The Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-WP) and the Papuan Student Alliance (AMP) have denounced the Rome Agreement of 30 September 1962 as “illegal” during protest speeches marking the 61st anniversary last Saturday.

The groups gathered at several places throughout Indonesia to hold peaceful protests and speeches.

The protesters held a public discussion and protest in Yogyakarta, Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, Ternate, East Java and North Maluku.

Some protesters were met by hardliner groups of Indonesians who claimed they were supported and protected by the Indonesian police.

The Facebook page of AMP reports that peaceful demonstrations were also scheduled for September 30 in Kupan city but were obstructed by Garuda reactionaries, known as ORMAS (Civic Organisation Group) and police officers.

Some conversations were extremely racist, indicating that both the police and state are still maintaining a policy of racism.

Protests such as these are not unusual. Papuan students and their Indonesian supporters do this annually in order to draw attention to Indonesia’s illegal occupation of West Papua, which violates international law and the UN Charters on self-determination and decolonisation.

This time, the protest was over the Rome Agreement.

In 2021, an attempt to stage a protest in front of the US Embassy in central Jakarta was also made, but 17 AMP Papuan students were arrested.

What the protests are against
These protests across Indonesia may be dismissed by mainstream media as insignificant. But for Papuans, they are actually most significant.

The theme is protesting against what Papuans see as the “genesis” of a betrayal with lies, deceit, and manipulation by powerful international actors that sealed Papua’s fate with Indonesia.

This set a stage of gross human rights violations and exploitation of West Papua’s natural resources, which has been going on since these agreements were signed.

They were treaties, agreements, discussions, and decisions concerning West Papua’s future made by state and multinational actors without Papuan input — ultimately leading to West Papua’s “destruction”.

According to the AMP, the agreement between the Netherlands, Indonesia, the United Nations (UN) and the United States was manipulated to gain control over Papua, reports Suara Kalbar.

The AMP Papuan students and their Indonesian solidarity groups stated that the September 1962 Rome Agreement, followed by the signing of the New York Agreement on August 15, 1962, was reached without the involvement of any representatives of the Papuan people.

The protesters’ highlighted these flaws of the Rome Agreement that:

1. The Act of Free Choice to be delayed or cancelled;
2. “Musyawarah” (a form of Indonesian consensus building) be used rather than one-person-one-vote;
3. The UN report to the UNGA be accepted without debate;
4. Indonesia would rule West Papua for 25 years after 1963;
5. The US could exploit natural resources in partnership with Indonesian state companies; and
6. The US would underwrite an Asian Development Bank grant for US$30 million and guarantee World Bank funds for a transmigration programme beginning in 1977.

The agreement signed by Indonesia, the Netherlands and the United States was a very controversial with 29 articles stipulating the New York agreement, which regulates 3 things, where articles 14-21 regulate self-determination based on the international practice of one person one vote; and articles 12 and 13 governing the transfer of the administration from the United Nations Temporary Executive (UNTEA) to Indonesia.

Thus, this agreement allowed Indonesia’s claim to the land of Papua, which had been carried out after the transfer of control of West Papua from Dutch to Indonesia through UNTEA on 1 May 1963.

West Papua ‘conditioned’
The student protesters argued that prior to 1963 Indonesia had already conditioned West Papua by conducting military operations and suppressing the pro-independence movement, reports Koran Kejora.

Ironically, the protesters say, even before the process of self-determination was carried out on 7 April 1967, Freeport, the state-owned “mining company of American imperialism”, had signed its first contract with Indonesia.

This meant that West Papua had already been claimed by Indonesia through Freeport’s first contract two years before the Act of Free Choice was conducted, reports Koran Kehora.

The Act of Free Choice itself “was a sham”, only 1025 out of 809,337 Papuans with the right to vote had been quarantined or voted, and only 175 of them voiced their opinion, protesters said.

Despite its undemocratic nature, terror, intimidation, manipulation, and gross human rights violations, with the implementation of the Act of Free Choice, Indonesia legitimised its illegal claim to West Papua.

Igin Kogoya, a coordinator for AMP and Indonesian supporters in Malang, said in a media release that Indonesia did not carry out the agreement in accordance with the New York Agreement, reports Jubi.

Instead, Indonesia uses a variety of military operations to condition the region and suppress the independence movement of West Papuans.

“Therefore, before the self-determination process was carried out in 1969, Freeport, the imperialist state-owned mining company of the United States, signed its first contract of work with the Indonesian government illegally on 7 April 1967.”

Early Freeport mine deal
Naldo Wasiage of AMP Lombok and Benjos of FRI-WP Lombok claimed colonial Indonesia had made claims to the West Papua region with Freeport’s first contract two years before the Act of Free Choice was passed.

Today, Indonesia’s reform, terror, intimidation, and incarceration, as well as the shootings and murders of Papuans, still occurring.

The human rights of the Papuan people are insignificant and hold no value for Indonesia.

The Military Operation Area was implemented throughout West Papua before and after the illegal Act of Free Choice. This clearly demonstrates that Indonesia’s desire to colonise West Papua until the present.

When asked about the Rome Agreement, Andrew Johnson, an Australian who has been researching international documents and treaties related to West Papua’s “betrayal”, said:

In order to invest billions of dollars in looting West Papua, Freeport would need assurances that Indonesia would be able to deliver access to the region. A Rome Agreement-type document would provide this assurance.

Victor Yeimo: Unveiling the atrocities
After being released from the Indonesian legal system and prison on 23 September 2023, Victor Yeimo addressed thousands of Papuans in Waena Jayapura by saying:

The Papuan people have long suffered under a dehumanising paradigm, which denies our inalienable rights to be human in our own land.

Yeimo said that the Papuan people in West Papua were systematically excluded from any decision-making processes that shaped their own future.

Jakarta’s oppressive control led to arbitrary policies and laws imposed on West Papuans, disregarding their voices and aspirations. This exclusion highlighted the colonisers’ desire to maintain control and dominance, he said.

The ratification of Special Autonomy, Volume II, serves as an example of Jakarta’s deception. The Papuan People’s Council (MRP), entrusted with representing the special autonomy law, was sidelined, rendering their role meaningless.

Jakarta’s military intervention further emphasised the denial of Papuan rights.

The expansion of five new autonomous provinces in West Papua deepens the marginalisation of indigenous Papuans. This move reinforces the grip of Indonesian colonialism, eroding the cultural identity of the Papuan people.

Jakarta’s tactics, supported by state intelligence and collaboration with local elites, legitimised its oppressive control, Yeimo said.

The state intelligence agency (BIN) in Jakarta manipulated conflict between Papuan groups and tribes to perpetuate hostility and division. By sowing seeds of discord, the colonisers sought to weaken the collective strength of the Papuan people and divert their attention away from their own oppressive actions.

