A senior Indonesian government official and a New Zealand journalism professor have clashed over differing perspectives on access for journalists and media to the West Papua region.

Speaking on a webinar organised by the Jubi newspaper in Jayapura, Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ director of the European affairs Sade Bimantara said Papua was “much more open” than credited in social media.

However, Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie said it was still extremely difficult for journalists in Australia, New Zealand and Pacific nations to visit the Melanesian region on assignment.

READ MORE: A Papuan open letter to Jakarta

He said it was “mixed” at best but in spite of the obstacles some excellent reporting was being done. This was the exception rather than the rule, as mainstream media in Australasia often ignored the West Papua issue.

Dr Robie cited two recent investigative documentaries, Secret War for West Papua from ABC Foreign Correspondent in May and Al Jazeera’s Selling Out West Papua exposing the rapacious palm oil industry and deforestation last month, as quality “breakthrough” reports.

Bimantara said President Joko Widodo had personally led the “more open” policy with a directive in 2015.

The policy was putting emphasis on a “more humane approach where development and economic policies touch the lives of ordinary Papuans to bring justice, stability, prosperity at the centre of any policies – national or local,” the official said.

“You can see these policies in action.”

Criticism of development policies
Dr Robie cited the criticisms of development policies such as the Trans-Papuan Highway that had involved minimal or no consultation with Papuans, such as exposed by the recent book The Road by John Martinkus about “exploitation by foreign companies, environmental destruction and colonisation by Indonesian transmigrants”.

He also cited condemnation of the upgraded autonomy plan.

He said there needed to be more journalists visiting Papua freely “without minders” to report on the development issues and challenges, as well as social justice and human rights.

Bimantara said that while the “free and unhindered access” for media had been “slow to trickle down the bureaucratic ladder”, the policy had resulted in “robust and wide” data communication and access across Papua.

The ban on the internet – recently declared illegal by an Indonesian court – for a month last year at the time of the so-called Papuan Uprising with protests over racism was imposed to “put a break on the spreading of hate crime”.

Bimantara said the processing of journalists wishing to go to Papua had been speeded up and Jakarta-based media and foreign journalists were “free to go any time” providing they gave notification of where they were going.

He said that between 2016 and this year, out of 69 applications to visit Papua, 55 had been approved, “which means 80 percent were approved”.

Covid blamed for current restrictions
Any current restrictions were due to covid-19 coronavirus spread concerns.

Dr Robie said that due to the “extreme difficulties for journalists getting visas through the government ‘clearing house’ in Jakarta, the recent ABC production relied heavily on journalists on the ground in Papua, beginning their story with Papuan migrants and refugees in neighbouring Papua New Guinea.

“In the case of the ‘Selling Out’ programme, the producers relied on a ruse – the crew filmed the Wasur National Park in the massive wetlands near Merauke while actually making the wider palm oil investigation,” he said.

“As both a journalist and media academic, I have often referred to the West Papua information ‘black hole’ in various articles and videos since I wrote my first article about Papua in 1983.

“Other journalists have also referred to this black hole or black spot.”

Bimantara described racism against Papuans as an “isolated pattern”, but a prominent Papuan clergyman, Reverend Dr Socratez S. Yoman this week characterised “racism and injustice” as the root of the problems in Papua in an open letter to the Jakarta government.

The foreign affairs official said the Papuan Lives Matter movement had been gaining momentum in Indonesia since widespread anti-racism protests from Jakarta to Jayapura last year.

Sparked by racist harassment
The protests were sparked by racist harassment of West Papuan university students in Indonesia’s second-largest city, Surabaya.

Bimantara said that fake news and disinformation were prevalent in coverage of Indonesian-ruled West Papua.

He said there was a problem with disinformation about West Papua which was an “infodemic spreading like covid-19”, although he claimed this as coming from those leading the Papuan independence movement.

However, Dr Robie cited an investigation by the BBC and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) last year that found that a coordinated and well-funded network of “bots” – or automated accounts – that promoted a pro-government line was “skewing the narrative” about Papua.

