Indonesian human rights groups have called for an independent investigation into the death of a New Zealand helicopter pilot in a remote part of Papua province earlier this week.

The pilot, identified as Glen Malcolm Conning, was reportedly killed by an armed group shortly after landing in Alama district in Mimika regency on Monday.

Amnesty International Indonesia’s executive director, Usman Hamid, described the killing as a serious violation of humanitarian law and called for an independent probe into the death.

• READ MORE: OPM blames Indonesia over tragic death of NZ helicopter pilot
• Other West Papua reports

“We urge the Indonesian authorities to immediately investigate this crime to bring the perpetrators to justice, including starting with a forensic examination and autopsy of the victim’s body,” he said.

“The protection of civilians is a fundamental principle that must always be upheld, and the deliberate targeting and killing of civilians is unacceptable,” Usman told BenarNews in a statement.

The Papuan independence fighters and security forces are blaming each other for the attack and have provided conflicting accounts of what happened on the airstrip.

The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) — the military wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) — ​​has denied it was responsible.

Suspicions of ‘orchestrated murder’
In a statement, a spokesman, Sebby Sambom said: “We suspect that the murder of the New Zealand helicopter pilot was orchestrated by the Indonesian military and police themselves.”

He alleged that the killing was intended to undermine efforts to negotiate the release of another New Zealand pilot, Phillip Mehrtens, who has been held by the rebel group since February last year.

He said photos showing the pilot’s body and the helicopter without apparent signs of burns contradicted the police’s claims that they were burned.

The photos, which Sambom sent to BenarNews, appear to depict Conning’s body collapsed in his helicopter’s seat, with his left arm bearing a deep gash.

Four passengers who Indonesian authorities said were indigenous Papuans, including a child and baby, were unharmed.

Police said the attackers ambushed the helicopter, forcibly removed the occupants, and subsequently executed Conning. They said in a statement that the pilot’s body was burned along with the helicopter.

Responding to the rebel group’s accusations, Bayu Suseno, spokesperson for a counter-insurgency task force in Papua comprising police and soldiers, insisted that the resistance fighters were responsible for the pilot’s death.

“The armed criminal group often justify their crimes, including killing civilians, migrants, and indigenous Papuans working as healthcare workers, teachers, motorcycle taxi drivers, and the New Zealand pilot, by accusing them of being spies,” he told BenarNews.

No response over contradictions
He did not respond to a question about the photos that appear to contradict his earlier claim that Conning’s body was burned with the helicopter.

Sambom said on Monday that if Conning was killed by independence fighters, it was because he should not have been in a conflict zone.

“Anyone who ignores this does so at their own risk. What was the New Zealander doing there? We consider him a spy,” he said.

Bayu said another New Zealand pilot, Geoffrey Foster, witnessed the aftermath of the attack.

Foster approached Conning’s helicopter and saw scattered bags and the pilot slumped in his seat covered in blood, prompting him to take off again without landing, Bayu said.

Executive director of the Papua Justice and Human Integrity Foundation Theo Hesegem expressed concern and condolences for the shooting of the pilot and supported efforts for an independent investigation into the incident.

“There must be an independent investigation team and it must be an integrated team from Indonesia and New Zealand,” he told BenarNews .

Indonesia’s National Human Rights Commission, Komnas HAM, condemned the attack and said such acts undermined efforts to bring peace to Papua.

‘Ensure civilian safety’
“Komnas HAM asks the government and security forces to ensure the safety of civilians in Papua,” said the commission’s chairperson Atnike Nova Sigiro in a statement on Wednesday.

The perpetrators of the attack must be brought to justice, Komnas HAM said.

The attack is the latest by an armed group on aviation personnel in the province where Papuan independence fighters have waged a low-level struggle against Indonesian rule since the 1960s.

Another New Zealand pilot, Phillip Mehrtens, was abducted by insurgents from the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) 18 months ago and remains in captivity.

Mehrtens was seized by the fighters on February 7 in the central highlands of Papua. The rebels burned the small Susi Air plane he was piloting and released the Papuan passengers.

While his captors have released videos showing him alive, negotiations to free him have stalled. The group’s demands include independence for the Melanesian region they refer to as West Papua.

Copyright ©2015-2024, BenarNews. Published with the permission of BenarNews.

A New Zealand politician and human rights activist with a strong connection to Tonga’s Democracy movement and other Pacific activism has been farewelled after dying last week aged 80.

Keith Locke served as a former Green MP from 1999 to 2011.

While in Parliament, he was a notable critic of New Zealand’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan and the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002, and advocated for refugee rights.

• READ MORE: Other obituaries, reports on Keith Locke

He was appointed a Member of the NZ Order of Merit for services to human rights advocacy in 2021, received NZ Amnesty International’s Human Rights Defender award in 2012, and the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand’s Harmony Award in 2013.

Locke was often a voice for the Pacific in the New Zealand Parliament.

In 2000, he spoke out on the plight of overstayers who were facing deportation under the National Party government.

As the Green Party’s then immigration spokesperson, he supported calls for a review of the overstayer legislation.

Links to Pohiva
“We are a Polynesian nation, and we increasingly celebrate the Samoan and Tongan part of our national identity,” Locke said at the time.

“How can we claim as our own the Jonah Lomus and Beatrice Faumuinas while we are prepared to toss their relations out of the country at a moment’s notice?”

Locke had links to Tonga through his relationship with Democracy campaigner and later Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva, who died in 2019.

Locke defended Pohiva in 1996 when he was a spokesperson for the Alliance Party. He said he was horrified that Pohiva and two colleagues had been jailed for comments in their pro-democracy newspaper Kele’a.

He criticised the New Zealand government for keeping silent about what he described as a “gross abuse of human rights.”

In 2004, Locke called on the New Zealand government to speak out about what he called the suppression of the press in Tonga.

Locke, who was then the Greens foreign affairs spokesman, said several publications had been denied licences, including an offshoot of the New Zealand-produced Taimi ‘o Tonga newspaper.

Vale #KeithLocke, tireless and fearless campaigner for peace, justice and a sustainable future for a green planet … I’ll also remember him for friendship and commitment to independent truth publishing and OneWorld progressive bookshop. – @DavidRobie, editor, #AsiaPacificReport pic.twitter.com/SC0obJzfOA

— David Robie (@DavidRobie) June 21, 2024

Tribute by Asia Pacific Report editor David Robie.

‘Speak out as Pacific neighbour’
“We owe it to the Tongan people to support them in their hour of need.  We should speak out as a Pacific neighbour,” he said.

In 2007, ‘Akilisi was again charged with sedition, along with four other pro-democracy MPs, for allegedly being responsible for the rioting that took place following a mass pro-democracy march in Nuku’alofa.

“As the Greens’ foreign affairs spokesperson I went up to Tonga to support ‘Akilisi and his colleagues fight these trumped-up charges. I was shocked to find that the New Zealand government was going along with these sedition charges against five sitting MPs,” Locke said in an interview.

“I was in Tonga not long before the 2010 elections with a cross-party group of New Zealand MPs. We were helping Tongan candidates understand the intricacies of a parliamentary system.

“At the time I remember ‘Akilisi being worried that the block of nine ‘noble’ MPs could frustrate the desires of what were to be 17 directly-elected MPs. And so it turned out.

“Despite winning 12 of the popularly-elected 17 seats in 2010, the pro-democracy MPs were outvoted 14 to 12 when the votes of the nine nobles MPs were put into the equation.

“However, in the two subsequent elections (2014 and 2017) the Democrats predominated and ‘Akilisi took over as Prime Minister. I am not qualified to judge his record on domestic issues, except to say it couldn’t have been an easy job because of the fractious nature of Tongan politics.

“And ‘Akilisi has been in poor health.

‘Admirable stand’
“As Prime Minister he took an admirable stand on some important international issues, such as climate change. At the Pacific Island Forum he criticised those countries which stayed silent on the plight of the West Papuans.”

Locke said that Tonga may not yet be fully democratic, but that great progress had been made under Pohiva’s “humble and self-sacrificing leadership.”

Keith Locke was also an outspoken advocate for democracy and independence causes in Fiji, Kanaky New Caledonia, Palestine, Philippines, Tahiti, Tibet, Timor-Leste and West Papua and in many other countries.

His remembrance service was held with whānau and supporters at a packed Mount Eden War memorial Hall on Tuesday.

Dr Philip Cass is an editorial adviser for Kaniva Tonga. Republished as a collaboration between KT and Asia Pacific Report.

An open letter to The New Zealand Herald has challenged a full page Zionist advertisement this week for failing to acknowledge the “terrible injustices” suffered by the Palestinian people in Israel’s seven-month genocidal war on Gaza.

In the latest of several international reports that have condemned genocide against the people of Gaza while the International Court of Justice continues to investigate Israel for a plausible case for genocide, a human rights legal network of US universities has concluded that “Israel has committed genocidal acts of killing” and sought to “bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza”.

• READ MORE: Israeli forces target residential buildings, ambulance in Jabalia

The University Network for Human Rights, along with the International Human Rights Clinic at Boston University School of Law, the International Human Rights Clinic at Cornell Law School, the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria, and the Lowenstein Human Rights Project at Yale Law School, conducted a legal analysis and the 100-page damning report, “Genocide in Gaza: Analysis of International Law and its Application to Israel’s Military Actions since October 7, 2023.”

The Israeli military have killed more than 35,000 people — mostly women and children — and more than 78,000 people and the UN General Assembly voted by an overwhelming 134-9 votes to back Palestinian statehood on May 11.

In the full page Zionist advertisement in The New Zealand Herald on Tuesday, senior pastor Nigel Woodley of the Flaxmere Christian Fellowship Church in Hastings claimed “the current painful war is another episode in Israel’s history for survival” with no acknowledgement of the massive human cost on Palestinians.

The open letter by Reverend Chris Sullivan in response — dated the same day but not published by The Herald — says:

An advertisement in the Herald supports the creation of the State of Israel.

For the same reasons we should also support the creation of a Palestinian state; don’t Palestinians also deserve their own nation state?

Just as we decry Hitler’s Holocaust, so too must we raise our voices against the killing of 35,000 people in Gaza (most of them innocent civilians), the destruction of 70 percent of the housing, and imminent famine.

It is disingenuous to focus solely on the Arab invasions of Israel, without looking at their cause — the killing and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians which accompanied the creation of the modern state of Israel.

It is never too late for both sides to turn away from violence and war and build a lasting peace, based on mutual respect and a just solution to the terrible injustices the Palestinian people have suffered.

Rev Chris Sullivan
Auckland

The UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to grant Palestine new rights and privileges, calling on the Security Council to reconsider its bid for full UN membership, reports TrimFeed.

The resolution on Friday was opposed by the US, Israel, and seven other countries — four of them island nations from the Pacific — citing concerns over direct negotiations and a two-state solution.

Papua New Guinea, Federated States of Micronesia and Palau were among the countries voting against Palestine.

• READ MORE: How the countries voted on the UN Palestine resolution
• Fiji’s position over Israeli war on Gaza – international blunder or a domestic strategy?

The UN General Assembly called on the Security Council to reconsider Palestine’s request to become the 194th member of the United Nations.

The overwhelming vote in favour by 143-9, with 25 abstentions, reflects wide global support for full membership of Palestine in the world body.

The outcome of this vote has significant implications for the Israel-Palestine conflict, as it may influence the trajectory of future negotiations and the prospects for a two-state solution.

Furthermore, the level of international support for Palestinian statehood may impact on the balance of power in the region and beyond.

Fiji, Vanuatu, and Marshall Islands were among the countries that abstained from the vote, alongside the United States, Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, and Papua New Guinea voting against.

US will veto statehood
The US has made clear that it would block Palestinian membership and statehood until direct negotiations with Israel resolve key issues and lead to a two-state solution.

The vote comes amid escalating violence and rising death tolls on the Palestinian people — more than 35,000 have been killed and almost 79,000 wounded in the War on Gaza

Many countries have expressed outrage at the situation and fears of a major Israeli ground offensive in Rafah.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian UN Ambassador, delivered an emotional speech, saying, “No words can capture what such loss and trauma signifies for Palestinians, their families, communities, and for our nation as a whole.”

Israel’s UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan vehemently opposed the resolution, accusing UN member nations of not mentioning Hamas’ October 7 attack that killed 1139 people and he shredded a copy of the UN charter in protest.

US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said: “For the US to support Palestinian statehood, direct negotiations must guarantee Israel’s security and future as a democratic Jewish state, and that Palestinians can live in peace in a state of their own.”

While the resolution grants Palestine some new rights and privileges, it reaffirms that it remains a non-member observer state without full UN membership and voting rights in the General Assembly.

Humanitarian ceasefire vote
Palestine became a UN non-member observer state in 2012. The United States vetoed a widely-backed council resolution on April 18 that would have paved the way for full United Nations membership for Palestine.

The General Assembly’s vote calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza on October 27 and the ongoing violence underscore the urgent need for a resolution to the long-standing crisis.

As the international community remains divided on the issue of Palestinian statehood, the path to lasting peace remains uncertain.

Republished from TrimFeed.

The Elders chair Mary Robinson has highlighted the unique leverage that the United States has with Israel and called on the Biden administration to stop giving it military assistance for its assault on the Gaza Strip.

Robinson, the former president of Ireland, conducted an on-camera interview with Irish public broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann just before her country’s Prime Minister, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, was due to meet US President Joe Biden on Friday at the White House.

“Yes the humanitarian situation is utterly catastrophic and dire, reducing a people to famine, undermining all our values, but the message I want to deliver on behalf of the Elders is a direct message to our Taoiseach Leo Varadkar,” Robinson said.

• READ MORE: Israel’s war on Gaza live: Dozens killed near Gaza’s Nuseirat camp
• Mehdi Hasan on genocide in Gaza and the silencing of Palestinian voices in media
• ‘Food not bombs’ Gaza protesters picket MFAT offices in Auckland

“We need a ceasefire and we need the opening up of Gaza with every avenue . . .  for aid to get in.”

In his meeting with Biden, Varadkar “should not spend too much time on the dire humanitarian situation, and the ships, and the rest of it,” she said.

“He has the opportunity to deliver a political message in a very direct way. The United States can influence Israel by not continuing to provide arms. It has provided a lot of the arms . . . that have been used on the Palestinian people.”

Elders’ Chair Mary Robinson says President Biden should not continue to provide arms to Israel.

“The United States can influence Israel by not continuing to provide arms… The Government of Prime Minister Netanyahu is on the wrong side of history, completely. It’s making the… pic.twitter.com/fN3ptMjktz

— The Elders (@TheElders) March 15, 2024

More than 31,490 killed
Since Israel declared war in response to the Hamas-led attack on October 7, Israeli forces have killed at least 31,490 people in Gaza — including people seeking food aid — and wounded another 73,439. The assault has also devastated civilian infrastructure, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques, and displaced the vast majority of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents.

Israel is also restricting desperately needed humanitarian aid into the Hamas-governed territory, and Palestinians have begun starving to death — which people around the world point to as further proof that the Israeli government is defying an International Court of Justice (ICJ) order to prevent genocidal acts as the South Africa-led case moves forward at The Hague.

The United States gives Israel $3.8 billion in annual military aid, and since October 7, Biden — who faces a genocide complicity case in federal court — has fought for another $14.3 billion while his administration has repeatedly bypassed Congress to arm Israeli forces.

Critics, including some lawmakers, argue that continuing to send weapons to Israel violates US law.

The far-right government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is on the wrong side of history, completely — is making the United States complicit in reducing a people to famine, making the world complicit,” Robinson told RTÉ. “We’re all watching. It is absolutely horrific what is happening.”

“So Leo Varadkar has access today to President Biden,” she said. “He must use this completely politically at all levels with the speaker of the House, with everyone, to make it clear that Israel depends on the United States for military aid and for money. That’s what will change everything.”

“We need a ceasefire and we need the opening up of Gaza with every avenue . . .  for aid to get in, because the situation’s so bad, and we need the political way forward, which is the two-state solution,” she added.

‘Only US can put pressure’
“So we need an Israeli government agreeing to that, and only the United States can put the pressure [on Israel].”

Robinson, who spent five years as the United Nations high commissioner for human rights after her presidency ended in 1997, has been part of the Elders since Nelson Mandela, the late anti-apartheid South African president, announced the group in 2007.

She has made multiple statements during the five-month Israeli assault on Gaza, including calling on Israel to comply with the ICJ’s January ruling and warning Biden the previous month that his “support for Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of Gaza is losing him respect all over the world.”

“The US is increasingly isolated, with allies like Australia, Canada, India, Japan, and Poland switching their votes in the UN General Assembly to support an immediate humanitarian cease-fire,” she said in December.

“The destruction of Gaza is making Israel less safe. President Biden’s continuing support for Israel’s actions is also making the world less safe, the Security Council less effective, and US leadership less respected. It is time to stop the killing.”

Speaking to press at the Oval Office alongside Biden on Friday, Varadkar said that he was “keen to talk about the situation in Gaza,” and noted his view “that we need to have a ceasefire as soon as possible to get food and medicine in” to the besieged territory.

“On Sunday, the taoiseach will also gift Mr Biden a bowl of shamrock as part of an annual tradition to mark St Patrick’s Day,” RTÉ reported. “Mr Varadkar started the trip on Monday, and since then has spoken several times . . .  about how he will use the special platform of the St Patrick’s Day visit to press Mr Biden to back a ceasefire in the Gaza, while also thanking the US for leadership in support for Ukraine.”

Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and writer for Common Dreams, an independent progressive nonprofit news service. Republished under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) licence.

The Israeli bombing of the Baptist hospital in Gaza killing hundreds of innocent Palestinians may have been a turning point in the war on Gaza.

The October 17 attack led instantly to mass protests throughout Palestine and the Middle East and forced the Egyptian, Jordanian and Palestinian leaders to cancel a summit meeting the following day with US President Biden.

The deadly bombing of the hospital was preceded by bombardment of a UN-run school on the same day, in which at least six people were killed.

• READ MORE: Israel-Hamas war: Israel kills 500 in hospital attack – ministry
• Al Jazeera live news feed
• John Minto: A shameful NZ response to genocide of Palestinians in Gaza
• Other War Against Gaza reports

These tragedies have highlighted the humanitarian consequences of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, waged under the pretext of “self-defence”. Which mirrors its long history of pursuing maximum security at the expense of Palestinian lives, through disproportionate and indiscriminate use of military force.

Israel has tried to muddy the waters as it did after the assassination of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, by blaming the Palestinians for the hospital bombing.

It is easy to get lost in the midst of mayhem, death and destruction and forget how and why we have arrived at such madness.

Disenchanted old-timers, like the baffled newcomers, find it ever more challenging to make sense of the perpetual bloodshed and the endless recriminations, and wonder if there is ever a solution to this protracted and tragic conflict, after a dozen wars, countless peace initiatives and innumerable “creative” solutions failed to resolve the conflict.

Main contradiction
That is why it is paramount during these chaotic times to zero in on the main contradiction driving and inflaming the conflict, namely the clash between what Israel claims is its “security” drive and what Palestinians demand as their rights under international law.

This primary contradiction has evolved over the years into a zero-sum conflict, as Israel has pursued maximum “security” at the expense of justice for the Palestinians.

Since its inception, Israel has defined its security all too broadly, in both military and nonmilitary terms that undermine basic Palestinian rights and freedom.

After its establishment through terror and violence, the tiny colonial entity developed a formidable security doctrine that matches its heightened perception of threats — real and imagined — from a cynical world, a hostile region, and a defiant indigenous population.

From the outset, Israel focused on the relentless preparation for and pursuit of war; even when its state of affairs did not require it, its state of mind justified it.

First and foremost, Israel pursued military superiority, strategic preemption and nuclear deterrence, to compensate for its strategic depth and small population, and to ensure the country does not lose a single war, believing any such loss would mean total annihilation.

Armed with an aggressive military doctrine, Israel went on to win three wars in 1948, 1956 and 1967, resulting in its permanent control of all of historic Palestine, including a perpetual military occupation of millions of Palestinians, all under the pretext of preserving its security.

Israel perpetuated injustices
Israel has perpetuated injustices against the Palestinians, incessantly breaking international law. After the Nakba of 1948, Israeli “security” has meant preventing millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants from returning to their homes and homeland in contravention to UN Resolution 194.

It also led to the confiscation of their land in order to settle new Jewish immigrants and ensure Jewish demographic majority.

Likewise, after the 1967 war and the subsequent occupation, Israel confiscated Palestinian lands to settle hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers, whose illegal presence became a justification for a greater, more repressive Israeli military deployment, rendering Israeli withdrawal in line with United Nations Security Council resolutions ever more improbable.

Even after Israel reached “historic peace accords” with the Palestinians in 1993, it continued to settle Jewish immigrants onto occupied Palestinian land, with the population of illegal Jewish settlers reaching 700,000 today.

It has had to massively expand its national security provision to include the security of these settlements. This, of course, was done at the direct expense of Palestinian life, land, dignity and well-being.

To safeguard its illegal settlements, Israel has also carved up and fragmented the Palestinian territories into 202 separate cantons, erecting a system of apartheid, and diminishing the Palestinians’ access to employment, health and education.

Like other settler colonial powers, Israel’s ideological approach to security has been no less dangerous than its strategic approach to its military doctrine.

Security the magic word
Security became the magic word that trumps all others; it explains all and justifies all. Its mention silences any criticism or dissent.

It is the answer to every question: why build here not there — security; why sustain the occupation — security; why expand the Jewish settlements — security; why carry out the bloodshed — security; why maintain a state of no war or peace — security.

Indeed, security emerged as the state ideology; it is Zionism’s answer to its colonial reality. It is no coincidence that what Israel calls security, the Palestinians call hegemony.

In that way, security went beyond police, military, intelligence and surveillance, to an all-encompassing hegemonic, even racist concept covering demography, immigration, settlement, land confiscation, as well as, theology, archaeology, indoctrination and propaganda.

These became the essential and complimentary ingredients to Israeli military power, deterrence, prevention and preemption.

But Israel’s disproportionality in response to the Palestinian struggle for freedom has always failed to deter Palestinian resistance. The suffering of the Palestinian people has produced greater frustration and anger, leading to cycles of retaliations, as we have seen this month in Gaza.

Since it withdrew its several thousand illegal settlers and redeployed its forces outside the Gaza in 2005, Israel has laid siege, an unjust and inhumane blockade to the densely populated strip, making life ever more unbearable for its over 2.3 million Palestinians, most of whom are refugees from the southern part of what today is Israel.

Preparing land invasion
Eighteen years, five wars, and tens of thousands of casualties later, Israel is back to bombing the ill-fated Palestinian territory, in retaliation for Hamas’s October 7 attack on its soldiers and civilians, and is preparing for a full land invasion of Gaza with incalculable cost to its residents.

Israel’s insistence on the exclusive right to defend its citizens, while denying the Palestinians the right to protect their own civilians under military occupation and siege, has long backfired. This month, it backfired spectacularly.

The myth of Israel’s security and invincibility has been shattered once and for all. It is high time to pursue security through a just peace, instead of pursuing peace through bloody security.

This is the reality the new self-appointed sheriff in town, Joe Biden, must address during his visit to the region, instead of egging Israel on as in its genocidal war in Gaza.

As my brother, seasoned scholar Azmi Bishara, argued in his recent book, Palestine: Matters of Truth and Justice, at the heart of the conflict lies not a dilemma in need of creativity, but rather a tragedy in dire need of justice.

Any decent mediator will have to find and maintain the balance between the two, starting with putting an end to Israel’s occupation and the colonial mindset that governed the conflict.

It’s not bothsidesism and it’s not whataboutism, it’s common sense and sober reading of the historical dynamic that governed the reality in the land.

Marwan Bishara is a senior analyst for Al Jazeera English. He is an author who writes extensively on global politics and is widely regarded as a leading authority on US foreign policy, the Middle East and international strategic affairs. He was previously a professor of international relations at the American University of Paris.

