SIGN NOW: #MAKEWESTPAPUASAFE. Hold Australia Accountable

SIGN NOW: #MAKEWESTPAPUASAFE. HOLD THE AFP ACCOUNTABLE

We therefore ask the Australian Senate to call on the Government to:

• Condemn human rights violations everywhere, including in West Papua;
• Vigorously raise concerns about human rights violations committed in West Papua with the Indonesian Government;
• Take action at the United Nations to hold the Indonesian Government fully accountable for human rights violations committed by its security forces in West Papua;
• Ensure that Australian Government aid does not enable human rights violations anywhere, including in West Papua;
• Initiate an independent audit of the effectiveness and human rights risks associated with all programs involving Indonesian police and military receiving Australian Government funding.

Sign here: https://wagepeaceau-beyondwarau.nationbuilder.com/make_west_papua_safe_petition

Take ACTION: Australia: Hands Off Timor's Oil!

Share this action: http://bit.ly/timorsea

Stand in solidarity with the East Timorese demanding their rights

Join the international online protest the week of March 21-25 Take Action from your computer, phone or tablet

1) Take a photo of yourself holding a sign saying either "Australia: Hands Off Timor's Oil!" or "Australia: Median Line Now!"; include your name and location (e.g. John, New York, NY, USA).

2) Post your selfie to Twitter and/or Instagram and add it to the event's Facebook page here with the hashtag #medianlinenow and/or #HandsOffTimorsOil.

See sample photos below and printable signs in Word, PDF. On Twitter include @TurnbullMalcolm and @etan009; on Instagram include @turnbullmalcolm and@etan009. If you do not have, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, just email us your photo (watch the file size, please), and we will post it.

3) After you post, email a link to us at etan@etan.org.

This part of Hands Off Timor's Oil - International Week of Action

PELO BA KOLEGA SIRA HOTU.

Tempo too ona atu bele utiliza ita boot telephone, ita boot nia laptop/PC hodi fo apoio luta atu bele liberta ita nia fronteira maritima. Bolu atensaun ba Timor-oan hotu atu partisipa ativu hodi bele fahe apelo ida ne'e ba kolega sira seluk, influensia iha media sosial hotu-hotu (facebook profile, FB group, Twitter, instangram,) no haruka photo no lian fuan ""Australia: Hands Off Timor's Oil!" ou "Australia: Median Line Now!" ba diresaun sira ne'e :

Facebook : hakerek hastag # medianlinenow no/ou # HandsOffTimorsOil .

Twitter : @TurnbullMalcolm ; @etan009;

Instagram : @turnbullmalcolm ; @etan009

Keta haluha ba mos hakerek ita boot nia naran no hela fatin (dili, australia no fatin seluk) hanesan ezemplu sira ne'e,

https://web.facebook.com/events/987393997974687/

Now out - April 2015 West Papua Report

Now out - April 2015 West Papua Report
Read report here

CONTENTS

This edition's PERSPECTIVE provides a detailed overview of the Tolikara incident in which security force fired on a demonstration by Christian Papuans killed one and injured 11 others. The demonstrators then attacked a Muslim community, burning kiosks and a mosque. Years of government "transmigration" policies and neglect of Papuans have left West Papua a powder keg. Despite this, the local Tolikara community has come together to resolve tensions.In UPDATE: Pressure is growing on the Indonesian government to credibly investigate the December 14, 2014 murder of four West Papuans by security forces. The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas Ham) "Ad Hoc Investigation" has made little headway and competing security force investigations appear aimed at pressuring victim families to abandon efforts to force accountability. Negotiations between the Indonesian government and mining giant Freeport McMoRan have led to a six month extension of its license. Talks to renew its contract have not yet gotten underway and are essential if Freeport operations are to continue past 2021. There are growing calls to reduce security forces in West Papua.
In CHRONICLE: Demographic trends in West Papua which have seen the reduction of Papuans to the status of a minority in their own land. Renowned human rights campaigner Carmel Budiardjo calls into question the United Kingdom's cooperation with the Indonesian government. AWest Papua "embassy" was temporarily set up in Darwin. The Pacific Islands Forum was urged to put West Papua on its agenda.
 