When asked about this, Bimantara did not answer, while in other comments apparently blaming the disinformation on pro-independence sources.

“Just last week, our own news website Asia Pacific Report asiapacificreport.nz published a story about a Tongan Kiwi beauty queen, Diamond Langi, making a fairly low key solidarity statement in support of Papuan self-determination and expressing empathy for jailed political prisoners,” Dr Robie said.

“Langi was immediately denounced and abused by thousands of social media trolls from Indonesia and she was forced to close her Instagram account and render her Facebook account non active.”

Webinar drew lively interest
The webinar, moderated by leading Papuan journalist Victor Mambor, who visited New Zealand in 2014, drew lively interest with about 1000 viewers on YouTube in two days.

In response to some webinar social media chat comments, a Papuan NGO activist, who declined to be named, said: “Most of the questions raised are by intelligence agents who are using Papuan people’s accounts, photos or fake names.”

Former Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty said the panel was a worthwhile effort for greater understanding but she was disappointed by the “monotonous denials” of Bimantara over the difficulties for media reporting on West Papua.

“He made claims that are fine in theory but not in practice and also he made the revealing statement that the Indonesian state wants to know where journalists are going and what stories they plan to write.

“That is not the definition of a free press, that is censorship by an occupying government.”

Dr Robie cited the latest international reports from highly reputable media watchdogs on the issues in West Papua but the Indonesian responses were “very unsatisfactory”, she said.

“To accuse the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) and [a pro-independence leader] Benny Wenda as responsible for the killers of workers on the Trans Papuan Highway is just wrong.

“The armed struggle and the international solidarity effort are not the same groups, although all are dedicated to freedom for West Papua.

Honouring Te Tiriti
Delahunty, a spokesperson for West Papua Action Auckland, said that one point where she agreed with Bimantara was when he had talked about sovereignty movements in other countries such as Aotearoa New Zealand.

“Those of us who stand for a Free West Papua also need to stand up for a full honouring of Te Tiriti in this country.”

She commended Mambor and Jubi for hosting this dialogue, saying Professor Robie had a great understanding of the issues and the Pacific context but the claims made by Bimantara were the “usual justifications for the oppressive regime” in West Papua.

Joe Collins, leader of the Australian West Papua Association (AWPA), said from Sydney that although there has been improvement towards democracy in Indonesia it had not translated into democracy in West Papua.

“While people can be arrested and charged with treason simply for raising their national flag, it proves there is no justice under Indonesian rule,” he said.

“For all the talk about journalists being free to go to West Papua, journalists are regularly intimidated for covering demonstrations in West Papua and there is a track record of foreign journalists being arrested or deported for trying to do their job”.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

A New Zealand-based West Papua advocacy group has appealed to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and other leaders meeting at the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru next week to support Vanuatu’s United Nations initiative.

Vanuatu has pledged to take a resolution to the 2019 UN General Assembly endorsing West Papua’s right to self-determination and calling for West Papua to be re-inscribed on the list of nations overseen by the UN Decolonisation Committee (the Committee of 24).

Vanuatu has the strong backing of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP).

READ MORE: PMC director condemns targeting of journalists and silence on West Papua

A statement from West Papua Action Auckland group said today New Zealand had the opportunity to be a game-changer at this Forum meeting.

“New Zealand is influential at the Forum and its support for the issue to go to the UN is crucial,” said spokesperson Maire Leadbeater, author of the recent book See No Evil about NZ’s “betrayal” of West Papuan aspirations.

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“The people of West Papua were cruelly denied their right to self-determination in the 1960s, setting the stage for decades of state sanctioned violence at the hands of the Indonesian military.

“The 1962 New York Agreement brokered by the United States delivered West Papua to Indonesian control without any consultation with West Papuan representatives.

‘Fraudulent exercise’
“The so-called ‘Act of Free Choice’ held in 1969 was a fraudulent exercise carried out under extreme duress.

“This issue is extremely urgent. The people of West Papua are experiencing slow genocide due to ongoing human rights abuses and the harmful conditions of life experienced by so many Papuans.