Auckland Museum has apologised for the hurt caused after it staged a light display in support of Israel on Sunday night.

Auckland Museum lit its building up in blue and white. On social media, the museum said it had lit up “in solidarity with Israel”.

“Our thoughts go out to the many civilians impacted as a result of the terrorist attack a week ago,” the museum had said.

• READ MORE: Pro-Palestine supporters call on Auckland Museum to apologise over lights fiasco
• Asian states shocked by Hamas raids but no ‘blind support’ for Israel
• Israel-Gaza crisis: NZ must condemn atrocities but keep pushing for a two-state solution
• Big Auckland rally shows solidarity with Palestine over ‘genocidal’ war
• Al Jazeera live news blog on the Hamas-Israel conflict

“As a war memorial, we value the importance of peaceful dialogue and understanding.

“We condemn all acts of violence and terrorism. This evening the museum is lit in blue and white in condemnation and as an expression of hope for peace.”

Researcher Dr Arama Rata said within hours, about 100 people had gathered outside the museum, many holding Palestine flags and chanting “Free Palestine”.

She said a verbal confrontation arose between the Palestine supporters and a group of Israel supporters.

Red fabric-covered lights
Dr Rata said Palestine supporters subsequently covered the lights with red fabric blacking out the display.

She said the museum must issue a formal apology to the community, saying its actions have caused deep divisions for people who are already hurting.

Alternative Jewish Voices co-founder Marilyn Garson, a Jewish woman who spent four years in Gaza providing humanitarian aid to shelters, said the board of the War Memorial Museun was either partisan, or uninformed.

“They feel solidarity only with Israel. So they single out one acknowledged crime while massive crimes against Palestinians are unfolding. I don’t understand how Palestinian civilians can be invisible to the board of a war museum,” she said.

“It seems to me that it is the antithesis of a war memorial’s mission to downgrade some human lives. They’re saying that they feel for these civilians and not those civilians. So someone really doesn’t understand the concept of civilian safety.

“A war memorial should act to hold back the violence, they need to learn into their blind spot. I want them to call for the end of this horror.”

Personally apologised
In a statement, chief executive David Reeves said he personally apologised and they were reviewing the feedback they had received from Sunday night.

“I acknowledge the depth of feeling around our decision to light the museum on Sunday night,” Reeves said.

“We wanted this to be an expression of hope for peace — our approach was wrong, and I personally apologise for the distress and hurt caused to members of our community,” he said.

“I am carefully reviewing and reflecting on all of the feedback we have received. As a War Memorial Museum, we continue to hope for deeper understanding and a peaceful resolution to conflict.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Many labour organisations have protested in front of the US Embassy in Central Jakarta, calling for an end to the Hamas-Israeli war — as protests in their tens of thousands have spread across the world.

The workers gathered across the street from the US Embassy with a command vehicle being used to give speeches.

Protesters could be seen putting up large banners with the message “Stop the Palestine-Israeli war”.

• READ MORE: Al Jazeera live news blog on the Hamas-Israel conflict

“Today, the Labour Party and the KSPI (Confederation of Indonesian Trade Unions) are holding an action in front of the United States Embassy and later it will be continued at the United Nations offices in the context of calling for an end to the Palestine and Israeli war”, Labour Party president Said Iqbal told the protesters.

Iqbal said they were asking US President Joe Biden not to send troops to Israel.

They gave speeches in front of the US Embassy so that the message they are conveying is immediately implemented by the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council.

“The Labour Party and trade unions in Indonesia reject the presence of American troops entering Israel, and the American aircraft carrier that has already entered the Mediterranean,” said Iqbal.

Heavy death toll
A heavy police presence was deployed around the event and the officers redirected traffic when it became too congested.

The Israel-Hamas conflict has been heating up since Saturday, October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel and since then the Israeli Defence Forces have been bombing the Gaza Strip enclave.

From Ireland to South Africa and from the U.S. to Pakistan, tens of thousands of people all around the world are taking to the streets to demand an end to Israel’s attacks on occupied Gaza. pic.twitter.com/CKlNMVWXlT

— AJ+ (@ajplus) October 14, 2023

In Israel, the death toll stands at some 1300 killed and more than 3400 wounded since last weekend’s attack by Hamas.

Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “Buruh Demo di Depan Kedubes AS, Serukan Hentikan Perang Hamas-Israel”.

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) supporters are livid Labour is refusing to recognise the state of Palestine a full 104 years after the first Palestinian calls for an independent state.

It’s a disgraceful decision, both unprincipled and cowardly.

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson confirmed this decision when answering questions here:

• READ MORE: Other Palestine reports

Q – ??? about the Palestinian Representative in Australia to present his credentials here. That was announced formally.

Grant Robertson – There is a formal Foreign Policy part of the manifesto. We’re sticking with the long standing bi-partisan approach to a two-state solution in the Middle East and what we are doing is working with the Palestinian representative on closer discussions but that doesn’t make a change to a formal recognition. It just means that we open that dialogue up.

Q – So no formal recognition?

GR – Not until there is a state to recognise. But we have long stood for a two-state solution and what we have said is that we want to have more open and regular dialogue with Palestinian Representatives.

Labour implied in their manifesto release this week that they would recognise the state of Palestine although the wording was unclear and ambiguous. What is clear now is that the slippery wording was deliberately meant to mean all things to all people.

The disingenuous wording in the Labour manifesto says:

Labour is committed to an enduring and just two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on the right of Israel to live in peace within secure borders internationally recognised and agreed by the parties, and reflecting the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people to also live in peace and security within their own state.

A re-elected Labour government will:

Invite the Head of the General Delegation of Palestine to present their credentials as an Ambassador to New Zealand.

One hundred and thirty eight other countries have recognised Palestine as a state and haven’t had the “problem” of recognition that Grant Robertson has manufactured for Labour.

It seems Labour has once more buckled to pressure from a tiny pro-Israel lobby group within the party. They are allowing these anti-Palestinian racists to veto any meaningful steps to support the Palestinian struggle for human rights.

It’s an indelible stain on Labour’s integrity.

Background to the 104 years
After 1918, when the Ottoman Empire collapsed at the end of the First World War, each of the countries of that empire gained independence — except Palestine. The first Palestine National Congress was held in 1919 and called for independence from Britain which held the League of Nations mandate for Palestine.

Britain, however, refused independence and in the 104 years since, Western countries, including New Zealand, have colluded with Britain, then Israel and the US, to deny a Palestinian state or even equal rights for Palestinians who are citizens of Israel.

Western countries turned a blind eye to Israel’s ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1947–49 and look the other way today as Palestinians continue to be driven out of their homes and off their land by Israeli settlers, backed up by the Israeli military.

John Minto is national chair of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA). Republished from The Daily Blog with permission.

If re-elected, Labour would invite Palestinian ambassador to Canberra to present credentials here. pic.twitter.com/UvzyOTd96T

— Thomas Coughlan (@coughlthom) October 1, 2023

Prime Minister James Marape has made two foreign policy gaffes in the space of a week that may come back to bite him as Papua New Guinea prepares for its 48th anniversary of independence this Saturday.

Critics have been stunned by the opening of a PNG embassy in Jerusalem in defiance of international law — when only three countries have done this other than the United States amid strong Palestinian condemnation — and days later a communique from his office appeared to have indicated he had turned his back on West Papuan self-determination aspirations.

Marape was reported to have told President Joko Widodo that PNG had no right to criticise Indonesia over human rights allegations in West Papua and reportedly admitted that he had “abstained” at the Port Vila meeting of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) last month when it had been widely expected that a pro-independence movement would be admitted as full members.

• READ MORE: MSG throws away golden chance to reset peace and justice for West Papua
• Other West Papua reports

The membership was denied and the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) remained as observers — as they have for almost a decade, disappointing supporters across the Pacific, while Indonesia remains an associate member.

Although Marape later denied that these were actually his views and he told PNG media that the statement had been “unauthorised”, his backtracking was less than convincing.

In the case of Papua New Guinea’s diplomatic relations with Israel, they were given a major and surprising upgrade with the opening of the embassy on September 5 in a high-rise building opposite Malha Mall, Israel’s largest shopping mall.

Marape was quoted by the PNG Post-Courier as saying that the Israeli government would “bankroll” the first two years of the embassy’s operation.

Diplomatic rift with Palestine
This is bound to cause a serious diplomatic rift with Palestine with much of the world supporting resolutions backing the Palestinian cause, especially as Marape also pledged support for Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attending the inauguration ceremony.

Papua New Guinea has now joined Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo and the United States as the “pariah” countries willing to open embassies in West Jerusalem. Most countries maintain embassies instead in Tel Aviv, the country’s commercial centre.

Israel regards West Jerusalem as its capital and would like to see all diplomatic missions established there. However, 138 of the 193 United Nations member countries do not recognise this.

Palestine considers East Jerusalem as its capital for a future independent state in spite of the city being occupied by Israel since being captured in the 1967 Six Day War and having been annexed in a move never recognised internationally.

As Al Jazeera reports, Israel has defiantly continued to build illegal settlements in East Jerusalem and in the Occupied West Bank.

“Many nations choose not to open their embassies in Jerusalem, but we have made a conscious choice,” Marape admitted at the embassy opening.

“For us to call ourselves Christian, paying respect to God will not be complete without recognising that Jerusalem is the universal capital of the people and the nation of Israel,” Marape said.

Law as ‘Christian state’
According to PNG news media, Marape also plans to introduce a law declaring the country a “Christian state” and this has faced some flak back home.

In an editorial, the Post-Courier said Marape had officially opened the new embassy in Jerusalem in response to PNG church groups that had lobbied for a “firmer relationship” with Israel for so long.

“When PM Marape was in Israel,” lamented the Post-Courier, “news broke out that a Christian prayer warrior back home, ‘using the name of the Lord, started performing a prayer ritual and was describing and naming people in the village who she claimed had satanic powers and were killing and causing people to get sick, have bad luck and struggle in finding education, finding jobs and doing business’.

“Upon the prayer warrior’s words, a community in Bulolo, Morobe Province, went bonkers and tortured a 39-year-old mother to her death. She was suspected of possessing satanic powers and of being a witch.

“It is hard to accept that such a barbaric killing should occur in Morobe, the stronghold of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, which has quickly condemned the killing.”

The Post-Courier warned that the country would need to wait and see how Palestine would react over the embassy.

“Australia and Britain had to withdraw their plans to set up embassies in Jerusalem, when Palestine protested, describing the move as a ‘blatant violation of international law’.

Pacific Journalism Review: How Indonesian media amplifies the state’s narrative on the Free West Papua movement. #westpapua #indonesia #humanrights https://t.co/J3Rj0Ulhzs pic.twitter.com/9ygIo6KjWN

— Human Rights Monitor (@hurimonitor) September 12, 2023

Indonesian ‘soft-diplomacy’ in Pacific
The establishment of the new embassy coincides with a high profile in recent months over the Indonesian government’s major boost in its diplomatic offensive in Oceania in an attempt to persuade Pacific countries to fall in line with Jakarta over West Papua.

Former Security, Politics and Legal Affairs Minister Wiranto – previously a former high-ranking Indonesian general with an unsavoury reputation — gained an additional budget of 60 million rupiah (US$4 million) to be used for diplomatic efforts in the South Pacific

“We are pursuing intense soft-diplomacy. I’m heading it up myself, going there, coordinating, and talking to them,” he told a working meeting with the House of Representatives (DPR) Budget Committee in September 2018.

“We’re proposing an additional budget of 60 billion rupiah.”

Wiranto was annoyed that seven out of 13 Pacific countries back independence for West Papua. He claimed at the time that this was because of “disinformation” in the Pacific and he wanted to change that.

In 2019, he was appointed to lead the nine-member Presidential Advisory Council but his Pacific strategy was followed through over the past six years.

“We’ve been forgetting, we’ve been negligent, that there are many countries [in the Pacific] which could potentially threaten our domination — Papua is part of our territory and it turns out that this is true,” said Wiranto at the time of the budget debate.

But for many critics in the region, it is the Indonesian government and its officials themselves that have been peddling disinformation and racism about Papua.

Atrocities in Timor-Leste
Wiranto has little credibility in the Pacific, or indeed globally over human rights.

According to Human Rights Watch: “The former general Wiranto was chief of Indonesia’s armed forces in 1999 when the Indonesian army and military-backed militias carried out numerous atrocities against East Timorese after they voted for independence.

“On February 24, 2003, the UN-sponsored East Timor Serious Crimes Unit filed an indictment for crimes against humanity against Wiranto and three other Indonesian generals, three colonels and the former governor of East Timor.

“The charges include[d] murder, arson, destruction of property and forced relocation.

“The charges against Wiranto are so serious that the United States has put Wiranto and others accused of crimes in East Timor on a visa watch list that could bar them from entering the country.”

Australian human rights author and West Papuan advocate Jim Aubrey condemned Wiranto’s “intense soft-diplomacy” comment.

“Yeah, right! Like the soft-diplomatic decapitation of Tarina Murib! Like the soft-diplomatic mutilation and dismemberment of the Timika Four villagers! Like Indonesian barbarity is non-existent!,” he told Asia Pacific Report, saying that Jakarta’s policy had continued since Wiranto’s declaration.

“The non-existent things in Wiranto’s chosen words are truth and justice!”

Conflicting reports on West Papua
When the PNG government released conflicting reports on Papua New Guinea’s position over West Papua last weekend it caused confusion after Marape and Widodo had met in a sideline meeting in in Jakarta during the ASEAN summit.

According to RNZ Pacific, Marape had said about allegations of human rights violations in West Papua that PNG had no moral grounds to comment on human rights issues outside of its own jurisdiction because it had its “own challenges”.

He was also reported to have told President Widodo Marape that he had abstained from supporting the West Papuan bid to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group because the West Papuan United Liberation Movement (ULMWP) “does not meet the requirements of a fully-fledged sovereign nation”.

“Indonesia’s associate membership status also as a Melanesian country to the MSG suffices, which cancels out West Papua ULM’s bid,” Marape reportedly said referring to the ULMWP.

Reacting with shock to the report, a senior PNG politician described it to Asia Pacific Report as “a complete capitulation”.

“No PNG leader has ever gone to that extent,” the politician said, saying that he was seeking clarification.

The statements also caught the attention of the ULMWP which raised its concerns with the Post-Courier.

Marape statement ‘corrected’
Three days later the Post-Courier reported that Marape had “corrected” the original reported statement.

In a revised statement, Marape said that in an effort to rectify any misinformation and alleviate concerns raised within Melanesian Solidarity Group (MSG) countries, West Papua, Indonesia, and the international community, he had addressed “the inaccuracies”.

“Papua New Guinea never abstained from West Papua matters at the MSG meeting, but rather, offered solutions that affirmed Indonesian sovereignty over her territories and at the same time supported the collective MSG position to back the Pacific Islands Forum Resolution of 2019 on United Nations to assess if there are human right abuses in West Papua and Papua provinces of Indonesia.”

He also relayed a message to President Widodo that the four MSG leaders of Melanesian countries – [Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon islands and Vanuatu] — had resolved to visit him at his convenience to discuss human rights.

But clarifications or not, Prime Minister Marape has left a lingering impression that Papua New Guinea’s foreign policy is for sale with chequebook diplomacy, especially when relating to both Indonesia and Israel.

Dr David Robie is the founding director of the Pacific Media Centre and former professor of communication and journalism at Auckland University of Technology. He is the author of Blood on Their Banner about nationalist struggles in the South Pacific and other books.

The Melanesian Spearhead Group has thrown away a golden chance for achieving a historical step towards justice and peace in West Papua by lacking the courage to accept the main Papuan self-determination advocacy movement as full members.

Membership had been widely expected across the Pacific region and the MSG’s silence and failure to explain West Papua’s fate at the end of the two-day leaders’ summit this week was a tragic anticlimax.

Many see this as a terrible betrayal of West Papuan aspirations and an undermining of Melanesian credibility and solidarity as well as an ongoing threat to the region’s security and human rights.

• READ MORE: MSG leaders defer Papua membership decision to Pacific Islands Forum
• Flashback: Fiji, PNG lead betrayal, but still West Papuans triumph (in 2015)
• Other MSG reports

It is also seen as a success for Indonesia’s chequebook and cultural diplomacy in the region that has intensified in recent years and months with a perception that Jakarta has bribed its way to prevent the United Liberation Front for West Papua (ULMWP) from upgrading its status from observer to its rightful full membership.

Questions are often asked about why is Indonesia even in the MSG, albeit only as an associate member, when this organisation was founded with a vision expressed in Goroka, Papua New Guinea, in 1986 for Melanesian independence, solidarity and development.

Its own website declares that the MSG stands for “a strong and shared political desire, for the entire decolonisation and freedom of Melanesian countries and territories which [are] still under colonial rule in the South Pacific, thereby developing a stronger cultural, political, social and economic identity and link between the people and communities of Melanesia.”

Why have a Trojan horse in their midst? A former Vanuatu prime minister, Joe Natuman, questioned the direction of the MSG back in 2016 when he claimed the West Papuans had been “sold out” and likened the failure of the organisation to grant ULMWP membership to when Jesus Christ was betrayed and sold for 30 pieces of silver.

Driven by ‘own agendas’
He complained at the time that “some people” were trying to drive the MSG for their own agendas with implied criticism of Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.

Earlier this year, Natuman was even more explicit when he admitted that the MSG had made a mistake by allowing Indonesia to join the Melanesian body in 2015.

“We Melanesians have a moral obligation to support West Papua’s struggle in line with our forefathers’ call, including our founding prime minister, Father Walter Lini, Chief Bongmatur, and others,” he said.

“Vanuatu has cut its canoe over 40 years ago and successfully sailed into the Ocean of Independence and in the same spirit, we must help our brothers and sisters in the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP), to cut their canoe, raise the sail and also help them sail into the same future for the Promised Land.”

This week’s failure of the Melanesian leadership to stand by the ULMWP is a travesty.

Right. Finally have the MSG Leaders Summit communique. Melanesian leaders reject ULMWP’s bid for full membership. No consensus. Benny Wenda and co will be bitterly disappointed by this, while Indonesia will be very pleased 1/ pic.twitter.com/7keV9WGFDR

— Stephen Dziedzic (@stephendziedzic) August 25, 2023

The justification as outlined in the final communique – there was a silence on West Papua when the summit ended and a promised media conference never eventuated – is barely credible.

The communique claimed that there was no consensus, the ULMWP “does not meet the existing” criteria for membership under the MSG agreement, and it also imposed a one-year membership moratorium, apparently closing the door on West Papuan future hopes.

Shocking surrender
This is a shocking surrender given that one of the existing and founding members is not an independent state, but a political movement – the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) of Kanaky New Caledonia. Already a positive precedent for ULMWP.

The FLNKS has long been a strong supporter of West Papuan self-determination and was represented at this week’s summit by former front president Victor Tutugoro.

The other members are the host country Vanuatu (represented by Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau, now leader of a minority government after the Supreme Court ruling on Friday), Fiji (Sitiveni Rabuka, who made a public statement earlier in the year backing West Papuan leader Benny Wenda and the ULMWP), Papua New Guinea (Prime Minister James Marape), and Solomon Islands (Manasseh Sogavare).

The tone was set at the MSG when the Indonesian delegation (the largest at the summit) walked out in protest when ULMWP interim president Benny Wenda addressed the plenary. An insult to the “Melanesian way”.

Indonesian delegation walks out of MSG leaders summit before West Papuan leader Benny Wenda’s speech. pic.twitter.com/qW0YMxnrVk

— Ben Bohane (@ben_bohane) August 23, 2023

Only a day earlier, Wenda had expressed his confidence that the MSG would admit ULMWP as full members. This followed a week of massive demonstrations in West Papua in support of MSG membership.

Stressing West Papua’s vulnerability and constant history of human rights violations at the hands of Indonesian security forces, Wenda said: “This is the moment the entire world, all Melanesians, are watching. It’s a test for the leaders to see if they will stand up for West Papua in the eyes of the world.”

Had he been lied to by MSG officials? What went wrong?

‘Frustrating day’
“It was a frustrating day since there was no press conference despite repeated promises and so far no official statement/communique,” leading Vanuatu-based photojournalist Ben Bohane said of the summit wrap. “Leaders took off and media feel like we were lied to.”

Across the Pacific, many have reacted with shock and disbelief.

“I am totally disappointed in the failure of the MSG leaders to seize the opportunity to redefine the future of West Papua and our region,” PNG’s National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop, long a staunch advocate for the West Papuans,” told Asia Pacific Report.

“Fear of Indonesia and proactive lobbying by Indonesia again has been allowed to dominate Melanesia to the detriment of our people of West Papua.”

Parkop said it was “obvious” that the MSG leaders were “not guided by any sound comprehensive policy” on West Papua.

“The MSG Secretariat has failed to do a proper historical and social political analysis that can guide the MSG leadership,” he said.

Parkop said this policy of appeasing Indonesia had not worked in the “last 50 to 60 years”.

‘Affront to Melanesian leadership’
“So banking on it again will not only condemn our people of West Papua to more hardship and suffering under the brutal Indonesian rule but is an affront to the leadership of Melanesia.

“I will continue to advocate against Indonesian rule and the status quo unless we see real tangible changes in the rights and freedom of the West Papuan people.

“Melanesia, as late Father Walter Lini eloquently stated in his prime, is not free while West Papua is not free.”

Dan McGarry, investigations editor of the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, said: “Many people in Melanesia will see this as a betrayal. Public sentiment throughout the subregion runs strongly pro-independence for West Papua.

“That said, the odds of consensus on this were vanishingly small. Indonesian and French lobbying in the lead up further reduced those odds.”

Lewis Prai, a self-styled West Papuan diplomat and advocate, also condemned the MSG rejection, blaming it on “throwing away moral values for the sake of Indonesia’s dirty money”.

“We know that we are victims of Indonesian oppression and [of] the unwillingness of Melanesians to do the right thing and stand up for freedom, justice and morality.

“And it is very unfortunate that this Melanesian organisation has been morally corrupted by one of the biggest human rights violators in Asia — and one of the worst in the world — Indonesia.

“Thank you to the West Papua supporters in Vanuatu and the surrounding region. We will continue to speak. No amount of money will be able to silence our voices.”

Dr David Robie, editor and publisher of Asia Pacific Report, has written on West Papuan affairs since the 1983 Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) conference in Port Vila and is author of Blood on their Banner: Nationalist Struggles of the South Pacific.

Free Papua Organisation (OPM) leader Jeffrey Bomanak has appealed to US President Joe Biden for a “proactive role” in ending Indonesia’s “unlawful military occupation and annexation” of West Papua.

He claims this illegal occupation led to the subsequent US “foreign policy failure” in protecting six decades of crimes against humanity.

Bomanak made this appeal in an open letter to the President — a harrowing 22-page document citing a litany of alleged human rights violations against Papuan men, women and children by Indonesian security forces — days before Biden’s arrival in the Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby next week for a vital summit with Pacific leaders.

• READ MORE: Mass arrests and forced dispersals in West Papua on Human Rights Day
• Amnesty calls on Jakarta to free West Papuan activist Victor Yeimo
• Other West Papua reports

“Six decades of callous betrayal and abandonment – my people enslaved, imprisoned, assaulted, tortured, raped, murdered, massacred, poisoned, impoverished, and starved and forcefully relocated; villages bombed . . . every day of every week,” wrote Bomanak in the letter dated May 17.

He said that when West Papua was part of the Dutch colonial empire for 500 years, “we were never abused and mistreated . . . we were never subjected to crimes against humanity”.

However, under Indonesia’s colonial empire, “we have lived in a slaughterhouse with hundreds of thousands of victims — men, women, and children.

‘Gateway to hell’
“The New York Agreement, written and sponsored by your government on 15 August 1962 without any inclusion or representation of a single West Papuan, paved the road for this slaughterhouse.