Under Indonesian colonial rule, property, wealth and position held little significance for the Papuan people, Yeimo said.

Relying on hollow promises and pseudo-offers from the oppressors would never lead to justice, welfare, or peace. It was time to reject the deceptive allure of colonialism and focus on reclaiming autonomy and dignity, Yeimo told his people.

Embracing nationalistic ideals was crucial in the Papuan struggle for liberation. Indigenous Papuans must question their own participation in Indonesian colonialism.

Working for the colonisers as bureaucratic elites or bourgeois elites does not uphold their humanity or dignity. It is time to reclaim their autonomy and fight for their freedom.

Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University and who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The Free Papua Organisation (Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM) has sent an open letter to the United Nations leadership demanding that “decolonisation” of the former Dutch colony of West New Guinea, the Indonesian-administered region known across the Pacific as West Papua, be initiated under the direction of the UN Trusteeship Council.

The letter accuses the UN of being a “criminal accessory to the plundering of the ancestral lands” of the Papuans, a Melanesian people with affinity and close ties to many Pacific nations.

According to the OPM leader, chairman-commander Jeffrey Bomanak, West Papuans had been living with the expectation for six decades that the UN would “fulfill the obligations regarding the legal decolonisation of West Papua”.

Alternatively, wrote Bomanak, there had been an expectation that there would be an explanation “to the International Commission of Jurists if there are any legal reasons why these obligations to West Papua cannot be fulfilled”.

The open letter was addressed to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi and Trusteeship Council President Nathalie Estival-Broadhurst.

Bomanak also accused the UN of “gifting” West Papua and Indonesia and the US mining conglomerate Freepost-McMoRan at Grasberg in 1967.

‘Guilty’ over annexation
“The United Nations is guilty of annexing West New Guinea on Sept 21, 1962, as a trust territory which had been concealed by the UN Secretariat from the Trusteeship Council.”

Indonesia has consistently rejected West Papuan demands for self-determination and independence, claiming that its right to sovereignty over the region stems from the so-called Act of Free Choice in 1969.

But many West Papuans groups and critics across the Pacific and internationally reject the legitimacy of this controversial vote when 1025 elders selected by the Indonesian military were coerced into voting “unanimously” in favour of Indonesian rule.

A sporadic armed struggle by the armed wing of OPM and peaceful lobbying for self-determination and independence by other groups, such as the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), have continued since then with persistent allegations of human rights violations with the conflict escalating in recent months.

In 2017, the UN’s Decolonisation Committee refused to accept a petition signed by 1.8 million West Papuans calling for independence, saying West Papua’s cause was outside the committee’s mandate.

“The UN is a criminal accessory to the plundering of our ancestral lands and to the armament exports from member nations to our murderers and assassins — the Indonesian government,” claimed Bomanak in his letter.

“West Papua is not a simple humanitarian dilemma. The real dilemma is the perpetual denial of West Papua’s right to freedom and sovereignty.”

Bomanak alleges that the six-decade struggle for independence has cost more than 500,000 lives.

West Papua case ‘unique’
In a supporting media release by Australian author and human rights advocate Jim Aubrey, he said that the open letter should be read “by anyone who supports international laws and governance and justice that are applied fairly to all people”.

“West Papua’s case for the UN to honour the process of decolonisation is a unique one,” he said.

“Former Secretary General U Thant concealed West Papua’s rights as a UN trust territory for political reasons that benefited the Republic of Indonesia and the American mining company Freeport-McMoRan.

“West Papua was invaded and recolonised by Indonesia. The mining giant Freeport-McMoRan signed their contract to build the Mt Grasberg mine with the mass murderer Suharto in 1967.

“The vote of self-determination in 1969 was, for Suharto and his commercial allies, already a foregone conclusion in 1967.”

Aubrey said that West Papuans were still being “jailed, tortured, raped, assassinated [and] bombed in one of the longest ongoing acts of genocide since the end of the Second World War”.

Western countries accused
He accused Australia, European Union, UK, USA as well as the UN of being “accessories to Indonesia’s illegal invasion and landgrab”.

About Australia’s alleged role, Aubrey said he had called for a Royal Commission to investigate but had not received a reply from Governor-General David Hurley or from Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

PRESS RELEASE

OFFICIAL OPM Press Release 14 September 2023
OPM LEADER ACCUSES UN OF GIFTING WEST PAPUA TO INDONESIA & US MINER FREEPORT-MCMORAN – DEMANDS DECOLONIZATION

Jeffrey P Bomanak accuses United Nations Secretary General António Guterres, General Assembly President Csaba… pic.twitter.com/gggZl3wLyc

— Lewis Prai : West Papuan Diplomat (@PapuaWeb) September 14, 2023

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has laid the foundation stone for a giant smelter belonging to copper and gold mining firm Freeport Indonesia in the East Java town of Gresik.

The smelter is built on 103-hectare land at the Manyar Special Economic Zone at a cost of US$3 billion, according to government data.

Jokowi said the smelter would be able to extract 1.7 tonnes of copper from ores and 6000 tonnes of gold annually.

“The single-line smelter we are going to build will be the biggest in the world because it has a capacity of extracting 1.7 tonnes of copper a year,” the president said in a ceremony to mark the start of the construction.

Freeport Indonesia operates the giant copper and gold mine at Grasberg in Papua.

He added Indonesia had the seventh biggest copper reserves in the world after Chile, Australia, Peru, Russia, Mexico, and the United States.

“Only a few of us have knowledge about this,” he said.

Lack of processing facilities
Jokowi said that despite having mines and mineral reserves, Indonesia could not reap the fullest benefit in the metal industry due to a lack of processing facilities, in comparison to countries like Japan and Spain which have higher value-added components in their manufacturing process.

“That’s why we built the Freeport smelter here in Gresik,” the president said.

The Indonesian government has a 51 percent stake in the local unit of US mining giant Freeport McMoRan.

The construction stage alone is expected to create 40,000 jobs for locals, Jokowi said.

State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir said Freeport Indonesia had been performing well since the government secured a commanding stake on December 21, 2018.

Freeport’s revenues were estimated to more than double from Rp 50 trillion last year, Thohir said.

Soaring global copper prices and increased output in Indonesia would add to the pace of the company’s growth, he added.

“The company booked a net profit of approximately Rp 10 trillion last year and we expect the figures to reach Rp 40 trillion by the end of this year,” Thohir said.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The 4300-km Trans-Papuan Highway costing some US$1.4 billion was supposed to bring “wealth, development and prosperity” to the isolated regions of West Papua.

At least, that’s how the planners and politicians envisaged the highway far away in their Jakarta offices.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo is so enthusiastic about the project as a cornerstone for his infrastructure strategies that he had publicity photographs taken of him on his Kawasaki trail motorbike on the highway.

But that isn’t how West Papuans see The Road.

