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  • Don’t brand West Papuan resistance OPM ‘terrorist’, say ex-general, critics

    General Gatot Nurmantyo, a former commander in the Indonesian National Armed Forces, giving his television interview – in Bahasa Indonesian. Video: TV-One Indonesia

    Asia Pacific Report correspondent

    A former Indonesian military commander has condemned the formal labelling of the West Papuan resistance TPN/OPN as “terrorists”, saying that the Papuan problem was complex and could not be solved by armed force alone.

    Among other critics of the tagging are the Papua provincial Governor, Lukas Enembe and a Papuan legal researcher.

    General Gatot Nurmantyo, former commander of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI), said during a live interview on TV-One Indonesia that it was wrong to label the TPN/OPM (National Liberation Army/Free Papua Movement) as a terrorist group.

    He said that Jakarta had tried to use a military solution since the former Dutch colony of Irian Jaya was “integrated” into Indonesia in 1969 without bringing about any change.

    “Papua cannot be solved by military operations,” he said.

    General Nurmantyo said military operations would not solve the root cause of the conflict in Papua.

    He regretted the decision made by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s administration on May 5.

    “I am saddened to hear that troops are leaving for Papua to fight. It’s a picture that I think makes me sad,” said the general.

    Sad for two reasons
    He said he felt sad for two reasons:

    • First, Papua was one of the Indonesian provinces and the youngest province of the Unitary State of the Republic.
    • Second, based on Government Regulation in Lieu of Acts (PERPU) 59 of 1959, Papua was still under civilian rule. So, the military actions should be mainly territorial, which supported by intelligence and prepared combat operations.

    The retired general said that Papuans “are our own people”, so the burden could not be imposed only on the military and police. Executive government and other government agencies should comprehend the real background of the movements and be involved to resolve the prolonged problem in Papua.

    “Territorial operations are operations to win the hearts and minds of the people, because what we face is our own people. Do not expect to solve a condition in Papua only with military operations,” said General Nurmantyo.

    “I remind you, it will not work, no matter how great it will be. Because the problem is not just that small,” he said.

    General Nurmantyo, who has been a former military district commander in Jayapura and Merauke said that Indonesia already had experience in Aceh where the conflict had not been resolved by military operations.

    As the PERPU 59 of 1959 was still valid, the governor was the single highest authority. The military was not allowed to carry out operations without coordinating with the local government.

    Communication with government
    General Nurmantyo said communication with the local government was carried out and measured operations launched.

    “Lest the people become victims! How come, in a situation like this we are waging an open war? Seriously!

    “Meanwhile, the situation is still very civil. The leader is the governor or local government.

    “This is a state regulation. This is different from when Papua would be designated as a military operation,” said General Nurmantyo.

    Papua Governor Lukas Enembe … critical of the OPM tagging in a media statement. Image: APR screenshot

    According to a media release received by Asia Pacific Report. Papua Governor Lukas Enembe and the provincial government also objected to the terrorist label given to the KKB (“armed criminal group”), as the Indonesian state refers to the TPNPB (West Papua National Liberation Army).

    Key points
    Two of the seven points made in the media release said:

    • “Terrorism is a concept that has always been debated in legal and political spheres, thus the designation of the KKB as a terrorist group needs to be reviewed carefully and ensure the objectivity of the state in granting this status, and
    • “The Papua provincial government pleaded with the central government and the Indonesian Parliament to conduct a re-assessment of the observation of the labeling of KKB as terrorist. We are of the opinion that the assessment must be comprehensive by taking into account the social, economic and legal impacts on Papuans in general.”

    A West Papuan legal researcher, who declined to be named, said that the Indonesian government misused the term “terrorism” to undermine the basic human rights of indigenous West Papuans.

    So far, the term terrorism had no precise definition and so has no legal definition, said the researcher.

    Many of the United Nations member states did not support UN resolution 3034 (XXVII) because it contained a certain degree of disconnection to other international instruments, particularly human rights laws.

    Disagreements among the states remained regarding the use of terrorism, especially the exclusion of different categories of terrorism.

    Right to self-determination
    In particular the exception of the liberation movement groups. Particularly contentious which was the affirmation in 1972 of “the inalienable right to self-determination and independence of all peoples under colonial and racist regimes and other forms of alien domination”.

    “The legitimacy of their struggle, in particular, the struggle of national liberation movements by the principles and purposes is represented in the UN charter. Therefore, designating West Papua Liberation Army as a terrorist group by the Indonesian government considered outside the category of the terrorist act,” said the researcher.

    “Any definition of terrorism must also, accommodate reasonable claims to political implications, particularly against repressive regimes such as Indonesia towards West Papuans.

    “The act of self-determination by Papuans cannot be considered terrorism at all.”

    The international community should condemn any regime that is repressive and terrorist acts by colonial, racist and alien regimes in denying peoples their legitimate right to self-determination, independence, and other human rights.

    A coherent legal definition of terrorism might help “confine the unilateral misuse” of the term by the national government such as Indonesia against TPNPB/OPM, said the researcher.

    The other side of the story was war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, oppression, torture and intimidation by the state.

    These elements were present in West Papua and they qualified as the act of terrorists and were therefore universally recognised as crimes against humanity and criminals, the researcher said.

    The researcher added: “The West Papua army or TPN/OPM are not terrorist groups. They are the victims of terrorism”

    This report and the translations have been compiled by an Asia Pacific Report correspondent.

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Terrorist tag in West Papua could worsen racism, says rights group

    RNZ Pacific

    Human Rights Watch is urging the Indonesian government to rethink its classification of rebels in West Papua as terrorists.

    Indonesia has formally designated Papuan independence fighters as “terrorists”, in a move expected to expand the military’s role in civilian policing in Papua.

    But the NGO has warned that the new designation under counter-terrorism law could worsen racism and human rights abuses in West Papua while expanding the role of Indonesia’s military in civilian policing in the Melanesian region.

    The designation was approved last week as military operations intensified in Papua region after an Indonesian intelligence chief was killed in an ambush by West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) guerilla fighters.

    In announcing the official’s death at a news conference in Jakarta last week, Indonesian President Joko Widodo vowed a military crackdown in Papua and declared the Liberation Army a terrorist organisation.

    Formerly, Indonesian authorities referred to the Liberation Army as an “armed criminal group” (KKB).

    A researcher with Human Rights Watch’s Indonesia office, Andreas Harsono, said the killing shocked and angered the public, the latest in a series of violent episodes in Papua that escalated since the Liberation Army was accused of killing 17 civilian road construction workers in Nduga regency in late 2018.

    Cycle of deadly violence
    Harsono said the designation of the terrorist categorisation to Papuan rebels was clearly a response to the cycle of deadly violence in Papua region.

    But he was concerned that the broad classification under counter-terrorism legislation gave security forces the power to detain suspects for longer periods without charge, as well as hundreds of days before even going to trial, increasing the risk for suspects to be abused and tortured.

    It also opens the floodgates of who could be branded as a terrorist in a region where pro-independence aspirations run deep among the indigenous population.

    “This provision could be used to authorise massive disproportionate surveillance that violates privacy rights in Papua,” Harsono warned.

    West Papua Liberation Army fighters.
    West Papua Liberation Army fighters. Image: RNZ

    He said that extending military deployment in a civillian policing context carried serious risks in Papua, in part because Indonesian soldiers typically were not trained in law enforcement.

    According to him, the military justice system has a bad track record in investigating and prosecuting human rights abuses by Indonesian soldiers.

    “The underlying problem in Papua is racism: racism against the dark skinned and curly haired people, and of course those that do most of the human rights abuses against ethnic Papuans, these dark-skinned, curly-haired people who are predominantly also Christian in Muslim-majority Indonesia are Indonesian soldiers and police officers,” he said.

    Designation unhelpful
    The designation was unhelpful in terms of efforts to resolve long-running problems in Papua, Harsono explained.

    “The Indonesian government should recognise that violating human rights in the name of counter-terrorism merely benefits armed extremists over the long term.”

    Harsono said that threat posed by the Liberation Army needed to be put in perspective.

    “According to Indonesian military estimate, they only have (around) 200 weapons. It is tiny, it is insignificant.

    “Of course they are criminal, they kill people. Of course the police should act against them.

    “But branding them as a terrorist organisation, these people who live in the forest who try to defend their forest, their culture, and their own people, mostly using bows and arrows, this is going to be ridiculous.

    “This is going to affect these indigenous people so much. This is something the Indonesian government should review as soon as possible and if they don’t, the future generations will regret what the current government is doing.”

    Indonesian soldiers and policemen near Freeport mine
    Indonesian soldiers and policemen deployed on the road to the Freeport mine in Papua province. Image: RNZ/AFP

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Fish-mageddon: Royal Navy deployed to monitor French fisherman

    Two Royal Navy vessels have been deployed to Jersey amid a row about post-Brexit fishing rights. French fisherman are angered by new licences issued in the wake of Brexit. These licenses are said to restrict the days shared waters can be fished.

    Until Brexit, a 200-year old treaty defined fishing rights. This is yet another example of how post-Brexit trade deal issues are causing friction between the UK and EU countries.

    EU support

    The EU backed the fishermen, saying that the changes to the licensing had not been carried out properly. The European Commission told the Guardian in a statement:

    The commission was notified on Friday 30 April by UK authorities of the granting of 41 licences to EU vessels for fishing in Jersey’s territorial waters as of 1 May with specific conditions.

    Under the EU-UKTCA [trade agreement], any proposed management conditions have to be notified in advance to the other party, giving them sufficient time to assess and react to the proposed measures.

    They added that changes must be carried out to a scientific rationale – relating to fishing stocks – and must not discriminate between EU and UK fishing vessels.

    Furthermore any addition of new specific conditions to these fishing authorisations that limit EU fishing activities in UK waters must comply with the objectives and principles set out in the TCA, which are based on clear scientific rationale. Any such conditions must also be non-discriminatory between UK and EU vessels.

    The EC appear to reject the new conditions which limited the amount of fishing, saying as much in their intervention:

    The commission has clearly indicated to the UK that the provisions of the EU-UKTCA have not been respected. Until the UK authorities provide further justifications on the new conditions, these new conditions should not apply.

    Patrol ships

    The two patrol ships reportedly arrived at 6am and started observing the French flotilla of about 80 ships. The flotilla then head into St Helier’s port.

    Downing Street told the Guardian that the ships were there to monitor the situation. According to the Independent, Jersey’s foreign minister Ian Gorst insisted in a radio interview that the situation did not signal war with France:

    Absolutely not. But let’s be clear, the threats emanating from Paris, and then the threat today of a blockade of our harbour here in St Helier, are totally disproportionate to the technical issues that we’re facing with the implementation of the Brexit trade deal.

    We take those threats very seriously: we’re grateful to the prime minister for his full support, and what we need to do now is find diplomatic solutions to the issues that we’re facing.

    Muskets?

    The situation amused Twitter users:

    Elsewhere, a member of a Jersey re-enactment group symbolically fired an (apparently empty) musket at French ships.

    The use of military hardware and personnel to solve border issues has become something of a theme under the Tories. Military ships and aircraft were deployed to stop migrants crossing the channel in August 2020. At the time, the mayor of Calais said the UK should take responsibility for its international obligations.

    It is not clear how long the Royal Navy ships will remain off the shore of Jersey. However, it does seem increasingly standard practice to militarise issues, like fishing and migration, which previously would not have been dealt with by the armed forces.

    Featured image via Wikimedia Commons/Royal Navy

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Wenda warns over massive ‘demon troops’ military crackdown in Papua

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Indonesia is unleashing a massive military crackdown in West Papua with the use of “demon troops” and spurning human rights, warns a Papuan leader.

    Benny Wenda, interim president of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP), said in a statement today that cutting off the internet was a repeat of the “Papuan spring” uprising of August-September 2019 when the Indonesian military concealed bloodshed and massacres.

    He claimed the situation was shaping up as the “biggest military operation since the late 1970s”.

    “I issue this urgent warning [to] the world – huge Indonesian military operations, some of the largest in years, are imminent in West Papua,” Wenda said.

    “The internet is being cut off, hundreds more troops are being deployed, and we are receiving reports that West Papuan civilians are fleeing from their villages in Intan Jaya, Puncak Jaya, and Nduga regencies.”

    Indonesian President Joko Widodo ordered a “crackdown” in West Papua following the killing of an Indonesian intelligence officer, Brigadier General I Gusti Putu Danny Karya Nugraha, in clashes last week.

    The People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker, Bambang Soesatyo, has said that they will “discuss human rights matters later” after eliminating the Papuan resistance movement.

    “Just last week 400 new specialist soldiers, known as ‘demon troops’, were deployed to Nduga regency, where more than 50,000 people have already been displaced since December 2018.

    Recent reports said more than 21,000 Indonesian troops had been deployed to the West Papua region in the past three years.

    Internet shutdown cover
    The internet shutdown provided cover for the military operations.

    Benny Wenda
    Exiled West Papuan leader Benny Wenda on a visit to New Zealand in 2013. Image: Del Abcede

    “The Jala Mangkara Detachment (Denjaka), elite troops of the Indonesian Navy, are being deployed. I myself witnessed the consequences of these military operations when I was a child, seeing my village bombed and my family killed,” Wenda said.

    “I had to flee and live in the bush for six years. It makes my heart cry that this is about to happen to so many more of my people.”

    These military operations follow the Indonesian government deciding to label West Papuan resistance groups as ‘terrorists’, a move condemned by Amnesty and Indonesia’s own human rights commission.

