December 1 flag day protests have taken place in several cities around Indonesia including the capital Jakarta, Yogyakarta (Central Java), Ternate (North Maluku) and Sinjai (South Sulawesi), reports Arah Juang.

The actions were launched to commemorate West Papua Independence Day.

But even before the actions were launched, security forces attempted to  thwart them by blocking protesters, breaking up rallies and arresting demonstrators.

The following are reports on the actions in Jakarta and Yogyakarta:

Jakarta
In Jakarta, protesters from the Papuan Students Alliance (AMP), the Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-WP) and the Papuan Central Highlands Indonesian Student Association (AMPTPI) had began preparing to launch actions since 5.30am.

The protesters gathered at the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) in Central Jakarta holding banners reading “Reject Special Autonomy and Give the Right of Self-Determination to the West Papuan Nation” along with posters with similar demands.

The women demonstrators wore sali (traditional Papuan women’s clothing)  while others painted pictures of the Morning Star independence flag on their faces and bodies.

The protesters then moved off in an orderly manner to the intersection near the Indonesian Alkitab Foundation before taking vehicles to the United States Embassy in Central Jakarta.

At 6am the demonstrators had gathered in front of the US Embassy and were giving speeches. AMP member Roland Levy said in a speech that Special Autonomy (Otsus) had failed to protect the Papuan people.

“Many Papuan people have been killed, evicted, discriminated against and labeled as separatists. Because of this the solution is independence for the West Papuan nation as a democratic solution”, he said while shouting “Referendum? Yes!”

Following this, the protesters moved off to the nearby Presidential Palace but were blocked by police from entering the National Monument from the west near the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle.

The demonstrators then gave speeches, made up games, performed the Wisisi dance (a traditional Papuan dance) and prayed together to commemorate the declaration of West Papuan independence on 1 December 1961.

One of the participants read out a poem about the Papuan people’s spirit of nationalism for December 1. One of the women then related how independence was the right of all nations.

A statement was read out at 9.30am and the action closed with a prayer.

At the end of the action as the protesters were to return to the starting point, they were provoked by a small group of unknown individuals. The demonstrators restrained themselves and did not respond, referring to the group as “1000 or so people”, meaning a group hired by the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).

Yogyakarta
In Yogyakarta, thousands of students from the Free Papua December 1 Movement Alliance launched an action commemorating the declaration of independence in Papua.

The action, which started at 9am, involved a long-march from the Papuan student dormitory to the nearby Zero Kilometer point in front of the Central Post Office. During the march the protesters shouted slogans such as “Free West Papua”, “NKRI no” and “Referendum yes”.

They also took turns in giving speeches with Momiake Gresya saying, “We Papuan people constantly live under the shadow of death, being killed, tortured like animals, and all of this is perpetrated by the TNI [Indonesian military] and Polri [Indonesian police]”.

“An example of this is in Nduga [regency] today. For two years more than 40,000 people have fled seeking shelter and 240 have died as a result of Indonesian military operations,” said Gresya.

In another speech, FRI-WP representative Muhamad Iis explained about the ordinary Indonesian people’s support for the Papuan struggle for independence.

“Today we declare our full support for Papuan independence”, he said.

Iis said that colonialism in Papua was not supported by all the Indonesian people.

“Colonialism is not the position of the majority of Indonesian people, just a greedy handful of people,” he said.

Accompanied by the song “Let the Coordination Post be Torn Down”, at 1pm the protesters danced around the command vehicle waving two Morning Star flags.

This managed to incite security personnel who tried to move into the crowd but demonstrators succeeded in blocking them and the situation returned to normal.

The action ended at 2.30pm with the reading out of a statement and
shouts of “Free West Papua, Free West Papua, Free West Papua”.

Other demands
A number of other demands were also made during the demonstrations, including:

• putting the perpetrators of human rights violations in Papua on trial;
• the withdrawal of all organic and non-organic troops and an end to military operations;
• an end to the theft of land and natural resources,
• that the Indonesian government acknowledge that West Papua
  has been independent since 1961;
• the closure of PT Freeport and other mining operations; for the UN to take responsibility for and be active in an act of self-determination;
• the “straightening out” of history and resolving human rights violations in Papua;
• allowing access for national and international journalists to report in Papua; an end to racial discrimination against Papuans;
• the ratification of the Draft Law on the Elimination of Sexual Violence; and for
• the government to revoke the recently enacted Jobs Law.

