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Increasing tensions in West Papua
The Australia West Papua Association (Sydney) Media Release - April 16, 2009
AWPA is calling on the Australian Foreign minister to raise the continuing deteriorating situation in West Papua with the Indonesian President and urge him in particular to control the security forces in West Papua as a way of avoiding further escalation of the situation and avoiding possible bloodshed.
Joe Collins of AWPA said that recent incidents in West Papua including the ambush on Wednesday the 15 April in which a policeman was killed and six others wounded by an unidentified group in Tingginambut in the Puncak Jaya district of West Papua "may have been instigated by third parties out to disrupt the Presidential election as the Indonesian President’s talk of reform is not welcome by all members of the security forces".
Letter to Australian Foreign Minister below.
For more information contact Joe Collins on 04077 857 97
Australia West Papua Association,
Sydney
PO Box 28, Spit Junction,
Sydney, Australia 2088
Ph/fax 61.2.99601698 email:
bunyip@bigpond.net.au
The Hon Stephen Smith MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra
ACT 2600
16 April 2009
Dear Mr Smith,
Since writing to you on the 5 April 2009 concerning the increasing tensions in West Papua, the situation is deteriorating further.
On Wednesday the 15 April a policeman was killed and six others wounded when they were ambushed by an unidentified group in Tingginambut in the Puncak Jaya district of West Papua. This incident is the latest in a series of attacks which have occurred in the region.
On Tuesday night a room in the office of the Provincial Elections Commission, or KPUD, in Jayapura caught fire. Hasyim Sangaji, a KPUD member, said that although the cause of the fire had not yet been determined, four people who were in the office when the fire began at 10 p.m. said they heard “something that sounded like an explosion before they saw the flames.”
There have also been reports concerning a clash in the border area between West Papua and PNG. According to the Post Courier (PNG) 14/4/09, eleven people were killed “six of them Indonesian soldiers and five pro-West Papuan separatists – in a bloody fight at the border of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea on Easter eve”.
AWPA is concerned that a number of these incidents have been instigated by militia groups to give the military an excuse to crack down on so called separatists. While some police officers have tried to blame the recent attacks on the OPM, Free Papua Movement, the National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri was quoted in the Jakarta Post (14 April 2009) as saying “they were merely "a group of armed men violating the laws", and firm action should be taken against them.
AWPA is concerned that these incidents have been created by third parties out to distrupt the Presidential election as the Indonesian President’s talk of reform is not welcome by all members of the security forces.
It should always be remembered that it is in the interest of the military to provoke conflict in West Papua in order to prove that they are needed to maintain law and order and control so called separatists groups. The Indonesian military receive approximately 30% of their budget from the government and must raise the rest themselves. Much of this is done through illegal means such as illegal logging, mining and offering to provide so called security to international companies such as the Freeport copper and gold mine.
AWPA urges you to use your good offices with the Indonesian Government to raise the continuing deteriorating situation in West Papua with the Indonesian President and urge him to in particular to control the security forces in West Papua as a way of avoiding further escalation of the situation and avoiding possible bloodshed.
Yours sincerely
Joe Collins
Secretary
AWPA (Sydney)
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