Friday, November 17, 2017

1) Some 346 civilian hostages in Papua released amid crossfire



2) Indonesia evacuates villagers after shootings near Freeport mine
3) Some flee Papua villages in standoff with Indonesia forces
4) Papua police demand release of 1,300 civilian hostages
5) Renewed Papuan independence call amid alleged ‘hostage’ standoff
6) PAPUA GOVERNOR: NEGOTIATE WITH INDONESIA STATE IN REGARD OF INDEPENDENCE
7) JAYAWIJAYA HAS YET TO PASS HEALTH MINIMUM SERVICE STANDARD

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Note comment from Press Council re reporting on so called hostage crises.

The Press Council was asked to investigate media hostage reporting hostage taking in Papua

Civil Society Organizations and Individuals who joined the Gema Demokrasi (GEDOR) through the release received editorial Jubi, Wednesday (15/11/2017) said since the circulation of information took place around 1,300 villagers Kimbely and Banti Village by armed groups (KKB) Mimika Police Chief AKBP Victor Dean Mackbon interviewed by journalist tagar.id on November 9, 2017, has clarified that there is actually no hostage against the villagers of Kimbely and Banti.
"We see that a number of major media such as television, online / digital, and print still often declare the event is a hostage," said Ade Wahyudin of LBH Press in the press release.

He continued, the hostage phrase used by some of the media against the above events is excessive and can lead to new conflicts. The word meaning of hostage taking, according to KBBI is an act of captivating people to be guaranteed.

"The fact is as revealed by Police Chief Mimika and Public Relations Papua Police that there is no hostage and people can still move," said Ade.
full article
http://awpasydneynews.blogspot.com.au/2017/11/the-press-council-was-asked-to.html

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1) Some 346 civilian hostages in Papua released amid crossfire
Jayapura, Papua (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian police and military personnel have released a total of 346 civilians taken hostage by the armed criminal group in Papua province amid crossfire on Friday, Papua police chief said.

"Crossfire occurred during the evacuation process, causing (some) security personnel and evacuees sustained injuries," Inspector General Boy Rafli Amar, chief of the Papua Provincial Police, said.

Amar, however, did not elaborate the number of security personnel assigned to free the hostages from the armed criminal group, that sustained injuries.

The security officers released the 346 civilians from Kimbeli kampongs, Tembagapura Sub-District, Mimika District, Papua Province.

Of the 346 hostages, 23 were children, he said, adding that the evacuation process was carried out on foot for about four hours heading to the Tembagapura police office.

According to him, the armed criminal group (KKB) kept shooting from the height during the evacuation process.

Meanwhile, Amar on Thursday demanded the KKB to release some 1,300 civilians that it had taken hostages in Banti and Kimbeli kampongs for more than two weeks.

In the meantime, the indigenous Papuans living in Banti are reluctant to be evacuated and want to remain in their villages.

Reported by Evarukdijati
(T.SYS/A/B003/B/F001) 
Editor: Heru Purwanto

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2) Indonesia evacuates villagers after shootings near Freeport mine
Sam Wanda, Fergus Jensen 

JAKARTA/TIMIKA, Indonesia (Reuters) - Indonesia on Friday began evacuating villages that authorities said had been occupied by armed separatists after a string of shootings near the giant Grasberg copper mine operated by Freeport McMoRan Inc in the eastern province of Papua.
Two police have been killed and at least 12 people have been wounded by gunfire in the area since mid-August. Police have blamed an “armed criminal group”, but others have said the gunmen were linked to separatist rebels. 
According to police reports, the armed group occupied the villages of Banti and Kimbely near the mining town of Tembagapura, and had prevented an estimated 1,300 residents from leaving the area, leading to food shortages.
Police and military leaders said they have urged the gunmen to surrender, but have also warned that tough measures could follow if their “persuasive” approach fails. 
Residents were being evacuated to a sports hall in Tembagapura, according to a source at Freeport. 
Mimika Deputy Regent Yohanes Bassang asked families in Timika to accommodate relatives being evacuated from the villages “to avoid further problems”. 
Bassang said many of the villagers were from the east Indonesian island of Sulawesi and had come to the area to pan for gold. 
The separatist West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM), a group linked to the Free Papua Movement, has claimed responsibility for the shootings and declared war against the military, police and Freeport, but denied it was holding villagers hostage. 
According to several residents interviewed by Reuters, military and police officers were preventing them from getting food from Tembagapura, where food aid was delivered in a cargo container on Saturday. 
“The atmosphere has really heated up,” one resident said, referring to the shootings and concerns over food supplies and safety. 
Reporting by Sam Wanda in TIMIKA and Fergus Jensen in JAKARTA; Editing by John Chalmers and Nick Macfie


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3) Some flee Papua villages in standoff with Indonesia forces
Indonesian police say they have helped evacuate about 400 people from villages in easternmost Papua that are at the center of a standoff between security forces and separatists. Papua police spokesman Ahmad Musthofa Kamal said Friday about three quarters of those who have left are migrants from other regions and the remainder indigenous Papuan women and children. He says there was gunfire from hills surrounding one village that was hampering police and military efforts to move people. Tensions in the region near the U.S.-owned Grasberg gold and copper mine have flared in the past month. A series of attacks by suspected separatists have killed two policemen. Members of the National Liberation Army of West Papua last month declared an area near the mine a battlefield with Indonesian security forces.

