The Conflict in West Papua — a Papuan perspective

John Rumbiak is the Supervisor of West Papua's leading human 
rights NGO, the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy 
(ELSHAM). Earlier this month he addressed the Committee on 
Development and Co-operation Human Rights Working Group of the 
European Parliament in Brussels. He called on the EU and its 
member states to support peace efforts in West Papua and to 
review their bilateral relations with the Indonesian military 
(TNI) in light of the continuing oppression being carried on by 
those forces against the Indigenous Papuans.

The following is a shortened version of his comments.

I am here today speaking on behalf of ELSHAM and other sectors of 
civil society in Papua and as a native-born Papuan who has 
experienced first hand the nature of the ongoing conflict in 
Papua.

The conflict in Papua, which has claimed an estimated 100,000 
lives, is as old as I am and stems from the now-discredited 
process by which the United Nations brokered the transfer of 
sovereignty over Papua (then Netherlands New Guinea) from Dutch 
colonial administration to Indonesian control.

That denial of the Papuan people's right to self-determination 
and the policies and practices of the Indonesian authorities have 
spawned the conflict, which is now entering its fifth decade.

As we speak this afternoon, the opportunities to resolve this 
conflict, in which so many people have been harmed, has reached a 
crucial moment. The future hangs in the balance as the people of 
Papua have come together in support of a peaceful solution and a 
path of dialogue and non-violence while the Indonesian military 
and central government escalate their engagement in destabilising 
actions that undermine peace and human security in Papua.

Background

Papua, together with the independent nation state of Papua New 
Guinea on the island's eastern half, is the planet's most 
culturally and biologically diverse place. Our island is home to 
1,000 different language groups (one-fourth of the world's 
total), with 250 of these located within Papua's borders. Since 
its incorporation by Indonesia, Papua's cultural and ethnic make-
up has shifted dramatically. Papua's indigenous population of 
nearly 1.5 million people now share the territory with some 
775,000 Indonesian migrants.

Indigenous Papuans are predominantly Christian and racially 
Melanesian, while the new arrivals are predominantly Muslim and 
of Asian descent. Hundreds of thousands of the migrants have been 
sponsored by the Indonesian government's transmigration program.

During the past four decades of Indonesian "integration," 
indigenous Papuans have experienced all forms of discrimination, 
human rights abuses, environmental destruction and political 
oppression.

Under the regime of General, then President, Suharto, the 
Indonesian military designated Papua along with Aceh and the now-
independent nation of East Timor as military operations areas, 
meaning that unlike other Indonesian provinces, travel to and 
within Papua requires special authorisation. Indeed, the 
Indonesian authorities have just put a ban on tourist travel to 
Papua, accusing foreigners of instigating so-called separatism in 
the territory.

As noted by the European Union, the United Nations, other 
governments, and non-governmental organisations such as Amnesty 
International, the Indonesian military, operating with impunity, 
has carried out numerous operations in Papua, resulting in 
widespread human rights violations. The Indonesian military has 
killed, wounded, raped, robbed, tortured, kidnapped, illegally 
detained and/or destroyed the property and livelihoods of tens of 
thousands of indigenous Papuans.

Increased militarism and repression

At this stage in our history, the Papuan people face increased 
militarism and repression and are a dispossessed and marginalised 
people in our own land. According to researchers, if current 
demographic and health trends continue, without intervention, 
indigenous Papuans face extinction as a distinct population 
within the next 25 years.

The size of France, Papua has the largest contiguous expanse of 
tropical rainforest outside of the Amazon and the largest number 
of endemic species anywhere on earth. Its snow-capped mountains 
boasting some of the world's last remaining tropical glaciers are 
the highest between the Himalayas and the Andes and are rich in 
deposits of gold and copper, mined by US-based Freeport McMoRan, 
Inc. Reserves of natural gas and oil elsewhere within the 
territory are exploited by other transnational corporations, 
including UK-based BP.

The Indonesian military, which is known by its acronym TNI, also 
has extensive financial interests in Papua. As you may know, 
roughly one third of the military's operational budget is covered 
by the Indonesian government, with the remaining two thirds is 
raised by the military itself using a number of legal and illegal 
methods, including "protection money" from transnational 
companies, illegal logging, and trafficking in stolen goods and 
endangered species. Papua-based interests represent a major 
source of income for the military in meeting its budget deficit.

These facts are crucial to any analysis of the TNI's actions in 
Papua and of the Indonesian government's approach to Papua. They 
also partially explain why the TNI has rejected democratic reform 
efforts to eliminate the military 's territorial command 
structure, which comprises a nationwide network of military posts 
down to the village level and which ensures the financial 
interests of the TNI, and why, at the same time, the TNI has 
promoted the division of Papua into three separate provinces.