“Authoritative human rights reports document the routine use of torture and killings as well as the denial the right to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly. Not to mention the constant inflow of migrants and the marginalisation of indigenous Papuans.

“It is time to stand up for our Melanesian neighbours. West Papuans risk their lives to speak out for self-determination and freedom.

“New Zealand should have nothing to fear by joining in a call to involve the United Nations in what is the most grievous human rights crisis in our region.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Two damning and contrasting books about Indonesian colonialism in the Pacific, both by activist participants in Europe and New Zealand, have recently been published. Overall, they are excellent exposes of the harsh repression of the Melanesian people of West Papua and a world that has largely closed a blind eye to to human rights violations.

In Papua Blood, Danish photographer Peter Bang provides a deeply personal account of his more than three decades of experience in West Papua that is a testament to the resilience and patience of the people in the face of “slow genocide” with an estimated 500,000 Papuans dying over the past half century.

With See No Evil, Maire Leadbeater, peace movement advocate and spokesperson of West Papua Action Auckland, offers a meticulously researched historical account of New Zealand’s originally supportive stance for the independence aspirations of the Papuan people while still a Dutch colony and then its unprincipled slide into betrayal amid Cold War realpolitik.

Peter Bang’s book features 188 examples of his evocative imagery, providing colourful insights into changing lifestyles in West Papua, ranging through pristine rainforest, waterfalls, villages and urban cityscapes to dramatic scenes of resistance to oppression and the defiant displays of the Morning Star flag of independence.

Some of the most poignant images are photographs of use of the traditional koteka (penis gourds) and traditional attire, which are under threat in some parts of West Papua, and customary life in remote parts of the Highlands and the tree houses of the coastal marshlands.

Besides the photographs, Bang also has a narrative about the various episodes of his life in West Papua.

Never far from his account, are the reflections of life under Indonesian colonialism, and extreme racism displayed towards the Papuan people and their culture and traditions. From the beginning in 1963 when Indonesia under Sukarno wrested control of West Papua from the Dutch with United Nations approval under a sham “Act of Free Choice” against the local people’s wishes, followed by the so-called ‘Transmigrassi’ programme encouraging thousands of Javanese migrants to settle, the Papuans have been treated with repression.

‘Disaster for Papuans’
Bang describes the massive migration of Indonesians to West Papua as “not only a disaster for the Papuan people, but also a catastrophe for the rainforest, eartyn and wildlife” (p. 13).

“Police soldiers conducted frequent punitive expeditions with reference to violation of ‘laws’ that the indigenous people neither understood nor had heard about, partly because of language barriers and the huge cultural difference,’ writes Bang (p. 11). The list of atrocities has been endless.

“There were examples of Papuans who had been captured, and thrown out alive from helicopters, strangled or drowned after being put into plastic bags. Pregnant women killed by bayonets. Prisoners forced to dig their own graves before they were killed.” (p. 12)

A book that provided an early impetus while Bang was researching for his involvement in West Papua was Indonesia’s Secret War by journalist Robin Osborne, a former press secretary for Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan, the leader who was later ousted from office because of his bungled Sandline mercenary affair over the Bougainville civil war. Osborne’s book also influenced me when I first began writing about West Papua in the early 1980s.

After travelling through Asia, a young Peter Bang arrived in West Papua in 1986 for his first visit determined to journey to the remote Yali tribe as a photographer and writer interested in indigenous peoples. He wanted to find out how the Yali people had integrated with the outside world since missionaries had first entered the isolated tribal area just 25 years earlier.

When Bang visited the town of Angguruk for the first time, “the only wheels I saw at the mission station were punctured and sat on a wheelbarrow … It was only seven years ago that human flesh had been eaten in the area” (p. 16).

During this early period of jungle trekking, Bang rarely “encountered anything besides kindness – only twice did I experience being threatened with a bow and arrow” (p. 39). The first time was by a “mentally disabled” man confused over Bang’s presence, and he was scolded by the village chief.

