Thursday, May 16, 2013

1) Victor Yeimo Still Detained, 6 Activists Removed


1) Victor Yeimo Still Detained, 6 Activists Removed

2) Comments on the U.S. Department of State's Annual Country Report on Human Rights for 2012 Concerning Indonesia/West Papua

3) Police officer investigated over Rp 1t bank transactions

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1) Victor Yeimo Still Detained, 6 Activists Removed

A google translate of article in Bintang papua. Be-aware google translate can be a bit erratic. Original bahasa at

http://bintangpapua.com/index.php/lain-lain/k2-information/halaman-utama/item/4676-victor-yeimo-tetap-ditahan-6-aktivis-dilepas

Thursday, May 16, 2013 01:43

Victor Yeimo Still Detained, 6 Activists Removed

Alfred Papare: Police Will not Allow Demo Again

Six activists Jayapura-West Papua National Committee (KNPB), finally liberated. They are the chief West Papua National Authority (WPNA) Marthen Manggaprouw (35), Yongky Ulimpa (23), Elly Selek (19), Napoleon Asso (22), Nius Hiluka (22) and Melly Gombo (22). While Chairman KNPB victor Yeimo not included in the participating name released. Victor Yeimo remain detained in Abepura LP on its status as a DPO. The activists were released from police custody Jayapura City, Tuesday (14/5) sekitarpukul 21:00 CET. They were arrested after a demonstration held to protest alleged human rights violations in the District Aimas, Sorong, West Papua province in the Office of the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) on Monday (13/5).


Jayapura Police Chief Alfred City Commissioner Papare, SIK when confirmed in his office, Wednesday (15/5) confirmed it has freed six activists KNPB. Because, after testing unproven anarchist action as a demonstration protesting alleged human rights violations in the District Aimas, Sorong, West Papua province in the Office of the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) on Monday (13/5). While KNPB Chairman Victor Yeimo arrested sidelines demonstrations, direct Abepura herded into prison because he is still existed List People Search (DPO) Regional Office of the Ministry of Law and Human Rights in Papua, since fled from Abepura Prison after being involved cases in 2009 were convicted of sedition during three years, but the new menjalami sentenced to nine months.

However, the police chief said, it still will call the three activists KNPB each Marthen Manggaprouw, Yongky Ulimpa and Elly Selek to re-questioning stoning case that led to two members of the Police Jayapura City, respectively Head of Ops Jayapura Police, Commissioner Kiki Kurnia and Brigadier Afandi who suffered injuries during a demonstration in securing Circle Housing III, Waena.

Related to this, the police chief said, the police would not give consent when activists held a demonstration KNPB back in the city of Jayapura. "This event will serve as a lesson for the future, KNPB will not be allowed to rally in Jayapura," tundasnya.


KNPB Question Reason Demo Space Restrictions Peace

While the Allies KNPB, Suhun Ones said, arrests and forcible dissolution conducted by the police on peaceful demonstrations on 13 January is a trick to cover up the violations committed by the military and police.

According to him, the peaceful protests carried out on a few days ago that aims to require clarity and accountability for the shooting incident that occurred in several places in Papua, segaja covered with a way to break up the mass of the reasons mass beating and throwing against the police officers.

"Papua Police sengajah whitewashing it was yesterday, yesterday's incident Papua regional police divert the real issue and the next we see the media, his opinion was different from the action that we did," he said accompanied Spokesperson (Spokesperson) KNPB, Wim Rokcy Medlama, coriander Guard -P, Bovit Bofra and AMP in Java and Bali, Wenas Kobaga, when it held a press conference, at Café Prima Garden Abepura, yesterday afternoon on Wednesday (15/5).

It was very evident because when there is a conflict in a peaceful demonstration, and a day later in the media that there appears only victims of the security forces, while the victims of past demonstrations not included in the media, independent media should be able to load the casualties on both sides. He said, it has the x-ray of the victim of police persecution which broke the jaw members and also seorangnya demo again fractured hand.

"The police say they were injured, we ask for evidence that it is true. We had a mass action, there is evidence that the victim, "he said as he showed her the results of the second x-ray told reporters.

He also added that so far it look KNPB always led to criminal. In fact, he said the struggle KNPB pure struggle.

"Action yesterday was not only done by KNPB, performed by all the solidarity, but that appeared in the media in the name of this well KNPBnya we see no scenario KNPB built to destroy," he said.

