Nicolaas Jouwe: Netherlands Created OPM To Oppose Indonesia

Nicolaas Jouwe

A Papuan community leader, Nicolaas Jouwe, said the Netherlands officers created the Free Papua Movement (OPM) in 1965, to oppose Indonesia and disturb the security of eastern Indonesias territory.

“I am a leader of the National Liberation Council of West Papua. I am not OPMs member. In fact, OPM was created by Netherlands officers in 1965 to coincide with the crackdown on the Indonesian Communist Party,” Jouwe said on Monday (12/5) in Jakarta.

In the lunch that was held for a journalist of Australian TV SBS, Mark Davis, Jouwe said the Netherlands officers trained the Papuan youths to become volunteers in fighting Indonesia.

“The Papuan youth who had been trained were then asked by the Netherlands to establish the OPM,” Jouwe noted.

Jouwe, born in Jayapura on November 24, 1923 and who had designed the Bintang Kejora (Morning Star) Flag, also explained conditions in Papua after more than 50 years of integration with the Unitary State of Indonesia, since the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) handed over the governance of West Papua (used to be called Irian Jaya) to Indonesia on May 1, 1963.

Jouwe underlined that the Papuan peoples state of minds cannot be separated from the Netherlands treatment, who had isolated and banned them from attending schools since the Orange Kingdom colonized the land in 1828 until independence was proclaimed by Soekarno and Hatta on August 17, 1945.

“During the 117 years, we the people of Papua practically lived in the Stone Age,” he said.

The obsession of Jouwe with the struggle for Papuas development was captured in a book titled “Nicolaas Jouwe Back to Indonesia: Step, Thought and Desire” that will be published in 2014.

On Jouwes book, the figure who used to oppose Indonesia, said he had come back to the Unitary State of Indonesia marked by his visit to Jayapura, Papua, in 2009, to support Papuas development, after tens of years of living in the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, during his stay in Indonesia, Mark Davis will organize an investigative report in Jayapura between May 6 and May 11, 2014.

Source: ANTARA News

The Netherlands Sends Largest Ever Trade Mission to Indonesia

This week, a group of Dutch politicians and businessmen, led by prime minister Mark Rutte, will pay a four day visit to Indonesia.

The aim of the visit is to smoothen bilateral relations and search for business opportunities between both countries.

This Dutch group, which includes more than one hundred Dutch company delegates, forms the largest Dutch trade delegation that has visited Southeast Asia’s biggest economy in the modern history.

However, relations between the Netherlands and Indonesia are still complex today.

Obviously, the complexity of relations between both countries traces back to the colonial period, which brings along more emotions, in particular on the part of Indonesia.

Last year, commotion emerged after the Dutch parliament refused to sell army tanks to Indonesia because the Indonesian government might use these against its own people. This then became a laughing stock for Indonesians who pointed to the colonial past.

Moreover, in 2010, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cancelled a trip to the Netherlands at the last minute because the Dutch government could not guarantee Yudhoyono’s inviolability regarding a lawsuit filed by the government-in-exile of the Republic of South Maluku (RMS). The RMS issued legal proceedings to have Yudhoyono arrested upon entering the Netherlands.

Indonesia is a highly promising market. The country contains a large population (over 240 million people) with a rapidly expanding middle class.

Per capita GDP has been increasing strongly in recent years, implying that the expanding middle class segment has more and more money to spend.

Regarding commodities, Southeast Asia’s largest economy contains an abundance and variety, including palm oil, coal, nickel, rubber, and cocoa.

Despite the political sensitivities, trade relations between both countries have been growing robustly.

In the last three years, bilateral trade rose 25 percent to approximately €3.5 billion in 2012. As such, Indonesia is the fastest growing export market for the Netherlands in Asia.

However, there is still ample room for further growth and that is why the Dutch trade delegation, which includes Shell, Unilever, Philips and ING, is heading for Indonesia this week.

Source: indonesia-investments

Rationale given for NZ community policing assistance to Indonesia

The New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully

The New Zealand foreign minister, Murray McCully, has defended a US$5 million commitment to a three-year community policing programme in eastern Indonesia, including Papua and West Papua.