Political change
Ten years later, Peter Bang again visited the Yali people and found the political climate had changed in the capital Jayapura – “we saw police and military everywhere” following an incident a few months earlier when OPM (Free Papua Movement) guerrillas had held 11 captives hostage in a cave.

He struck up a friendship with Wimmo, a Dani tribesman and son of a village witchdoctor and healer in the Baliem Valley, that was to endure for years, and he had an adoptive family.

On a return visit, Bang met Tebora, mother of the nine-year-old boy Puwul who was the subject of the author’s earlier book, Puwul’s World. At the age of 29, Puwul had walked barefooted hundreds of kilometres across the mountains from the Jaxólé Valley village to Jayapura, and then escaped across the border into Papua New Guinea. A well-worn copy of Puwul’s World was the only book in the village apart from a single copy of the Bible.

Years later, Bang met tribal leader and freedom fighter Benny Wenda who, with the help of Australian human rights activist and lawyer Jennifer Robinson, was granted asylum in the United Kingdom in 2003: “I felt great sympathy for Benny Wenda’s position on the fight for liberation. By many, he was compared to Nelson Mandela, although he was obviously playing his own ukelele” (p. 81)

Wenda and Filip Karma, at the time imprisoned by the Indonesian authorities for 15 years for “raising the Morning Star flag”, were nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.

Bang founded the Danish section of the Free West Papua Campaign and launched an activist Facebook page.

One of the book’s amusing and inspirational highlights is his secret “freedom paddle” on the Baliem River when Peter Bang used a yellow inflatable rubber boat and a pocket-sized Morning Star flag to make his own personal protest against Indonesia (p. 123). This was a courageous statement in itself given the continued arrests of journalists in West Papua by the military authorities in spite of the “open” policy of President Joko Widodo.

As a special section, Bang’s book devotes 26 pages to the indigenous people of West Papua, profiling some of the territory’s 300 tribes and their cultural and social systems, such as the Highlands communities of Dani and Yali, and the Asmat, Korowai and Kombai peoples.

Fascinating insight
This book is a fascinating insight into West Papuan life under duress, but would have benefitted with tighter and cleaner copy editing by the English-language volunteer editors. Nevertheless, it is a valuable work with a strong sociopolitical message.

Peter Bang concludes: “Nobody knows what the future holds. In 2018, the Indonesian regime continues the brutal crackdown on the native population of West Papua.”

In contrast to Bang’s authentic narrative of life in West Papua, Maire Leadbeater’s See No Evil book – launched yesterday – is an activist historical account of New Zealand’s shameful record over West Papua, which is just as disgraceful as Wellington’s record on Timor-Leste over 24 years of Indonesian illegal occupation (tempered by a quietly supportive post-independence role).

Surely there is a lesson here. For those New Zealand politicians, officials and conservative journalists who prefer to meekly accept the Indonesian status quo, the East Timor precedent is an indicator that we should be strongly advocating self-determination for the Papuans.

One of the many strengths of Leadbeater’s thoroughly researched book is she exposes the volte-face and hypocrisy of the stance of successive New Zealand governments since Walter Nash and his “united New Guinea” initiative (p. 66).

“A stroke of the pen in the shape of the 1962 New York Agreement, signed by the colonial Dutch and the Indonesian government, sealed the fate of the people of West Papua,” the author notes in her introduction. Prior to this “selling out” of a people arrangement, New Zealand had been a vocal supporter of the Dutch government’s preparations to decolonise the territory.

In fact, the Dutch had done much more to prepare West Papua for independence than Australia had done at that stage for neighbouring Papua New Guinea, which became independent in 1975.

Game changer
Indonesia’s so-called September 30th Movement crisis in 1965 – three years after paratroopers had been dropped on West Papua in a farcical “invasion” – was the game changer. The attempted coup triggered massive anti-communist massacres in Indonesia leading to an estimated 200,000 to 800,000 killings and eventually the seizure of power by General Suharto from the ageing nationalist President Sukarno in 1967 (Adam, 2015).

As Leadbeater notes, the bloodletting opened the door to Western foreign investment and “rich prizes” in West Papua such as the Freeport’s Grasberg gold and copper mine, one of the world’s richest.

