A call to action to defy Internet shutdowns and suppression of online political opinion on West Papua

----- Forwarded message from GreenNet Support -----
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2019 18:07:56 +0000
Subject: A call to action to defy Internet shutdowns and suppression of
political opinion online

   
GreenNet

Dear Friends,   

*Thursday 5 December 2019*
We'd like to ask you to share this report
    
<http://www.papuansbehindbars.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/PBB-Jan-2018-Oct-2019-Nov2019.EN_.web_.pdf> as far and wide as possible, here's why:

On Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd November 2019 GreenNet's website and most of our online services, including most of our customers' websites, went offline for several hours on two occasions. Our technicians became aware of the outage on Friday lunchtime and worked remotely and at our data centre until the small hours of Saturday morning to identify the fault and restore access to websites and emails.

By about 2AM on Saturday things were coming back online, but they went down again later that day. By then we had revised our initial diagnosis of a hardware problem, and as we checked though our logs and discussed with our upstream provider LDEX, we became aware that the outage was caused by a deliberate attack on our infrastructure. We tweeted updates as we worked to bring back our services at https://twitter.com/GreenNetISP


The attack was a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) which basically hammers away at our servers with millions of requests until they run out of capacity and become unavailable. The volume of traffic at one point was equivalent to our Data Centre's entire traffic with Google, which gives an idea of the scale of the DDOS - the impact on the Data Centre was significant enough that they also had to block access or "blackhole" a large amount of traffic.

Once we had got everything back up the and dust had settled we were able to carry out some forensic examinations of our servers and logs. We were able to glean strong circumstantial evidence that we believe shows that the target was an organisation that was publishing new research that weekend https://www.papuansbehindbars.org.

*This is the report that the attack was aimed at blocking:
**http://www.papuansbehindbars.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/PBB-Jan-2018-Oct-2019-Nov2019.EN_.web_.pdf**
Now we'd like you to please disseminate it as widely as possible! *

We've been in contact with TAPOL https://www.tapol.org and SAFEnet
https://safenet.or.id/2019/08/keepiton-in-papua-and-west-papua, who work closely with PBB and in the region to promote human rights and to highlight the plight of political prisoners, as well as to challenge internet shutdowns.

Please promote their important work! We will be tweeting about this over the next few days, please retweet, boost and amplify the message, and #keepiton <https://twitter.com/hashtag/keepiton>!

Thanks from all of us at GreenNet, we'd also really like to say a big thank you to our customers for all your patience and support during and after the attack.

GreenNet, The Green House, 244-254 Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 9DA.
Tel (UK): 0330 355 4011 Tel (int'l): +44 (0)330 355 4011
Email: info@gn.apc.org <mailto:info@gn.apc.org>


----- End forwarded message -----

[Please note that ETAN is a supporter of Papuans Behind Bars (PBB). And as of the time we prepared to forward the message below, the PBB website was slow. If you cannot reach the PBB website, you can read the text of the PBB Jan-2018-Oct-2019-Nov2019 report here: https://lists.riseup.net/www/arc/reg.westpapua/2019-11/msg00035.html - or download the PDF here: http://etan.org/etanpdf/PBB-Jan-2018-Oct-2019-Nov2019.EN_.web_.pdf --John for ETAN]

June 2015 West Papua Report is now out!

read the issue here: http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/2015/1506wpap.htm

CONTENTS

This edition's PERSPECTIVE examines Indonesia President Widodo's failure to follow through on his election promises concerning West Papua, as his policy changes are regularly contradicted by those charged with implementing them.

In UPDATE: Five political prisoners in Papua were released as the fate of the rest remains in question. Jokowi's opening of West Papua to foreign journalists will only be meaningful with explicit rules governing access. A Papuan charged with treason over his assistance to journalists in West Papua has been acquitted. New reports tell of torture of Papuan civilians and of security force assaults and mass arrests at peaceful Papuan demonstrations. Plans to establish a new military command in West Papua has met with opposition. A prominent human rights advocate has been threatened with prosecution over his reports of security force excesses. U.S. authorities have inexplicably revoked the visa of prominent Papuan leader Benny Wenda. Jokowi goes to PNG, as the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) summit nears. Fiji groups attack their government's stance on West Papua.

In CHRONICLE: President Widodo is backing a major transformation of Papuan land through food plantations. which has prompted loud objections from local people for years. A palm oil supplier continues to destroy of Papuan forests. Global Day of Action's free expression demands remain unfulfilled.

Protester at April 29 Global Day of Action on Access to Papua. Photo by Tapol.

alls for Opening Papua to International Journalists, Aid Organizations and Human Rights Investigators

from http://etan.org/news/2015/04protest.htm

Calls for Opening Papua to International Journalists, Aid Organizations and Human Rights Investigators

On Wednesday, April 29, an international group of protesters gathered at the Indonesian consulate near Central Park in New York to call for an end to restrictions on access to West Papua. New Yorkers were joined by a number of West Papuans who were in New York for the UN's annual indigenous peoples' forum, as well as Indonesians, Australians, and Hawaiians, and others, to urged Presidents Jokowi Widodo to fulfill his promise to open the region.

Protesters leafletted and otherwise engaged passers-by and members of the consulate staff. Many of the protesters wore all-black clothing to symbolize the media blackout in Papua.