    “Those in West Papua who take up arms are not terrorists. They are not connected to a religious ideology or international funding networks,” said Wenda.

    “They are just defending their land against an illegal occupier. They have little knowledge of the outside world, they are fighting barefoot to defend their people against a modern military.

    “Maybe a few hundred of them face an army of over 20,000 troops, including D88, trained in how to kill my people for years by the West.

    Indonesian soldiers patrol a Papuan village
    Indonesian soldiers patrol a Papuan village. Image: ULMWP

    Only ‘state terrorism’
    “There is only one actor – the Indonesian state that has been killing pastors and high school children for political purposes, who has driven over 400 women and children to their death in the bush.

    “Indonesian police and military this year have beaten three brothers to death in a hospital, executed teenagers, and killed peaceful activists in prison.

    “The new military operations are already striking fear into West Papuans across the country. This is state terrorism.”

    Wenda said the killing of the Indonesian intelligence general was the justification that Indonesia needed to carry out these operations.

    “How can the killing of a leading official in an occupying army justify killing civilians and attacking villages? The Indonesian military often carries out attacks and blames it on West Papuans in order to justify its operations.

    “They never provide any evidence of who carried out the killing.”

    Wenda asked why Indonesia had refused to allow international journalists into West Papua to investigate these issues.

    ‘Desperate to hide killings’
    ““Why does it ban human rights monitors, including even the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights?” asked Wenda.

    “Indonesia is so desperate to hide its killing and torture that it is willing to defy the will of 84 international states calling for the UN to be allowed access. Indonesia has got away with impunity for the 1977-79 genocidal military operations, the 1998 Biak Massacre, the 2014 Paniai Massacre, and so many more [human rights violations].”

    More than 500,000 Papuans had already been killed, claimed Wenda, who warned that the number was going to rise even further – “a genocide is in motion”.

    “This is my cry to the world, to the UN, to the Pacific Islands Forum, to Melanesian leaders, to the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP), and to the UK, Australian, New Zealand, Dutch and US governments,” said Wenda.

    “We are about to witness another massacre in West Papua. You have the power to intervene and help us find a peaceful solution to the crisis.”

    Indonesian troop build-up
    The Indonesian troop build-up in the capital Jayapura during March 2021. Image: RNZ

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Wenda warns over massive ‘demon troops’ military crackdown in Papua

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Indonesia is unleashing a massive military crackdown in West Papua with the use of “demon troops” and spurning human rights, warns a Papuan leader.

    Benny Wenda, interim president of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP), said in a statement today that cutting off the internet was a repeat of the “Papuan spring” uprising of August-September 2019 when the Indonesian military concealed bloodshed and massacres.

    He claimed the situation was shaping up as the “biggest military operation since the late 1970s”.

    “I issue this urgent warning [to] the world – huge Indonesian military operations, some of the largest in years, are imminent in West Papua,” Wenda said.

    “The internet is being cut off, hundreds more troops are being deployed, and we are receiving reports that West Papuan civilians are fleeing from their villages in Intan Jaya, Puncak Jaya, and Nduga regencies.”

    Indonesian President Joko Widodo ordered a “crackdown” in West Papua following the killing of an Indonesian intelligence officer, Brigadier General I Gusti Putu Danny Karya Nugraha, in clashes last week.

    The People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker, Bambang Soesatyo, has said that they will “discuss human rights matters later” after eliminating the Papuan resistance movement.

    “Just last week 400 new specialist soldiers, known as ‘demon troops’, were deployed to Nduga regency, where more than 50,000 people have already been displaced since December 2018.

    Recent reports said more than 21,000 Indonesian troops had been deployed to the West Papua region in the past three years.

    Internet shutdown cover
    The internet shutdown provided cover for the military operations.

    Benny Wenda
    Exiled West Papuan leader Benny Wenda on a visit to New Zealand in 2013. Image: Del Abcede

    “The Jala Mangkara Detachment (Denjaka), elite troops of the Indonesian Navy, are being deployed. I myself witnessed the consequences of these military operations when I was a child, seeing my village bombed and my family killed,” Wenda said.

    “I had to flee and live in the bush for six years. It makes my heart cry that this is about to happen to so many more of my people.”

    These military operations follow the Indonesian government deciding to label West Papuan resistance groups as ‘terrorists’, a move condemned by Amnesty and Indonesia’s own human rights commission.

    “Those in West Papua who take up arms are not terrorists. They are not connected to a religious ideology or international funding networks,” said Wenda.

    “They are just defending their land against an illegal occupier. They have little knowledge of the outside world, they are fighting barefoot to defend their people against a modern military.

    “Maybe a few hundred of them face an army of over 20,000 troops, including D88, trained in how to kill my people for years by the West.

    Indonesian soldiers patrol a Papuan village. Image: ULMWP

    Only ‘state terrorism’
    “There is only one actor – the Indonesian state that has been killing pastors and high school children for political purposes, who has driven over 400 women and children to their death in the bush.

    “Indonesian police and military this year have beaten three brothers to death in a hospital, executed teenagers, and killed peaceful activists in prison.

    “The new military operations are already striking fear into West Papuans across the country. This is state terrorism.”

    Wenda said the killing of the Indonesian intelligence general was the justification that Indonesia needed to carry out these operations.

    “How can the killing of a leading official in an occupying army justify killing civilians and attacking villages? The Indonesian military often carries out attacks and blames it on West Papuans in order to justify its operations.

    “They never provide any evidence of who carried out the killing.”

    Wenda asked why Indonesia had refused to allow international journalists into West Papua to investigate these issues.

    ‘Desperate to hide killings’
    ““Why does it ban human rights monitors, including even the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights?” asked Wenda.

    “Indonesia is so desperate to hide its killing and torture that it is willing to defy the will of 84 international states calling for the UN to be allowed access. Indonesia has got away with impunity for the 1977-79 genocidal military operations, the 1998 Biak Massacre, the 2014 Paniai Massacre, and so many more [human rights violations].”

    More than 500,000 Papuans had already been killed, claimed Wenda, who warned that the number was going to rise even further – “a genocide is in motion”.

    “This is my cry to the world, to the UN, to the Pacific Islands Forum, to Melanesian leaders, to the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP), and to the UK, Australian, New Zealand, Dutch and US governments,” said Wenda.

    “We are about to witness another massacre in West Papua. You have the power to intervene and help us find a peaceful solution to the crisis.”

    Indonesian troop build-up
    The Indonesian troop build-up in the capital Jayapura during March 2021. Image: RNZ
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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Progressives in Congress Should Unite to Slash Biden’s Military Budget

    Rep. Barbara Lee speaks as Rep. Pramila Jayapal looks on during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on November 19, 2019.

    Imagine this scenario: A month before the vote on the federal budget, progressives in Congress declare, “We’ve studied President Biden’s proposed $753 billion military budget, an increase of $13 billion from Trump’s already inflated budget, and we can’t, in good conscience, support this.”

    Now that would be a show-stopper, particularly if they added, “So we have decided to stand united, arm in arm, as a block of ‘no’ votes on any federal budget resolution that fails to reduce military spending by 10 to 30 percent. We stand united against a federal budget resolution that includes upwards of $30 billion for new nuclear weapons — slated to ultimately cost nearly $2 trillion. We stand united in demanding the $50 billion earmarked to maintain all 800 overseas bases, including the new one under construction on Okinawa, be reduced by at least one-third, because it’s time we scaled back on plans for global domination.”

    “Ditto,” they say, “for the billions the president wants for the arms-escalating Space Force, one of Trump’s worst ideas, right up there with hydroxychloroquine to cure COVID-19. And, no, we don’t want to escalate our troop deployments for a military confrontation with China in the South China Sea. It’s time to ‘right-size’ the military budget and demilitarize our foreign policy.”

    Progressives uniting as a block to resist out-of-control military spending would be a no-nonsense exercise of raw power, reminiscent of the way the right-wing Freedom Caucus challenged the traditional Republicans in the House in 2015. Without progressives on board, President Biden might not be able to secure enough votes to pass a federal budget that would then greenlight the reconciliation process needed for his broad domestic agenda.

    For years, progressives in Congress have complained about the bloated military budget. In 2020, 93 members in the House and 23 in the Senate voted to cut the Pentagon budget by 10% and invest those funds instead in critical human needs. A House Spending Reduction Caucus, co-chaired by Reps. Barbara Lee of California and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, emerged with 22 members on board, including all four members of the “Squad” but also quite a few more moderate or mainstream Democrats.

    We also have the Congressional Progressive Caucus, the largest in Congress, now with almost 100 members in the House and Senate. Caucus chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., is all for cutting military spending. “We’re in the midst of a crisis that has left millions of families unable to afford food, rent and bills,” she told the Nation. “But at the same time, we’re dumping billions of dollars into a bloated Pentagon budget. Don’t increase defense spending. Cut it — and invest that money into our communities.”

    Now is the time for these congresspeople to turn their talk into action.

    Consider the context. Biden urgently wants to move forward on his American Families Plan rolled out in his recent address to Congress. The plan would tax the rich to invest $1.8 trillion over the next 10 years in universal preschool, two years of tuition-free community college, expanded health care coverage and paid family medical leave.

    In the spirit of FDR, Biden also wants to put America back to work with a $2 trillion infrastructure program that will begin to fix our decades-old broken bridges, crumbling sewer systems and rusting water pipes. This could be his legacy, a Green New Deal-lite to transition workers out of the dying fossil fuel industry.

    But Biden won’t get his infrastructure program and American Families Plan with higher taxes on the rich, almost 40% on income for corporations and those earning $400,000 or more a year, unless Congress first passes a budget resolution that includes a top line for military and non-military spending. Both the budget resolution and the reconciliation bill that would follow are filibuster-proof and only require a simple majority in the House and Senate to pass.

    Easy.

    Maybe not.

    To flex their muscles, Republicans may refuse to vote for a budget resolution crafted by the Democratic Party that would open the door to big spending on public goods, such as pre-kindergarten and expanded health care coverage. That means Biden would need every Democrat in the House and Senate on board to approve his budget resolution for military and non-military spending.

    So how’s it looking?

    In the Senate, Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a state that went for Trump over Biden more than two to one, wants to scale back Biden’s infrastructure proposal, but hasn’t sworn to vote down a budget resolution. As for Sen. Bernie Sanders, the much-loved progressive, ordinarily he might balk at a record high military budget. But if the budget resolution ushers in a reconciliation bill that lowers the age of Medicare eligibility to 60 or 55, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee might feel compelled to hold his fire.

    That leaves antiwar activists wondering if Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a critic of the Pentagon budget and “nuclear modernization,” would consider stepping up as the lone holdout in the Senate, refusing to vote for a budget that includes billions for new nuclear weapons. Perhaps with a push from outraged constituents in Massachusetts, Warren could be convinced to take this bold stand. Another potential holdout could be California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who co-chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, the committee that oversees budgeting for nuclear weapons. In 2014, Feinstein described the U.S. nuclear arsenal program as “unnecessarily and unsustainably large.”

    Over in the House, Biden needs at least 218 of the 222 Democrats to vote for the budget resolution expected to hit the floor in June or July. But what if he can’t get to 218? What if at least five members of the House voted no — or even just threatened to — because the top line for military spending was too high and the budget included new “money pit” land-based nuclear missiles to replace 450 Minuteman III ICBMs, deployed since the 1970s.

    Polls show that most Democrats oppose “nuclear modernization” — a euphemism for a plan that is anything but modern, given that 50 countries have signed onto the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which would make nuclear weapons illegal, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) requires the U.S. to pursue nuclear disarmament to avoid a catastrophic accident or intentional nuclear holocaust.

    Now is the time for progressive congressional luminaries such as the Squad’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Presley to unite with Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Jayapal, as well as Lee, Pocan and others in the House Spending Reduction Caucus to stand as a block against a bloated military budget.

    Will they have the courage to unite behind such a cause? Would they be willing to play hardball and gum up the works on the way to Biden’s progressive domestic agenda? Odds will improve if constituents barrage them with phone calls, emails and visible protests. In a time of pandemic, it makes no sense to approve a military budget that is 90 times the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The billions saved from “right-sizing” the Pentagon could provide critical funds for addressing the climate crisis. Just as we support putting an end to our endless wars, we also support putting an end to our endless cycle of exponential military spending. This is the moment to demand a substantial cut in the Pentagon budget — and to defund new nuclear weapons.

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • President Biden STILL Pushing For Julian Assange’s Extradition

    Via America’s Lawyer: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been detained in the UK for nearly 10 years. Meanwhile, mainstream news outlets are crying foul over the imprisonment of Russian whistleblower Alexei Navalny. Host of “Redacted Tonight” Lee Camp joins Mike Papantonio to explain the threat Julian Assange presents to our intelligence community, and why President Biden still wants […]

    The post President Biden STILL Pushing For Julian Assange’s Extradition appeared first on The Ring of Fire Network.

    This post was originally published on The Ring of Fire.

  • Yamin Kogoya: Reckless Jakarta is turning West Papuans into ‘terrorists’ to justify waging a war

    ANALYSIS: By Yamin Kogoya

    The Indonesian government has officially labelled the OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka) Free Papuan Movement and its military wing, the TPNPB (West Papua National Liberation Army) as a terrorist group.

    This came about at the height of a string of shootings and killings – which have been taking place in recent months in Papua’s highlands – that led to the killing of a senior Indonesian intelligence officer, General I Gusti Putu Danny Karya Nugraha, last week.