Grasburg Mine in West Papua

Just out: West Papua Report June 2014: West Papua Report June 2014: Poverty and Discrimination, land rights, calls for UN action, Police training, more

Read issue here

CONTENTS

This edition's PERSPECTIVE by renowned human rights campaigner Carmel Budiardjo provides a succinct overview of the history of Indonesian repression of West Papua and includes a focus on the special challenges facing Papuan women.

UPDATE highlights the intention of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission to focus on the plight of indigenous peoples, notably in West Papua. The Asian Human Rights Commission draws attention to police shooting of three Papuans in Nabire. The online activist network "Anonymous" has announced that it will focus on the plight of Papuans. A Pacific regional UN forum on decolonization was urged to consider the situation in West Papua. Indonesian President Yudhoyono's planned visit to Fiji illustrates Jakarta's efforts to undercut the broad appeal of the Papuan cause in the region. Religious activists are focusing on the exploitation of workers and their families by the oil palm plantation run by Sinar Mas. A New Zealand police training program in West Papua has been cancelled. The Australian government is urged to mitigate culpability for rights violations abroad.

CHRONICLE highlights "West Papua: No-One's Colony" by the Pacific Network on Globalization and May 14comments before the UN by Julianus Septer Manufandu, of the Papua Customary Council. A new illustrated, interactive eBook tells Papuan stories. Australian TV journalist broadcasts program on human rights in West Papua.

Freeport Mine 

Message from Dili to Australia - Stop Stealing and Occupying the Timor Sea

Activists in Dili send a message to Australia about its theft of Timor's resources.

The photo within the photo is from an East Timor and Indonesia Action Network
demon at the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC in 2004. The struggle continues!

Read from the statement of the Timor-Leste based Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea:

Today, the Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea asks the Government of Australia to:
1. Stop stealing and occupying the Timor Sea, but show your good will as a large nation which
follows democratic prniciples to accept a maritime boundary which follows international law
principles.
2. Australia should set an example as a sovereign nation which respects and recognizes the
rights of Timor-Leste’s people.
3. Australia should not promote or continue neocolonialism against Timor-Leste’s people, who
have suffered this for centuries. We will no longer be your slaves.
4. The Abbott government should apologize to the Maubere people, who have been hugely
discriminated against by Australia from the past to the present. If not, we will continue to
demonstrate at the Australian Embassy for the indefinite future.

Read the full statement here

Background from Lao Hamutuk is here and from ETAN here.

West Papua Report November 2013: Divesting Freeport, MIFEE, MSG, New Provinces, Travel Restrictions, 1970s Massacres

West Papua Report
November 2013

CONTENTS

This month's PERSPECTIVE covers the growing international movement for divestment in Freeport-McMoran. This reflects growing international concern on the mining operation's violations of human rights and ecological destruction in West Papua.

UPDATE looks at a new report that details the Indonesian military's use of U.S. and Australian provided aircraft to devastating effect on Papuan civilians in the 1970's. A plan to create new Papuan provinces will further disenfranchise West Papuans. Despite claims by the governor of Papua province, severe Indonesian government restrictions on journalists and other international visitors to the region remain in place. An Indonesian military-linked businessmen reportedly bribed Solomon Island officials in advance of Melanesian states consideration of a Papuan application for membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG). International NGOs and others have written to the MSG urging the regional Melanesian organization to accept the application. Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) continues to face criticism.

In CHRONICLE we note the publication of two important books dealing with West Papua; new statements by ETAN and WPAT, and a new report on the impact of the proliferation of new political districts in Papua.

Read full issue here: http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/2013/1311wpap.htm

Letter by Shirley Shackleton to SBY on Balibo

Shirley Shackleton delivered a letter (see below) to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on his March 10 visit to Australia. According to the AAP "The Indonesian president has expressed sympathy to the families of Australian newsmen killed in Balibo in 1975."