“My people call this agreement ‘The Gateway to Hell’.”

Bomanak accused the US, along with Australia and New Zealand – “our Second World War allies” – of having treated the West Papuan people as “collateral damage” for “geopolitical convenience” when dealing with Jakarta.

“Unfortunately, these democratic Christian governments who we supported during the life-and-death cataclysm of the Second World War, abandoned both their duty to support international decolonisation laws and their duty of care to stop Indonesia’s barbarism against indigenous West Papuans — the rightful landowners of our ancestral lands,” he said.

Bomanak’s open letter cited horrendous case after case with gruesome photographic documentation.

“I would like to introduce you to some of these crimes against humanity and some of our victims,” he began.

“I have restricted the prima facie photographic evidence to not visually include the worst of the worst. Although, how this can be defined is a subjective detail beyond my assessment – they are all my suffering grandmothers and grandfathers, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters.

“Every crime is personal. Every victim is family.

Mutilation and dismemberment
“Dismemberment is one of Indonesia’s defence and security forces specialties to instill terror and fear into village populations,” Bomanak said.

“This practice has been used from the beginning of the Indonesian military occupation and is still being used.”

Bomanak provided documentation of a 35-year-old woman, Tarina Murib, who was allegedly beheaded by Indonesian security forces on 4 March 2023. – International Mother’s Day.

“Murdered and mutilated by the Indonesian military in Puncak Regency; villages and churches have been emptied as thousands more soldiers have been deployed in the area.”

Bomanak also cited the killing and mutilation on 22 August 2022 of four Papuan civilians by Indonesian special forces — Irian Nirigi, Arnold Lokbere, Atis Tini and Kelemanus Nirigi.

“[They] were beheaded and their legs were cut off before their bodies were placed in sacks and tossed into the Pigapu river.”

He raised cases of assaults on village elders and children.

“Using terror to make us fear to stand up for our right to freedom . . . our right to defend our ancestral lands from a hostile and barbaric invader.”

Infanticide
“It is estimated that 150,000 children have been victims of Indonesian crimes against humanity. This is the equivalent of a Holocaust,” said Bomanak.

“An evil forced upon West Papua for Cold War politics and to satisfy American mining company Freeport-McMoRan’s quest to be the beneficiary of West Papua’s spectacular mineral reserves rather than the Dutch, which would have been the case if West Papua had been decolonised in accordance with international law and if the rights of West Papua’s people to freedom and nation-state sovereignty had been respected,” he said.

Bomanak cited the case of nine-year-old Kris Tabuni, who died on 18 October 2022. His death is still unexplained.

Truth ‘distortion’
Bomanak condemned politicians and diplomats who “cannot envisage Indonesia leaving West Papua”.

“It is a step that is difficult for them to take. They respond to the injustice of the invasion and military occupation of our ancestral land with hand-wringing apologies while stating that the world is an unfair place.

“This is their personal maxim for hardship and crimes against humanity, and then they join in the plunder.

The historical truth is that West Papua — the western half of the island of New Guinea — has never been a part of Indonesia.

“Various legal, political and military arguments stating otherwise are all contrary to the norms of international laws and to justice.

“The Papuan nation is not part of the Indonesian Colonial State. The process of annexation on 1 May 1963, was forced onto my people.”

NZ hostage pilot
Bomanak also wrote about the hostage crisis involving 37-year-old New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens who was captured by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the OPM, on February 7.

Addressing President Biden, Bomanak said: “A war of liberation has been undertaken by my people since the fraudulent 1969 referendum.

“We have issued hundreds of warnings to both Indonesians and foreigners not to be in our land.

“Unlike, Indonesia, we will care for Philip Mehrtens, the same way we care for our brothers and sisters. He is safe with us, but he is at great risk from Indonesian air and ground combat operations.

“The Indonesian defence force has already suffered significant battle fatalities. We request a peaceful solution with the aim of Indonesia leaving West Papua.

“Perhaps you can appoint Ambassador Caroline Kennedy [Ambassador to Australia] to this role?”

Bomanak’s letter also tracks the many West Papuan peaceful political leaders who have been the victims of extrajudicial executions in an effort to “terrorise the independence movement”. They include the following:

“Arnold Ap was assassinated in 1984. Tom Wanggai died in mysterious circumstances while in prison which we believe was another extrajudicial execution in1989.

“Tribal leader Theys Hiyo Eluay was assassinated in November 2001. Filep Karma also died in mysterious circumstances which we believe was another extrajudicial execution in November 2022 at the same beach where Arnold Ap was executed.”

“President Biden, I could have easily filled 10,000 more pages with victims of this miscarriage of international justice, but I understand your time is limited with important matters of state and of international affairs.

“Sir, there is no honour in helping Indonesia maintain their lie, their deception, their treachery, and the six decades of crimes against humanity that many academics call ‘West Papua’s slow genocide’.

“The fraudulent annexation of my country is as much a story of dishonourable and deceitful Western governance.”

Concluding the open letter, Bomanak told President Biden that if Ukraine could have an investigation for crimes against humanity, then “after six decades of Indonesia’s crimes against humanity, West Papuans are entitled to justice through the very same measures of accountability and due process.”

The OPM has waged an armed resistance against the Indonesian military since 1969. The West Papuans argue that they should regain independence on the grounds that, unlike Muslim-majority Indonesia, they are predominantly Christian and Melanesian from the Pacific. Pro-independence views among Papuans are also motivated by Indonesia’s repressive rule in the Melanesian provinces.

• OPM leader Jeffrey Bomanak’s open letter full text

At a time when the West has weaponised human rights, the United Nations body that promotes freedom of expression needs to rethink what it means.

Every year UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation) marks World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) on May 3, with a particular theme and this year’s was its 30th edition.

UNESCO has mainly provided a platform through their WPFD to civil society groups that are funded by Western agencies to shape the free speech agenda.

• READ MORE: Other media freedom reports in the Pacific

With many countries in the Global South seeing these groups involved in so-called “colour revolutions” as a security threat, it is time UNESCO paid some attention to the views of its member states who are not of the Western alliance.

This year’s theme was “Shaping of Future Rights: Freedom of Expression as a Driver of all other human rights”.

UNESCO gave four special briefs in their website for campaign action on the day.

First of which is the “misuse” of the judicial system to attack freedom of expression.

Focuses on defamation
It focuses on the use of criminal defamation to silence journalists, but no mention at all about how the UK and US judicial systems are being used to silence Julian Assange of Wikileaks.

Yonden Lhatoo, the chief news editor of the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post in a recent videolog made a powerful indictment regarding the Assange case.

“There is no limit to the insufferable hypocrisy of these gangsters in glass houses,” he said referring to the US, UK and Australian government action against Assange.

Safety of foreign journalists and those covering protests are two other issues, while the fourth UNESCO brief is about journalism and whistleblowing.

The 16-page UNESCO brief on whistleblowing talks about the new electronic means of leaks to media and publishing of such information.

It mentions “Pub/Leaks” and “Latamleaks” in Latin America but no mention of Wikileaks.

It also argues that whistleblowers and publishers must have guarantees of protection and that their actions do not lead to negative consequences, such as financial sanctions, job dismissals, undermining their family members or circles of friends, or threats of arbitrary arrest.

US views Assange as ‘hacker’
But no mention whatsoever about Assange’s case including Western financial institutions blocking donations to Wikileaks.

The document seems to distance itself completely from this case because the US considers Assange a computer hacker not a journalist.

The brief talks about the benefits to society from whistleblowers that “allow people to get information and evidence of acts of corruption, human rights violations, or other matters of unquestionable public interest” but no direct reference to war crimes, that Wikileaks exposed through whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.

Unfortunately, today, it is okay to talk about war crimes if the Russians are doing it but not when the Americans, NATO or Australians are involved.

In June 2019, the Australian Federal Police raided the newsroom of Australia’s national broadcaster ABC after it exposed Australian forces’ war crimes in Afghanistan.

They took away the laptops of some journalists in an attempt to trace the whistleblowers describing the action as a “national security” operation.

Today, human rights arguments have lost credibility because of these double standards.

China’s human rights agenda
Thus, it is interesting to note how China is now pushing a new human rights agenda via the United Nations.

In July 2021, China succeeded in getting a resolution adopted at the 47th session of the UN Human Rights Council on development rights.

It affirmed that the eventual eradication of extreme poverty must remain a high priority for the international community and that international cooperation for sustainable development has an essential role in shaping our shared future.

The resolution was adopted by 31 votes to 14 against.

Interestingly, those voting against were 12 European countries plus Japan and South Korea.

Joining China in voting for it were Russia, India, Pakistan, Cuba, Indonesia, Philippines and Fiji, plus several African and Latin American countries.

The vote itself gives a good indication of the new trends in the human rights agenda promoted by the Global South.

Issue of free speech
This brings us to the question of where freedom of speech stands in this human rights agenda.

Human rights according to this agenda are what is prescribed in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Providing clean water and sanitation to the people, a good education, developing and nurturing sustainable systems of agriculture to provide food security to people, protecting the environment and protecting communities from the impacts of climatic change, empowering women, providing proper housing and healthcare to people, and so forth.

Governments should be held accountable to provide these rights to people, but that cannot be achieved by the media always accusing governments of corruption, or people coming out to the streets shouting slogans or blocking roads or occupying government buildings.

Reporters need to go out to communities, talk to the people and find out how they live, what is lacking and how they think these services could be provided by governments.

Journalists could even become facilitators of a dialogue between the people and the government.

Marvellous concept on paper
Human rights is a marvellous concept on paper, but its practice is today immersed in double standards and hypocrisy.

Media has been a party to this.

In 2016-17, I was part of a team at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok to develop a curriculum to train Asian journalists in what we call “mindful communication for sustainable development”.

It was funded by UNESCO, and we used Asian philosophical concepts in designing the curriculum, to encourage journalists to have a compassionate mindset in reporting grassroots development issues from the peoples’ perspective.

We want to develop a new generation of communicators, who would not demand rights and create conflicts, but work with all stakeholders, including governments, to help achieve the SDGs in a cooperative manner rather than confrontation.

It is time that UNESCO listened to the Global South and rethinks why we need to have freedom of speech and for what purpose.

Dr Kalinga Seneviratne is a Sri Lanka-born journalist, broadcaster and international communications specialist. He is currently a consultant to the journalism programme at the University of the South Pacific. He is also the former head of research at the Asian Media Information and Communication Center (AMIC) in Singapore. This article was first published in The Fiji Times on 3 May 2023 and is republished under content sharing agreement between Asia Pacific Report, USP Journalism and The Fiji Times.

Following months of legal limbo and a health crisis, Papua Governor Lukas Enembe was arrested this week by the country’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in a dramatic move condemned by critics as a “kidnapping”.

At noon on Tuesday, January 10, Governor Enembe was dining in a local restaurant near the headquarters of Indonesia’s Mobile Brigade Corps, known as Brimob.

After the arrest the Brimob transported him directly to Sentani Theys Eluay airport — an airport named in honour of another prominent Papuan leader who was callously murdered by the same security forces in 2002, not far from where the governor was arrested.

• READ MORE: KPK arrests Papua Governor Lukas Enembe
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• Other Governor Enembe reports

Governor Enembe was immediately flown to Jakarta to arrive at the Army Central Hospital (RSPAD), Gatot Soebroto, Central Jakarta, reports Kompas.com.

In what seems to be a cautiously premeditated arrest, Jakarta targeted Governor Enembe while he was alone and without the support of thousands of Papuans who had barricaded his residence since September last year.

Once the news of his arrest was leaked, supporters attempted to gather in Sentani at the airport, but they were outnumbered by heavy security forces. A few protesters were shot, and several were injured, with one protester dying from his injuries.

1 shot dead, several wounded
Papua Police Public Relations Officer Kombes Ignatius Benny Prabowo said when contacted by Tribunnews.com in Jakarta: “Yes, it is true that someone was shot dead on Tuesday.”

Among those who were shot were Hemanus Kobari Enembe (dead), Neiron Enembe, Kano Enembe, and Segira Enembe.

Surprisingly, they share the same clan names of the governor himself, indicating that only his immediate family were informed of his arrest.

Hemanus Kobari Enembe paid the ultimate price at the hand of Jakarta’s calculated planning and arrest of Papua’s governor.

The crisis began in September 2022, when Governor Enembe was named a suspect by the KPK and summoned by Brimob after it accused him of receiving bribes worth 1 million rupiah (NZ$112,000). This amount was then escalated into a rush of accusations against the governor, including a new allegation that the governor had paid US$39 million to overseas casinos, disclosing details of his private assets such as cars, houses, and properties.

Voices of prominent Papuan figures
A prominent Papuan, Natalius Pigai, Indonesia’s former human rights commissioner, was interviewed on January 11 by an INews TV news presenter regarding these extra allegations.

“If that’s the case,” Pigai replied, “then why don’t we use these wild extra allegations to investigate all the crimes committed in this country by the country’s top ministerial level, including the children of the president, as a conduit for investigating some of the crimes committed by his office in this country?

“Are we interested in that? Why just target Governor Lukas?”

Papuan public intellectual Dr Benny Giay was seen in a video saying that the arrest of Governor Enembe by the KPK in Jayapura was to serve the interests of Jakarta’s political elite, whom he described as “hardliners” in relation to the power struggle to become number one in Papua’s province.

According to him, Governor Lukas Enembe was a victim of this power struggle.

Dr Socrates Yoman, president of the West Papua Fellowship of Baptist Churches, described the arrest as a “kidnapping”. He said the governor had been arrested illegally, without following any legal procedures — and neither the governor nor legal counsel was informed of his arrest.

According to Dr Yoman, Governor Enembe is ill and in the process of recovering from his illness. Thus, this pressure exerted by the state through the military and police violated Governor Enembe’s basic rights to health and humanity.

The behaviour of the state through BRIMOB constituted a crime against humanity or a gross violation of human rights because the governor was arrested during lunchtime without an arrest warrant and while he was unwell, he said.

“The governor is not a terrorist — he was elected Governor of Papua by the Papuan people.

“This kidnapping shows that the nation or country has no law. The country is controlled by people who have lost their humanity, opting instead for animalistic rage and a senseless lust for violence.

“Our goal is to restore their humanity so that they can see other human beings as human beings and become whole human beings,” said Dr Yoman.

• WATCH VIDEO: Dr Benny Giay speaks on Facebook

The governor’s health
The governor’s health has deteriorated since he was banned from traveling to Singapore for regular medical aid since September last year.

Last October, Governor Enembe received two visits from Singapore medical specialists who have been treating him for a number of years.

Despite these visits, his health has continued to deteriorate, which led Singapore’s medical specialists to send a letter in November to authorities in Indonesia requesting that the governor be airlifted to Mount Elizabeth hospital.

The letter from Royal Healthcare in Singapore said:

“We have treated Governor Lukas remotely with routine blood tests, regular zoom consults and monitoring of his glucose and blood pressure levels since November 1, 2022. However, his condition has deteriorated rapidly the last week. His renal function is at a critical range (5.75mg/dl), and he may require dialysis sooner than later. His blood pressure is hovering 190-200/80-100 increasing his risk of morbidity and mortality. He has been advised on immediate evacuation to Singapore with direct admission to Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital.”

The letters were ignored, and the sick governor was arrested and taken to a hospital in Jakarta, where he had previously refused to go.

Governor Enembe had previously written to KPK requesting that he receive urgent medical treatment in Singapore. Papuan police chiefs and KPK members were asked to accompany him, but this did not happen.

On November 3, 2022, Firli Bahuri, Chairman of KPK, visited the governor at his barricaded residence in Koya Jayapura, Papua, in what appeared to be a humane approach.

But what happened on Tuesday indicates that KPK had already decided to arrest him and take him to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta — almost 4500 km from his home town.

Many Papuan figures who go to Jakarta return home in coffins. Papuan protesters did not want their leader to be taken out of Papua, partly due to this fear.

Despite these protests, letters, and requests, Jakarta completely disregarded the will of the people and of the governor himself.

The plot to kidnap Governor Enembe appears to have been well planned over a period of four months since September, providing enough space for the situation in Papua to calm down and allowing the governor to leave his barricaded house alone without his Papuan “special forces”.

It was during the lunch hour of noon on Tuesday that KPK targeted him in a cunningly calculated manner.

Governor’s image in social media
Governor Enembe is portrayed in the Indonesia’s national narrative as a representative of the so-called “poor and backward” majority of Papuans, while portraying him as a man of a lavish lifestyle, owning properties and cars, and with great wealth.

Comments on social media are flooded with a common theme — portraying Papua’s governor as a “criminal”, with some even calling for his “execution”.

Some social media comments emerging from those fighting for West Papua’s liberation are echoing these themes by claiming that Governor Enembe’s case has nothing to do with the Free Papua Movement– his problem is with Jakarta only as he is a “colonial puppet ruler”.

It is true that Lukas Enembe is governor of Indonesian settler colonial provinces. However, Papuans have failed to understand the big picture — the ultimate fate of West Papua itself.

What would happen if West Papua remains part of Indonesia for the next 20-50 years?

Our failure to see the big picture by both Papuans and Indonesians, as well as the international community, is a result of Jakarta fabrication that West Papua is merely a national sovereignty issue for Indonesia. That is the crux of that fatal error.

The isolation of the governor from the rest of the Papuans as a “corruptor” and other dehumanising labels are designed to destroy Papuans’ self-esteem, stripping them of their pride, dignity, and self-respect.

The images and videos of the governor’s arrest, deportation, handcuffing in Jakarta in KPK uniform, and his admission to the military hospital while surrounded by heavily armed security forces are psychologically intimidating to Papuans.

Through brutal silence, politically loaded imagery has been used to convey a certain message:

“See what has happened to your respected leader, the big chief of the Papuan tribes; he is no longer a person. Jakarta still has the final say in what happens to all of you.”

Papuans are facing a highly choreographed state-sponsored terror campaign that shows no signs of abating.

For Papuans, the new year of 2023 should be a time of hope, new dreams, and new lives, but this has been marred once again by the arrest and kidnapping of a well-known and popular Papuan figure, as well as the death of a member of the governor’s family on Tuesday.

As human miseries continue to unfold in the Papuan homeland, Jakarta continues to conduct business as usual, pretending nothing is happening in West Papua while beating the drum of “development, prosperity, and progress” for the betterment of the backward Papuans.

With such prolonged tragedies, it is imperative that the old theories, terminologies, and paradigms that govern this brutal state of affairs be challenged.

A new paradigm is needed
The very foundation of our thinking between West Papua and Indonesia must be re-examined within the framework of what Tunisian writer, Albert Memmie, described as “coloniser and colonised”, when examining French treatment of colonised Tunisians, who emerged concurrent with Franz Fanon, the leading thinker of black experience in white, colonised Algeria.

The works of these thinkers provide insight into how the world of colonisers and colonised operates with its psychopathological manipulations in an unjust racially divided system of coloniser control.

These great decolonisation literature treasures will help Papuans to connect the dots of this last frontier to a bigger picture of centuries of war against colonised original peoples around the world, some of which were obliterated (Tasmania), able to escape (Algeria), or escaped but are still trying to reorganise themselves (Haiti).

Therefore, the coloniser and colonised paradigm is a useful mental framework to view Jakarta’s settler colonial activities and how Papuans (colonised) are continuously being lied to, manipulated, dissected, remade and destroyed — from all sides — in order to prevent them from uniting against the entity that threatens their very existence.

The real culprits in West Papua and proper Papuan justice
Most ordinary Papuans are unable to gain access to information regarding who exploits their natural resources, how much they are making, who receives the most benefits and how or why.

But Jakarta is too busy displaying Governor Enembe’s personal affairs and wild allegations in headline news — his entire existence is placed on public display, as an object of humiliation, just as the messianic Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross in order to convince Galilean followers that their beloved leader failed.

Let us not forget, however, that it was this publicly humiliated and crucified Jesus who forever changed the imperial world order and human history.

If true justice is to be delivered to colonised Papuans, then Papuans must put the Dutch on trial for abandoning them 60 years ago, and then hold the United Nations and the United States responsible for selling them, to Indonesia, 60 years ago.

In addition to arresting all international capitalist bandits that are exploiting West Papua under the disguise of multinational corporations, Indonesia should also be arrested for its crimes against Papuans, dating back over 61 years.

However, the question remains… who will deliver this proper justice for the colonised Papuans? Jakarta has certainly set itself on a pathological path of arresting, imprisoning, and executing any figure that appears to be a messianic figure to unite these dislocated original tribes for its final war for survival.

Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic/activist who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University and who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

• Other Yamin Kogoya articles

The co-founder of Tabloid Jubi, Victor Mambor has been presented with the 2022 Udin Award from Indonesia’s Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) during the organisation’s 28th-anniversary celebration.

Mambor is an indigenous Papuan journalist who has dedicated his life for decades to the field of journalism.

The Udin Award — presented last month — is AJI’s annual prize to promote press freedom and freedom of expression in Indonesia.

• READ MORE: Papuan journalist wins Udin Award
• Other reports on Victor Mambor

Through it, AJI seeks to recognise journalists (individuals and groups), who are dedicated to the field of journalism, and become victims of physical or psychological violence because of their journalistic activities.

Mambor, who is also a former chair of AJI Jayapura, is often reported as the leader and planner of public demonstrations against the government, although there is no evidence for the accusations.

In addition, Mambor has also often experienced digital violence and the destruction of personal property.

Last year, for example, Mambor’s vehicle was deliberately damaged by an unknown person. Prior to that, his social media was also doxed, and his personal data was exposed.

Laying the foundations
Even so, Victor Mambor and Jubi continue to lay the foundations and principles of journalism in their journalistic works.

“This award certainly reminds us again that intimidation, criminalisation, physical, verbal and digital violence against journalists like what was experienced by Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin (Udin), the owner of this award, still exists today and we are still fighting for a free press,” Mambor said after receiving the award last month.

The UN Human Rights Council in September 2021 called him a humanitarian and a rights activist who faced threats, harassment and intimidation for his reporting on West Papua, including reporting to UN human rights mechanisms, and for attending UN meetings for which they were questioned by security forces.

His name was raised among other human rights defenders in the Indonesia section of the report published by the UN. The report contains references to five cases of criminalisation and intimidation against human rights defenders working in or about West Papua

The Udin Award was taken from the pen name of the journalist for the Bernas Daily, Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin, who died on 16 August 1996 in Yogyakarta after being attacked by two unknown assailants.

Udin was persecuted and intimidated because of the news he wrote on 13 August 1996. To date, the case has not been thoroughly investigated and his killer was not identified.

Seven nominations
In 2022, AJI received seven nominations for the Udin Award. The proposals were assessed by a jury of three members.

One jury member, Bambang Muryanto, said that it was not easy for a journalist to maintain his professionalism and independence in an area of ​​armed conflict.

Especially when the situation in the area was similar to martial law without official government recognition.

“The safety of himself and his family is at stake. The very difficult location conditions are also a challenge to present comprehensive news that does not violate journalistic ethics,” said Bambang.

Māori, Pasifika, Asian, as well as disabled and bisexual employees, are disproportionately affected by bullying and harassment in workplaces in Aotearoa New Zealand, according to new research out today.

More than a third of respondents to a Human Rights Commission survey say they have experienced some form of harassment at work in the past five years.

In the report, Experiences of Workplace Bullying and Harassment in Aotearoa New Zealand, 39 percent of people said they had been racially harassed at work.

• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: ‘Healthcare seems to be the one that goes right across in terms of … bullying’
• New research shows high prevalence of workplace bullying and harassment

Also, 30 percent reported being sexually harassed and 20 percent bullied.

Māori, Pacific Peoples, and Asian workers, as well as disabled workers, and bisexual workers were disproportionately affected.

The nationwide study found that 24 percent of those who reported being mistreated, raised a formal complaint.

Researchers said the 2500 workers involved in the survey in May and June provided a representative picture of the population.