Declaration of independence
Although it is widely held that West Papua declared independence from Indonesia on 1 December 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 1 July 1971 at the Victoria Headquarters in Jayapura where the OPM raised the Morning Star flag and unilaterally proclaimed West Papua as an independent democratic republic.

Slightly abridged translation by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of
the article was “Peringati 1 Desember di Jakarta dan Yogyakarta, Mahasiswa Menyatakan Tolak Otonomi Khusus dan Berikan Kemerdekaan Bagi Papua”.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Academics, journalists and students today raised the West Papuan flag – an act banned in Indonesia and punishable by up to 15 years in jail – at a Pacific Media Centre-hosted symposium in Auckland today.

The protest marked the 59th anniversary of the day West Papuans first raised their flag of independence, known as the Morning Star, on 1 December 1961.

Organisers said the symbolic flag-raising was done during the centre’s “highlights and new horizons” symposium at Auckland University of Technology in solidarity with Papuan students studying in New Zealand and in protest against human rights violations by Indonesian security forces.

A human rights advocate at the event, Del Abcede, spoke on behalf of the students at their request, declaring: “I will say the things they cannot say because it puts them at risk”.

She appealed for more support from New Zealand and Pacific countries for the West Papuan self-determination cause.

“I will say the two things that the students cannot say directly themselves without being put at risk over their safety,” she said.

One was about raising the flag or speaking about the jailings. The other was about a petition for independence.

15 year jail sentence
“Filep Karma is a Papuan independence activist. On 1 December 2004 he helped raise the Morning Star flag at a caremony in Jayapura together with other activists. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison,” she said.

“Yusak Pakage, one of the activists was sentenced to 10 years. Pakage was released in 2010 by presidential pardon.

“But Filipe Karma refused a pardon. He was released on 19 November 2015 after [serving] more than 10 years due to pressure from the international community,” Abcede said.

“In January 2019, West Papuan activists delivered a petition to the United Nations demanding a referendum on West Papuan independence.

“The position of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) is clear – it advocates the right to self-determination through an independence referendum, not Indonesian-controlled ‘autonomy’.”

In solidarity with the Papuan students, about 50 academics and media people held the flag aloft and sang two traditional songs.

The symposium delivered presentations on a wide range of topics from the future of journalism research methodologies to documentary and journalism collaboration, project journalism in the Asia-Pacific Region, and media diversity and publication.

Speakers praised the Stuff news portal that this week published an apology for 163 years of biased reporting on Maori issues, with centre director Professor David Robie describing the “courageous” move as a “game-changer’ on media and race relations.

The centre publishes Asia Pacific Report, Pacific Media Watch and PMC Online online news platforms, and also the 26-year-old Pacific Journalism Review.

Protest outside NZ Parliament
In Wellington, dozens of people demonstrated in support of West Papuan independence outside New Zealand’s parliament, reports RNZ Pacific’s Johnny Blades.

New Zealand Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson and several other MPs attended the demostration in Wellington.

They spoke to a crowd of more than 50, saying the denial of Papuans’ right to self-determination was a Pacific regional problem.

Papua’s 1 December anniversary is marked by similar demonstrations around the world, including in Melbourne, Oxford, Honiara and The Hague.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Watch

The Australian government should break its silence and raise human rights violations in West Papua with visiting Indonesian President Joko Widodo today, says a Sydney-based advocacy group.

Widodo is expected to deliver an address to a joint sitting of Federal Parliament in Canberra.

He is in Australia to discuss and finalise the Indonesia-Australia comprehensive economic partnership agreement (IA-CEPA), which is in the final stage of ratification.

READ MORE: Why is NZ turning its back on human rights in West Papua?

“We can expect the usual talkfest on trade and investment, maritime issues, defence/security, counter-terrorism and cyber security,” said Joe Collins of the Australian West Papua Association (AWPA) in a statement.

“However, the one issue that won’t be on the agenda is the human rights situation in West Papua.

“Canberra continuously remains silent on the issue of West Papua. Even during the mass demonstrations that occurred in August and September last year in response to racist attacks on West Papuan students, it took a question by a journalist before our foreign minister made a comment on the issue.”

Indonesia and various governments continued to claim the human rights situation in West Papua was improving, said Collins.

