West
Papua: 'Open up' global plea to Joko for journalists, rights groups
Pacific Media
Centre - April 29, 2015
London (Tapol/Pacific
Media Watch) – The London-based human rights organisation Tapol is today
launching a global appeal to President Joko Widodo for "free and open access"
for international journalists, humanitarian groups and human rights observers
in the Melanesian Pacific provinces of Papua and West Papua.
More than 50 organisations
are co-signatories to a letter being sent to the president, including Green
MP Catherine Delahunty, Pacific Media Centre and West Papua Action Auckland
and West Papua Action Canterbury from New Zealand.
Global signatories
include the Asian Human Rights Commission, Article 19, Minority Rights
Group International and Reporters Without Borders.
Tapol and supporting
groups are staging an #OpenPapua protest outside the Indonesian Embassy
in London today.
The letter from
Tapol coordinator Esther Cann says that "for more than 50 years, access
for foreign journalists seeking to report on Papua has been severely restricted".
The plea calls
for the president to:
-
Take steps to end
violence and intimidation against journalists in West Papua, investigate
allegations of violence, and prosecute those suspected of involvement.
-
Remove all restrictions
on visits by foreign journalists to West Papua, and on freedom of movement
within Papua, including the system by which visa applications are vetted
by a clearing house of government departments.
-
Provide access for
international humanitarian and human rights organisations to conduct their
work, without fear of restriction, harassment or arrest and in accordance
with international human rights standards.
-
Allow free and unrestricted
access for all UN Special Rapporteurs wishing to visit and report on Papua.
Tourist visas
"Those who have
entered Papua on tourist visas have been deported, arrested and even imprisoned,"
says the letter.
"Just last year,
two French journalists were sentenced to 11 weeks in detention under immigration
charges. They had travelled to the Papuan Highlands to report on an ongoing
conflict between the Indonesian military and pro-independence armed movements."
According to the
Jayapura branch of Indonesia's Alliance of Independent Journalists (Aliansi
Jurnalis Independen, AJI), said the letter, in recent years journalists
from Czech Republic, France and the Netherlands had been deported for reporting
on peaceful political events in Papua.
At the local level,
violence and intimidation of national and local journalists made independent
journalism a high-risk activity.
The letter cites
several examples:
-
On 30 July 2010,
journalist Ardiansyah Matra'is was found dead after receiving repeated
threats from the military while he investigated illegal logging.
-
On 24 August 2010,
Musa Kondorura of radio KBR68H was attacked by two agents from the State
Intelligence Agency (Badan Intelijens Negara, BIN).
-
On 3 March 2011 Banjir
Ambarita, a journalist with the Jakarta Globe and Bintang Papua was attacked
and stabbed after reporting on a police rape case which resulted in the
resignation of senior police official Imam Setiawan.
-
In 2011, AJI reportedly
recorded 7 cases of violence and intimidation against journalists.
-
In 2012 the number
of recorded cases reportedly rose to 12.
-
In July 2013 the
house of a local journalist for Majalah Selengkah, a critical independent
news site, was raided by unknown persons who ransacked the place and removed
a notebook.
"There are ongoing
reports of serious human rights violations including torture, enforced
disappearances, murder, ill-treatment, cruel or degrading treatment, excessive
use of force and arbitrary arrest of indigenous Papuans by Indonesian security
forces," the letter says.
Source: http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/pacific-media-watch/west-papua-open-global-plea-joko-journalists-rights-groups-9246.
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