Jason MacLeod
On December 3, Indonesian security forces detained four West Papuan students for their part, two days earlier, in releasing West Papuan flags — known as the Morning Star — attached to balloons in the central Java town of Semarang.
The students' action was to commemorate Indonesian-occupied West Papua's "independence day". In 1961, the West New Guinea Council — a democratically elected body — adopted a national anthem, agreed upon the name West Papua for their country and unveiled the Morning Star flag.
However, the government of Indonesia launched a small-scale invasion to back up diplomatic manoeuvres, finally securing administrative control of the territory in 1963. West Papua was integrated into the Republic of Indonesia after less than 1% of the indigenous Melanesian population voted in the discredited and fraudulent 1969 Act of Free Choice.
The students called for a peaceful dialogue between the Indonesian government and the people of West Papua, mediated by a third party, to resolve the political status of the territory. Charlie Imbir, Chris Ukago, Herman Katmu and high school student Markus Jiwitao face up to 20 years in jail if charged with treason.
Police in Semarang have been conducting house-to-house searches for banners, posters, books on West Papua and other pro-Papua material considered subversive by the state. A demonstration, allegedly involving Indonesians brought in from the town of Solo, was held outside the police headquarters where the students are being detained. The demonstrators called for Jakarta to crackdown on the pro-independence Free Papua Movement (OPM).
Security forces routinely harass West Papuan students studying in Java and many have gone into hiding. In November, unknown men wielding samurai swords and carrying Molotov cocktails attacked a West Papuan student dormitory in Yogyakarta in the early hours of the morning. "We are all scared", said one student who asked not to be named, "and we don't dare return to our dormitories".
Many students believe that the increasing attacks in Java and West Papua are part of an organised state-sponsored crackdown. Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri, Coordinating minister for security and political affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, chief of the armed forces General Endriartono Sutarto and army chief of staff General Ryamizard Ryacudu have all publicly stated that "separatism" will not be tolerated and have ruled out the possibility of dialogue over West Papua's status.
Sukarnoputri chose December 1 to announce the appointment of Timbul Silaen as the new police chief of Papua province (as West Papua is officially known). Silaen is the infamous former East Timor police chief and an indicted human rights violator. At the same time, notorious East Timor militia leader Eurico Guterres has arrived in Timika in West Papua, near the giant Freeport-Rio Tinto gold and copper mine, to form a militia group — the Red and White Defenders Front (Front Pembela Merah Putih — FPMP).
Silaen and Guterres were accused of crimes against humanity following Indonesian military and militia violence in the wake of East Timor's historic vote for independence in the UN-sponsored referendum in 1999.
"You know, there is the Morning Star flag there. We have to fight it, with our blood if necessary. I think it is very normal if you fight back, with or without arms... So, I told my members, if your area is attacked, you are free to join any militia group to fight the attackers back", said Norman Sophan, FPMP secretary-general.
On November 5, troops from Indonesia's notorious special forces Kopassus raided and killed 10 people as they slept in their beds in Yalengga village in the remote West Papuan highlands. The night before he was killed in his bed, OPM leader Yustinus Murip was seen on SBS television's Dateline program calling for the UN to intervene and support peaceful dialogue to resolve the longstanding conflict.
The attack on Yalengga was the latest in the military operations that have continued in the highlands since April. The attacks have resulted in hundreds of people being displaced and countless rapes, assaults, torture and killings. Scores of health clinics, churches, schools, gardens and villages have been burnt to the ground.
Another pro-Jakarta militia, Barisan Merah Putih (Red and White Garrison), has also been set up by the security forces in the highlands town of Wamena. Human rights defenders in Sorong and Fak Fak have reported that the Laskar Jihad militia has established a presence there and enjoys support and protection from the military.
In September, the respected West Papuan human rights organisation ELSHAM (Institute for the Study and Advocacy of Human Rights) had their offices ransacked by thugs in Jakarta. Since then, two senior ELSHAM staffers, John Rumbiak and Yohanes Bonay, have been forced to leave as a result of death threats. Rumbiak is now in exile in the United States.
Yohanes Bonay's child and wife were seriously wounded when unidentified men opened fire with automatic weapons on a car they were travelling in, the same vehicle that only hours before Bonay had decided not to travel in. ELSHAM staff are currently in court, accused by the military of defamation.
West Papuan leaders fear it is only a matter of time before martial law is declared in West Papua.
With each act of violence committed by the Indonesian military, dissent in West Papua deepens and trust in the sincerity of the Indonesian government to constructively resolve the conflict dissipates.
The Megawati government's policy is at odds with the approach taken by former president Abdurrahman Wahid. The Wahid government allowed the Morning Star to fly, provided it was flown lower than the Indonesian flag. Since Megawati came to power, the West Papuan flag has been banned and peaceful flag-raisings forcibly repressed. Seven activists remain in detention in Manokwari after a pre-emptive police action scuttled plans for a December 1 commemoration there.
[Jason MacLeod is an activist with the Australian West Papua Association.]
From Green Left Weekly, January 14, 2004.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.