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The Forum > Article Comments > Turning a blind eye > Comments

Turning a blind eye : Comments

By Susan Connelly, published 21/4/2006

The house is alight and the neighbours are fleeing - so does Australia ignore the plight of West Papuans?

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Indonesian Police Round Up Suspects After Violent Gold Mine Protests
Jakarta
17 March 2006

Indonesian police have arrested 57 people in the easternmost province of Papua, after clashes with protesters demanding the closure of a U.S.-owned mine left at least four people dead. A U.S.-based human rights group is calling on the Indonesian government to allow an independent investigation into the violence.

Dozens of protesters armed with rocks were injured when police opened fire and used tear gas.
(WONDER HOW ROCKS WERE SO EFFECTIVE AGAINST SOLDIERS?)

Papuans, who live in Indonesia's most remote and poverty stricken province also say most of the wealth from the mine ends up in Jakarta's coffers.
(SO MUCH FOR THE LARGE PAYMENTS MADE TO LOCAL INDIGINOUS PEOPLES)

The government has been fighting a low intensity conflict with separatists in the province for decades.
(SINCE THE INVASION ACTUALLY)

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has refused to order the closure of the mine, which brings in the country's largest tax revenues. But he agreed to assign key ministers to look into demonstrators' grievances.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch says the government should allow Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights to investigate the latest violence.

Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, says any inquiry must be independent.

"The Indonesian authorities have a very poor record of investigating themselves, and holding themselves accountable," he said. "In fact, one of the main problems in Indonesia is impunity by the security forces, and so, it's not really going to be credible in a place as politicized as Papua for the government to investigate itself."

President of the Baptist Church in Papua, Socrates Sofyan Yoman, says people fear reprisals from the police paramilitary unit, known as Brimob, which has been accused of human rights abuses in the past.

"Now, in West Papua, especially in Jayapura, it's very terrible situation, very worse, because the Brimob attack the community," he said.

Human Rights Watch has also called on the Indonesian government to allow journalists, rights workers and other independent monitors access to all of Papua, currently forbidden by Jakarta.
http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2006-03/2006-03-17-voa31.cfm?CFID=9791487&CFTOKEN=90123067
Posted by Kekenidika, Monday, 8 May 2006 2:13:07 AM
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PTBI said'

"No stupid Australian can ever change our hatred towards barbaric Papuan separatists. Indonesians, however, are sophisticated enough to differentiate between the tiny number barbaric separatists and the rest of Papuans, who are decent, law-abiding citizens who participate fully in Indonesian national life".

It is clear from this that his concept of being Indonesian does not extend to Papuans who don't want to be Indonesian. Indeed, it also seems that the concept of sophistication is also limited to those who want to remain in Indonesia. Neat little mind trick, this one. If separatists are not Indonesian then neither he nor his government has any obligation to respect their person or their rights (nor, it seems, even their family). The demonisation as precursor to extermination is complete.

This allows him to skip over 40 years of repression and imply that the death of a few thugs in police uniform had zero prior provocation, simply a random act of barbarism. And he then claims that an entirely arbitrary and indiscriminate mass killing of anyone who was merely present at the demonstration was a just, reasonable and proportionate response.

So where can I make a donation towards West Papuan Liberation?
Posted by Perseus, Monday, 8 May 2006 12:22:04 PM
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perseus when you find out were to send money let me know. all PTBI, {yan or lan} has done is made me need to help the papuan people. as one of the white australian { who whent to a school wich was 90% aborigines}I can see all the thing that we have done wrong in the pass but it was the pass .but indonesia are doing it now in 2006 and they think they have the right to do it . and I think it's up to us { australia} to help the papuan people as were the only one's who can. with people power not arms as PTBI would love it to come down to
Posted by captan cook, Monday, 8 May 2006 1:37:05 PM
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@Perseus:

You don't care about Indonesian lives do you? You enjoy seeing Indonesian women and children being raped, murdered, and mutiliated by barbaric Papuan separatists, do you? No wonder, considering the genocidal history of Australian whites.

