Tapol bulletin no, 133, February 1996 This is the Published version of the following publication UNSPECIFIED (1996) Tapol bulletin no, 133, February 1996. Tapol bulletin (133). pp. 1-24. ISSN 1356-1154 The publisher’s official version can be found at Note that access to this version may require subscription. Downloaded from VU Research Repository https://vuir.vu.edu.au/26008/ ISSN 1356-1154 The Indonesia Human Rights Campaign TAPOL Bulletin No. 133 February 1996 OPM wins world recognition For the first time in thirty years, the Free Papua Movement (OPM) has succeeded in drawing world­ wide attention to the struggle of the West Papuan people. Unfortunately it took an act of hostage­ taking involving Europeans to achieve this. As we go to press, there are signs that the incident will end peacefully, without any loss of life. The aftermath however could be very bloody. The kidnapping occurred in the village of Mapunduma in Tiom district, about 125 kms east of Tembagapura, the cen­ Military build-up tre of the Freeport/RTZ copper-and-gold mine which has for With negotiations under 'way, the army deployed three years been the major source of friction in the region. hundred Kopassus special commandos and which set up a The Nemang Kawi unit responsible for the kidnapping is military base in W amena. Kopassus commander, under the command of Kelly Kwalik. For the past twenty Brig. General Prabowo Subianto, son-in-law of President Suharto, took command of the operation. Throughout the years, it has conducted many peaceful operations and acts of crisis, the army declared that there would be 'no negotiation sabotage against the mining company's pipelines. Flag­ with criminals'. The three foreign governments stressed raising is a traditional activity. The flag-raising in Temba­ gapura on 25 December 1994 prompted a harsh response by throughout that armed clashes between the troops and the the army, leading to many human rights violations. Another OPM would jeopardise the lives of the hostages. flag-raising was planned for 25 December 1995; foreign After several days during which the army continued to agencies were invited but the message was ignored. The 24 hostages (with a six-month old baby) were in­ continued on page 11 volved in a research project of the Jakarta Biological Sci­ ence Club and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF); to examine local plant life and its uses by the indigenous WEST.PAPUA Upstlfg~ ilt OPM operatirins . population. The four British hostages, Bill Oates, Daniel ·.< </ < ~5 Start, Anna Mcivor and Annette van der Kolk, all recently Freeport/RTZ 'fights back' graduated from Cambridge, raised £20,000 to pay for the EASTTIMOR expedition and won a £3,000 conservation award. The Ger­ Emba$S}' occupations c<>ntinue .p.S man, Frank Momberg, works for the WWF. The two Dutch TalkS fuake littte headway p.7 are Mark van der Wal, of the WWF, and Martha Klein, who Gripping radio documentary p.8 works for UNESCO. Also among the hostages were eight ECONUMY ··.. ..... .. Indonesians and nine West Papuans, including several aca­ The Widemng gap arid rice shortages ·. p.9 demics and a local churchman. AlataS does the roUnds p.11 TI1e Papuans were soon released. A couple of days later, . SOCIAL ISSUES the Indonesian woman with the baby was also released. ' Street children:in Indonesia p.12 . POLITICS . .· . The kidnap group also succeeded in carrying off an SSB Rumblings at the top · radio belonging to a missionary station which was then used p.13 to establish contact with church circles in W amena, to the LABOUR ..... north. In response to a request from the OPM for Christian SBSlactivists hai'rassed p.15 missionaries to act as intermediaries, four missionaries, led TRIALS . by Bishop Munninghoff, the Bishop of Jayapura, flew to Sri l3intang tri81 descends to farce p.17 Mapunduma. After four hours of negotiations with OPM PRESS CENSORSHIP leader, Daniel Kagoya, the intermediaries returned to Ail's fir5t national congrea p.18 Wamena with the German hostage, Frank Momberg who BOOK REVIEW had been asked by the OPM to present their demands to the . Surviving Indonesja's Gulag p.20 · Indonesian authorities. WEST PAPUA Upsurge in OPM operations Since October last year, there has been an upsurge in the level of OPM operations in several regions of West Papua (lrian Jaya). Along with events in the vicinity of the FreeporVRTZ copper-and-gold mine in Tembagapura and Timika and the kidnapping in Mapu1J,duma, the Indonesian armed forces are being stretched to their limit in Indonesia's '26th province'. If ABRI (the Indonesian armed forces) propaganda is to The unit operating under Kelly K walik, which has cap­ be believed, the OPM which they persist in calling the tured the headlines recently, has concentrated since the 'GPK' or 'security disturbance gangs', is