He said police chief immediately responsible for the shooting that occurred on May 1, yesterday, and the jug against future peaceful demonstration on December 1 yesterday. "If he felt there was not a human rights violation, why should obstructed? There are what,? "He said. (Mdc/mir/don/l03)


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2) Comments on the U.S. Department of State's Annual Country Report on Human Rights for 2012 Concerning Indonesia/West Papua

By Ed McWilliams (West Papua Advocacy Team) with John M. Miller (ETAN)
The U.S. Department of State annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2012 includes a detailed review of Indonesia. As in past years, this portion of the Report devotes significant attention to developments in West Papua. The heavy focus on the region, which comprises only one percent of the Indonesian archipelago's population, underscores the reality that human rights violations and impunity continue at very high levels in West Papua. (Please note we refer throughout to the western half of the island of New Guinea as West Papua. This is how people in the region commonly refer to the area that includes the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua.)


Problems that afflict West Papua are also evident elsewhere in the archipelago, such as encroachment on indigenous lands, media intimidation, and violations of human rights by the military and police.

While this critique focuses on West Papua, we note that human rights violations continue throughout the archipelago. Problems that afflict West Papua are also evident elsewhere in the archipelago, such as encroachment on indigenous lands, media intimidation, and violations of human rights by the military and police. Issues of restrictions on freedom of assembly also affect religious minorities outside West Papua. (Ongoing attacks on freedom of religion are addressed in a separate Department of State report.)

Efforts to challenge impunity and to establish accountability for past human rights crimes continue to fail. An "ad hoc tribunal to investigate and prosecute the disappearance of human rights activists" in 1997-98 has yet to be established. Prosecutors have so far rejected Komnas HAM findings that the government's anti-Communist purges of 1965 and 1966 "which included killing, extermination, enslavement, eviction or forced removal of the population, the deprivation of personal freedom, torture, rape, and enforced disappearance, constituted a crime against humanity." The truth commission and human rights courts authorized by the 2006 law on Aceh have yet to be established. Accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Indonesian forces in
 Timor -Leste or West Papua do not appear on either the Indonesian agenda and are not mentioned in the State Department report’s Indonesia chapter.
Fundamental Rights
The report is generally comprehensive and accurate, with some exceptions. However, the report continues to ignore the gravest, most systematic abuse afflicting West Papuans: The failure of the central government to provide essential fundamental health, education and other services to the West Papuan people. This policy of deliberate neglect severely affects Papuans, especially those in rural areas, as reflected in all national and international development indices. Statistics, including those of the Indonesian government, consistently identify West Papua as suffering the worst health , education and development levels in the archipelago and more generally in all of Southeast Asia. It is Indonesia's poorest region.

The Department of State’s failure to acknowledge this fundamental violation of Papuan economic, social and cultural rights renders this annual report incomplete.

The obligation of governments to provide essential services to their populations is clearly set out in international agreements and covenants to which the Government of Indonesia is signatory or otherwise obligated. These include the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (Articles 25 and 26), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Papuans have been systematically marginalized in their own land by this policy of neglect and the "transmigration" policy through which the Indonesia government sponsors and subsidizes migration from elsewhere in the archipelago. The Department of State’s failure to acknowledge this fundamental violation of Papuan economic, social and cultural rights renders this annual report incomplete.

Women face special challenges, and the report says, "Women in many regions of the country, particularly in Papua, complained about differential treatment based on gender."

The report also fails to acknowledge that for five decades, West Papua has not been afforded its right to self-determination. U.S. government was deeply involved in the international community's acquiescence in Indonesia's 1963 takeover of the territory and its 1969 annexation through the fraudulent "Act of Free Choice." The U.S. itself is culpable in the denial of this fundamental right.

The Business of the Security Forces


"The [Indonesian official] claims that the Indonesian Military (TNI) has far more troops in Papua than it is willing to admit to, chiefly to protect and facilitate TNI's interests in illegal logging operations," says one cable.