Rest assured, we will hunt down every single terrorist Papuan separatists. We've arrested 80 people who cruelly murdered 5 of our unarmed heroic policemen. They will be tried and shot. If any Australian decide to support the separatist terrorists, we will consider these white trash as terrorists like Amrozi or Imam Samudra. Remember, 50% of Papuan population are transmigrants, they will make any dirty Australian invader choke in blood.
Posted by Proud to be Indonesian, Monday, 8 May 2006 3:58:34 PM
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PTBI – finally unmasked.

Sometimes I wonder why everyone is up in arms about this PTBI character and why you expend so much time trying to argue with a brick wall of vile ignorance and racist epithets.

He has run rings around almost all of you, insulting your intelligence and yet in the end regurgitating the same old trite racist anti-white, anti-Australian, anti-everything-not-Indonesian garbage and getting on everyone’s wicks AND many have wondered (OK – well I would say all of you have wondered) where he is and where he is from and come up with wild fantasies, which are just that – wild fantasies.

I realized quite early in the piece that his main aim was to sow discord and tension, many and you know who you are, tried to reason with him, only to be rebuffed and further insulted and whilst chainsmoker has come up with a reasonable hypothesis and put forward a reasonable conjecture as to whom he actually is, he also is not quite right with that either

You have all tried to argue against him instead of investigating PTBI, you have all tried to prune his leaves and camouflage, instead of getting to the root of the disease and like a weed it comes back stronger – ignoring rhyme and reason with a repetitive attack – all the while wasting your valuable time and resources…...

He is rat animal cunning and has treated you all with contempt (sometimes I think many of you really invite contempt) BUT what he has not been seen is that he has left a trail miles wide – and you people are so blind as to not be able to see the forest for the trees.

Maybe you are not as naturally devious as I am, maybe I am just a natural trawler of garbage, but I do believe I have tracked him down, for you see as it was said in a posting, is never, ever erased and to find someone just takes a little patience, so if anyone is interested in repaying in kind, just let me know…….
Posted by Kekenidika, Tuesday, 9 May 2006 9:40:38 PM
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While our Indonesian thieves try to justify their colonial abuses; other groups have commented on Indonesian abuses:

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2000/eap/707.htm
"Security forces were responsible for numerous instances of, at times indiscriminate, shooting of civilians, torture, rape, beatings and other abuse, and arbitrary detention in Aceh, West Timor, Irian Jaya (also known as Papua or West Papua), the Moluccas, Sulawesi, and elsewhere in the country."

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/eap/8314.htm
"Security forces tortured and otherwise abused persons. Rapes and sexual exploitation by security forces continued to be a problem. Prison conditions are harsh. Security forces employed arbitrary arrest and detention without trial in Aceh. Despite initial steps toward reform, the judiciary remains subordinate to the executive, is corrupt, and does not always ensure due process. Security forces infringe on citizens' privacy rights. Security forces continued to intimidate and assault journalists. The Government places some controls on freedom of assembly; however, it allowed most demonstrations to proceed without hindrance except in Aceh and Papua."

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2002/18245.htm
"security forces continued to employ harsh measures against rebels and civilians in separatist zones where most politically motivated extrajudicial killings occurred. The security forces also committed numerous extrajudicial killings that were not politically motivated. The Government largely failed to hold soldiers and police accountable for such killings and other serious human rights abuses."

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27771.htm
"security forces continued to employ unlawful killing against rebels, suspected rebels, and civilians in separatist zones, where most of the politically motivated extrajudicial killings occurred. There was evidence that the TNI considered anyone its forces killed to have been an armed rebel"

http://www.law.yale.edu/outside/html/Public_Affairs/426/westpapuahrights.pdf
"Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua:
Application of the Law of Genocide to the History of Indonesian Control"
Posted by Daeron, Tuesday, 9 May 2006 10:43:21 PM
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