Blocking fact-finding
“Yet Jakarta continues to block fact-finding missions to the territory, arrest and deport foreign media, harass human rights defenders and local media in West Papua, and shuts down the internet during demonstrations in order to stop information getting out.”

AWPA is calling on Canberra to “not only raise the human rights situation in West Papua with Jokowi, but urge him to release all political prisoners who face charges of treason simply because they raised the West Papuan flag or took part in anti–racism demonstrations.

The visit by President Widodo was an opportunity for Australia to show its commitment to human rights in the region by making a strong statement of concern about West Papua, said Collins

AWPA also urged Prime Minister Scott Morrison to press the Indonesian president to allow a fact-finding to West Papua as requested by Pacific Island Forum (PIF) leaders.

Several rallies will be held today in various cities, including Sydney.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

ANALYSIS: By Camellia Webb-Gannon of the University of Wollongong

Last weekend, the Indonesian police took 43 West Papuan students into custody for allegedly disrespecting the Indonesian flag during an independence day celebration (an allegation the students deny).

Police stormed the students’ dorm and used teargas to force them out, while bystanders and officers called them “monkeys”, a derogatory term for ethnically Melanesian Papuans.

West Papuans have long been cast by Indonesians as primitive people from the Stone Age, and this racist treatment continues to this day. West Papuan author Filep Karma described the extent of racism against West Papuans in his 2014 book, As If We Are Half-Animal: Indonesia’s Racism in Papua Land, saying he often heard Indonesians call West Papuans monkeys.

READ MORE: Indonesian racism towards West Papuans and the implications for the Free West Papua Movement

This latest episode of discrimination builds on more than five decades of racism, torture, summary executions, land dispossession and cultural denigration of West Papuans by Indonesian security forces.

After the students were detained last weekend, riots erupted in the cities of Manokwari and Jayapura. Thousands of people turned out to protest against the mistreatment of the students and, more broadly, the mistreatment of West Papuans by the Indonesian authorities. Many protesters waved the nationalist Morning Star flag, an act punishable by a 15-year jail sentence (Indonesia is not just sensitive about how West Papuans treat the Indonesian flag – the state prohibits them from flying their own.)

In response to the deteriorating security situation, Indonesia has deployed more troops and police to the region.

Widodo’s promises haven’t changed much
When the politically moderate Indonesian President Joko Widodo came to power in 2014, West Papua observers had high hopes he might broker peace in the region, much the same way the government of his predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was able to quell a long-running pro-independence conflict in Aceh.

However, Widodo has not been capable of controlling the Indonesian military in West Papua. He also doesn’t seem to realise that economic development is not the solution to ending the armed resistance in the region – West Papuan leaders want a political resolution, not an economic one.

Part of Widodo’s development agenda in West Papua has been to commence building a Trans-Papua Highway to facilitate movement of goods and people across the astoundingly rugged terrain in the region.

But in December, West Papuan guerrilla forces attacked Indonesian workers constructing the highway, killing several dozen. There is deep resentment among West Papuans toward Indonesian migrant workers, who they believe are taking their jobs and land and disrupting Papuan life in the region.

Violence by the Indonesian military and police against West Papuans has also increased during Widodo’s presidency. According to the International Coalition for Papua, a human rights organisation, more than 6,400 people were arrested for political activism in 2015 and 2016.

The group has also documented more than 300 victims of torture or maltreatment and 20 victims of extrajudicial killings for those years.

In addition, local journalists continue to face harassment from security forces, while foreign journalists are still denied entry to West Papua. Preventable diseases and malnutrition have also had devastating effects throughout the region.

In 2017, Widodo finally reached out to West Papuans offering dialogue – a process West Papuans had been requesting since at least 2008. However, the leaders of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) decided it was too little, too late.

A new independence referendum
West Papuans are now calling for a UN-supervised referendum on independence from Indonesia.

In 1969, seven years after Indonesia invaded West Papua, the United Nations oversaw a referendum in which West Papuans were to decide on independence or official integration with Indonesia. Indonesia handpicked less than 1 percent of the Papuan population to vote and threatened them with violence should they make the “wrong” decision.

The result has been a lengthy, often brutal colonial occupation of Papuans and their land.

Independence advocates have the support of at least seven Pacific island nations – as well as a number of MPs in New Zealand – as they pursue the possibility of a new referendum on decolonisation through the United Nations.

