Saturday, December 10, 2016

1) Video of march in Sydney


2) Team insists probe into Paniai case will continue
3) Island focus: 60 villages in Papua to be lit by Christmas
4) Indonesia’s human rights record still poor: Imparsial

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1) Video of march in Sydney (10 Dec.)
where West Papuan supporters and civil society groups joined in a rally and march, uniting with Aboriginal Peoples defence of Human Rights and  to bring awareness to the issues our government should be looking at but don’t.

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2) Team insists probe into Paniai case will continue
    Nethy Dharma Somba  The Jakarta Post
    Jayapura | Sat, December 10 2016 | 09:17 am

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has insisted that the investigation into the human rights violation case in Paniai, Papua, in which five civilians, including four students, allegedly died after being shot by security personnel, is not being put on hold despite the challenges it has met.

The ad hoc team from Komnas HAM tasked with the investigation were in Paniai from Nov. 21 to 25 to complete the dossiers on three victims and two witnesses, member of the team, and Komnas HAM’s Papua representative, Frits Ramandey said on Thursday.

“The team, led by Manager Nasution, planned to draw up dossiers for 23 victims and witnesses but only five people came forward,” he said.

He blamed the lack of enthusiasm on the local people’s lack of faith in the numerous institutions coming to Paniai to investigate the case.

“The victims’ families argue that many teams have gone there following the incident, asking for information from victims and witnesses but so far none of the teams has announced the results of their investigations,” he said.

As a result, the victims’ families wanted Amnesty International to investigate the case, which was not easy to achieve because getting Amnesty to Paniai would require permission from the government.

Komnas HAM itself has already stated that there was a serious violation of human rights in the Paniai incident, he added.

For the sake of a thorough investigation of the case, Frits called on all involved parties to open themselves up to the commission’s ad hoc team in the drawing up of the dossiers.

He said the findings of the ad hoc team would be reported during the commission’s plenary session before the commission moved to the next step, including examining military and police personnel who were 
on duty when the incident took place in Karel Gobay Square, Paniai, on Dec. 8, 2014.

Komnas HAM apologized to the victims and their families for the slow pace of the investigation into the case, said Frits.

The commission also asked for support from all parties including the victims, their families, churches, NGOs, as well as the military and the police to cooperate with the commission to get to the bottom of the case.

“This is to fulfill the sense of justice for the victims’ families and the people of Papua,” Frits said.

Local pastor Santon Tekege confirmed that the families of the victims of the Paniai incident had refused to meet with the Komnas HAM team and instead demanded an international body investigate the case.

“They don’t trust Indonesia or a team made up by Indonesia. That’s why they want to have the United Nations come to Paniai instead,” Santon said.

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3) Island focus: 60 villages in Papua to be lit by Christmas
Jayapura | Sat, December 10 2016 | 09:11 am

The Papua and West Papua’s office of state electricity company PLN will supply power to 60 previously unconnected villages in Papua and West Papua provinces before Christmas.

“Connecting the 60 villages to the electricity grid is part of the 2020 electricity program. This is a Christmas gift from PLN,” Papua and West Papua’s PLN General Manager Yohanes Sukrislismono said on Friday.

Forty-two of the villages are located in West Papua while 18 are in Papua province.

The company aims to boost the electrification ratio of the country’s easternmost provinces, which currently stands at 55.72 percent, to 90 percent by 2020, Yohanes added.

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4) Indonesia’s human rights record still poor: Imparsial
Margareth S. Aritonang The Jakarta Post
Jakarta | Sat, December 10, 2016 | 12:57 pm
The government is still failing to protect and uphold human rights in the country despite a number of laws guaranteeing the rights of all citizens, which according to Jakarta-based human rights watchdog Imparsial is rooted in a lack of focus and commitment.
Imparsial executive director Al Araf said the absence of human rights in the priority programs of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo had added to the already long list of challenges to the poor performance in the country’s efforts to equally protect the rights of all people.
“It’s really important for the government to politically commit to making human rights a priority program otherwise we will not see any changes in the future,” Al Araf said in a discussion on Friday.
He said such a lack of political commitment had posed challenges, including political transactions that consequently put aside human rights, a toothless national rights body, which was supposedly a front-line protector of human rights in the country, and unfinished legal reform.
“Jokowi’s administration is no different to those of his predecessors, which failed to prioritize actions to uphold human rights,” Al Araf said, citing current rampant religious intolerance, criminalization of activists, the ongoing use of the death penalty as well as impunity as examples that showed Jokowi was not committed to human rights. (evi)
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