriorated.’ 

“The Sub-Committee acknowledged the Forum’s history and regional role in assisting territories achieve self-determination, said Dame Meg. 

The 2006 Forum Leaders expressed concerns about reports of violence in Papua and urged Indonesian authorities to bring to justice the perpetrators of serious crimes in the Province of Papua. 

Pacific Forum Leaders will be asked to consider the situation in West Papua and publicly express their concerns over human rights and to resolve difference between all parties by peaceful means. 

In June this year, the Melanesian Spearhead Group admitted the United Liberation Movement for West Papua as an observer member while Indonesia was granted associate membership. 

From submissions made to the Specialist Sub-Committee on Regionalism, three possible actions were recommended.

These include a fact finding ministerial group from the Pacific Islands Forum to West Papua, include West Papua on the UN Decolonisation List and impose sanctions against Indonesian companies and government enterprises found to be committing human rights abuses. 

However, the Sub Committee recommends that Leaders consider additional alternative options – ‘to seek political dialogue with Indonesia, through the Post Forum Dialogue process to discuss human rights situation in West Papua, seek to engage at the ministerial level through the Forum Foreign Ministers and direct the Forum Secretariat to maintain a watching brief and submit a report to the next Leaders meeting.’ 

“Addressing the issue of West Papua issue has the potential to create tension amongst Forum members and with Indonesia given the bilateral relations members have with Indonesia and its status as a Post Forum Dialogue Partner, acknowledges the SSCR report. 

The decision on whether the issue will be taken up to the Leaders in Port Moresby next month will be determined by the Forum Officials Committee. 

Source – PACNEWS
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2) Marie Leadbeater: Defence ties with Indonesia valued over Timor Leste justice
5 comments

I have just visited Timor Leste, 16 years after my last visit.
It was a study in contrasts.
I went to contribute to a conference at the National University of Timor-Lorosa'e, where one theme was the role of Western nations during the 1975 Indonesian invasion and 24 years of occupation.
In April 1999, the Indonesian military was still in control and, unbeknown to me, about to unleash a wave of unspeakable violence against the population. Three months earlier, Indonesian President Habibie had proclaimed that the Timorese people could choose whether or not to remain with Indonesia. Portugal and Indonesia were finalising terms and the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) was preparing to campaign.
The Liquica massacre took place two days after my arrival. Some 60 civilians who had taken shelter in the Catholic church were killed by the ferocious "Red and White" militia. Instead of relaxed meetings with community figures, I found myself visiting severely wounded victims in the Motael Clinic in Dili.

I came home to campaign against the crazy notion that the Indonesian security forces could be trusted to ensure the security of the referendum process. Sadly, the Government believed the violence was caused by "competing factions" and only changed tack when the country was in flames following the cataclysmic post-referendum violence of September 1999.
On my return visit, I strolled along the beautiful Dili beachfront and saw not soldiers but courting couples, hawkers offering sweet oranges and women performing traditional dances. Timor Leste's distinctive red, yellow and black flag, which once adorned New Zealand campaign badges, was everywhere.
This image of serenity is not the whole story: the country was forced to rebuild after the departing Indonesian military ravaged the country and forcibly displaced much of its population. The container ship anchored offshore came in loaded with cheap imported goods, but many bemoaned the lack of export production, beyond crafts and coffee growing. Oil boosts the Government's coffers, but Australia refuses to negotiate a fair maritime boundary while continuing to exploit oil fields that ought to belong to Timor.
In Liquica, 26km from Dili, a memorial garden honours the heroes of the independence struggle. Further on, 'Balibo Five' graffiti is daubed on the road embankments. Five western journalists, including New Zealander Gary Cunningham, were killed in October 1975 as they tried to tell the world about Indonesia's covert incursions into then Portuguese territory. Two important buildings have been restored to commemorate the events and the journalists. The Balibo Flag House and Community Learning Centre is funded by an Australian trust. Behind protective glass it still bears the Australian flag one of the journalists etched on its wall in a futile effort at self-preservation.
It is ironic that the Balibo Five are honoured here, while in their homelands governments do little, notwithstanding a 2007 Sydney inquest which determined they were killed in cold blood by Indonesian Special Forces. Successive New Zealand governments have opted to leave the initiative up to Australia.
Statues and gardens commemorate resistance heroes in Dili. There is a well-appointed Resistance Archive and Museum, and a Xanana Gusmao reading room. The Chega exhibition occupies several rooms and cells in the old prison at Balide. Graffiti from former inmates has been preserved while multimedia displays summarise the story told in the five-volume report of Timor's impressive Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation. CAVR's careful forensic assessment concludes that there were up to 183,000 conflict-related deaths
Unfortunately, only minor players have faced sanctions while Indonesian officers charged before the UN backed tribunal a decade ago have gone on to new terror fields in West Papua, continue to travel the world freely and even stand for the highest political office.
In 2002, then Foreign Minister Phil Goff said New Zealand should share some responsibility for its failure to condemn the 1975 invasion and the subsequent suffering of the Timorese people. At present, however, it seems defence ties and a good relationship with Indonesia come ahead of historic justice.
• Maire Leadbeater is the former spokesperson for the Auckland East Timor Independence Committee and author of Negligent Neighbour; New Zealand's complicity in the invasion and occupation of Timor-Leste, Craig Potton, 2006.
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3) Insight: Determine gold  output ahead of Freeport  deal -
Greg Poulgrain, Brisbane, Australia | Headlines | Mon, July 27 2015, 4:58 PM - 