virtually a spent 1970s on attacking the Freeport mine. In an interview with force of no more than two hundred men, few of whom carry Ben Bohane, K walik spoke of their numerous grievances firearms. Recent OPM operations give the lie to such against the company, the forcible removal of mountain peo­ claims. An Australian journalist, Ben Bohane, who spent ple, the pollution, and the failure of the company to employ several weeks with the OPM last November and December, more than a minimum number of local people. The mountain has shots of dozens of guerrillas in a single photo. ['The people would fight to remain in the mountains, he said, and Stone-Age War on Our Doorstep' in Sydney Morning Her­ threatened to kill any surveyors who entered their lands. He ald, 30 Decemberl True, the vast majority are armed with showed Bohane documerts listing, district by district, 43,000 people who had been killed by the military since 1977, and claimed that as many as 2,800 Indonesian soldiers had been killed as a result of OPM actions. [Sydney Morn­ ing Herald, 30 pecember]. Indonesian consulate attacked In a daring operation by the north-east unit on 27 October, a group of about forty guerril­ las attacked the Indonesian Consulate in Vanimo, PNG, about twenty miles from the border with West Papua. Armed with automatic weap­ ons, shotguns, knives and axes, The bow and arrow army hoto: Ben Bohane the attac~ers sprayed the c?m- p pound wtth gunfire and rru.sed nothing more than bows and arrows or spears. Yet they have the OPM flag. The Consul-General and other staff were clearly got the better of Indonesia's well-trained troops, away.at the time but those in the building took refuge in the equipped with highly sophisticated weapons. During the bathroom while the attackers ransacked the building, seized hostage crisis, several high-ranking army officers frankly cash and equipment before leaving. After half an hour, the admitted that operating in the jungles of West Papua is beset group left Vanimo by road. PNG police who arrived on the with difficulties for Indonesian troops. scene while the attack was in progress were unable to make The OPM consists of perhaps as many as seven units in any arrests. [Weekend Australian, 28-29 October]. Later, different parts of the country. Apart from Kelly Kwalik's two West Papuans from Wamena were arrested in PNG and unit in the south-central region - which carried out the kid­ were due to go on trial for damaging Indonesian property napping of 24 scientific workers - covering the Free­ during the raid. [Post Courier, 19 December] port/RTZ concession area, the two most active units at pres­ The Indonesian Consulate in V animo was set up several ent are in the north-east region along the border with Papua years ago to establish an Indonesian presence in an area that New Guinea, which is led by Mathius Wenda, and in the was inundated with West Papuan refugees during the 1980s. south-east region, also bordering on PNG, which is led by The refugee camps there were the scene of several anti­ Bernard Mawen. Each of these regions cover vast areas of Indonesian demonstrations after an aborted flag-raising in­ thick, impenetrable jungle. Each unit appears to operate cident in nearby Jayapura (capital of Irian Jaya) and the more or less autonomously and, as far as we know, there is murder near Jayapura of West Papuan artist, Arnold Ap, in no overall OPM command structure. February 1984. 2 TAPOL Bulletin No. 133, February 1996 The daring attack took both Indonesian and PNG secu­ . -SI:R. ~- ._.· PU~-­:iL-'~- ' ..'-' . .. .. ·-:}:: .. ··~·· .~ . .· .+t:·::;·· rity forces by surprise and led to renewed efforts by both WE governments to improve military collaboration to prevent OPM cross-border activities. It is well known that OPM units, both north and south move freely across the lndone­ The following month, seven hundred villagers, men, sian-PNG border. women and children were reported to have fled across the In another incident, OPM guerrillas surrounded a group border to PNG, north-west of Kiunga, on 9 December, amid of Indonesian transmigrants from Arso, and captured two reports of heavy fighting between the OPM and the army. teenagers on 22 November. The youngsters were carried off [Sydney Morning Herald, 22 December] to PNG and have since been held by their kidnappers who According to the OPM, in a message to the Australia­ are demanding a ransom for their release. The youngsters West Papua Association, the clashes were sparked by the have written letters to the Indonesian authorities pleading presence of survey teams prospecting for oil in the region, for action to secure their release. Hopefully, their ordeal is for CONOCO, a US-based oil company which holds an ex­ soon to end, following mediation by an NGO in Port Mo­ ploration concession.