News
- UPCOMING EVENTS – ARCHIVES -
Al Jazeera interview with Filep Karma
Around 200 people raised the Morning Star flag in Indonesia’s Papua province in December 2001, in a symbolic move to mark the Papuan independence campaign that has been pursued since 1962.
Filep Karma was arrested at that ceremony and jailed 15 years for flying the outlawed Papua flag.
And he warns, in a secretly recorded interview with Al Jazeera, that the decision to renew military co-operation between the US and Indonesia could have dangerous consequences for the Papuan people.
Step Vaessen reports.
Click here to watch the video:
No Kwila timber on Trade Me!
by Catherine Delahunty
On 27 May 2010 the Green Party, Rainforest Action and the Indonesian Human Rights Group went to visit “Trade Me” headquarters in Wellington to ask them to stop the trade in illegal kwila (a tropical hardwood) on their site. Our campaign to ban the illegal and unsustainable logging trade has a focus on kwila because 80% of the illegal imported timber is kwila, which is used for decking and furniture. My Members Bill was voted down last year, but the groups have continued protesting and pressure on retailers has brought some very positive results. We want to close the internet loophole and make sure companies that are using the “Trade Me’ site to trade in kwila are blocked.
Click here to read full article: No Kwila timber on Trade Me!
Sari Rosa Moiwend: Talk in Auckland, Wednesday 17 March 2010
Marginalised in Their Own Land
Sari Rosa Moiwend will make a presentation on the situation of her people in Jayapura, West Papua
The Mama-mamas of West Papua
at
The Peace Place
2f/22 Emily Place
Auckland Central
7.15 Wednesday 17 March 2009.
The presentation will be preceded by a finger-food supper, commencing at
6.30 pm.
ALL WELCOME BRING A PLATE
Rosa has been in New Zealand since April 2009, studying English at UNITEC.
Her study has been funded by Caritas Aotearoa-New Zealand.
She has been a researcher and staff member of the Justice and Peace Office
of the Catholic Diocese of Jayapura.
Pax Christi Aotearoa-New Zealand has just completed the first stage of a
project to help the Mama-mamas hold their traditional place in the
market-places of West Papuan cities and towns.
Civic honour for Balibo murder victim
by Amanda Fisher
A “true hero” killed in the line of duty is to be recognised in Wellington as an investigation continues into his 1975 murder.
Cameraman Gary Cunningham was gunned down with four other journalists in East Timor by invading Indonesian forces, while on assignment for Australia’s Channel 7.
Though the Indonesian Army initially said the men were caught in cross-fire, it later emerged they were slain to prevent reports of the invasion reaching the world.
Mr Cunningham, who lived in Wellington until he was 21, would be pleased to live on in Mt Victoria’s Charles Plimmer Park, where a commemorative plaque, park bench and tree was to be erected, aunt Patricia McGregor said.
She wished her brother, Gary’s father, Jim – who died in 2001 – was still alive to see the memorial.
The New Zealand Government had not helped the family get answers, she said.
Click here for the full article: Dominion Post: Civic honour for Balibo murder victim
NZ must act on Balibo deaths
MATTHEW BACKHOUSE
February 12, 2010
NZPA
The New Zealand government has been criticised for its “appalling” failure to hold Indonesia to account over the Balibo Five killings in East Timor.
New Zealander Gary Cunningham and other Australian-based newsmen Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie, Greg Shackleton and Tony Stewart were shot dead at Balibo, East Timor, in October 1975.
A memorial to Cunningham was announced at a ceremony in Wellington on Friday.
The Australian Federal Police launched a war crimes investigation into the killings last year, following a 2007 coronial inquest which found Indonesian forces deliberately killed the Australian-based journalists to cover up their 1975 invasion of East Timor.
Retired Indonesian army colonel Gatot Purwanto appeared to back the coroner’s findings in December last year, becoming the first senior Indonesian figure to contradict the official explanation the newsmen were killed in crossfire.
The planned memorial in Wellington, organised by the Indonesia Human Rights Committee with support from the Media Freedom Committee and Wellington City Council, would be the first official commemoration in New Zealand.
Click here to read the full article: NZ must act on Balibo deaths
Letter to Evans/Natalegawa: Sri Lankan asylum seekers
Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia
Jl. Pejambon No.6. Jakarta Pusat, 10110
Indonesia
Chris Evans
Minister of Immigration,
Parliament House,
Canberra, ACT 2600,
Australia
14 January, 2010
Dear Ministers,
We are very disturbed by the news that some 246 asylum seekers remain moored at sea off the Indonesian coast in the region of Merak. As you know the people involved are Tamils from Sri Lanka and there are many children in the group, all of whom have been in this unresolved situation since last October. Indonesian authorities intercepted their vessel after they were given assistance and intelligence information from Australia.
We understand that all would like the opportunity to claim refugee status and that some 109 of the group have already been recognised by the UNHCR as genuine refugees. Only 8 of the initial group have agreed to leave the boat on an understanding that they would have access to the UNHCR but this has not been granted and all are still held in cramped detention cells.