‘Disappointed’ in the harassment
Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo told RNZ Morning Report she was disappointed to see a “high prevalence” of racial harassment in the workplace.

She said the study looked at different industries.

“Healthcare seems to be the one that goes right across in terms of high prevalence of racial harassment, sexual harassment and bullying.

“In healthcare, you’ve got huge power dynamic. So the majority of people who perpetrate these behaviours occupy a more senior role to the victim. In those really hierarchical occupations, there’s a high risk of abuse of power.”

More young people reported being harassed in the hospitality and accommodation industry.

“It depends on the industry. It’s insane in terms for men [in] construction, manufacturing, communications … for women [it is] the health sector, and the public sector generally,” Sumeo said.

“This is real and it’s a shared suffering,” and it was important for people facing these circumstances to know that they were not exaggerating, she said.

‘No definition’ in laws
“We don’t have a definition of bullying in our laws at the moment and it’s really important that we have that. So myself, the Human Rights Commission, the unions and others are calling on government to ratify our ILO 190, which gives us the ability to identify and then we can allocate resources.”

She also called on the government to look at compensation laws “in terms of recognition and compensation and support to go to people who are suffering bullying and sexual harassment and racial harassment”.

Read the Experiences of Workplace Bullying and Harassment in Aotearoa New Zealand report.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The West Papua National Liberation Army-Free Papua Organisation (TPNPB-OPM) has rejected peace talks with the Indonesian government if it is only mediated by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM).

It is also asking President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to be prepared to sit down with them at the negotiating table.

TPNPB-OPM spokesperson Sebby Sambom said that the OPM wants the peaceful dialogue or negotiations to be mediated by the United Nations because the armed conflict in Papua was already on an international scale.

• READ MORE: How colonial puppeteer Indonesia uses ‘autonomy’ to disempower Papuans
• Other West Papuan conflict reports

“In principle we agree [that] if the negotiations are in accordance with UN mechanisms, but we are not interested in Indonesia’s methods,” said Sambom in a written statement.

Sambom said that they also do not want to hold the dialogue in Indonesia but want it to be held in a neutral country in accordance with UN mechanisms.

“The negotiations must be held in a neutral country, in accordance with UN mechanisms”, he said.

Sambom said President Widodo must be aware and must have the courage to sit down at the negotiating table with the TPNPB-OPM’s negotiating team.

He also reminded Widodo that the UN was an international institution which can act as a mediator in resolving armed conflicts.

Peaceful dialogue
“In the statement to Jakarta we are asking that Indonesian President Jokowi be aware and have the courage to sit at the negotiating table with the TPNPB-OPM’s negotiating team together with all the delegates from the organisations which are struggling [for independence],” he said.

Earlier, the Komnas HAM claimed it would initiate peace talks between the government and the OPM.

Komnas HAM had also claimed that the proposal for talks had been agreed to by the government, ranging from President Widodo, Coordinating Minister for Security, Politics and Legal Affairs Mahfud MD to the TNI (Indonesian military) and Polri (Indonesian police).

Komnas HAM, along with the Komnas HAM Papua representative office, began sounding out peaceful dialogue by meeting with a series of groups in Papua on March 16-23.

In the initial stage, Komnas HAM was endeavoring to hear and ask for the views of key parties on the issue, especially the OPM, both those within the country as well as those overseas. The other key people were religious, traditional community and intellectual figures.

Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was OPM Tolak Dialog Damai Ide Komnas HAM, Hanya Mau di PBB.

“I have never had that fear before that I might get physically hurt,” says Patrice Allen, a Ngati Kahungunu and Newshub camera operator based in Wellington.

“You’re going down there, you don’t know what it’s going to be like. A person from Wellington Live got beaten up.”

Māori Television’s press gallery videographer David Graham (Taranaki Whānui and Waikato) started working as a news cameraman in Wellington in 1989. He was there for the seabed and foreshore protests, and “in the 1990s it was Moutua and Pakitore,” he recollects. “But this is the most volatile one I have seen.

“Back then we [the media] were part of the show. They wanted us to be there. Now we are a part of the ‘axis of evil’, along with the police and government.”

• READ MORE: NZ Parliament grounds ‘reclaimed’: Police operation ends 23-day protest
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• Threats and violence against reporters from New Zealand’s ‘freedom convoy’ protests

Up against your own
“Now there are Pākehā calling you kūpapa [Māori warriors who fought on the British colonial troops side during the New Zealand Wars in the 19th century],” he says. He has just returned from filming with his phone in the crowd, and has heard protesters say things. Nasty things.

“Stuff like ‘you should be ashamed of yourself. You should be ashamed of your whakapapa!’”

“I just don’t engage,” says Graham. “And I am not a random man with a camera here. I actually have whakapapa back to this marae on my father’s side,” he says, referring to Pipitea Marae where Taranaki Whānui laid down Te Kahu o Raukura as a cultural protection over the surrounding land that includes the Parliament grounds.

The protesters had lots of livestreams and many of them kept filming media camera-ops who were filming them. (Below: David Graham finds himself in one of the live feeds while a protester in the crowd heckles him.)

Allen feels the mamae is stronger when it comes from your own people.

“This happened on the day of the last protests,” she says, referring to the protests in November where the crowd threw tennis balls and water bottles at the media. She was filming a timelapse of the crowd leaving when a mother-son duo walked up to her.

“He was a big dude and he was really getting in my face. I was not feeling very safe. And I thought, ‘how can I diffuse this?’” So she asked them where they were from.

“And they were like where are you from? What are you?”

“Oh, Ngati Kahungunu, just over the hill in Wairarapa,” she replied. The man said something targeting not just her but also her iwi. “And that just broke my spirit,” says Allen.

“It was one of the days I went home and cried.”

‘We’re the enemy now’
“We are the enemy now,” says Allen. “And there is nothing you can do or say that will change their minds.”

Her teammate Emma Tiller thinks the camera can be a beacon in the crowd. “As soon as you put it up, everyone knows who you are. And they hate you.”

And even though security cover has become standard practice for all news camera-ops filming in the crowd, there are times she feels vulnerable. “It’s hard to think back to protests when we were out there. We didn’t have security with us. It didn’t even cross our minds.

“But now who wants to risk the violence?” she says.

“They have thrown things at the police. If they can do that to them, what can they do to us?”

“The last time I had security was when I was filming in East Timor,” says Allen. It was a long time ago, she adds, and at a time and place when there were terrorists around.

“It’s really bad because it’s made it ‘us and them’, media against protesters, and it’s not supposed to be like that.”

‘Difficult to turn off’
Sam Anderson, 22, is TVNZ’s camera operator at the press gallery. “It has been difficult to turn off,” he says “ I have been there [on the Speaker’s balcony] from 9am to 6pm just streaming the whole day.

“It’s all you are doing – copping the abuse, being yelled at, having your morality questioned.

“I sometimes hide behind the pillars from the frontliners who can yell all day.

“And throw that in with reading all the signs around you,” says Tiller.

“And they yell at you. And you go home and you can’t switch it off.”

Anderson’s teammate, Sam von Keisenberg, was on that balcony on February 11 when police made many arrests. Shortly after they arrested someone at the forecourt and the crowd was yelling at the police, a lady pointed a finger at him and said “You! You are a paedophile protector!”

“At first I was like, ‘that’s new’. But then she said it 50 times, as loud as she could, just at me.”

He pulled his camera off the tripod. “It was getting to me”, he says. “I have children. I would never protect a paedophile.”

His colleague asked him where he was going. “Just to punch some lady in the face,” he said under his breath. “And I walked out and just went to the bathroom.”

Sweeping generalisations
“Sometimes you have to take a step back,” von Keisenberg says.

“I had never experienced hate [directed] at me before,” RNZ video journalist Angus Dreaver says. Especially this type, he says, where they think media are traitors, and they want them to know.

“Four months ago, I was doing kids’ TV.”

Dreaver thinks the generalisation works both ways. While the protesters see the mainstream media as a monolith and sweep them with one giant brush, “it’s important for us, conversely, not to see them that way.”

Von Keisenberg believes there were more moderates in the crowd than extremists. “I always felt there were enough people around me,” he says. And that made him feel safe in the first week when he was filming undercover, knowing that “if things did get violent, there would be some moderate ones who would stop them”.

He saw that in action, too. In his forays of the first week, when he joined the crowd unmasked to avoid attention. He saw a man there in his 70s wearing a mask.

“The first thing he said to me was that he was immunocompromised, which is why he was wearing the mask.”

“It’s fine, mate. It’s a freedom rally, do what you want,” von Keisenberg said. But another protester came up and “tried to pull his mask off and started berating him, saying he had no identity. The mob mentality started and people around the gate joined in and started giving him grief.”

Von Keisenberg intervened. “Oi! chill out man. It’s a freedom rally, he’s free to wear a mask!”

“A woman close by turned around and said, ‘Yeah, come on guys! leave him alone.’ And they did.”

Mainstream media
When people tell von Keisenberg that they don’t watch mainstream media, his follow-up is, “Well then, how do you know we are ‘lying’?”

“They say, ‘we get our news from Facebook, which is different’. Yeah, different, because there aren’t many rules around it,” von Keisenberg says.

“Mainstream media is held more to account than social media,” Allen says. “But they think the opposite.”

Some of Dreaver’s acquaintances have shared his photos on Instagram, in posts that read “Mainstream media are liars”. “Bro, that’s me!”, he says.

Trying to remain objective in the face of constant harassment is a real challenge.

“I am almost hyper-aware of that, where I am trying to capture the mundane and relax as much as the heightened states,” he adds. “And I am trying to not let my anger affect the pictures I take or how I cover it.”

But for camera operators, the task ends once they take the picture. “We only aim for clear sound and sharp, steady pictures,” Graham says. “The rest of the stuff is for other people to decide what to do with.”

Anderson thinks there are differences in perspectives within newsrooms. People who have watched the protests from a distance or from their desks often take a kinder view of the protesters, he says.

“But me and the other camera ops, we copped a lot of abuse over three weeks. We just have a more bitter taste in our mouths for this crowd.”

The PM in ‘disguise’
There have been the fun moments, though, Anderson admits. There have been “raves” with young people dancing on the frontlines and he found himself almost filming to the beat. And there was a protester who thought he was the prime minister in disguise.

“Now that is one theory I know is not true,” says his teammate von Keisenberg. But how does he know for sure?

“Because I have seen both of them in the same room at the same time.”

And von Keisenberg has had his fun moments in the crowd, too. In one instance when he was filming undercover, a woman went on the stage and started talking into the mic about electric and magnetic fields (radiation) and how crystals could block them.

“Bullshit!” von Keisenberg turned around and shouted.

“We are here for the mandates,” he added, not snapping out of character, and for the benefit of those around him who were listening to the woman speak.

A potential for volence
“The vibe changed every few days, and that was because people kept coming and going,” von Keisenberg says. “But there were always the elements who were there for whatever happened on day 23.”

One camera op I spoke to said there had been a “potential for violence” right throughout. And when someone like Winston Peters visits the crowd and says “the mainstream media have been gaslighting you for a long time,” it gives them validation, and lends credibility to their theories.

But for those on the ground gathering news amid a hostile crowd, it exacerbates the possibility for harm.

Added to this potential of violence is the constant anticipation of things to come. “You have to be always prepared for when something will happen,” as Tiller puts it. “And that is exhausting.”

Emma Tiller describes her experience of the Speaker’s balcony as, “You feel like you have to be prepared for if something is going to happen, and that is exhausting.”

“The day things turn to custard, you want to be there on the ground,” Graham said to me a few days before the police operation. “You don’t want to be at home watching it on TV.”

And turn to custard it did; the threat of violence became reality on day 23. While the “battle” raged between the police and the protesters, the media people found themselves being targeted.

Dreaver was in the crowd by the tent where a fire had started. “A Mainstream! We have got a Mainstream here,” a woman who spotted him started shouting.

Brandishing a camping chair, she told him to, “get out of here! Out! Out!” The riot police were advancing behind him and he stood his ground.

“She started hitting me on the back with it,” he said. “She didn’t have a lot of speed but it was still a metal chair.”

“It hurt a bit,” he reckons.

‘Not everyone’
“There were some protesters who were trying to stop the violence. Even right at the end,” says Dreaver, recollecting how when some people were breaking up bits from the concrete slabs to get smaller throw-able chunks, another person tried to physically get in the way and stop them.

“But the other guys had a metal tent pole and whacked him over the head with it.”

Throughout the three weeks of protests, there had been repeated calls from the protesters asking the media to talk to them. On the morning of day 23 when I was filming from the Speaker’s balcony, a TV reporter had just finished a live cross into the news bulletin.

A man’s voice rang out from among the crowd, on the PA, inviting the media on the balcony to “come down and talk to real people and report the truth.” The same voice went on to berate us for wearing masks, behind which we were allegedly smiling smugly.

Less than a minute after the initial invitation, he followed up with another call to step down so he could put a fist through the mask.

“Why don’t you come down to talk to us? Because getting bashed with a chair was always inevitable,” says Dreaver. “It’s crazy it took so long.”

Protesters whacked another protester with a tent pole as he tried to stop the violence. “It didn’t look as though it injured him, because the tent poles are quite light, but it looked quite gnarly,” Dreaver says.

The aftermath
Parliament’s grounds have been reclaimed. All but one street around the buildings is now open to the public. On Sunday, Te Āti Awa held a karakia to reinstall the mauri of the land. There is currently a rāhui over the Parliament grounds.

It is time for healing. And moving on.

“I was feeling sad last week. And then I look at Ukraine and realise there are bombs going off next to all these journalists and camera operators,” Dreaver says. “I got hit with a camping chair and I am going to sit around and complain about it?”

The effect of these protests linger though. Graham spent last Friday a week ago filming the hau kainga at Wainuiomata on high alert, and trying to keep the protesters from entering and setting up camp on their marae, as have other hapū around the capital.

The crowd has dispersed but not vanished, and neither has their kaupapa.

“I have seen some of their kōrero online,” Graham says. The mandates might be gone soon, but “there will be other stuff,” he reckons.

“It’s definitely not over.”

Rituraj Sapkota is Māori Television’s videographer in Parliament’s press gallery. Republished with permission from Te Ao Māori News.

New Zealand’s leading daily newspaper today contrasted the “reckless self-expression” of anti-covid mandates protesters and the dangers confronting the people of Ukraine fighting for their survival as an independent nation in the face of a brutal four-day-old invasion by its neighbour Russia.

Critising the rhetoric by protesters against the so-called “draconian” and “authoritarian” covid-19 rules in this country, the New Zealand Herald today mocked the anti-mandates protest in the Parliament grounds in the capital Wellington entering its third week, saying “attacks on people and their freedom are real and dangerous in a country under Russian assault”.

The newspaper said public gatherings carried extra risk in a pandemic. However, while a rally to draw attention to a desperate invasion far away was “at least understandable, the anti-mandate protests [in Wellington and Auckland] seem to be more about reckless self-expression”.

• READ MORE: Auckland Domain protest: Mayor says council ready to trespass campers
• Covid-19 update: 14,633 new community cases, 344 in hospital, five in ICU
• Other NZ covid outbreak reports

In an editorial, the paper said “noticing contrasts between two different situations” could provide clarity.

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine has instantly put claims from a minority of people opposed to covid-19 restrictions around the world in perspective.

“These people have argued that common coronavirus health requirements during the pandemic are attacks on their personal freedom.

“They have talked and written about oppression, coercion and risks over complying with health measures meant to help people survive a frequently deadly and dangerous coronavirus.”

‘Particularly unpersuasive’
Now, said the Herald, these views “sound particularly unpersuasive”.

“As footage and reporting from Ukraine shows, oppression is having armoured vehicles from a neighbouring country roll down your roads.

“Loss of freedom is having to hide in shelters to avoid military strikes from the air or having to walk with your belongings to the border for safety.

“Risk is potentially dying or being injured when your apartment building is hit by a missile.”

What was happening in Ukraine was also what happened in less publicised conflicts around the globe, said The Herald.

“Its harrowing pictures and eyewitness accounts, its timing in the third year of the pandemic, and its unfolding impact, [have] shaken the world.

“Civilians, who if they were elsewhere might be only fighting off a covid infection, are having to handle improvised weapons in Kyiv or join 120,000 others who have already fled to neighbouring countries, according to United Nations estimates.”

Protests against Moscow’s aggression
Protests condemning Moscow’s aggression and expressing support for Ukrainians have taken place in New Zealand and in different countries, including in Russia where almost 3000 people have been arrested.

“In New Zealand, there have been protests against the war at the same time as ongoing demonstrations by people who see vaccination mandates, social distancing, vaccine passports and mask-wearing as an imposition on their rights,” said The Herald.

“There’s been a lot of rhetoric with covid-19 of ‘draconian” and ”authoritarian” rules,” said the newspaper.

“In reality, complying with some restrictions for a period of time, which have involved adjusting goals and behaviours and dealing with economic issues, has meant this country has survived a challenging situation pretty well so far compared with others.

“It has hit harder for some groups in society than others. Yet a lot of people are still finding it fairly easy to cope, with vaccination shots, boosters and masks, even with omicron case numbers soaring to dizzying heights and New Zealand’s death toll rising again.”

“Russian citizens know about authoritarianism. On Friday thousands of Russians bravely took to the streets to denounce their government’s invasion.

“Those citizens in Moscow, St Petersburg and other cities knew the risk they were taking and at least 2700 have reportedly been arrested.

Mass displays of dissent not tolerated
“President Vladimir Putin’s government does not tolerate mass displays of dissent. Opponents of the regime have been poisoned and killed. The country’s main opposition leader Alexei Navalny is imprisoned.”

“These rebels on Friday had a cause: objecting to war, the violation of a country’s sovereignty and the deaths, hardship, and displacement being inflicted.”

The newspaper said that anti-war rallies and anti-mandate protests took place in New Zealand on Saturday despite omicron cases hitting 13,000 and deaths from the pandemic reaching 56 — far lower than in most other countries.

“Police said officers outside Parliament were spat on. Protesters have been seen ignoring social distancing and avoiding masks and the Ministry of Health said people attending are coming down with covid.

“Hospitals around the country were reporting visits from people who had been at the Parliament site,” said the newspaper.

• The Herald’s editorial

It was probably one of those rare times when I “became the news” as a journalist.

I had accompanied Greenpeace activists to the Port Moresby headquarters of the Rimbunan Hijau (RH) in June 2006 to report on the presentation of the “golden chainsaw award” to the Malaysian logging giant.

And I literally got “arrested” by security guards for trespassing and ended up at the Gordons Police Station.

• READ MORE: Other PNG election reports

Police later let me go, saying I was only doing my job.

I covered Papua New Guinea’s forestry sector extensively between 2003–2007 as a journalist and reported on many cases of human rights abuses, dodgy timber permit licences and the often clandestine relationship between loggers and Papua New Guinean politicians in successive national and provincial governments.

I was sued a couple of times by logging companies in Papua New Guinea’s National Court along with my then employer, the PNG Post-Courier, and I was sent numerous warning letters by lawyers — a favourite tactic employed by a lot of logging companies at that time to keep away nosy journalists.

That has probably become standard practice today, as PNG media companies with dwindling advertising revenue fearing hefty legal bills pushing them to bankruptcy back off.

Support of ‘true patriots’
My reportage wouldn’t have hit the printing press without the support of Papua New Guinean conservationists and true patriots who had a heart for the traditional landowners as well as international environmental groups.

Also, officials at Morauta House, Waigani, who leaked official documentation from a government review of PNG’s logging sector in early 2000s which uncovered massive breaches of logging permit extensions and alleged human rights abuse, often perpetrated by rogue landowner-individuals in collision with corrupt officials.

Papua New Guinea’s traditional landowners of the country’s tropical rainforest to this day remain the custodians of 5 percent of the world’s biodiversity, but continue to face increasing pressure from unscrupulous developers.

With the 2022 General Election just 6-7 months away, the media in PNG should be vigilant as history shows that the country is at its most vulnerable state in the lead-up to, during and after a general election.

Alexander Rheeney is a former PNG journalist and ex-editor of the PNG Post-Courier and now an editor of the Samoa Observer.

Hakeagapuletama Halo walks into the courtroom. He is a head taller than most, dressed in a crisp white shirt. He has a nervous smile and bright, eager eyes.

Known as Hake to his family and friends, this is not the first time he has detailed the abuse he suffered at Lake Alice. But, as part of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care, it is the first time he’s been able to do so publicly.

He said there was no warning or explanation the first time he received electroconvulsive shock therapy, just one week after arriving at the Lake Alice Institute.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific human rights violations articles

“They called my name out. I went freely and walked up the stairs of Villa 7 because I did not understand, I thought it was something to help us patients, but I had a funny feeling something was not right.

“Dr [Selwyn] Leeks and three other staff members were there. They did not ask me any questions or explain anything to me. They just put me on the bed.”

Halo remembered seeing a bed with a small machine on a trolley, with electric earphones that were wet and placed on the sides of his head.

“I looked up at their faces, they were pretty mean looking and that made me feel something was going to happen. I asked Dr Leeks if this was going to hurt and he said, “yes, it is”. I cried and said, “I don’t want it please”.”

Lost consciousness
With no muscle relaxant or anaesthetic, the staff held him down as the volts went through his body and he lost consciousness.

The next time it happened, it was a shock to discover that he remained conscious and felt everything, saying it was like being hit by a sledgehammer.

“The pain was so bad, that when a person was lying down, when they turned it on, I could feel myself actually sitting up. Your body is off the bed… you’re straining to raise your arms but they’re holding you down. And they turn it off, that’s when you’re crying…without the mouthguard, a person would end up biting his tongue off because of the pain.”

The shocks were administered three or four times before the child was taken to a different room to recover, but the effects would be felt for days.

A terrible secret
Halo said everyone knew what was going on, but it wasn’t talked about.

“Us kids, we know that somebody’s always getting ECT because you can hear the screams from upstairs coming downstairs to us kids. In the lounge, in the sitting room, TV room, you can hear them screaming, even the workers that are working around there.”

He says while most of the staff and workers were white-skinned, there were a few cleaners that were Pacific Islanders.

“They can hear it. They’re doing their jobs and crying at the same time because they know what’s going on.”

In addition to the electric shock treatment, the children were injected with paraldehyde, a medicine that was used to treat convulsive disorders.

Halo said they had different amounts injected, based on their behaviour, such as not listening or fighting, even laughing too loudly.

“Paraldehyde is just like another way of giving us a hiding. Using the injection, it is painful, the pain is bad. The child is walking like a pregnant lady sometimes, swaying from side to side, coming out of the sick bay with his pants still halfway down, crying his eyes out – and that’s only for 5cc.”

One teacher trusted
There was one teacher who he trusted at the school, who will later testify as part of the hearing.

“She said to me, ‘you don’t belong here’. She gave us advice, encouragement and counselling. I had not done anything big or really wrong, just the shoplifting.”

Many buildings have been demolished since the institute was closed in 1999. Photo: Fergus Cunningham 2011

A child’s plea for help
Halo wanted to tell his mother about the abuse, and tried to come up with a coded way to tell her.

“I write in my letter in English that everything is alright…they said I have to write my letters in English and take it into the office and leave it open like that for them to read.”

After his earlier attempts to draw a sad face weren’t accepted, Halo learned he had to draw a person with a happy face, but included a speech bubble saying his true feelings.

“I wrote just a short few words in Niuean, saying mum, electric shock, so painful to me. Or, Mum, the people have given me electric shock… injection… I am crying.”

Years later, he would try to recreate these drawings in his journals.

When asked why his mother did nothing at the time, he said there was a language and cultural barrier.

“Because my mum was not an English speaker, she did not know how to get help or intervene…she felt powerless.”

This was not the first time speaking English as a second language had been a barrier.

Misunderstood from the early years
Born in Niue, Halo sailed to Sāmoa on the Tofua, then flew to New Zealand with his grandparents, who raised him for many years.

