Demonstrations to Call for Open Access to Papua #openpapua

Demonstrations to Call for Open Access to Papua

End 50 years of isolation and Support free and open access to Papua.

April 29, 2015, 6 p.m.

Indonesian Consulate, 5 E 68th St. (near 5th Ave.) in Manhattan
(take #6 train to 68 St.-Hunter College stop; N, R, Q to 5th Ave/59th St.)

On April 29, demonstrations will be held in London and New York calling for an end to 50 years of isolation and free and open access to Papua. (The London protest will take place at noon, outside the Indonesian embassy, 38 Grosvenor Square) the New York protest will begin at 6 pm at the Indonesian consulate in Manhattan. 

Tapol, which initiated the protests, is organizing the London demonstration. ETAN is organizing the one in New York. Additional events may be organized elsewhere.

West Papua is one of the world’s most isolated conflict spots. For decades, indigenous activists campaigning for their rights have been arrested, disappeared, tortured and killed. Local journalists who uncover the truth face lethal risks. Foreign journalists trying to report on Papua have been arrested, deported and even imprisoned. One by one, international humanitarian organizations have closed their Papua offices. Access for UN human rights observers has been closed for eight years. Until Indonesia lifts the repressive restrictions on access to Papua, Indonesian security forces and paramilitaries are free to act with total impunity, and indigenous Papuans will continue to be killed.

Demonstrators will be wearing all-black clothing to protest the media blackout in Papua. They will be carrying placards, some of which will be ‘censored,’ and have their mouths taped shut.

Contact ETAN (etan@etan.org) or 917-690-4321 for more info.

• Facebook page for this event
• Facebook page for London event

Indonesia's book banning law over-turned, sort of...

UPDATE: Australian Broadcasting's PM program has a new report where Indonesian artists discuss a climate of censorship where "their works were increasingly banned, attacked and even destroyed, usually by religious groups" as police stand by. One artist is quoted: "as Indonesia has become more democratic, post-Suharto, there's less artistic freedom."

On Wednesday, Indonesia's constitutional court has over-turned the Attorney General's unilateral power to ban books.

"The 1963 Law on Securing Printed Materials whose content could disrupt public order is against the constitution," Court Chief Mahfud MD said. "The law is no longer legally binding."

An editorial in the Jakarta Globe, praised the ruling but said

The ruling, however, is not a total victory for freedom of thought in this country. The AGO can still secure a ban or confiscate books but it will have to apply to the court for a ruling in its favor...  Indonesia still has laws that allow the state to restrict freedom of speech, such as the Anti-Pornography Law and the 1965 Blasphemy Law.... Also, the government can apply for a court to temporarily ban a book until due legal process has been completed to decide if the book should legally be banned in the longer term.

The 50-year old law had been used 22 times to ban books on West Papua, religion, the events of 1965, which brought the Suharto dictatorship to power,  among other topics.

UPI reported:

In February this year, author John Roosa, upon learning that his own book concerning Suharto's coup in 1965 had been banned, wrote that he was surprised Indonesia still censored so many publications.

"When I first heard that the translation of my book, 'Pretext for Mass Murder: The September 30th Movement and Suharto's Coup d'Etat' was banned, I had a deja vu," he wrote.

"It was like I was still living in the era of Suharto when every printed material was censored, when college students were charged for reading books authored by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, when a lot of my friends were working anonymously and moving underground in the fight against the dictator."

West Papua Report February 2010

The February 2010 West Papua Report, 69th in a series of monthly reports that focus on developments affecting Papuans, is now available. The series is produced by the non-profit West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT) drawing on media accounts, other NGO assessments, and analysis and reporting from sources within West Papua. This report is co-published with the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) Back issues are posted online at http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm

Summary 

Papuans have also staged rallies in support of calls for a referendum on West Papua's political status and to welcome efforts of international support groups. New research has pointed to the persistence and perniciousness of the Indonesian military's illegal logging. A new attack on Freeport personnel re-enforces analyses that Indonesian security forces are orchestrating the violence. An Indonesian NGO and the Papuan branch of the Indonesian Human Rights Commission say that rights protection in West Papua declined in 2009. A Human Rights Watch report details rights violations in 2009. The Indonesian military has named a senior Special Forces (Kopassus) officer to head up the military in West Papua. The appointment conflicts with Papuan efforts to begin a dialogue with the central government and to demilitarize West Papua. The man chosen to replace independence leader Kelly Kwalik, killed by the police in December, has pledged to continue Kwalik's pursuit of a peaceful dialogue with Indonesian authorities. The police who killed Kwalik have been honored for their action. The Indonesian government plans to ban more books, including some which address Papuan issues. The Indonesian Government is moving forward with plans for a "food estate" in West Papua which will expropriate land from local people and bring many non-Papuans to the site as laborers. A local union and others have condemned the plan as a "land grab."

Dili Insider blog shuts down due to threats

The attacks on the Dili Insider are an unfortunate assault on freedom of information and debate. That people would resort to threats to suppress information and views they disagree with rather than debate them must be challenged.

If you have information that they might have otherwise shared with the Dili Insider, you are welcome to contact us. If it checks out, we will certainly consider sharing it on our listserv, website and this blog.

We believe it is very important to stand up to bullies.

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.