    In response, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has ordered a crackdown on the armed resistance group OPM – TPNPB.

    A few days later, Mohammad Mahfud MD, the coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, declared that those in Papua (presumably the OPM – TPNPB) who commit crimes would be classified as “terrorists”.

    The People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker in Jakarta, Bambang Soesatyo, stressed this issue by saying, “I demand that the government deploy their security forces at full force to exterminate the armed criminal groups (KKP) in Papua which have taken lives.

    “Just eradicate them. Let’s talk about human rights later.”

    This announcement and such statements have caused a reaction among Indonesian leaders and civil society groups.

    Opportunity for resistance
    Police observer Irjen Pol Purn Sisno Adiwinoto warned that labelling Papuan independence groups as “terrorists” would not solve problems in West Papua.

    “If anything, this might just be the opportunity for resistance groups to get the United States involved,” said Adiwinoto.

    Philip Situmorang, public relations officer from the Fellowship of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), asked the government to be careful of their decision to label the armed criminal group (KKB) as a terrorist group.

    The church groups have warned that Jakarta should choose a different approach to Papua.

    Labelling Papua as a terrorist will psychologically impact on the Papuan community, which might instil fear, distrust, and hatred among communities in the land of Papua.

    West Papua is a region known for the international media blackout. This makes it challenging to allow independent media or human rights agencies to investigate the killings.

    The country’s justice system often fails to provide fair, transparent justice for the alleged perpetrators.

    Governor Enembe concerned
    The governor of Papua province, Lukas Enembe, also expressed his concern about the central government announcement.

    The statement released from the governor’s office stated that this labelling would affect the Papuan population, not just OPM – TPNPB. Papuans in West Papua and abroad will be stigmatised through the lens of the word terrorist.

    Hence, the governor asked for the central government to review its decision comprehensively.

    One of the seven points he made was that he strongly suggested the central government check with the United Nations about the decision.

    Benny Wenda, the leader of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, also condemned Jokowi’s announcement.

    “My questions to the president of Indonesia are: Who invaded our country in the first place? Who has killed over 500,000 men, women, and children? Who has displaced over 50,000 civilians since December 2018, leading to the deaths of hundreds of more people?

    An illegal invasion and occupation is a criminal act. Genocide is a terrorist act. Resistance to these are legitimate and necessary,” Benny Wenda said.

    Harmful policy for Papuans
    These concerns are expressed in recognition that, after 60 years, Jakarta insists on introducing a policy that will harm the Papuan people.

    Fifty-eight years ago, in May 1963, was the landing of Indonesian troops after the Western power gave them the green light during the controversial “New York Agreement” – the agreement in which Papuans were not invited.

    The real terror in Papua began from that day.

    Jakarta invents words and phrases and decides their definitions to control Papuan people.

    The Indonesian government has used many names and phrases to legitimise their military operations in the land of Papua.

    Between 1964–1966, leading up to the Act of Free Choice in 1969 (which Papuans consider a sham, or an “Act of No Choice”), army general Kartidjo Sastrodinoto led an operation called “Operasi Wisnurmurti III and IV”.

    The years between 1977-1982, a general named Imam Munandar led another operation named “Operasi Kikis”, followed by “Operasi Sapu Bersih”.

    The “Operasi Penyisiran” was another name given for 2002-2004 operations in Wamena, Papua’s highland town.

    Many military operations
    These are just a few of many, both visible and invisible, military operations in West Papua.

    These terminologies carry specific energy and command and manifest different state behaviours that target Papuan lives; they mean something like “wipe-out, clean, straighten, remove, taming the wild forest, restoring order” etc.

    They are not the languages of healing and reconciliation but of war and elimination.

    Elites in Jakarta have convinced themselves to believe that there is a monster in the land of Papua and that the beast needs to be eliminated. This paranoid way of thinking is akin to saying all non-black immigrants in the land of Papua are scary, so we should label them as demons and kill them or labelling all Muslims as terrorists because they are following the religion of Islam.

    The Papua governor and civil society groups are concerned that every Papuan will be stigmatised as a terrorist, regardless of whether they are a member of OPM – TPNPB or not.
    This labelling is not just to harm OPM – TPNPB but is a direct assault on Papuan history, language, livelihood, and aspirations for a better world, pushed by Papuan resistance groups.

    One of the main concerns that have been raised within the resistance movements is that the Indonesian government is labelling West Papua national liberation as a terrorist to criminalise the movement and depict them as radical extremists in the eyes of international communities.

    This is an old colonial game, where blaming the victims makes it difficult for them to report the crimes, allowing the perpetrators to avoid being held accountable for their actions.

    Metro TV interview
    In the media interview by Metrotvnews on April 30, Mohammad Mahfud MD stated they must contain the situation in West Papua before controlling the situation outside of Papua, inferring that influencing public opinion in the international community must begin by creating a terrorist of West Papua.

    The central government in Jakarta will use the word “terrorist” to convince the international community not to support these activist groups in West Papua. It intends to damage the integrity and reputation of the West Papua liberation movement, which has been gaining a lot of sympathy from international communities and institutions such as ACP (Africa Caribbean Pacific group of states), MSG (Melanesian Spearhead Group), PIF (Pacific Islands Forum) and Human Rights Council in Geneva.

    Many described the announcement as a desperate attempt to halt the region’s independence movement. David Robie wrote that this is Jakarta’s “worst ever” policy on West Papua, as reported by Asia Pacific Report last week on April 30.

    President Jokowi’s welfare approach and his 12 visits to Papua turned out to be a mere trojan horse. He and his government are not delivering welfare to Papuan people at all – they are creating terrorists in West Papua to justify war against the Papuan people.

    How will they distinguish and catch this monster, which they have called “terrorist” in Papua? Or are they going to create one that looks like a terrorist?

    Is OPM a terrorist group or a legendary saviour in Papuan’s independence imagination?

    In the 1980s, when I was growing up in my highland village of Papua from the ages of 8-12, I often heard the name OPM. At the time, the name sounded like it had magical power. I still associate the name OPM with that story.

    OPM ‘has secret power’
    At that time, I was told that OPM has a secret power that controls weather patterns. My family said that if you see heavy rain or thick clouds covering the mountains, then it is a sign that OPM is near or OPM created the bad weather to confuse their enemies.

    This kind of story made me very curious about the name OPM.

    I then asked my elders, who were OPM’s enemy and whether OPM were human or forest spirits? They would say to me that OPM were not forest spirits. They were human beings just like us, but they couldn’t divulge their identities to keep their family members safe from interrogation if their true identities were revealed to Indonesian soldiers.

    According to the village story, OPM have the power of nature, and they can obscure the sight of the Indonesian soldiers and make them crazy. At the time, I was astonished by these stories.

    With these fascinations, I continued to ask if the OPM was something that I should fear.

    They would tell me, “child, you should not be afraid of the OPM, because the OPM will protect you, and they will expel the Indonesian soldiers who were roaming around here, killing and raping women”.

    I grew up with these types of stories, and I am sure that many Papuans have similar stories to tell about what the name of OPM means to them.

    Hope for a better world
    OPM carries the spirit that keeps the hope of a better world (free from Indonesia) alive. That’s how I understand it. That hope, in Papuans’ imagination, is political independence from Indonesia.

    To be OPM is to be a proud Papuan, and to be Papuan is to be proud to be OPM because, in the minds of Papuans, OPM represents hope, freedom, salvation, healing, and reconciliation.

    As legend has it in the island of Biak, during the early 1940s, before Indonesia got their Independence from the Dutch, it was the spirit of the Morning Star that healed the legends Manarmakeri and Angganitha.

    Papuan people in the Biak island were already dreaming of a new world – a world free from terror, with the spirit of the Morning Star before Indonesia gained its independence in 1945.

    OPM stands to manifest that utopian dream of a Papuan free state as sovereign people. This fear of manifesting Papuan statehood drives Jakarta’s reckless policies toward West Papua.

    If Papuans were asked, without any intimidation or bribery, which spirit do they trust and believe in, the OPM or Indonesia security forces, I am confident that they would choose the spirit and the legend of OPM because that spirit stands for freedom and salvation.

    The word “terrorist” is the deadliest weapon that Indonesia has invented to kill Papuan people

    Labelling is dangerous
    This reckless labelling is dangerous, as already expressed by Governor Lukas and other civil society groups, because all Papuan people will suffer, not just OPM. Papuan people are already suffering in every aspect of their lives, this labelling will add more under the Indonesian rule and western capitalist world order.

    It is unfortunate that Indonesia is one of the most religious places, and yet unable to uphold its own religious morals and ethical teachings, as inscribed in their constitutional pillars: Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa (Belief in the Almighty God) and Kemanusiaan Yang Adil dan Beradab (Just and Civilised Humanity). Do the Indonesian ruling elites still believe in these words?

    With all the human and material resources being spent on securing West Papua, the question we need to be asking is, ‘why is Jakarta still unable to catch all the perpetrators and bring them to face justice?’

    If the elites in Jakarta believe with sincerity in promoting the slogan “wonderful Indonesia” on the world’s stage, then the way they approach Papua needs to change.

    Papua will always be like a pebble in Indonesia’s shoe – it must be resolved in a humane manner if the “wonderful Indonesia dream” is to be fully realised. Turning West Papua into a terrorist and justifying it to wage war against the Papuan people is not the way to achieve peace in the land of Papua.

    • Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
    • Other Yamin Kogoya articles

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Yamin Kogoya: Reckless Jakarta is turning West Papuans into ‘terrorists’ to justify waging a war

    ANALYSIS: By Yamin Kogoya

    The Indonesian government has officially labelled the OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka) Free Papuan Movement and its military wing, the TPNPB (West Papua National Liberation Army) as a terrorist group.

    This came about at the height of a string of shootings and killings – which have been taking place in recent months in Papua’s highlands – that led to the killing of a senior Indonesian intelligence officer, General I Gusti Putu Danny Karya Nugraha, last week.

    In response, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has ordered a crackdown on the armed resistance group OPM – TPNPB.

    A few days later, Mohammad Mahfud MD, the coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, declared that those in Papua (presumably the OPM – TPNPB) who commit crimes would be classified as “terrorists”.

    The People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker in Jakarta, Bambang Soesatyo, stressed this issue by saying, “I demand that the government deploy their security forces at full force to exterminate the armed criminal groups (KKP) in Papua which have taken lives.

    “Just eradicate them. Let’s talk about human rights later.”

    This announcement and such statements have caused a reaction among Indonesian leaders and civil society groups.

    Opportunity for resistance
    Police observer Irjen Pol Purn Sisno Adiwinoto warned that labelling Papuan independence groups as “terrorists” would not solve problems in West Papua.

    “If anything, this might just be the opportunity for resistance groups to get the United States involved,” said Adiwinoto.

    Philip Situmorang, public relations officer from the Fellowship of Churches in Indonesia (PGI), asked the government to be careful of their decision to label the armed criminal group (KKB) as a terrorist group.

    The church groups have warned that Jakarta should choose a different approach to Papua.

    Labelling Papua as a terrorist will psychologically impact on the Papuan community, which might instil fear, distrust, and hatred among communities in the land of Papua.

    West Papua is a region known for the international media blackout. This makes it challenging to allow independent media or human rights agencies to investigate the killings.

    The country’s justice system often fails to provide fair, transparent justice for the alleged perpetrators.

    Governor Enembe concerned
    The governor of Papua province, Lukas Enembe, also expressed his concern about the central government announcement.

    The statement released from the governor’s office stated that this labelling would affect the Papuan population, not just OPM – TPNPB. Papuans in West Papua and abroad will be stigmatised through the lens of the word terrorist.

    Hence, the governor asked for the central government to review its decision comprehensively.

    One of the seven points he made was that he strongly suggested the central government check with the United Nations about the decision.

    Benny Wenda, the leader of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, also condemned Jokowi’s announcement.

    “My questions to the president of Indonesia are: Who invaded our country in the first place? Who has killed over 500,000 men, women, and children? Who has displaced over 50,000 civilians since December 2018, leading to the deaths of hundreds of more people?

    An illegal invasion and occupation is a criminal act. Genocide is a terrorist act. Resistance to these are legitimate and necessary,” Benny Wenda said.

    Harmful policy for Papuans
    These concerns are expressed in recognition that, after 60 years, Jakarta insists on introducing a policy that will harm the Papuan people.

    Fifty-eight years ago, in May 1963, was the landing of Indonesian troops after the Western power gave them the green light during the controversial “New York Agreement” – the agreement in which Papuans were not invited.

    The real terror in Papua began from that day.

    Jakarta invents words and phrases and decides their definitions to control Papuan people.

    The Indonesian government has used many names and phrases to legitimise their military operations in the land of Papua.

    Between 1964–1966, leading up to the Act of Free Choice in 1969 (which Papuans consider a sham, or an “Act of No Choice”), army general Kartidjo Sastrodinoto led an operation called “Operasi Wisnurmurti III and IV”.

    The years between 1977-1982, a general named Imam Munandar led another operation named “Operasi Kikis”, followed by “Operasi Sapu Bersih”.

    The “Operasi Penyisiran” was another name given for 2002-2004 operations in Wamena, Papua’s highland town.

    Many military operations
    These are just a few of many, both visible and invisible, military operations in West Papua.

    These terminologies carry specific energy and command and manifest different state behaviours that target Papuan lives; they mean something like “wipe-out, clean, straighten, remove, taming the wild forest, restoring order” etc.

    They are not the languages of healing and reconciliation but of war and elimination.