He had epilepsy as a baby but grew out of it as he got older.

When Halo started at Richmond Road Primary in 1968, he could only speak Niuean.

“I did not understand anything the teacher was teaching. I did not do my homework because I did not understand my teacher and I did not speak in class….I felt totally lost. It was pretty hard to find friends, so I just kept to myself.”

The teachers thought Halo had a disability and put him in a class for children with special needs, where he would act up. When he was 8, an incident with a relief teacher at Beresford Primary that would change his life.

“We were practising songs, and I wasn’t singing properly, just trying to sing but not really good and not participating properly and my teacher got upset…so she came and took me out of the classroom.

“I was scared about being locked in this dark room. I tried to push on the door to push it open and let myself back in, and my hand accidentally went through the glass door.”

Cut his hand severely
He cut his hand severely and was taken to Auckland Hospital by ambulance.

The school report said he violently punched the window but the scars on the palm of his hand prove he did not punch the glass, but was pushing on it.

After this incident, Halo was seen as being violent, and was referred to St John’s Psychiatric Hospital in Papatoetoe.

From there, he spent a few months in Niue, before returning to New Zealand and moving between several schools, his behaviour worsening after the death of his grandfather when he was 10 years old.

He appeared in the youth court because of a shoplifting offence, and was sent to Owairaka Boys’ Home in October 1975.

“I was put in a secure room for four days. I had to stay there for a long time because I was so upset. They were worried I would run away. I was lonely,” he says.

“In the secure room there was a bed, a toilet, and sometimes another kid was put in the same cell. When that happened, we had to share the toilet and we had to eat in there too. I did not like that room.”

Some children targeted
Along with physical violence, the staff were strict and some children were targeted more than others.

“The boys that had to do the cleaning and cooking did not go to school. I was one of those kids. I had to do the jobs. I had no choice.”

He was then referred to Lake Alice, a mental hospital in the Manawatu District that had been converted for youth.

“My [grandmother] and my birth parents were told they were taking me to Lake Alice to go to a school there. They were not told that it was a mental hospital. They never knew the true story.

“My mum did not speak good English at all and there were no Niuean interpreters. She signed papers because they told her they were taking me to a school.”

Arriving at Lake Alice on 6 November 1975, Halo said he was surprised and scared.

“My first impression was “bloody hell, what is this place? What sort of place? This is not a school, this looks like a prison!”

Some not documented
An estimated 300 teenagers were admitted to the institute across the six years it was operating, but there are thought to be at least a hundred more who were not documented, with some children younger than 10.

It wasn’t until after Halo was discharged in 1976, when his grandmother arranged to legally adopt him, they discovered he had been made a ward of the state.

“The interpreter at that meeting explained to my Mum [grandmother] what a State Ward meant. My Mum had not understood, and no one had ever interpreted for her, that the state had the rights of guardianship over me.”

Thinking back to the start of the year when he was referred to Lake Alice, Halo said his Mum had not understood the social worker at the time.

“There were no interpreters there to assist my Mum in this conversation. The social worker thought my Mum wanted social welfare to have full control and have me under their guardianship,” he says.

“However, my Mum was misunderstood. She had asked him to please look after me, while I was in care. The social worker thought she was saying `please take Hake and make him a State Ward’.”

Halo says if a Niuean interpreter had been present, he may not have been returned to Lake Alice, or later referred to Carrington Hospital in Auckland.

Now elder in his church
Halo is an elder in his church and attributes his healing and strength to his faith.

His epilepsy returned after his time at Lake Alice, making it difficult for him to hold down a job, although he did work at a facility packing plastic bottles, but found the static electricity a trigger for his traumatic memories.

He is on a benefit, but says the Ministry of Social Development is trying to get him onto the jobseeker benefit.

When asked about whether an apology would help, he said he didn’t need a personal apology, but wanted to see an acknowledgement of how Pacific Islanders were treated.

“The state should have explained to me and my parents what a State Ward was and what happens to a child who is a State Ward. If they could not understand English, they should be offered an interpreter. The state should tell us the truth about where our children are going and what is happening to them.

“Looking to the future, if I was told a grandchild of mine had to go into an institution, I would say ‘no way’. Our children have to be with us, not in institutions.”

At the hearing, a handful of survivors were present to support Halo, Paul Zentveld acknowledged those who could not be there.

“All these many years when no one but a tiny few believed us. Officials of Government did not really care what happened to us as children while in Lake Alice in the 70s. We have done many things over the years, including alerting the United Nations and here we are.

“We stand before the survivors of Lake Alice, ready to tell our story publicly for the first time. Those who cannot be here are here in spirit.”

But the man responsible for the mistreatment of hundreds of children, may never be held to account.

‘I represent a man incapable of instructing me’ – lawyer for Dr Selwyn Leeks

Hayden Rattray, counsel for Dr Selwyn Leeks, appeared via Zoom to deliver the news many were expecting.

“Dr Leeks is 92 years old. He has metastatic prostate cancer … heart disease, chronic kidney dysfunction.

“Dr Leeks is neither aware of the matters of the inquiry nor cognitively capable of responding to them. The reality is I represent a man incapable of instructing me.”

Rattray referenced an assessment in April by neuropsychologist Dr Sarah Lucas, which also reported signs of Alzheimers and dementia.

As a core participant in the inquiry, Dr Leeks has the right to give evidence and make submissions, however, “by virtue of his age and cognitive capacity, manifestly incapable of doing either”, Rattray explained.

Assisting Counsel Andrew Molloy said, along with Dr Leeks, other parties needed to be held accountable.

“While numerous eyes have been cast over these events over the years, we’ve never previously pulled together the strands to compile as full a picture as we can … While individuals may have spoken of this here and there, their voices have never been heard collectively by us as a society.”

Queen’s Counsel Frances Joychild said the inquiry was exposing a “collective shame”.

“It’s an inquiry into a dark and shameful seven year episode in the history of state care for vulnerable children in this countr …. The  damage to the national interest is impossible to calculate.”

The Lake Alice hearing runs for two weeks. Twenty survivors are expected to give evidence, along with former staff members, medical experts and police witnesses.​

More information:
​The Royal Commission will examine abuse and neglect of children and young people in residences run by the state between 1950 and 1999.

The scope of the inquiry covers abuse that happened in State care such as foster care, police cells, court cells or police custody, schools or special schools, disability care or facility, youth justice placement or at a health camp.

They are also looking at abuse that occurred in faith-based settings such as a religious school or church camp.

Witnesses can speak anonymously about sexual, physical and psychological abuse and the effects it has had on them in later life.

The Pacific Investigation encourages Pacific survivors to continue coming forward and engage with the Royal Commission of Inquiry.

To contact the Pacific Investigation, please email: Reina.Vaai@abuseincare.org.nz or call us on 0800 222 727.

For further details please see www.abuseincare.org.nz.

Pacific Investigation hearing dates: July 19-30, 2021

Hearing location: Fale o Samoa, 141r Bader Drive, Māngere, Auckland 2022

West Papuans have joined the people of Vanuatu in mourning the loss of independence and human rights campaigner Pastor Allen Nafuki who died at the weekend aged 72.

As well as campaigning for Vanuatu’s independence from Britain and France in the 1970s, Pastor Nafuki also embraced the West Papuan struggle for freedom from Indonesia.

Born in 1950 on the remote island of Erromango, when Vanuatu was still New Hebrides, Pastor Nafuki also served as a politician and was chairman of the Vanuatu Christian Council.

• READ MORE: Tributes flow for late Vanuatu Pastor and independence advocate Allen Nafuki

He and dedicated to the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) movement.

“Reverend Nafuki is a father, shepherd and figure of truth for both Vanuatu and West Papua,” said executive director Markus Haluk of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP).

Pastor Nafuki received his theological education in Madang, Papua New Guinea, in the years of struggle before PNG gained independence from Australia in 1975.

While studying in Madang, Pastor Nafuki learned a lot about the “suffering and struggles of his brothers and sisters in West Papua”, Haluk said in a statement today.

Advocacy for West Papuans
Since then the pastor had been called to fight for the struggle of his brothers in the western part of the island of New Guinea.

“Since his seminary study in the early 1970s, in Madang, he fell in love with the people and the struggle for the independence of West Papua. That’s why for more than 40 years he has fought and spoken for Papuan independence in Vanuatu,” he said.

“Reverend Allan is one of the pillars of a Free Papua in Vanuatu. As chairman of the Free West Papua Unity Committee, he always led actions and lobbying for a Free West Papua in various forums in Vanuatu, Melanesia and the Pacific,” said Haluk.

He said the death was a great loss for the two nations – and for Melanesia and the Pacific.

However, he believes that in future “young Nafukis” will appear in in the region who will boldly and consistently speak about the suffering and struggles of their brothers and sisters in West Papua.

Haluk said he hoped the West Papuan prayers would be answered by the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) leaders “opening up their hearts” to accept ULMWP as a full member at its conference on June 15-17.

Celebrating Nafuki’s legacy
In another statement, the ULMWP’s interim president Benny Wenda said: “This is a great loss – but we also celebrate his legacy. He helped combine the destiny of the people of West Papua with the Republic of Vanuatu.”

Wenda said Pastor Nafuki had helped bring about Papuan unity in 2014.

“Never in the history of our struggle have we achieved this unity before. With his courage and dedication, we managed to unite and have brought West Papua closer than ever to the Melanesian family.”

ULMWP representatives will attend the funeral in Vanuatu.

Reported by a correspondent of Asia Pacific Report.

Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

Brutality in West Papua has escalates with civilian and military casualties in the past month, reports SBS News.

The killing of Indonesia’s spy chief on the ground and proscribing of the independence movement and fighters as “terrorists” has boosted fears that a major confrontation is looming.

The conflict continues to go largely unreported in Australia and New Zealand apart from on SBS News and RNZ Pacific.

• READ MORE: Other reports on the Indonesian crackdown in Papua
• Papuan campaigner Victor Yeimo arrested

Stefan Armbruster of SBS News reports here on the manhunt for Papuan guerillas in their Highlands hideouts while the West Papuan National Liberation Army claims that it will continue to kill people suspected of being spies after the killing of intelligence chief Brigadier General I Gusti Putu Danny Karya Nugraha in an ambush on April 25.

Armbruster’s report features WPNLA’s spokesman Sebby Sambom, United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) interim president Benny Wenda who accuses Indonesia of being the “terrorists” and Amnesty International Indonesia’s Usman Hamid.

He also notes that in spite of the human rights violations allegations on both sides that the Australian military continues to train Indonesian troops.

The Oxford City Council is to award West Papuan activist Benny Wenda the Honorary Freedom of the City accolade for his tireless fight for West Papuan self-determination.

Wenda, whom the United Kingdom granted political asylum in 2002, lives in Oxford with his family and it serves as the headquarters of his campaign to liberate the people of West Papua.

According to the Oxford City Council, the Freedom Award is the highest honour the City of Oxford can bestow and is one of the oldest surviving traditional ceremonies still in existence.

READ MORE: Benny Wenda: Please hear my Papuan people’s cry for freedom

It is an honorary status only, with no other rights than to attend formal council meetings, such as Annual Council, and ceremonial occasions such as civic church services.

In a press release, Leader of Oxford City Council, Councillor Susan Brown said “ever since Benny Wenda made Oxford his home and base for campaigning for the people of West Papua, Oxford residents and the City Council have taken his cause for their own.”

“We are delighted to give this honour to an Oxford resident who has campaigned so tirelessly on behalf of his people.”

Wenda thanked the Oxford City Council and people of Oxford for their generosity and support in conveying the award.

“When I escaped from an Indonesian prison in West Papua in 2002, Oxford was one of the first places in the world that welcomed me and my family,” he said.

“I was given asylum in the UK and have made Oxford my home. Oxford was one of the first to hear the cry of the West Papuan people for justice, human rights and self-determination and this award shows that the people of Oxford are listening and responding.

“The West Papuan people know that our struggle is not just an issue for West Papuans now, but has become an issue that has touched the hearts of thousands around the world. My journey has taken me here from the jungles of West Papua and the inside of an Indonesian prison cell.

“But until we are able to return to an independent West Papua, my family and I are not truly free. I thank the people of Oxford for all their assistance as we work to finish our long journey home.”

According to the press release, Wenda settled in the city after reading Oxford-resident George Monbiot’s book ‘Poisoned Arrows’, which first brought to light the story of the tribal people of western New Guinea and described the Indonesian government’s transmigration campaign to drive them off ancestral lands into poverty and starvation.

He has acted as special representative of the Papuan people in the UK Parliament, United Nations and European Parliament. In 2017 he was appointed Chairman for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), a new organisation uniting the three main political organisations struggling for the independence of West Papua.

The Freedom will be awarded at a special meeting of the Full Council to be held in Oxford Town Hall, at 5pm on July 17.

• Bendy Wenda visited the Pacific Media Centre at AUT University in 2013 and 2016.

Pacific stories spanning generations emerged through film and poetry at a South Auckland art exhibition about the Dawn Raids.

The Educate to Liberate exhibit at the Fresh Gallery Ōtara, which ran from early April until last week, featured photographs, artwork and Polynesian Panther memorabilia from the 1970s Dawn Raid era.

Filmmaker Robert George, alongside curator Pauline Smith, offered people affected by the raids a chance to tell their stories.

READ MORE: Dawn Raids – Pasifika ‘liberated’ to talk about painful past

The Dawn Raids saw police and immigration officials target the homes of Polynesian immigrants in the early hours of the morning in a government crackdown on alleged overstaying.

Reverend Alec Toleafoa of the Polynesian Panthers said the exhibition’s first showing in Invercargill last year saw people coming forward with “really powerful and really amazing” stories.

“What I’ve seen [the exhibition] do is bring out people’s own experiences of the Dawn Raids.

“Often, when those stories emerge, it’s the first time they’ve ever been told.

‘Telling often healing’
“The people who tell them often find the telling of it very healing.”

The Polynesian Panthers formed in 1971 and fought racism against Pacific people through political activism.

A week into the exhibition, the next generation of Pasifika also raised their voices through spoken word poetry.

Youth organisation, Action Education and South Auckland Poets Collective hosted an open mic evening at the gallery, where 60 people attended.

Spoken word artist Eric Soakai, 21, said he was inspired to write his poem after he learnt about the racial injustices against Pacific Islanders during the Dawn Raids.

Soakai said his poem They Will Remember Our Names — an “an ode to those who disrupt spaces” — started from a place of anger before it became a piece celebrating Polynesian people’s resolve.

“To perform it in a space that honours those who held it down in a political sense… it really brought a warmth to my heart,” he said.

Southside poem
Sixteen-year-old Aigagalefili Fepulea’i-Tapua’i, a fellow spoken word artist, said she wrote her poem 275 Love Letters to Southside — which reflected on what it meant to live in South Auckland — after she learnt about the Dawn Raids at school.

“I think the Dawn Raids had a very dramatic effect on all of the Pacific Islander community.

“I feel like it’s something that the newer generation or my generation take for granted when it comes to the Polynesian Panthers and how hard they fought for rights that we have now,” she said.

Despite this progress, Fepulea’i-Tapua’i’s said there was still work to be done to make sure Pacific viewpoints were represented in issues that affected them. She said spoken word poetry provided a good medium to encourage that voice.

“We’re always hearing that Islanders weren’t smart enough to be able to tell their own stories.”

“If kids are hearing that all the time, they’ll start to believe it and they’ll start to limit themselves. So, I think it all starts with encouraging our youth.”

Irra Lee is a final year Bachelor of Communication Studies student journalist and is editor of Te Waha Nui.

Spoken word poetry at the Dawn Raids exhibition. Video: Irra Lee/Te Waha Nui

Media freedom in Melanesia will be the focus of the next edition of Pacific Journalism Review in partnership the Melanesian Media Freedom Forum with academics and journalists invited to submit papers on the subject.

The research journal will focus on the political and socio-cultural challenges and constraints for a free press in Melanesia.

This will follow a special double edition due to be released this July.

READ MORE:Pacific media freedom and news ‘black holes’ worsen for World Press Freedom Day

PJR editor and director of the Pacific Media Centre Professor David Robie welcomed the opportunity to partner with the forum for the conference in November.

“Media freedom is tracking downwards at the moment and we need a challenging forum like this to clear the air over threats to the region,” he told Pacific Media Watch.

“Also, those courageous journalists in the region who are holding the line need to be celebrated for their work and this will be a tremendous opportunity to uphold media freedom.”

Papers can include but are not restricted to human rights journalism in Melanesia, gender and identity, environmental or climate change journalism, press freedom and the intersection between custom and indigenous knowledge in contemporary Fourth Estate practice.

Other topics
Other journalism topics will be publish as usual in themed editions of the journal.

The deadline for submissions is January 20, 2020.

Pacific Journalism Review is also encouraging presenters to take part  in the Melanesian Media Freedom Forum in Brisbane on November 11/12, 2019.

Co-organised by Griffith University and the Melanesian Media Freedom Group, the forum will give priority to presentation on media freedom in the region, but also welcomes presentations on social justice, human rights, environmental and climate change reporting in the Melanesian media.

Forum co-organiser and director of the journalism programme at Griffith University, Dr Kasun Ubayasiri said the time was right for practitioners, academics and media freedom activists to come together to discuss the changing media landscape in Melanesia.

“We are hearing about increasing threats to media freedom in Melanesia from journalists, editors and media watchers across the sub-region,” he told Pacific Media Watch.

“There seems to be a spread in authoritarian attitudes, policies and practices by governments, often presented under the pretext of ensuring ‘stability’, and the apparent increase in intensity and frequency of threats seem to align with this shift in Melanesian politics.”

Incidents reported
Pacific Media Watch has reported on recent incidents involving such threats and policies in the region:

• Last week in Papua New Guinea, which may face a change in government this week, an opposition politician warned the country’s two foreign-owned daily newspapers that the new government would “deal” to them.
• In Indonesia, the government banned foreign journalists from covering recent electoral proceedings in West Papua.

Dr Ubayasiri, who is co-editing the next edition of PJR, said a free press was vital for a robust and healthy democracy and there was no logical reason to undermine it.

He said he had worked under media restrictions and censorship in South Asia as a former journalist.

“Media freedom is an issue very close to my heart.”

Chair of the Melanesian Media Freedom Group and MMFF co-organiser Dr Tess Newton Cain said she appreciated the challenges to a free media.

Difficult circumstances
“Based on my experience of living and working in Melanesia, I am very well aware of the difficult circumstances in which journalists and media outlets are operating.”

An expert on Melanesia, Dr Newton Cain said she hoped the forum would provide senior members of the industry with an opportunity to come together and address the challenges media freedom faced throughout the region.

Scholars are invited to submit 200-300 word abstracts for conference presentations.

The forum abstracts deadline is June 20, 2019.

• Pacific Media Watch reports on World Press Freedom Day

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Israeli forces have reportedly stopped the three-vessel Freedom Flotilla which was nearing the Gaza Strip, report news media.

According to Palestinian media, Israeli troops have blocked the way of the boats and directed them toward the port of Ashdod, some 40 kilometres south of Tel Aviv, says PressTV.

Reports say all connections with Freedom Flotilla have been stopped.

READ MORE: Israeli military attacks and detains Unite union leader

About 40 activists from 15 countries are on board the vessels.

The flotilla left the Italian city of Palermo on July 21. The flotilla aimed to break the Israeli regime’s blockade on the coastal enclave.

The embargo has been in place since 2007. It has led to a catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.

New Zealand union leader Mike Treen was attacked and unlawfully detained by the Israeli military, said his union Unite.

The union is calling on the New Zealand government to demand Israeli authorities release him and the other international campaigners that were aboard the Al Awda. 

His final media message is here.

“Mike was taking part in a peaceful mission to deliver aid to Gaza and was in international waters when attacked and detained. We understand he has been taken, kidnapped in reality, to the southern Israeli port of Ashod,” said Unite national secretary Gerard Hehir.

Asia Pacific Report, through the Pacific Media Centre, is sharing Gaza Freedom Flotilla coverage with Kia Ora Gaza and Scoop Media. New Zealander Mike Treen is on board Al Awda.

• Union leader Mike Treen attacked and detained in Israel
• Mike Treen’s plea for flotilla help
• Other Freedom Flotilla stories

Pacific Media Centre’s weekly Southern Cross radio programme.

Detained Australian missionary Sister Patricia “Pat” Fox’s “release” by the Philippines Bureau of Immigration has been greeted with relief by human rights advocates

Peter Murphy, chair of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP), told Pacific Media Watch today it was a “great relief” that Sister Pat had been released by the Philippines Bureau of Immigration on Tuesday.

According to a media release by ICHRP, 71-year-old Fox is a member of the Catholic congregation Sisters of Our lady of Sion, an Australian citizen who holds a missionary visa to work in the Philippines, where she has worked since 1991.

She now works with the Union of Agricultural Workers (UMA) and Alliance for Genuine Agrarian Reform (PATRIA), and is a past national coordinator of Rural Missionaries of the Philippines.

Murphy said he read in Philippines news media that Sister Fox had been due to be imprisoned in Taguig in the city of Manila but authorities thought it would be too harsh for her.

“So they let her sleep on an office bench in the Bureau of Immigration and she had some company,” said Murphy.

Murphy said while the Bureau of Immigration had released Fox, it was holding her passport while continuing to investigate her.

“They say the reason for releasing her is that when the Bureau of Immigration officers met her, she wasn’t breaking any laws.”

‘Megalomaniac statement’
“They met her in her house so it was a sort of face saving statement.”

“They aren’t going to proceed with the political charges they started with I think because there was such a big outcry from Australia, church and human rights groups in the Philippines.”

“Yesterday evening [President Rodrigo] Duterte said it was he who [had] personally ordered her detention. He said he had the power to do this and decide who was a suitable foreigner to be in the country and who wasn’t, which is sort of a megalomaniac statement.”

Murphy said he believed the president did not have this power but “it shows the attitude and how vindictive he can be when he is as arrogant and authoritarian as he is”.

“After Sister Fox was arrested, Duterte announced that if the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court came to investigate him, they would also be deported.”

The week before, Murphy said another priest tried to enter on a similar mission to Fox and he was deported.

“It’s part of a significant escalation of attempts to shut down outsiders making comments.”

Duterte’s ‘terrorist list’
Murphy said that Duterte had an increasing number on his list of alleged terrorists, including the expert at the UN for indigenous peoples’ rights.

Filipino Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, visited Australia recently and made some damning statements about the treatment of indigenous peoples under Dutuerte, said Murphy.

“Duterte has put her name under the list of about 400 people who he is alleging are terrorists and should be arrested

“It’s another case of him trying to shut up an international voice that’s critical of him.”

Murphy believes Duterte’s actions are part of a plan to seize greater control over the Philippines.

“I think what’s going on behind that as a strategy is to separate out the international networks that are supportive of trade unions, farmers organisations women’s groups, fisher folk…all of these people’s organisations in the Philippines have their international connections so he’s trying to put a barrier between the two and so have a freer hand to engage in more repression,” said Murphy.

‘No national boundaries’
In response to Durterte’s comments that Fox should criticise her own government instead of the Philippines, Murphy doesn’t think Fox has held back from condemning the Australian government.

“I don’t think Fox has had any inhibitions about criticising the Australian government either.

“For Fox, I don’t think there’s any national boundaries to divide up whose rights you should defend and whose rights you shouldn’t,” said Murphy.

“Human rights are codified to some extent in the International Declaration of Human Rights in which the Philippines is a signatory

“President Duterte can’t say anyone else in the world outside of his borders is not entitled to comment on what’s happening to Human Rights in the Philippines.”

Rappler reports the Bureau of Immigration released Fox on Tuesday after keeping her in detention for almost a day. She was released because the bureau found she had a valid missionary visa and because she was not violating immigration laws.

Duterte personally responsible
President Rodrigo Duterte took “full responsibility” for the temporary detention of Australian missionary nun Sister Patricia Fox, admitting he had ordered the bureau to investigate her.

