[nasional_list] [ppiindia] Response to Efforts to Deny Crimes Against Humanity in West Papua
- From: "Ambon" <sea@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 00:49:54 +0100
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http://informasi-beasiswa.blogspot.com **Response to Efforts to Deny Crimes
Against Humanity in West Papua
From: Ed McWilliams, Senior Foreign Service Officer (Ret.)
Date: November 2005
Re: Response to Efforts to Deny Crimes Against Humanity in West Papua
The United States-Indonesia Society (USINDO) recently published a report of its
September 9, 2005, lecture by Col. (ret.) Don McFetridge titled, "Indonesia and
Papua: A View from the Bird's Head." McFetridge served as a Defense Attaché at
the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta in the mid-to-late 1990s and later worked for
British Petroleum in West Papua. I was Political Counselor in Jakarta from 1996
to 1999.
For transparency and historical context, it is significant to recognize that as
defense attaché, McFetridge was a lead defender of General (ret.) Prabowo,
son-in-law of dictator Soeharto. Prabowo stands out as among the worst human
rights violators in a regime known for its brutality. McFetridge was a staunch
defender of the Indonesian military, consistently denying allegations in the
mid and late 1990s that it was guilty of human rights crimes in West Papua and
elsewhere.
For its part, USINDO for many years unquestioningly supported the military
regime of Soeharto and now aggressively advocates for unrestricted U.S.
assistance to a largely unreformed Indonesian military (TNI).
The strategies employed both by senior TNI officials and their allies in the
international community to defend the Indonesian military are, for the most
part, not new. As in the past, when confronted with irrefutable evidence of
abuse, current defenders of the TNI employ a scapegoat ploy whereby
perpetrators are alleged to be "rogue," usually low-ranking, personnel. In
reality, the Indonesian military is not plagued with rogue personnel but is
rather a rogue institution itself, unaccountable to the courts or to the
civilian government. For example, compelled by undeniable evidence that
Indonesian Special Forces were responsible for what the presiding judge called
the "torture-murder" of West Papua's top political figure Theys Eluay in 2001,
the military produced a handful of personnel it portrayed as acting without
orders. A senior military commander (General Ryamazad Ryacudu) publicly
described the perpetrators as "national heroes." They received only
three-and-one-half-year sentences.
Denial of Human Rights Abuse
As cited by USINDO, McFetridge alleges that human rights advocates have
employed "willful misinformation" and exaggeration in describing the plight of
Papuans. These allegations seek to obscure and deny TNI abuses thoroughly
documented by the UN, the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights
Clinic of the Yale Law School, the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the
University of Sydney, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and many other
respected organizations and institutions. Rather than overstating a crisis,
these reports seek to bring international attention to long-neglected
atrocities. West Papuan human rights advocates and church leaders have many
times -this year included - testified about these violations and petitioned for
redress before the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
Such advocacy and other public protest by West Papuans come at a price. Human
rights defenders and others brave enough to publicly criticize the TNI have
been tortured, murdered, physically attacked and otherwise harassed. Their
families have been targeted, and they have been made the subject of spurious
litigation in which TNI members sought damages for "slander" in Indonesia's
notoriously corrupt courts.
Despite efforts by the TNI to intimidate domestic critics and impede access to
West Papua by foreigners, and in spite of denial of abuse by its allies in the
international community, the truth is emerging. In December 2003, Yale Law
School published a report that addressed both the scale and seriousness of the
situation in West Papua. It said in part:
"The Indonesian military and security forces have engaged in widespread
violence and extrajudicial killings in West Papua. They have subjected Papuan
men and women to acts of torture, disappearance, rape, and sexual violence,
thus causing serious bodily and mental harm. Systematic resource exploitation,
the destruction of Papuan resources and crops, compulsory (and often
uncompensated) labor, transmigration schemes, and forced relocation have caused
pervasive environmental harm to the region, undermined traditional subsistence
practices, and led to widespread disease, malnutrition, and death among West
Papuans..Many of these acts, individually and collectively, clearly constitute
crimes against humanity under international law."
McFetridge concludes that claims of a death toll among Papuans of 100,000 due
to TNI abuse are "wildly inflated," arguing that such a figure would entail
killing ten Papuans per day since Indonesia's 1969 annexation of West Papua.