    Elites in Jakarta have convinced themselves to believe that there is a monster in the land of Papua and that the beast needs to be eliminated. This paranoid way of thinking is akin to saying all non-black immigrants in the land of Papua are scary, so we should label them as demons and kill them or labelling all Muslims as terrorists because they are following the religion of Islam.

    The Papua governor and civil society groups are concerned that every Papuan will be stigmatised as a terrorist, regardless of whether they are a member of OPM – TPNPB or not.
    This labelling is not just to harm OPM – TPNPB but is a direct assault on Papuan history, language, livelihood, and aspirations for a better world, pushed by Papuan resistance groups.

    One of the main concerns that have been raised within the resistance movements is that the Indonesian government is labelling West Papua national liberation as a terrorist to criminalise the movement and depict them as radical extremists in the eyes of international communities.

    This is an old colonial game, where blaming the victims makes it difficult for them to report the crimes, allowing the perpetrators to avoid being held accountable for their actions.

    Metro TV interview
    In the media interview by Metrotvnews on April 30, Mohammad Mahfud MD stated they must contain the situation in West Papua before controlling the situation outside of Papua, inferring that influencing public opinion in the international community must begin by creating a terrorist of West Papua.

    The central government in Jakarta will use the word “terrorist” to convince the international community not to support these activist groups in West Papua. It intends to damage the integrity and reputation of the West Papua liberation movement, which has been gaining a lot of sympathy from international communities and institutions such as ACP (Africa Caribbean Pacific group of states), MSG (Melanesian Spearhead Group), PIF (Pacific Islands Forum) and Human Rights Council in Geneva.

    Many described the announcement as a desperate attempt to halt the region’s independence movement. David Robie wrote that this is Jakarta’s “worst ever” policy on West Papua, as reported by Asia Pacific Report last week on April 30.

    President Jokowi’s welfare approach and his 12 visits to Papua turned out to be a mere trojan horse. He and his government are not delivering welfare to Papuan people at all – they are creating terrorists in West Papua to justify war against the Papuan people.

    How will they distinguish and catch this monster, which they have called “terrorist” in Papua? Or are they going to create one that looks like a terrorist?

    Is OPM a terrorist group or a legendary saviour in Papuan’s independence imagination?

    In the 1980s, when I was growing up in my highland village of Papua from the ages of 8-12, I often heard the name OPM. At the time, the name sounded like it had magical power. I still associate the name OPM with that story.

    OPM ‘has secret power’
    At that time, I was told that OPM has a secret power that controls weather patterns. My family said that if you see heavy rain or thick clouds covering the mountains, then it is a sign that OPM is near or OPM created the bad weather to confuse their enemies.

    This kind of story made me very curious about the name OPM.

    I then asked my elders, who were OPM’s enemy and whether OPM were human or forest spirits? They would say to me that OPM were not forest spirits. They were human beings just like us, but they couldn’t divulge their identities to keep their family members safe from interrogation if their true identities were revealed to Indonesian soldiers.

    According to the village story, OPM have the power of nature, and they can obscure the sight of the Indonesian soldiers and make them crazy. At the time, I was astonished by these stories.

    With these fascinations, I continued to ask if the OPM was something that I should fear.

    They would tell me, “child, you should not be afraid of the OPM, because the OPM will protect you, and they will expel the Indonesian soldiers who were roaming around here, killing and raping women”.

    I grew up with these types of stories, and I am sure that many Papuans have similar stories to tell about what the name of OPM means to them.

    Hope for a better world
    OPM carries the spirit that keeps the hope of a better world (free from Indonesia) alive. That’s how I understand it. That hope, in Papuans’ imagination, is political independence from Indonesia.

    To be OPM is to be a proud Papuan, and to be Papuan is to be proud to be OPM because, in the minds of Papuans, OPM represents hope, freedom, salvation, healing, and reconciliation.

    As legend has it in the island of Biak, during the early 1940s, before Indonesia got their Independence from the Dutch, it was the spirit of the Morning Star that healed the legends Manarmakeri and Angganitha.

    Papuan people in the Biak island were already dreaming of a new world – a world free from terror, with the spirit of the Morning Star before Indonesia gained its independence in 1945.

    OPM stands to manifest that utopian dream of a Papuan free state as sovereign people. This fear of manifesting Papuan statehood drives Jakarta’s reckless policies toward West Papua.

    If Papuans were asked, without any intimidation or bribery, which spirit do they trust and believe in, the OPM or Indonesia security forces, I am confident that they would choose the spirit and the legend of OPM because that spirit stands for freedom and salvation.

    The word “terrorist” is the deadliest weapon that Indonesia has invented to kill Papuan people

    Labelling is dangerous
    This reckless labelling is dangerous, as already expressed by Governor Lukas and other civil society groups, because all Papuan people will suffer, not just OPM. Papuan people are already suffering in every aspect of their lives, this labelling will add more under the Indonesian rule and western capitalist world order.

    It is unfortunate that Indonesia is one of the most religious places, and yet unable to uphold its own religious morals and ethical teachings, as inscribed in their constitutional pillars: Ketuhanan Yang Maha Esa (Belief in the Almighty God) and Kemanusiaan Yang Adil dan Beradab (Just and Civilised Humanity). Do the Indonesian ruling elites still believe in these words?

    With all the human and material resources being spent on securing West Papua, the question we need to be asking is, ‘why is Jakarta still unable to catch all the perpetrators and bring them to face justice?’

    If the elites in Jakarta believe with sincerity in promoting the slogan “wonderful Indonesia” on the world’s stage, then the way they approach Papua needs to change.

    Papua will always be like a pebble in Indonesia’s shoe – it must be resolved in a humane manner if the “wonderful Indonesia dream” is to be fully realised. Turning West Papua into a terrorist and justifying it to wage war against the Papuan people is not the way to achieve peace in the land of Papua.

    • Yamin Kogoya is a West Papuan academic who has a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from the Australian National University who contributes to Asia Pacific Report. From the Lani tribe in the Papuan Highlands, he is currently living in the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
    • Other Yamin Kogoya articles
    Print Friendly, PDF & Email

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • #HoldTheLine – hundreds of Maria Ressa supporters post ‘pressure’ videos

    Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    On World Press Freedom Day 2021, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the #HoldTheLine coalition launched an innovative campaign of solidarity with journalist Maria Ressa, who faces a possible lifetime in prison in the Philippines.

    A new website features hundreds of videos from prominent supporters around the world – with a call for public contributions – that will stream on a continuous loop until all charges are dropped against Ressa and the media outlet Rappler.

    Ressa, the founder and CEO of the online media outlet Rappler, whose courageous journalism and stand for press freedom in the Philippines were recognised by UNESCO.

    Developed in partnership with French advertising agency BETC, the solidarity website features content on a steady loop that will stream until the Philippine government drops all the charges and ceases its pressure campaign.

    Members of the public are encouraged to submit their own videos to be added to the stream.

    “The Duterte regime’s vicious attacks against Maria Ressa are attacks on journalism itself, and on democracy,” said RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire.

    “At RSF we have been proud to stand in solidarity with this courageous journalist, and now we call for the international public to mobilise in her support, which could provide her with vital protection as she faces the escalating threat of a possible lifetime in prison.”

    Video contributors
    Prominent supporters and video contributors include former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay; US Nobel Economics Prize Laureate Joseph Stiglitz; Tiananmen Square activist and Chinese dissident Wu’er Kaixi; the former White House Press Secretary under President Clinton, Mike McCurry; and the executive director of the National Press Club in Washington, Bill McCarren.

    At least nine cases are currently open against Ressa in the Philippines, where she has also faced 10 arrest warrants in under two years.

    The cases against her include three cyber-libel cases as well as criminal tax charges. Ressa was convicted on the first cyber-libel charge in June 2020, which carries a possible prison sentence of six years if not overturned on appeal.

    #HoldTheLine is an international coalition that has come together in support of Maria Ressa and independent media in the Philippines.

    It consists of more than 80 groups led by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

    The Philippines is ranked 138th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • The UK’s new aircraft carrier has more American jets than British ones

    The UK government has confirmed that the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will carry more US fighter aircraft than British ones.

    Labour MP Kevan Jones tabled a Written Question to the MOD on 26 April:

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the majority of F-35s deployed on Queen Elizabeth’s voyage to the Indo-Pacific will be US Marine Corps aircraft.

    MOD minister James Heappey responded:

    HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH will embark 18 F-35Bs for CSG21 in two squadrons: eight from the UK’s 617 Squadron RAF and 10 from the US Marine Corps squadron VMFA-211. The Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers are international by design and the fact they can operate a mixed US/UK air group is a strategic advantage, offering choice and flexibility to both nations.

    This means that the majority of the F-35 jets on the UK vessel with be American, arguably bringing into question the UK’s status as an independent nation-state.

    The First Sea Lord was quick to frame the matter as one of “potent” cooperation, rather than diminished power.

    Carrier power?

    The Queen Elizabeth, which reports indicate cost £3bn, is due to set sail from Portsmouth to the Asia-Pacific region in May. The mission will be its first operational deployment as part of a ‘strike’ group.

    Defence secretary Ben Wallace told CNN:

    When our Carrier Strike Group (CSG) sets sail next month, it will be flying the flag for Global Britain — projecting our influence, signaling our power, engaging with our friends and reaffirming our commitment to addressing the security challenges of today and tomorrow.
    He added that:
    The UK is not stepping back but sailing forth to play an active role in shaping the international system of the 21st century.
    Global Britain is the UK’s new international strategy for the post-Brexit world. The revelation that most of the F-35 jets aboard will not be British, however, makes the UK look less like a confident and independent military power and more like the US Empire’s Uber driver.

    Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons/Aircrew

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Branding armed Papuan resistance as ‘terrorists’ angers rights groups, sparks media warning

    By David Robie

    Branding armed Papuan groups as “terrorists” has sparked strong condemnation from human rights groups across Indonesia and in West Papua, some describing the move as desperation and the “worst ever” action by President Joko Widodo’s administration.

    Many warn that this draconian militarist approach to the Papuan independence struggle will lead to further bloodshed and fail to achieve anything.

    Many have called for negotiation to try to seek a way out of the spiralling violence over the past few months.

    Ironically, with the annual World Press Freedom Day being observed on Monday many commentors also warn about the increased dangers for journalists covering the conflict.

    Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy chairperson Hendardi (Indonesians often have a single name) has criticised the government’s move against “armed criminal groups” in Papua, or “KKB)”, as they are known by military authorities.

    The move to designate them as terrorists is seen as a short-cut and an expression of the government’s “desperation” in dealing with the Papuan struggle for independence.

    “The labeling of resistance groups in Papua will not break the long and recurring cycle of violence”, Hendardi said, according to a report in Merdeka by Yunita Amalia.

    Failure of the security forces
    Hendardi said that the failure of security forces to cripple armed groups in Papua had largely been caused by the lack of support and trust by local people.

    This was as well as the difficult and rugged terrain while local resistance groups were very familiar with their mountainous hideouts.

    “The terrorist label and the subsequent [military] operations is Jokowi’s [President Joko Widodo] worst ever policy on Papua,” he claimed.

    Setara Institute chairperson Hendardi
    Setara Institute chairperson Hendardi … “The labeling of resistance groups in Papua will not break the long and recurring cycle of violence”. Image: CNN Indonesia

    Yesterday, the government declared that the so-called KKB were terrorists, following a string of clashes with security forces that saw the region’s intelligence chief, one police officer and at least five guerrilla fighters killed.

    Coordinating Minister for Security, Politics and Legal Affairs Mahfud MD officially announced that the Papuan KKB had been included in the category of terrorist organisations.

    He cited Law Number 5/2018 on the Eradication of Terrorism as a legal basis.

    “The government considers that organisations and people in Papua that commit widespread violence are categorised as terrorists,” Mahfud told a media conference broadcast on the ministry’s YouTube channel.

    AII Usman Hamid
    Amnesty International Indonesia’s Usman Hamid … “The government should focus on investigating [human rights violation] cases and ending the extrajudicial killings.” Image: Kompas
    Adding to list rights violations
    Amnesty International Indonesia said the move had the potential to add to a long list of human rights violations in the region.

    Amnesty International executive director Usman Hamid believes that branding the armed groups terrorist will not end the problems or human rights violations in Papua.

    “Even if they are so easily labelled terrorist, this will in fact have the potential of adding to the long list of human rights violations in Papua,” Hamid told Kompas.com.

    Based on Amnesty International Indonesia’s records, there were at least 47 cases of extrajudicial killings committed by Indonesian security forces between February 2018 and December 2020 resulting in the death of about 80 people.

    Also, already in 2021 there had been five cases of alleged extrajudicial killings by security forces resulting in the death of seven people, said Hamid.

    “The government should focus on investigating these cases and ending the extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations by law enforcement agencies in Papua and West Papua, rather than focus on the terrorist label,” he said.

    ‘Transparent, just, accountable’ law enforcement
    National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) Deputy Commissioner Amiruddin Al-Rahab said he was disappointed with the government’s decision.

    “Pak Menko [Mr Security Chief] announced that the solution is to add the terrorist label. Speaking frankly I feel disappointed with this”, said Al-Rahab.

    Al-Rahab believes that it is more important to prioritise “transparent, just and accountable” law enforcement as the way to resolve the Papua problem rather than labelling armed groups in Papua as terrorists.

    “It is far more important to prioritise this rather than transforming labels,” he said.

    The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has also criticised the Indonesian government’s decision, dismissing the “terrorist label” as a colonial creation.