Duterte said he ordered only an investigation into Fox’s “disorderly conduct,” not her detention.

Fox is expected to undergo preliminary investigation to determine if she is to be deported.

According to Rappler, the bureau had said that Fox was accused of “engaging in political activities and anti-government demonstrations”.

Fox said she had been active in standing up for human rights issues because of her religious beliefs, not because of any political leanings.

“I haven’t joined political rallies in terms of party politics, but I have been active in human rights issues,” the nun said.

• More Philippine stories

Secretary of Foreign Affairs Alan Peter Cayetano claims the Philippines’ withdrawal from the International Criminal Court is “a principled stand” as nongovernmental organisations and politicians supposedly use human rights for political ends.

“The political NGOs and the politicians have taken over human rights,” Cayetano has told GMA News anchor Jessica Soho.

“Now it’s being used in politics. But this is a principled stand,” he added in a mix of English and Filipino.

President Rodrigo Duterte announced earlier on Wednesday that the Philippines would withdraw from the ICC “effective immediately.”

READ MORE: Duterte’s statement on Int’l Criminal Court withdrawal

In his interview with GMA News, Cayetano explained that withdrawing from the ICC was “not a way of evading” an ICC probe into Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.

Cayetano said that even if the Philippines withdraws from the ICC, the court still had jurisdiction over the things the Philippines did when it was a member.

Additionally, he pointed out that withdrawing from the ICC “has been in informal discussions ever since,” even when he was still a senator during Duterte’s term.

‘Internal conflict’
The Philippines’ top diplomat recalled that during the time of then president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the military did not want the Philippines to ratify the Rome Statute of the ICC.

This was because the Philippines has an “internal conflict” that might “compromise” police and soldiers.

The Philippines ratified the Rome Statute during the time of then president Benigno Aquino III. One of those who pushed for this ratification was human rights lawyer Harry Roque, now Duterte’s spokesman.

“Now the President sees that there is internal conflict, like what happened in Marawi, et cetera. And that’s the same reason that the US, China, Russia did not sign or did not ratify it. The US signed but did not ratify it,” Cayetano said.

Read an excerpt from Cayetano’s interview below:

“The political NGOs and the politicians have taken over human rights eh. So ang problema hindi na katulad dati na prinsipyo talaga sa human rights. Sa ngayon ginagamit sa politika. But this is a principled stand. Ayaw nating maging hipokrito, na ang malalaking bansa hindi sumali dito.

“But to prove that it’s not a way of evading or getting away from the consequences or the jurisdiction ng ICC or nangyari na, even if mag-withdraw tayo, covered pa rin ‘yung actions natin when we were a member.

“So sa mga nagsasabi, ayaw lang ni Presidente maging liable dito, he’s not doing it for himself, kasi we still have obligations during that time. It’s really for the soldiers, the police, and to make a stand sa ating mundo na you know, huwag ‘nyong ipolitika ang human rights.”

Duterte made this declaration more than a month after the ICC opened its “preliminary examination” of the alleged extrajudicial killings in his war on drugs.

The President vowed the ICC cannot have jurisdiction over him, “not in a million years.”

• More Philippines stories

Indonesia’s Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) has demanded police investigate the cause of death of terrorist suspect Muhammad Jefri in Indramayu.

This is deemed important since the information about his death is unclear and appears to involve a violation of law.

“The case of Muhamad Jefri or MJ is under the authority of National Police’s counterterrorism squad Densus 88,” KontraS coordinator Yati Indriyani said at the weekend.

Jefri was arrested by Densus 88 since he was allegedly involved in a number of terrorism cases.

However, his family mentioned that his arrest was not under an official warrant. Jefri was in good health when the police took him in.

The news of his death was delivered by the police on February 15, 2018, yet he died a week prior. Yati said that this kind of treatment of terrorist suspects would spark controversy since there was no transparency and the authorities neglected human rights (HAM) parameters and the law.

“It is concerned that this will trigger, create or flourish other links of terrorist acts,” Yati said.

In Papua New Guinea, community leader Joe Moses struggles to save the 3000 inhabitants of Port Moresby’s Paga Hill settlement before they are forcibly evicted from their homes in this documentary screened on Al Jazeera’s Witness programme.

Despite betrayals, police brutality and risks to his own life, Moses battles through the courts for three years, fighting the company which wants to develop the area into a luxury resort and cultural centre.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE: Al Jazeera’s Witness screening of the Paga Hill documentary

As the struggle unfolds, Moses recruits a coalition of allies, including politician Dame Carol Kidu, investigator Dr Kristian Lasslett and a motivated team of pro-bono lawyers to help him save his community.

“Some stories pick you. On my second day in Papua New Guinea, I found myself in the middle of a human rights abuse – standing between police holding machetes and machine guns, and the Paga Hill community, who were watching their homes being destroyed and fearing for their lives. The community were peaceful, but refused to be defeated,” recalls filmmaker Hollie Fifer.

“When I found out that a property developer was after the Paga Hill land in order to build a five-star hotel, marina wharf, and national cultural centre, I knew I had an obligation to capture the community’s resistance.

“The irony of violently evicting a Papua New Guinean community to replace their homes with a national cultural centre was startling.

“The fallacy of ‘development’ was clear. Over the last four years, I have been constantly watching the story of Paga Hill unfold and trying to capture it as it does.”

• The Opposition, the documentary by Hollie Fifer, which itself has been the target of censorship bids and a legal wrangle, can be viewed via Al Jazeera’s Witness programme page on YouTube.
• The trailer
• The ‘battle of Paga Hill’ – controversial PNG doco finally on NZ screens

With its official launch in the country set for today, Amnesty International Indonesia has emphasised the need for the government to step up focus on human rights issues and warned that neglecting human right violations can impede the country’s growth.

Speaking at a press conference in Menteng, Central Jakarta, the chairman of the board for Amnesty International Indonesia, Todung Mulya Lubis, said that despite progress in democracy, political life and the economy, Indonesia still needed to pay more attention to human rights issues.

“There’s still plenty that must be done to resolve past human rights violations […] Indonesia won’t have smooth progress if those remain unresolved, it will always obstruct the way,” Todung said.

The London-based organisation hopes to push Indonesia to be a global player in upholding human rights with its local chapter.

“Amnesty International Indonesia wants to urge Indonesia to take a global role in the human rights movement. That’s one of our dreams,” said Monica Tanuhandaru, one of the board members.

She emphasised that economic development in Asia, Southeast Asia and Indonesia would be “meaningless without justice of human rights.”

However, as the world bears witness to changing political dynamics across the globe, it is no longer solely the role of the government to ensure protection of human rights. Rather, it should be the product of a collective act from all members of society.

“[The] state is becoming weaker and weaker. Efforts to uphold and protect human rights must be done by civil society, but this doesn’t mean that we deny the existence of the state,” Todung said.

Uniting all movements
Amnesty International Indonesia hopes to “unite all human rights movements that are present in Indonesia,” especially as it aims to urge the government to resolve human rights violations.

For decades, the Indonesian government has provided little clarity on how it will address past human rights violations, including violations allegedly committed in 1965 and 1998, as well as those resulting from conflicts in Papua, West Papua and Timor-Leste.

Promises that these violations will be duly addressed was popular among candidates during the country’s last presidential campaigns, but real commitments to human rights from the current administration seem to have been overridden by priorities on other aspects, such as the economy and infrastructure development.

Sidarto Danusubroto, a member of the Presidential Advisory Board (Wantimpres), said that telling the truth in Indonesia was “not a simple process” and would likely require a long time.

While the government has programmes for human rights, it was facing “economic issues” that must be resolved, he said.

“I’m afraid that if the government also has to resolve past human rights violations, current programmes for the economy will weaken,” Sidarto said.

Countries like South Africa and Chile, Sidarto said, had “built their memories of human rights” through museums.

‘Dark past’
He reflected on the importance of these countries being able “to admit their dark past without the need to hide,” and expressed his hopes that Indonesia would eventually get there.

“I hope, one day, we’ll get there – where we don’t have to be ashamed to speak of our dark past,” Sidarto said.

Amnesty International Indonesia will launch its #JoinForces initiative on December 7, coinciding with the 517th Kamisan – a silent protest in front of the State Palace in Central Jakarta – as a form of solidarity to the protesters who have been demanding that the Indonesian government solve past cases of human rights abuses.

This had been initiated by friends and family members of 1998 student activist victims every Thursday afternoon for the past 10 years.

The organisation will also host simultaneous events across Indonesia between today and December 10, including in Bandung (West Java), Solo (Central Java) and Makassar (South Sulawesi).

The initiative is focused on combating growing “scapegoat” politics and the rise of negative populism that the organisation said had “undermined the basic rights of minority groups.”

The “Journalism Under Duress” seminar examined media freedom and human rights in Philippines and Indonesia’s Papua region, otherwise known as West Papua.

The executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Malou Mangahas spoke about extrajudicial killings and an ongoing spate of murders of journalists in her country.

Threats to journalists in the Philippines have been on the rise since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power last year. However, according to Mangahas, his “war on drugs” has seen more than 7000 people killed, over often spurious allegations that they were drug dealers.

LISTEN: PCIJ’s Malou Mangahas interviewed by RNZ Mediawatch

In the discussion about West Papua, the PMC seminar heard that access to the Indonesian region for foreign journalists, while still restricted, remained critical for helping Papuan voices to be heard.

Many West Papuans did not trust Indonesian national media outlets in their coverage of Papua, while independent journalists in this region face regular threats by security forces for covering sensitive issues.

The Pacific Media Centre and its two associated news and current affairs websites, Pacific Media Watch and Asia Pacific Report (previously Pacific Scoop), are among the few New Zealand media outlets to cover West Papua.

Research, media production
As well as a range of media books over the past decade, the PMC also publishes the long-running research journal Pacific Journalism Review.

“The Pacific Media Centre is rather unique in a New Zealand university context because it combines the attributes of a research and publication unit, and is also a media producer,” said the PMC director Professor David Robie.

“The PMC provides a publishing environment for aspiring and young journalists to develop specialist expertise and skills in the Pacific region which is hugely beneficial for our mainstream media. All our graduates go on to very successful international careers.

“We also provide an important independent outlet for the untold stories of our region,” he said.

Earlier, the head of the School of Communication Studies at AUT, Professor Berrin Yanıkkaya launched the book Conflict, Custom & Conscience: Photojournalism and the Pacific Media Centre 2007-2017, as well as the latest edition of the Pacific Journalism Review.

She said Dr Robie and his PMC colleagues had created “a channel for the voiceless to have a voice, a platform for the unseen to be seen”.

RNZ International report republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

OPINION: By Murray Horton of the Aotearoa Independence Movement

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is to be congratulated for trying to do the decent thing by, in her words, “offering to lend a hand” with regards to Australia’s appalling treatment of refugees detained, then abandoned, on Manus Island (not to forget the others detained on Nauru).

Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull tried to swat her away by saying that he has a deal with the US to take the Manus men – I think pigs will fly before Donald Trump honours what he calls “the worst deal ever”, made by Barack Obama.

Nor do I see why there is anything stopping Jacinda from dealing directly with Papua New Guinea. After all, the Manus Island men are being detained in its country and Australia has abandoned them. NZ and PNG are two independent countries, so what’s to stop the two governments sorting out this mess of Australia’s making?

And let’s give credit where credit’s due – the John Key National government made the same offer, namely to take some of the Manus men. It got the same response from Australia. That just goes to show that NZ Tories have got more humanity (in this case, at least) than their Aussie counterparts.

And, to his further credit, Key refused to countenance creating a new category of second class New Zealanders, ones with no rights to travel to Australia. Because that’s why pig-headed Turnbull and co won’t take up NZ’s bipartisan offer.

The excuse given is that the Manus men could then enter Australia through the New Zealand “back door” — i.e. via the free entry allowed to New Zealanders.

That is just so much crap. There is a precedent for New Zealand cleaning up Australia’s refugee mess, namely the Clark government taking in a swag of people from the Norwegian freighter Tampa, which was famously blocked by John Howard in 2001. Not only that, NZ did the decent thing and let their families join them.

‘Back door’ myth
Hands up if you’ve heard of any of those people going to Australia via the “New Zealand back door” and becoming “terrorists”. No, I thought not. Those Tampa refugees made their lives in New Zealand and have become an asset to this country.

“Resettled in New Zealand and allowed to bring in their families, Tampa refugees have become doctors, civil engineers, lawyers, police officers, nurses, architects and business owners, employing others. About two dozen in the trades worked on the Christchurch rebuild, ” said the Christchurch Press in an editorial. I’ve met one of the Tampa people myself – a young Afghan woman working as a checkout operator, complete with headscarf, in a central Christchurch supermarket. She told me she was a baby on the Tampa. So that’s what big tough Australia’s scared of – babies.

Australia needs to hang its head in shame (this crime against humanity has been perpetrated by both Liberal and Labor governments). If you read, heard or saw a news report about civilians imprisoned without charge, trial or hope of release, who were then abandoned without food, water, power or toilets and in imminent fear of attack and/or death by hostile locals, your first reaction would probably be that this was the latest atrocity by ISIS.

And that’s how we need to judge this – Australia is enacting a policy of state terrorism. Its “Pacific Solution” is starting to resemble the Final Solution that Australia and New Zealand fought to defeat in World War Two.

I’ve experienced a little bit of this deprivation myself – no power, water or toilet for several days after the February 2011 Christchurch quake, and it was no fun in a First World society where we had the expectation that somebody would do something about it ASAP. How much worse it must feel then on a Third World island, with no such expectation.

But if our government is serious about “lending a hand”, then it needs to look much further than the (admittedly spectacular) symptoms like Manus Island, and do something about the causes of the global refugee crisis.

Why are these tens of millions of people (of whom only a few hundred are the victims of Australia’s unforgiveable cruelty) fleeing their home countries?

Plenty will be economic refugees, they simply want a better life for their children and themselves. That is a story as old as humanity. That is why several hundred thousand New Zealanders have moved to Australia, after all. It is the same reason why my Australian grandfather moved from Queensland to Wellington – to get a job.

Global poverty, wars
The cause is global poverty and inequality. That’s a very big problem, and tiny little New Zealand can only do so much about that. But we can do our share, and we can start from the recognition articulated by the most unlikely of sources – Winston Peters – that more and more people see capitalism as their foe and not their friend.

He was talking about New Zealanders, so multiply that by the billions of people living at the coalface of global capitalism and you start to get an idea of the scale of the problem. Capitalism is predicated on a few winners and an awful lot of losers.

Not unreasonably, tens of millions of these “losers” want to move to where they think they can join the “winners” (they are bound to be disillusioned by what they discover upon arrival, but that’s another story).

Hand in glove with global poverty as a cause of refugees is war. This is a direct and immediate cause of huge numbers of people fleeing for their lives. There is nothing unusual about people running away from a big disaster, whether man-made or natural – tens of thousands of Christchurch people fled the city in the hours after that February 2011 killer quake (and plenty of them have not come back).

This is an area where the new government can deal with the root cause of the global refugee crisis – get out of other people’s wars that we’re already involved in (such as Afghanistan and Iraq); stay out of the absolute tarpit that is Syria; don’t go haring off after Donald Trump if he goes to war in Korea.

More fundamentally, build on the good work done in the 1980s (which made NZ nuclear free and out of ANZUS) and get out of the Five Eyes spy network and break the remaining military ties that bind NZ to the US Empire. Build a truly non-aligned and independent foreign policy that prioritises peace over war.

There is a direct cause and effect between war and refugees. Our “traditional allies” are very good at creating the mess via war, then expressing indignant surprise when that very same mess comes back to bite them in the bum in the form of a human tide. Libya is a textbook case – NATO military powers, with US assistance, played a vital role in violently overthrowing the Gaddafi regime in 2011 (including being complicit in his being tortured to death).

Even Iraq’s Saddam Hussein got a show trial before his enemies killed him. Funnily enough, Libya has been a failed state ever since and Europe has been inundated with refugees arriving by sea – dead or alive – from Libya. I imagine Gaddafi is laughing in his grave.

‘Charity begins at home’
So, there is self-interest for New Zealand in staying out of other people’s wars and in working to end existing wars and preventing new ones. And for those who say “charity begins at home” – I agree.

We can help our immediate neighbours on tiny Pacific islands that are threatened by inundation due to climate change. These people did nothing to cause that problem but New Zealand certainly did and continues to do – we have an obligation to open our doors to these climate change refugees.

That is not a solution to the problem (at least this government recognises there is a problem and has pledged to do something about it) but it is an amelioration of the dire effects of that problem. Even if we took in all of those affected Pacific islanders, plus the prisoners from Manus and Nauru, it would all only add up to a few thousand people. We bring in more foreigners than that every year to milk them in shonky “education” courses and to supply New Zealand employers with cheap labour.

How about we change the emphasis from bringing people in to exploit and rip them off to bringing them to help them and, as the Tampa experience shows, helping ourselves in the process? Sounds like a win-win to me.

Murray Horton
Spokesperson
Aotearoa Independence Movement (AIM)

• NZ protesters lock gates of Australian High Commission in Manus protest
• NZ urged to bypass Australia to resolve refugee crisis
• Turnbull urges respect for PNG law as NZ offer on Manus refugees stirs up Senate

Papua New Guinea’s National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop sought a court order to stop the burial of a journalist until a proper post-mortem has been conducted on her, reports The National.

Her burial was halted this morning after the last relative objecting to a post-mortem – her mother – agreed, reports Loop PNG.

Her body was taken back to the funeral parlour last night under instructions by investigating police homicide unit detectives and latest reports said the result of the post-mortem would be known tomorrow.

READ MORE: Funeral of Post-Courier journalist overshadowed by abuse allegations

Her paternal family had also sought a post-mortem, reports said.

Rosalyn Albaniel Evara, 41, was business editor of the PNG Post-Courier newspaper until she died on Sunday, October 15.

Her death has unleashed a wave of anger over violence against women in Papua New Guinea.

The front pages of Papua New Guinea’s two daily newspapers contrasted today with The National splashing Evara’s death on the front page while the late journalist’s own newspaper, the Post-Courier, featured a curtainraiser on the Kumuls for their Rugby League World Cup opener in Port Moresby next Saturday.

This sparked an ex-PNG Media Council president Alex Rheeney, who is also a former chief editor of the Post-Courier, to condemn his old newspaper on social media.

Writing in The Pacific Newsroom, Rheeney said in a bitter commentary directed at the Post-Courier:

“Halo, she was your employee and one of the best – if not the best – until the end. All employers have a duty of care to their employees and the Post-Courier continues to fail by not seeking justice for their business editor Rosalyn Albaniel Evara and giving editorial prominence to the issue from the date of her death.

“The newspaper failed to get to the bottom of the death of the esteemed journalist, and my former colleague, when she passed on … October 15, leaving that responsibility [to] close friends and family.

“In today’s edition you choose to belittle the memory of one of Papua New Guinea’s top journalist by running stories and pictures on her funeral service yesterday on Page 16, unlike The National which did well by giving the issue front page coverage.

“As a former chief editor of the newspaper, I am shocked and disgusted at the management’s failure to give editorial prominence to the issue and be proactive in relation to the death of Rosalyn and push for a full investigation into her shocking death, as a responsible employer.

“Where is the empathy to and for Papua New Guinean professionals who contribute to your annual profits?”

Current Post-Courier editor Todagia Kelola defended his newspaper’s decision to carry the report of the funeral well inside the newspaper, saying it was an issue of “the angle” for the news.

The newspaper had taken an editorial decision to focus on the funeral rather than the allegations around her death, he told Loop PNG.

In a separate statement, he claimed the funeral had been “hijacked” over the allegations.

The Minister for Youth, Religion and Community Development, Soroi Eoe, condemned Evara’s death and joined Parkop’s call on authorities to investigate the allegations.

“I condemn such death in the strongest terms based on the allegations of late Mrs Evara being a victim of gender based violence. Again the matter is serious and must be dealt with accordingly.”

Injury marks on body
At her funeral service at the Rev Sione Kami Memorial Church in Port Moresby yesterday, The National reports, her aunt, Mary Albaniel, showed to the crowd images of her body with injury marks on it.

“The images were shown on a screen inside the church,” the newspaper said.

“Mary Albaniel wore an orange t-shirt with the words: ‘No to violence against women’ on the back. She told the congregation that her niece had been a victim of violence.”

The National reported that the images showed that Evara had injuries to several parts of her body.

A death certificate from the Port Moresby General Hospital showed that Evara, 41, was rushed the hospital after she had collapsed that afternoon. She was reported to have been suffering from headaches the previous day.

Governor Parkop last night was working with police homicide unit at Boroko and the coroner to get a court order to stop her planned burial today at the 9-Mile Cemetery outside Port Moresby until a proper post-mortem was conducted to confirm the cause of her death.

‘Mere allegations’
Parkop, a strong advocate of ending violence against women, said he had called up the newspaper but was told that claims of violence instituted on her by someone close to her were “mere allegations”.

“I will follow up to find out the truth,” Parkop said.

“I am determined that there must be [a] prosecution if the allegation is true.”

Overseas media were yesterday also chasing up the story of her death.

A police homicide officer at the Boroko police station confirmed with The National last night that they were working on the case with Parkop.

Evara’s mother Ella Albaniel, a former principal of Lae School of Nursing, told The National that she was against the idea of a post-mortem although her daughter could have died from injuries, The National reported.

Evara completed Grade 12 at the Aiyura National High School in Eastern Highlands in 1993.

She spent two years at Divine World University where she graduated in 1995 with a Diploma in Communication Arts.

She worked with Word Publishing until about 2002 when she joined the Post-Courier.

Evara was based in Lae, Madang and Port Moresby.

• Pacific Media Watch report
• More PNG news stories

As many would be aware, we Bougainvilleans have been through a tough history with the disasters that came from the past operations at Panguna, then owned by Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL).

One of the key issues that led to our civil war, when around 20,000 of our friends and family died, was the way we were treated by BCL then – entering our lands without consent, poisoning our gardens and lives, removing our mountains, inviting in the military and ignoring our views, without compensating us fairly.

Since the end of the conflict, BCL has made no effort to resolve the damage they caused to our people, lands and rivers – infact they deny any responsibility and are trying to tell us what to do again, calling us impediments when we do not agree with the rules they try and dictate.

Have they learned nothing or think we have forgotten?

We have fought hard to protect ourselves from the same thing happening again if Panguna re-opens, and the new Bougainville mining law transferred ownership of the minerals to the landowners. As a result, now nothing can happen to our minerals without our consent.

Our Special Mining Lease Osikaiyang Landowners Association (SMLOLA) members are now in a position to make BCL, the Autonomous Bougainville Government (ABG) and the world respect our views. One of the key steps in the process of late has been our efforts to protect ourselves from the attempt to force the return of BCL without our consent.

We have had to use the Courts to ensure we are listened too and the result has been a landmark mediation process, right here on our lands at Dapera led by Justice Kandakasi.

Mediation process
The mediation process was initiated by me to try and help resolve the challenge to my leadership of the SMLOLA by Mr Lawrence Daveona, despite the fact he is not following custom in recognising my leadership position, a position I was born into.

He also wants BCL to return despite everything they have done and failed to do, which is strongly opposed by the majority of our members, as demonstrated by the petition against the return of BCL which now stands at around 2000 members saying “No to BCL”.

The mediator has now given us one more opportunity to try and resolve this among our family which I am keen to do. I firmly believe we can all unite to protect our people against the return of BCL and I promise to make every effort to do that with Mr Daveona and the ABG.

I want to work with them to ensure any redevelopment of Panguna is done properly this time and our members are protected and looked after, respected and treated equally and fairly.

The primary objective of the mediation was to try and resolve the challenge to my rightful leadership of the SMLOLA by Mr Daveona, which I firmly believe is unlawful and will take to the courts again if necessary. I am making every effort to accommodate him as unity will have a very valuable benefit for all of us and the future of Bougainville.

