Solidaritas Kemanusiaan untuk Papua (Humanitarian Solidarity for Papua) Statement - June 13, 2012
Friends and comrades, all the people of Indonesia, are you aware of the escalating violence that has been taking place in West Papua over the last few days. Terror, violence and intimidation have become the daily face of life for the Papuan people. Just in May and June, as many as 25 people have been killed and scores injured in “mysterious” shooting incidents.
Instead of paying serious attention to this situation, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has responded by stating that what is occurring in Papua is only “small-scale with a limited number of casualties”. The thousands of lives that have been lost, particularly since West Papua’s integration into Indonesia, are belittled by the president as “small-scale”. The population of indigenous Papuans continues to shrink. The suffering of the mama-mama (traditional Papuan women traders) and Papuan women that have been raped and lost their children, husbands sisters and family members, is dismissed as “small-scale”.
The response to the escalating violence on the other hand has been “large-scale”: increased troop numbers, military operations, expanding the army’s territorial commands and more security posts. Armed soldiers are patrolling settlements, churches, markets and schools, spreading uneasiness and fear among the people.
President Yudhoyono is quick to claim that separatists are behind the series of attacks in Papua. An accusation that is easy make and a convenient scapegoat with the aim of again discrediting the wishes of the Papuan people. The president is laying the blame on the Papuan people, the very ones who are in fact the victims.
The Indonesian government and the state apparatus are unwilling and unable to address the real source of the violence in Papua. The real source of the problems in Papua are the economic injustice suffered by indigenous Papuans since the PT Freeport copper and gold mine began operating, the increasing troop numbers and military operations that have followed this, and the historical problem of West Papua’s integration into Indonesia that the government refuses to evaluate and examine honestly. So separatism and the violence is not the cause, but rather the result, which the government attempts to overcome with militaristic violence instead of democratic and participatory dialogue.
The solution to achieve a peaceful and humanitarian resolution in West Papua is in the hands of the Indonesian and Papuan people, helping each other in solidarity and with the goodness of their hearts. Solidarity with all of those who have become the victims is the key for realising a peaceful Papua, a Papua that is prosperous and dignified. Indonesia will never be fully democratic and prosperous unless West Papua too is democratic and prosperous.
Thank you for your support
In solidarity
Humanitarian Solidarity for Papua (Solidaritas Kemanusiaan untuk Papua)
Humanitarian Solidarity for Papua
National Papua Solidarity (NAPAS), the Papuan Student Alliance (AMP), the Papuan Traditional Social Community Against Corruption (KAMPAK), the Papuan NGO Forum for Cooperation (Foker LSM Papua), the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), the Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), the Student Struggle Center for National Liberation (Pembebasan), the Democratic Volunteers and the People’s Liberation Party (PPR).