The programme, which follows a pilot in 2009/10, is to be funded by the New Zealand aid programme and implemented by New Zealand police.

Murray McCully says his government wants to encourage police and others in authority in the Papua region of Indonesia to understand good commmunity policing initiatives.

“The whole basis of community policing is training people to be able to use their authority in a way that is going to engender respect from the locals. It is precisely the expertise that New Zealand imparts through the community policing project,” he said.

“It’s simply an area that New Zealand has had a long-term interest in providing assistance in. We believe that to the extent that there have been difficulties in relation to Papua, those are best dealt with by encouraging police and others in authority to understand good community policing initiatives. And that’s a capability that we’re providing through the Indonesian government at the moment.”

“It’s one of the great aspects of New Zealand police that we are world-class at community policing and that’s something we’re doing in West Papua,” he explained.

Though the program has been criticized with the Green Party saying New Zealand should instead put resources into facilitating dialogue between the West Papuans and Jakarta, McCully says that he is more broadly aware of a lot of work that is going on in Indonesia at the moment to improve that overall environment and to improve communication in relation to West Papua.

He thinks that the Green Party and others who want to go pointing fingers at difficulties in West Papua need to get themselves updated on the significant amount of work that is being done by parties in Indonesia, in West Papua and Papua to achieve better understanding and to try and improve overall relationships.

“There’s a lot of good work being done, and I want to see the New Zealand government play its part in reinforcing that work, rather than simply standing back, as the critics do, and trying to identify problems,” he said.

Source: Radio New Zealand International

Abbott warns West Papuan activists

TONY Abbott has issued a stern warning to West Papuan activists, declaring he would not allow Australia to become “a platform to grandstand against Indonesia”.

The Prime Minister’s comments come as Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said three West Papuan activists who made a series of political demands at the Australian consulate in Bali left the building voluntarily in a taxi.

Speaking at the APEC summit, Mr Abbott said he wanted to stress “in flashing neon lights” that Australia’s relationship with Indonesia was strong and people seeking to grandstand against the country were “not welcome”.

“We have a very strong relationship with Indonesia and we are not going to give people a platform to grandstand against Indonesia — I want that to be absolutely crystal clear,” he said.

Mr Abbott said Australia respected the territorial integrity of Indonesia, and claimed the situation in West Papua was “getting better, not worse”.

Ms Bishop dismissed suggestions by the Greens that Australian officials threatened to hand three West Papuans over to the police. “I understand that the three men left voluntarily, that there were no threats made at any time,” she told The Australian.

She said the three men delivered a letter to the Australian consulate, spoke with the consul-general, and then telephoned a friend to collect them. She said when the friend could not be reached, they phoned for a taxi.

“I am advised that the consul-general did not make any threats at any time,” Ms Bishop said.

Source: The Australian

OPM killed driver in Papua

A group of armed men of Free Papua Organization (OPM) shot a public transportation driver to dead in Puncak Jaya sub-district, Papua on Saturday.

Head of Public Division of Papua Police Adj. Sr. Comr. Sulistyo Pudjo Hartono told that the victim, identified as Ali Mangalik, 30, was shot in the head and died at the scene.

The shooting might have been done to disrupt security in Puncak Jaya, which has been stable in the past month, according Sulistyo.

“We continue to hunt down the shooters. When they’re arrested, they will be charged with criminal offences,” he said.

Saturday’s shooting is the second one this month, following the death of First Pte. Andri Candrayansyah, who was shot on September in Puncak Jaya.

Nine soldiers, six civilians and one medical worker have been killed in a series of shootings in Papua since February 2013.(*wpnn)

Separatist snipers kill soldier in Indonesia’s Papua

Separatist snipers hiding out in the mountains of Indonesia’s Papua have shot dead a soldier, police said on Monday, the latest attack on security forces in the restive eastern region.

The gunmen opened fire on soldiers guarding roads around Tingginambut village in West Papua province on Saturday as trucks delivered food and other essential supplies, local police spokesman I Gede Sumerta Jaya said.

“The snipers started shooting at the soldiers from the mountains. A soldier was shot in the stomach and died in hospital,” he said, adding that no one else was injured in the attack.