The report's Executive Summary misleadingly contends that "security forces reported to civilian authority" during 2012. Indonesian security authorities, in particular the Indonesian military, in reality are not fully subordinate to civilian authority. The Indonesian military maintains streams of revenue that enable it to operate outside the government budgetary process. These include legal and illegal businesses directly controlled by the military and its extortion of civilian businesses. This rogue behavior persists despite Indonesian law which required the military to divest itself of its businesses by 2009. Military businesses interests are especially extensive in West Papua where oftenillegal logging operations and the extortion of domestic and foreign businesses, such as the mining giant Freeport McMoran have continued for years.

State Department reports made available through Wikileaks demonstrate its full awareness of the military's role in illegal logging: "The [Indonesian official] claims that the Indonesian Military (TNI) has far more troops in Papua than it is willing to admit to, chiefly to protect and facilitate TNI's interests in illegal logging operations," says one cable. Other cables report Freeport officials acknowledging that they "make payments directly to the commanding officers responsible for security at the mine."

Impunity
More importantly, the Indonesian military, particularly the Indonesia Special Forces (Kopassus) and the U.S.-funded and trained Detachment 88, continue to enjoy broad impunity for criminal behavior, notably violations of human rights. Military personnel are not subject to civil criminal prosecution or civilian courts for their abuse of civilians. Rather, in those cases which draw public attention, low- and mid-level military personnel may be subjected to military investigation and prosecution in military court. Invariably, the defendants are either absolve the accused or render light sentences.

This reality is particularly apparent in West Papua which suffers under a very large military presence and where human rights violations, as noted in the State Department Report, are extensive. As a consequence of this broad impunity for security force abuse of human rights and other criminality, the criminal justice system fails to inhibit continuing abuses. While the State Department report acknowledges civil society criticisms of "the short length of prison sentences imposed by military courts." The U.S. government should speak out more forcefully for a change in jurisdiction.
Political Prisoners
The Executive Summary highlights the Indonesian government's application of "treason and blasphemy laws to limit freedom of expression." However, in the body of the report (in the section on Freedom of Speech and Press) the Report avoids direct criticism of the government, referring only to allegations by NGOs and others that "government application of treason laws in cases of peaceful calls for separatism in Papua limited the rights of individuals to engage in speech deemed to be proseparatist."

The report, citing NGO reports, says that "between June and September, authorities arrested more than 60 people in Papua for flag-related offenses." Most were briefly detained before their release. Several Papuans continue to serve long prison terms for raising the banned morning star flag. Political prisoners from the Malukus continued to serve long sentences for raising a banned flag.


U.S. security assistance must be curtailed, absent an end to such egregious human rights violations and credible prosecution and sentencing of the perpetrators of these crimes among Indonesia's military, police, and "anti-terror" forces.

Access
The report clear acknowledges that the "government continued to restrict foreign media, NGOs, and government personnel from traveling to the provinces of Papua and West Papua by requiring them to request permission to travel through the Foreign Ministry or an Indonesian embassy. The government approved some requests and denied others ostensibly for reasons regarding the safety of foreign visitors." This should have been highlighted at the top in the Executive Summary. These restrictions clearly affect the ability of the U.S. government to verify and follow up on reports of human rights violations in the territory. The restrictions have been the subject of criticism by the U.S. Congress, to whom the report is directed.
Torture and Killing
The Executive Summary does highlight "killings by security forces, abuse of prisoners and detainees, harsh prison conditions," problems that are especially common in West Papua. The body of the report, while including details of security force operations in rural areas of West Papua, does not acknowledge the extraordinary abuse associated with ongoing assaults on rural communities by security forces conducting "sweeping operations." These operations are inherently abusive of human rights. Civilians are frequently forced to flee into surrounding mountains and forests where many become ill and die due to a lack of access to food and medical care.

The report commendably details specific examples of harsh prison conditions and extrajudicial killings such as that of Mako Tabuni. The report usefully includes the June military assault on a neighborhood in Wamena during which 767th battalion soldiers burned 87 Papuan homes. "[A]uthorities had not arrested or disciplined any members" by the end of the year, the report says.

Under the heading of "Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment" the report notes that the Indonesian government failed to assure full accountability of security officials for torture, which remains "commonplace in police detention." The NGO Commission on the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has reported that 98 of 243 victims of torture between July 2011 and June 2012 were in West Papua.

The State Department also reports that Indonesian authorities required "jailed Papuan independence activist Filep Karma to raise the money" for his own medical care. And that during 2012 other such activists such as Forkorus Yaboisembut receive prison terms for peaceful protest.