READ MORE: Indonesia’s development dilemmas – green info gap and budget pressure

In reality, writes Australian journalist John Martinkus in his new book The Road: Uprising in West Papua published today, the highway brings military occupation by Indonesian troops, exploitation by foreign companies, environmental destruction and colonisation by Indonesian transmigrants.

“The road would bring the death of their centuries-old way of life, previously undisturbed aside from the occasional Indonesian military incursion and the mostly welcome arrival of Christian missionaries.

“It was inevitable, really, that the plan by the Indonesian state to develop the isolated interior of the West Papua and Papua provinces would meet resistance.”

Nduga pro-independence stronghold
The Nduga area in the rugged and isolated mountains north of Timika, near the giant Freeport copper and gold mine, has traditionally been a stronghold of pro-independence supporters.

For centuries the Dani and Nduga tribespeople had fought ritualistic battles against each other – and outsiders.

That is, until the Indonesians brought troops and military aircraft to the highlands that “did not play by these rules”.

On 1 December 2018, a ceremony marking the declaration of independence from the Dutch in 1961 by raising the Morning Star flag of a free Papua – as Papuans do every year – ended in bloodshed.

Usually the flag waving – illegal as far the Indonesian authorities are concerned – goes unnoticed. But the highway has now come to this remote village.

Indonesians took photos on their cellphones of the flag raising and this sparked the kidnapping of 19 road construction workers and a soldier (although pro-independence sources argue that many of the workers are in fact soldiers) and they were shot dead.

The Indonesian military have carried out reprisal raids In the 18 months since then forcing some 45,000 people to flee their villages and become internal refugees. Two thousand soldiers, helicopters and 650 commandos are involved in operations and protecting the highway.

‘Helicopters are are the worst’
“It is the helicopters that are the worst. They are used as platforms to shoot or drop white phosphorous grenades or bomblets that inflict horrible injuries on the populace,” writes Martinkus.

The Trans-Papua Highway would realise the boast of the founding Indonesian President Sukarno for a unified nation – “From Sabang to Merauke”, is what he would chant to cheering rallies.

Sabang is in Aceh in the west of the republic and Merauke is in the south-east corner of Papua, just 60 km from the Papua New Guinean border.

The Indonesian generals, not wanting anything to interfere with their highway exploitation plans, have vowed to “crush” the resistance. However, the contemporary Papuan rebels are better armed, better organised and more determined than the earlier rebellion that followed the United Nations mandated, but flawed, “Act of Free Choice” in 1969 when 1026 handpicked men and women voted under duress to become part of Indonesia.

Martinkus, a four-time Walkley Award-nominated investigative journalist specialising in Asia and the Middle East, has travelled to both ends of this highway. He reported in the early 2000s from West Papua until the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan became his major beats.

His book A Dirty Little War exposed the hidden side to the Timor-Leste struggle for independence.

His book traverses the winding down of Dutch rule, early history of Indonesian colonialism in West Papua, the environmental and social devastation caused by the Grasberg mine, the petition to the United Nations, the Nduga crisis, the historic tabling of a 40 kg petition by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua calling for a referendum on independence, the so-called 2019 “monkey” uprising that began as a student clash in the Java city of Surabaya and led to rioting across Papua, and now the coronavirus outbreak.

Tribute to journalists reporting
Martinkus pays tribute to the handful of earlier journalists who have risked much to tell the story that Australian and New Zealand diplomats don’t want to hear and has been denied by Indonesian authorities.

“Eventually in the 1980s and the 90s, writers such George Monbiot ventured into the areas cleared out by the Indonesians [for palm oil plantations and timber]. Robin Osborne also produced a landmark account of that time,” he writes.

“Filmmaker Mark Worth, photojournalist Ben Bohane and ABC-then-SBS reporter Mark Davis continued to try to cover events in West Papua. Lindsay Murdoch of Fairfax provided excellent coverage of the massacre on the island of Biak, off the north coast of Papua.”

As in Timor-Leste, Martinkus recalls, the fall of the Suharto regime in May 1998 provided a “period of confusion among the military commanders on the ground”.

“They didn’t know if they could expel, arrest or kill journalists as they had in the past, and it created an environment where it was finally possible for reporters to get to previously inaccessible places and speak to people.

“The turmoil in Jakarta had created a kind of stasis among the military commanders in the far-flung provinces.”

Nevertheless, the Indonesian military watched and waited – and noted and recorded who the Papuan dissenters were. Who to arrest and kill when political conditions became more helpful.

The Papuan story and gatekeepers
Why has it been so difficult to tell the Papuan story – to get past the media gatekeepers? There are several reasons, according to Martinkus.

First, the daily oppression that West Papuan people face – and have faced for half a century – was of little interest to news editors.

“But it [is] that daily fear, and the casual violence and intimidation, that [is] the story,” says Martinkus.

“For Papuans it [has] become a way of life: constant intimidation and violence and extortion by the Indonesian military, punctuated by short, sharp moments of protest and resistance, followed by the inevitable crackdown.”

Martinkus recalls his experience of when reporting in East Timor, “in order to get a story run you had to have more than 10 dead; the daily grind of one shot there, one beating there, one arrest there, never made it into the press.

“I’ll never forget the cynical words delivered down the phone by one Australian editor after I had wanted a man – a boy, really – shot dead in front of my eyes as I cowered in a ditch to avoid Indonesian gunfire in East Timor.

“’So what are your plucky brown fellows up to today?’ he said. He didn’t run the story.”

‘Cosy relationship’ between Australia, Indonesia
Another factor is the “cosy relationship” between Indonesia and Australia (and New Zealand) and Martinkus describes how this was tested in January 2006 when 43 Papuan asylum seekers beached in Cape York, Queensland. They had sailed for five days from the southern coast of Papua to escape Indonesian “genocide”.

While they were detained on the remote Christmas Island centre for refugees, they were all – except one – eventually granted with a temporary visa.

Another reason for the media silence, according to Martinkus, is the “lingering memory of the Balibo Five” – the Australian-based journalists, including a New Zealander, who met their fate in East Timor in 1975.

“They were killed in cold blood in the border town of Balibo as the Indonesians prepared to invade, and [a sixth executed] at the wharf in Dili on the first day of the invasion.

“The ruthlessness of those killings, the utter disregard of any international norms and the spineless and reprehensible cover up of the circumstances of their deaths by both the Indonesian and Australian governments had spooked the journalists and media organisations.

“If the Indonesians said you couldn’t go to an area, you didn’t go; the assumption was that they would kill you and no one would intervene.”

Martinkus says that “same attitude prevailed” when he began reporting in Indonesia in the mid-1990s.

‘Random killings, endless arrests’
The author is critical of the “centrist” President Widodo who was elected in a landslide in 2014 and for a second term last year on a promise of a more relaxed policy on access to West Papua.

“Six years later, the random killings, endless arrests and egregious torture continue.