One main issue is still to be resolved in the hard bargaining by Freeport Indonesia regarding its contract of work. Agreements have already been reached to enhance share divestment, increase the royalties and build a new smelter, despite the temporary delay over the location. A deadline is approaching and anxious hands on both sides of the table are keen to conclude a deal. 

Freeport wants a new contract of work now, rather than in 2019 when it was due to be negotiated. Investment security for an expansion of mining operations is given as the reason. The deal will cover mining operations up to 2055. Although described as a “victory for Indonesia”, the main issue is still absent from discussion so there is an urgent need to review what Freeport is actually doing. 

PT Freeport has said it plans to spend about US$17 billion expanding underground mining at Grasberg in the province of Papua before 2021. Annual turnover is now calculated in tens of billions of dollars, and Freeport’s contribution for tax revenue for the government of Indonesia is regarded as massive and most welcome. 

Already Grasberg is a vast underground mining complex spreading in different directions. At least two of these huge underground operations are devoted entirely to gold mining. Expanding these and starting others is the main aim of the proposed development. Copper is not the main goal yet many descriptions of the Freeport mine still state it is “a copper mine with some gold”. 

The Grasberg is unprecedented — the world’s largest primary deposit of gold. It is so large that Freeport have relinquished other sites in Papua where there were other significant gold deposits. A few years after the Grasberg came into production in 1989, one Freeport vice president told me its potential looked so large it could involve 200 years of mining. 

The Grasberg was first discovered in 1936 by the Dutch geologist, Jean Jacques Dozy. He was the person who gave it the name, Grasberg, at the same time as he named the Ertsberg. They were two kilometers apart, at either end of a once-peaceful meadow just below the snow and glaciers in the Papuan highlands. After Freeport used helicopters to test-drill both sites in the early 1960s, Grasberg lay waiting to be mined. A mountainous outcrop of copper and gold before mining began in 1972, the Ertsberg was transformed into a gigantic hole in the ground. By 1987, when Freeport was ready to start mining the Grasberg, its potential was “discovered” and mining began two years later. The deal which Freeport concluded at that time did not benefit Indonesia as it should have. 

The main issue is gold. This vast primary deposit was never mentioned in the 1960s during the anti colonial campaign to reclaim Netherlands New Guinea as part of Indonesia. Neither then president Sukarno nor Kennedy was aware of the gold deposit in the territory or how it was influencing political decisions behind the scenes. However, former Dutch foreign minister, Joseph Luns, whom I interviewed July 15 on 1982, when he was NATO secretary-general, was well aware of the gold in New Guinea. He stated that he had proposed a joint-operation with the Americans (in those days, the Rockefeller company was known as Freeport Sulphur) but the answer was negative. 

