ANALYSIS: By David Robie

Indonesia’s harsh policies towards West Papua ought to be scrapped. Whatever happened to the brief window of enlightenment ushered in by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo in 2015 with promises of a more “open door” policy towards foreign journalists and human rights groups?

They were supposed to be seeing for themselves the reality on the ground. But apart from a trickle of carefully managed visits by selected journalists after the grand announcement – including two multimedia crews from RNZ Pacific and Māori Television in 2015 – no change really happened.

And the serious media freedom and human rights violations remain rampant.

READ MORE: The internet shut down in Papua threatens Indonesia’s democracy

Even the Pacific Islands Forum countries are still awaiting their promised fact-finding mission.

Instead, Jakarta has launched in recent years a major diplomatic offensive in the region through aid and efforts to win Pacific “hearts and minds” as demonstrated by last month’s “Pacific” Expo hosted in Auckland’s Sky City.

The futility of Jakarta’s hard line approach has been exposed for the world to see this week with the masses of protests across the two easternmost Melanesian provinces of Papua and West Papua in response to a racist attack in Surabaya.

The more repressively Jakarta has acted towards Papuans, the more the resilience of a colonised people after five decades of repression has bounced back.

Wisdom questioned
Despite blocking the internet and sending in 1000 troops, Jakarta is unable to push the independence and self-determination genie back into the bottle.

Increasingly, Indonesian community leaders and civil rights advocates elsewhere in the republic are questioning the wisdom of clinging stubbornly to the unitarian nation stance in relation to Papuan self-determination. A more relaxed, compassionate and nuanced approach needs to be taken towards the Papuans, one that recognises the determination and courageous aspirations of the Melanesian people.

The editorial board of the English-language Jakarta Post, calling for a refreshed policy of respect and dignity, admitted this week “something, if not many things has gone wrong with the way we deal with Papua”.

Kontras coordinator Yati Andriani … “Jokowi should learn from Gus Dur.” Image: Pojok Satu

Why even criminalise the flying of the symbolic Morning Star flag, asks coordinator Yati Andriani of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) about persistent acts of defiance by Papuans who risk up to 15 years in jail for doing this.

She thinks that President Widodo should follow the precedent set by the country’s fourth president, Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, who was far more lenient and accommodating with Papuan aspirations during his term of office in 1999-2001 (he died eight years later).

“Even if the Morning Star flag is flown and it doesn’t do any harm, doesn’t use violence, then it shouldn’t be treated as a criminal act, or criminal in any way,” Andriana says, according to Pikiran Rakyat.

“I think Jokowi should learn from Gus Dur, who allowed the Morning Star flag to be flown.”

Time to listen
It is time for the central government in Jakarta to start “listening” to the Papuan people, she believes.

“This is a Jakarta perspective about nationalism – the NKRI [Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia] being non-negotiable, but they close their eyes to what the people want,” she explains.

Andriani also deplores the statement by President Widodo calling on the Papuan people and students to forgive he attackers who “besieged” the Papuan student dormitory in Surabaya last week, an event that triggered the rioting and protests in Manokwari, Sorong and Jayapura and many other places.

Instead, Andriani thinks that Jokowi should apologise to the Papuan people.

“Before this incident, there have been many cases of prohibitions and restrictions on political, economic, social and cultural rights, which the Papuan people are not granted.

“This all points to an important thing, the complex issues in Papua, so the president’s approach of just stating that we should all forgive each other, is a statement that is inadequate to respond to the problems happening in Papua.”

Gusdurian Network’s Alissa Wahid … “Papuan people need their dignity respected”. Image: Pikiran Rakyat

The spokesperson for another group, Alissa Wahid, coordinator of the Gusdurian Network founded in honour of the late former president, says that during his life, Gus Dur – both as an ordinary citizen and as a leader of Islam and the republic – has provided a good example over relations with Papua.

Papuan name restored
According to Muhammad Irfan in Pikiran Rakyat, Gus Dur had restored the name of Papua as the region’s official designation (previously it was “West Irian”) and allowed the Morning Star to be flown by Papuans as a symbol of pride and cultural identity.

“This model needs to be followed as an example,” Wahid says. “So that the Papuan people are no longer treated with discrimination, and their aspirations are listened to and their human dignity respected.”

The groundswell of regional support continues to grow in the Pacific for West Papuan self-determination, as demonstrated by last week’s strongest statement yet from the Pacific Islands Forum – despite Australian and New Zealand reluctance.

This momentum will continue to grow until the Papuans get their genuine United Nations vote on their destiny, not the sham one of 1969, described by a US diplomatic cable at the time as a “Greek tragedy”.

