The Sydney Morning Herald, April 3, 2005 - 9:04PM
Church leader pleads for Papua
A West Papuan church leader has urged the federal government not to turn a blind
eye to human rights abuses in his homeland as it contemplates a new security pact
with Indonesia.
The call from West Papua Baptist Church President Reverend Sofyan Yoman comes
as Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrives in Canberra for his first
visit to Australia.
Rev Yoman criticised a ground-breaking security treaty Australia is preparing to sign
with Indonesian and which is likely to be endorsed when Prime Minister John Howard
meets with President Yudhoyono.
It is expected Australia will formally recognise Indonesia's territorial integrity and
oppose any independence movements as part of the treaty.
Instead, the federal government should be prioritising "human integrity" over territorial
integrity, the church leader said in Melbourne.
"They should be saying `we support human rights and integrity',' he said.
Rev Yoman said investigations by his church showed the Indonesian military has
been siphoning off money from the province's Special Autonomy Fund.
The Indonesian military (TNI) had been extorting the money - a total amount of 2.5
billion rupiah ($A338,000) - at the local government level to fund its operations.
Rev Yoman said the regional government had announced it had spent approximately
19 billion rupiah ($A2.56 million) to pay for medicine and food but there was no
evidence of that at the village level.
"We are suffering but the government is not giving us the food or medicines.'
Rev Yoman said international donors to Indonesia such as Australia should pressure
Jakarta to open a dialogue with the independence movement, the OPM.
As well, Australia should be pushing its new ally to investigate the corruption claims
and secure access for human rights officials to visit areas where recent military
operations have occurred.
He said the federal government should regard West Papua as a neighbour since it
was close physically, shared a Christian culture and even had similar fauna such as
kangaroos.
"They are dancing while Christian people are suffering in West Papua. We are
neighbours. Why are they blind men?"
A continuing military offensive in the Puncak Jaya area of Indonesia's easternmost
province had destroyed villages forcing up to 6,000 people to flee, Rev Yoman said.
The military's strategy was to kill people by forcing them to face hunger and disease
in the forest rather than shooting them outright, he said.
"They create a stigma by saying the OPM are staying in this village.
"The military create the problem themselves.
"They come and the people run to the forest and the military burn the houses and
damage the gardens and kill the pigs. It's the new system."
Rev Yoman also warned that Islamic militia groups, backed by the military, were
spreading through the province.
Earlier this month the Indonesian army announced a new 15,000-strong division of its
crack Kostrad troops would be formed and sent to the restive province.
The poorly-armed OPM has fought Indonesian rule since Jakarta annexed Papua in
1962 and backed the takeover with a referendum in 1969 widely seen as rigged.
© 2005 AAP
Copyright © 2005. The Sydney Morning Herald.
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