West Papua is Rising : Melbourne Indymedia

Hey folks, need ppl on the campaign...

West Papuan students have begun an uprising... Read on (below)

to join the campaign
freepapua_pacifica@nym.hush.com
0409 268 978

to join the west papua list
wpozsolnet-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

formal flyer/announce coming soon

FREE WEST PAPUA CAMPAIGN presents

Free West Papua! Free the Refugees!
Time to End the War on our Doorstep

Rally and March
12 PM Sunday April 2
State Library, Swanston St City

March to Treasury Gardens
LIVE MUSIC: SPECTACULAR DANCING: FOOD: COME MEET WEST PAPUAN REFUGEES:
LEARN ABOUT WEST PAPUA.... STARTS 2PM

In January, 43 West Papuan activists and their
families fled to Australia. Like in East Timor,
West Papua is suffering under an Indonesian
military occupation. The West Papuans should
be able to determine their own future. The West
Papuan refugees should be allowed to stay.

INFO: freepapua_pacifica@nym.hush.com
0409 268 978

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Riots in Jayapura, West Papua today leave three Indonesian Police Killed
and a number of demonstrators injured***
16/3/06 21.00 EST Australia
Three Indonesian BRIMOB (paramilitary police) appear to have been killed
in 8 Papuan have been seriously injured after a violent clash in
Jayapura the capital of West Papua today. Those injured include a 5 year
old child.
This report is compiled based on communication with student activists’
and Jayapura residents today.
On the second day of demonstrations that caused the blocking of the main
road in Jayapura, Indonesian BRIMOB Police have opened fire on the
demonstrators. The demonstrators appear then to have attacked the BRIMOB
with stones killing three Police officers. Two witness report seeing
three BRIMOB officers lying on the road.
The demonstration comprising of West Papuan students had blocked the
road outside University of Cenderwasih on Wednesday 15 March 2006.
The student demands were: that

(i) the Indonesian Army (TNI) and Police be withdrawn from West Papua;

(ii) the US based Freeport mine in West Papua should be closed down.

During the day the road was blocked and tyres were burnt on the road.
The demonstration dispersed during that night.
On the next day the demonstrators re-assembled and blocked the road
after cutting down the trees along the road and lighting more car tyres.
A 12:12 noon (Jayapura time) today, the BRIMOB in riot gear moved in to
break up the demonstration.
The BRIMOB tried to push the demonstrators off the road and used tear
gas on the crowd. When the BRIMOB attempted to clear the road more
people joined the demonstration and the demonstration did not disperse.
The BRIMOB then opened fire on the crowd of demonstrators. Report
suggests 8 people received bullet wounds. The crowd was reported to have
lay flat on the road while the BRIMOB was shooting.
The demonstrators response to this shooting was to attack the BRIMOB
Police. Large stones, were reported to have been thrown at the BRIMOB
Police by the demonstrators in retaliation to the Police actions. After
the incident three BRIMOB officers were reported to be dead on the lying
on the road.
The BRIMOB together with the Indonesian Army then returned to the scene
of the demonstrations.
The security forces are now reported to be sweeping the roads and
detaining any Papuan Highland students. Forty people are reported to
have been arrested in connection with the incident.
Some reports suggest that up to 8 Police officers were injured. These
reports have not able to be verified.
Verifying the number of people injured has been difficult as Security
forces have imposed tight control in the area and no-one is in the
streets tonight.
Students in the dormitories around Abepura are reported to have moved or
are hiding. Two of the Cenderawasih University student dormitories have
been shot with automatic weapons.
Gunshots could be heard in Jayapura in the hours after the demonstration.
The 8 injured Papuan appear now appear to have transferred to Hospital.
Security forces have blocked injured people from medical attention in
the main Hospital in Jayapura.
Church leaders are seeking to get an assessment of the situation.
In other regions reports have emerged of an incident where demonstrators
vandalised the Sheraton in Timika adjacent to the Freeport copper mine
on 15/3/06. Papuan there are reported to be demanding that the Freeport
mine be closed and the Indonesian Military been withdrawn from West Papua.
The situation has deteriorated in West Papua this year. The New York
Times report that Freeport has been making payments of millions of
dollars to the Indonesian Military has fuelled long held resentment to
the company and Indonesian occupation of West Papua. In the past year
Indonesian troop numbers have been greatly expanded in West Papua. The 3
Battalion previously stationed there has been expanded to 6 Battalions.
Papuan sources report 40-50,000 Indonesian troops now being stationed in
West Papua.

Matthew Jamieson
Sunforest
PO Box 1805
Byron Bay NSW 2481
Tel 0418291998
matthew@hr.minihub.org <mailto:matthew@hr.minihub.org>

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4812776.stm

Eyewitness: 'They feel oppressed'
Benny Giay
Minister Benny Giay helped three wounded protesters to hospital
Protests demanding the closure of a huge gold mine in Indonesia's Papua province have ended in violence with at least three policemen killed.

