Papuans place hopes on Obama visit

WEST Papuans are welcoming this month’s visit of US president Barack Obama to Indonesia with the hope that the administration will seek to build a new US-Indonesian relationship not based on military and commercial interests but rather founded on common respect for human rights and democracy.
That hope fuels Papuan beliefs that such a transformation in the US perspective could bring about fundamental change in their plight, an increasingly desperate situation in which the US is historically complicit.
A military ultimatum to a rebel leader in the Papuan central highlands and, thus far, small-scale military operations there are raising fears of a massive “sweeping operation” when the ultimatum expires this month.
Initial reports indicate that operations may have begun ramping up at the end of last month.
In the past such operations have uprooted thousands of civilians and led to many civilian deaths.
Leading US legislators have strongly cautioned the US administration against resuming training and other assistance to the Indonesian special forces (Kopassus).
Those forces are among the most prominent violators of human rights, especially in West Papua. Also in the US congress, congressman Patrick Kennedy has launched a resolution which expresses the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the human crisis facing Papuans.
The resolution, now gaining support in the US House of Representatives, calls on the government of Indonesia to address human rights concerns, including the abuse of detainees.
An editorial by a senior official in Human Rights Watch has again called attention to extraordinary abuse of prisoners in West Papua and decried the unaccountability of the abusers.
Indonesian authorities have again prevented international journalists from documenting peaceful civil dissent in West Papua.
An Amnesty International report is strongly critical of the Indonesian government’s continued repression of dissent noting in particular the use of torture against peaceful demonstrators.
The Indonesian government is moving forward with plans for a massive “food estate” in the Merauke area of West Papua.
The plan has drawn strong criticism from Papuan and international observers concerned that the government-organised in-migration of very large numbers of non-Papuans to work in the estate will further marginalise Papuans, amounting to what could be described as creeping genocide.
Environmentalists have also voiced concern about the destruction of vast stretches of forest and peatland which will significantly increase carbon emissions. – Pacific.scoop.co.nz