The attackers were linked to a local leader of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) because “the modus operandi is similar to previous attacks”, Jaya said.

Source: Strait Times

PNG promotes engagement with Indonesia over West Papua

PNG’s PM Peter O’Neill

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill has called for engagement with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as the way forward for the issue of West Papua.

Attending the Pacific Islands Forum in Majuro this week, the PNG Prime Minister said: “We are generally encouraged by the response that we are getting from the Indonesian government – especially the President – where he has stated to us very clearly that he wanted to engage with us to resolve issues in West Papua, so there is a level of autonomy for the people of West Papua.”

The issue of West Papua was high on the agenda at the June 2013 summit of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) in New Caledonia, where delegations from the Indonesian government and the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL) both addressed the summit plenary.

However the topic of West Papua was not on the Forum agenda in Majuro and there was no mention of human rights concerns in the final Forum communique.

At the time of the MSG Summit, Prime Minister O’Neill and PNG Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato were leading a major delegation to Indonesia.

This week, O’Neill stressed the importance of engagement with Indonesia, given their opposition to independence for the western half of the island of New Guinea, which Jakarta administers as the provinces of Papua and West Papua.

“I want to make it very clear again that any resolutions we may have to come to in respect of West Papua will always include Indonesia,” O’Neill said. “It pays for us to stay engaged with Indonesia.”

The major focus of O’Neill’s June visit to Jakarta was trade and investment, but security issues and border relations were discussed.

“We look forward to working closely with them and also developing joint economic areas with the border area,” O’Neill said. “Some of the vast natural resources we have around the border area we can develop together.”

The PNG Prime Minister said that over time there has been improved dialogue on the issue: “I’m encouraged by the events that are taking place, including the Melanesian Spearhead Group ministers are going to have a tour to West Papua. But I’m also happy that the Indonesian government has asked us, the Papua New Guineans, to resolve some of the issues in West Papua.

As yet, details of the proposed MSG Ministerial Mission to Jakarta and Jayapura have not been finalised. In Majuro, Vanuatu’s Deputy Prime Minister Edward Natapei confirmed to Islands Business that no dates have yet been set for the visit.

For the Vanuatu government led by Prime Minister Moana Carcasses Kalosil, the MSG’s engagement with Jakarta must be conducted together.

The leader of Vanuatu’s delegation in Majuro, Deputy Prime Minister Natapei told Islands Business: “We believe that the MSG should conduct this ministerial mission together, with all of us intact.”

Last month, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo made a state visit to Indonesia – the first Solomon Islands leader to visit the South East Asian nation.

In a statement after the visit, the Solomon Islands government said: “Prime Minister Lilo’s recent trip not only produced greater technical cooperation, trade commitments and people-to-people relations, but has been hailed by Indonesia for the country’s ongoing active role in multilateral forums such as the Coral Triangle Initiative, the G7 Plus and also APEC.”

Source: Islands Business

Britain reaffirms recognition of Papua as part of Indonesia

Britain still recognizes Papua as an integral part Indonesia, a British diplomat said.

“We are here this time on a working visit to the Cendrawasih Regional Military Command,” Millie Mc Devitt, Second Secretary in Political Section of the British Embassy, said in a news release issued here on Wednesday (17/07).

McDevitt and a group of other officials of the British embassy in Jakarta met with the regional military commander Maj. Gen. Christian Zebua and other regional military officials in this provincial city.

Zebua told the group that security situation in Papua is favorable, saying in general the situation is stable.

“There is a small group (of local people) having different perception of independence, but we do not see them as enemies. They are compatriots who happen to have different view of democracy,” he said.

He acknowledged that stability in the region is attributable not only to the military or police but also to big role played by religious and community leaders and other government officials.

The military in carrying out it duty in the field gives priority to territorial development, he said.

“Currently we are cooperating with all components to create a conducive security,” he added.

The regional military command is involved in various social activities such as in health care, teaching, farming,livestock raising and fishery to improve the welfare of the people, he said.

“Papua is currently is developing civil order with the military assisting the regional administration and police to accelerate regional development and to maintain public order,” he said.