While such a killing rate is indeed horrendous, it is unfortunately not
extraordinary in Indonesia. The capacity of the Indonesian military to kill
civilians en mass should not be underestimated. The military and its Islamic
and extreme nationalist militia allies killed at least 500,000 in the three
years following the 1965 coup d'etat that brought Soeharto to power, a figure
seen by many as conservative. Up to 200,000 East Timorese were killed following
Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor. Given this tremendous killing
capacity, a death toll of 100,000 is entirely consistent with the savage record
of this institution. The murder rate was augmented in the 1970s by provision of
OV-10 Bronco aircraft, which were employed against civilians in both East Timor
and West Papua.
While the precise human toll of Jakarta's policies in West Papua is unknown,
there can be no doubt that tens of thousands have died. The real number of
Papuan deaths as a consequence of military action and government policies is
unknowable -- principally because throughout the 42 years of Indonesian
control, access to West Papua by journalists, human rights advocates and
researchers has been severely constrained. Jakarta leaders maintain these
constraints despite growing international criticism and demands for access,
including recently from the U.S. Congress. The Indonesian government should
lift the curtain on these four decades of abuse and allow the international
community access to West Papua both to undertake an historical reckoning, as
well as to address the humanitarian needs of the Papuans who still suffer under
Jakarta's misrule.
McFetridge also cites a 2003 International Foundation for Election Systems
(IFES) survey from which he cherry-picks data purporting to demonstrate that
most Papuans are confident about their security. Buried in the survey's
statistics is the revealing fact that only a very small percentage of survey
participants could speak any Papuan language. I contended to the authors at the
time of the survey's release, without any effective rebuttal, that the
inability to speak any Papuan language indicated strongly that they were
primarily people in towns - largely migrants -- to whom the surveyors had
easiest access. Failure to distinguish between migrants/transmigrants and
indigenous Papuans renders this survey unreliable in assessing the attitudes of
native-born Papuans.
Confusion over the Papuan perspective in the IFES survey is linked to perhaps
the most devastating assault on Papuan human rights. For decades, the
Indonesian government -- aided by the international community through direct
bilateral assistance and World Bank funding -- transported non-Papuans from
various Indonesian islands to West Papua. These "transmigrants" differed from
Papuans ethnically and usually religiously, as well as in levels of
development. The result was the marginalization of Papuans in their own island,
with physical as well as economic displacement from employment and
entrepreneurial opportunity. They were joined by "economic migrants" who
continue to flow into Papuan territory today due in part to government
incentives. Such migrants constitute approximately 40% of the province's
population and make up a majority in the capital Jayapura and other urban
areas. Papuans understandably fear that, within a generation, they will become
a minority in their own homeland.
Denial of Fundamental Political Rights
McFetridge repeats the long-standing Indonesian government contention that the
so-called 1969 "Act of Free Choice (AFC)," by which Indonesia annexed West
Papua, was legitimate. Despite an intense campaign of intimidation and terror
by the TNI extending back to 1963 -- which included detention, torture and
killing of peaceful pro-independence demonstrators -- Jakarta confronted the
reality in 1969 that a fair vote would go against its annexation plan.
Jakarta's answer over that summer was to convoke 1,022 hand-selected Papuans.
Under great duress, they agreed unanimously to annexation. McFetridge claims
that these supposed "tribal leaders" represented the will of the Papuan people
and, "formally ratified what was the reality on the ground." The Soeharto
regime was to use the same approach in East Timor when another group of
so-called "local leaders" was forced in July 1976 to vote for annexation by
Indonesia. Once again, the vote was unanimous. Unfortunately, in the case of
West Papua, the UN General Assembly chose to "take note" of the result.
But accounts by UN officials charged with monitoring the AFC and recently
declassified US government documents have removed any doubt regarding its
fraudulent character. The UN Under-Secretary General in 1969, Chakravarthy
Narasimhan, in an interview published in November 2001, said of the affair:
"It was just a whitewash. The mood at the United Nations was to get rid of this
problem as quickly as possible. Nobody gave a thought to the fact that there
were a million people there who had their fundamental human rights trampled.
How could anyone have seriously believed that all voters unanimously decided to
join his [Soeharto's] regime? Unanimity like that is unknown in democracies."
Military Presence in West Papua
McFetridge depicts a purported threat posed by an armed West Papuan resistance
(OPM) to justify the TNI presence in the province. He ignores the TNI's own
2005 public estimate of OPM forces at 620, of which, according to TNI's claim,
150 bear modern arms. Such a "threat" hardly justifies a troop presence that,
even according to McFetridge's likely underestimate, amounts to 10,000.
McFetridge cites recent conflicts in Wamena (2003) and Wasior (2001) as
indications of "provocations" by the OPM. However, well-founded reports,
including by Indonesia's own National Commission on Human Rights, that the TNI
was involved with -- if not directly behind -- both instances raise obvious
doubts about any OPM role. Considering the TNI's long history of OPM
infiltration and manipulation, this comes as no surprise.