“New Zealand politicians and diplomats welcomed Indonesia’s change in direction. Cold War anti-communist fervour trumped sympathy for the victims of the purge; and New Zealand was keen to increase its trade, investment and ties with the ‘new’ Indonesia.” (p. 22)

The first 13 chapters of the book, from “the Pleistocene period” to “Suharto goes but thwarted hope for West Papua”, are a methodical and insightful documentation of “recolonisation” and New Zealand’s changing relationship are an excellent record and useful tool for the advocates of West Papuan independence.

However, the last two contemporary chapters and conclusion, do not quite measure up to the quality of the rest of the book.

For example, a less than two-page section on “Media access” gives short change to the important media role in the West Papuan independence struggle. Leadbeater quite rightly castigates the mainstream New Zealand media for a lack of coverage for such a serious issue. Her explanation for the widespread ignorance about West Papua is simplistic:

“A major reason (setting aside Radio New Zealand’s consistent reporting) is that the issues are seldom covered in the mainstream media. It is a circular problem: lack of direct access results in a dearth of objective and fully rounded reporting; editors fear that material they do receive may be inaccurate or misrepresentative; so a media blackout prevails and editors conflate the resulting limited public debate with a lack of interest.” (p. 233)

Mainstream ‘silence’
Leadbeater points out that the mainstream media coverage of the “pre-internet 1960s did a better job”. Yet she fails to explain why, or credit those contemporary New Zealand journalists who have worked hard to break the mainstream “silence” (Robie, 2017).

She dismisses the courageous and successful groundbreaking attempts by at least two New Zealand media organisations – Māori Television and Radio New Zealand – to “test” President Widodo’s new policy in 2015 by sending crews to West Papua in merely three sentences. Since then, she admits, Indonesia’s media “shutters have mostly stayed shut” (p. 235).

One of the New Zealand journalists who has written extensively on West Papua and Melanesian issues for many years, RNZ Pacific’s Johnny Blades, is barely mentioned (apart from the RNZ visit to West Papua). Tabloid Jubi editor Victor Mambor, who visited New Zealand in 2014, Paul Bensemann (who travelled to West Papua disguised as a bird watcher in 2013), Scoop’s Gordon Campbell, Television New Zealand’s Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver and Tere Harrison’s 2016 short documentary Run It Straight are just a few of those who have contributed to growing awareness of Papuan issues in this country who have not been given fair acknowledgement.

Also important has been the role of the alternative and independent New Zealand and Pacific media, such as Asia Pacific Report, Pacific Scoop (both via the Pacific Media Centre), West Papua Media and Evening Report that have provided relentless coverage of West Papua. Other community and activist groups deserve honourable mentions.

Even in my own case, a journalist and educator who has written on West Papuan affairs for more than three decades with countless articles and who wrote the first New Zealand book with an extensive section on the West Papuan struggle (Robie, 1989), there is a remarkable silence.

One has a strong impression that Leadbeater is reluctant to acknowledge her contemporaries (a characteristic of her previous books too) and thus the selective sourcing weakens her work as it relates to the millennial years.

The early history of the West Papuan agony is exemplary, but in view of the flawed final two chapters I look forward to another more nuanced account of the contemporary struggle. Merdeka!

David Robie is director of the Pacific Media Centre and editor of Pacific Journalism Review. He was awarded the 1983 NZ Media Peace Prize for his coverage of Timor-Leste and West Papua, “Blood on our hands”, published in New Outlook magazine.

Papua Blood: A Photographer’s Eyewitness Account of West Papua Over 30 Years, by Peter Bang. Copenhagen, Denmark: Remote Frontlines, 2018. 248 pages. ISBN 9788743001010.
See No Evil: New Zealand’s Betrayal of the People of West Papua, by Maire Leadbeater. Dunedin, NZ: Otago University Press, 2018. 310 pages. ISBN 9781988531212.