Indigenous Rights and Land
In one of its strongest critiques, the report speaks plainly about the systematic denial
of rights to Papuans:


During the year indigenous persons, most notably in Papua, remained subject to widespread discrimination, and there was little improvement in respect for their traditional land rights. Mining and logging activities, many of them illegal, posed significant social, economic, and logistical problems to indigenous communities.

"During the year indigenous persons, most notably in Papua, remained subject to widespread discrimination, and there was little improvement in respect for their traditional land rights. Mining and logging activities, many of them illegal, posed significant social, economic, and logistical problems to indigenous communities. The government failed to prevent companies, often in collusion with the local military and police, from encroaching on indigenous peoples land. In Papua and West Papua, tensions continued between indigenous Papuans and migrants from other provinces, leading to several killings of migrants in the restive provinces."
The Report similarly offered a detailed critique of government policies targeting the land rights of indigenous people. We note that Papuans are among the principal victims in this regard:

As the government did not recognize indigenous people, it also did not recognize indigenous lands. The government did recognize some communal ownership rights. However, access to ancestral lands continued to be a major source of conflict throughout the country. Large corporations and government regulations displaced people from their ancestral lands. Some land-rights NGOs asserted that ineffective demarcation of land led to denying individuals access to their own land. Central and local government officials reportedly extracted kickbacks from mining and palm oil companies in exchange for land access at the expense of the local populace. Land-rights advocates reported receiving threats from government and private parties after publicizing these issues. The government program of transferring migrants from the crowded islands of Java and Madura diminished greatly in recent years. However, communal conflicts often occurred along ethnic lines in areas with sizeable transmigrant populations.
see also


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SBY is no statesman! Sign petition today: http://s.shr.lc/19349F6
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2012 Recipient of the Order of Timor (Ordem Timor)

John M. Miller, National Coordinator

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http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/05/16/police-officer-investigated-over-rp-1t-bank-transactions.html

3) Police officer investigated over Rp 1t bank transactions

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Paper Edition | Page: 5
The Papua Police are investigating an officer, identified as Adj. First Insp. LS, for holding a bank account containing more than Rp 1 trillion (US$102 million), which is allegedly linked to illegal logging and fuel smuggling.

LS is believed to be Labora Sitorus, an officer at the Sorong police precinct in West Papua.

Papua Police chief spokesman Sr. Comr. I Gede Sumerta Jaya said that the bank account contained Rp 1.2 trillion, while National Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Agus Rianto said the total was Rp 1.5 trillion.

“On direct orders from the Papua Police chief, the police member has been immediately examined in connection with funds amounting to Rp 1.2 trillion kept in his bank account,” said Sumerta in Jayapura on Wednesday.

The police are investigating after receiving a report from the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (PPATK) related to the officer’s bank transactions between 2007 and 2012.

Sumerta said LS had invested in a number of companies, such as in the fuel, timber and entertainment businesses.

Prior to the report by the PPATK, the Papua Police internal affairs division examined LS in connection with the seizure of 1 million liters of diesel fuel off Sorong a few months ago and 15 containers filled with timber, currently impounded at Tanjung Perak Port in Surabaya, East Java.

“According to his confession, he owned shares in the illegal fuel trading company in Sorong as well as the timber company, the contraband of which is currently being impounded at Tanjung Perak Port,” said Sumerta.

LS has surrendered evidence in the form of share certificates in a number of companies.

Sumerta added the Rp 1.2 trillion in funds was the accumulated value of transactions from 2007 to 2012.

With the rank of Adj. First Insp., LS receives a monthly net salary of Rp 8 million.

“LS has banking financial transactions of around Rp 1.2 trillion, but the transactions were carried out over time. His final balance is still being calculated,” he said.

LS, added Sumerta, was examined as a witness, but could likely end up a suspect if he obtained the funds from illegal businesses. A police officer, said Sumerta, was not forbidden from doing business, but would be dealt with for being involved in illicit business.

Meanwhile, Agus Rianto said on Wednesday that the National Police would make their best efforts to solve the case concerning the force’s top brass.

“The National Police will assist and back up the investigation conducted by the Papua Police, considering that this case has caught the attention of our leaders,” he said.

Agus said despite the investigation, LS was still serving under the Sorong Police.

“We’re investigating based on applicable regulations. We cannot judge whether someone is guilty without legal grounds,” he said.

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