History is on their side, just as it was for the Timorese in 1999, who next weekend will be celebrating their referendum vote for independence two decades ago.

Thanks to translations from Bahasa Indonesian by James Balowski of the Indoleft News Service.

• More West Papua stories
• More West Papua riots stories

The Indonesian media is contributing to resentment and racism toward Papuans, according to a human rights researcher and former journalist.

Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch Jakarta told Pacific Media Watch many Indonesian journalists either view Papuans as enemy “separatists” or deviants and their reporting tends to convey these stereotypes.

Papuan anger has erupted in widespread riots and rallies across Indonesia over the last week, after a militia attacked West Papuan students in Surabaya, pelting them with stones and calling them “monkeys”.

READ MORE: Indonesia’s political system has failed its minorities – like West Papuans, says author

Harsono, who is in New Zealand promoting his latest book Race, Islam and Power, says the manner in which the media reported the attacks created further anti-Papuan resentment which in turn sparked a backlash from the West Papuans themselves.

“The attack was reported by the media, videoed by the media, but it raised anger back home, now almost 30 cities are having rallies protesting against the use of the word monkey for this Papuan people.”

Part of the problem, he says, is that many journalists are working for military or intelligence agencies and are therefore writing to a specific agenda.

“Another bad thing that Indonesian journalists in West Papua usually do is that many of them are collaborating with Indonesian military or Indonesian police, some of them are even on the payroll of the intelligence service.”

According to Harsono, a 2010 leaked report revealed that 600 people were informing for the military and at least 200 were journalists.

“Some of them are agents on the payroll, some of them informers; they are kind of freelancers who provide information to the military.

“Also, it is quite common for intelligence officers to be stationed inside newsrooms, either in Jayapura or Manokwari.”

Harsono wrote about a case in which a police officer had been placed under cover inside the Jubi newsroom in Jayapura. Editors discovered his identity when they saw on his computer messages detailing the editorial meetings that he had sent to the local police headquarters.

Michael Andrew’s video report on Andreas Harsono at the Pacific Media Centre. Video: PMC

‘Broken journalists’
But newsrooms have also been compromised in other ways. While there are journalists who have tried to report fairly and objectively, Harsono says many have been “broken” through intimidation and attack.

“I have seen many journalists, Indonesian and Papuan whose spirits are broken in Papua because of intimidation, because of being stabbed, the police did not investigate it, they have been beaten or been arrested, or sexually harassed for female journalists.

“So that is another category; those that are already broken, they dare not to do independent reporting.”

‘Soul searching’
However, he says there are some newsrooms which are doing some “soul searching” and re-evaluating the way they’ve historically reported West Papua.

“They say that we did wrong over the last 50 years to look at Papua so black and white. They are starting to be professional as journalists and at least cover both sides if not all sides.”

Unlike much of the Indonesian media, these journalists are choosing to view the world around them through the unbiased, balanced tenets of free journalism rather than through a lens of dogmatic religion.

Harsono says this distinction is key to improving the quality of journalism and stemming the gradual erosion of Indonesia’s democracy.

Faith and profession
However, it remains one the media’s greatest challenges as many journalists – most of whom are Muslim –  struggle to differentiate between their faith and their profession.

“They tend to see others from their Sunni Islam perspective and those who in their view are not aligned with the Indonesian Ulama Council might be seen as blasphemous or deviants.”

He says this is particularly telling when reporting on West Papua, a place with an entirely different culture and set of customs than those of Islam, such as the eating of pork and women going bare-chested.

Harsono says it is crucial that journalists do not let their background or identity create bias and “pollute” the principals of unbiased journalism.

“I believe if I am a journalist, I go out from my house and I leave behind my background, my religion my nationality, my ethnic background, my social status. I’m going out there in the field reporting, interviewing, doing research as a professional journalist.”

Ongoing protests
Unfortunately, the media has not helped calm the current Papuan protests in Indonensia as people continue to rally across the archipelago, he says.

According to The Guardian, more than 1000 military have been dispatched to West Papuan cities to quell the demonstrations while internet has been cut off from parts of the region to prevent the unrest spreading.

Chairman of Indonesia’s Alliance of Independent Journalists Abdul Manan and Amnesty International Indonesia’s executive director Usman Hamid have condemned the internet block saying that it will prevent journalists from reporting on events and stop Papuans from sharing evidence of human rights abuses, reports Reuters.

The violence has already resulted in casualties with a Papuan demonstrator shot dead in a gunfight in the town of Wamena. Another man and a police officer were also injured.