“One recent video shows a Papuan man being bound the sliced with a large military knife as Indonesian troops stand around laughing.

“Another shows a Papuan man restrained in a cell as Indonesian soldiers throw in a snake and take pictures of his terror.”

Martinkus questions the cruel rationale for the need of Indonesian soldiers and police to “drip-feed appalling abuses” on social media.

“Is it some kind of warning to Papuans not to support independence, or just a symptom of the moral vacuum they enter once they are deployed to Papua?”

Martinkus believes that, in spite of the bravado and harsh treatments, Indonesians are “fundamentally scared of the Papuans”.

Although Indonesians have been in West Papua for more than 50 years, “West Papua and its people are still very foreign to them.” They have tried to create a society that is a “mirror image of their own in a land they occupied against the wishes of the local population”.

The attempt has failed, and the Papuans will never stop resisting until they are free.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The regent of Mimika in Papua has urged President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to temporarily close a mine in the regency owned by gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia as the number of covid-19 coronavirus cases in the area continues to rise.

“Human lives are at stake here, so we hope the President will close Freeport for a while because covid-19 cases keep increasing there,” said Mimika Regent Eltinus Omaleng.

He said he would send a letter to the President about his appeal, reports The Jakarta Post quoting kompas.com.

READ MORE: The battle for West Papuan independence from Indonesia – Foreign Correspondent

Eltinus said that closing down the mine, located in Tembagapura district, was necessary to contain the spread of the disease because the work environment led to unavoidable crowding, even though Freeport Indonesia had enacted a social distancing policy.

“In Freeport, [the employees] sit together; they go into the mess halls together; they take the bus together; they take the trams together,” he said.

52 mine positive – 1 dead
The company reported last week that 52 of its employees had tested positive for covid-19, one of whom had died.

The Mimika regency had recorded 97 covid-19 cases and three deaths as at last Thursday – the highest in Papua – with 56 of the cases coming from the Tembagapura district alone.

Papua as a whole had recorded 277 confirmed cases as at Saturday, according to the government count.

Papua covid-19 Task Force spokesperson Silwanus Sumule told Antara News Agency that Freeport Indonesia had prepared isolation chambers for its employees. The facility consisted of 600 beds.

In 2018, Freeport Indonesia said it employed about 30,000 workers, with tens of thousands more working as contractors in the mines.

In Indonesia as a whole, 14,265 people were reported infected today with 991 deaths and the numbers were rising.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Johnny Blades, RNZ Pacific’s Melanesian affairs correspondent

A West Papuan church leader has been “invited” by Indonesian police to “clarify” an article he wrote about a shooting incident in which a New Zealander was killed.

The shooting attack, which occurred at the offices of mining giant Freeport in Papua’s Mimika regency on March 30, resulted in the death of Graeme Wall and injuries to several other employees.

A faction of the West Papua Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack, as part of the pro-independence guerilla force’s ongoing campaign to target Freeport’s local operations.

READ MORE: Jailing of Jakarta Six fuels virus fears over Papuan political prisoners

However, the president of the Alliance of West Papuan Baptist Churches, Reverend Socratez Yoman, wrote an article a month ago, published by Majalah Wekonews, which suggested the Indonesian military could have engineered the attack to help its security agenda in the area.

He also said police and military were trying to discredit the Papuan independence movement.

Papua’s Police Chief Paulus Waterpauw said Reverend Yoman was invited to clarify his statement, which he claimed had implicated police in the shooting attack.

General Waterpauw said that if the church leader didn’t clarify or apologise for the accusation, he may be liable for spreading fake news.

‘Fake news’ imprisonment
Under Indonesia’s criminal code, people can be imprisoned for to six years for publishing or broadcasting “fake news or hoaxes resulting in a riot or disturbance”.

Reverend Yoman said he was served with a letter by police summoning him for a meeting at police headquarters in Jayapura. His lawyer, Aloysius Renwarin, attended the meeting last week on his behalf.

The church leader said Renwarin relayed a request from police for another meeting with him in person, adding that General Waterpauw also told him via text message that his statement was “tendentious”.

Reverend Yoman based his article on a history of attacks in the region around Freeport where Indonesian military and police forces vied for lucrative security contracts.

Indonesian military forces in Mimika regency have been contending with a recent surge in attacks on their personnel by the Liberation Army whose guerilla fighters they continue to pursue

Last month, police arrested Ivan Sambom, a member of the West Papua National Committee, a pro-independence activist group, in relation to the attack at Freeport.

General Waterpauw said police were continuing their investigations.

The increase in violence comes as Mimika regency experiences an increase in the number of confirmed covid-19 cases. It now has 51 cases, a quarter of Papua province’s total confirmed cases, among a population which frequently travels back and forth from other parts of the republic.

Killing of university student pair
Meanwhile, families of two young West Papuan men shot dead near the Freeport mine are pushing for an independent probe into the incident.

Eden Bebari and Ronny Wandik were aged only 19 and 21 when they were shot dead during an encounter with security forces about halfway between the city of Timika and the Freeport gold mine two weeks ago.

The two university students’ families said their sons had gone fishing but were wrongly identified by Indonesian military as pro-West Papuan independence fighters.

A joint investigation by police and military is underway, according to General Waterpauw. But the families said military personnel should be sidelined from the probe. They urged police to ensure the safety of the victims’ families and witnesses, also asking authorities to allow the Human Rights Commission access to the regency.

In response to the families’ joint appeal to Freeport and authorities to allow human rights investigators access to the area, a spokesman from the mining company said it was not appropriate for Freeport to comment on an incident which took place outside its work area.

Following the killing of the two young men at Mile-34 (denotes distance along road between Timika and Freeport’s mine area), initial media claims that the two Papuans were linked to the Liberation Army fighters and armed have been strongly denied by families of the victims.

Together with Indonesia’s military commander in Papua, Herman Asaribab, General Waterpauw have appeared before the community to witness the bodies, and expressed condolences to the families.

The police chief told local media it was sometimes difficult for security forces to distinguish between armed “criminal groups” and ordinary citizens.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Victor Mambor in Jayapura

A New Zealand employee of gold and copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia was shot dead on Monday by gunmen in Timika, the capital city of Mimika regency in Papua.

The employee, identified as 57-year-old Graeme Thomas Wall, according to RNZ Pacific, was engaged in construction work with colleagues on the company site in Kuala Kencana district when the shooting took place on Monday afternoon. Freeport Indonesia spokesperson Riza Pratama said.

“The shooting happened on Monday, March 30, at around 2 pm local time. We express our deep condolences for one of our workers who was killed in the shooting at the office complex of Freeport Indonesia,” said Freeport Indonesia spokesperson Riza Pratama.