    ULMWP executive director Markus Haluk said that the government often attached “certain labels” on the Papuan nation which were intentionally created.

    “The terms KKB, GPK [security disturbance groups] and so forth are terms created by Indonesian colonialism, the TNI [Indonesian military] and the Polri [Indonesian police]. So, the Papuan people don’t recognise any of these”, Haluk told CNN Indonesia.

    Haluk said that the National Liberation Army (TPN) and the OPM (Free Papua Organisation) were born out of a humanitarian struggle and that they opposed humanitarian crimes and systematic racist politics.

    Veronica Koman
    Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman with New Zealand journalist David Robie … “Indonesia has just burnt the bridge towards a peaceful resolution.” Image: Bernard Agape/PMC

    Severing attempts for peaceful solution
    Lawyer and human rights activist Veronica Koman condemned the Indonesian government’s move.

    Through her personal Twitter account @VeronicaKoman, she said that the decision would sever attempts to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Papua.

    “Indonesia has just burnt the bridge towards a peaceful resolution,” she wrote in a tweet.

    Koman believes that the label could trigger an escalation in the armed conflict in the “land of the Cenderawasih”, as Papua is known. Not to mention, she said, concerns over possible human rights violations.

    The OPM declared that it would challenge the decisions with the International Court of Justice (ICC).

    The ICC is the United Nation’s top judicial body whose principle function is to hear and resolve disputes between member nations.

    “The TPNPB [West Papua National Liberation Army] already has lawyers, we will send two of our lawyers [to the ICC] if Indonesia is prepared to include the TPNPB as a terrorist organisation, so we are very much ready to take the issue to the International Court”, said TPNPB-OPM spokesperson Sebby Sambom.

    Journalist and editor Victor Mambor
    Journalist and editor Victor Mambor … “I’m worried about my family and colleagues at Jubi.” Image: APR screenshot

    Threats to balanced media
    Meanwhile, a prominent Papuan journalist, Victor Mambor, has expressed concern about the implications for media people trying to provide balanced coverage of the Papuan conflict.

    Mambor, founding editor of Tabloid Jubi, contributor to The Jakarta Post, and a former Papuan advocate for the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), is among many media people who have been targeted for their robust reportage of the deteriorating situation in Papua and human rights violations.

    Just last week his vehicle had its windows smashed and it was daubed with spray paint. The attack was featured in Suara Papua, but as he admits this was just the latest of a series of attacks and attempts at intimidating him in his daily journalism.

    Mambor, who visited New Zealand in 2013, told Asia Pacific Report that there had been no progress so far in the investigation into the attack. A police forensics team had checked his car.

    “I am not worried about my safety because if have experienced a lot of terror and intimidation that has let me know how to deal with these actions against me,” he said. “Even worse things have happened to me.

    “But I’m worried about my family and colleagues at Jubi.”

    The recent threats by the Speaker of the Parliament in Jakarta, Bambang Soesatyo, and the latest branding of resistance groups in Papua have created an even more difficult environment for working journalists just at a time when the World Press Freedom Day is coming up on May 3 with a related UNESCO Asia-Pacific media safety seminar in Jakarta today.

    “These developments have an impact on media workers like me or fellow journalists at Jubi who try to maintain a ‘covering both sides’ principle to report on the conflict in Papua,” he said.

    “The terror attack that I experienced explains that. Journalists who report on the Papua conflict with a different perspective other than what the security forces want will be subject to problems and pressure. This is what I’m worried about.

    “However, I am also worried about the continued existence of a single narrative developed by the security forces on the conflict and armed violence in Papua.”

    With thanks to some translations by James Balowski for IndoLeft News.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Branding armed Papuan resistance as ‘terrorists’ angers rights groups, sparks media warning

    By David Robie

    Branding armed Papuan groups as “terrorists” has sparked strong condemnation from human rights groups across Indonesia and in West Papua, some describing the move as desperation and the “worst ever” action by President Joko Widodo’s administration.

    Many warn that this draconian militarist approach to the Papuan independence struggle will lead to further bloodshed and fail to achieve anything.

    Many have called for negotiation to try to seek a way out of the spiralling violence over the past few months.

    Ironically, with the annual World Press Freedom Day being observed on Monday many commentors also warn about the increased dangers for journalists covering the conflict.

    Setara Institute for Peace and Democracy chairperson Hendardi (Indonesians often have a single name) has criticised the government’s move against “armed criminal groups” in Papua, or “KKB)”, as they are known by military authorities.

    The move to designate them as terrorists is seen as a short-cut and an expression of the government’s “desperation” in dealing with the Papuan struggle for independence.

    “The labeling of resistance groups in Papua will not break the long and recurring cycle of violence”, Hendardi said, according to a report in Merdeka by Yunita Amalia.

    Failure of the security forces
    Hendardi said that the failure of security forces to cripple armed groups in Papua had largely been caused by the lack of support and trust by local people.

    This was as well as the difficult and rugged terrain while local resistance groups were very familiar with their mountainous hideouts.

    “The terrorist label and the subsequent [military] operations is Jokowi’s [President Joko Widodo] worst ever policy on Papua,” he claimed.

    Setara Institute chairperson Hendardi … “The labeling of resistance groups in Papua will not break the long and recurring cycle of violence”. Image: CNN Indonesia

    Yesterday, the government declared that the so-called KKB were terrorists, following a string of clashes with security forces that saw the region’s intelligence chief, one police officer and at least five guerrilla fighters killed.

    Coordinating Minister for Security, Politics and Legal Affairs Mahfud MD officially announced that the Papuan KKB had been included in the category of terrorist organisations.

    He cited Law Number 5/2018 on the Eradication of Terrorism as a legal basis.

    “The government considers that organisations and people in Papua that commit widespread violence are categorised as terrorists”, Mahfud told a media conference broadcast on the ministry’s YouTube channel.

    AII Usman Hamid
    Amnesty International Indonesia’s Usman Hamid … “The government should focus on investigating [human rights violation] cases and ending the extrajudicial killings.” Image: Kompas

    Adding to list rights violations
    Amnesty International Indonesia said the move had the potential to add to a long list of human rights violations in the region.

    Amnesty International executive director Usman Hamid believes that branding the armed groups terrorist will not end the problems or human rights violations in Papua.

    “Even if they are so easily labelled terrorist, this will in fact have the potential of adding to the long list of human rights violations in Papua,” Hamid told Kompas.com.

    Based on Amnesty International Indonesia’s records, there were at least 47 cases of extrajudicial killings committed by Indonesian security forces between February 2018 and December 2020 resulting in the death of about 80 people.

    Also, already in 2021 there had been five cases of alleged extrajudicial killings by security forces resulting in the death of seven people, said Hamid.

    “The government should focus on investigating these cases and ending the extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations by law enforcement agencies in Papua and West Papua, rather than focus on the terrorist label,” he said.

    ‘Transparent, just, accountable’ law enforcement
    National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) Deputy Commissioner Amiruddin Al-Rahab said he was disappointed with the government’s decision.

    “Pak Menko [Mr Security Chief] announced that the solution is to add the terrorist label. Speaking frankly I feel disappointed with this”, said Al-Rahab.

    Al-Rahab believes that it is more important to prioritise “transparent, just and accountable” law enforcement as the way to resolve the Papua problem rather than labelling armed groups in Papua as terrorists.

    “It is far more important to prioritise this rather than transforming labels,” he said.

    The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) has also criticised the Indonesian government’s decision, dismissing the “terrorist label” as a colonial creation.

    ULMWP executive director Markus Haluk said that the government often attached “certain labels” on the Papuan nation which were intentionally created.

    “The terms KKB, GPK [security disturbance groups] and so forth are terms created by Indonesian colonialism, the TNI [Indonesian military] and the Polri [Indonesian police]. So, the Papuan people don’t recognise any of these”, Haluk told CNN Indonesia.

    Haluk said that the National Liberation Army (TPN) and the OPM (Free Papua Organisation) were born out of a humanitarian struggle and that they opposed humanitarian crimes and systematic racist politics.

    Veronica Koman
    Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman with New Zealand journalist David Robie … “Indonesia has just burnt the bridge towards a peaceful resolution.” Image: Bernard Agape/PMC

    Severing attempts for peaceful solution
    Lawyer and human rights activist Veronica Koman condemned the Indonesian government’s move.

    Through her personal Twitter account @VeronicaKoman, she said that the decision would sever attempts to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Papua.

    “Indonesia has just burnt the bridge towards a peaceful resolution,” she wrote in a tweet.

    Koman believes that the label could trigger an escalation in the armed conflict in the “land of the Cenderawasih”, as Papua is known. Not to mention, she said, concerns over possible human rights violations.

    The OPM declared that it would challenge the decisions with the International Court of Justice (ICC).

    The ICC is the United Nation’s top judicial body whose principle function is to hear and resolve disputes between member nations.

    “The TPNPB [West Papua National Liberation Army] already has lawyers, we will send two of our lawyers [to the ICC] if Indonesia is prepared to include the TPNPB as a terrorist organisation, so we are very much ready to take the issue to the International Court”, said TPNPB-OPM spokesperson Sebby Sambom.

    Journalist and editor Victor Mambor
    Journalist and editor Victor Mambor … “I’m worried about my family and colleagues at Jubi.” Image: APR screenshot

    Threats to balanced media
    Meanwhile, a prominent Papuan journalist, Victor Mambor, has expressed concern about the implications for media people trying to provide balanced coverage of the Papuan conflict.

    Mambor, founding editor of Tabloid Jubi, contributor to The Jakarta Post, and a former Papuan advocate for the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), is among many media people who have been targeted for their robust reportage of the deteriorating situation in Papua and human rights violations.

    Just last week his vehicle had its windows smashed and it was daubed with spray paint. The attack was featured in Suara Papua, but as he admits this was just the latest of a series of attacks and attempts at intimidating him in his daily journalism.

    Mambor, who visited New Zealand in 2013, told Asia Pacific Report that there had been no progress so far in the investigation into the attack. A police forensics team had checked his car.

    “I am not worried about my safety because if have experienced a lot of terror and intimidation that has let me know how to deal with these actions against me,” he said. “Even worse things have happened to me.

    “But I’m worried about my family and colleagues at Jubi.”

    The recent threats by the Speaker of the Parliament in Jakarta, Bambang Soesatyo, and the latest branding of resistance groups in Papua have created an even more difficult environment for working journalists just at a time when the World Press Freedom Day is coming up on May 3 with a related UNESCO Asia-Pacific media safety seminar in Jakarta today.

    “These developments have an impact on media workers like me or fellow journalists at Jubi who try to maintain a ‘covering both sides’ principle to report on the conflict in Papua,” he said.

    “The terror attack that I experienced explains that. Journalists who report on the Papua conflict with a different perspective other than what the security forces want will be subject to problems and pressure. This is what I’m worried about.

    “However, I am also worried about the continued existence of a single narrative developed by the security forces on the conflict and armed violence in Papua.”

    With thanks to some translations by James Balowski for IndoLeft News.

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • ‘Lest we forget’: anti-war statue of Iraq veteran goes up in Margate

    A statue of a young soldier has gone up in Margate. And it’s quite different to most military statues. It depicts Daniel Taylor, a young anti-war Iraq veteran and campaigner who suffers from PTSD and has a powerful message for Britain’s politicians.

    The statue is named April is the Cruellest Month, after a T.S Eliot poem. It’s the work of Iraqi-American artist Michael Rakowitz. Made from concrete, the statue contains artefacts donated by locals and veterans, including Taylor’s Iraq medal and a peace flag he stole as a 15-year-old from an anti-war demo in his native Devon.

    Iraq medal

    In 2006, Taylor took the flag to Iraq with him when he deployed to war, much to the annoyance of his officers. He came back with post-traumatic stress disorder, ending up serving a spell in military prison. Taylor struggled with a lack of support after discharge. He is now a therapist and member of Veterans for Peace UK.

    In a press release, Taylor said:

    My aim was to draw some small spotlight back onto the subject of militarism & how the arms industry continues to operate in the UK. We are pushed ever closer to war because of profit, resources and power.

    The work also contains Taylor’s Iraq service medal. He hopes that giving it up will spark a debate:

    I expect letting go of my medal in this way will upset some people but I have to be at peace with that if the greater outcome is a broader and more honest debate around how the UK conducts its dangerous foreign policy & how it treats its veterans when they return home.

    Westminster

    The statue is of Taylor’s younger self pointing west from Margate to Westminster. It’s there he lays the blame for both the wars and the problems faced by the soldiers who fought them, like mental health issues, homelessness, and alcohol abuse.

    The occupation of Iraq cost 179 service people their lives, as well as an unknown number of Iraqis. The British and Iraqi dead were remembered at a small ceremony at the unveiling.

    The piece will be in Margate until Armistice Day, after which it will tour various locations around the country.

    Featured images via Thierry Bal and Turner Contemporary and Daniel Taylor

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • ‘Let’s talk about human rights later’ after ‘crushing’ Papuan rebels, warns Jakarta Speaker

    An unverified video clip purportedly from a military YouTube channel claiming that nine Papuan rebels had been shot, 28 April 2021. The video of an unknown location or unit has been circulated on social media today. Video: EKA PR33DATOR 57

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Armed violence has escalated in Puncak Regency in the “land of Papua” – known internationally as West Papua – following President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s order to crack down on the rebels seeking independence, reports the Papuan newspaper Jubi.

