Members of the Indonesian mobile police (Brimob) fatally shot Tobias Silak, a 24-year-old Papuan employed by the local election supervisory agency (Bawaslu) and seriously injured 17-year-old Papuan, Naro Dapla, in Dekai, Yahukimo District, West Papua, on August 20.
These Papuans were shot on the same day that Indonesian Defence Minister and President-elect, Prabowo Subianto — notorious for his human rights abuses — was in Canberra to seal a security agreement with the Australian government. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described it as a “historic treaty".
For some Western leaders in Canberra who welcomed this versatile, enigmatic and notorious 72-year-old military figure, Prabowo represents an essential component of the West’s confrontation with China.
The fate of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and other nations caught up in the power dynamics in the Indo-Pacific region is inextricably linked to the influence of the West — which seeks to preserve its regional hegemony — and China and its emerging allies, which seek to challenge the status quo.
Prabowo embodies the modern face of geopolitics — a decisive player in between two superpowers. As long as he continues to serve the interests of both, he will remain in their favour.
In this geopolitical game, there is one nation whose history — although central to the reshaping of the West, the East and Indonesia — has been relegated to insignificance: West Papua.
More Papuan lives will be sacrificed, like those of millions of people caught between the competing interests of powerful nations, such as the Ukrainians, Palestinians, and many others.
Without a significant re-configuration of the current geopolitical landscape soon, the sovereignty and fate of those entangled in the current world’s order appear quite grim.
As long as the sovereignty of the Papuan land, nation and state remains suppressed within Indonesia, all agreements and treaties signed between Indonesia and foreign powers will inevitably spell disaster for the Papuan people. This was illustrated by the shootings on August 20, which happened under Prabowo’s leadership as defence minister and president-elect.
1414 - Tobias Silak West Papua cr humanrightsmonitor dot org.png
Human rights abuses under Prabowo’s watch
There have been a number of human rights violations and shootings throughout West Papua this year.
New Zealand pilot Glen Malcolm Conning was shot and killed after landing his helicopter in the remote Alama district of West Papua, on August 5. Indonesian authorities initially blamed the West Papuan National Liberation Army (TPNPB). However, the TPNPB denied any involvement and accused the Indonesian military of being behind the killing.
Benny Wenda, an international icon of the West Papuan independence movement, based in England, accused Indonesia of lying about the pilot’s death and “urge[d] the world to listen to the categorical denial by the West Papua National Liberation Army".
Papuans across West Papua peacefully commemorated one of the most important historical events in their national calendar on August 15: the infamous "New York Agreement", a treaty signed between the Netherlands and Indonesia under the auspices of the US that sealed Papua's fate with Indonesia. Protests called for a review of the agreement. Once again, Indonesian security forces cracked down on this commemoration.
The Indonesian military opened fire in Kalome village, Puncak Jaya regency, on July 16, while pursuing TPNPB member Terinus Enumbi. Innocent Papuan bystanders were shot and injured in this indiscriminate attack.
The Indonesian army accused three men in the village of being TPNPB fighters. This claim was immediately refuted by the TPNPB and a local community leader, who clarified that they were all civilians. One of the trio — Murib — is a village head.
Prominent Papuan human rights lawyer Yan Christian Warinussy was shot at an ATM in the coastal town of Manokwari, on July 17, while his children waited in the car. Luckily, he survived.
In March, a harrowing video emerged showing a group of Indonesian soldiers torturing a young West Papuan man later identified as Defianus Kogoya. In the disturbing footage, Kogoya can be seen with his hands tied and shaking as he is submerged in a vat of bloody water while Indonesian soldiers take turns punching, kicking and beating him.
According to the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), as at April, more than 76,000 people have been displaced due to the Indonesian crackdown, which started in 2018.
These displacements, killings, shootings, torture and deaths are just the tip of the iceberg of what is happening in the tightly-controlled military operational areas of West Papua.
These atrocities took place during Prabowo's presidential campaign this year. Furthermore, despite having visited West Papua more than 18 times, outgoing President Joko Widodo has failed to address these serious issues.
Prabowo seeks advice from PNG on how to ‘respect Indigenous Papuans’
Prabowo stopped in PNG’s capital, Port Moresby, on his way from Canberra to Jakarta. With all the talk of security, trade and business, Prabowo is reported to have asked the PNG government for cultural advice on how to "respect" the indigenous Papuans.
Unfortunately, Prabowo got away with the blood of Papuans on his hands, just as he did in Canberra.
If PM James Marape's “gang” in Port Morseby’s Waigani precinct had an independent voice, one might expect them to advise Prabowo to stop killing Papuans, at least as a basic gesture of "respect”. However, it is unimaginable that the PNG government would challenge Jakarta's atrocities without the approval of its imperial masters in Washington, London and Canberra.
Jakarta will soon become another imperial master of PNG if it does not stand on its own two feet soon.
The more the government in Port Moresby condones Jakarta's genocidal war against the Papuans, the more likely it is that the Papuans in PNG will accept a diminished status reminiscent of the threats they have faced in West Papua for more than 60 years at the hands of Indonesia.
To believe that PNG is entitled to equal respect from Western and Eastern nations, especially Indonesia or ASEAN, because of its uniqueness is an overly simplistic view.
We are Papuans and Blacks — these names and designations alone have justified all kinds of dehumanising names, insults, abuse and mistreatment of Papuans on both sides of the border, whose representatives are received by those in power in Canberra and Jakarta.
BenarNews reported that PNG journalist Harlyne Joku was excluded from a media briefing with Prabowo and Marape during Prabowo's visit, allegedly at the request of the Indonesian embassy. The PNG Media Council condemned the exclusion as "disturbing" and "shameful" and an attack on PNG's independent media sector and an affront to PNG's political sovereignty.
If PNG does not wake up soon, it may be too late for PNG to realise that the fate of West Papua and the fate of PNG are linked, and that what happens to West Papua will determine what happens to PNG.
Prabowo's request for advice from PNG on how to respect indigenous Papuans is strange, given his history of crimes against humanity in East Timor and West Papua. It is also an insult to ask the PNG government how to respect the Papuans when Prabowo and Jokowi have totally failed to respect and listen to the Papuans.
Whether a genuine sentiment or empty rhetoric, Prabowo’s ambivalence in addressing the killings of Papuans this year alone shows where he stands on the issue of respect for Indigenous Papuans.
Papuan pawns in Prabowo’s international political chess game
Prabowo brought two prominent West Papuan figures with him on his visit to Canberra: Natalius Pigai, a former Indonesian human rights commissioner, and Wempi Wetipo, Indonesia's deputy home affairs minister.
Prabowo's intention could have been “image-building”, by showing black Papuan faces at this highest level, or might actually mean something for the Papuan people, or these elites might be just pawns in the settlers’ colonial games.
Whatever the intention, it is irrelevant to Papuans who are dying daily under Prabowo’s rule.
Prabowo's biggest test will be not only how he leads Indonesia between the two superpower rivalries between the US and Chinese, but also how he deals with Papuan lives.
If he is serious about how to respect the indigenous Papuans, he should be asking these questions to West Papuans, not the PNG government.
[Ali Mirin is a West Papuan from the Kimyal tribe of the highlands bordering the Star Mountain region of Papua New Guinea. He has a Master of Arts in International Relations from Flinders University.]