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West Papua: Land of peace or the Indonesian military's new number one killing field?

Free West Papua Campaign - April 5, 2005

Mr. Eddy Pratomo
Deputy Chief of Missiom
Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia

Dear Sir,

During the 2004 presidential election campaign and in the first few months of his presidency, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) spoke positively of seeking to resolve the long running conflict in West Papua by peaceful negotiation rather than the military force employed by his predecessors, presidents Megawati and Suharto.

As you may be aware, Papuan political and religious leaders have also declared their willingness to enter into all-inclusive dialogue and their strong desire to see Papua established as a "Land of Peace". Ever since the 2nd Papuan Congress, held in Jayapura in 2000, all shades of Papuan opinion have been united in seeking to pursue their political objectives by purely peaceful democratic means. To borrow a phrase from our own Northern Ireland peace process, they have sought to "take the gun out of Papuan politics".

Very disappointingly, however, during this first six months of SBY's term of office, West Papua has been anything but a "Land of Peace". In fact, Papua is becoming increasingly the Indonesian military's new number one battle-field.

Far from being a time of peace-making through negotiation, the past months under SBY have seen an explosion of violence committed by the Indonesian military against innocent Papuan civilians in the Central Highlands.

KOPASSUS Special Forces are currently engaged in operations across the region which can only be described as "ethnic-cleansing"; shooting civilians, burning villages and forcing thousands of Papuan men, women and children to flee for their lives into the jungle, where many are now dying of starvation and exposure.

The new "democratic" Indonesia is ensuring that the gun is still very much in use as its instrument of choice for pursuing its intention of grasping hold of West Papuab& even if it means using force to block the democratic will of the indigenous Papuan people. General Suharto must be proud of his protege, General Yudhoyono.

Now in recent weeks, Indonesia has announced that it intends to add even more guns to its Papuan arsenal. On a number of occasions, the Indonesian military commander in Papua, Major-General Nurdin Zainal, has said that there are no more than 100 armed OPM (Free Papua Movement) fighters in the whole of Papua and that they are armed with a few weapons that they have seized from police and the army. In response, Indonesia is set to double the size of its forces in West Papua to a staggering 50,000 troops.

As if KOPPASUS (Special Forces) and BRIMOB (Mobile Police Brigades) are not already more than sufficient to pursue Indonesia's policy of attacking unarmed Papuan civilians with automatic rifles fired from helicopter gun-ships, now a new elite 15,000 strong KOSTRAD (Strategic Reserve Command) division is to be established in West Papua, consisting of two infantry brigades, one airborne brigade (attack helicopter task force) and one armoured combat support group (tanks). KOSTRAD forces spear-headed the invasion of East Timor in 1975, now they are heading for West Papua.

All this military proliferation will come at a huge financial cost to a nation struggling to recover from economic recession and the devastating Boxing Day tsunami and Nias Island earthquake. At the same time as President Yudhoyono was gratefully receiving a $ 1 billion Australian dollar (UKB#411 million) tsunami relief aid package from Australian Prime Minister John Howard, his Ministry of Defence was announcing a 5 trillion rupiah (UKB# 287 million) increase in the 2005 defence spending from the current 21.6 trillion rupiah (1.2 billion pound) annual defence budget -- spent by a developing country with no external military threats.

The question must be asked: What is the new "democratic" Indonesia's priority; continuing "reformasi", peace-making in West Papua and Aceh and rebuilding after economic and natural disaster, or turning back the clock to the worst of Suharto's "New Order" military oppression? Will West Papua be allowed to develop into a "Land of Peace" or will the Indonesian military be allowed to turn it into its new number one money-making enterprise and killing-field?

The World is watching.

Yours faithfully, Richard Samuelson On behalf of Free West Papua Campaign Oxford, England

cc Rt Hon Jack Straw MP Foreign Secretary
Rt Hon Andrew Smith MP (Oxford East)

Appendix:

The Free West Papua Campaign calls on the Republic of Indonesia:

1) To cease military operations in the highlands of West Papua immediately, withdraw all troops to barracks and allow civilians to return to their homes.

2) To allow unrestricted access to journalists, aid agencies and human rights observers to all regions of West Papua.

3) To cancel the plans for a military build up in West Papua and instead reduce tensions by a planned reduction of Indonesia's military presence in West Papua.

4) To start all-inclusive dialogue with Papuan representatives to seek a peaceful negotiated resolution to the conflict in West Papua.

Richard Samuelson
Free West Papua Campaign Oxford, England
 

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