Duncan Graham – An alleged plot involving firearms and threatening the life of Kiwi pilot Philip Mehrtens when held hostage in Papua this year is being investigated by the AFP.
The case involves "advancing a political cause by the separation of West Papua from Indonesia... with the intention of coercing by intimidation the governments of New Zealand and Indonesia."
Named in the AFP search warrant seen by MWM is research scholar Julian King, 63. He's told others his home in Coffs Harbour, Queensland, was raided violently earlier this month by police using a stun grenade and smashing a door.
During the search, the police seized phones, computers and documents on contacts with the West Papua rebel group Organisasi Papua Merdeka, OPM (Free Papua Organisation), and to seek weapons and ammunition.
So far it is believed that no arrests have been made or charges laid.
King, a former geologist and now a PhD student at Wollongong University, has been studying Papuan reaction to the Indonesian takeover since 1963. He has written that West Papuans live under a military dictatorship described by legal scholars and human rights advocates as systemic terror and alleged genocide."
Also named in the warrant alongside King is Amatus Dounemee Douw, confirmed by MWM contacts to be Australian citizen Akouboo Amatus Douw, who chairs the West Papua Diplomatic and Foreign Affairs Council, an NGO that states it wants to settle disputes peacefully.
Risk to Australia-Indonesia relations
The allegations threaten to fragment relations between Indonesia and Australia; it's widely believed that human rights activists and church organisations are helping Papuan dissidents despite Canberra's regular insistence that it officially backs Jakarta.
Earlier this year, Deputy PM Richard Marles publicly stressed: "We, Australia, fully recognise Indonesia's territorial sovereignty. We do not endorse any independence movement."
In August this year, Douw grabbed headlines for alleging Indonesian troops shot Kiwi Glen Conning on August 5 in Central Papua. The government version is that the pilot was killed by "an armed criminal group" after landing his helicopter, ferrying local people who fled unharmed.
When seized by armed OPM operatives in February last year, Mehrtens was flying a light plane for an Indonesian transport company.
He was released unharmed this September after being held for 593 days by the West Papua National Liberation Army (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional Papua Barat – TPNPB), the military wing of the OPM.
The shameful Australian silence on human rights atrocities next door
Terrorist group?
OPM is designated as a terrorist organisation in Indonesia but isn't on the Australian list of proscribed groups. Jakarta bans foreign journalists from Papua, so little impartial information gets out.
After Mehrtens was freed, TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom alleged that a local politician had paid a bribe, a charge furiously denied by the NZ Government.
However, West Papua Action Aotearoa (NZ) spokesperson Catherine Delahunty told Radio NZ the bribe was "an internal political situation that has nothing to do with our government's negotiations."
Sambom, who has spent time in Indonesian jails for taking part in demos, now operates out of adjacent Papua New Guinea – a separate independent country.
Australia was largely absent from the talks to free Mehrtens that were handled by NZ diplomats and the Indonesian military. The AFP's current involvement raises the worry that information garnered under the warrants will show the Indonesian government where the Kiwi was hidden so the locations can be attacked from the air.
At one stage during his captivity, Mehrtens appealed to the Indonesian military not to bomb villages.
It's believed Mehrtens was held in Nduga, a district with the lowest development index in the Republic, a measure of how citizens can access education, health, and income. Yet Papua is the richest province in the archipelago; the Grasberg mine is the world's biggest deposit of gold and copper.
OPM was founded in December 1963 as a spiritual movement rejecting development while blending traditional and Christian beliefs. It then started working with international human rights agencies for support.
The indigenous Papuans are mainly Christian, while almost 90% of Indonesians follow Islam.
Chief independence lobbyist Benny Wenda lives in exile in Oxford. In 2003 he was given political asylum by the UK government after fleeing from an Indonesian jail. He has addressed the UN and European and British Parliaments, but Jakarta has so far resisted international pressure to allow any form of self-determination.
Questions for new President Prabowo
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto is in the UK this week, where Papuans have been trying to stir opposition to the official visit. In a statement, Wenda said:
"For West Papuans, the ghost of (second president) Suharto has returned – (his) New Order regime still exists, it has just changed its clothes."
Pleas for recognition of Papuan's concerns get minimal backing in Indonesia; fears of balkanisation and Western nations taking over a splintered country are well entrenched in the 17,000-island archipelago of 1,300 ethnic groups where 'unity' is considered the Republic's foundation stone.
[Duncan Graham has a Walkley Award, two Human Rights Commission awards and other prizes for his radio, TV and print journalism in Australia. He now lives in Indonesia.]
Source: https://michaelwest.com.au/kiwi-pilot-kidnapped-in-west-papua-leads-to-police-raids-in-australia