May 2002

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Our News & Info: Campaigns for a Free, Independent & Demoratic West Papua

4 Text of letter sent on 24 May 2002 to Megawati Sukarnoputri on Theys' Assassination and KPN's work
4 CONFRONTING INDONESIAN MILITARY POWER
4 Lack of response from central government disappoints religious leaders
4 UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 24 May 2002, Indonesia - OCHA Consolidated Situation Report No. 77
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4 Fighting talk as independence movement gambles on action
4 Kata Kompas, Senin 6 Mei 2002, seorang pimpinan kelompok sipil bersenjata yang menyebut diri Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM), John Bogum, bersama 300 anak buahnya...
  BP names panel on Tangguh LNG project in Papua
4 The “silent P” in the Asia-Pacific
4 Dita Sari: `Allow the people of Aceh and West Papua to choose'
4 Acehnese and West Papuan activists speak
4 [ DTP = Diplomacy Training Program - see info below ]
4 Susilo lambastes EU's effort to dictate to Indonesia 
4 Rights workers told to join hands against all terror 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kaka Cos terimakasih atas infonya. 

Keterangan macam yang kaka ada tulis ini sungguh membantu kitong didalam yang tidak tahu asal muasal pejuang kita yang turun naik ke hutan ini. Dengan penjelasan macam ini kita tahu siapa orangnya dan siapa ada dibalik peristiwa ini sehingga menempatkan setiap peristiwa dan pemimpin politik secara proporsional.

Ini saya teruskan satu artikel yang terbit di Media Selandia baru. Saya kira kita semua perlu penjelasan lebih lanjut apakah ini sekedar gertak atau betul-betul dong didalam sudah mulai mau aksi. 

Kalau ada yang tahu, siapa laki-laki yang ada omong ini dan apakah dia benar bagian dari perjuangan murni atau suanggi pu kaki tangan.

Selanjutnya, terlepas dari gertak kosong ada isi, kita mesti waspada. Karena pola suanggi sekarang ini hanya memanfaatkan peluang konflik intern papua atau pun gertak macam ini. Sehingga bisa mengalihkan berita bahwa itu dorang baku angkat sendiri atau itu OPM yang serang dan sebagainya. Karena itu saya khawatir sunggi dong memang sedang rencana serbu masyarakat dan korbankan teman-temanya sendiri buat alasan operasi militer dan hancurkan perjuangan damai.

Bahaya ini semakin meningkat kalau fenomena kitong pu pejuang dari dalam keluar dan menyerah untuk hidup damai di kampung. ABRI perlu alasan bahwa Papua tidak aman, gerilya masih aktif dan sebagainya. Jadi dalam pemikiran macam itu, saya dukung dorang yang keluar dari dalam dan hidup damai di kampung karena perjuangan merdeka sekarang di kota dan dunia internasional secara terbuka dalam nuansa damai dan demokrasi sebagai bagian dari HAk Asasi Bangsa Papua. Kita hanya perlu pasukan kecil yang terdidik secara baik guna memperlihatkan eksistensi perjuangan. Karena sudah amat jelas bahwa perang tidak akan membawa kemerdekaan sebaliknya kehancuran macam yang terjadi di Acheh.

peace


The New Zealand Herald - May 8, 2002

Fighting talk as independence movement gambles on action

By JOHN MARTINKUS

JAYAPURA - Free Papua Organisation (OPM) spokesman, Silas Obambok, has returned from across the border in nearby Papua New Guinea to deliver a message from his commander, Mathias Wenda.

It is directed at his supporters and the OPM guerrillas who still control areas in the central mountains. But it is also directed at the pro-independence West Papuan elite in the towns who have committed themselves to a non-violent struggle for a referendum for the province and have accepted the Indonesian Government's offer of autonomy.

"We will attack the Army, close down airstrips and attack Government offices" said Obambok.

He goes on to describe how four "battalions" of 160 men each have been in training on the other side of the border and how next month they will begin infiltrating back into the provinces of Wamena, Jayapura, Timika, Puncak Jaya and Nabire.

He claims they are armed with 400 weapons bought in PNG from Chinese and Malaysian businessmen and will fight the Indonesians in a series of attacks scheduled for August.

The weapons, he said, were easy to buy in PNG. Prices start at 7000 kina ($4300) for an automatic rifle.

He said that across the border, near the PNG town of Vanimo, the OPM has 2040 full-time fighters, and 130 crossed over to join the training in the past month.

The OPM's aggression is in response to an Indonesian attempt to pacify calls for independence from all levels of West Papuan society. 

"When we hear of the autonomy programme we know this is only for the Indonesian administrators, not for West Papuans - now we really want to get the Indonesians to prove we do not support this programme."

The Indonesian Parliament passed the programme last year. The province of West Papua, renamed from Irian Jaya as part of the package, is to receive 80 per cent of revenue from the province, and only 20 per cent will go to Jakarta. The OPM and many pro-independence activists here say this is meaningless, given the nature of the Indonesian Administration.

OPM commander-in-chief Mathias Wenda said in a faxed message this week that "autonomy time was 30 years ago. Now it is time to make our land free.

"Every time they manipulate the West Papuan people with these programmes and if they do not stop we will have to implement our programme with the West Papuan army."