    Widodo ordered the capture of all members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) while the Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker in Jakarta, Bambang Soesatyo, demanded that the government “talk about human rights later” after totally “exterminating” the TPNPB.

    “I demand that the government deploy the security forces at full force to exterminate the armed criminal groups (KKP) in Papua which has taken lives. Just eradicate them. Let’s talk about human rights later,” Soesatyo told CNN Indonesia on Monday.

    Soesatyo, who last year proposed that 9mm pistols be made legally available to certified gun owners for “self-defence”, also asked the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) to declare the group a terrorist organisation.

    The human rights watchdog Setara Institute deemed the politician’s statement would only trigger a spiral of violence and add to the complexity of the Papua conflict, resulting in more casualties.

    “Numerous cases of fatal shootings, which have claimed the lives of people, mostly civilians, has shown that the security approach is not the answer to the problem in Papua,” Setara Institute deputy Bonar Tigor Naipospos said in a statement.

    Naipospos criticised Soesatyo’s suggestion to brush human rights aside, saying such rights as stipulated in Article 28i of the Constitution, could not be reduced by anyone, in including in war and emergencies.

    Stop branding rebels ‘terrorist’
    Secretary of Papua Pegunungan Tengah Student Association (AMPTPI) Ikem Wetipo asked the government to stop calling the TPNPB a “terrorist” group or calling for their “killing”, as in Soesatyo’s comment, which justified human rights violations in West Papua.

    MPR Speaker Bambang Soesatyo
    Indonesian People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Bambang Soesatyo … calling on security forces to deploy their full strength and totally destroy armed criminal groups (KKB). Image: IndoLeft News/CNN Indonesia

    “Stop making reckless statements, [such as from] the MPR speaker and the President about capturing, eradicating the TPNPB. It means that the state justifies casualties in the process of pursuing the group,” Wetipo said.

    Armed conflict has been escalating in Puncak Regency since April 8, 2021, when the TPNPB shot dead Oktavianus Rayo, a teacher in Beoga District suspected by the group as an Indonesian spy.

    Since then, five people have died including the intelligence chief in Papua, Major General Anumerta IGP Danny NK, who was killed in crossfire last Sunday. The TPNPB was also accused of burning schools in Beoga.

    A Jubi source was told that the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police were seen pursuing the TPNPB troops in North Ilaga District since Tuesday at 9 am local time.

    “We saw the security forces in three helicopters, [flying over] in Misimaga, Efesus, and Tegelobak Village. The helicopter landed at the Mayuberi creek, [then flew and] has not returned. Whether [the helicopter] has gone to Sinak or Beoga, we don’t know,” he said.

    At 5 pm, firefights broke out between the TPNPB led by Lekagak Telenggen and the TNI and police in Makki, Misimaga, Efesus, and Tegelobak Village. The security forces also reportedly bombarded the villages, prompting villagers to evacuate to churches, forests, and nearby villages such as Tanah Merah and Gome.

    No civilian casualties
    There were no reports of civilian casualties reported by yesterday.

    However, two Mobile Brigade (Brimob) personnel were wounded and one died in the crossfire, Papua Police spokesperson Senior Commander Ahmad Musthofa Kamal confirmed.

    The wounded policemen are Second Insp. Anton Tonapa who was reportedly shot in the back and Chief Brigadier M Syaifudin, shot in the stomach. Meanwhile, Second Agent Komang died of a gunshot wound.

    All wounded military personnel have been evacuated to Mimika General Hospital.

    Meanwhile, TPNPB commander Egianus Kogeya claimed his party had shot dead three TNI members in Nduga Regency on Monday, who Kogeya accused of burning five houses in Alguru District.

    TPNPB spokesperson Sebby Sambom, responded to Jokowi’s order and Soesatyo’s statement, saying the group would never back down in the face of the Indonesian government’s military operations.

    “TPNPB is ready,” Sambom told Jubi.

    “We are standing on our own land. Indonesia with the TNI and police are the thieves coming to steal our natural resources while killing us,” he said.

    Sambom urged the Indonesian government to act in a “democratic” way and send a negotiator, instead of security forces, to meet with the TPNPB.

    “We warn President Jokowi not to sacrifice any more [Indonesian] soldiers. President Jokowi must be open to negotiations with TPNPB’s negotiators,” he said.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • ‘Let’s talk about human rights later’ after ‘crushing’ Papuan rebels, warns Jakarta Speaker

    An unverified video clip purportedly from a military YouTube channel claiming that nine Papuan rebels had been shot, 28 April 2021. The video of an unknown location or unit has been circulated on social media today. Video: EKA PR33DATOR 57

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Armed violence has escalated in Puncak Regency in the “land of Papua” – known internationally as West Papua – following President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s order to crack down on the rebels seeking independence, reports the Papuan newspaper Jubi.

    Widodo ordered the capture of all members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) while the Peoples Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker in Jakarta, Bambang Soesatyo, demanded that the government “talk about human rights later” after totally “exterminating” the TPNPB.

    “I demand that the government deploy the security forces at full force to exterminate the armed criminal groups (KKP) in Papua which has taken lives. Just eradicate them. Let’s talk about human rights later,” Soesatyo told CNN Indonesia on Monday.

    Soesatyo, who last year proposed that 9mm pistols be made legally available to certified gun owners for “self-defence”, also asked the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) to declare the group a terrorist organisation.

    The human rights watchdog Setara Institute deemed the politician’s statement would only trigger a spiral of violence and add to the complexity of the Papua conflict, resulting in more casualties.

    “Numerous cases of fatal shootings, which have claimed the lives of people, mostly civilians, has shown that the security approach is not the answer to the problem in Papua,” Setara Institute deputy Bonar Tigor Naipospos said in a statement.

    Naipospos criticised Soesatyo’s suggestion to brush human rights aside, saying such rights as stipulated in Article 28i of the Constitution, could not be reduced by anyone, in including in war and emergencies.

    Stop branding rebels ‘terrorist’
    Secretary of Papua Pegunungan Tengah Student Association (AMPTPI) Ikem Wetipo asked the government to stop calling the TPNPB a “terrorist” group or calling for their “killing”, as in Soesatyo’s comment, which justified human rights violations in West Papua.

    MPR Speaker Bambang Soesatyo
    Indonesian People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) Speaker Bambang Soesatyo … calling on security forces to deploy their full strength and totally destroy armed criminal groups (KKB). Image: IndoLeft News/CNN Indonesia

    “Stop making reckless statements, [such as from] the MPR speaker and the President about capturing, eradicating the TPNPB. It means that the state justifies casualties in the process of pursuing the group,” Wetipo said.

    Armed conflict has been escalating in Puncak Regency since April 8, 2021, when the TPNPB shot dead Oktavianus Rayo, a teacher in Beoga District suspected by the group as an Indonesian spy.

    Since then, five people have died including the intelligence chief in Papua, Major General Anumerta IGP Danny NK, who was killed in crossfire last Sunday. The TPNPB was also accused of burning schools in Beoga.

    A Jubi source was told that the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police were seen pursuing the TPNPB troops in North Ilaga District since Tuesday at 9 am local time.

    “We saw the security forces in three helicopters, [flying over] in Misimaga, Efesus, and Tegelobak Village. The helicopter landed at the Mayuberi creek, [then flew and] has not returned. Whether [the helicopter] has gone to Sinak or Beoga, we don’t know,” he said.

    At 5 pm, firefights broke out between the TPNPB led by Lekagak Telenggen and the TNI and police in Makki, Misimaga, Efesus, and Tegelobak Village. The security forces also reportedly bombarded the villages, prompting villagers to evacuate to churches, forests, and nearby villages such as Tanah Merah and Gome.

    No civilian casualties
    There were no reports of civilian casualties reported by yesterday.

    However, two Mobile Brigade (Brimob) personnel were wounded and one died in the crossfire, Papua Police spokesperson Senior Commander Ahmad Musthofa Kamal confirmed.

    The wounded policemen are Second Insp. Anton Tonapa who was reportedly shot in the back and Chief Brigadier M Syaifudin, shot in the stomach. Meanwhile, Second Agent Komang died of a gunshot wound.

    All wounded military personnel have been evacuated to Mimika General Hospital.

    Meanwhile, TPNPB commander Egianus Kogeya claimed his party had shot dead three TNI members in Nduga Regency on Monday, who Kogeya accused of burning five houses in Alguru District.

    TPNPB spokesperson Sebby Sambom, responded to Jokowi’s order and Soesatyo’s statement, saying the group would never back down in the face of the Indonesian government’s military operations.

    “TPNPB is ready,” Sambom told Jubi.

    “We are standing on our own land. Indonesia with the TNI and police are the thieves coming to steal our natural resources while killing us,” he said.

    Sambom urged the Indonesian government to act in a “democratic” way and send a negotiator, instead of security forces, to meet with the TPNPB.

    “We warn President Jokowi not to sacrifice any more [Indonesian] soldiers. President Jokowi must be open to negotiations with TPNPB’s negotiators,” he said.

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Indonesian families remember victims of Bali submarine disaster – 53 die

    By Ardila Syakriah and Reno Surya in Jakarta and Surabaya

    The hopes of the families of the sailors aboard the Indonesian Navy’s KRI Nanggala-402 submarine were dashed at the weekend after the vessel was found in pieces on the seabed north of Bali and all 53 crew members were declared dead.

    The Indonesian Military (TNI) announced it had located the submarine 838m below sea level about 1.3 kilometers south of the location from which it had made its last contact.

    “With great sadness, I, the TNI commander, announce that the great soldiers of the Submarine Unit have died on duty in the sea north of Bali,” TNI commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto said during a press briefing.

    The announcement ended a four-day international search effort. Personnel from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, India and the United States had helped scour the 10 square nautical miles believed to contain submarine.

    Al Jazeera reports that the submarine – one of five in the Indonesian Navy – was found cracked apart on the seafloor.

    Rescuers found new objects, including a life vest, that they believe belong to those on board the 44-year-old submarine, which lost contact as it prepared to conduct a torpedo drill.

    Authorities said they received signals from the location early on Sunday and used an underwater submarine rescue vehicle supplied by Singapore to get a visual confirmation.

    On Saturday, the navy said fragments of the submarine, including items from inside the vessel, had been retrieved but its location had yet to be confirmed.

    Objects – including prayer mat fragments and a bottle of periscope lubricant were found near the submarine’s last known location.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Indonesian families remember victims of Bali submarine disaster – 53 die

    By Ardila Syakriah and Reno Surya in Jakarta and Surabaya

    The hopes of the families of the sailors aboard the Indonesian Navy’s KRI Nanggala-402 submarine were dashed at the weekend after the vessel was found in pieces on the seabed north of Bali and all 53 crew members were declared dead.

    The Indonesian Military (TNI) announced it had located the submarine 838m below sea level about 1.3 kilometers south of the location from which it had made its last contact.

    “With great sadness, I, the TNI commander, announce that the great soldiers of the Submarine Unit have died on duty in the sea north of Bali,” TNI commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto said during a press briefing.

    The announcement ended a four-day international search effort. Personnel from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, India and the United States had helped scour the 10 square nautical miles believed to contain submarine.

    Al Jazeera reports that the submarine – one of five in the Indonesian Navy – was found cracked apart on the seafloor.

    Rescuers found new objects, including a life vest, that they believe belong to those on board the 44-year-old submarine, which lost contact as it prepared to conduct a torpedo drill.

    Authorities said they received signals from the location early on Sunday and used an underwater submarine rescue vehicle supplied by Singapore to get a visual confirmation.

    On Saturday, the navy said fragments of the submarine, including items from inside the vessel, had been retrieved but its location had yet to be confirmed.

    Objects – including prayer mat fragments and a bottle of periscope lubricant were found near the submarine’s last known location.

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Indonesia slammed for inviting Myanmar coup leader to ASEAN

    By Ryan Aditya in Jakarta

    Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Fatia Maulidiyanti has condemned the invitation to Myanmar coup leader General Min Aung Hlaing to attend the ASEAN ministerial conference in Jakarta at the weekend as revealing Indonesia’s true colours — that it is accepting of human rights violators.

    “Min Aung Hlaing’s arrival actually shows that Indonesia is indeed very apologetic towards human rights violators not just domestically but internationally,” said Maulidiyanti.

    Maulidiyanti said that Indonesia had acted the same way when it received Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) extraordinary leadership conference in 2016.

    Yet, according to Maulidiyanti, Al-Bashir was a dictator and a fugitive of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

    “Indonesia once did the same thing during the OIC Conference in 2016 when Indonesia also invited Omar Al-Bashir,” she said.

    Based on the reception of these two human rights violators, Maulidiyanti questioned Indonesia’s position — which is actually reflected through President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo — with regard to protecting human rights.

    The arrival of the Myanmar military junta leader is regrettable because it was as if Indonesia was paying no heed to the violence taking place in Myanmar.

    Jakarta not heeding violence
    “So here there is actually a question, what face is Indonesia presenting through President Joko Widodo and government officials by not heeding the violence occurring in Myanmar. The aim, rather than inviting the leader of the military junta, is to open dialogue,” she said.

    Maulidiyanti questioned what the real aim was in inviting the lead of the Myanmar military junta to Jakarta.

    Maulidiyanti emphasised that Indonesia should have invited the Myanmar National Unity Government (NUG) to the ASEAN meeting on Saturday afternoon.

    “The government should have instead invited the NUG who are the elected representatives of the Myanmar people,” she said.

    On the other hand, Maulidiyanti said that ASEAN had a very important role to play in resolving the problems in Myanmar. ASEAN should immediately take firm measures over the violence being committed by the Myanmar government.

