468 the contemporary pacific • fall 1997 minister. Whether he has the fortitude, been that events in Irian Jaya are now goodwill, and determination to bring it more openly reported and more widely off remains to be seen. discussed than ever before. Sandra Tarte A series of clashes between the mili- tary and the Organisasi Mer- deka in the vicinity of Timika and the References Freeport mine during late 1994 and

FT, Fiji Times. Daily. Suva. early 1995 had resulted in an undeter- mined number of deaths among the IB, Islands Business. Monthly. Suva. local Amungme community. Reports Review. Monthly. Suva. of up to seventy-seven deaths and a number of other serious human rights abuses during this period made inter- national news after the release of suc- Irian Jaya cessive reports, first by the Australian During 1996 Irian Jaya featured even Council for Overseas Aid in April more prominently in the national and 1995 and then by the Bishop of the international media than during the Jayapura diocese, Monsignor Mun- previous year, when reports of human ninghoff, in August 1995. Investigative rights abuses in the area of the Free- missions by the Australian and United port mine had brought the easternmost States embassies and by the National province of the Republic of Commission for Human Rights (Kom- under the closest international scrutiny nas Ham) could find no evidence for since its incorporation in 1969. Free- the direct involvement of Freeport port was in the news again in 1996, security personnel in these events, but when rioting in the townships of Tem- forced the army, which had denied the bagapura and Timika forced the mine veracity of the reports, to launch its to close briefly, but the outstanding own investigations. Four soldiers—a media event of the year was the taking lieutenant and three privates—were of twenty-four hostages—seven of arrested and appeared before a mili- them European—at Mapnduma by tary court in January 1996 in connec- guerrillas of the Organisasi Papua tion with a massacre near Hoea Merdeka (opm). A compound of media village, where between three (the attention during the previous year, the army’s estimate) and eleven people had presence of a large press contingent been killed; the privates were sen- over the five months of the Mapnduma tenced in February to jail terms rang- hostage crisis, and the continuing ing between one and three years, the development of Internet and other officer to a sixteen-month term. A fur- communications links, produced an ther consequence of this trial was the unprecedented flow of information release of a fifteen-page booklet by the about the province. This information is chief of the regional Trikora Regional of variable quality, and reports of the Command, Major-General Dunidja, same event from different sources outlining the army’s code for conduct rarely concur, but the net result has in relation to human rights. political reviews • melanesia 469

A clear line of connection can be brigade and son-in-law of President traced between the events of 1994–95 Suharto, assembled in the nearest gov- and the taking of the hostages at Map- ernment centers at Wamena and nduma by the Organisasi Papua Mer- Timika, together with detectives from deka. The local opm leader, Kelik Scotland Yard. Despite some initial (“Kelly”) Kwalik, was an Amungme announcements to the contrary, the who had lost at least four family mem- army soon settled for a strategy of bers during the 1994–95 killings. The negotiation with the hostage-takers, targeting of Europeans as hostages who insisted on dealing only with appears to have been part of a deliber- Christian mission contacts. Although ate policy aimed at drawing the atten- varying lists of demands were released tion of a larger audience to the by opm leaders living in exile, the con- grievances of the general Timika area. ditions set by the hostage-taking party On 8 January 1996, a large contingent included recognition of the indepen- of some two hundred men, armed for dent state of West Papua and a plane; the most part with bows and arrows, neither demand was acceptable to the took twenty-four people hostage in the Indonesian authorities, and the ensu- village of Mapnduma, 160 kilometers ing stalemate promised a standoff of east of Timika. Among the hostages some duration. Fourteen of the hos- were two teams of researchers: a joint tages, all of them villagers from Mapn- expedition from Cambridge Univer- duma, were released within the first sity and the Jakarta Biological Sciences two weeks, together with German Club, and a smaller World Wildlife Frank Momberg (wwf), who was Fund for Nature (wwf) team pursuing handed over to the missionaries to act a long-term project in conjunction as an intermediary on the understand- with local communities aimed at ing that he return to captivity (a condi- improving the viability of the Lorentz tion that was later waived). Natural Reserve. In all, seven Europe- Though the leader of the group that ans (four British, two Dutch, and a had initially taken the hostages was German) and four non-Irianese Indo- Daniel Yudas Kogoya, of the local nesians were taken, along with several Nduga community, Kelly Kwalik had of their Irianese colleagues and assis- clearly assumed control by 25 January, tants, and a large number of Map- when he met with Bishop Munning- nduma villagers. hoff. Shortly after that meeting, which News of the kidnappings was failed to secure the release of any other greeted by international headlines that hostages, contact with the hostage suggested a lack of editorial familiarity party became increasingly sporadic. with the people, let alone the location, Not until 23 February was another of Irian Jaya: “Brit Students in ‘Lost meeting held, this time under the aus- World’ Kidnap Terror,” “4 Held by pices of the International Center for Head-Shrink Tribe” (DM, 11 Jan the Red Cross, whose representative 1996). Senior army officers, including Henry Fournier entered into a mara- Brigadier-General , thon series of negotiations that ran commander of the elite intermittently for almost eleven weeks. 470 the contemporary pacific • fall 1997

