International Lawyers for West Papua
http://www.ilwp.or
secretariat@ilwp.org

21 October 20

Inspektur Jenderal Drs BL Tobing
Papua Police Chief
Regional Head of Police (Kapolda)
JI. Samratulangi No. 8 Jayapura
Papua

Fax: +62 967 533763

Dear Kapolda,

The shootings and arrests of people meeting peacefully at the Third West Papuan Peoples Congress at Abepura this week are the latest instance of Indonesia's violent and repressive rule in West Papua.

Gunmen shot dead three people Friday at a strike-ridden gold and copper mine in Papua, its US operator said, raising the number of deaths this month at the troubled facility to eight.

Jayapura – The Jayapura police chief said that he would 'finish' those who support subversion in Jayapura.

"Whoever supports separatism or subversion activity, I will do the same as yesterday [forcefully dissolve the 3rd Papua People's Congress]. I'll finish [them]," Adj. Sr. Comr. Imam Setiawan said.

At least 10 lawyers have offered to provide legal aid to six suspects recently accused of treason in relation to a deadly police crackdown in Papua, a human rights watchdog says.

"There will be around 10 lawyers to assist [the suspects]," Olga Hamadi from the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said Friday as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Tom Allard, Dan Oakes – Claims by Papuan activists that Indonesian security personnel killed protesters gained credence yesterday after two bodies were found behind a military barracks a day after the bloody crackdown on an independence rally.

Banjir Ambarita, Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Ezra Sihite – Six people have been found dead a day after security officers fired shots while breaking up a pro-independence rally in Papua, a rights activist said on Thursday.

Jayapura – Imparsial had condemned the shooting that occurred on 19 October during the Third Papuan People's Congress which was held at the Zakeus field and has called on the president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to take measures to resolve the Papuan problem as quickly as possible.

The West Papua Advocacy Team and East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) are deeply concerned by the escalating violence in the area of US-based Freeport McMoran's massive gold and cooper mining operation located in the Timika-Tembagapura area of West Papua.

Hery Winarno, Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) says it supports the firm actions taken by police in dealing with the Papuan People's Congress, which they consider to be subversive and threaten the integrity of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI).

Hasyim Widhiarto, Jakarta – Pro-Papua integration activists have urged the central government to fully implement the 2001 Law on Papuan Special Autonomy to settle various social and economic problems in the country's resources-rich but most-undeveloped regions.

Jakarta – Chief security minister Djoko Suyanto said that West Papua remains part of the Unitary State of Indonesia while the special autonomy status for Papua was something final.

So "any party proclaiming a new state, a new cabinet, a new president, a new government must be dealt with according to the law," he said in a conversation with Antara here on Thursday evening.

Banjir Ambarita – One person died in the chaos following the violent dispersal of the Third Papua People's Congress by security officials on Wednesday.

A university student named Melkias Kadepa was found dead at a plantation behind the 172 PWY Military Resort Command (Korem) in Abepura on Thursday morning.

Index: ASA 21/033/2011

Michael McKenna and Peter Alford – The military chief of West Papua's Jayapura district last night denied his troops had shot into a crowd of pro-independence activists and killed at least one.

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-213-2011

Dear friends,

Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara – Police dispersed the Papua People's Congress in Jayapura in Wednesday because they considered the gathering to be an attack on the government, a senior minister said.

AWPA has written to the Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd re crackdown by the security forces on delegates at the Papuan People's Congress.

Australian Greens Senator and spokesperson on West Papua, Richard Di Natale, is calling on the Australian government to suspend military cooperation with Indonesia.

PT Freeport Indonesia, a subsidiary of Freeport McMoran Cooper and Gold – of which 90.64 percent of the shares are owned by Freeport CEO James R. Moffet – is the largest mining company in the world. Freeport contributes 95 percent of the entire production of gold by Freeport McMoran and a significant percentage of its copper production.

A joint statement by TAPOL (UK), the West Papua Advocacy Team (WPAT, US) and East Timor Action Network (ETAN, US).

Warning shots fired by Indonesian soldiers were prompted by the reading of a declaration of independence by high-profile Papuan leaders in Jayapura on Wednesday, a regional military commander said.

Abepura – Indonesian Brimob Riot Police have forcibly broken up attempts to hold a memorial commemoration at the graveside of slain independence hero Theys Eluay today, where a prayer service was planned in remembrance of the first anniversary of a brutal crackdown by Indonesian security forces on the 3rd Papuan People's Congress.

Banjir Ambarita & Camelia Pasandaran, Jayapura – Dozens of people have been injured after Indonesian security forces pistol whipped or beat protesters with rattan canes and batons during a peaceful protest against Indonesian rule in Papua on Wednesday.

A local journalist at the scene of the "chaos" at the Papuan Peoples' Congress in Jayapura on Wednesday said shots from a nearby hill rang out as Papuan leaders declared their independence from Indonesia and began waiving the banned Morning Star flag.

Jayapura – Papua interim governor Syamsul Arif Rivai said that the third Papua people's congress, held from Oct. 17 to 19, was a form of democracy and guaranteed by the law, as long as it was not anarchic and its activities did not disturb others.