    The invitation of Min Aung Hlaing to the ASEAN conference proves that ASEAN was not a safe place for the protection of human rights.

    “It can be seen from the cooperation where they don’t want to heed the situation or the importance of acting immediately against the Myanmar government today, meaning ASIAN is not a safe place for protecting human rights”, she said.

    Widodo’s response
    President Widodo said that the violence in Myanmar must stop. This was one of the points he stressed during the meeting with the eight leaders of ASEAN countries at the ASEAN Leaders Meeting in Jakarta.

    “At the meeting earlier I conveyed several things. First, the situation developing in Myanmar is something which is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue,” said Widodo during a virtual press conference on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube channel.

    “The violence must stop. Democracy and stability as well as peace in Myanmar must be restored immediately. The interests of the Myanmar people must always be the priority,” he said.

    Second, Widodo emphasised the importance of General Min Aung Hlaing making two commitments.

    An end to the use of violence by the Myanmar military and that all parties must restrain themselves so that tensions can be eased so that a process of dialogue can be begun.

    “Political prisoners must be released immediately and an ASEAN special envoy needs to be established, namely the ASEAN secretary general and chairperson to promote dialogue between all parties in Myanmar,” said Widodo.

    Third, he asked that access be given for humanitarian aid from ASEAN which would be coordinated by the ASEAN secretary general and the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Center).

    Widodo also asserted that Indonesia wass committed to overseeing the above three commitments so that the crisis in Myanmar could be resolved.

    “We thank God that what has been conveyed by Indonesia will turn out to be in accord with what has been conveyed by ASEAN leaders so it can be said that ASEAN leaders have reached a consensus,” said Widodo.

    “The ASEAN secretary general has conveyed five points of concusses which will be conveyed by the ASEAN secretary general or chairperson. The contents are more or less the same as those that I conveyed earlier in the national statement which I conveyed earlier,” added the president.

    The ASEAN leaders meeting which was held today in Jakarta was attended by the leaders of the nine countries in Southeast Asia: President Joko Widodo, Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chính, Brunei Darussalam Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Myanmar military chief General Min Aung Hlaing, Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Hassin, Laos Foreign Affairs Minister Laos Saleumxay Kommasith, Thai Foreign Affairs Minister Don Pramudwinai and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

    Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “Soroti Kehadiran Min Aung Hlaing, Kontras: Indonesia Apologetik kepada Pelanggar HAM”.

    https://www.indoleft.org

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Indonesia slammed for inviting Myanmar coup leader to ASEAN

    By Ryan Aditya in Jakarta

    Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Fatia Maulidiyanti has condemned the invitation to Myanmar coup leader General Min Aung Hlaing to attend the ASEAN ministerial conference in Jakarta at the weekend as revealing Indonesia’s true colours — that it is accepting of human rights violators.

    “Min Aung Hlaing’s arrival actually shows that Indonesia is indeed very apologetic towards human rights violators not just domestically but internationally,” said Maulidiyanti.

    Maulidiyanti said that Indonesia had acted the same way when it received Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) extraordinary leadership conference in 2016.

    Yet, according to Maulidiyanti, Al-Bashir was a dictator and a fugitive of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

    “Indonesia once did the same thing during the OIC Conference in 2016 when Indonesia also invited Omar Al-Bashir,” she said.

    Based on the reception of these two human rights violators, Maulidiyanti questioned Indonesia’s position — which is actually reflected through President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo — with regard to protecting human rights.

    The arrival of the Myanmar military junta leader is regrettable because it was as if Indonesia was paying no heed to the violence taking place in Myanmar.

    Jakarta not heeding violence
    “So here there is actually a question, what face is Indonesia presenting through President Joko Widodo and government officials by not heeding the violence occurring in Myanmar. The aim, rather than inviting the leader of the military junta, is to open dialogue,” she said.

    Maulidiyanti questioned what the real aim was in inviting the lead of the Myanmar military junta to Jakarta.

    Maulidiyanti emphasised that Indonesia should have invited the Myanmar National Unity Government (NUG) to the ASEAN meeting on Saturday afternoon.

    “The government should have instead invited the NUG who are the elected representatives of the Myanmar people,” she said.

    On the other hand, Maulidiyanti said that ASEAN had a very important role to play in resolving the problems in Myanmar. ASEAN should immediately take firm measures over the violence being committed by the Myanmar government.

    The invitation of Min Aung Hlaing to the ASEAN conference proves that ASEAN was not a safe place for the protection of human rights.

    “It can be seen from the cooperation where they don’t want to heed the situation or the importance of acting immediately against the Myanmar government today, meaning ASIAN is not a safe place for protecting human rights”, she said.

    Widodo’s response
    President Widodo said that the violence in Myanmar must stop. This was one of the points he stressed during the meeting with the eight leaders of ASEAN countries at the ASEAN Leaders Meeting in Jakarta.

    “At the meeting earlier I conveyed several things. First, the situation developing in Myanmar is something which is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue,” said Widodo during a virtual press conference on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube channel.

    “The violence must stop. Democracy and stability as well as peace in Myanmar must be restored immediately. The interests of the Myanmar people must always be the priority,” he said.

    Second, Widodo emphasised the importance of General Min Aung Hlaing making two commitments.

    An end to the use of violence by the Myanmar military and that all parties must restrain themselves so that tensions can be eased so that a process of dialogue can be begun.

    “Political prisoners must be released immediately and an ASEAN special envoy needs to be established, namely the ASEAN secretary general and chairperson to promote dialogue between all parties in Myanmar,” said Widodo.

    Third, he asked that access be given for humanitarian aid from ASEAN which would be coordinated by the ASEAN secretary general and the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Center).

    Widodo also asserted that Indonesia wass committed to overseeing the above three commitments so that the crisis in Myanmar could be resolved.

    “We thank God that what has been conveyed by Indonesia will turn out to be in accord with what has been conveyed by ASEAN leaders so it can be said that ASEAN leaders have reached a consensus,” said Widodo.

    “The ASEAN secretary general has conveyed five points of concusses which will be conveyed by the ASEAN secretary general or chairperson. The contents are more or less the same as those that I conveyed earlier in the national statement which I conveyed earlier,” added the president.

    The ASEAN leaders meeting which was held today in Jakarta was attended by the leaders of the nine countries in Southeast Asia: President Joko Widodo, Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chính, Brunei Darussalam Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Myanmar military chief General Min Aung Hlaing, Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Hassin, Laos Foreign Affairs Minister Laos Saleumxay Kommasith, Thai Foreign Affairs Minister Don Pramudwinai and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

    Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “Soroti Kehadiran Min Aung Hlaing, Kontras: Indonesia Apologetik kepada Pelanggar HAM”.

    https://www.indoleft.org

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Indonesia slammed for inviting Myanmar coup leader to ASEAN

    By Ryan Aditya in Jakarta

    Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Fatia Maulidiyanti has condemned the invitation to Myanmar coup leader General Min Aung Hlaing to attend the ASEAN ministerial conference in Jakarta at the weekend as revealing Indonesia’s true colours — that it is accepting of human rights violators.

    “Min Aung Hlaing’s arrival actually shows that Indonesia is indeed very apologetic towards human rights violators not just domestically but internationally,” said Maulidiyanti.

    Maulidiyanti said that Indonesia had acted the same way when it received Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) extraordinary leadership conference in 2016.

    Yet, according to Maulidiyanti, Al-Bashir was a dictator and a fugitive of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

    “Indonesia once did the same thing during the OIC Conference in 2016 when Indonesia also invited Omar Al-Bashir,” she said.

    Based on the reception of these two human rights violators, Maulidiyanti questioned Indonesia’s position — which is actually reflected through President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo — with regard to protecting human rights.

    The arrival of the Myanmar military junta leader is regrettable because it was as if Indonesia was paying no heed to the violence taking place in Myanmar.

    Jakarta not heeding violence
    “So here there is actually a question, what face is Indonesia presenting through President Joko Widodo and government officials by not heeding the violence occurring in Myanmar. The aim, rather than inviting the leader of the military junta, is to open dialogue,” she said.

    Maulidiyanti questioned what the real aim was in inviting the lead of the Myanmar military junta to Jakarta.

    Maulidiyanti emphasised that Indonesia should have invited the Myanmar National Unity Government (NUG) to the ASEAN meeting on Saturday afternoon.

    “The government should have instead invited the NUG who are the elected representatives of the Myanmar people,” she said.

    On the other hand, Maulidiyanti said that ASEAN had a very important role to play in resolving the problems in Myanmar. ASEAN should immediately take firm measures over the violence being committed by the Myanmar government.

    The invitation of Min Aung Hlaing to the ASEAN conference proves that ASEAN was not a safe place for the protection of human rights.

    “It can be seen from the cooperation where they don’t want to heed the situation or the importance of acting immediately against the Myanmar government today, meaning ASIAN is not a safe place for protecting human rights”, she said.

    Widodo’s response
    President Widodo said that the violence in Myanmar must stop. This was one of the points he stressed during the meeting with the eight leaders of ASEAN countries at the ASEAN Leaders Meeting in Jakarta.

    “At the meeting earlier I conveyed several things. First, the situation developing in Myanmar is something which is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue,” said Widodo during a virtual press conference on the Presidential Secretariat YouTube channel.

    “The violence must stop. Democracy and stability as well as peace in Myanmar must be restored immediately. The interests of the Myanmar people must always be the priority,” he said.

    Second, Widodo emphasised the importance of General Min Aung Hlaing making two commitments.

    An end to the use of violence by the Myanmar military and that all parties must restrain themselves so that tensions can be eased so that a process of dialogue can be begun.

    “Political prisoners must be released immediately and an ASEAN special envoy needs to be established, namely the ASEAN secretary general and chairperson to promote dialogue between all parties in Myanmar,” said Widodo.

    Third, he asked that access be given for humanitarian aid from ASEAN which would be coordinated by the ASEAN secretary general and the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA Center).

    Widodo also asserted that Indonesia wass committed to overseeing the above three commitments so that the crisis in Myanmar could be resolved.

    “We thank God that what has been conveyed by Indonesia will turn out to be in accord with what has been conveyed by ASEAN leaders so it can be said that ASEAN leaders have reached a consensus,” said Widodo.

    “The ASEAN secretary general has conveyed five points of concusses which will be conveyed by the ASEAN secretary general or chairperson. The contents are more or less the same as those that I conveyed earlier in the national statement which I conveyed earlier,” added the president.

    The ASEAN leaders meeting which was held today in Jakarta was attended by the leaders of the nine countries in Southeast Asia: President Joko Widodo, Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chính, Brunei Darussalam Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Myanmar military chief General Min Aung Hlaing, Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Hassin, Laos Foreign Affairs Minister Laos Saleumxay Kommasith, Thai Foreign Affairs Minister Don Pramudwinai and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.

    Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “Soroti Kehadiran Min Aung Hlaing, Kontras: Indonesia Apologetik kepada Pelanggar HAM”.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Police scuffle with protesters against Myanmar junta leader at ASEAN

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Police have forced protesters demonstrating at the weekend against the attendance of Myanmar military commander General Min Aung Hlaing at the ASEAN Ministerial Level Conference (KTT) in Jakarta away from the meeting into the nearby Agung Al-Azhar Mosque area, reports CNN Indonesia.

    The peaceful action was organised by the Leaders and Organisers of Community Organisation in Asia (LOCOA) in front of the ASEAN secretariat building in South Jakarta on Saturday.

    The police then asked the protesters to move back from the ASEAN secretariat building.

    A scuffle broke out when police began forcing demonstrators away from the meeting venue. Police eventually maneouvered the protesters into the Agung Al-Azhar Mosque area.

    Metro Jaya regional police traffic director Sambodo Purnomo Yogo said that the police had intentionally forced the protesters away in order to “sterilise” Jalan Sisingamaraja or the area in front of the ASEAN secretariat building.

    “State guests will be passing through the Sisingamaraja route, so we pushed them further inside so that it would not disrupt the passing guests,” he said.

    Yogo emphasised that they did not prohibit the demonstrators from conveying their views. “Please go ahead (and demonstrate) but inside,” he said.

    Legitimate government not invited
    In a media release, LOCOA said it regretted that the ASEAN Ministerial Level Conference to discuss the Myanmar crisis did not invite the legitimate government of Myanmar.

    “LOCOA strongly condemns ASEAN and its member states because they invited the military junta to the KTT ASEAN”, read Saturday’s official release.

    LOCOA also slammed the military junta for its violent actions against peaceful protesters and for committing illegal killings, arrests, torture and imprisonment with total impunity.

    They demanded that the military end the violence against peaceful demonstrators and civilians and urged the United Nations to immediately send a monitoring and humanitarian support mission to Myanmar.

    Myanmar’s military commander General Min Aung Hlaing who launched the coup d’etat against the civilian government attended the meeting.

    Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “Polisi Sekat Pedemo Junta Myanmar di Kawasan Masjid Al-Azhar”.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Police scuffle with protesters against Myanmar junta leader at ASEAN

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Police have forced protesters demonstrating at the weekend against the attendance of Myanmar military commander General Min Aung Hlaing at the ASEAN Ministerial Level Conference (KTT) in Jakarta away from the meeting into the nearby Agung Al-Azhar Mosque area, reports CNN Indonesia.

    The peaceful action was organised by the Leaders and Organisers of Community Organisation in Asia (LOCOA) in front of the ASEAN secretariat building in South Jakarta on Saturday.