References
Adam, A. W. (2015, October 1). How Indonesia’s 1965-1966 anti-communist purge remade a nation and the world. The Conversation. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/how-indonesias-1965-1966-anti-communist-purge-remade-a-nation-and-the-world-48243

Bang, P. (1996). Duianya Puwul. [English edition (2018): Puwul’s World: Endangered native people]. Copenhagen, Denmark: Remote Frontlines.

Osborne, R. (1985). Indonesia’s secret war: The guerilla struggle in Irian Jaya. Sydney, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

Robie, D. (1989). Blood on their banner: Nationalist struggles in the South Pacific. London, UK: Zed Books.

Robie, D. (2017). Tanah Papua, Asia-Pacific news blind spots and citizen media: From the ‘Act of Free Choice’ betrayal to a social media revolution. Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa, 23(2), 159-178. https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v23i2.334

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

An advocacy group, West Papua Action Auckland, has urged Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to raise human rights and the “suffering of the people” of Indonesian-ruled West Papua when she meets with President Widodo on Monday.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, the leader of the largest economy in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) with two-way trade worth NZ$1.76 billion last year, will arrive in New Zealand tomorrow for a two-day visit.

The West Papua action group says in a statement released by spokeswoman Maire Leadbeater:

Our Melanesian neighbours in West Papua are suffering grievously and must not be overlooked for the sake of “good relations” or markets for our goods.

For 55 years West Papuan people have been seeking freedom from repressive military rule, imposed on them in a scandalously unfair process. The loss of life is estimated to be at least 100,000.

Even though the struggle is now mainly about peaceful protest, petitions and diplomacy – there is no let up in security force crack-downs.

In the last three years the police have adopted a strategy of arresting demonstrators en masse, and thanks to a police chief edict, organisations deemed “separatist” are denied the opportunity to hold any kind of gathering.

-Partners-

Blatant breach
This is a blatant breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which Indonesia is a signatory.

Yanto Awerkion, a young activist who was promoting an petition calling for the UN decolonisation committee to become involved, has now spent over 9 months in jail on a treason charge. He will be released shortly – thanks to international pressure.

Last year the International Coalition for Papua documented 10 cases of extrajudicial killings, when the victims were either shot dead during security force operations or tortured to death in custody.

West Papuans say that they are experiencing “slow genocide” and this refers to the impact on their lives of marginalisation and environmental exploitation as well as to shockingly low standards of health and education.

In the remote Asmat area in the last few months there has been a devastating outbreak of measles which, coupled with malnutrition, took the lives of dozens of children.

There are a growing number of Pacific nations who are taking a stand in support for West Papuan self-determination.

So far New Zealand has not supported their initiatives in regional forums and at the United Nations.

So this meeting with President Widodo will be a timely opportunity for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her ministers to demonstrate that New Zealand does support fundamental rights and freedoms, and that principle and compassion have not been forgotten.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

The West Papuan Morning Star flag of independence – banned in Indonesia – has been raised on an official local government flagpole in Auckland’s Aotea Square as solidarity protests have been held around the Pacific.

Green MP Golriz Ghahraman, a defender of human rights, praised the flag-raising action yesterday when speaking to a small crowd of supporters including visiting international free speech advocates.

“New Zealand has always led on these issues and in a very proud way,” she said.

She said to remain silent in the face of ongoing human rights violations in Papua by security forces amounted to “complicity”.

West Papua Action Auckland spokesperson Maire Leadbeater said it had been the first time official permission had been granted for the flag-raising on a flagpole in front of the central city Aotea Centre.

In Indonesia, protesters raising the Morning Star flag risk up to 15 years in jail.

200 arrested
Last year, more than 200 people were arrested in a flag-raising protest in the capital of Jakarta and authorities used water canon to quell the demonstration.

The Auckland flag-raising marked the 56th year since the Morning Star was first hoisted on 1 December 1961 alongside the flag of the Dutch colonial authorities before Indonesia invaded the territory.

The Auckland protest included Malou Mangahas, executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), and other participants at the Pacific Media Centre’s “Journalism under duress in Asia-Pacific” event featuring West Papua held the night before at Auckland University of Technology.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz