Vol. 76/No. 44      December 3, 2012

Protests were held in Jayapura, provincial capital of Papua, nearby Sentani and also Wamena, the largest town in the Papua highlands. Several hundred Papuans also joined an action in Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi. Indonesian police opened fire on a rally in Manokwari, capital of West Papua, injuring five protesters.

Some 300 had joined the Manokwari rally, sponsored by the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), and attempted to march from the State University of Papua when police and the Indonesian military blocked their path. Eleven people were arrested.

The Jakarta Globe reported that police attempted to shut the rally down because the organizers didn’t have the proper permit.

“Any kind of rally linked to human rights violations in Papua could never get a permit from the police,” activist Markus Haluk told the Globe.

Formerly a Dutch colony like Indonesia, Papua was occupied by the Indonesian military in 1963 and formally incorporated into the country in 1969. The territory, with a population of more than 3.6 million, is currently administered as two provinces—Papua and West Papua.

Papuan struggles center around dispossession, marginalization and government repression. Last October the Papuan People’s Congress in Jayapura drew some 5,000 participants from more than 200 tribes.

Indonesian government forces broke up the congress and arrested hundreds of delegates after participants raised the banned Morning Star flag and issued a declaration in support of independence. Five of the Papuan leaders were convicted of treason and sentenced to three years in prison.

“Prison conditions are very bad,” Sam Awom from National Papua Solidarity told the Militant in a Sept. 28 interview in Jakarta. “Friends and family are not permitted to visit. Most political prisoners are in very bad health.”

The People’s Congress took place as thousands of miners, both Indonesian and Papuan, were on strike at the Freeport gold and copper mine in Indonesian Papua. Papuan tribes in the area supported the strike and raised their own demands over land rights and distribution of the mine’s profits.

The day following the congress, six participants were found dead behind a nearby military post. A report pointing to evidence that an Indonesian counterterrorism unit, known as Detachment 88, is operating in Papua and has been involved in targeting and killing independence leaders was aired on ABC’s “7.30 Report” Aug. 27.

Between May and August this year five KNPB activists, including the group’s leader Mako Tabuni, were killed by government forces, Witnesses say that Detachment 88 was responsible.

ABC radio reported Nov. 6 that Paul Horis, another leader of the KNPB, was killed.

In a Sept. 28 interview at the office of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS) in Jakarta, Sinung Karto, head of the Division, Advocacy and Human Rights at KontraS, told the Militant, “We investigate cases of forced disappearance of human rights activists and protest military oppression in West Papua.”

“People have paid more attention [to the struggle in West Papua] since the three-month Freeport strike,” Feri Kusuma, chair of Network for Law in Central West Papua, said.

“There was more attention from the unions here. It makes organizing [solidarity] easier,” she added.  
 
 
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