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SPEAKING FREELY
Storm brewing in
Papua
By Tom Benedetti
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online
feature that allows guest writers to have their say.
Please click here if you
are interested in contributing.
A storm
is quietly but rapidly gaining force in an overlooked
corner of the world. Papua (formerly West Papua or Irian
Jaya) is being ravaged in an escalating program of
repression by the Indonesian military.
Invaded
by Indonesia in 1963, Papua is still under siege as its
native people struggle for justice and
self-determination against overwhelming odds. Indonesia
gained control of the region through a controversial
United Nations "referendum" in 1969. One thousand locals
were forced to vote openly in front of armed soldiers,
and told they would be shot unless the vote supported
integration with Indonesia. Not surprisingly, the vote
was unanimous. Those who campaigned against Indonesia
leading up to the so-called referendum were labeled as
subversives and assassinated, their villages strafed and
bombed. Since then, raising the Papuan flag has been
punishable by death.
Civil society in Papua (a
loose coalition of 250 or more distinct tribes) has
repeatedly called for a Zone of Peace, requesting that
the Indonesian army and militia groups lay down arms and
respect human rights so conflicts can be resolved
through dialogue. However, anyone promoting even
peaceful alternatives to full and unquestioned
integration with Indonesia is an immediate target for
arrest, torture or assassination by Indonesian security
forces.
This month, journalist and filmmaker
Mark Worth was found dead, just two days after
Australian television announced the premiere of his
documentary on Papua's struggle for self-determination.
If murdered, as many believe, Worth is the most recent
in a long line of civic and cultural leaders, academics,
journalists and human-rights activists strategically
assassinated. Their heads or bodies are often displayed
like trophies to intimidate compatriots with similar
ideas. Yet many Papuans continue to call for change in
defiance of the personal consequences.
In all,
at least 100,000 Papuans have been killed during the
occupation. The exact number tortured, disappeared and
murdered is much higher, but is impossible to know since
human-rights defenders and journalists are arrested or
assassinated as a matter of course. Hundreds of
thousands more Papuans have been forced from their
ancestral land, many dying of starvation as a result of
food sources being destroyed by rapacious logging.
(Virtually all large businesses in Papua are owned and
run by the Indonesian military, or are engaged in major
contracts with the military.)
Papuan people
reflect some of the oldest and most unique cultures in
the world. Some agrarian cultures in Papua predate
Mesopotamia. They will soon be obliterated unless the
outside world steps in.
Last month, Jakarta
appointed Colonel Timbul Silaen as the new chief of
police for Papua. Silaen was in charge of security
forces in East Timor during the police-supported
massacres in 1999. His co-conspirator in those
atrocities, Eurico Guterres, is now openly, and with
Jakarta's consent, organizing militia forces in Papua
while he appeals a jail sentence for crimes against
humanity. These and countless other events present a
direct parallel to Indonesia's well-planned campaign of
terror used to destabilize East Timor and escalate
violence after the 1999 vote for independence.
Led by the same men, the genocide this time will
likely be carried out unnoticed as the world is
distracted by other events. Similar to the current
situation in Aceh, it is likely that Papua will soon
face a total blackout. Journalists have been banned for
years, and it is widely expected that non-governmental
organizations will soon be denied access as well.
Unlike East Timor, Papua is a huge, wild and
often inaccessible area. It also lacks organized support
from the international community. Only a handful of
activists worldwide and very few countries have ever
expressed concern at the UN - tiny Vanuatu being the
notable exception. Now more than ever the Papuan people
need the world's attention. They need diplomatic (rather
than military) aid to fend off the increasing might of a
determined invader, and ultimately ever to see justice.
All that most Papuans ask is for a review of the
farcical 1969 "referendum" - not independence, not
expulsion of the migrants who now almost outnumber them,
not financial or economic aid. Just a review that, if
conducted fairly, should lead to a legitimate referendum
on self-determination - this time conducted in a
reasonable way under the supervision of UN observers
rather than Indonesian soldiers.
Papua is the
western half of the world's second-largest island,
shared with independent Papua New Guinea and located
north of Australia. It contains 15 percent of the
world's languages, and greater ecological diversity than
anywhere else on Earth.
Tom Benedetti
is with WestPAN (West Papua Action Network),
Canada.
(Copyright 2004 Tom Benedetti.)
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online
feature that allows guest writers to have their say.
Please click here if you
are interested in contributing.
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