    The police then asked the protesters to move back from the ASEAN secretariat building.

    A scuffle broke out when police began forcing demonstrators away from the meeting venue. Police eventually maneouvered the protesters into the Agung Al-Azhar Mosque area.

    Metro Jaya regional police traffic director Sambodo Purnomo Yogo said that the police had intentionally forced the protesters away in order to “sterilise” Jalan Sisingamaraja or the area in front of the ASEAN secretariat building.

    “State guests will be passing through the Sisingamaraja route, so we pushed them further inside so that it would not disrupt the passing guests,” he said.

    Yogo emphasised that they did not prohibit the demonstrators from conveying their views. “Please go ahead (and demonstrate) but inside,” he said.

    Legitimate government not invited
    In a media release, LOCOA said it regretted that the ASEAN Ministerial Level Conference to discuss the Myanmar crisis did not invite the legitimate government of Myanmar.

    “LOCOA strongly condemns ASEAN and its member states because they invited the military junta to the KTT ASEAN”, read Saturday’s official release.

    LOCOA also slammed the military junta for its violent actions against peaceful protesters and for committing illegal killings, arrests, torture and imprisonment with total impunity.

    They demanded that the military end the violence against peaceful demonstrators and civilians and urged the United Nations to immediately send a monitoring and humanitarian support mission to Myanmar.

    Myanmar’s military commander General Min Aung Hlaing who launched the coup d’etat against the civilian government attended the meeting.

    Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “Polisi Sekat Pedemo Junta Myanmar di Kawasan Masjid Al-Azhar”.

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    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Anzac Day war stories: The horror of napalm in Korea

    RNZ News

    A New Zealand veteran who fought in Korea told of his experience of war and the horror of seeing napalm used for the first time.

    Gordon Sutherland, from Johnsonville, attended today’s Anzac Day dawn national service in Wellington.

    “I’ll always remember what an experience it was to see, sitting on the hill, on the other side the worst experience I’ll ever have was seeing napalm used for the first time.

    “Absolutely… I was so shocked that I even felt sorry for the enemy. The enemy that was a human being.

    “I’ve never forgotten it and I’ve never talked about that occasion in Korea before. This is actually the first time.”

    Gordon said he had attended commemoration services his entire life.

    Connection for 80 years
    “My connection goes back 80 years, from when I was a wee boy my father served in the First World War and I attended services from when I was four-years-old. I was born on Armistice Day and I’m still here today.

    “I served in Korea… I suppose you’d call it fighting.”

    He said when he returned to New Zealand he could not believe how green it was.

    “It was wonderful to be home and since then I’ve experienced a wonderful life.

    “It’s just so lovely to be here… I love our country.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    Print Friendly, PDF & Email

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Anzac Day war stories: The horror of napalm in Korea

    RNZ News

    A New Zealand veteran who fought in Korea told of his experience of war and the horror of seeing napalm used for the first time.

    Gordon Sutherland, from Johnsonville, attended today’s Anzac Day dawn national service in Wellington.

    “I’ll always remember what an experience it was to see, sitting on the hill, on the other side the worst experience I’ll ever have was seeing napalm used for the first time.

    “Absolutely… I was so shocked that I even felt sorry for the enemy. The enemy that was a human being.

    “I’ve never forgotten it and I’ve never talked about that occasion in Korea before. This is actually the first time.”

    Gordon said he had attended commemoration services his entire life.

    Connection for 80 years
    “My connection goes back 80 years, from when I was a wee boy my father served in the First World War and I attended services from when I was four-years-old. I was born on Armistice Day and I’m still here today.

    “I served in Korea… I suppose you’d call it fighting.”

    He said when he returned to New Zealand he could not believe how green it was.

    “It was wonderful to be home and since then I’ve experienced a wonderful life.

    “It’s just so lovely to be here… I love our country.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • ‘Prejudice’ led to a failure to commemorate thousands of soldiers of colour

    The UK government has apologised for failing to equally commemorate up to 350,000 British Empire troops who died in WW1.

    The controversy centres on a report on equality of commemoration by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). This report came off the back of a 2019 documentary on the issue presented by Labour MP David Lammy.

    Overlooked

    The report shows that tens of thousands of imperial troops were not commemorated in the same way white soldiers were. It also found that somewhere between 116,000 and 350,000 servicemen were either not commemorated by name or overlooked entirely. Most of this group came from African, Arab, and Asian countries:

    This report estimates that between 45,000 and 54,000 casualties (predominantly Indian, East African, West African, Egyptian and Somali personnel) were commemorated unequally.

    A further 116,000 casualties (predominantly, but not exclusively, East African and Egyptian personnel) but potentially as many as 350,000, were not commemorated by name or possibly not commemorated at all.

    The organisation accepted a degree of responsibility for the imbalance:

    Although conditions and circumstances sometimes made the IWGC’s job difficult or even impossible, on many occasions differences in commemoration were avoidable. This report finds that the IWGC is responsible for these shortcomings – either because of its own decision making or its complicity in the decision making of other authorities.

    It also acknowledges that “prejudice” played a role:

    Despite clearly making this argument, this report also shines a light on wider administrative errors and prejudiced attitudes that influenced or played a role in bringing about these issues.

    Ultimately, many of these errors and attitudes belonged to departments of the British Imperial Government, including the War Office and Colonial Office.

    Scandals

    The historian David Olusoga called the issue:

    one of the biggest scandals I’ve ever come across as an historian

    He also tweeted that the unequal treatment amounted to a form of apartheid:

     

    Olusoga then linked to the 2019 documentary made by David Lammy. Here, Lammy discovered that East African troops had been buried without headstones. He also found that most of these headstones are in what is now an overgrown verge between a road and a well-preserved cemetery for white troops in Kenya.

    In a Guardian piece on the issue, Lammy described some of the attitudes which had led to the unequal commemorations:

    The logic for this outrage was explained by Gordon Guggisberg, the governor of the Gold Coast (now Ghana), who wrote in 1923: “The average native of the Gold Coast would not understand or appreciate a headstone.” A War Graves Commission document refers to African soldiers and carriers as “semi-savage”. Another states “they are hardly in such a state of civilisation as to appreciate such a memorial”, and “the erection of individual memorials would represent a waste of public money”

    A founding principle of the war graves commission was that those killed in the war, whatever their rank or background, should have equality in death.

    Featured image via John Warwick Brooke/Wikimedia Commons

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • A slight case of Mercer: the fall of a veterans’ minister

    Johnny Mercer, the former Royal Artillery captain turned veterans minister, is out of a job. And the snarly ex-soldier isn’t very happy about it. Politics, he says, is a ‘cesspit of distrust’.

    As a keen Mercer observer, I’ve followed his career with interest. When he gave his impassioned (though typically rambling) maiden speech to parliament on veterans care, I was one of many ex-military people who even bought into him a little bit. Finally, a lot of vets thought at the time, someone might do something about the suicides, the prison numbers, the homeless veterans and so on.

    Not so. If anything, Mercer will be remembered as a man out of his depth. Also as a driving force behind a bill to make soldiers effectively immune from prosecution for wrongdoing during wartime: the so-called Overseas Operations Bill, better described as the War Crimes Immunity Bill.

    And that toxic legislation may still come to haunt Britain, despite reports that its worst sections have been toned down.

    Support for Mercer has plunged even on military online forums in recent years. And this is the very place he’d enjoyed popularity as a self-appointed champion of the military community at the start of his political career. He has since become notorious as a serial blocker of veterans who even mildly challenge him on social media.

    In the end, he became a figure of absurdity, known as much for his strange public antics as for the values he constantly referred to.

    A slight case of Mercer

    Among his greatest hits was squaring up to ‘unwashed’ protesters, at the party conference in Manchester, who asked him if he was a Tory:

    I was getting a little annoyed. ‘Yes I am a f***ing Tory mate, is that ok with you?’ He started pointing me out to his mates, who all looked like they had spent a considerable period away from any sort of washing facilities. In fact, some of my lads looked better in Afghanistan after an 18 day patrol. And smelled nicer.

    On another occasion he announced, somewhat bizarrely for a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, that the British Army was in the business of helping the oppressed:

    There have been several write-ups of Mercer’s time as a minister. The best so far is by journalist Iain Overton (also blocked by the former minister). It recalls Mercer being confronted by a parliamentary committee about the Overseas Operations Bill on the idea that claims were “vexatious,”. And this is a term he used relentlessly while apparently not really understanding what it meant:

    When asked by Parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights “what he meant by vexatious prosecutions brought by the [Ministry of Defence] against armed forces personnel”, its report cited that Mercer “seemed not to understand the question”.

    Mercer most foul

    Mercer remains an MP, but also a case study. As a veteran of the same war, I’ve come to think of him as a kind of personification of the failed officer class which oversaw the disasters in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Beyond that, like many veterans on the political right, he has continued to see the world through the black-and-white lens of the military. A lens which, on this evidence, is completely unsuited to the complexity of the real world and to the amoral, dog-eat-dog nature of Tory politics.

    In the end, though, despite his efforts to frame himself as a victim of internal backstabbing, his political demise was self-inflicted. A case, if you like, of Mercer most foul.

    Featured image via YouTube/Johnny Mercer

     

    By Joe Glenton

    This post was originally published on The Canary.

  • Historic Liar George W Bush Thinks Republicans Lie Too Much

    George W. Bush, the former President that lied us into a war of aggression in the Middle East, suddenly thinks that the modern Republican tells too many “untruths.” Bush has reemerged in recent years as an alleged “conscientious” conservative, one that doesn’t like the direction the Party took under Trump. But his words ring hollow […]

    The post Historic Liar George W Bush Thinks Republicans Lie Too Much appeared first on The Ring of Fire Network.

    This post was originally published on The Ring of Fire.

  • Liz Cheney Is FURIOUS About Afghanistan Troop Withdrawal

    Representative Liz Cheney isn’t happy about the fact that President Biden wants to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, and she says that this is a massive victory for the “enemies” of the United States. There is no threshold that would be acceptable to warmongers like the Cheney family to withdraw U.S. troops, and the […]

    The post Liz Cheney Is FURIOUS About Afghanistan Troop Withdrawal appeared first on The Ring of Fire Network.

    This post was originally published on The Ring of Fire.

  • West Papua action group raises human rights issues with Taieri MP

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    The local West Papua action group in Dunedin has met Taieri MP Ingrid Leary and raised human rights and militarisation issues that members believe the New Zealand government should be pursuing with Indonesia.

    Leary has a strong track record on Pacific human rights issues having worked in Fiji as a television journalist and educator and as a NZ regional director of the British Council with a mandate for Pacific cultural projects.

    She is also sits on the parliamentary select committees for Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, and Finance and Expenditure.

    READ MORE: Military exports to Indonesia strain NZ’s human rights record

    Leary met local coordinator Barbara Frame, retired Methodist pastor Ken Russell, and two doctoral candidates on West Papua research projects at Otago University’s National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (NCPCS), Ashley McMillan and Jeremy Simons, at her South Dunedin electorate office on Friday.

    She also met Dr David Robie, publisher and editor of Asia Pacific Report that covers West Papuan issues, and Del Abcede of the Auckland-based Asia-Pacific Human Rights Coalition (APHRC).

    New Zealand’s defence relationship with Indonesia was critiqued in an article for RNZ National at the weekend by Maire Leadbeater, author of See No Evil: New Zealand’s Betrayal of the People of West Papua.

    ‘Human rights illusion’
    “The recent exposure of New Zealand’s military exports to Saudi Arabia and other countries with terrible human rights records is very important,” Leadbeater wrote.

    “The illusion of New Zealand as a human rights upholder has been shattered, and we have work ahead to ensure that we can restore not only our reputation but the reality on which it is based.”

    West Papua group with MP Ingrid Leary
    The West Papua action group with Taieri MP Ingrid Leary in Dunedin … retired Methodist pastor Ken Russell (from left), Otago University doctoral candidate Jeremy Simons, group coordinator Barbara Frame, MP Ingrid Leary, Ashley McMillan (Otago PhD candidate), Dr David Robie (APR) and Del Abcede (APHRC).

    She cited Official Information Act documentation which demonstrated that since 2008 New Zealand had exported military aircraft parts to the Indonesian Air Force.

    “In most years, including 2020, these parts are listed as ‘P3 Orion, C130 Hercules & CASA Military Aircraft:Engines, Propellers & Components including Casa Hubs and Actuators’, she wrote.

    The documentation also showed that New Zealand exported other ‘strategic goods’ to Indonesia, including so-called small arms including rifles and pistols.

    “New Zealand’s human rights advocacy for West Papua is decidedly low-key, despite claims by some academics that Indonesia is responsible for the alleged crime of genocide against the indigenous people,” Leadbeater wrote.

    “Pursuing lucrative arms exports, and training of human rights violators, undermines any message our government sends. As more is known about this complicity the challenge to the government’s Indonesia-first setting must grow.”

    Massive militarisation
    Asia Pacific Report last month published an article by Suara Papua’s Arnold Belau which revealed that the Indonesian state had sent 21,369 troops to the “land of Papua” in the past three years.

    Jakarta sends 21,000 troops to Papua over last three years, says KNPB

    This figure demonstrating massive militarisation of Papua did not include Kopassus (special forces), reinforcements and a number of other regional units or the Polri (Indonesian police).

    Victor Yeimo, international spokesperson for the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), was cited as saying that Papua was now a “military operation zone”.

    “This meant [that] Papua had truly become a protectorate where life and death was controlled by military force,” Belau wrote.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.