Participants of the Papuan Congress in the provincial capital of Jayapura were shocked at being greeted at the venue by five armored vehicles and hundreds of heavily armed police and military officers, an attendee of the congress said on Wednesday.

Jayapura – Scenes of jubilation and free expression have erupted in Jayapura, West Papua as over 20,000 delegates took part in the historic Third Papuan People's Congress.

Olivia Rondonuwu and Neil Chatterjee – When Freeport renewed its contract for one of the world's biggest copper and gold mines, some of Indonesia's top officials were on hand at the celebration, cheerfully applauding the CEO's impersonation of Elvis Presley.

AHRC-PRL-041-2011

Declaration – Forming Federal State of West Papua

On this day Wednesday, 19 October 2011 at the Third National Papua Congress, the people of Papua in Country of West Papua declare:

I. Proclamation recover and Restore the independence and sovereign of West Papua which was lost to Indonesia annexation on December 1, 1961.

AHRC-PRL-042-2011

Hong Kong – At around 3pm today the security forces surrounding the Third Papuan People's Congress in Indonesia opened fire and dispersed the event. Possible casualties are not known as of now. Several persons are reported to have been arrested, including Forkorus Yaboisembut and Edison Waromi, indigenous political leaders.

Ali Kutarumalos, Jakarta – Thousands of striking workers blockaded roads leading to Freeport-McMoRan Cooper & Gold Inc.'s mine in easternmost Indonesia on Tuesday, preventing food, medicine and other supplies from reaching holed-up staffers and their families.

Around 5,000 people on Monday swarmed Zhakeus Field in Padangbulan, Jayapura, Papua, to attend the opening of the 3rd Papuan People's Congress, which runs through Oct. 19. They came from seven customary areas in Papua as well as West Papua.

Banjir Ambarita & Ririn Radiawati Kusuma, Jayapura – The Indonesian unit of US mining giant Freeport McMoRan announced on Monday that it was suspending its operations in West Papua amid a suspected pipe sabotage and a blockade by striking workers.

Jayapura – The Third Papuan People's Congress opened in Jayapura today and took place in a field in the open air, after failing to get permission to use either the UNCEN auditorium or GOR, the sports stadium in Jayapura.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Another worker at giant copper mining company PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI), who was wounded in a clash with security officers at Gorong-Gorong bus terminal in Timika, Papua, on Oct. 10, died on Saturday at his home in Kwamki Lama.

Jakarta – Copper and gold mining firm PT Freeport Indonesia has been forced to halt production following a deteriorating security situation around its mining site in Grasberg, Papua.

Timika, Papua – Police said they have identified six people involved in an ambush on Friday at Mile 37, Tanggul Timur, Mimika, Papua, that left three people dead.

"There were five or six perpetrators," confirmed Papua Police Command spokesman Senior Commissioner Wachyono, when asked about the incident on Saturday.

Banjir Ambarita – At least three people were killed in an ambush on Friday near the Freeport-McMoRan Grasberg mine in the Mimika district of Papua, police said.

"Three Freeport workers died instantly from gunshot wounds," Papua police spokesman Sr. Comr. Wachyono said. "The [Mitsubishi] L300 that the victims were in was also set on fire."

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The remains of Petrus Ayamiseba, 36, a PT Freeport Indonesia (PTFI) worker who was shot dead on Oct. 10 during a clash with the police at the Gorong-Gorong bus terminal in Timika, Papua, was buried at the Christian cemetery on Jl. Cenderawasih, Timika, on Thursday.

Dozens of journalists demonstrated in Manokwari to protest against the beating of a colleague, Duma Tato Sanda, a journalist working for Cahaya Papua, who was beaten up by workers of Freeport during a clash in Timika and suffered from bruises and swelling in his cheeks, lips and his waist and was punched in the chest.

In connection with the shooting dead of Petrus Ayamiseba who worked at the catering department for workers at Freeport, the Dewan Adat Papua has declared that it is essential to withdraw army and police troops from area around the Freeport mine.

Yogyakarta – Scores of demonstrators from the People's Mining Militia held a free-speech forum in front of the Gedung Agung Presidential Palace in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta on Thursday October 13.

Nick Chesterfield and local sources – Plain clothes Indonesian police agents in Jayapura opened fire late on October 12 outside a student dormitory, in another violent act of security force intimidation before the Third Papuan People's Congress starts on October 16.

AWPA has written to the US Ambassador in Canberra (letter below) asking that the US Government investigate the killing of Petrus Ayamiseba to see if Freeport management is using the security forces and its own security staff to intimidate workers to return to work.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The world's largest publicly traded copper mining firm, Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc., may have to wait a little longer to get its Indonesian operations back on track, pending a court ruling to settle a salary dispute with its workers.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The government will create an inter-ministry team to resolve long-standing salary and security problems involving mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia, according to a minister.

Officials in Puncak Papua have started moving children out of the conflict-torn district as the situation there continues to deteriorate.

An industrial dispute at the world's biggest gold mine in Indonesia's Papua province, has turned ugly, after a striking worker was shot dead by police. Seven others were critically wounded when officers tried to stop striking workers from going into a facility at the mining complex on Monday.