Monday, July 8, 2013

1) Ban on Papua Magazine, Attempt to Block the Press?


1) Ban on Papua Magazine, Attempt to Block the Press?
2) Freeport Questions Contract Fate
3) Freeport Can Soon Get Back to Business
4) The case of Andinus Karoba
5) Socratez Yoman: 'Why didn't the Papuan leaders say anything?'



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http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2013/07/08/055494509/Ban-on-Papua-Magazine-Attempt-to-Block-the-Press

MONDAY, 08 JULY, 2013 | 18:07 WIB
1) Ban on Papua Magazine, Attempt to Block the Press?
TEMPO.COJakarta - The Press Council says the ban on the first edition of Papua’s Pelita Pelita Magazine is considered as an attempt to block the press. 
"If the police really did come and prohibit the distribution of information, that is a form of blocking the press," Press Council member Imam Wahdyudi told Tempo on Sunday. 
Imam said that according to Press Law No. 40/1999, blocking the press is defined as the forceful or unlawful prohibition of publishing, distributing and/or broadcast of information. 
Imam also said that that freedom of the press is clearly regulated in the law and 1945 Constitution, and is a guaranteed right of the people. 
"Basically, if the police do not approve the contents of the publication, they can report it to the press council," he said. Imam criticized the police for immediately going to the publisher’s printing office and prohibiting the sale of the magazine. 
On Wednesday, July 3, after just days of the distribution of its first edition, Pelita Papua magazine encountered problems with the police last Wednesday for portraying the symbol of the Free Papua Movement on its cover. Police arrived at the printing office in Jayapura and asked the magazine to stop distributing. Officers also confiscated a few magazines and took them back to the police station to analyze. 
The first edition of the magazine covers the issue of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) office in England. There is also an article about the opinions of some figures regarding the movement. Fidelis Jeminta, chief editor of Pelita Papua, said this was ordinary news with no large hidden agenda behind it. He is disappointed at the police for randomly banning the distribution of his magazine. 
Papua Police Chief Sr. Comr. I Gede Sumerta Jaya said that published material about Papua’s freedom or anything that can incite violence is prohibited. He denied allegations that the police revoked the magazine’s license.  ALI AKHMAD

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http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2013/07/09/056494600/Freeport-Questions-Contract-Fate
TUESDAY, 09 JULY, 2013 | 00:02 WIB
2) Freeport Questions Contract Fate
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Rozik Sutjipto, President Director of Freeport Indonesia, asked the government to complete the company's contract of Works (CoW) renegotiation in the next three months. "This is important to determine the fate of our contract's continuation," Rozik said at the House of Representatives building last weekend.
Rozik is asking the government for a contract extension until 2041, related to the company's plan to dig underground. To date, Freeport's only covers 30 percent of its digging activity underground. In the future, all digging activities would be held underground since the company's surface mineral reserves will be depleted by 2016. The company had found new sources of ore amounting to 2.5 billion tons.
"Of the amount, 87 percent is located underground."
With the potential, Freeport will spend US$9.8 billion worth of investment. According Rozik, the funds will be used to build a 1,000-kilometer underground tunnel which will be completed in 2020, one year before the CoW expires.
"We are asking for a contract extension because the underground minerals would last until 2057," he said.
Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa said the government is trying to finish discussing the contract with Freeport. According to him, Freeport still has the chance to extend its contract even though the company's smelter construction will not be completed in 2014--in accordance with the deadline set by the government.
 
ANGGA SUKMA WIJAYA

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http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/freeport-can-soon-get-back-to-business/

3) Freeport Can Soon Get Back to Business


Freeport Indonesia may be able to resume its underground mining operations by the end of this week, according to a government announcement that follows an investigation that ended with a favorable result for the company.
The government had tasked a special team to look into two deadly mining accidents that took place in May at the Papua mine site of the company, a subsidiary of US-based Freeport McMoRan.
Thamrin Sihite, director general of minerals and coal at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, said the independent team behind the investigation had recommended that Freeport be allowed to return to work at its underground mine. But the ministry was still weighing certain permits issues.
“We have many considerations, not only the results of the independent evaluation team and mine inspectors,” Thamrin said last week. “Hopefully [this] week they will be allowed [to resume].”
Thamrin said there were several requirements to be met in order for Freeport to resume its operations underground, including the need for detection tools in all ​​underground tunnels.
Separately, Siswoutomo Susilo, the deputy minister for energy and mineral resources, said the government needed assurance that Freeport was operating according to best practices, pointing to the issue of detection devices throughout the mine, including in training areas.
“This is to avoid what happened at Big Gossan,” Siswoutomo said, referring to an accident-hit site within Freeport’s Grasberg mine. “We can’t have any more collapses [like that].”
Chairman of the investigation team, Ridho Wattimena, a professor of mining engineering at the Bandung Institute of Technology, said Freeport is implementing several recommendations his team made, which include operational and managerial steps intended to guarantee the stability of the underground mine.
A major cave-in destroyed a training facility located underground at Big Gossan, in Timika, on May 14. It buried 38 employees who were attending a training lesson at the facility.
By the time evacuation work concluded on May 21, a total of 10 injured people had been rescued. However, 28 others were found dead in the rubble.
After the incident, Freeport halted both its open pit mine and underground mine operations.
Two weeks later, after the first accident, a truck driver was buried by sludge when a tunnel collapsed at Freeport’s deep ore mining zone.
According to a company statement, the stoppage has resulted in losses of 80 million pounds of copper and 80,000 ounces of gold.
It will book losses of 3 million pounds of copper and 3,000 ounces of gold a day until operations resume.
Freeport declared force majeure on shipments on June 12 to avoid third-party liability due to events beyond its control.
Activities restarted at the Grasberg Mine on June 22 and Freeport said last week that surface mining production had returned to the level of 140,000 daily tons. Freeport Indonesia normally produces 220,000 tons of ore per day.