Further, McFetridge's troop estimate is not reliably sourced. The TNI carefully
guards the size of its presence in Papua, but ongoing reports of troop
augmentation (notably currently in the Merauke area) and announced plans to
move three battalions there by 2009 strongly indicate that the real troop
deployment figure is far higher than McFetridge's guess and is growing.
Additions of territorial and regional commands in the new province of West
Irian Jaya (created without Papuan consultation) also indicate significant
expansion of the military presence. Regardless of the actual figure, rapidly
escalating militarization is in defiance of calls by senior clergy and many
other civil society leaders for West Papua's demilitarization and
transformation into a "land of peace."
McFetridge asserts that the TNI is "not enthusiastic" about assignment to
Papua. In fact, the TNI profits tremendously from its presence there, extorting
money from Indonesian and foreign firms and operating illegal logging,
prostitution and other "businesses." The U.S. mining giant Freeport McMoRan
paid the TNI more than ten million dollars over a recent two-year period.
Military service in West Papua also is rewarded with extra pay and faster
promotion, as had been the case in other conflict areas like pre-1999 East
Timor.
McFetridge contends "there is no credible evidence of organized military or
police support, training or arming of militia in Papua." McFetridge once again
repeats the standard TNI denial of its historical affiliations and often-direct
sponsorship of militia. The TNI created, funded, armed, and directed the
militia that systematically ravaged East Timor in 1999. Similarly, militia in
Papua, the Malukus, Aceh, and elsewhere could not have existed/exist without
TNI direction and support. These thug groups, which include fascist-nationalist
"red and white" militia and Islamic jihadist such as Laskar Jihad and Front for
the Defense of Islam, operate as a cat's paw to intimidate local populations
and often, as in the Malukus, provoke communal conflict. This communal violence
then serves as a pretext for direct TNI intervention. West Papuan advocates,
notably church leaders, have expressed strong concern that such militia could
spark communal conflict between largely Muslim transmigrants and
Christian/animist Papuans.
Cover-up and Perpetuation of Abuse
McFetridge disparages recent U.S. Congressional action that, if passed, would
direct the State Department to report on various aspects of human and civil
rights violations in West Papua, including the 1969 "Act of Free Choice." He
contends the "net effect of HR 2601 is to discourage compromise by the
political factions ... to reach agreement on the implementation of autonomy for
the Province." This attack on a bipartisan Congressional action misconstrues
the legislation's intent and impact. HR 2601 merely calls for State Department
reporting on past and current events in West Papua. Facts are essential to
effective policymaking. It is disingenuous of McFetridge to assign blame for
Indonesia's dealings to Congress. It is quite clearly the utter failure of
previous and current Indonesian governments to implement any semblance of the
promised "special autonomy" that has led to the current impasse. The
undemocratic and illegal division of West Papua into two provinces (and a
failed attempt to create a third province), failure to create the Papuan
People's Assembly on democratic principles set out under the promised but
undelivered special autonomy, and failure of the current Yudhoyono
administration to initiate and/or respond to multiple Papuan attempts at
peaceful dialogue and conflict resolution amply demonstrate the government's
bad faith. Recent reports of theft by the military of funds meant for the
long-neglected development of Papua's health, educational and other
infrastructure underscore this further. Popular Papuan rejection of "special
autonomy" was made manifest when thousands peacefully demonstrated throughout
West Papua August 12-15.
Those in the international community who deny or obscure the Indonesian
military's long record of repression and violence in West Papua, who seek to
re-write history to contend that Indonesia's forced annexation of West Papua
was in any sense democratic, and who wish to divert legitimate Congressional
and international concern about these abuses are not acting in the best
interests of Papua or Indonesia more broadly. They are, in fact, conspiring
with those in Indonesia who seek to draw a curtain over West Papua to allow
severe human rights violations and ruinous exploitation of this resource-rich
land to continue unobserved and without rebuke.
Message to Don from IAWP: When all is said and done, when you have gathered all
the worldly riches to satisfy your material lust at the expense of the
long-suffering Papuans, remember just one thing - that you have a chance and a
major role you could play to change things. A man in your position could bring
positive change. If you choose not to, and you are happy not to, then it is
hoped that one day you do not regret your decisions. Papuans are the underdogs.
Right now you appear to have chosen to side with Goliath rather than David.
Remember what happened to Goliath. The choice is yours. Enough said.
Further info:
McShame
McFingered
McWorldBankConsultant
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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