September 5, 2006
West Papua: Human Rights Documentation Center Report Released
HRDC recommends Indonesia to incorporate provisions of international treaties into its domestic legal system, and to withdraw its reservations on human rights treaties. Below is an abstract of the report published by the Human Rights Documentation Center:
The people of West Papua have been subjected to persistent human rights abuses since the region was annexed by Indonesia in 1969. While the devastating conflict over Timor Leste gained the condemnation of many international players, there has been a deafening silence over the Indonesian Government’s violations of international human rights law in West Papua. […]
Any rights for the West Papuans?
The West Papuan people, although linguistically and culturally diverse, share a common Melanesian identity that sets them apart from the majority Javanese population of Indonesia. When Indonesia gained independence in 1949, it assumed sovereignty over West Papua until 1969 when the international community supported an ‘Act of Free Choice’ to enable the people of West Papua to exercise their right to self-determination. Although a United Nations (UN) monitoring team was dispatched, the presence of the Indonesian military greatly undermined its effectiveness […]. There were no dissenting votes. In what has been labeled as an ‘Act of No Choice’, West Papua’s annexation by Indonesia was formalized and accepted as legal by the UN General Assembly.The tribes of West Papua opposed the annexation, leading the Indonesian government to crack down. Approximately 100,000 West Papuans have reportedly been killed, (representing almost ten per cent of the population) in what has been labeled by a project of the Yale Law School as genocide. […]
As the West Papuan land is rich in gold and copper, many of the Government’s policies in West Papua surround their economic interests in resource exploitation. The mine continues to be the centre of West Papuan frustrations as the indigenous population benefit very little from the mine […]. The Indonesian government, however, benefits directly from Freeport-McMoran, which reportedly paid the government US$ 33 billion between 1992 and 2004.
Terrorists or civilians?
Since the annexation, the Indonesian government has focused on the suppression of separatist sentiments such as those of the Free Papua Movement (OPM - Organisasi Papua Merdeka). Civilians, as well as West Papuan political and village leaders, have been the targets of violent attacks and have been denied their civil liberties such as the freedom of expression, opinion and association - it is, for example, illegal to fly the West Papuan Bintang Kejora (Morning Star) flag. Further, the Indonesian government has labeled it a terrorist organisation. […]Impunity for TNI troops and paramilitary forces is a major reason for the persistence of human rights violations. Despite a 2000 legislation providing for permanent Human Rights Courts and the establishment of a National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) in 1993, those accused of human rights abuses in West Papua have gone unpunished. […]
Special Autonomy
[…]The complete provisions of the Special Autonomy law have still not been implemented and there are demands for the government to uphold its obligation to the people of West Papua by doing so. Efforts must also be made to ensure that the legislature and the MRP are both involved in any revision to the law and that the law does not neglect the cultural values of the Papuans.
What must be done?
[…] Indonesia must uphold this by promptly incorporating the provisions of the ICCPR and ICESCR (acceded in February 2006) into its domestic legal system, withdrawing its reservations on ratified human rights treaties, and by extending open-ended invitations to the outstanding Special Procedures visit requests on the issues of torture; freedom of religion or belief; migrants; freedom of opinion and expression; extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; human rights defenders; and on structural adjustment policies and external debt. […]. Human Rights organizations have put forward a number of recommendations in this regard. […]Most importantly, it is imperative that states cease all arms sales and military support to Indonesia. […]
Please visit the HRDC website to read the full report: http://www.hrdc.net/sahrdc/hrfeatures/HRF148.htm