READ MORE: NZer killed in shooting attack in West Papua

Two of Weal’s colleagues, identified as Jibril Wahar and Yosephine, were admitted to Tembagapura Hospital with serious injuries, Riza said. Four other people sustained minor injuries and were treated in the office.

Local authorities and Freeport security officers have secured the location and evacuated all workers and residents near the vicinity following the attack.

Freeport management has issued an incident notification alert asking workers to postpone all activities and find shelter following the shooting.

“We will provide further information when there are reports of new developments from this incident,” Riza said.

Papua Police chief Paulus Waterpauw alleged that the perpetrators who launched the attack were under the command of Joni Botak, the leader of an armed group operating in the Timika area, and who is also on the police’s most-wanted list.

“The group is now being hunted by our joint team,” Waterpauw said.

The pro-independence group West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), however, claimed responsibility for the shooting.

“Our battlefield is at the Freeport and Grassberg mining sites. Kuala Kencana is also a war zone. We will not stop until Freeport closes down, so they had better close at once,” TPNPB Timika operational commander Hengky Wamang said.

Papuan struggle for independence
Papua has been in a struggle for independence for years and armed groups, which authorities say operate in several regencies in the province, are reported to have been behind numerous violent incidents in the region.

RNZ Pacific reports that the attack comes in the same regency where the West Papua Liberation Army had claimed responsibility for recent deadly attacks on police and military connected to the lucrative mine operations.

The Liberation Army, a disparate force of guerilla fighters, had declared war on the Indonesian state, with whom hostilities have escalated since late 2018 in Papua’s central highlands region.

The United Liberation Movement for West Papua, the non-military arm of the Papuan independence movement, had warned against pointing the blame at the Liberation Army, who Indonesian authorities often referred to as an armed criminal group.

“The ULMWP urges the international media to treat claims about the shooting with extreme caution,” movement chairman Benny Wenda said.

“There is a long history of the Indonesian military carrying out killings, posing as West Papuans, in order to justify further militarisation, security deals and crackdowns.”

This article is drawn from a Jakarta Post correspondent in Jayapura’s reports and the Pacific Media Centre’s partnership with RNZ Pacific.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Reports of the Indonesian military using white phosphorous munitions on West Papuan civilians last month are only the latest horror in a decades-old jungle war forgotten by the world. But new geopolitical maneuvering may soon change the balance of power here, prompting regional concern about an intensifying battle for this rich remote province of Indonesia.

It is time for the United States and Australia to change policy, complementing Pacific island diplomacy, or risk a major strategic setback at the crossroads of Asia and the Pacific.

Once again, Papuan highlanders have fled their villages into the bush where they are starving and being hunted by Indonesian security forces.

Fighting between OPM (Free Papua Movement) guerrillas and the Indonesian military has increased in recent months, creating a fresh humanitarian crisis in a region cut off from the world: Indonesia prevents all foreign media and NGOs from operating here.

This makes West Papua perhaps the only territory besides North Korea that is so inaccessible to the international community.

For years West Papuans have claimed that Jakarta has been building up its forces, including local militias, ready to unleash just as they did in East Timor before its bloody birth in 1999. Different to East Timor however, is the presence of jihadi groups too, something the OPM has warned about for some time.

Alarming quote
Recent comments reported by Associated Press by Indonesia’s Security Minister General Wiranto, who oversaw the death and destruction during East Timor’s transition to independence in 1999, are alarming:

Earlier this week, security minister Wiranto, who uses one name, said there would be no compromise with an organization the government has labeled a criminal group.

“They are not a country, but a group of people who are heretical,” he said.”

Heretical?

This is significant – by using the word “heretical” rather than “treasonous” is Wiranto signalling a coming jihad against the West Papuans?

A low level insurgency waged by the OPM guerrillas has for decades sought independence for the mostly Christian, Melanesian population. Church groups and NGOs claim more than 300,000 Papuans have perished under Indonesian occupation since Indonesia formally annexed “Dutch New Guinea” via a UN referendum in 1969 known as the “Act of Free Choice”.

Farcical vote
It was the UN’s first decolonisation mission and it was a farce – the UN allowed a handpicked group of 1025 Papuans to vote from a population estimated at the time to be close to one million. Just in case they didn’t get the message, Indonesia’s Brig General Ali Murtopo flew in and warned:

“This is what will happen to anyone who votes against Indonesia. Their accursed tongues will be torn out. Their full mouths will be wrenched open. Upon them will fall the vengeance of the Indonesian people. I will myself shoot them on the spot.”

The UN’s own envoy overseeing the plebicite, Chakravarty Narasimihan, former UN Under secretary general in charge of the “Act of free Choice” said:

“It was just a whitewash. The mood at the United Nations was to get rid of this problem as quickly as possible. Nobody gave a thought to the fact that there were a million people there who had their fundamental human rights trampled. Suharto was a terrible dictator. How could anyone have seriously believed that all voters unanimously decided to join his regime? Unanimity like that is unknown in democracies.”

The fix was in and had US blessing; Washington arm-twisted Australia and Holland to back Indonesia’s annexation of West Papua, despite the position of both nations to have West Papua prepared for independence by 1970.

Australia would go on to deliver independence to the eastern half of New Guinea island, known as Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 1975.

For decades Australia’s first line of defence was considered to be the rugged 800 km border that separates PNG from Indonesia. Long before the recent rise of China, Australia’s chief strategic concern was Indonesia, especially during times of direct conflict such as the Konfrontasi period of the 1960s and more recently when Australia led an international intervention force that secured East Timor’s independence in 1999.

Pushing east
Since the 1960s Indonesia has been pushing east, with then President Sukarno taking “West Irian” (West Papua) by force while at the same time calling PNG “East Irian” and Australia “South Irian”.

It remains one of the great “what ifs” of Australian strategic history – if Australia and Holland had ignored US pressure and continued to support West Papuan independence, it would have prevented the long running civil war there and may well have stopped Indonesia’s subsequent invasion of East Timor in 1975.

Instead, Australia reluctantly agreed to the US “New York Agreement” of 1962 and found itself being dragged into the US war in Vietnam.

It fought the wrong war.

In the decades since, Australia has sought to manage its often turbulent relationship with Indonesia, recognising its size and importance within southeast Asia, by studiously ignoring the ongoing “slow-genocide” happening in West Papua.

Not only has Australia never provided material support for its rebels or refugees, it continues to arm and train Indonesia’s elite anti-terrorism unit Densus 88, which has been accused of “mission creep” in extending its operations to take out not just Islamic terrorists post 9/11, post Bali attacks, but Papuan nationalists too.

This has resulted in a lose-lose policy for Australia; after East Timor, no amount of Australian assurances of Indonesian sovereignty will ever convince Jakarta’s generals that Australia does not have designs on West Papua; at the same time Australia has lost much moral and strategic credibility among its Pacific island neighbours who all support West Papuan independence and question why their two big brothers in the Pacific – the US and Australia – continue to “throw the West Papuans to the wolves”.