In the Papuan towns of Jayapura, Timika, Sarong and Fakfak police reportedly used tear gas and fired warning shots to clear crowds after they set fire to a market and destroyed ATMs and shops. Local media report 45 people were arrested, reports The Guardian.

President Joko Widodo’s plea for Papuans to be patient and forgive the racism has done little to appease demonstrators who are demanding an end to oppression.

According to Indonesian news service Pojok Satu, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violencer (Kontras), Yati Andriyani has lambasted Jokowi’s efforts as “totally inadequate” and demanded that the President apologise for the racism and abuse Papuans have suffered.

Meanwhile, protests have spread to the Indonesian capital Jakarta, where the West Papuan flag for independence – the Morning Star – has been raised at a rally in front of the presidential palace, reports CNN Indonesia.

The small flag was flown as demonstrators were dancing and singing a song with lyrics demanding Papuan independence.

• Reports from Pojok Satu and CNN Indonesia are based on translations by James Balowski of the Indoleft News Service

Last weekend, the Indonesian police took 43 West Papuan students into custody for allegedly disrespecting the Indonesian flag during an independence day celebration (an allegation the students deny).

Police stormed the students’ dorm and used teargas to force them out, while bystanders and officers called them “monkeys”, a derogatory term for ethnically Melanesian Papuans.

West Papuans have long been cast by Indonesians as primitive people from the Stone Age, and this racist treatment continues to this day. West Papuan author Filep Karma described the extent of racism against West Papuans in his 2014 book, As If We Are Half-Animal: Indonesia’s Racism in Papua Land, saying he often heard Indonesians call West Papuans monkeys.

READ MORE: Indonesian racism towards West Papuans and the implications for the Free West Papua Movement

This latest episode of discrimination builds on more than five decades of racism, torture, summary executions, land dispossession and cultural denigration of West Papuans by Indonesian security forces.

After the students were detained last weekend, riots erupted in the cities of Manokwari and Jayapura. Thousands of people turned out to protest against the mistreatment of the students and, more broadly, the mistreatment of West Papuans by the Indonesian authorities. Many protesters waved the nationalist Morning Star flag, an act punishable by a 15-year jail sentence (Indonesia is not just sensitive about how West Papuans treat the Indonesian flag – the state prohibits them from flying their own.)

In response to the deteriorating security situation, Indonesia has deployed more troops and police to the region.

Widodo’s promises haven’t changed much
When the politically moderate Indonesian President Joko Widodo came to power in 2014, West Papua observers had high hopes he might broker peace in the region, much the same way the government of his predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was able to quell a long-running pro-independence conflict in Aceh.

However, Widodo has not been capable of controlling the Indonesian military in West Papua. He also doesn’t seem to realise that economic development is not the solution to ending the armed resistance in the region – West Papuan leaders want a political resolution, not an economic one.

Part of Widodo’s development agenda in West Papua has been to commence building a Trans-Papua Highway to facilitate movement of goods and people across the astoundingly rugged terrain in the region.

But in December, West Papuan guerrilla forces attacked Indonesian workers constructing the highway, killing several dozen. There is deep resentment among West Papuans toward Indonesian migrant workers, who they believe are taking their jobs and land and disrupting Papuan life in the region.

Violence by the Indonesian military and police against West Papuans has also increased during Widodo’s presidency. According to the International Coalition for Papua, a human rights organisation, more than 6,400 people were arrested for political activism in 2015 and 2016.

The group has also documented more than 300 victims of torture or maltreatment and 20 victims of extrajudicial killings for those years.

In addition, local journalists continue to face harassment from security forces, while foreign journalists are still denied entry to West Papua. Preventable diseases and malnutrition have also had devastating effects throughout the region.

In 2017, Widodo finally reached out to West Papuans offering dialogue – a process West Papuans had been requesting since at least 2008. However, the leaders of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) decided it was too little, too late.

A new independence referendum
West Papuans are now calling for a UN-supervised referendum on independence from Indonesia.

In 1969, seven years after Indonesia invaded West Papua, the United Nations oversaw a referendum in which West Papuans were to decide on independence or official integration with Indonesia. Indonesia handpicked less than 1 percent of the Papuan population to vote and threatened them with violence should they make the “wrong” decision.

The result has been a lengthy, often brutal colonial occupation of Papuans and their land.

Independence advocates have the support of at least seven Pacific island nations – as well as a number of MPs in New Zealand – as they pursue the possibility of a new referendum on decolonisation through the United Nations.

Through revived links with global Black Power and Indigenous movements in the Pacific and beyond, as well as the mass connectivity afforded by social media, Papuans are enjoying levels of solidarity from around the world they have never before experienced.

