by westpapuamedia|30 November 2011
Exclusive interview by Alex Rayfield (New Matilda) with West Papua Media
The President of the Federal Republic of West Papua may be behind bars, he may have been savagely beaten by the Indonesian police, but he has not been silenced. From his
5x4 meter cell in the bowels of the Jayapura Police Station – quarters he shares with five other Papuans also charged
with rebellion against the Indonesian state – Forkorus Yaboisembut recently issued a rousing call to action smuggled out
of prison.
“To all the Papuan people” Yaboisembut writes, “don’t be afraid to celebrate December 1st, whether you do so simply, or
as part of large gatherings. Do not be afraid because we, the Papuan people, do not intend to destroy any country; we
only wish to defend our political rights.”
Our interview, the first – clandestine – interview with Western media, may be constrained by time and space, but I can
picture the tribal elder from previous meetings. He is a quietly spoken man, late in years but strong and alert. He
walks tall, sits up straight and dresses neatly in long dark pants; polished slip-on shoes and patterned but subdued
crisply ironed business shirts. His short hair and longish grey beard gives him the look of an Old Testament prophet,
grandfatherly if you like.
It is painful to think that he when he was arrested on October 19 he was tortured so badly that he could barely sit down
– or stand. Dominikus Surabut, from the West Papua Council of Customary Tribal Chiefs, who was detained with the man who
is now the President of the Federal Republic of West Papua and who was also badly tortured, tells me that when Mr
Yaboisembut was arrested the Police beat him mercilessly with a rifle butt, raining blows down on his head and crashing
their weapons into his solar plexus. In a widely published Indonesian language account of the arrest, a religious leader
said that an Indonesian soldier was ready to shot him dead but was urged not to by a policeman.
West Papuan’s political rights, Mr Yaboisembut says, are inalienable. “Whether you take the United Nations founding
document, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Political Rights or even the Indonesian Constitution as your
starting point, Papuans have the right to self-determination.”
“The preamble to the 1945 Indonesian Constitution mentions expressly, that independence is the right of all Nations,
and because of this colonialism must be swept away, it is consistent with the principles of justice and humanity.
Consequently, the people of Papua cannot be blamed in accordance with any law for wanting to celebrate their national
day.”
These ideas, the same ideas that inspired Indonesians to liberate themselves from Dutch rule, are igniting the
imagination of entire generation who yearn to be free. What makes Mr Yaboisembut’s ideas even more extraordinary is that
he is urging an insurrection that grounded in what he calls “human dignity”.
“December the first 2011, is the fiftieth anniversary of when Papuans first raised the Morning Star flag. It is our golden anniversary, the year of God’s liberation” he says evoking the images of the ancient Jewish custom of
Jubilee – of freeing captives and erasing debts. “It must be celebrated in an atmosphere of peace, safety and calm”.
“To Papuans, I therefore say, do not carry out acts of terror, intimidation or commit violence of any kind towards
anyone, for whatever reason, whether they are Papuan or migrants.
“Do not be afraid,” Mr Yaboisembut repeats, “God is with us.”
“The roots of our oppression is political” says Mr Selphius Bobii, Chair of the Committee of the Third Papuan Congress,
who also shares a cell with Mr Yaboisembut and Surabut. “The annexation of our country by Indonesia and the acquiescence
of the international community has resulted in state sanctioned human rights violations and creeping genocide.”
Those arrested on October 19 in the wake of the Third Papuan Congress are not backing down from the declaration of
independence. “We are committed to using people power, diplomacy and the law to achieve our rights” Bobii tells me.
Dominikus Surabut says that he and the other prisoners are refusing to sign police statements charging them with
“rebellion” (makar) under sections 106 and 110 of the Indonesian Criminal Code.
“We have done nothing wrong” Surabut says. “We have a political right to declare independence. We do not seek to destroy
Indonesia or any other country. On the contrary, it is the Indonesia state that has attacked us.”
How can it be, they rhetorically ask, that the Indonesian police get written warnings for killing Papuans when Papuan
activists nonviolently exercising their rights to freedom of expression are beaten and jailed?
Is this the same country that Obama and Gillard lauded for being a beacon of democracy?
In a widely published letter in support of Papuan political prisoners Human Rights Watch says that the articles under
which the six Papuan political prisoners arrested after the Third Papuan Congress have been charged “are a legacy from
the Dutch colonial era”. Charging nonviolent activists with rebellion is “in violation of the Indonesian Constitution,
Articles 28(e) and 28(f) which respectively afford "the right to the freedom of association and expression of opinion,"
and "the right to communicate and obtain information for the development of his/her personal life and his/her social
environment, and shall have the right to seek, acquire, possess, keep, process and convey information by using all
available channels."
The charge of rebellion is also inconsistent with Indonesia’s international obligations under the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which Indonesia ratified in 2006, a point which the jailed Papuan leaders make
repeatedly to me. Besides, the Papuan leaders sigh, we have been left with no other option. “Special Autonomy has
totally failed and even the MRP, a state institution convened a meeting which came up with eleven recommendations, one
of which was to hold the Third Papuan Congress.”
Outside their police cell, in the streets of the cities and towns of West Papua, in the cloud covered mountains and on
the coconut palm fringed coasts a new political consensus is emerging. This consensus has been forged not through
endless meetings of the Diaspora, nor in stillborn discussions with political elites in Jakarta, nor in the conference
halls of NGO deliberations, but in the furnace of political action. It is simply this: that West Papua must be free.
After the Congress three overlapping political groupings have emerged: the Papuan Peace Network who is calling for
political dialogue, the West Papua National Committee who demands a referendum, and the Papua Congress leaders
(supported by a loose alliance made up of the West Papua National Authority, the Council of Customary Papuan Chiefs, the
Presidium Dewan Papua, and the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation).
The killings of nonviolent Papuans by the Indonesian police and military on October 19 have divided ordinary
Indonesians, flushing out ultra-nationalists and their racist discourse, and outraging political moderates longing for a
different kind of future than the one left to them by former dictator Suharto.
Inside Papua the massacre appears to be having a unifying effect, although Papuan politics remains complex affair. The
West Papua National Committee who opposed the Congress later marched in support of the six political prisoners. Father
Neles Tebay, respected intellectual and leader of the Papua Peace Network has intensified the demand for political
dialogue. It is a call that has been supported by Yaboisembut and others. “All Papuans, wherever they are must respect
the dialogue process democratically initiated through the Papuan Peace Conference and the Papuan Peace Network” wrote Mr
Yaboisembut in a message smuggled out of prison.
Whether the Indonesian police and military act in a similarly dignified manner, or not, remains to be seen.
As I write this a long-term Papuan human rights activist sends me this message: “there's an increase of military patrol
of soldiers around Jayapura Township.” Some put the numbers as high as forty thousand. Reports are filtering in of troop
surges in Sorong, Paniai (where gunshots have been heard), the border region and Jayapura.
“The atmosphere here is quiet but eerie" my friend writes. We are all waiting to see what December 1 will bring.
Related articles
•Triple J Hack: Papuans fear bloodshed after footage emerges of Congress Violence (westpapuamedia.info)
•AWPA calls on Rudd to monitor Increasing tension in West Papua, focused on 1st December (westpapuamedia.info)
•Indon Army preparing to attack OPM in Paniai. (westpapuamedia.info)
•Why Now? A West Papua Backgrounder (westpapuamedia.info)
•Australia must act to protect human rights in Papua: Joint letter from HRLC and Human Rights Watch (28 Nov 2011) (westpapuamedia.info)
westpapuamedia | November 30, 2011 at 10:58 am |
ENDS