New Developments

The [Indonesian] push to "resolve" the conflict in Papua is part 
of an overall TNI strategy to consolidate the military's upper-
hand in Indonesia's 2004 national elections and to re-assert the 
military's dominance in Indonesia's political and economic life. 
An Indonesian military intelligence operation is now underway. 
Examples of actions designed to destabilise Papua and cement the 
TNI's presence and power there include:

* The November 2001 assassination by Indonesian Special Forces 
personnel of Papuan Presidium Council Chairman Theys Eluay, a 
moderate and respected Papuan community leader who was committed 
to peaceful resolution of the conflict.

* The formation in Papua, with support from the Indonesian 
military, of armed, East Timor-style, pro-Jakarta militias and 
the introduction there of the violent Islamic Laskar Jihad 
militia.

* The use of Special Forces (Kopassus) troops to conduct an 
extensive sweep operation in Papua's Central Highlands following 
a deadly weapons heist at a military post in April 2003.

* TNI personnel themselves have now been charged with carrying 
out the heist. (The military teams, which included the army's 
Rapid Reaction troops (Kostrad), burned five villages to the 
ground, targeting the homes of inhabitants as well as schools, 
medical centres and teachers' homes, and killed villagers' 
livestock. This military operation displaced more than one 
thousand civilians who fled to the forest for safety, in 
isolation from food, shelter and the assistance of humanitarian 
organizations.)

* The championing by the TNI and intelligence agency of 
Presidential Instruction (1/2003) which violates the 1999 Special 
Autonomy Law for Papua by ordering, unilaterally and without the 
consent of Papua's people, the division of Papua into three 
separate provinces, each with its own military command structure.

* Intensifying threats and intimidation directed at human rights 
defenders from ELSHAM and other organisations; and

* The recent statement of Papua's Police Chief Inspector General 
Budi Utomo that his personnel are searching for five people from 
Indonesia's intelligence agency and internal affairs ministry who 
police suspect of instigating an August 2003 conflict in Timika 
in which five civilians were killed.

At the same time, senior officials from the TNI and President 
Megawati Sukarnoputri's administration have made explicit 
statements that soldiers who have carried out human rights 
violations are "heroes" and that respect for human rights must be 
sacrificed in order to preserve Indonesia's "territorial 
integrity".

The presidential order for the division of Papua, the de facto 
abrogation of the Special Autonomy Law for Papua, and the closing 
of avenues for dialogue with Papuans are the key destabilising 
actions by Megawati's administration. Her government, guided by 
the TNI, appears ready to reject a non-violent process of 
conflict resolution altogether.

Zone of peace

The concerns of Papuans about the escalating threat of an 
Indonesian military crackdown and militia violence have led civil 
society groups, including Papua's three major Christian churches, 
to pursue urgently an initiative on conflict resolution. The 
groups set up a Peace Task Force in July 2002, inviting 
Indonesian civil and military authorities as well as Papuan bush 
fighter leaders to enter a dialogue to establish Papua as a Zone 
of Peace.

The culmination of the first stage of the Zone of Peace process 
was a conference on peace for Papua, co-sponsored by Papua's 
governor, police chief and the provincial parliament together 
with ELSHAM and other civil society groups, and held in October 
2002.

Major General Mahidin Simbolon, then-regional commander of the 
Indonesian military in Papua, was the only official who refused 
to participate in the initiative (Simbolon's successor in Papua 
as well as Indonesian Armed Forces chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto 
and other high-ranking central government personnel have taken 
the same position of non-cooperation with the Zone of Peace 
initiative).

A major outcome of the October 2002 peace conference was the 
decision of conference participants that civil society groups in 
Papua should establish a Peace Commission. The Peace Commission's 
mandate is to engage in: 1) conflict prevention; 2) promotion of 
dialogue; and 3) popular education to promote Papua as a "Zone of 
Peace." Through its peace-building desk, ELSHAM currently serves 
as the coordinating institution for the commission's work.

The work of the commission has included a September 8, 2003, 
media conference at which representatives from a variety of 
social sectors — migrants, Hindus, Moslems, Buddhists, 
Christians, students, etc. — called for peaceful dialogue as a 
means of conflict resolution for Papua. The team has also held a 
conference on "Conflict in Papua and the Need for Dialogue" on 
September 19, 2003. The conference was followed by a September 21 
peace march in Jayapura and elsewhere throughout Papua.

At its April 2003 meeting, the European Union's External 
Relations Council called for the EU to actively promote peaceful 
solutions to conflicts such as that in Papua.

While these policy positions are helpful, the situation in Papua 
is of an urgent and serious nature and demands concerted, 
concrete steps by the European Union and other members of the 
international community to address it.

Efforts by the United States and Australia to strengthen their 
bilateral relationships with the TNI instead of prioritising 
effective diplomacy aimed at stopping the serious human rights 
violations occurring in Papua only undercut chances for a 
peaceful solution.