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from tapol
4) The case of Andinus Karoba

CHRONOLOGY

Andinus Karoba was born on 18 March 1990. He is a Protestant. He has not yet completed his  lower school education. He lives in North Jayapura and describes himself as a Papuan activist.

On 10 October 2012 at around 6pm, he went out for a stroll and walked past the Paulus GKI church. He was sitting near a stall and was chewing nuts when an avanza vehicle stopped beside him. A police intel officer from Polresta Jayapura got out, grabbed hold of his shirt and asked him whether his name was Andinus Karoba. He said, yes that's my name and without saying anything more the police officer forced him into a Polresta  truck with his hands and legs in handcuffs..While they were driving to Polresta, Andinus was shot  three times, twice in his leg, on his thigh and calf, and once in the groin.

During the two months that he was held at Polresta Jayapura, he was never able to get the medical  treatment he needed and he was in constant pain. The police refused to allow his family to visit him.

He says that although his arrest was not about whether he had stolen anything or had attacked anyone's home, stealing was the excuse used by the police for his arrest. He had been a target for a long time because he said that his whole family took part in a mass evacuation from Wamena to Papua New Guinea following a series of brutal killings by the Indonesian military. Subsequently, he goes on:: 'I went back and forth from West Papua to Papua New Guinea while my parents were accused of being members of the OPM. I was also under suspicion

'At the place where I stayed on the street, near the Bahari Valley Dok V above the district of North Jayapura,, there were people  who were always spying on me wherever I went. I know who it was. It was someone who had been set up by the police, but I wasn't bothered about this  because I had done nothing against the security forces of any unit.

'However, on 10 October 2012, as I was sitting eating nuts, someone came and sat beside me and quietly made contact with the police. Soon afterwards, the police came and arrested me.

'They took me to Polresta Jayapura where I was interrogated not about any thefts but about the struggle of the Papuan people and all its networks. I repeatedly said that I knew nothing, that I was just a kid  and didn't know anything about that struggle. The interrogator got very agitated because there was no evidence.And because I had been shot and paralysed,the police decided to make charges against me under the criminal code and for theft. There was not an iota of truth in all this. But I was unable to do anything because I  did not have a lawyer. All this went on until I was found guilty and sentenced to one year and ten months.

Throughout the trial, I was held at Polresta Jayapura. After being sentenced, I was handed over to the Class IIA Prison Abepura. I am now serving the sentence.

Photos of Police Violence:

[Attached to the statement are several photographs of the wounds on his legs.]

[Translated by TAPOL]

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5) Socratez Yoman: 'Why didn't the Papuan leaders say anything?'

Bintang Papua 8 July, 2013

Socratez: Why did Papuan Leaders say nothing?

Jayapura: Socratez Yoman, the Papuan church leader from the Central Highlands who is also the chairman of the Alliance of Baptist Churches of Papua (PGBP) said, following a meeting between the Dutch Ambassador, Tjeerd De Zwaan, and community leaders, traditional leaders, religious leaders and representatives of the youth , on which occasion the Ambassador said that he was hoping to get an answer to his question about the implementation of OTSUS-Plus but no Papuan leaders at the meeting came forward to answer this query from the Ambassador.

He therefore wondered why the leaders who were present at the forum said nothing and did not answer the  Ambassador .

'Is it because  they don't know what is happening in Papua or  is, as it seems to me, because they are too afraid to say anything?

In his opinion, the Papuans who were present at the meeting should have answered the question. They should have given an explanation about the real circumstances in Papua and should not have remained silent.

The fact that they remained silent led Socratez, who is known for being very vocal, to wonder whether the Papuan leaders have been rendered silent by the cunning tricks of the Indonesian Government? Is this a case of the lack of of freedom of expression and the death of democracy in Papua?

He said in a statement to Bintang Papua: 'This is a big problem for me with regard to the question which was posed by the Dutch Ambassador which no one answered.'

He said that in his opinion,community leaders and traditional leaders in Papua should come forward with the facts in Papua when speaking to the Dutch Ambassador or when making statements to the international community.

He went on to say that  people who are regarded as being community leaders should have the moral courage to fight for the problems being confronted by the community at present and in the future. They should not keep silent because these problems are not being talked about by the authorities in this country. 'It's okay if you keep silent  here on earth but in the afterlife  that will not be possible because you will be held responsible until the end of time.'

[Translated by TAPOL]

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