Shackleton went to a lunch in Yudhoyono's honor with the letter. The AAP reports "She was stunned when two emissaries from the president approached her. 'They came and said that we've come from President Yudhoyono to give you his best wishes,' she told AAP. "The emissary said he wants you to know he's very sympathetic to you, and he's very interested to read what you have to say in your letter.'

We all await any follow-up.

Below the letter is a commercial by Shirley which aired during the visit calling for prosecution of the killers of the Balibo 5 as a war crime. The Australian police are investigating the case now after a coroner's report (PDF) concluded that the 5 were deliberately murdered not caught in crossfire as both the Australian and Indonesian governments had long maintained.

10th March 2010

Mrs Shirley Shackleton
Address

Welcome to Australia, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and congratulations on being appointed an Honorary Companion of the Order of Australia. I am the wife of one the journalists alleged to have been slain by members of Team Susi of the Indonesian military on 16th October 1975.

My name is Shirley Shackleton.

I am aware of the potential for our two great nations to become true friends, but as everyone knows we have serious problems to settle, one of which is the atrocity at Balibó which remains a weeping sore. It is no use just saying we are friends; we have to be friends and friends do not lie to each other, especially about something as serious as the cold hearted murder of unarmed civilians.

On that terrible morning when I heard that my husband Greg Shackleton was missing with four other journalists, I feared he was dead.  My second fear was if my premonition was correct, this would have to be managed very carefully or boys like my eight-year-old son could be fighting Indonesian boys in the future. And then, I was forced to witness lies which failed to serve the Indonesian and Australian peoples; on the contrary, they forced us to mistrust one another.

Unfortunately, this was not confined to Australia; in your recent visit to the US, questions were posed to you regarding the shooting of the Australian journalists. I note, however, that at Harvard University you responded to a questioner by promising, "We will cooperate with Australia because we respect human rights and democracy."

I believe it is time to put this atrocity to rest and I am asking you to use this occasion to heal the weeping sore that taints any possibility of respect and true friendship between our two countries by not only sending those accused of the murders to Australia for trial, but to also grant me five minutes to plead my case.

I understood long ago that I can drop dead tomorrow and Balibó will not go away. Please, as the president of Indonesia, hear my plea. I request a reply from you.

Shirley Shackleton

Australians - Please e-mail the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence & Trade

via Clinton Fernandes

Sample Letter below:

senator.bishop@aph.gov.au
fadt.sen@aph.gov.au

Dear Senators,

As members of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, your committee has made several recommendations relating to Australia's involvement in peacekeeping missions.

This story in The Sydney Morning Herald states that a 65-year-old East Timorese mother of nine was killed by an Australian army vehicle in East Timor, yet "no Australian soldiers deployed in the International Stabilisation Force in East Timor have contacted them to explain what happened, express regret or offer compensation, expected in Timorese tradition."

Please obtain information from the Department of Defence about how the family is coping with the loss of a loved one. Please take steps to ensure the family is compensated adequately.

Please advise me of the Department's response as soon as possible. I can be contacted at the address below.

YOUR NAME
YOUR ADDRESS

Purwanto's Balibo revelation

Ex-Kopassus officer Gatot Purwanto revelation in Tempo magazine that he participated in the deliberate killing of the Balibo 5 in October 1975 is important, but contradictory and apparently designed to provide a justification for the killings. If taken at face value, it would absolve his superiors and leave largely intact the Indonesian version of events that crossfire was ultimately responsible for the killings.

The interview and Tempo cover story grow out of attempts to show the "Balibo" film in Indonesia, which was banned by the Indonesian censors. (The Alliance of Indonesia Journalists [AJI] did show the film, defying the ban.) In recent years, other films (documentaries) on Timor have also been banned from showing at the Jakarta International Film Festival (Jiffest). The censorship shows that in post-Suharto Indonesia the establishment is more interested in covering up past crimes and protecting the military officers who committed them, than in expanding democratic freedoms.