But while they may have been able to ignore West Papua’s independence movement for decades, new geopolitical manouverings have emerged in the past year which signal a need to re-assess long running policy.

Social media explosion
The explosion of social media in recent years has taken this hidden war out of the shadows for good. Pacific diplomacy is isolating ANZUS policy and the West Papuan struggle will not remain a bow-and-arrow affair for much longer.

It is only a matter of time before China begins offering substantial material support and training – they are already in discussions with the West Papuan leadership. Nor are they the only player getting involved.

In December 2017, Russian Tu-95 nuclear bombers made sorties from bases on Biak island in West Papua probing the air space between Australia and Papua. It was the first time Russian nuclear bombers have operated in the South Pacific, prompting Australia to scramble fighter jets from RAAF Tindal for the first time in many years.

Jakarta has likely invited Russia to display a show of force as a warning to Australian and US forces stationed in Darwin – as well as China – lest they show any inclination to support West Papuan independence.

But can Jakarta trust Russia? Although there is considerable military co-operation between the two, Russia may have its own agenda in West Papua, recognising its resource wealth and strategic position due south of Vladivostok.

West Papuan leaders speak of Russia’s sense of having been betrayed by Indonesia in the 1960s. After Khrushchev met with Sukarno at their historic Bali summit in 1960, a time when Indonesia’s communist party the PKI was the third largest in the world, Moscow believed it had done a deal to become Indonesia’s partner in helping annex West Papua and thus gain access to the known mineral riches of West Papua, not to mention its strategic position as a gateway between Asia and the Pacific.

Instead, US President Kennedy was able to woo Sukarno (both were young, charismatic “ladies men” who hit it off together) sufficiently to broker a deal where the US would recognise Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua in an attempt to temper both Sukarno’s leftist leanings and the growing PKI.

Coup ‘re-orientation’
The deal signed in 1962 was called the New York Agreement and signalled America would not support Holland’s defence of an independent West Papua. By 1965 Kennedy was dead and Sukarno had been overthrown in a coup that led to a “re-orientation” of Indonesia.

Newly installed General Suharto purged Indonesia of communists and granted the first foreign mining licence to US company Freeport to establish a gold mine in the Puncak Jaya mountain range of West Papua, soon to become (and remain) the biggest gold mine in the world.

Russia was furious, but could do little then. China’s support for the PKI was also checked and Suharto’s 30 year dictatorship, backed by the US and allies, ensured both Russia and China lost their influence in Indonesia.

Today it is a different story.

While Russia influence in the Pacific is small but growing, Chinese influence has surged to become a major force in Pacific politics and security. Part of its engagement with Pacific island nations is to support those nations such as Vanuatu which back West Papuan independence in the face of Indonesian threats.

China’s relationship with Indonesia continues to deteriorate over issues such as rival claims in the South China Sea, nationwide demonstrations across Indonesia in support of persecuted Uighers in China, and concerns about the growing Islamification of Indonesia threatening the local Chinese (often Christian) communities.

Last year, the (Christian) Chinese Governor of Jakarta was hounded out of office by hardline Islamist groups accusing him of blasphemy.

Periodic pogroms
Indonesia’s Chinese community has long been subject to periodic pogroms (such as during the PKI crackdown in the 1960s and during the fall of Suharto in 1998) and as they watch the growing Islamification of Indonesia, they are all preparing Plan B exits, with Singapore, Malaysia and Australia top of their list.

In the past, Beijing could do little to protect the Chinese diaspora here, but today that has changed. West Papuan leaders suggest that China may have a plan to help liberate West Papua and thus provide a sanctuary for Indonesia’s persecuted Chinese community.

Were China to support West Papuan independence it would have the backing of the vast majority of Papuans and give China not just access to its huge mineral wealth, but also a strategic foothold in the south, south China Sea and a major gateway between the Indian and Pacific Ocean.

It would also win the kudos of many Pacific island nations who feel the US and Australia have not defended Pacific island interests all because of the avarice of one US company.

China is also taking note of the recent decision by neighbouring PNG to allow a major new military base on Manus island for US and Australian forces. Manus island, a naval base since WW2, would allow US and Australian naval and air force projection into the South China Sea and beyond, once again amplifying the strategic position of West Papua next door to thwart such allied projections if China got a foothold there.

China is also anticipating a Prabowo presidency in Indonesia this year, which they regard as a CIA asset, ironically backed by hardline Islamic groups, and who will be hostile to the Chinese community there. And not just hostile to China, but Australia and the Pacific too.

Australia has had a good run with amenable leaders such as SBY and Jokowi in recent years, but a Prabowo presidency would see a Duterte-like strongman likely to cause friction.

Reflexive stance
The answer in such circumstances is not to take a reflexive pro-Indonesia stance against Chinese moves, but to check both Indonesian and Chinese expansion by helping the Christian Melanesians of West Papua secure their freedom as part of the Pacific family.

Doing so is not just the right moral thing to do (correcting a previous injustice) but the right strategic thing to do: it prevents a Chinese foothold in the South Pacific, prevents Indonesian jihadis and territorial expansion east into the Pacific, secures an “air-sea gap” for Australia, properly secures a border between Muslim Asia and the Christian Pacific, and in so doing wins the admiration and loyalty of the rest of the Pacific island community precisely at a time when they are being aggressively courted by China.

This year Vanuatu, backed by dozens of countries in the ACP block (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) is expected to introduce a motion before the UN General Assembly calling for a proper referendum on independence for West Papua and its inclusion on the United Nations De-Colonisation list.

Unless this long-running struggle is resolved soon, West Papua may soon become a major battleground between Indonesian forces including jihadis and Papuan guerrillas backed by China.

US policy has long been guided by Freeport’s commercial interests (helped by such prominent board members as Henry Kissinger and ex-President Ford), but that now pales in comparison to the strategic calculus as China moves in.

Besides, Freeport is now losing its grip – in December it finally accepted a new deal with Jakarta losing its majority ownership of the mine and the Carstenz deposit. Freeport now has been reduced to 49 percent ownership.

Of course, China is playing both sides of the fence – guess who provided funds for Jakarta to increase its equity?

Right side of history
It is time for the US to get on the right side of history. It should go back to supporting Australia and Holland’s original policy – and the rest of the Pacific’s today – by supporting a process towards West Papuan independence to halt growing Islamic and Chinese influence in the Pacific.

As one West Papuan leader told me recently:

“We have suffered for decades. If the democratic west continues to ignore our struggle we have no choice but to look east for our liberation”.

Ben Bohane is a Vanuatu-based photojournalist covering the Pacific who has reported on West Papua for the past 25 years. He is the only foreigner to have been in the three most active Command areas of the OPM operating in West Papua. This article was first published in the Journal of Political Risk and is republished by Asia Pacific Report with the permission of the author.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papuans have launched protest actions in 13 cities across Indonesia to demonstrate against the so-called “Act of Free Choice” that enabled Jakarta to take control of the Melanesian region.

