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)
May 15, 2013 --
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.)
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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.
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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.
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The Department of
State’s failure to acknowledge this fundamental
violation of Papuan economic, social and cultural
rights renders this annual report incomplete.
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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
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"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.
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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 often
illegal 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.
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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.
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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:
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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.
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"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
West Papua Advocacy Team Urges
Unrestricted Visit
by UN Special
Rapporteur
U.S.-Indonesia
Security Assistance
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criticizing the administration's
reluctance to address ongoing
human rights violations and
escalating oppression in West
Papua and against religious
minorities throughout
Indonesia."
Noam Chomsky
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