Independent monitors would provide a credible probe of Papua deaths.
THE recent shootings at the Freeport Mine in Papua, which resulted in the death of Australian Drew Grant, is the first real test of the 2007 Lombok Treaty between Australia and Indonesia. The treaty was designed to enhance the security of both countries and their citizens, but it seems Australians are being caught up in internal domestic conflicts in Indonesia, and paying the price.
Dozens of Papuans are being arrested around Freeport, even though Indonesian Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono has said that he does not believe the Free West Papua Organisation (OPM), is involved. It is only groups within, or linked to, the police or Indonesian armed forces that have the equipment, training and motivation to carry out armed violence in Indonesia.
If it does turn out that the OPM has been involved, despite the vehement denial by OPM regional commander Kelly Kwalik, then the security situation in Papua is much more fraught than previously thought. Multiple armed attacks (up to six at the time of writing) resulting in at least three dead and 15 wounded, would indicate a much more efficient and effective OPM rebel force than ever before.
Most observers would dismiss this as completely against the recent progression of the West Papuan independence struggle into a peaceful civil movement for recognition of their rights and claims. That leaves groups linked to Indonesia’s armed forces.
The motivation is probably money. When a multibillion-dollar enterprise such as Freeport operates in an area of great poverty, guarded by soldiers and police used to raising money outside government budgets, it inevitably becomes a cash cow. Groups compete for that cash.
Another motivation is to ensure that real control of the political, security and economic situation in Papua remains in the hands of the army. After losing East Timor and Aceh, the military are loath to hand over to civilian control the last region in which they exert hegemonic power. This means Westerners, including Australians, have become pawns in a bitter internal struggle in Papua between the military and the police, between civilian authority and the army, and between Indonesia’s newly emerging democratic society and the old, dark forces from the Suharto period.
The Lombok Treaty arose in response to 43 West Papuans who landed in Australia in 2005, claiming persecution and asking for political asylum. The Australian Government quickly recognised their claims, infuriating Indonesia. The treaty covers many areas of Indonesian-Australian engagement, but it is clear that suppression of West Papuan ‘‘separatism’’ is at its heart. The most contentious clause was Article 2.3, which sought to suppress support for West Papuan independence in Australia. The Indonesians would have liked the OPM to be classified as a terrorist organisation, support for which would be a criminal act.
So far this had not happened, but one of the definitions of a terrorist group is that it intentionally kills Westerners for political purposes. This brings us back to the Freeport killings. It is vital to find out the truth behind these murders, not only to bring justice to the victims, but to ensure that the Lombok Treaty is not being used to manipulate Australian-Indonesian relations and increase the persecution of the Papuan people.
Various Australian governments lied for years about the true level of persecution and suffering visited on the East Timorese by the Indonesian occupation forces. This was in the belief that such a policy would strengthen the Australia-Indonesia relationship. In the end we only prolonged East Timor’s agony, strengthened the Suharto dictatorship and ensured Indonesia was treated as a near-pariah for 24 years.
There are many parallels between pre-1999 East Timor and today’s West Papua: brutal military occupations to stifle the desire for independence shared by most of their subject populations. It is not in Australia’s interests to ignore this struggle: Indonesia needs to address the dilemmas it faces in West Papua directly to have any chance of resolving or mitigating the conflict. If not, we do run the risk of blundering into, if we haven’t already, a human rights mess characterised by clandestine forces working outside government control and largely for their own interests.
Australian Federal Police are already involved in the investigation of the killings, but in this context it is vital that independent and objective observers, such as Human Rights Watch, monitor the police and military investigations into the murders.
Without independent scrutiny, any findings by the Indonesian authorities will be open to question. This would in turn undermine the Lombok Treaty. In fact, in the worst case, these crimes could be used as an excuse to tighten the screws on the West Papuans, to increase their suppression, and to stain their legitimate and peaceful calls for self-determination as the acts of a terrorist group.
There is considerable speculation that Indonesian security forces, or at least elements of them, played a role in the attacks at the mine. If the investigation into the murders is seen as a whitewash, with Papuans scapegoated as the perpetrators, the credibility of the Lombok Treaty will be trashed. Pressure should be applied by the Rudd Government, with the spirit of the treaty in mind, to ask the Indonesian Government to allow independent monitors at the investigation immediately.
Dr Jim Elmslie.
The Age (Melbourne, Australia)
By Jim Elmslie
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