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Letter to President Yudhoyono on events in Jayapura

Tapol - March 17, 2006

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
Istana Negara, Jakarta
Fax: 00 6221 385-5481

17 March, 2006

Dear Mr President,

We have followed with great alarm the events in Jayapura yesterday.

We regret that three officers of the Police Force and a member of the Indonesia air force lost their lives during the disturbances. Reports also make it clear that many people have been injured both among the students who were involved in the demonstration and among the security forces. In addition, a number of people have been arrested and are now in police custody.

Reports today speak of members of the police force firing on student dormitories and dragging Papuans from cars in an attempt to intimidate the students and ensure that they would not continue with their protests.

Brimob troops are also conducting sweepings in the streets, apparently in their search for persons who may have been involved in yesterday's demonstration.

From the reports reaching us, it would seem that the Indonesian police, in their attempts to remove barricades set up by demonstrators yesterday, used excessive force against the students, including shooting firearms and spraying tear gas, in order to clear the road leading from Cendrawasih University in Abepura. This appears to have been the factor which resulted in the demonstrators responding with stone-throwing and other forms of violence that resulted in the regrettable loss of life.

For several months, we have followed the mounting anger among West Papuans about the activities of the Freeport mine. Last month, people living in the vicinity of the mine were prevented from prospecting for remnants of gold left in the tailings deposited by the mine. This only highlighted the gross discrepancies between the huge profits enjoyed by the company and the inability of local inhabitants to make some profit from a natural resource that they regard as being rightfully theirs.

In a statement yesterday, you insisted, in response to demands for the company to be closed down, that Freeport would not be closed down because of the harmful effects on the national economy. However, we believe that your government should recognise the need for the contract with Freeport to be re-negotiated and recognise that representatives of the Papuan people should be involved in the negotiations.

All this has occurred at a time when your government has imposed tight restrictions on access to the territory by foreign journalists and freedom of movement for local NGOs.

Students in West Papua should not be denied their right to engage in legitimate protest and hold demonstrations to make demands to the authorities about the governance of what they regard as their homeland.

We believe that there is an immediate need for:

1. The removal of all arbitrary restrictions on access to West Papua for all journalists, whether Indonesian or foreign, and for non-governmental organisations.

2. The immediate establishment of an independent commission to be set up by the National Commission on Human Rights in collaboration with Indonesian human rights non-governmental organisations, to investigate the causes of yesterday's events which should be instructed to report within one month.

3. The commission's report should be made public without reservation.

4. The cases of all persons now under arrest should be speedily processed and they should be allowed immediate access to a lawyer and either charged or released.

We make these demands in the conviction that such actions by your government will help to calm the situation in West Papua and safeguard the legitimate rights of West Papuans to give expression to their concerns.

Yours sincerely,

Carmel Budiardjo

TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign
111 Northwood Road
Thornton Heath
Croydon CR7 8HW, UK.

Tel +44 (0)20 8771 2904
Fax +44 (0)20 8653 0322
tapol@gn.apc.org
http://tapol.gn.apc.org

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