As Shirley Shackleton, widow of the murdered Balibo journalist Gregory Shackleton and a staunch advocate for accountability for the human rights crimes committed in East Timor, says that at least part of Purwanto's "confession" contradicts multiple eyewitness testimony. ''I think it [his statement] is a smokescreen to protect his commanding officer, Yunus Yosfiah so that Yosfiah will be able to say, 'I've got eyewitnesses,'' Shackleton, told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Purwanto, who with other Indonesian soliders had illegally entered then Portuguese Timor, told Tempo: "If we let them live, they would tell everyone it was an Indonesian invasion. If they died and we abandoned them, there would be evidence that they were shot in territory controlled by Indonesian guerrillas. So, the simple way was to eliminate everything. We just claimed not to know anything. It was the instant reaction at the time." Purwanto also said "the shots happened when we were provoked into shooting at the place where they were hiding, because shots came from there," while they were waiting for orders.

Shirley Shackleton's response:

"He's saying it wasn't crossfire. He also says that the troops fired after a shot came from behind the journalists. (But) there was no one in that village - it was completely deserted. That's bulls---. Team Susi was an assassination squad sent to shut them up. This was bloody murder."

Both the Timor-Leste Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) and the New South Wales Coroner, citing eyewitness accounts,  found there was no crossfire.

The Australian Federal Police, following up on the coroner's report are conducting a war crimes inquiry. Indonesia, always ready to try to bury past military crimes, is refusing to cooperate. It is sticking to the line that the journalists died in crossfire.

Woolcott and Balibo

Clinton Fernandes responded on the east-timor listserv (archive here, subscribe here) to an article in the Australian which features self-serving remarks by former Australian Ambassador to Indonesia Richard Woolcott. The retired diplomat blames the murdered Balibo 5 journalists and their bosses for the deaths:

"The ABC left, and others left," Mr Woolcott said. "I think proprietors (of the TV stations) bear a heavy responsibility that they've never had to shoulder." ...He said the Indonesians "would have regarded (the reporters) as combatants because of their close association with Fretilin".

He also denies any Australian or personal culpability:

Mr Woolcott said he assumed the [Balibo] film would be "partly fiction, but I don't want to buy into an argument about what the Australian government knew, or didn't know. All my cables have been made public. I have put it all down in my book, and I would not change a word of that chapter. It is simply a tragedy that these young and inexperienced people were there, and their lives were cut short."

Fernandes responds:

1. On 13th October 1975, Woolcott reported in a cable that he had been told by his Indonesian interlocutors that "The main thrust of the operation would begin on 15 October. It would be through Balibo and Maliana/Atsabe".

2. On 14th October, viewers across Australia watched Greg Shackleton's story stating that the Channel 7 team were on their way to the border.

3. On 15th October, Woolcott was once again told by the Indonesians that "Initially an Indonesian force of 800 will advance Batugade-Balibo-Maliana-Atsabe... It is of course clear that the presence of Indonesian forces of this order will become public. The Indonesians acknowledge this. The President's policy will be to deny any reports of the presence of Indonesian forces in Portuguese Timor."

4. On 16th October, the Indonesians attacked Balibo.

5. While there were no mobile phones in those days, Woolcott had immediate access to his Indonesian interlocutors face-to-face.

6. Here's an extract from the proceedings of the Coronial Inquest:

"Every single move by the Indonesians succeeded according to their plans. When informed of the precise Indonesian battle plans, no objection, public or private, was voiced. There were no news broadcasts showing Indonesian involvement in the attack on Balibo. Because senior Australian leaders had been compromised by advance warning of the attack, they were hardly in a position to disclose their true knowledge to the Australian people. When news of the deaths came out, not a single word in public or in private was uttered by the Australian Government or political leaders to suggest involvement or blame on the part of the Indonesians for the deaths of the journalists. Instead, Australian officials in public and in private persisted in what can only be called a bizarre charade of asking the Indonesian Military to use their good offices in seeking information from their Timorese militia allies about the deaths of the journalists... It is apparent that the Indonesian leaders engaged in a masterful power play worthy of an international chess grandmaster using Australian leaders and departmental officers as their pawns."

http://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/hass/Timor/3/east/index.html

see also: ETAN: Australian Inquest into Balibo Journalists Killings in East Timor Shows Ongoing Need to Pursue Justice and Accountability