The relevant chain of command within Lasamahu, were killed by their the Organisasi Papua Merdeka was captors. never clearly established; at times The foreign hostages were returned Kwalik and other members of the to their respective countries after an Mapnduma unit would allude to an emotional funeral for their two col- immediate superior based in neighbor- leagues in Java. The British press ing Papua New Guinea, identified excelled itself in an orgy of tabloid widely by others as Moses Weror. journalism, writing of “savage” “Stone However a letter from Weror, secured Age rebels” in their “jungle hell” by the Red Cross at a meeting with indulging in “wild hypnotic dancing” him on 9 March, which demanded the and wielding “poison arrows” to immediate release of the hostages, was threaten “pretty brunette” hostages pointedly ignored by Kwalik. As with (DM, 17, 20 May 1996; Guardian, 17 most other opm units still operating in May 1996). The army, which was Irian Jaya, Kwalik’s group appears to widely praised for its role by the Indo- have acted largely independently of nesian parliament, the governments of any other unit. the foreign hostages, and the World Visits to the hostages by Red Cross Wildlife Fund for Nature, promoted all doctors monitored the slow decline of those troops involved. their health, but a sense of urgency in Less heralded were some of the inci- the negotiation process developed out dental casualties of the Mapnduma of concern for Martha Klein, who had hostage crisis. In the course of military been four months pregnant when operations during the crisis, three taken hostage. Events moved quickly young Nduga boys were killed, and after 8 May, when a handover cere- three more wounded on 12 March mony at the hamlet of Geselama, when playing with grenades left in brokered by the Red Cross, was called Kenyam village. Reprisals for these off at the last minute by Kwalik. The and other incidents resulted in the kill- Red Cross formally withdrew from ing of two soldiers on 14 April; the further negotiation, and the army, following morning, when their bodies smarting from having been sidelined were brought to an airport hangar in during much of the crisis, moved Timika, a Kopassus soldier apparently immediately into action. Pilotless went berserk, killing sixteen and drone aircraft located the hostage wounding another fourteen. The dead party using infrared sensors that were mostly Kopassus soldiers, Lieu- detected heat from bodies and tenant-Colonel Adel Gustimigo, the fires. A week later, on 15 May, the commander of the antiterrorist hostage-takers, who had been on the Detachment 81, being among them, move for days, broke into flight from but they also included an Airfast pilot approaching Kopassus soldiers; in a from New Zealand and four other confusing series of events, nine of the civilians. A ban has since been placed eleven remaining hostages ran for free- on visits to the Lorentz Natural dom, but two of the Indonesian hos- Reserve and on walking trips to the tages, Navy Panekenan and Yosias area of the Carstenz glaciers and, with political reviews • melanesia 471 the justification of the deaths on 8 subsidiary of the Djajanti Group, from May, the army has continued to pursue their camp in the West Mimika area, the Kwalik group in an arena that is some 60 kilometers west of Timika. no longer the focus of international Pursued by the military, who managed attention. to kill Titus Orop Yogi on 22 August, Although the Mapnduma hostage the captors released their hostages in crisis attracted more attention from the several batches until 18 September, international press than any other when the last two hostages were found event in Irian Jaya since the death of murdered; the rest of the hostage- Michael Rockefeller in 1961, other taking party escaped. Initially, the mili- equally newsworthy events that tary had identified the hostage-taking occurred during the crisis received little as an apolitical act of banditry, but coverage. The two most notable documents found on the body of Titus events, in terms of mortality alone, Yogi were regarded as firm evidence of were the reports during February and opm links. Armed Forces Commander March of the deaths of at least 229 General Feisal Tanjung entered into a people in a series of respiratory-related war of words with walhi, the national epidemics in the Jayawijaya regency in umbrella organization for environmen- which Mapnduma lies, and the loss of tal nongovernment organizations, more than 100 lives and destruction of when he suggested a link between over two thousand homes in a massive them and the Djajanti kidnapping. earthquake and tidal wave that rocked