The conflict in Indonesia's easternmost Papua region has returned to the spotlight after a video circulated online showing police officers taunting a fatally wounded rebel. Papua is home to a low-level separatist insurgency, with sporadic violence continuing despite regional autonomy awarded in 2001.
Human rights abuses, political discrimination and economic marginalization are among the root causes of the conflict, rights activists said. The video that hit the internet last month showed separatist fighter Yawan Wayeni, wounded in the stomach and lying on the ground, raising an arm and shouting "Freedom" as a police officer recorded him on a mobile phone. The incident happened last year after Wayeni escaped prison, where he was serving a nine-year sentence for separatist activity. He later died in hospital of his injuries.
The video sparked condemnation of police by human rights groups. "This is a violation of international and national laws," Usman Hamid, chairman of Jakarta-based Kontras, said. "There doesn't seem to be any willingness to hold anyone to account for the killing." Police denied allegations that Wayeni had been disembowelled by a bayonet, saying he was shot in the stomach while resisting arrest. Tension in predominantly Christian Papua rose in July when thousands of people took to the streets to demand a referendum on the status of the region.
The protests came after the central government rejected a local proposal to require candidates running for district elections to be indigenous Papuans. Jakarta argued that such a move would violate national anti-discrimination laws. Papuans are increasingly uneasy about the growing influx of migrants with capital and skills from other parts of Indonesia, depriving local residents of economic opportunities.
They also complain that the autonomy scheme has failed to improve the lives of ordinary Papuans. "We can see that planes and ships that come regularly to Papua carry mostly non-Papuans," said Frederika Korain, an activist with the Peace and Justice Commission for the Diocese of Jayapura, the main city in Papua. "Migrants are changing the demography of Papua and it's threatening us," she said.
"There's discrimination in the cities where Papuans are becoming a minority." Violence against migrants has also been reported in recent years. Earlier this month, gunmen shot dead a trader and injured another in Puncak Jaya district, home to a large number of migrants.
According to a 2000 census, migrants accounted for 12 per cent of the Papuan population, but activists claimed that the proportion is now much higher, with non-Papuans the majority in some districts. The results of the 2010 census have yet to be released. The economic interests of the military and the police are also fuelling the conflict, said Brigham Golden, a Papua scholar from Columbia University in the United States. He said it was "well-documented" that the army was involved in a variety of activities both legal and illegal, including "logging, illegal mining, control of gasoline and alcohol."
"There's an interest in being there and for that reason maintaining the perception of insecurity and instability," he said. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono responded to the demand for referendum by calling for an audit of special autonomy funds. But the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based conflict resolution think tank, said the non-economic aspects of special autonomy need to be examined closely. "The gulf in perceptions between Jakarta and Papua is huge," it said in a report released this month.
"Jakarta sees autonomy largely in terms of giving Papua more money, while Papuans want more authority to make political decisions without constantly being trumped by national laws," it said. The group urged Yudhoyono to hold talks with credible Papuan leaders to address their grievances, saying that discontent and resentment were far more widespread than just limited to the hardcore pro-independence community. Indonesia formally took control of the former Dutch colony in 1969 after a UN-sponsored referendum that Jakarta was accused of manipulating.
Comments
Comments are closed.