To add insult to injury, the Indonesian authorities gave Sri Lankan navy officers permission to interview the 8 detainees. This action shows utter disregard for the safety of these asylum seekers and the safety of their families in Sri Lanka. Under international refugee protocols it is mandatory that asylum seekers should be protected at all times from all renewed persecution by the Government of the country they have fled. Refugee advocates consider that Indonesia has committed the most serious breach of refugee protocols and undermined its stated commitment to sign and abide by the UN Refugee Convention.
We also read reports that some Indonesian police figures have been quoted as recommending that the asylum seekers be sent back to Sri Lanka.
In these circumstances, it is entirely understandable that the large group still on the boat choose to stay where they are rather than disembark in Indonesia and face indefinite detention or deportation to Sri Lanka
The conditions on board this boat have become very dire, especially from a sanitation point of view: there is only one toilet and gastroenteritis and diarrhea afflict many. At Christmas time one young man fell ill and died from an undiagnosed illness. Named as George Jacob Samuel Christin, 29, the man was clearly very ill for several days before his death but his hospital care was delayed until it was too late to save him.
Reports say that there is no one on board the boat with any medical qualifications, that medical supplies are rudimentary and that there are only 18 life-jackets. The boat has no anchor and is vulnerable to drifting off to sea. The shelter on board the boat is limited and the tarpaulins used for rain protection are now torn and inadequate.
There can be no doubt that Tamil citizens of Sri Lanka have reason to fear persecution as most have had their lives disrupted by extreme violence and internal displacement. Human Rights groups have called for the Government of Sri Lanka to be investigated for alleged war crimes committed during the recent conflict with the Tamil Tigers and the long drawn out siege of the Tamil areas in the North and East of Sri Lanka.
International law enshrines the principle of “non-refoulement”, explicitly prohibiting the forced return of refugees to areas where their lives are potentially in danger. There have been recent reports that the Sri Lankan navy has been conducting a surveillance operation on the coastline and arresting those attempting to flee by sea.
We urge that these asylum seekers should have immediate access to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and that Australia and Indonesia should work together putting the needs of the asylum seekers before political considerations.
In the case of the asylum seekers who were previously held on board the ‘Oceanic Viking’ in Indonesian waters, international co-operation did prevail and we understand that this group will shortly be resettled in Australia and other western countries, including New Zealand. We believe that the Merak group merit the same opportunity begin a life free from the threat of persecution.
Few asylum seekers manage to reach New Zealand because of its geographic isolation, but we will continue to lobby our Government to urge that New Zealand share in the regional responsibility for assisting Tamil asylum seekers, especially this group who are being held in a tortuous limbo. New Zealand already has a large and well-settled Tamil community and could easily accommodate a significant number from this group.
Yours sincerely,
Maire Leadbeater
For the Indonesia Human Rights Committee
Copy to
Hon Murray McCully,
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Parliament Buildings,
Wellington
Leading Advocate for West Papua self-determination dies
Viktor Kaisiepo at the United Nations in New York for a meeting of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Photo: Human Rights Film Festival 2009
Pacific Scoop:
Obituary – By Dirk Vlasblom in Amsterdam
Papuan human rights campaigner Viktor Kaisiepo has died at the age of 61 in Amersfoort, the Dutch town where he resided in exile from the land he loved.
He was an internationally renowned fighter for the right to self-determination of the people of West Papua, where he was born. Kaisiepo had been seriously ill for some time, his wife said.
In May 2000, Kaisiepo set foot on his native soil for the first time in 38 years.
In Indonesia, the political tide had turned, and then President Wahid gave Western New Guinea its old name back: Papua.
The indigenous people held a conference on the political future of the region and Viktor, then aged 51, could not afford to be absent.
Before flying from Jakarta to the provincial capital of Jayapura, he made a stopover on the island of Biak, off the coast of Papua. That is where the Kaisiepos come from and he could not ignore his ancestors’ request by failing to first tread on the land where their bones rested.
Click here for the full article: Pacific Scoop: Victor Kaisiepo Obituary
Abdurrahman Wahid obituary
As president of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001, the partially blind cleric, known as “Gus Dur”, staunchly defended human rights, ethnic minorities and Indonesia’s secular tradition. At his funeral, the current Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, praised him as the “father of multiculturalism and pluralism” who “raised awareness and institutionalised our respect for the diversity of ideas and identity, of religions, ethnicity and primordial ties”. Few countries have enjoyed a more cultured man at the helm of state – a journalist, scholar and enlightened cleric, he took great delight in jazz and classical music and had a special passion for Beethoven. His wit was almost equal to his erudition. Upon losing the presidency in 2001, he quipped: “You don’t realise that losing the presidency for me is nothing. I regret more the fact that I lost 27 recordings of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.”
Click here for the full article: The Guardian: Abdurrahman Wahid Obituary
Special screening of Balibo in Auckland