Indonesia had been angered by a British official attending a ceremony opening a Papua separatist representative office in that country recently.

Source: ANTARA News

PM Rudd Reiterates Recognition of Indonesia’s Sovereignty Over Papua

Visiting Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd reiterated his government’s recognition of Indonesia’s sovereignty over Papua on Friday (05/07).

“I would like to publicly reaffirm here, what successive Australian prime ministers have said in the past, that Australia recognizes, recognized in the past and will recognize in the future, the territorial integrity of the Republic of Indonesia that includes Papua,” Rudd said.

Australian PM Kevin Rudd and Indonesian Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Speaking at a joint press conference at the Bogor Palace, Rudd also praised President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s “strong leadership” and the special autonomy package accorded for Papua’s development.

“I encourage him in this direction. I am sure, as Australian Prime Minister, I will do everything I can in supporting him in this important direction as well,” he said.

Rudd, who was on visit for the third annual Indonesia-Australia Leaders’ Meeting, said that Yudhoyono’s government had already achieved success in Aceh, where the government also granted an autonomy package after it agreed with separatists rebels there to end decades of conflict in August 2005.

He said that Australia wanted to work with the government here in a way that could be helpful “in making sure that we bring about a long-term, stable, prosperous and secure Papua that is part of the Republic of Indonesia.”

A joint communique issued after the meeting of the two leaders, said that they “reaffirmed the two countries’ continued adherence to the principles of respecting each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as mandated in the Lombok Treaty.”

“I am certain that under the leadership of Prime Minister Rudd, the cooperation, partnership and friendship between the Republic of Indonesia and Australia can continue to be stepped up,” Yudhoyono said on the same occasion.

Yudhoyono said that he and Rudd shared the same commitment in seeking new opportunities to boost cooperation.The leaders, it said, were encouraged by the many “positive developments” in their bilateral relationship since the previous meeting in Darwin last year.

In the joint communique Yudhoyono and Rudd also encouraged the further promotion of bilateral trade and investment cooperation between Indonesia and Australia.

“Noting that the two countries have shared interest in the area of food security, both leaders agreed to further explore trade and investment cooperation in the agriculture sector, including in the beef and cattle industry,” it said.

Tensions had risen several times between Indonesia and Australia over the alleged maltreatment of cows here, leading to a cut in beef imports from Australia.

The Leaders also recognised the importance of the two countries’ wide-ranging cooperation in tackling regional and global challenges, particularly transnational crimes such as terrorism, cyber-crime, drugs, corruption and money-laundering.

On the issue of human trafficking and people smuggling, the two countries agreed to continue to develop a regional solution.
The regional solution, the communique said, should involve countries of origin, transit and destination and cover elements of prevention, early detection and protection.

“They stressed the importance of avoiding unilateral actions which might jeopardize such a comprehensive regional approach and that may cause operational or other difficulties to any party,” the statement said.

Source: the Jakarta Globe

OPM Admits Shooting TNI Member in Papua

The Supreme Commander of the West Papua National Liberation Army (WPNLA), Gen. Goliath Tabuni, claimed he was responsible for the shooting in the Papuan district of Illu on Tuesday, June 25. Two people were killed in the shooting, a TNI infantry lieutenant named I Wayan Sukarta and a civilian named Tomo.

“The shooting was done my members under my command,” Tabuni said as reported by the West Papua National Liberation Army media, Thursday, June 27.

In the report, Tabuni also said that the civilian they killed–reported by local media as a taxi driver–was actually a military intelligence of the TNI 753.

Tabuni further said that the Liberation Army is ready to fight against the military. He also asked Indonesia’s security officers–the TNI and the police, not to use civilians as the targets of their emotional outlet.

“If want to pursuit my members, just look for me and my members only,” he said.

Papua Police spokesman, Comm. I Gede Sumerta Jaya, said the motive of the shooting was to disrupt the distribution of basic goods to Illu District.

Sumerta asserted that the police will do something about what happened and will form a special team to investigate the shooting. “It was a criminal act and the offenders will be pursued,” he firmly stated.

Source: Tempo.co