Meanwhile the Amungme leader, Tom Biak on 17 February. Beanal, was forced to strenuously deny There was also a telling contrast in the role reported for him, by both the the limited international coverage military and overseas opm represen- accorded to three other hostage-taking tatives, of spokesman for the Yogi events during 1996. Two Indonesian brothers’ group. Following the Dja- high school students, captured by the janti kidnapping, the army required all Organisasi Papua Merdeka in Novem- timber companies working in the ber 1995 and taken across the border Timika area to accept a military secu- to Papua New Guinea, were finally rity presence or face a ban on further released unharmed on 28 January logging activity, resulting in the sus- 1996 after the Indonesian authorities pension in October of Djajanti’s opera- rejected a ransom demand of rp34 tions in the area. million. In February, a French mining Mineral resource companies operat- geologist working for PT Nabire ing in Irian Jaya kept pace with the Bhakti and his Irianese assistant were nationwide boom in exploration and kidnapped in the West Paniai area by development. British Gas announced a an opm unit led by the Yogi brothers, major find of natural gas at its Muturi but released, also unharmed, after one concession in Bintuni Bay, while Atlan- night. The third kidnapping occurred tic Richfield reported a trebling of the on 15 August, when the Yogi brothers estimate of reserves at its enormous took seventeen employees of the tim- gas field in the adjacent Wiriagar con- ber company, PT Kamundan Raya, a cession, a find that caused some 472 the contemporary pacific • fall 1997 embarrassment in Jakarta because the in the reinstatement of its political risk Indonesian government was then insurance policy, which had been can- bolstering its claim to the Natuna gas celed during the previous year by the field, in the South China Sea, by link- US Government’s Overseas Private ing the development of Natuna to a Investment Corporation (opic). In series of ambitious industrial projects. September, Freeport canceled both its One of these projects, the brainchild of opic and World Bank miga insurance State Minister of Research and Tech- contracts, a move regarded by analysts nology B J Habibie, involves the clear- as a rebuff to opic and an attempt to ance of the vast Lakes Plains area of withdraw from the miga policy before Irian Jaya and the construction of a miga dispatched a field team to inves- hydroelectric dam across the Mamber- tigate compliance with the terms of the amo River. During a state visit to Indo- policy. nesia by Germany’s Chancellor Kohl in A parallel audit in February of Free- October, a memorandum of under- port Indonesia’s social impacts by standing was signed by the two coun- Labat-Anderson resulted only in a pre- tries relating to the Mamberamo liminary report, as the audit’s findings Project, which will ultimately power a were rendered irrelevant almost imme- regional industrial center. By Decem- diately when three days of rioting in ber, the decision had been taken to the townships of Tembagapura and develop both the Natuna and the Bin- Timika forced a temporary shutdown tuni Bay fields simultaneously. of the mine. Such is the world signifi- PT Freeport Indonesia, the devel- cance of Freeport’s copper production oper of the single largest and most that the price of copper jumped us$15 valuable mining complex in Indonesia to us$2580 per tonne when news of at its Grasberg mine and “Golden Tri- the shutdown broke (Australian, 14 angle” of orebodies in the Tem- March 1996). The immediate cause of bagapura area, was again the center of the riots was an accident on 7 March, most of the province’s mining activity. in which a Dani man was injured by a During 1996, the company announced Freeport vehicle; although he recov- an increase in proven and provable ered sufficiently to be released the fol- reserves of 600 million tonnes and lowing day, some of his kinsmen were plans for the expansion of mill denied access to the hospital to visit throughput from 120,000 to 200,000 him. By 9 March a crowd of three hun- metric tonnes per day. Positive results dred had gathered to demand that were also declared from drilling pro- Freeport disband its unpopular secu- grams at Freeport Indonesia’s major rity force and, after an Amungme new prospect at Wabu, to the north of woman and her child were barred the Grasberg mine, and at the Kucing from the Tembagapura shopping cen- Liar prospect within the Golden Trian- ter on 10 March by Freeport security, gle. The results of an audit by Dames protesters attacked the town’s offices, & Moore of the company’s environ- schools, and shops. On 12 March, the mental performance were made public riot shifted to Timika, where between in April and played an important role five hundred and three thousand peo- political reviews • melanesia 473 ple attacked Freeport Indonesia’s envi- genocide.” After ironing out some dif- ronmental laboratory and other ferences with his US lawyer, Martin facilities, and began to move on the Regan, Beanal flew to Louisiana for a airport. The arrival by plane of troops, preliminary hearing of the suit on 24 accompanied by Prabowo, forced an May. On 29 June, the representative end to the protests, but not before council of the Amungme, lemasa, three people had died in a vehicle acci- issued a statement rejecting the