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https://en.antaranews.com/news/113446/papua-police-demand-release-of-1300-civilian-hostages
4) Papua police demand release of 1,300 civilian hostages

Pewarta:  

Timika, Papua (ANTARA News) - Inspector General Boy Rafli Amar, chief of the Papua Provincial Police, has demanded an armed criminal group (KKB) to release some 1,300 civilians that it had taken hostages in Banti and Kimbeli kampongs, Tembagapura sub-district, Mimika District, Papua Province, since more than two weeks ago.

The Papua Police had asked the help of prominent traditional and religious figures to persuade the group to release the hostages, or to allow anyone wanting to go out of the villages for medical treatment and to get food, Amar told the press here on Thursday.

"The people there are currently oppressed and intimidated because the group has banned them from leaving their villages. Indeed, they are not being held in one room, but they are very much oppressed. Communication is also restricted," he stated.

Amar described the hostage-taking incident as a violation of human rights because the villagers have been intimidated and held at gun point.

Some 150 babies and infants are facing food shortage because their mothers could no longer breastfeed them. Some villagers have fallen ill as food stock is depleting. 

Since late October 2017, Waa-Banti Hospital, run by Amungme and Kamoro Community Development Institution, has ceased operations.

Doctors, nurses, and other paramedics of the Waa-Banti Hospital had earlier been moved to safer area following a gun shooting incident committed by the group, targeting the hospital`s ambulance.

Amar hoped that the group would allow everyone being taken hostages to leave their villages, and the police would send vehicles to pick them up.

So far, the group had allowed just two persons to leave the village, namely a pregnant woman who was about to deliver a baby, and a 51-year-old traditional miner from Blitar, East Java, who is seriously ill.

The Police and the Tembagapura sub-district administration have provided food in Tembagapura police office, but the armed criminal group has prevented no any villager from picking up the food.

Several villagers, in fact, managed to escape and collect the food, but the group members later seized the food. 
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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5) Renewed Papuan independence call amid alleged ‘hostage’ standoff

By Lalu Rahadian in Jakarta
  
Conflicts in Papua province will not be resolved until the Indonesian government provides the Papuan people with an opportunity to determine their future through an international forum, says a leading advocate.
Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-WP) spokesperson Surya Anta says that the root of the Papua problem is Indonesia.
According to Anta, the government must allow the Papuan people to determine their own future instead of continuing its “colonisation” there.
“West Papua is under Indonesian colonialism. If we go back historically, at the time of [Indonesia’s] proclamation [of independence on August 17, 1945], the territory of Papua was not part of Indonesia,” Surya said during a press conference at the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) this week.
Anta expressed this view in response to the reemergence of conflict in Tembagapura, Mimika regency, Papua.
The Indonesian police say that in these districts — using police terminology — the activities of an Armed Criminal Group (Kelompok Kriminal Bersenjata, KKB) have resulted in access to the villages of Banti and Kimbely being “disrupted”.
Papua police chief Inspector-General Boy Rafli Amar has responded to the activities of the KKB by issuing declaration Number B/MKMLT/01/XI/2017 dated November 12, 2017, calling on the KKB to surrender.
‘Disarm yourselves’ call
Amar has asked that all civilians who control, carry, own or use firearms illegally to disarm and surrender them to the authorities.
Amar also claimed that the KKB was holding hundreds of local people “hostage” in two villages in Tembagapura.
According to Anta, the police’s claims about the residents in the villages in Tembagapura are untrue, issuing a counter claim and saying no one had been taken hostage there.
“What we did immediately was communicate with civilian groups there. They confirmed that that no residents had been taken hostage,” he said.
In Anta’s view what has been done by the Free Papua Movement-National Liberation Army (TPN-OPM) in Tembagapura has a clear political basis — to wrest sovereignty from the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).
Nevertheless, said Anta, labelling the TPN-OPM an “armed criminal group” was an attempt to discredit them and labelling the group in Tembagapura KKB also obscured the roots of the problem in the “Land of Cenderawasih” (Bird of Paradise, West Papua).
“Their political basis is winning sovereignty for the West Papuan nation which is under the colonialism of the NKRI,” he said.
Anta also called on the government to immediately withdraw all security forces from Papua, close the PT Freeport gold-and-copper mine, release all political prisoners and open up access to journalists so that the problems in Papua could be clearly seen.
Infrastructure not the solutionThe Papua Student Alliance (AMP), meanwhile, believes that the ambitious infrastructure development programme in the Land of Cenderawasih does not answer the basic problems of the people there.
According to the AMP and FRI-WP, the main problem in Papua is a political one.
Speaking in the same vein as Anta, AMP activist Frans Nawipa says that the frequent conflicts that take place in Papua can only be resolved if the government allows the Papuan people to leave Indonesia (NKRI).
“The root of the problem is [Papua’s] political status which was manipulated by Indonesia and the military in the 1960s. No matter how long the government pursues the development approach, it will not have the potential to answer to the problems in Papua,” said Nawipa.
Nawipa claims that no one in Papua has asked the government for this development.
Because of this therefore, the efforts by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to develop the country from Papua would not have any significant impact.
Surya Anta added that the construction of the Trans-Papua highway in the Land of the Cenderawasih would not be able to replace the lives that had been lost as a result of the “slaughter” by security forces.
“What is needed is political freedom, freedom from all types of colonialism, self-determination as a national entity”, said Anta.
Since Widodo became president in 2014, infrastructure development in Papua and the country’s borders has been one of his priorities.
Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the article on CNN Indonesia website was “Desakan Papua Merdeka Kembali Mengemuka”.