The protest was organized by the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), as part of the Global Day of Action for Free and Open Access to Papua. The NYC protest was one of 22 in 10 countries, including Indonesia, Australia, England and the Solomon Islands. In the U.S., demonstrations also took place in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

ETAN also delivered a letter to the consulate and the Indonesian embassy in Washington, DC, asking "what is Indonesia hiding in West Papua?" The letter urges "the end to restrictions on access to Papua" and  says "the media blackout in Papua denies the Papuan people the right to have their voices heard and allows human rights violations such as killings, torture and arbitrary arrests to continue with impunity." It was organized by Tapol and signed by 52 Papuan, Indonesian and international groups and parliamentarians (including ETAN and the West Papua Advocacy Team).

"Why are there such heavy restrictions on access to West Papua?" asked John M. Miller, coordinator of ETAN. "Indonesia's President Joko Widodo should fulfill his promise to end the barriers to journalists, human rights investigators and humanitarian organizations working in the region."

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.

The East Timor and  Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) was founded in 1991. ETAN supports democracy, human rights and justice in Timor-Leste, West Papua and Indonesia. Website: www.etan.org Twitter: @etan009.

see also West Papua Report

November West Papua Report is now out

This is the 127th in a series of monthly reports that focus on developments affecting Papuans. This 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 by the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN). Back issues are posted online at  http://www.etan.org/issues/wpapua/default.htm Q

Read the full issue here; http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/2014/1411wpap.htm. For additional news on West Papua see the reg.westpapua listserv archive or on Twitter.

CONTENTS

This edition's PERSPECTIVE looks at the controversial appointment of retired General Ryamizard Ryacudu as Defense Minister by President Joko Widodo. UPDATEreports on Widodo's initial comments on West Papua. He has pledged to pursue a more benign approach to the multiple economic, education and heath problems facing Papuans, but critics note his failure to acknowledge ongoing human rights problems there. Two French journalists who had been detained for alleged immigration violations were finally freed. Their arrest prompted widespread protest internationally and within Indonesia over efforts by Jakarta to limit international awareness of the repression in West Papua. The U.S. plans to expand cooperation with the Indonesian navy notwithstanding its role in the 1998 Biak massacre. The arrest of six Papuans and wounding of one has prompted armed rebel threats of new hostilities in the Central Highlands. A new project employs mapping to advance land rights protections. President Widodo has named the first Papuan woman to be an Indonesian government minister. The new Home Minister has pledged to pursue solutions to problems affecting minorities, but supports further division of Papua into more provinces. Legislation to end local voting for governors, mayors and district heads is stalled for now. In CHRONICLE, the report notes an outstanding analysis by Inside Indonesia which explores the devastating impact of HIV-AIDS in West Papua.

Sign ETAN"s Petition and spread the word.

West Papua Report October 2014: Widodo challenged, access, indigenous land rights, Scotland, Fiji, MIFEE, Vanuatu

West Papua Report October 2014 is now out. Read the full report here

CONTENTS

This month's PERSPECTIVE by WPAT's Edmund McWilliams looks at the challenges facing incoming President Joko Widodo, including those posed by West Papua.

This edition's UPDATE groups urge police to provide security to West Papua human rights defenders and reviews growing Indonesian and international calls for an end to repression in West Papua with particular focus on demands for an end to restrictions on access by journalists and others to West Papua. The surge in concern is prompted in large measure by the continued detention of two French journalists whose has been the focus of numerous appeals for their prompt release (see September 2014 West Papua Report). A local Papuan official drew attention to the release ofgreenhouse gases associate with the MIFEE project. A West Papuan conference hosted by Vanuatu has been postponed to December. Attacks on Indonesian security forces in the Papuan highlands continued in September. Indonesia's national Human Rights Commission is holding a series of hearings on the land rights of indigenous peoples, including in West Papua, The U.S. military has begun training for Indonesian military personnel with the AH-64 Apache helicopters which will enhance TNI capacity to conduct "sweep" operations in West Papua.

CHRONICLE notes an analysis by Al Jazeera America of the targeting of journalists in West Papua. Fijian NGO urges government to support West Papua, The September referendum which afforded Scotland a vote on their political status prompted several analyses that highlighted the continuing denial of the right to self-determination in West Papua.

Sign ETAN's Petition to U.S. Government Release the Records, Acknowledge the Crimes of 1965/66 Mass Violence in Indonesia

Timor and West Papua - September 2014 West Papua Report

West Papua Report September 2014 

CONTENTS

This month's PERSPECTIVE is by ETAN's John M. Miller. It looks at differences and similarities in the historical experience of Timor-Leste (East Timor) and West Papua.

French journalists Valentine Bourrat and Thomas Dandois
currently under arrest in West Papua. Photo: AFP

UPDATE examines the potential impact a Joko Widodo administration may have on West Papua, noting high expectations for a new focus on the "neglected region." Two French journalists have been detained by security authorities in West Papua; this action may be intended to challenge President-elect Widodo who has spoken of his intention to open West Papua to international media scrutiny. "Development" plans in the Bintuni Bay area appear to be ignoring the voices and interests of local Papuans. Security forces have detained and beaten two Papuans in Manokwari. Widodo plans to establish a human rights court are encouraging, but it is not clear whether the court will address the extraordinary abuses of the 1965-66 period or the systematic abuse of human rights in West Papua extending back even further.

CHRONICLE highlights appeals to President-elect Widodo by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch regarding the need to make human rights a priority. Both appeals include a focus on West Papua. A comment by Pat Walsh offers the view that the Widodo administration may offer the "best prospect" for progress on the decades-old "Papua problem."

Tangguh LNG plant at Bintuni Bay, West Papua. Photo: Tempo.