While independence is still unlikely for West Papua, it would be foolish to rule it out. Timor-Leste, South Sudan and Kosovo have shown us that right to self-determination is one that is still honoured, even if infrequently.

Why does West Papua matter?
Why should the world care about this little-known decolonisation movement?

The answer is simple: In the post-Rwandan genocide world, the international community has committed to a moral and political “responsibility to protect” people whose states are unable or unwilling to ensure them safety, or are perpetrating crimes against them.

The United Nations “responsibility to protect” mandate means that UN members are required, under international law, to protect anybody at risk of

genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

It is time the world lives up to its responsibility to demand that state-sanctioned violence against West Papuans stop, no matter how bad relations with Jakarta become. Ultimately, lives are worth more than politics.

• Dr Camellia Webb-Gannon is a lecturer at the University of Wollongong, New South Wales. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.
• Papuans and Jokowi are hostage to Indonesian politics
• All the ingredients for genocide: is West Papua the next East Timor?

Protests are spreading in Indonesia-ruled West Papua in response to harassment of Papuans during explosive incidents in Javanese cities last week.

Indonesia’s president has urged calm after some of the protests turned violent, but he’s been criticised for not directly addressing a festering racism problem.

The unrest was triggered when dozens of Papuan university students in Surabaya were assaulted by a mob on Saturday and later arrested.

LISTEN: Indonesia’s president criticised for failing to address racism – Dateline Pacific

READ MORE: 250 inmates escape from West Papuan prison during protests

One of the students had allegedly trashed an Indonesian flag on the country’s independence day anniversary.

The angry scene was echoed in an incident in the city of Semarang where a Papuan student dormitory was surrounded by civilian groups demanding the students fly the Indonesian flag.

Nationalist sentiment was running high at the weekend, as it always does on independence day.

Anti-Papua sentiment
An Indonesian researcher with Human Rights Watch, Andreas Harsono, said anti-Papuan sentiment was also on the rise in the country.

“Military-related militias are starting to increase their campaign against Papua by showing that the Papuans (are) refusing to raise the Indonesian flag, hoping that it will exasperate the situation on the island of Java, Indonesia’s most important island,” Harsono said.

The students were repeatedly called “monkeys” and other racist slurs, sparking thousands to march in the streets back in Papua.

In Manokwari, videos posted to social media showed the parliament building on fire and roads blocked by burning tires.

The unrest prompted Indonesia’s President, Joko Widodo, to appeal for calm.

“I know that there are hurt feelings but as fellow citizens the best thing is to forgive each other,” Widodo told a media conference.

Widodo urges forgiveness
“It is okay to be emotional but forgiving is better. Being patient is also better. And be confident that the government will continue to safeguard your dignity and prosperity.”

Indonesia’s police chief, Tito Karnavian, has focussed blame for the destruction in Manokwari on the people who posted about the Surabaya incident on social media. He described it as hoax news.

But US-based Papuan independence leader Octo Mote said this response, along with that of the president’s, was disappointing.

“Now the Indonesian President, he ignored what’s going on. Then he said, ‘ok guys just apologise to each other’. So West Papuans should apologise for what? He doesn’t condemn the racism. He doesn’t say racism is not right.”

According to Mote, harassment of Papuans is a long running problem in Indonesia.

“From the beginning, this is an Asian [people] who invade Melanesian land, seeing us as sub-human beings with black and curly hair.”

He said the allegation about Papuans disrespecting the Indonesian flag in Surabaya was simply used as a trigger by the mob, who laid siege to the students’ dorm.

Everyday racism
“Because of that hatred, they try to find a way. That’s what happens not only there but that same incident happens in so many cities outside of Papua. As a journalist who worked there so many years, we experienced this in our daily lives under Indonesian colonialism, the discrimination and racism we experience in everyday life,” Mote said.

Monday’s peaceful protest in Jayapura was the biggest in Papua in years. There have been surprisingly few arrests, even where the protests turned violent such as in Manokwari.

On Tuesday a local resident, Ucu Sawaki, said the city’s streets had quickly returned to normal calm.

“Police is still everywhere and the security is also good this morning but still people are still afraid to go out from the house. So just couples, motorcycles and cars but it’s not like in the past.”

Indonesia’s government said it had restricted internet access to Papua and West Papua provinces as the protests took place.

In a statement, the Ministry of Communication and Information said it had acted to throttle access in several areas because of the potential for disinformation to create social disorder.

‘Throttling social media’
“We can say that the purpose of throttling is to prevent the wide spread of hoax (fake news) that trigger action,” the ministry said.

But it is unlikely that such measures will stop Papuans protesting this week. Indeed, the monkey slurs directed at their students have provided a new impetus.