The BBC News website spoke to church minister Benny Giay, who went into the midst of the protest to negotiate with protesters.

It all began yesterday when students blocked the road. There were about 1,000 students out on the streets.

But today at around 9am local time I was told that the police had arrived and were about to force the students to open the road. I knew it could get ugly.

The students resisted and two hours later there were reports of shootings.

The students said they had been driven to this. They feel oppressed and colonised

Police killed in Papua protest
Background to Papua unrest
Students were swarming everywhere. They burned tyres on the road. They felled coconut trees and blocked the road with the trunks.

They were angry and they were loud. They want to see the Freeport mine operations stopped.

They collected stones and were throwing them at the police and the mobile brigades. They shouted out:

"Indonesia you are lying. You are robbers. You have been here for years and you have been stealing from us. Go home!"

The students said they had been driven to this. They feel oppressed and colonised. They say that although the Indonesian government has been trying to hide its colonial face for years, Papuans have come to realise that this is not the kind of life they want.

Church mission

When the shooting started and the violence escalated everybody realised the situation had got out of hand. The police chief of Papua went to the Bishop of Jayapura and asked him what the Catholic Church could to do deal with the students.

Injured policemen at the Papua riots
At least three policemen were killed in the violence on Thursday
I went with a group of Church leaders to the site of the violence. The students opened the road for us as we were from the Church.

When we got to the Catholic theological college, we started to meet the casualties. One student had been shot in his left arm. The first hospital he visited couldn't treat him and the second hospital he went to was being guarded by the military, so he was hesitant to go in.

He returned to campus and that's where I met him. We took him and two other victims who had been shot with real bullets - not just rubber bullets - to hospital.

The bishop and the Church wrote a "pastoral letter" to be broadcast on local television and radio calling on the police to stop searching houses and students in dormitories and also calling on students to keep quiet and to look for constructive modes of dialogue.

'A brutal history'

But dangers to some students still exist. I'm trying to help two students to a hiding place away from Jayapura. They are scared, they don't know what reprisals could be enacted, this place has a brutal history.

I want to see a Papua free from fear, terror and oppression. I think the Freeport mine has become a symbol of all this. It is seen to collaborate with all the systems of state and so it too is seen as an oppressive force.

That is why it all exploded so violently.

The way we see it, West Papuans are living inside a house called the Republic of Indonesia. We are given one room in this house and it is heavily guarded by the military and the police.
Jakarta decides our menu, what to eat, what kind of clothes we wear. We have no freedom.

--------------------
(Khaleej Times Online, Dubai)

Human Rights Watch wants independent probe into Papua killings (AFP)

17 March 2006

JAKARTA - Indonesia must allow an independent investigation into deadly riots in Papua and lift all restrictions on media access to the remote region, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.

The US-based rights organisation said it was concerned about retaliation by the security forces against civilians following Thursday’s clashes in the capital Jayapura in which at least four people were killed.

“These are deeply disturbing accounts of violence,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch in a statement.

Adams called for an immediate investigation by Indonesia’s National Commission on Human Rights and other independent groups to determine how a protest against US mine operator Freeport-McMoRan turned violent.

Police in Papua said three policemen and an air force officer were beaten to death by crowds protesting against a giant gold and copper mine run by Freeport, and that 19 police officers were injured.

Human Rights Watch said the government should use the incident to lift restrictions on foreign journalists and independent monitors visiting Papua, the scene of a long-running separatist conflict where Indonesian troops have been accused of widespread rights violations.

“This is an opportunity, albeit a grim one, for the government to open up access to the province and allow independent monitors, media and human rights organizations in,” said Adams.

Human Rights Watch said it had received reports that at least 20 demonstrators had been arrested and were being held incommunicado.

“While all efforts must be made to bring perpetrators of killings to justice, arbitrary, retaliatory attacks on the general Papuan population are never justified,” said Adams.

“Worse, attacks on the public will only undermine potential cooperation from witnesses and other victims.”

Protestors accuse Freeport of not providing enough to the people of Papua in return for the mine and of polluting the local environment.

Police arrest 57 after deadly Papua mine clash

Friday Mar 17 15:06 AEDT

Indonesian police said today they had arrested 57 people after
protesters demanding the closure of a massive US-run mine in Papua
province killed three policemen and an air force officer.

Provincial police spokesman Kartono Wangsadisastra said the 57, many of
whom claimed to be students, were arrested yesterday after the bloodshed.

"We will never stop hunting these people who have created havoc and
murdered our officers," he told AFP.

The clash occurred outside the state-run university in the Papuan
capital of Jayapura amid ongoing protests against the operator of the
gold and copper mine, US giant Freeport-McMoRan.

The protesters lynched three riot police and an air force officer
believed to have been caught in the melee.

The dead officers were not ethnic Papuans, the police spokesman added.

The violence risks sparking further unrest in Papua, where authorities
have grappled with a long-running, sporadic separatist conflict since
1963 when Indonesia took over the mountainous and undeveloped territory
from Dutch colonisers.