American determination to claim sole access to the gold took effect when Soeharto came to power. In the same way that I gained a better understanding by speaking with Jean Jacques Dozy (in his home in the Netherlands) I would suggest that Indonesian government officials involved in current negotiations ask Freeport to clarify certain points. 

For example, during 15 years of mining, the Ertsberg gold concentration was stated to be around 2 grams/ton yet the concentration in official Dutch reports and confirmed during the interview with Dozy was 15 grams/ton. This discrepancy needs to be included in current negotiations between Freeport and the Indonesian government. The Ertsberg and the Grasberg, it should be stated, have geologically developed from the same subterranean source. 

An article in Indonesian media last week suggested the construction of a local smelter was one way to detect the difference between official and unofficial Freeport gold production. Those involved in negotiating on behalf of the Indonesian government should ascertain actual current gold output from the Grasberg. The gold concentration included in the copper-slurry, which is then refined in a smelter (in Indonesia or overseas), will show approximately the same level that has been stated year after year. This is because gold is removed before the slurry is pumped down the pipeline to the coast for export.

The gold that is extracted is then converted into small ingots. A Timika-based Freeport security official told me that the gold, in this form, is transported by vehicle to the Timika airport where it is loaded into a private plane then flown overseas. This occurred during the lifetime of the Ertsberg mine and has continued with the Grasberg. Government requirements for a smelter will bring some financial benefit, of course, but not address the main issue, so the hard bargaining remains to be done. 
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The writer teaches Indonesian history at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane. He wrote The Incubus of Intervention: Conflicting Indonesia Strategies of John F. Kennedy and Allen Dulles.
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4) National scene: Lawmaker  alleges Jewish conspiracy  in Papua 
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Thu, August 06 2015, 2:31 PM - 

Chairman of House of Representatives Commission I overseeing foreign affairs and defense Mahfudz Siddiq has called for a probe on the alleged presence of Israeli nationals and Jewish religious insignia on houses in Tolikara, Papua.

Mahfudz said that although it was impossible that Israeli nationals had been conducting proselytizing projects in the area, the authority needed to conduct a probe soon.

“Evidence about the presence of Israeli nationals in Papua, as well as photo’s of Jewish insignia on houses in the area have been circulating on social media and this is no coincidence,” said Mahfudz, a lawmaker from the religious Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Mahfudz claimed that since Judaism was an exclusive faith that does not allow conversion into it by non-Jewish people, he suspected that some of the Israeli nationals were running a political operation in the area.

“It is likely that they are conducting an operation over the whole of Papua and not just Tolikara. The National Police, the National Intelligence Agency [BIN], the Indonesian Military and the Foreign Ministry need to conduct a probe on people with Israeli passports,” he said.

Earlier last month, a fatal clash between Christian and Muslim groups in Tolikara led to police shooting guns, the death of one teenager, the torching of a mosque and the destruction of a number of kiosks. 