The Papuan Student Alliance (AMP) and the Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-WP) organised the rallies in cities, including Jakarta, Bandung and Ambon.

AMP spokesperson Surya Anta said that they were taking to the streets based on two principal issues related to West Papuan independence.

“[Papuans had] already declared their independence in 1961, deciding not to be part of the 1945 [declaration of Indonesian] independence [from the Dutch],” Surya told CNN Indonesia in front of the State Palace in Central Jakarta last Thursday marking the August 2 date.

Surya said that at the time, the people of West Papua already had a state symbol, flag and currency, although no administration had yet been established.

The second reason was that the people of West Papua wanted to separate from Indonesia because for years and years they had suffered “slow-motion genocide”.

This was in no way in accordance with the values enshrined in the state ideology of Pancasila in realising independence for all nations.

‘Oppression, slow-motion genocide’
“They suffer oppression, abuse, slow-motion genocide, rape, abductions, no freedom of expression and access to information, and many other things,” he said.

The problems facing the West Papuans also included the massive exploitation of natural resources, which according to Surya, is because of the PT Freeport Indonesian gold-and-copper mine problem.

Social inequality was also high compared with other parts of Indonesia.

Surya added that the West Papuan people wanted to separate from Indonesia because they did not feel Indonesian because of the numerous problems cited.

“Yes (they want to separate from Indonesia) because from the very beginning they did not feel Indonesian. Go ahead and check the [1948] Youth Pledge. Was West Papua mentioned there?,” he said.

Surya said that the infrastructure development which was being touted by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in Papua had not been enough to make the people feel Indonesian.

“Yeah, like the Dutch [colonial] period, we got schools, but did this then make us become Dutch citizens? No. We still felt convinced that our identity was different,” he said.

Widodo has become known as the Indonesian president which has most often visited Papua. His agenda has been varied but in his Nawa Cita [nine point priority programme], Widodo has prioritised the resolution of past human rights violations and the development of infrastructure in Papua.

‘Same old song’
Coordinating Minister for Security, Politics and Legal Affairs Menko Polhukam Wiranto referred to protests by Papuan pro-independence activists such as these as being a “separatist” action seeking to attract international attention.

“It’s a small separatist movement but by methods such as this [they] want to get world attention,” said Wiranto at his office in Jakarta.

The former commander of ABRI (Indonesian Armed Forces, now TNI) said that threats by Papuan pro-independence groups which had been widespread lately were just the “same old song” which had been played repeatedly for a long time.

As has been reported, the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) were holding actions in Jakarta and London to support a new referendum for the Papuan people.

At Thursday’s action in front of the State Palace the AMP and the FRI-WP expressed their support for West Papuan liberation from the NKRI or Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia.

Responding to this, Wiranto suggested that people do not need to become upset or anxious about the frequent actions by such groups.

“This old song is the same as the one played in the past. We don’t need to get upset, we don’t need to get anxious, we will just fight it,” he said.

Wiranto also said that the government would not be influenced by the “separatist” threat from such groups.

He asserted that in principle the government still considered Papua would remain part of the NKRI forever and did not need to be disturbed by challenges by any party at all.

“It is clear that we have a principled and standing position which cannot be disrupted by challenges from movements such as this,” he said.

Soft diplomacy
Wiranto also insisted that the government had repeatedly made efforts to develop diplomatic relations with neighbouring countries in order to suppress “biased issues” related to development in Papua.

Wiranto claimed that heads of state in the Asia-Pacific region such as Micronesia, Nauru, and Australia were often invited to help in “suppressing” such groups.

“Soft diplomacy activities which we are carrying out in the South Pacific continue apace. They [the Papuan separatist groups] perhaps then feel angry about the soft diplomacy activities that we are conducting,” said Wiranto.

Wiranto claimed to have invited officials from these countries to see for themselves the current conditions and social developments in remote parts of Papua.

This is aimed at preventing countries in the Asia-Pacific region from “misunderstanding” the current social developments and situation in Papua.

“So we invite them to see the facts [on the ground]. As if we do not provide good education to our friends in Papua. This issue is being continually pushed, continually made an issue of, in Europe, the South Pacific, but you know yourself right, the reality is not like that,” he said.

Wiranto said that there were still potential threats from irresponsible parties which resulted in the emergence of separatist groups in Papua.

He was reluctant however to cite which parties he meant. Wiranto said only that these parties did not want Indonesia to be united and only wanted to take the profits from mining in Papua.

“Because there are still parties that do not want our country to be united, there are still parties which take the profits from mining activities”, he said.

Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the article was “Aksi Referendum Papua: Infrastruktur Jokowi Bukan Jawaban”.

Background:
In 1969, Pepera — Known as the “Act of Free Choice”, a referendum, was held to decide whether West Papua, a former Dutch colony annexed by Indonesia in 1963, would be become independent or join Indonesia. The UN sanction plebiscite, in which 1025 hand-picked tribal leaders allegedly expressed their desire for integration, has been widely dismissed as a sham.

Critics claim that that the selected voters were coerced, threatened and closely scrutinised by the military to unanimously vote for integration.

Although it is widely held that West Papua declared independence from Indonesia on December 1, 1961, this actually marks the date when the Morning Star (Bintang Kejora) flag was first raised alongside the Dutch flag in an officially sanctioned ceremony in Jayapura, then called Hollandia.

The first declaration of independence actually took place on July 1, 1971 at the Victoria Headquarters in Waris Village, Jayapura, when Oom Nicolas Jouwe and two Free Papua Organisation (OPM) commanders, Seth Jafeth Roemkorem and Jacob Hendrik Prai, raised the Morning Star flag and unilaterally proclaimed Papua Barat or West Papua as an independent democratic republic, complete with a National Liberation Army (TPN), a provisional constitution, government, senate and parliament.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Four Indonesian ministers gathered to witness the signing of an agreement between state-owned mining holding group PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) and Freeport-McMoran (FCX) to take over Papua’s PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) in complex deals worth $3.85 billion.

Under the agreement, Indonesia will take control of 51 percent of Freeport Indonesia’s equity, and hold a majority stake in the company that operates the world’s largest gold mine, Grasberg in Papua.

The signing was the culmination of years of negotiations, preceding the current administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, and a tug-of-war between Indonesia and the American company.

The presence of four ministers at the signing was an indication of the economic and political importance of the deal to the Jokowi administration. But it is not yet a done deal, as officials have liked to claim.

The agreement requires the two parties to conduct further negotiations to finalise the details of the divestment. The government expects to finish ironing out the details sometime in August.