offer of dent during the riot. Jim-Bob Moffett, the “1 percent” package. Freeport, the chief executive officer of Freeport which had gone to press after the April Indonesia’s parent company, Freeport meeting with the claim that a deal had McMoRan, arrived on 13 March and, been struck with the communities, had in a meeting held the following day at sought to preempt this response by Timika, was confronted with a list of encouraging the development of an demands from forty community repre- alternative representative body for the sentatives. Amungme, amungkal, but a major, At a promised second meeting on peaceful demonstration by Amungme 13 April, Moffett made an offer of a people in Timika on 18 July made it complex package of financial arrange- clear that amungkal lacked wide- ments, which included earmarking 1 spread support for their acceptance of percent of Freeport Indonesia’s annual the 1 percent offer and the one-off revenue for development programs for payment. the local communities over a period of On 12 March, the same day the ten years (the “Integrated Timika riots spread from Tembagapura to Development Plan”), doubling the Timika, Dr Thomas Wainggai, a senior number of its Irianese employees Biak statesman jailed for twenty years within five years, and committing up for his part in a 1988 declaration of to us$100 million to an environmental West Papuan independence, died of “clean-up” fund. The initial terms of a heart failure while being transferred trust fund supplied by a yearly divi- from prison to hospital in Jakarta. On dend and a position for local repre- 18 March, a crowd of some ten thou- sentatives at Freeport’s General Share- sand people gathered at Sentani to holders Meeting were also set out, and meet the plane carrying his body. As offers made of a one-off payment of the cortege passed through Abepura, rp500 million to each of the seven sections of the crowd began to riot; the ethnic groups in the vicinity of Free- Abepura market, where many of the port’s Contract of Work area. While non-Irianese transmigrants sell their this offer was being considered by produce, was gutted by fire, and one community leaders, the leading soldier and four civilians were killed spokesman for the Amungme, Tom before rapid reaction forces from the Beanal, filed a class action lawsuit Regional Reserve in Sulawesi and Java against Freeport in the District Court were flown in. In connection with the at New Orleans, seeking us$6 billion Abepura riots, 113 people in Jayapura in damages for human rights viola- and 4 Irianese in Java were arrested; of tions, “eco-terrorism,” and “cultural these, 39 were later formally charged. 474 the contemporary pacific • fall 1997

Graffiti written during the Abepura Guardian. Daily. Manchester. riots in support of Kelly Kwalik were Jakarta Post. Daily. Jakarta. widely reported by the media. The same general discontent over Reuters News Service. jobs and other opportunities for Iria- TAPOL Bulletin. Monthly. London. nese that underlay both the Timika and Abepura riots surfaced again in Tifa Irian. Weekly. Jayapura. the northern coastal town of Nabire. Noting that Irianese represented only 15 percent of the province’s civil ser- vice in the lower ranks and “even less” New Caledonia at higher ranks, Administrative The process of negotiating a “consen- Reform Minister T B Silalahi had sual solution” for the future of this announced in April that a further two French overseas territory took a new thousand Irianese would be recruited turn in 1996, as French Premier Alain as civil servants in 1996. When a lim- Juppé rejected the options of either ited number of appointments were independence or association and pro- made in Nabire on 2 July, a disap- posed instead “autonomy” with pointed crowd of two thousand French Polynesia as a model. This attacked government offices, the apparent abrogation of the Matignon regent’s house, and the local jail; there Accords of 1988 (which provided for a were no fatalities, but thirteen people referendum on sovereignty in 1998) were wounded, and Suharto himself led to intensified mobilization by pro- reprimanded the local authorities for independence groups and the tempo- mishandling the situation. One con- rary marginalization of Jacques sequence of the riots at Timika, Lafleur’s loyalist Rassemblement pour Abepura, and Nabire has been the la Calédonie dans la République announcement by General Feisal Tan- (rpcr). By year’s end, however, they jung that the Timika area will now agreed on “sovereignty shared with become a major regional center for the France.” armed forces, with an airforce base After the July 1995 provincial elec- and a permanent army garrison of tions, and the rise in the Territorial 1850 troops at Timika, and a new Congress of dissident loyalists such as naval base at the adjacent port of Didier Leroux, Lafleur had become Amamapare. more conciliatory. In January 1996 his Chris Ballard talks with nationalist leaders of the Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (flnks) produced agree- References ment that control over immigration Australian. Daily. Melbourne. and mineral and marine resources should devolve from Paris to the local DM, Daily Mirror. London. government. Yet the flnks continued Far Eastern Economic Review. Weekly. to demand independence in 1998, Hong Kong. whereas Lafleur sought a “thirty-year pact” with no guarantees of separation