Through revived links with global Black Power and Indigenous movements in the Pacific and beyond, as well as the mass connectivity afforded by social media, Papuans are enjoying levels of solidarity from around the world they have never before experienced.

While independence is still unlikely for West Papua, it would be foolish to rule it out. Timor-Leste, South Sudan and Kosovo have shown us that right to self-determination is one that is still honoured, even if infrequently.

Why does West Papua matter?
Why should the world care about this little-known decolonisation movement?

The answer is simple: In the post-Rwandan genocide world, the international community has committed to a moral and political “responsibility to protect” people whose states are unable or unwilling to ensure them safety, or are perpetrating crimes against them.

The United Nations “responsibility to protect” mandate means that UN members are required, under international law, to protect anybody at risk of

genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

It is time the world lives up to its responsibility to demand that state-sanctioned violence against West Papuans stop, no matter how bad relations with Jakarta become. Ultimately, lives are worth more than politics.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Arnold Belau in Jayapura and Wahyoe Boediwardhana in Surabaya

More than 500 Papuans in several cities across Indonesia and West Papua were arrested following rallies at the weekend marking December 1 to commemorate what many Papuans claim to be the birth of West Papua nation in 1961.

The lawyer of the arrested Papuans, Veronica Koman, said in a statement on Saturday that 537 people were arrested in Kupang in East Nusa Tenggara, Ternate in North Maluku, Manado in North Sulawesi, Makassar in South Sulawesi, Jayapura, Asmat and Waropen in Papua and Surabaya in East Java.

Among the total, 322 were arrested in Surabaya.

READ MORE: Nationalist militia attack Papuan rally in Surabaya

In Papua, 90 people were arrested in separate places and times.

On Friday, a day before the rallies, joint forces of the Indonesian Military and the National Police searched the headquarters of the National Committee for West Papua (KNPB) in Kampung Vietnam in Jayapura.

-Partners-

The joint force also arrested Larius Heluka on Friday.

The following day, the joint force arrested 89 people in Abepura in Jayapura municipality, in separate places in Jayapura regency and in Yapen regency. As of Sunday, all 90 had been released by the police.

Kupang arrests
In Kupang, the police arrested 18 people early Saturday morning.

East Nusa Tenggara Police chief Inspector General Raja Erizman said the Papuans were not arrested but “secured and questioned”.

“I have ordered [Kupang Police chief] to treat them well,” Raja said Saturday.

In Surabaya, which saw one of the biggest December 1 rallies, a clash occurred between about 300 people grouped under the Papuan Student Alliance (AMP) and other groups that accused the Papuans of “committing treason”.

Seventeen Papuans were injured, with some sustaining head wounds.

The Papuan students in Surabaya made a public speech, calling on Papuans to not remain silent when it came to discrimination and restrictions on their freedom of speech. They also campaigned for self-determination for Papuans’ future.

However, the situation became tense when a group consisting of around 200 people from several mass organisations, including the Communication Forum of Indonesian Veterans Children (FKPPI) and Pancasila Youth (PP), arrived on the scene to stage a protest against AMP.

Clashing camps
The two camps launched verbal attacks at each other, which escalated into a physical altercation.

“At first, this rally ran peacefully, until we were blocked in front of the Grahadi building and then came the Pancasila Youth mass organization, which intimidated us and turned the situation into an [altercation],” AMP human rights lawyer Veronica Koman said after the incident on Saturday.

The East Java Police and Surabaya Police deployed 1055 police personnel, aided by two Army groups and the Surabaya Public Order Agency (Satpol PP), to disperse the two clashing camps.

Koman said the AMP had respected the aspirations of the mass organisations, but the counterprotesters should not have incited the riot by throwing bottles and sharpened bamboo at the students.

AMP spokesperson Dorlince Iyowau said the Papuans only demanded the right to decide their own fate.

“Our main demand is the right to decide our own fate, as a democratic solution for West Papua. We want Papuans to have their own political rights,” Dolince said.

‘Committing treason’
Meanwhile, PP Surabaya Secretary Baso Juherman accused the alliance of committing treason.

“The rally [by the alliance] was clearly a treasonous act. The PP took to the streets to prevent them [from committing treason], because the rally hurt Surabaya residents,” Juherman said.

The coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) in Surabaya, Fatkhul Khoir, called on the release of the 322 people in a statement on Sunday.

Arnold Belau and Wahyoe Boediwardhana were reporting for The Jakarta Post.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz