now available: West Papua Report June 2013

now available: West Papua Report  June 2013

This edition of the West Papua Report's PERSPECTIVE is by a longtime observer of West Papua. This is the last of a three-part series (see Part 1 and Part 2). In this part, the author, who for his safety asked to remain anonymous, examines the decreased effectiveness of NGOs and the declining influence of elements of the religious community to improve the plight of West Papuans. He also sets out essential conditions for a successful Papuan-central government dialogue.

In UPDATE, Papuan political prisoners have spurned President Yudhoyono's pledge to offer clemency at some future date. The number of political prisoners nearly doubled in May. There has been significant progress in advancing West Papuan interests within the Melanesian Spearhead Group. Government intelligence and defense agencies yet again speculate that foreign agents are at work in West Papua. WPAT notes that such tales are usually created out of whole cloth in order to justify continued restrictions on outside observers. This report also details accounts of a wave of military-on-civilian violence in the central highlands, including the discovery of many mutilated bodies.

In CHRONICLE, we provides links to recent testimony before the U.S. congressional Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission on Indonesia and West Papua; to recent UN statements on West Papua's political status and the human rights situation in the territory; to Amnesty International's annual rights review of Indonesia; and to WPAT and ETAN's evaluation of the U.S. State Department's report of the human rights in Indonesia. Also, nearly a dozen international groups appealed to UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression. Finally, President Yudhoyono intends to offer a new version of "Special Autonomy" for West Papua. The new plan is a tacit admission that the existing "Special Autonomy" has failed.

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May 2013 West Papua Report

Read the full issue here

This edition of the West Papua Report features a PERSPECTIVE by a longtime observer of West Papua. This is the second of a three-part series. This part focuses on the growing crisis in Papuan society posed by decades of neglect of essential services and a breakdown of governance. The author also explores the causes and consequences of fundamental demographic shifts in West Papua. In particular, he describes the destructive impact on West Papuan society arising from central government efforts to divide existing political structures into ever-smaller units and the accelerating marginalization of Papuans through the government-supported migration of non-Papuans into Papuan lands.

Activists associated with the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) face continued persecution, as security forces threaten the organization and others who plan on May 1 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Indonesian annexation of West Papua. The West Papua Advocacy Team calls on the U.S. government to monitor security force activity in West Papua associated with the May 1 demonstrations. This edition's UPDATE section also welcomes the launch of the website Papuans Behind Bars, which will help human rights activists around the world monitor the plight of Papuan political prisoners. The UPDATE also notes the collapse of central government health care systems for Papuans, as well as the persecution of those who seek to reveal this crisis. In addition West Papuans continue their diplomacy aimed at membership in the Melanesia Spearhead Group. In the CHRONICLE section, the Report notes continuing media coverage of a vast military-run road development scheme in West Papua, a May 1 statement from imprisoned Papuan leader Edison Waromi, and a recent review of the plight of Papuan political prisoners.