Freeport’s footprint in Indonesia
Here is your guide to understanding the seemingly never-ending negotiations, and why it matters for Indonesia to cement the deal as soon as possible:

• Freeport-McMoran has operated in Indonesia since it signed its first contract in 1967 in a deal that was good for 30 years. In 1997, it received an extension for its operation until 2021. The two contracts in essence covered mining for copper, with gold and silver treated as associated resources found alongside copper ores.
• Both contracts were signed during the regime of president Suharto. The first contract in 1967 was widely hailed as a landmark moment, symbolising the ushering in of Indonesia’s open-door policy to foreign investment under the pro-Western General Suharto, who had just taken over power from the socialist-leaning Sukarno a year earlier.
• Developing the mines deep in the mountainous jungles of Papua required huge initial investment to build core infrastructure, including roads, housing and power plants, as well as preparing the pool of workers. In return for this investment, Freeport received generous tax breaks.

Freeport’s first phase of operations exploited the Ertsberg Mountain in Mimika regency. Once the mountain was flattened, Freeport turned to mining the adjacent Mt Grasberg, which turned out to contain even larger reserves. Freeport is looking to mine the large gold reserves underground, assuming the latest agreement holds.

Bloomberg Intelligence estimates that the reserves at the world’s biggest gold deposit and second-largest copper mine are worth about $14 billion.

Freeport-MacMoran’s operations in Indonesia accounted for 47 percent of its operating income in 2017, according to Bloomberg.

Freeport’s huge profits have been a source of contention with long-standing criticism that the tax and royalty revenues paid to the Indonesian government represent only a pittance of its true income.

Indonesia’s 9.36 percent stake in PTFI, as stipulated in the 1991 contract of work (CoW), also does not amount to much, particularly as Freeport has at times withheld paying dividends.

For example, PTFI paid Rp 1.4 trillion in dividends in 2017 after three years of failing to make any payments, according to the Finance Ministry.

Freeport has also attracted controversy for the environmental and social impacts of its operations in the heart of Papua.

Last year, the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) came out with a damning report claiming that Freeport had caused $13 billion in environmental damages.

Wind of change for Freeport
In 2009, Indonesia passed the Coal and Mineral Mining Law, or Law No. 4/2009. The law requires all foreign mining companies to divest 51 percent of their shares to the Indonesian government, state-owned or regional-owned enterprises or private Indonesian companies within 10 years of the start of operation.

Freeport has managed to work its way around the regulation by indicating that it is operating under a CoW, which is good until 2021.

In January 2017, the government issued a new regulation requiring all mining contracting companies to switch to special mining permits (IUPK) in order to export products in the form of concentrates, which is one step above ore but still not refined.

Freeport refused to fully comply, arguing that the IUPK was not a nailed-down scheme because the stipulations, including the taxation scheme, could change according to changes in government regulations.

In February 2017, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry issued PTFI an IUPK saying the company had finally agreed to the terms, paving the way for the divestment deal signed on Thursday.

Series of agreements
In August 2017, following pressure from the government to divest its shares in PTFI, Freeport-McMoran’s top management agreed to increase Indonesia’s share in PTFI to 51 percent, as well as to develop a smelter and increase Indonesia’s revenue from PTFI’s tax and royalty payments.

The Indonesian government chose state mining holding company Inalum to become the majority shareholder in PTFI.

However, questions remain regarding the price tag and how Inalum will pay for its stake in Freeport. Inalum president director Budi Gunadi Sadikin said on Thursday that the company would have to pay $3.85 billion in August and that it had already secured loans from 11 banks.

What are the benefits of majority ownership in Freeport?

Bisman Bakhtiar, the executive director of the Center for Energy and Mining Law (Pushep), said it was time for Indonesia to take control over the huge gold reserves in Papua, as 50 years had passed since PTFI began operations.

“Too much of our resources have been exploited. Surely after 50 years, we have the capability to operate it ourselves,” Bisman said.

Indonesia will reap the largest share of the profits and dividends, which in the past had almost entirely gone to PTFI. The government will also continue to enjoy taxes, royalties as well as a cut of the revenue.

“There are many ways to maximise the benefits from PTFI for the people, and divestment is one of them,” he said.

However, Bisman urged the government to ensure that Indonesia benefited from the next phase of negotiations to finalise the divestment deal.

“Even though we will finally become the majority owner in August, we need to look at the tax, royalty and revenue sharing arrangements. Are they better or not?”

Stefanno Reinard Sulaiman is a journalist with The Jakarta Post.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Tony Firman in Jakarta

Calls for West Papuan self-determination were prominent during a demonstration in front of the offices of PT Freeport Indonesia in the Kuningan area of South Jakarta at the start of Easter.

The action was held by about 70 protesters from the Papuan Student Alliance (AMP) and the Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-WP) who held the demonstration last Thursday to demand the closure of the Freeport copper and gold mine in Papua.

FRI-WP spokesperson Surya Anta said that the international community must take a position on the forced incorporation of West Papua into the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).

“Since May 1, 1963, until now, West Papua was removed from the Dutch decolonisation list without the West Papuan people’s knowledge,” said Anta.

Surya also accused Freeport of being an entry point for the colonisation of West Papua on the grounds that the first work contract between Freeport and Indonesia was signed in 1967.

Meanwhile, the Act of Free Choice (Pepera) which resulted in the incorporation of West Papua into the Indonesia was held in 1969.

-Partners-

Anta said that the Pepera was manipulated and undemocratic.

No prosperity or peace
Dorlince Iyowau, a resident of the mining town of Timika who took part in the action, added that Freeport’s presence in Papua had not brought prosperity or peace to the West Papuan people.

“Violence against the people and damage to the environment by waste tailings discarded into the Ajkwa River is a concrete form of Freeport’s colonial presence”, said Iyowau.

In a media release received by Tirto, the FRI-WP and the AMP made nine demands, three of which were:

• the closure of PT Freeport,
• the withdrawal of the TNI (Indonesian military) and Polri (National
  Police) from Papua, and
• self-determination for the people of Papua

The media release also stated that based on a report by the Papuan Institute for Human Rights Studies and Advocacy (Elsham) in 2002, numerous cases of violence had been committed by security forces in Papua.

The report noted that thousands of people had died, scores had disappeared and hundreds more had been arrested and tortured.

In addition to this, it also noted places of worship that had been burnt down, villages and other locations that had been destroyed, many of which have yet to be properly documented.

The demonstrators began leaving the Freeport offices at around 3.15 pm. Similar actions are planned to take place simultaneously next Saturday in several different cities, including Yogyakarta and Semarang (Central Java), Bandung (West Java), Surabaya and Malang (East Java), Makassar (South Sulawesi), Palu (Central Sulawesi), Ternate (North
Maluku) and Papua itself.

Tony Firman is a reporter for Tirto news website in Indonesia.

Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the article was “Demo di Kantor Freeport Juga Serukan Penentuan Nasib West Papua“.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz