Due to a remote area vehicle accident with a kangaroo on June 7 in which the Editor of West Papua Media, Nick Chesterfield, sustained mild head and arm injuries, WPM has been unable to publish original investigations or content.
We apologise for this, and Chesterfield will be working through the backlog during his recovery. Urgent breaking news will still be covered on our twitter and facebook feeds, and our partner Tabloid Jubi will continue to publish major breaking stories within Papua, with their feed available in the right hand sidebar on WPM.
From July, sweeping changes are being made at WPM to allow more dynamic reporting to occur across a variety of platforms. Please stay tuned.
The 5,500 ton shipment was destined for Amurang in North Sulawesi, to be used as feedstock in a coal-fired power station there. The mining company mentioned in the article was PT Megapura Prima Indah.
According to the Lensa Papua article “Although the coal produced which is now being loaded into the ship with a weight of 5,500 tons is not yet super-high quality, it is strongly believed that the quality of this coal will increase in the future.”
Although Papua is not facing the same amount of threat from coal mining as East and Central Kalimantan, there are nevertheless several areas under active exploration. As well as around Sorong, there is a huge area from Bintuni and Teluk Wondama stretching to near Nabire, several areas around Sarmi and Waropen, plus significant amounts in Fakfak and Mimika Regencies, as well along a band where the southern lowlands meet the central mountains around Yahukimo. From the latest data awasMIFEE has been able to get hold of (a map of mining concessions up to 2012), there were 115 coal concessions covering a total area of more than 3.5 million hectares!
Of course the actual coal mines would be smaller than these exploration concessions, but nevertheless, it is clear that the coal industry in Papua could be considerable in the future. Just as with plantations, gold mining, and oil and gas, the potential for conflict and human rights violations associated with this industry is also impossible to ignore.
In Muting, near Merauke, oil palm company PT Agriprima Cipta Persada (ACP) is expanding its plantation area by clearing forest on which local indigenous people hold customary ownership rights.
The Ndiken Malindan clan has planted traditional customary land marking poles to delineate the limits that agribusiness can work on their land.
Previously in 2013, PT ACP had already cut down the forest and cleared around 2000 hectares of land, allocated to the local transmigrant population but some distance from their village, to plant oil palm.
The forestry ministry still has not accepted PT ACP’s request to release land (currently classified as production forest that can be converted) from the state forest estate. Even without the permits, the company has continued to clear the forest around the Alfasera 4 transmigration area, and the area cleared continues to increase.
At the border of the forest belonging to Alfasera 3, the head of the Ndiken Malindan clan, Pius Ndiken, has planted poles which are a traditional symbol to forbid the company to undertake activities in the forest for which his clan holds the customary rights. The pole is wooden, and is tied with coconut leaves, with red paint around the tip, driven into the ground around the forest’s edge.
“We are making this customary blockade because the company is not keeping to its promises to resource the local population”, said Pius Ndiken. Pius had previously been recruited as one of ACP’s security guards, but was forced to leave his job because there was no indication that the company was going to fulfil the promises it had made, for example to build housing, help to pay for education and because the company was not paying a reasonable wage.
According to Paulus Ndiken, former village head in Muting, the reason the people are blocking the company is because they know that the land which has been ceded to the company [by other clans] is actually part of the territory of two transmigration settlements, and not ‘adat forest’ [where the indigenous people are the undisputed owners].
A new, beautifully illustrated eBook tells the inspiring true story of fifty years of peaceful protest in WestPapua. Vanishing Tribes: Unheard Voices from West Papua was designed for the iPad, but is now compatible with virtually all types of computers, tablets and smartphones. All versions of the eBook are free, and can be accessed through vanishingtribes.org.
Vanishing Tribes is published by Freedom 50 Creative, an informal volunteer collaboration of artists, academics and activists. Based on events circa 2012, the eBook contains footnotes within the fictional story to elucidate the West Papuan peoples’ unstoppable determination to regain their freedom through non-violent resistance.
The eBook is presented as an illustrated fictional story about a young woman’s need to find courage, and her role in ending the global conspiracy that continues to enable militarized commerce and genocide in West Papua, a place perhaps as biologically and culturally diverse as the Amazon.
The eBook can be read on three levels. Readers can:
a) scan the story and browse the paintings like an art gallery
b) read the full story which includes more than sixty paintings and illustrations
c) open the embedded footnotes and image descriptions to understand what’s happening to the astonishing people who inhabit the world’s second largest island.
Readers who want to know more are directed to a wiki where they can verify the facts behind the fictional story, follow links to video evidence of atrocities, and choose from a variety of action ideas to help West Papuans regain their freedom.
This new online graphic novel is a totally different story and major redesign of the 2010 Flash flipbook at papuanvoices.com, which West Papua Media helped to promote in July of 2010. It was subsequently translated into Korean and German thanks to allies like West Papua Media promoting it. We’re hoping Vanishing Tribes will also be available in other languages. Updates will be posted through vanishingtribes.org.
There is never a day that passes when the people of Papua as individuals, do not express their longing to see peace. Instead of responding to their cries for peace, their daily lives are continuously spattered with violence and conflict created by Indonesian Armed Forces.
Even at those everyday moments when people eat and drink, in every place and at all times, people of Papua are speaking of their longing for peace. They dearly hope that the Government of Indonesia will bring an end to the violence being committed in their land. Yet their cries for over 50 years have gone unheard: the Government just ignores their pleas, showing no response whatsoever. One can’t but question what really is the underlying desire of the Indonesian Government in regards to Papua.
It is little wonder that the people of Papua no longer trust the Government of Indonesia. They feel so deeply that they are not truly regarded by Indonesia as being a true part of the Republic of Indonesia. As a result they don’t refer to themselves as Indonesians, but rather as Papuans. For it is the very Forces of the State itself that are carrying out the constant acts of violence. Papuans accordingly speak of the State of Indonesia as being a coloniser, as an oppressor and as a murdering state. What is it going to take for Indonesian to rid itself of such labels and develop a new image in the hearts of the people of Papua? To date Indonesia has never listened to the voice of the people of Papua. The people’s constant pleas for peace , which the Government has just ignored, are not just empty words. They are an expression that comes from the bottom of people’s hearts in response to what they are experiencing and facing up to every day of their lives. Of course Papuans question Indonesia’s true intent in Papua, when for over 50 years now the State has not only allowed the violence against the population to continue, but in fact in every instance, it has been violence and conflict created by the State’s own Forces. Indeed the Government of Indonesia has failed miserably to date in regards to Papua. It is this failure of the State to bring an end to the conflict in Papua which has given rise to a lack of confidence towards the Government in the hearts of the people of Papua. Yet despite all this, many people still hang on to a hope that the Indonesian Government will stop the violence and conflict against their people. But when?
The people of Papua have faithfully waited on the Government of Indonesia to act to bring about their hopes for peace in their land. Yet those hopes have fallen on deaf ears. The State needs to start hearing the cries of the people, to open its eyes and ears and act humanely and take responsibility for the continuous violence committed by its Forces. As the root of all problems in Papua lie with the Indonesian Government itself. The Indonesian government is responsible to protect the people of Papua and to take actions to bring an end to the conflict in the land. It must change its attitude and show an intention to listen to the people and together to search for the solution that will bring about peace.
Do not ignore the cries of our people Indonesia! Bring an end to the violence in our land!
The Writer is a post-graduate level theological student at the Catholic Seminary in Abepura, Papua.