One of the other valuable objectives that has come from the mediation and I have committed to work on, is to more closely align our association’s constitution with our Nasioi customs, moving key decisions back to our clan system that has been our way since time immemorial. I strongly support that and encourage everyone to participate as I believe it will assist in making any benefit sharing from a future mine fairer for all.

The mediation over the past few weeks, has also given our women, the owners of our land, the opportunity to stand up and be heard. Some of them are against mining and one of my important tasks will be to work with them further as I believe Independence for Bougainville is very important and mining, if done responsibly and with people who we can trust, who will show us respect and fairness, will enable us to get there quicker.

As part of that process, in my role as the chairman of the SMLOLA and an elder to our clans, I have worked hard to attract a reputable international mining company who has both the social and environmental track record to make sure this time the mine could be developed successfully, fully integrated into our local community.

Revolutionary law
From the time the new transitional mining law was passed in 2014, I worked closely with President Momis and both Mining Ministers, Michael Oni and Robin Wilson. In fact, on the day the law was passed I was invited to meet with President Momis at the ABG Parliament to celebrate the new revolutionary Bougainville Mining Act, which uniquely, gave ownership of the land and minerals, back to the landowners to try and repair some of the mistreatment of our people in the past.

They were then opposed to the return of BCL and supportive of our efforts right through until March this year when suddenly and inexplicably something changed. They would no longer engage with us, would not explain why and started a very public campaign supporting BCL and a challenge of my leadership by Mr Daveona.

I didn’t select RTG Mining Inc. lightly, even going to a mine their management developed in the Philippines with a group of both Panguna landowners and ABG Ministers to see how they do things. In fact, the three ABG Ministers that came to see the RTG operation in Philippines expressed support for RTG.

Over time we came to develop a trust with RTG’s management and believe they will make the redevelopment of Panguna a great success, working closely with our members. They have supported the hard work we have done over the last year to defend ourselves against the illegal return of BCL.

Misled through lies
It is disappointing that some try to mislead through lies. The suggestion that improper payments were made to ABG officials is both ridiculous and untrue. They are currently working against us and strongly pushing BCL and Lawrence, rather than being impartial which is all we ask of them.

Despite the current position of the ABG, we are confident that they will eventually hear our firm views – “No to BCL!” and we remain committed to working with them to find a solution where all will win, including the ABG. We must talk openly and respectfully to find a fair solution. The law and views must be respected and we will continue to fight for that for our members.

The mediation is not a forum to make a final call on who the developer should be and if the mine should be redeveloped, which must be done in conjunction with all our members, but it has been invaluable to be able to showcase the opportunities to highlight the issues and concerns with a possible return of BCL.

In fact, BCL and the ABG have publicly admitted they cannot develop the project themselves and would have to find a partner. Who will that be, why won’t they tell us? How can someone support them when we do not even know who the actual developer will be?

I hope that the discussions at the mediation will assist Mr Daveona to understand why our people would be better off without the return of BCL. And I will continue to work with him to try and reconcile our positions so we can stand united against them and get a far better result for our people, developing a model that is win-win for the people of Bougainville and the ABG.

Phillip Miriori is chairman of the Special Mining Lease Osikaiyang Landowners Association (SMLOLA), Me’ekamui Government of Unity and SMLOLA.

• AGB operating on K360m budget
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By Zely Ariane in Jayapura

A petition claimed to represent the wishes of Papuan people on a referendum on West Papua’s future has been debated since last week among Papuan people and commentators, the government of Indonesia and the United Nations.

Denials and accusations have sprung up in various media since the petition was published by the British publication The Guardian.

The Indonesian government accused Benny Wenda, the key driver behind the petition of “lying and spreading hoax”.

Quoting the statement of the Chairman of Decolonisation Special Committee known as C24, Rafael Ramirez, the Indonesian Permanent Mission of the United Nations in New York said no petition had been received from West Papua by C24.

On the other hand, Benny Wenda said that if the petition was a hoax as alleged by the Indonesian government, why would anyone be jailed for organising the signing of the petition.

He already suspects Indonesia will do anything to discredit the petition, himself and other West Papuan leaders – even the people of West Papua.

However, some Papuans have the view that submitting the petition is not a substantial matter. The Indonesian government must recognize that Jakarta’s policy in the Land of Papua has not yet satisfied the indigenous Papuans.

Response from Papua
Responding to the furore over this petition, Papuan legislator Laurenz Kadepa said the current contrasting claims between the Indonesian government and Benny Wenda were not the substance of the Papua issue.

The most important thing should be a lesson for the government so that policies for Papua should be evaluated from all aspects, especially human rights.

“Hoax or true, the petition information is not to be debated. Now the human rights issue in Papua is on the UN agenda and it will be an obstacle for the Indonesian government. Because the states that are concerned with Papuan human rights continue to grow, not just Melanesian countries,” said Kadepa.

“The Indonesian government should correct itself and improve its policy in Papua,” Kadepa continued.

While a statement by the chairman of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), Victor Yeimo, to Benar News confirmed that even if without any petition everyone knew the desire of the people of Papua, which was to hold a referendum to shape the fate of Papuan people.

Regarding the Chairman of C24’s rebuttal, Yeimo said that if the chairman refused to accept the petition it was within the authority of the commission. Ramirez had the right to refuse formal acceptance.

“What must be understood by the people of Papua is the chairman of C24 himself in the interview video said that West Papua was listed by General Assembly.

‘Procedural issues’
“It means he explains the procedural issues that are needed to be encouraged. So, the petition is good as public awareness, but the main thing for the Papuan people is to strengthen the strength of the domestic struggle, to encourage the liberation process of the people of Papua,” said Yeimo.

Markus Haluk, one of the ULMWP’s work teams, echoed this view. In fact, on 26 September 2017 Benny Wenda, accompanied by Rex Rumakiek, one of the executives of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), submitted a petition to the Chairman of the UN Decolonisation Commission in New York.

“If there is a response from the government of Indonesia that says it is a lie, I think it’s all okay. We pray and work that in time the truth is upright for the nation of Papua, Indonesia and the UN,” said Haluk.

ULMWP continues to focus and work on the right of self-determination without being disturbed by the furore that arose from the petition.

Benny Wenda and his petition
Benny Wenda, a Papuan independence leader, claimed to have handed the West Papua People’s Petition to a C-24 representative.

After the news of the submission was released by The Guardian, the government of Indonesia immediately denied it and claimed the petition was a publicity stunt without any credibility.

Benny Wenda told Tabloid Jubi he had submitted the petition to C24 representatives on September 26 at the Office of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

He was with Rex Rumakiek who also submitted the petition.

“More than 70 percent of the population in Papua want a referendum in West Papua.

“Bishop Desmond Tutu and Noam Chomsky are two of the world’s leading figures who signed the petition,” Wenda said.

Wenda added that the people of West Papua who were supported by the international community very much trusted the petition demand.

West Papuan demand
West Papuan people demanded that West Papua became a non-self-governing territory with full rights to liberty and freedom, he said.

The signing of this petition did not go smoothly.

Recorded petitions distributed online through the avaaz.org site were blocked by the Indonesian government by the end of 2016.

Similar petitions were carried out manually since April 2017.

According to the ULMWP records, 57 people were arrested for supporting the petition.

Among them are Yanto Awerkion, vice-chairman of  KNPB Mimika and its secretary Sem Ukago on 7 December 2016.

“Yanto and Sem were threatened with Article 169 of the Criminal Code for participating in associations aimed at committing a crime, or participating in other associations prohibited by general rules, are punishable by imprisonment of up to six years,” said Wenda.

Indonesian denial
The petition led to the Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the United Nations, New York, Triansyah Djani, issuing a press release quoting an interview with Rafael Ramirez.

“As the Chairman of the UN Decolonisation Special Committee (C-24), I and the Committee Secretariat, have never received, formally or informally, any petition or anyone about Papua as reported in The Guardian newspaper,” Rafael Ramírez said.

Ambassador Ramirez further affirmed that he highly respected the integrity and sovereignty of all members. The mandate of the Decolonisation Committee, he added, was limited to 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories and Papua was not included in this list.

Ramirez’s statement was supported by an interview video broadcast extensively through YouTube by the Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the UN, New York.

Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir, who participated with the Indonesian delegation at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, called the petition an unfounded action.

“It’s a pure publicity action without credibility,” he said, quoted by The Guardian.

Papua, continued Nasir is an integral part of Indonesia as stipulated in United Nations General Assembly resolution 2504 (XXIV) 1969.

Support of British MPs
The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) of England supports the West Papua people’s petition. An APPG release received by Tabloid Jubi said this petition provided strong evidence that the people of West Papua wanted to express their hope for a better future.

Therefore, according to Alex Sobel, an APPG member (from the British Labour Party) acknowledged that all APPG members supported West Papuan people in calling for their inalienable right to self-determination democratically, so that they could freely decide their own future peacefully.

“We will also step up this significant development with the British government,” Sobel said.

West Papua people has experienced more than 50 years of widespread human rights violations without a satisfactory solution. So it was clear that in a situation that continues to deteriorate, the people of West Papua were not secure under Indonesian occupation, Sobel said.

• Banned West Papuan independence petition handed to UN
• West Papuan independence petition is rebuffed at the UN

Today, we are watching history repeat itself in Southeast Asia in the worst possible way.

Once again, the Myanmar military has launched a brutal military campaign against the Rohingya minority, killing civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes.

And once again, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has failed to take a stand against horrors unfolding in one of its member states.

There is no question that what is taking place in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State is ethnic cleansing. Since August 25, when a Rohingya armed group attacked security posts and killed at least 12 security officers, the Myanmar military has responded with vicious, unlawful and disproportionate violence targeting the Rohingya population as a whole.

Soldiers have torched entire villages and opened fire on people fleeing in panic in what amounts to a clear and deliberate campaign to drive the Rohingya people out of their country once and for all.

The Asean Charter, the treaty that binds Asean states together, declares a clear commitment to human rights, and Asean leaders have been paying lip service to this for years.

So the crisis in Rakhine State would have been – perhaps still is – an opportunity to prove that this was more than just talk. Instead, the regional bloc has so far, once again, proved that it is both unwilling and unable to address ongoing violations.

Bland statement
It took Asean almost a full month to even issue a statement on the situation, but the organisation might have been better off staying silent.

When it finally did materialise, on September 24, the statement by Asean foreign ministers, expressed “concern” over developments in Rakhine State, but completely failed to even mention the word “Rohingya” and atrocities so obviously inflicted on them by the security forces.

Instead, the foreign ministers labelled the crisis a “complex inter-communal issue” and only condemned the August 25 attacks on Myanmar security forces and “all acts of violence”.

The statement was so bland that at least one individual Asean member state felt a need to distance itself. The Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman called the statement a “misrepresentation of the reality of the situation”.

It is to Kuala Lumpur’s credit that it has taken a strong stance on the crimes of the Myanmar army, even though its treatment of Rohingya refugees inside its own borders leaves a lot to be desired.

Strong and urgent Asean action is all the more important as there is no sign of the violence in Rakhine State ending any time soon. Despite the claims by Aung San Suu Kyi – Myanmar’s de facto leader – that the fighting has stopped, Amnesty International was able to confirm fresh burnings in Myanmar as late as last week.

Fleeing in desperation
And people continue to flee in desperation into Bangladesh – more than half a million according to latest UN figures.

There is also a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding within Rakhine State, as the Myanmar government has cut off aid agencies’ access to affected areas and severely restricted their life-sustaining activities in other parts of the state.

Recently, we have received credible reports that Rohingya are not just fleeing violence but also face the very real risk of starvation, as food is running desperately short in many places.

The Rakhine State crisis could also have spill-over affects across Southeast Asia as a whole. Many of us will still remember the “boat crisis” in 2015, when thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshis were stranded in the Bay of Bengal as governments in the region refused to let their boats in.

Asean countries must ensure that refugees are able to take safe routes to enter their countries, and that no one is forced to return to a country where they could face persecution or serious human rights violations, as the Rohingya most definitely will.

Asean should immediately hold an emergency summit to deal with the crisis in Rakhine State. Its members must also acknowledge and condemn the human rights violations being committed by the Myanmar military in strong and unequivocal terms.

Crimes against humanity
And make no mistake, what we are witnessing in Rakhine State are, under international law, crimes against humanity – surely a concern to Asean as well.

Asean states must also work to ensure that the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya does not succeed, and that Myanmar ends all persecution, and discrimination against and segregation of the Rohingya.

All this would be well within the provisions of the Asean Charter, which allows its leaders to take action “in the case of a serious breach of the Charter” and to “address emergency situations affecting Asean by taking appropriate actions”.

It is time for Asean to bring to the fore these core values – of responding to emergencies and of respecting human rights – which are just as germane to Asean and part of its constitution as the over-flaunted principle of “non-intervention”.

This is a moment of truth for Asean, when the association has to decide which side of history it wants to be on. With ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity taking place on its doorstep, will it do everything it can to end and redress it or simply sit idly by?

Josef Benedict is the Amnesty International’s deputy campaigns director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

The Indonesian President, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, is desperate to keep hidden Indonesia’s dark, dirty secret – its brutal 50-year war in its easternmost provinces. Here are five things you should know about Indonesian rule in West Papua:

1. It is one of the world’s longest-running military occupations
Indonesia seized West Papua, the western half of the island of New Guinea, in 1963, shortly after the Dutch colonists pulled out. Political parties were immediately banned, nascent Papuan nationalism crushed, and tens of thousands of troops, police and special forces flooded in. In 1969 a UN-supervised sham referendum was held, and just over a thousand hand-picked representatives were bribed, cajoled and threatened into voting in favour of Indonesian rule.

A police state has shackled the vast region ever since, battling a low-level tribal insurgency and suppressing independence aspirations with such vigour that raising the Papuan national flag, Morning Star, can land you 15 years in prison.

2. It’s possible that Indonesian rule constitutes a genocide
Although international media and NGOs have been nearly uniformly banned from the territory for decades, most observers estimate that over 100,000 native Papuans have been killed since the 1960s – at least 10 percent of the population. With echoes of Indonesia’s rule in East Timor, which eliminated around one third of the population, a 2004 report from Yale Law School concluded: “[There is] a strong indication that the Indonesian government has committed genocide against the West Papuans.” Several other scholars have reached a similar conclusion.

Reports of barbarous killings regularly emerge, and one study recently described torture as a “mode of governance” in the two provinces of Papua and West Papua. The abuse tends to be intertwined with projects of resource extraction and “transmigration” – the effort (formerly supported by the World Bank) to shuttle hundreds of thousands of landless Indonesian peasants from the rest of Indonesia into West Papua.

During a military campaign in the early 1980s, the Indonesian army ran under the slogan, “Let the rats run into the jungle so that the chickens can breed in the coop”. In practice, this meant wiping out Papuan villages and bringing in ethnic Indonesians to work on economic projects like Freeport’s giant Grasberg gold and copper mine, which has been accused of “ecocide” and dumps over 200,000 tonnes of tailings in the local river system every day. The influx of Indonesians has left the original inhabitants a near-minority in the land, struggling to maintain their culture and often nomadic way of life. An Indonesian minister once in charge of the transmigration programme has stated: “The different ethnic groups will in the long run disappear because of integration, and there will be one kind of man.”

3. West Papuans overwhelmingly want independence
Even the pro-Indonesian US ambassador admitted in the late 1960s that “possibly 85 to 90 percent” of West Papuans “are in sympathy with the Free Papua cause”. Paul Kingsnorth, an investigative reporter who travelled to the region in the early 2000s, described the independence campaign as a “broad-based social movement, which almost everyone in West Papua, if you get them alone, will admit to belonging”.

Nothing speaks to this more than the long campaign of armed resistance and civil disobedience against the Indonesian state. In 2011, documents leaked from the Indonesian army detailed a “longstanding guerrilla network that is relatively well organised and which operates across the whole country”. A recent book describes the non-violent wing of the movement as “savvy and sophisticated”, and notes that “Papuans in 2015 desire freedom as much, if not more, than Papuans who desired freedom in 1963”.

Most West Papuans consider themselves Melanesian, with more in common with darker-skinned Pacific populations than the Indonesians who often treat them as racially inferior. Culturally, linguistically, ethnically – Papuans have little in common with Indonesians. For the overwhelming majority, nothing short of independence will suffice.

4. The Indonesian state is terrified of international exposure
Alongside barring international media from West Papua, Indonesia runs counter-intelligence operations overseas to neutralise the international independence movement, surveilling and harassing campaigners based in Australia and elsewhere. Leaked military documents bemoan the success activists have had in “propagating the issue of severe human rights violations in Papua”, and Indonesia has been working hard to ensure exiled Papuan representatives are barred from regional Pacific organisations. Foreign visitors in the provinces are placed under routine surveillance, and Indonesian concern at the opening of the Free West Papua campaign office in Oxford even prompted the British ambassador in Jakarta to publicly distance himself from independence aspirations.

5. Britain & the West have supported Indonesia’s occupation for decades
Britain’s historic alliance with the Indonesian state dates primarily to General Suharto’s bloody coup in 1965-6. In the midst of the slaughter of at least 500,000 suspected members of the Indonesian Communist Party – which British officials gleefully described as a “ruthless terror” – the Foreign Office argued that “the generals are going to need all the help they can get”, releasing £1m in aid and granting the export of military equipment. The Indonesian Left was duly decimated – never to recover – and the pro-Western Suharto was firmly in control.

Since then, Britain’s support for Indonesian rule in West Papua has been unwavering. Privately recognising the “savage” nature of Indonesian rule, publicly officials have voted to legitimate Indonesian rule at the UN and pledged support for Indonesia’s “territorial integrity”. Until the late 1990s, the UK was one of Indonesia’s primary arms suppliers. Kopassus, the Indonesian special forces, have been trained and armed by the UK, US and Australia, despite a well-documented record of horrific human rights abuse in Papua. Britain funds and trains Detachment 88, the Indonesian counter-terrorism unit accused of massacres in Papua’s central highlands.

While in opposition, David Cameron described the situation in Papua as “terrible”; once in power, he headed to Jakarta with representatives from BAE Systems in tow. By contrast, opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is a long-time supporter of the Papuan struggle – another example of his “direct and open challenge to the British system of government of international alliances”, as Peter Oborne described it. It remains to be seen whether or not he will be able to dislodge the British establishment’s ossified support for the Indonesian state if he comes to power.

Connor Woodman is with the Politics of Papua Project, University of Warwick, UK. This article is republished from the Peter Tatchell Foundation for Human Rights and is republished under a Creative Commons licence.

Vanuatu’s Prime Minister, Charlot Salwai Tabimasmas, says some South Pacific leaders at this month’s Forum in Samoa backed off making a decision about West Papua because it was a “sensitive issue”.

This was in spite of it being a Forum agenda item.

However, Tabimasmas labelled the efforts of Vanuatu “developing” as several countries in the region had recently joined Vanuatu in supporting West Papuan self-determination.

Nauru, Marshall Islands, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu were determined to continue the work towards taking the issue to the UN Human Rights Committee and were taking the issue up in the corridors of the UN General Assembly in New York, Tabimasmas added.

“So far, Vanuatu continues to commit itself to spearheading the West Papua cause, through the government, the civil society, and the churches. And this year we took the matter up to the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries,” Tabimasmas said.

The council of ministers has appointed the former Ambassador to Brussels, Roy Micky Joy, as the special envoy for the issue of West Papua.

“These are some of the things the Vanuatu government has undertaken to show its commitment to the West Papua cause.

“I think the lobby effort has developed because before only Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands were taking up the struggle for West Papua, but now there are six other countries from Polynesia and Micronesia supporting them, advocating for West Papuan self-determination and against violation of human rights.”

Progress beyond region
The Parliamentary Secretary for the Prime Minister’s Office, Johnny Koanapo, echoed Tabimasmas’ comments in a meeting with media, the Vanuatu Daily Post reports.

Koanapo said the issue of West Papua’s self-determination and violations of human rights by Indonesia had progressed beyond the South Pacific islands region.

“The issue has now moved beyond the jurisdiction of the Melanesian Spearhead Group,” he said.

“It has moved to the level of the Forum and has become a regional issue. And if you see how the issue was listed in the South Pacific Islands Forum meeting to deal with out of 14 issues, one of them was West Papua.”

“The issue now has progressed to the international stage and I say this with a lot of confidence — the issue has never taken so much international attention as it is today, simply because the government is serious about it, there is no second opinion on it as to whether the government will take up the issue or not.

“The government has taken on this role because it is a global country and we are global citizens with obligations to defend such things as human rights, which are parts of the rights of a human being,” Koanapo said.

Pacific Island solidarity
The Vanuatu Daily Post also reports the prime ministers of Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands are organising a side event at the UN General Assembly in New York this week to continue to lobby for West Papua, so that when leaders make their political statements at the General Assembly these would reflect the Pacific’s efforts.

West Papua’s plight and struggle for independence from Indonesia was raised at the UN General Assembly in September last year, which the Free West Papua Campaign called an “incredible show of Pacific Island solidarity” and a “landmark moment”.

The 72nd session of the UN General Assembly is currently underway in New York and will conclude next Monday, September 25.

Jonas Cullwick is a reporter with the Vanuatu Daily Post. VDP news items are republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

United Nations Rapporteur Agnes Callamard has slammed the P1000 (NZ$26) budget that the House of Representatives voted to give the Philippine Commission on Human Rights (CHR) for 2018.

Callamard has explained in an email to Rappler that the CHR “is a crucial institution for the Philippines: for human rights protection, the rule of law, accountability”.

“It cannot deliver on its mandate without an appropriate budget, particularly at a time when it is confronted with allegations of massive human rights violations throughout the country, and including, but not only, in the context of the ill-advised, destructive ‘war on drugs,'” Callamard said.

READ MORE: Give CHR zero budget if it cannot be abolished – Alvarez

“The people of the Philippines deserve a strong independent human rights institution able to monitor, investigate, and report on human rights violations, protect victims and their families, and hold the powerful to account for their abuses of international human rights standards,” she said.

“Instead they are getting a ‘war on drugs’ which, by the President’s own account, has failed to curtail addiction rates, while creating a climate of fear and insecurity, feeding impunity, and undermining the constitutional fabric of the country. If the Philippine Congress is looking for public money being wasted, damaging and hurting the Philippine society, this is it,” the UN rapporteur said.

Earlier, in a tweet, Callamard said of the lawmakers’ move: “Reprehensible and unconscionable”.

Callamard is the UN’s Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, connected with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

She was the UN expert invited by President Rodrigo Duterte to probe the killings in the Philippines, provided that she engages Duterte in a debate – a condition that she has refused.

Callamard made her statement after the House of Representatives voted 119-32 to allocate only P1000 for the CHR in 2018.

In contrast, the House earlier approved a P900-million ($18-million) budget for Oplan Double Barrel, the anti-drug campaign of the Philippine National Police.

The P1000 budget for the CHR is not final, however, as it has to go through the Senate too for another round of deliberations. In any case, it already drew flak from Filipinos who described it as an “act of tyranny”.

The House is dominated by allies of Duterte, who has repeatedly slammed the CHR for questioning the killings in his war on drugs.

More than 14,100 people have been killed in both police operations and vigilante-style killings since Duterte began his drug war in July 2016.

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An Indonesian woman who worked in Saudi Arabia for 22 years has been paid for the first time after being escorted home by an Indonesian state-run agency that had been alerted to her case by concerned family members, according to Coconuts Jakarta.

Sukmi bint Sardi Umar had been working in the Middle Eastern country since 1995 when she was 18 years old.

After her family did not hear from her from her for years, they brought her case to the state-run Center for Manpower Domestic Worker Protection and Placement Service (BP3TKI), which was able to locate Sukumi with the help of the Indonesian embassy in Riyadh.