The authorities said that tensions were triggered by a letter from the Tolikara chapter of the Evangelical Church of Indonesia (GIDI), demanding that local Muslims not carry out loud outdoor Idul Fitri prayers on July 17. - 
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5) Tolikara Incident Reveals Indonesian Law’s Anomaly
Yogyakarta, Jubi –  “Strange but true. The odd phenomenon of law enforcement is truly happened in the Republic of Indonesia. Gradually but sure the opinion twisted by national media about the arrest of community members accused as the actors behind Tolikara incident is likely revealing the untruth of law enforcement agents that during the time doing discrimination against the dark-skinned and curly-haired people in the land of Papua,” Wilem Wandik, the Indonesian Councilor from Papua as cited from his official website on Tuesday (4/8/2015).
We definitely could digest such issue very well using the logic and common sense to analyze a trigger leading to the incident occurred on 17 July 2015.
According to Wandik, the chronology of incident is following: (1) Distribution of Circular – (2) Police keep allow Muslim community to do prayer outside and guarantee their protection by holding long guns – (3) people come to the venue of Muslim’s activity – (4) the Police shot the civilians – (5) dozens of civilians were injured and 1 killed – (6) people did anarchy in responding the burtal shooting – (7) several stalls and a small mosque were burned.
“The anger would not be triggered if the security forces didn’t open fire brutally as if the curly-haired and dark-skinned people are not human beings who have the right to live,” he said.
“To the owners of national media, those who lead the public opinion and published unbalance reportage, could you say a name of Muslim community who killed in Tolikara incident? What are their names? Where are they coming from? It seems to emphasize the sectarian problems based on religious issue; you (national media) forget the fact that the incident was a provocation of security forces by neglecting any social symptoms that actually could be prevented and it aggravated with the brutal act of shooting against civilians that killed a civilian,” he wrote.
He further wrote the journalists thoroughly highlighted the civilians who’ve been accused as provocateurs of the incident. Such drama is really disgusted. On the other hand, people who have been the shooting victims had balance coverage by national media.
“That’s a perfect story of law enforcement in Papua, which is the real criminals could have a peaceful life and not touched by Law,” he said.
Jubi earlier reported that GIDI and Muslim communities in Tolikara have agreed to resolve their dispute. Both sides also agreed to solve their problem alone without any intervention from the parties outside of Papua. Facilitated by Interreligious Harmony Forum (FKUB) on Wednesday (29/7/2015), both sides have agreed on seven points as references of conflict resolution. The sign of agreement was held in FKUB Office and witnessed by the Regional Board of Nahdatul Ulama Province Papua, Kingmi Church Synod and Papua Civil Society. (Arnold Belau/rom)

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6) Jayapura City Government Launches School Feeding Program Based Local Food

Jayapura, Jubi – The mayor of Jayapura on Tuesday launched a school feeding program based on local food in collaboration with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).
The head of the Education Department of Jayapura, I Wayan Mudiyasa, said the local government was committed to implementing the program for 12 schools in Muara Tami and Abepura district which runs from August to December 2015.
“This program is adjusted to the national guidelines ,” Mudiyasa said during the launch at the Elementary School, SD Inpres 2 West Koya on tuesday (4/8/2015).
“Do not provide a complete food such as rice and side dishes. But in the form of appropriate snacks that meet safety standards and good quality, made from local agricultural produce, food contains 300 calories and 5 grams of protein and provided three times a week,” he said.
e continued, the purpose of the implementation of PMT Program is to make the city of Jayapura as a pilot area PMT national program and supports an increase in the level of presence of children in the class, students’ concentration, students’ nutrition and an increase of the income of local farmers to supply raw materials to school.
In the same place, Benhur Tommy Mano, Mayor of Jayapura asserted, in order to support the activities of PMT-US, each school must have a school garden.
“I urge all principals who are here are required to have a school land, so that the food we manage are from their own agricultural products,” he said.
“Later, I’ll come and check in every school, whether there is agricultural land or not,” he continued. For mothers – women who cook food for children will earn additional incentives,” he said. (Munir/ Tina)

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7) Schools in PNG to Teach Indonesian
Kuala Lumpur, Jubi – The Indonesian government and Papua New Guinea (PNG) agreed to increase the number of cooperation projects such as in the education and economy sectors in the future.
“We will explore some pilot projects with PNG in order to strengthen relations between the two neighboring countries,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi, after a bilateral meeting with the Foreign Minister of PNG, on the sidelines of the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) 48th in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday (4/8/2015).
She explained that the pilot projects in the education sector include providing Indonesian language teaching in schools at both Secondary School and High School.
“Maybe we start from two or three schools first and PNG may choose either at the middle school or high school,” he said.
Principally, PNG agreed to explore the possibility of Indonesian language teaching in their schools, she added.
Furthermore, cooperation in the economic field must also be improved in the interest and mutual benefit between the two neighbors, including in the context of Melanesia.
“Besides PNG, we are also increasing collaboration in the context of Melanesia by performing a number of arts and cultural activities,” she said. (*)
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