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6) PAPUA GOVERNOR: NEGOTIATE WITH INDONESIA STATE IN REGARD OF INDEPENDENCE

Jayapura, Jubi – West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-PB) insists that they are only willing to negotiate with the Government of Indonesia, the United States Government and Indigenous Papuans (OAP) with the presence of United Nations.
“If we agree to negotiate, the based and topic of negotiation should be clear, we want Indonesia to recognize the independence of Papuan people,” said Hendrik Wanmang, TPN-PB Operational Commander III Timika, on Monday (November 13).
Previously, a negotiating team was formed from November 1st. The team consists of the Provincial Government of Papua, Mimika Regency and security apparatus (TNI/Polri). Right after the coordination meeting ended with the formation of negotiating team, Mimika Regent, Eltinus Omaleng said that the team was tasked to approach and ntiateeg with TPN-PB to ask what they wanted. The most important element of negotiation is  to stop the shooting.
This team consists of church leaders, community leaders and elders Papuan women.
Papua Governor Lukas Enembe said that if TPN-PB required recognition of Papuan independence, it cannot be negotiated with the local government, since it is a state matter.
“If they ask for independence, the negotiation is with Indonesia state, the central government; the local government cannot negotiate on the matter, because regional government’s tasked is for the welfare of its people, in this case is the people of Papua,” explained Governor Enembe on Monday (November 13).
Separately, a spokesman for the National Police Headquarters Setyo Wasisto said that until now the TNI-Polri in Tembagapura has yet to find the one who holds authority within TPN-PB.
“Because the negotiations must be with the one who has authority,” said Setyo quoted by KBR news.
Hendrik Wanmang explained that Indonesian government has deceived Orang Asli Papua during the 1969 referendum called the Act of Free Choice (PEPERA). Not only rigging PEPERA, the Indonesian government has also awarded a gold mine located on Indigenous Papuan land to a US-based company, Freeport McMoran, which occurred two years before PEPERA took place.
In response to these TPN-PB demands, Indonesian Institute of Sciences Researcher (LIPI) Cahyo Pamungkas suggested for Indonesian government should resolve the conflict in Papua by dialogue with TPN-PB. According to him, only dialogue and not weapons can settle the conflict in Papua.
“After the dialogue with TPN-PB, then a dialogue with the Papuan leaders abroad,” he said.
Cahyo also confirmed that what happened in Banti and Kimbeli villages was not hostage taking, because the community is free to do activities but cannot be guaranteed safety if they want to get out from the two villages because they have to cross the armed conflict path.
According to him, the armed group in conflict with the Indonesian security apparatus is not the Armed Kriminal Group (KKB) but is a resistance group of Papuans who oppose the power of Indonesian government and Freeport.
Based on his research, Cahyo justify the armed group is part of the National Liberation Army of West Papua (TPNPB) within the area of ​​Military Command III in Timika. But he admits he does not know exactly who the leaders of this group. (tabloidjubi.com/Zely)
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7) JAYAWIJAYA HAS YET TO PASS HEALTH MINIMUM SERVICE STANDARD

Wamena, Jubi – Jayawijaya Regency’s Government has not been able to reach 12 indicator of minimum service standard (SPM) in health sector, which is conditions to make local area continues to push its health sector in accordance with the regulation of the minister of health.
“It slowly began to be fulfilled, for the sake of service to the community,” said Assistant I Sekda Jayawijaya, Living Wusono, after leading the commemoration ceremony of 53th National Health Day (HKN) on Monday (November 13).
Before setting up 12 indicators, SPM have 18 indicators. “We are currently working on a program that touches the community, such as assistance to the Puskesmas’ (local health centre) service,” said Live added.
Unfortunately he did not mention any indicator that has not been achieved, but he ensures has received various achievements in the field of health and it is the motivation to continue to improve performance.
Based on the regulation of health minister number 43 year 2016 on health service MSM, the 12 basic service indicators mentioned include maternal health services according to antenatal care standards, maternal health services, newborn health services, toddler health services, health services at the age of basic education, health services at the productive age.(*)
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