Upon finding Sukmi, they learned she had not yet been paid for her 22 years of work. After negotiations with her employer, the Indonesian government agreed to a $44,000 (NZ$60,000) payout for Sukmi – the equivalent of $166 per month in back pay.

While the details surrounding Sukmi’s case have yet to be revealed, Gatot Hermawan, the head of BP3TKI, told reporters trying to interview her at Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport last Saturday that her time in Saudi Arabia had left her “depressed” and with “communication problems”.

It is the latest in a series of cases of Indonesian migrant workers being kept in conditions that have been likened to “virtual slavery” by the US-based Human Rights Watch.

Migrant workers struggle to escape such abusive conditions as their employers often withhold their passports or threaten them with jail once they have overstayed their visas – a real danger due to the country’s kafalah system, which ties workers’ visas to sponsorship from their employers.

In 2015, the Indonesian government banned domestic workers from working in 21 Middle East countries, including Saudi Arabia, after two Indonesian maids were executed by the  conservative Islamic country for murder without any prior consultations with Jakarta.

But the blanket ban was met with fierce criticism from rights groups who said that far from eliminating the practice of Indonesians working abroad, it would drive the industry underground, making it even more difficult to protect the rights of domestic workers.

Yet the ban, which respected pre-existing arrangement or contracts, remains in place.

Indonesia’s Coalition to Safeguard the National Human Rights Commission has conducted research on the track record of 60 National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) candidate members.

The results of the research found that there were indications that some candidates have been involved in cases of corruption, gratification, are affiliated with radical groups, or have committed sexual violence.

Although House of Representatives (DPR) Deputy Speaker Fahri Hamzah was reluctant to comment on the 60 candidates, he has instead stated that Komnas HAM as a quasi-government institution is no longer needed.

Hamzah said that Komnas HAM, like the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), was no longer needed and called for the two institutions to be dissolved.

“[What’s happened with] the Komnas HAM is like the KPK. There’s a trend, I believe, what’s happened is like this. These institutions are actually not needed anymore because basically the state has undergone a democratic consolidation and a strengthening of its institutions in terms of quality,” he said.

Hamzah said that it was reasonable to dissolve the Komnas HAM because no one was prepared to commit human rights violations anymore. Moreover, he believed that human rights matters could now be dealt with by the Ministry of Human Rights and Justice (Kemenkum HAM) through the Human Rights Directorate General (Dirjen HAM).

The politikus [lit: political rat] from West Nusa Tenggara is proposing that human rights matters be handled by the Dirjen HAM which should be converted into a new institution that is not under the authority of the Kemenkum HAM so that it is independent.

Management ‘increasingly disorderly’
“Currently if there are [human rights] violations you can hire law enforcement officials. Lawyers. In the end these institution’s activities are no longer relevant. Because the activities of these institutions are no longer relevant, in the end their internal management has also become increasingly disorderly,” he said.

Because of this therefore, Hamzah will submit a proposal to President Joko Widodo to dissolve the Komnas HAM, KPK and several other semi-government institutions. He cited 106 quasi-state institutions that should be dissolved.

“Of what use are they to us? They just waste money. Including the Komnas HAM, KPK,” he said.

“Because they function within the state. So they are referred to as state auxiliary agencies because basically these functions are part of the state but in the past because they were deemed ineffective, [the Komnas HAM and the KPK] were considered necessary.

“Now if their function is within the state then what’s the point of them? Just dissolve them.”

Currently, the Komnas HAM, which is in the process of selecting candidate members for the period 2017-2022, has reached the stage of selecting the 28 best candidates. Sixty or so candidates underwent a public screening on May 17-18.

The Coalition to Save Komnas HAM’s research into the track record of the 60 candidates covered indicators of their capacity, integrity, competence and independence.

Research results
The results of the research found that 19 candidates had a good level of competence, 23 candidates had a fair level of competence and five candidates needed a deeper understanding of human rights issues.

There were also five candidates that refused to provide information and seven candidates that failed to provide complete information.

“In terms of independence, 13 candidates were found to be affiliated with political parties, 13 were affiliated with industry or corporations and nine people had links with radical groups or organisations”, said Indonesian Human Rights and Legal Aid Association (PBHI) director Totok Yulianto at a press conference in Cikini, Central Jakarta, on Monday.

According to Yulianto, if viewed in terms of capacity there were 11 candidates that had problems with cooperation issues, 16 candidates with communication issues, nine candidates with decision making issues, 12 candidates with performance issues and 12 candidates with problems in managerial principals.

“If viewed in terms of integrity five people were found to have links with corruption and or gratification issues, 11 people had issues with honesty, eight people were linked with sexual violence and 14 people had problems with the issue of religion”, he said. [noe]

Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was “Fahri Hamzah minta Komnas HAM & KPK dibubarkan karena tak berguna“.

Media access to West Papua, where more than half a million of its indigenous people have reportedly been killed over five decades, remains restricted.

News coverage of the alleged genocide is extremely difficult because of the restrictions on local and foreign media.

Some West Papuan journalists have also died in their effort to tell the truth about the deaths that largely occur in remote rural areas.

This makes news coverage of the alleged atrocities in the Indonesia-occupied land extremely difficult.

West Papuan independence leader Benny Wenda, in an online interview, told Wansolwara the restrictions allowed for the atrocities to remain “silenced”.

And even if access was granted after the labyrinthine effort, “journalists cannot go freely to report on politics in West Papua,” he said.

“They will get followed and questioned by Indonesian intelligence and West Papuans will suffer intimidation and threats if they speak to journalists.”

Recent prominence
Papua New Guinea Media Council president Alexander Rheeney said West Papua’s struggle of more than 50 years had only been given prominence in the region’s mainstream media in recent years.

Less than 10 years ago, the mainstream news media – in neighbouring countries like Fiji, Australia and New Zealand, ignored the situation in West Papua. It was effectively a media “black hole”.

Rheeney said it was more challenging for Pacific journalists whose governments recognised the sovereignty Indonesia had over West Papua.

“The media in PNG have reported on West Papua and all the human rights abuses but not as much as we would want it to despite the fact that PNG and West Papua share a land order,” he said.

The increasing coverage by Pacific news media should be commended, said journalism educator Professor David Robie.

Dr Robie, director of the Auckland-based Pacific Media Centre, who has regularly written and published news on West Papua’s struggle for more than three decades, said it was a huge relief that the Pacific was “finally waking up to the issue of West Papua”.

“This an issue of Melanesian solidarity, Pacific solidarity – an issue of self-determination, and the Pacific countries that got independence on a plate ought to be telling this story,” he said.

Jakarta media freedom conference
Dr Robie was one of the keynote speakers invited last month to the Free Media in West Papua forum at the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day 2017 conference in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta.

He spoke along with Indonesian and Papuan human rights activists and Tabloid Jubi editor Victor Mambor of Jayapura.

Pacific Freedom Forum editor Jason Brown said it was an utter disgrace that some in mainstream media published or broadcast stories on wars from other regions and “not in our own backyard”.

“In recent years, RNZI has done a much better job of covering West Papua. The recent closure of shortwave services by Radio Australia, however, means that the region has lost reliable access to news on West Papua from that source,” said Brown.

Rheeney warned that the region could not afford to fail fellow Pacific Islanders of West Papua.

He said to do so would be to doom the Pacific region to more instability.

“If a prosperous Pacific region is to be ensured, the issue of West Papua must be addressed,” he said.

Timor-Leste lessons
“As journalists we can no longer continue to turn a blind eye on all the human rights abuses that is happening.

“The PNG government can no longer turn a blind eye on what is happening on the other side of the border.”

Dr Robie said that informed political decisions could not be reached if the news media were not allowed to report freely on West Papua.

He said this lesson could easily be drawn from East-Timor’s road to independence.

East Timor, which was also occupied by Indonesia in 1975, secured its independence after a handful of journalists exposed the human rights violations through video smuggled out of the Indonesian-ruled territory, especially after the Santa Cruz massacre in the capital Dili in 1991.

Indonesia’s control rapidly fell apart after international pressure.

“In-depth and timely media coverage will save lives as West Papua lurches towards independence — which will come eventually — no matter how hard Jakarta tries to block this,” said Dr Robie.

Rheeney is also optimistic. He said Pacific journalists should continue to report on the issue, to keep the struggle in the news so that lasting solutions were found sooner and more bloodshed is prevented.

Vilimaina Naqelevuki is a final year journalism student with the USP Journalism Programme. Naqelevuki is pursuing a double major in journalism and politics, and is pictures editor of Wansolwara, the student news publication produced by the Journalism Programme.

• Rave hospitality, but Indonesia fails West Papua with media freedom hypocrisy
• Wansolwara media freedom edition, May 2017
• The tragedy of West Papua – The Diplomat

“I was fighting in the mountains and I heard your voice from across the ocean coming to support my people, to cherish the same freedom that you have struggled for and achieved for your people”.

Former Prime Minister Barak Sope says the former FRETILIN guerrilla fighter-turned President of Timor-Leste, Taur Matan Ruak, spoke with words to that effect when he awarded him with the Order of Timor-Leste last month.

It is the highest medal in the Asia-Pacific country to be awarded to a person.

Barak Sope was accompanied by his wife, Mildred Sope, on the invitation of the President where he received the award at the Presidential Palace in Dili on May 17 just three days before the presidential term ended.

Former President Taur Matan Ruak said the solidarity of so many activists like Barak Sope who believed in justice was decisive for the Timorese people realising their freedom and independence.

Ruak said supporters from all over the world, including Vanuatu, helped to expose the crimes of the occupation in Timor-Leste, especially by the Indonesian armed forces, the Vanuatu Daily Post was told.

After Portugal abandoned Timor-Leste in 1975, Indonesia invaded the country in December that year and occupied it illegally for 24 years. During the occupation more than 200,000 Timorese were killed by the Indonesian armed forces.

Indonesian crimes exposed
The exposure of the crimes of the Indonesian occupation on Timor-Leste was made during Barak Sope’s speech at the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York in September 2000.

Sope also exposed the killings of Timorese at the meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Havana, Cuba, in May 2000.

In 1985, as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Roving Ambassador of Vanuatu, Barak Sope travelled to Africa to meet President Santos of Angola and all the foreign ministers of former Portuguese colonies to speak on behalf of the East Timorese people.

To the people of Timor-Leste today, Barak Sope, is their hero because when he was secretary-general for Vanua’aku Pati from 1974 to 1987, he worked closely with FRETILIN, the independence movement of Timor-Leste.

During that time, some FRETILIN members came to live with the Sope Family on Ifira Island and Sumalapa for three to five years.

When he was Prime Minister, Barak Sope signed the Agreement with the then Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Anan, for Vanuatu to take part in the UN Peacekeeping Force in May 2000.

In 2001, the prime minister did not only send the 50 ni-Vanuatu Police Peacekeeping Force to East Timor on their first overseas UN Mission, but he personally travelled with them to Australia where he saw them off to East Timor.

Vanuatu voted for independence
Since 1980, Vanuatu had always voted for Timor-Leste to gain independence at UN General Assembly and other international forums.

During the award ceremony, the citation of the Order of Timor-Leste was read to say that this medal was awarded to Barak T. Sope Mautamate for his “contribution towards the struggle for freedom, independence, peace and humanity for the Timorese people”.

“For your contribution, the 1.06 million Timorese people reiterate their heartfelt appreciation for all those who helped to give birth to Timor-Leste, from Vanuatu and other countries in the world,” President Ruak reportedly said.

Former President Ruak has been succeeded in office this month by FRETILIN leader President Francisco Guterres.

• Order of Vanuatu medal

Indonesians have called on President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to immediately repeal Article 156a on religious blasphemy of the Criminal Code (KUHP), with thousands of people having signed an online petition urging the government to do so.

Through an online petition entitled “President Jokowi, Scrap Article 156a on Blasphemy from KUHP Revision” registered at change.org, two petitioners, Gita Putri Damayana and Gita Syahrani, raised the call.

In less than a week since the petition was submitted online, more than 10,000 people have endorsed it.

The petition was created following the decision of the North Jakarta District Court to sentence non-active Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian and ethnic Chinese, to two years in prison for “defaming religion” last week.

“Ahok’s conviction is one among many cases […] that shows that Article 156a of the KUHP is used to judge someone’s beliefs and ideas, and that difference is something that is seen as wrong,” the petitioners wrote in the petition as quoted by change.org.

The petition, directed toward Jokowi and Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly, urged the President through the minister to push legislators at the House of Representatives, which is currently amending the KUHP, to scrap the article.

“There is still time for the public to push for the agenda to scrap Article 156a from the KUHP,” the petition read.

• ASEAN lawmakers alarmed at ‘blasphemy’ conviction of Ahok

Following my interview with Laura, Uncle Shane, as he introduced himself to me, said he wanted to tell his story. He said he wanted people to know what it was like being taken away from home and placed in state foster care or in residential care facilities. Uncle Shane said he was here to support GMAR and the work that they do as he never wanted to hear of another Indigenous Australian child being taken away from their family and culture.

As Uncle Shane told his story, he became angry at what had happened to him and others he knew, and at what was still taking place. Despite his anger, I was in awe at his apparent lack of bitterness and the enthusiastic and positive approach he had. But his past must have had some impact because I had thought Uncle Shane was in his mid-70s. In fact, Uncle Shane had just turned 59.

This is the story that Uncle Shane wanted to share as told to Dr Camille Nakhid:  

Uncle Shane: I’ve written to them, to the government, and to the opposition — suggesting to them that they should start concentrating on those who’ve perpetrated the crimes against us, you know, ex-state wards – against the children such as us. We are the vulnerable ones, the ones without the voice.

Uncle Shane had been removed from an abusive family home only to be placed in an even more abusive state system from 1959-1982.

Which we had none. We had no choice. It was all forced on us, including the abuse, the abuse of drugs to testing for pharmacies, and the abuse of the slavery of the hours, long hours. Five in the morning until 11 at night, seven days a week. That’s long hours. No play, no birthday cards, no presents, nothing.

In the morning, I’d have to get up at five o-clock, we’d do the dairy. That finishes at nine. We’d do that, we go up to the house, polish all the floors.

And then we do the laundry, all day, and then we do the dairy in the afternoon, then we go back up the house and scrub all the pots. Or, you know, other chores that need to be done in the house. Polish all the floors by hand. With long hours, no play. You know, that’s all gone. The time you spent playing in parks with kids, that’s all gone. I see that today and I’m really angry. Because we didn’t get it. You know, it’s gone.

We’ve lost that. We’ll never get that back. And no human being has the right to take that away from us. You know, we couldn’t even go to our – you can’t even have friends. Outside, outside they go to their friend’s place and they play, and they go to beaches, they go to – forget about that, that’s all gone. That wasn’t allowed. All we did was work. And all we did was whatever they wanted us to do. We were physically and sexually abused. We were at the mercy of them. That’s terrible. That’s not a way to treat a human being.

But I’m angry with the government because it hasn’t done anything. You know, it holds a royal commission, it’s only to shut up people, you know, because of the talk. When the abuse come out to the public, what’s the best way to shut the public up? What do you do as a government?

‘You get a media spin together’
You panic, you quickly get a media spin together, and you quickly turn it into a spin, a song and dance. And you say: “We’re going to hold a royal commission”. That should shut everything down. That should shut down the public talking and getting angry with the government of the day.

So you’re no better off.

How are you better off? You’re not safe at home, so you’re taken away and even then if you’d read the reports, the very DoCS department was at the home when these things were happening. And still nothing happened to protect you. They didn’t step up to the plate. Not a way to treat a human being – is it?

No clothes on a kid, walking around, smelly, wet urine all over the place – and you’re not going to go and write a report about that and take the kid away somewhere safe? You’re not going to step up to the plate and help that kid?

Now, I’m hoping to wake the people up, you know. To shake them up and to wake them up to the injustice out there of children like us, you know, people like us.

I forget my tribe. I don’t know the name of it but I’ve been accepted down here in Sydney by my step-brother, which is the Wiradjuri.

We’ve got a lot of injustice, as you know, in Australia. It’s not like any other – some countries have some, which I’ve watched injustice there – But we have a lot here.

I fail to see the benefit of taking children away from their parents. I don’t see the benefit. If DoCS is trying to punish the children, then they’re doing a good job. If they’re trying to punish the parents, they’re doing a good job. So I don’t understand what they’re trying to do.

‘They should set up a home visiting programme’
I believe that they should set up a home visiting programme where the department should come into the home and work with the parents.

It’s not what the parents can do for the department, but what the department should be doing for the children and the parents.

There’s so much injustice – the culture is stolen right beneath us. Their culture is being pushed, you know, into the children of today. What they should be doing, is doing what people are doing in New Zealand and letting the elders take over and letting them decide how their children should be brought up.

Not like these government departments. They’re, to me, government departments only amp up the situation and make the situation worse, as you’ve seen.

I just think that, you know, the United Nations should’ve been doing more. All they’ve done is close their eyes on all this. They must’ve seen what was going on. They must see, they must know what’s going on. But they don’t raise their eyebrows to the abuse.

In the Northern Territory — the children that were abused there, they’re only now being mentioned by the UN Human Rights giving the Australian government a stern warning. But what they should’ve done is do that years ago. This has been going on for many, many years. This is not just a one-year off, you know, or a two-year trick.

It should be the community that should decide what should happen to the children. It should be the parents and the whole community to be involved in what they want for their own community and what they want for their own parents, you know, from what they want for their own children. And their housing, their legal services, all that has been cut as you are aware.

‘You never know what fight’s next’
Uncle Shane is a volunteer with GMAR.

GMAR teaches us further stuff as well, which is good. You never know what’s going to come around that corner. You never know what fight’s there for you.

It was only two months ago we held a rally in Campbelltown and we set that up, put it together with everybody and the first time they didn’t bite.

The second time outside the courthouse they bit. At the end I did ring them up and I told them: “We’re gonna keep doing this, we’re gonna keep coming back until the woman’s kids were given back. The next job we’re gonna do after the court case, we’re coming into your office –  And we’re not moving”.

We’ve got a hell of a struggle ahead.

Look at my case. The royal commission said to me, wanted to ask one question: “How the hell…did you survive?” Hope.

And hope’s a dangerous word for people like us. Hope is a very dangerous word. You’re hoping, you’re just praying that you get out of there one day. You know, they could have kept me further – You know, much more than 22 years. And in there, you probably notice, that they did pretend I was 80 percent retarded.

So these are the names you’re left with. The stigma that they put on you. When, if anything, the only thing you don’t have is the education — because of them.

Associate Professor Camille Nakhid has written a series of articles about the Stolen Generations. Other articles can be viewed here. Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Kendall Hutt assisted with today’s publication by transcribing the interview.

Other Stolen Generation stories on Asia Pacific Report:

• A Wiradjuri grandmother’s sad story: ‘The Stolen Generations have never stopped’
• Still stealing the generations
• GMAR wins justice award

More about Grandmothers Against Removals

If you wish to donate to GMAR, click on this link:

Contact | Donate

If you want to sign the petition, click here

Several students and alumni of UP spoke up against the Board of Regents’ (BOR) offer of a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, degree to the President.

The motion to confer this was initiated by Senator Regent Francis Escudero and seconded by Regents Farolan and Jimenez.

Students and alumni have heavily criticised this move on social media: “Giving honor to a man who challenges basic human decency, discourages public dissent, promotes a culture of impunity, and lauds extra-judicial killings, UP has taken a major step backward in upholding Honor and Excellence.”

The Office of the Student Regent also released a statement to condemn the offer.

The statement read: “Honors are not deserved by a president whose regime killed thousands of citizens and leaders of progressive groups under Oplan Tokhang and Oplan Kapayapaan.

“Honours must not be given to a president that declares all-out war against his people to quell their struggle for just and lasting peace, and reimposes death penalty to legitimise the killing of the poor.”

Highest policy body
The UP Board of Regents is the university’s highest policy making body.

Chairperson Patricia Licuanan of the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) said Duterte had been offered the honorary doctorate as part of tradition.

Licuanan co-chairs the Board of Regents with UP President Danilo Concepcion.

UP offers the honorary doctors degree to Philippine presidents, usually in their first year in office. Former President Benigno Aquino III was also conferred the degree when he was speaker at the 2011 UP Diliman campus graduation.

“In keeping with tradition, UP is conferring an honorary doctorate on the President. President Duterte has yet to accept,” Licuanan said in a text message to media.

The hashtag #DuterteNotWorthy trended on Twitter. Here is what they had to say:

• UP offers honorary doctorate degree to Duterte

Foreign companies are profiting off human rights abuses carried out at the Australian offshore refugee processing centre on Nauru, Amnesty International says.

In its new report, Treasure I$land: How companies are profiting from Australia’s abuse of refugees on Nauru, Amnesty International has detailed how Spanish multinational Ferrovial and its wholly-owned Australian subsidiary Broadspectrum have been reaping vast profits from  contracts on the island nation.

Broadspectrum’s three-and-a-half-year contract, set to expire in October, is worth A$2.5 billion, which has risen from A$350 million between September 2012 and February 2014, the Amnesty International report said.

“Broadspectrum is well aware of the conditions faced on Nauru by refugees and people seeking asylum and, in some cases, its employees and sub-contractors are directly responsible for neglect and abuse.”

‘Open-air prison’
Amnesty International describes Nauru’s refugee processing centre as an “open-air prison” designed to deter some of the world’s most vulnerable people from seeking safety on Australia’s shores.

“Australia’s offshore processing system on Nauru subjects refugees and people seeking asylum to a daily diet of humiliation, neglect, abuse and poor physical and mental health care.”

It said such suffering had come in the face of Australia’s efforts to deter people from entering the country irregularly, efforts the Australian government claimed were “necessary”, Amnesty International alleged.

This “necessary” deterrence by the government and the functioning of Nauru’s offshore processing system would not be possible without Broadspectrum’s involvement.

“It is Amnesty International’s view that Broadspectrum runs the refugee processing centre (RPC) on a daily basis and has effective control over the day-to-day lives of refugees and asylum-seekers at the RPC, and that it does so on behalf of the Australian government and with the government’s ultimate oversight and control,” the report said.

Such a statement comes despite Australia’s denial it has any responsibility for refugees and people seeking asylum after it forcibly deports them to Nauru.

Human rights abuses
The human rights abuses the report has detailed include physical abuse of children, sexual assault, and the fact refugees are living in poor conditions exacerbated by the fact there is significant environmental damage due to large-scale phosphate mining.

All of this is compounded by the fact employees must adhere to strict confidentiality agreements.

It is also a criminal offence for medical and welfare professionals to speak out.

The international media itself has also been continuously barred from the island by the Nauru government.

In light of the report’s findings, Amnesty International has also issued a stern warning for those thinking of picking up Broadspectrum’s contract and says it is putting them on notice.

“You will be complicit in an intentionally and inherently abusive and cruel system, you will be acting in direct contravention of your human rights responsibilities and you will be exposing yourself to potential legal liability.”

End ‘indefinite limbo’
Speaking to Asia Pacific Report from Brisbane, Kate Schuetze, a Pacific researcher and policy adviser with Amnesty International for the Pacific, Australia and New Zealand, said Broadspectrum needed to end the “indefinite limbo” in Nauru as soon as possible before October and withdraw its services.

She said Amnesty International had “consistently called for Nauru to be closed” and “alternative arrangements” made for the some 1000 refugees on the island.

Amnesty International said the government of Australia needed to end its policy of offshore processing and detention and permanently close its centres on Nauru and Manus Island.

“It should change its policy” Schuetze said.

She said the report should “serve as a warning” for anyone else considering taking over Broadspectrum’s contract.

Broadspectrum, however, has denied all allegations by Amnesty International that it has committed human rights abuses.

“Broadspectrum does not agree with the multiple assertions that we have caused, contributed to, or are complicit in, human rights abuses.

“The care and wellbeing of asylum seekers and refugees is paramount in our processes and actions,” Broadspectrum said.

• Treasure I$land — the full Amnesty International report on Nauru
• Oppressive culture of secrecy