Yesterday, large mobilisations took place in other Papuan cities, including Merauke, Biak and Nabire. However in Sorong, as Papuans took to the streets, 250 prisoners escaped from the local jail amid the chaos. A manhunt by local police is underway.

Also, in signs of an impending crackdown, Indonesia has deployed more military forces to Papua to quell the unrest.

• This article is published under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand

Rioting broke out in Manokwari, West Papua, today as local people – mostly university students – protested against racial abuse of Papuan students in East Java, reports The Jakarta Post.

The protesters blocked a number of major streets in the city this morning, cutting down trees to be used as barricades.

The West Papua Regional Legislative Council (DPRD) building in the city was set on fire and tyres were burned on the roads, Kompas TV reported.

READ MORE: Indonesian police raid Papuan dormitory with tear gas, arrest 43

“Most of them were provoked by content circulating in social media about the racial abuse of Papuan students in Surabaya,” National Police spokesman Brigadier-General Dedi Prasetyo said.

Three cars and two motorcycles were reportedly burned, while a number of buildings — including the DPRD building — were damaged during the protests, he said.

Brigadier Prasetyo said police and Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel had conducted negotiations and called for the protest to be peaceful.

Authorities have questioned a number of the protesters but have not made any arrests, he said.

Attack on Papuans
The protests came after security personnel and members of mass organisations reportedly launched physical and verbal attacks on Papuan students living in a dormitory in Surabaya, East Java, on Sunday, accusing the Papuans of refusing to celebrate Indonesia’s 74th Independence Day over the weekend.

Kompas reports the police had arrested 43 Papuan students.

The angry mob arrived at the dormitory after they found a discarded Indonesian flag near the building.

During the incident, they reportedly threw stones at the dormitory while shouting racial abuse and chanting “Kick out the Papuans!” and “Slaughter the Papuans!” for hours.

Deputy West Papua governor Mohamad Lakotani said on Monday that he, together with West Papua Police chief Brigadier-General Herry Rudolf Nahak and Kasuari Military Command (Kodam) commander Major-Generap Joppye Onesimus Wayangkau, had met with protest representatives.

Initially peaceful, the meeting turned violent as a number of protesters threw stones and lumps of wood at the three officials, he said.

However, Lakotani promised that the officials and authorities would listen to the people’s demands.

“Furthermore, if it’s realistic, we will try our best to meet their requests,” he said.

• More West Papua stories

As many as 43 Papuan students were taken to the district police headquarters after Indonesian police fired teargas and forced their way into a student dormitory in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya at the weekend.

The Papuan students were forcibly removed from their dormitory on Jl Kalasan yesterday and hauled into trucks by police before being taken away.

Surabaya district police (Polrestabes) deputy police chief Assistant Superintendent Leonardus Simarmata said the Papuan students were taken in for questioning.

READ MORE: Tongan PM blasts Pacific silence over West Papua

He said the police were investigating the vandalism of a national red-and-white Indonesian flag which was then thrown into a ditch, which had been allegedly committed by a “rogue” Papuan student.

“Currently, we’re taking statements at the Surabaya Polrestabes. In all there are 43 Papuan students that were arrested,” said Simarmata at the Papuan student dormitory.

Simarmata said the 43 students comprised 40 men and three women. He also gave assurances that the students would be returned home after being questioned.

“After we’ve finished they’ll be returned home. We’re treating (them) very well, we gave them time to go to the toilet if they wanted, have a drink and so on, we still gave them this. We still given them all their rights,” he said.

Earlier on Saturday afternoon, the situation at the Papuan student dormitory was again tense. Negotiations between the Papuan students and police, the subdistrict head and social figures reached an impasse.

At around 2.45pm local time police fired teargas into the dormitory at least 10 times. Armed with riot shields, police then forced their way into the dormitory by breaking down the front gate.

They then entered the dormitory and brought out a number of Papuan students who were then taken away in three trucks.

• IndoLeft News reports that according to CNN Indonesia, the day before the arrests a photograph of a flag pole bearing the red-and-white national flag which had been vandalised and thrown into a ditch — allegedly by the Papuan students — was circulated on the NKRI Lovers Alliance WhatsApp group.
• Several hundred outraged Islamic and nationalist vigilante groups then rushed to the dormitory only to find that the flag standing in place and undamaged. This did not however stop them from then besieging the dormitory, vandalising the front gates and pelting the dormitory with stones.
• Translated by James Balowski of Indoleft News. The original title of the article was “Polisi Angkut Paksa 43 Orang dari Asrama Mahasiswa Papua di Surabaya”.
• More West Papua news