Largely inactive since the fall of Suharto and the rise of the urban-based pro-independence movement led by the Papuan Presidium Council, the OPM has refrained from the use of violence for the past four years.

"Now we have more soldiers and we have some help from other countries, now we hope we win during this year," said Wenda. "Indonesia is a terrorist country now for what they are doing here. We want the United Nations to look at this situation and see that for Indonesia every programme is just to finish off the West Papuan people."

Nordin Wenda, OPM commander in Paniai district, is returning from the border headquarters to his region to prepare them for the new offensive. He has lived in the forests of that area, fighting the Indonesian Army, since the struggle began in 1962.

Until last year, when he came to the border to look for weapons, he had never seen the inside of a town. "Before, during the big Indonesian operations in the 1970s, we have only bows and arrows. We got some weapons by killing Indonesians but now we only have one gun in the region."

Nordin said that OPM delegates from each region met at the border on November 12, immediately after the death of pro-independence Papuan Presidium council leader Theys Eluay - widely believed to have been assassinated by Indonesian
special forces.

The delegates decided to prepare for renewed conflict, he said.

"We have already made this agreement with every commander to go to war. This year is the time to act. For many years Papuan people talk, talk, talk. We have delegations travelling everywhere and we do not win. Now we must fight and maybe die or win.

"The UN people don't talk about this, that is why we are very sad, we have to go to war again with Indonesia."

These are the kind of sentiments that Thom Beanal, vice-president of the presidium council and now acting leader following Eluay's death, is trying to play down.

"Before, they killed Theys so that the Papuans would be angry and resist so that the Army can kill us," he said.

Beanal believes the only way to independence is through an East Timor-style, UN-supervised referendum. "If not this year, next year. That is what we hope for."

But he said it could take place only if the Indonesian Army withdrew and the UN sent in peacekeepers before a ballot.

"We don't want to be like East Timor. Them coming in and shooting people, that's what we are afraid of."

Ever since he led a team of 100 Papuan leaders to Jakarta in February 1999, where they requested that Papua be allowed to secede, Beanal has been at the forefront of Papuan talks with Indonesia, but is disappointed with the lack of progress.

"There is no thought, they don't think ... We talk about dialogue, it's as if they don't want to listen."

Beanal and the human rights group Elsham (the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy), which monitors abuses in Papua by the military, have documents that prove the killing of Eluay was part of a campaign against the independence movement.

He said the documents also listed himself and Presidium council secretary Thaha Al Hamid as people to be killed.

Elsham director Johannes Bonai has also been threatened following his accusations that the military were behind Theys' death.

"The information we get from a number of military so we have to take it seriously," he said.

The human-rights group alleges that abuses by the military are continuing.

"The proof is in the killing of Theys Eluay. It's been happening here since 1962. We don't have the data. Of course when we calculate it, thousands of people have died."

Indonesian military operations in the 1970s killed as many as 7000 people in the Wamena area, creating a legacy of fierce pro-independence sentiment among the Highland Dani people that remains today.

Elsham said one man was killed on March 23 following police questioning of Wamena residents who had attended meetings with an Amnesty delegation in January and a European Union delegation in March.

Elsham was also concerned about the buildup of the Islamic group Laskar Jihad in the eastern towns of Papua. It claimed that the group already had more than 2000 members in Papua and that the Army was behind their presence, which was aimed at provoking conflict between the predominantly Christian Papuans and the Indonesian Muslims.

Bonai said the OPM had, until now, stood by its commitment not to use weapons and had remained across the border in PNG.

But now the OPM is talking war and, according to Commander Nordin Wenda, seems set on one last gamble to gain the world's attention. "They must send intervention troops. This is the last time you must help".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Reference Committee on  Australia’s Relationship with PNG and the island states of Oceania

The right of peoples to self-determination in the prevention of conflicts 

Pemberlakuan Otsus Harus Memberdayakan Putra Papua

issue 344 - April 2002, New Internationalist Magazine's Speial Edition on West Papua, by Chris Richards and Paul Kingsnorth

Indonesian Militia Activities in West Papua Now, per 30 April 2002

Laporan Utama: Dari Menteng Ke Afganistan, TEMPO, NO. 31/XXX/1 - 7 Oktober 2001

Opini  Jihad?, NO. 31/XXX/1 - 7 Oktober 2001

Themes, Motifs, and Symbols

GUBERNUR PROVINSI PAPUA PIDATO GUBERNUR PROVINSI PAPUA DALAM RANGKA SOSIALISASI UU OTONOMI KHUSUS DI RRI DAN TVRI SP JAYAPURA TANGGAL 18 JANUARI 2002

Facts & Figures - Geography

Papua murder suspects detained
Indonesia's military says three soldiers are suspects in connection with last year's murder of a prominent Papuan separatist leader.
» 79% relevance  |  16/04/2002  |  similar stories

Amnesty expelled from Papua
An Amnesty International human rights team is expelled by Indonesia after a row over permits to visit the troubled province.
» 79% relevance  |  05/02/2002  |  similar stories

Indonesia: A haven for al Qaeda?
March 20, 2002 Posted: 10:45 AM EST (1545 GMT), By Maria Ressa - CNN Jakarta Bureau Chief

 
   
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