A google translate.
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Contact seosamh20@hotmail.com
Friday, May 3, 2024
The Papuan Police sent the Cartenz Peace Operations Task Force to Intan Jaya
Thursday, May 2, 2024
1) OPM’s Bomanak accuses UN of failing to uphold decolonisation role over West Papua
2) The TPNPB News-Per 2 Mei 2024
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A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963.
In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM (Free Papua Organisation) leader Jeffrey P Bomanak has also claimed that this was the “beginning of genocide” that could only have happened through the failure of the global body to “legally uphold its decolonisation responsibilities in accordance with the UN Charter”.
Bomanak says in the letter dated yesterday that the UN failed to confront the “relentless barbarity of the Indonesian invasion force and expose the lie of the fraudulent 1969 gun-barrel ‘Act of No Choice'”.
- READ MORE: OPM leader’s open letter condemns Australia’s ‘treachery’ over Papua
- West Papua accusations fly at Australia, US
- Other West Papua reports
The open letter follows one released on the eve of Anzac Day last month which strongly criticised the role of Australia and the United States, accusing both countries of “betrayal” in Papuan aspirations for independence.
According to RNZ News today, an Australian statement in response to the earlier OPM letter said the federal government “unreservedly recognises Indonesia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over the Papua provinces”.
The White House has not responded.
The OPM says it has compiled a “prima facie pictorial ‘integration’ history” of Indonesia’s actions in integrating the Pacific region into an Asian nation. It plans to present this evidence of “six decades of crimes against humanity” to Secretary-General Guterres and new Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.
May 1, 2024
Dear Secretary-General Guterres,
I am addressing you in an open letter which I will be releasing to media and governments because I have previously brought to your attention the history of the illegal annexation of West Papua on May 1st, 1963, and the role of your office in the fraudulent UN referendum in 1969, called an Act of Free Choice and I have never received a reply.
After six decades of OPM letters and Papuan appeals to the UN Secretariat, I am providing the transparency and accountability of an “open letter”, so that historians of the future can
investigate the moral and ethical credibility of the UN Secretariat.
May 1st is a day of mourning for Papuans. A day of grief over the illegal annexation of our ancestral Melanesian homeland by a violent occupation force from Southeast Asia.
Indonesia’s annexation of Western New Guinea (Irian Jaya/West Papua) on May 1, 1963, is
commemorated in Indonesia’s Parliament as a day of integration. The photos on these pages on these pages show a different story. The reality these photos portray is, in fact, one of the longest ongoing acts of genocide since the end of the Second World War.
An invasion and an illegal annexation not unlike Nazi Germany’s annexation in 1938 of
its neighbouring country, Austria. The difference for Papuans is that the UN and the USA were co-conspirators in preventing our right to determine a future that was our right to have under the UN decolonisation process: independence and nation-state sovereignty.
A very chilling contradiction — the Allies we fought alongside, nursed back to life, and died with during WWII had joined forces with a mass-murderer not unlike Hitler — the Indonesian president Suharto (see Photo collage #2: Axis of Evil).
Some scholars have called the May 1, 1963 annexation “Indonesia’s Anschluss”. Suharto and the conspirators goal of colonial invasion and conquest had been achieved through
the illegal annexation of my people’s ancestral homeland, my homeland.
General and president-in-waiting Suharto signed a contract in 1967 with American mining giant Freeport, another company associated with David Rockefeller, two years before we were to determine our future through the aforementioned gun-barrel UN referendum project-managed by a brutal occupation force. Our future had already been determined by Suharto, David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger, and Suharto’s friend, UN secretary-General U Thant. U Thant had succeeded Dag Hammarskjöld who had been assassinated for his controversial view that human rights and freedom were absolutely universal and should not be subjected to the criminal whims of either tyrants like Suharto or a resource industry with views on human rights and freedom that resembled Suharto’s.
I do not need to give you a blow-by-blow history for your edification — you already know the entire history and the victim tally — 350,000 adults and 150,000 children and babies. And rising. You are, after all, a man of some principle — Portugal’s former prime minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002, as well as a member of the Portuguese Socialist Party. And presiding as Portuguese prime minster during the final years of Fretilin’s war of liberation in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony invaded by Indonesia in 1975 with anywhere up to 250,000 victims of genocide. Please explain to me the difference between the Indonesia’s
invasion and “integration” of East Timor and Indonesia’s invasion and “integration” of my homeland, Western New Guinea (West Papua).
Apart from the oil in the Timor Gap and the gold and copper all over my homeland — the wealth of someone else’s resources promoting the “integration” policies pictured over these pages.
As a member of a socialist party, you might be attending May Day ceremonies today. I will be counselling victims and the families of loved ones who have been “integrated” today. Yes, the freedom-loving Papuans are holding rallies to protest the annexation of our homeland . . . to protest the failure — your failure — to apply justice and to end this nightmare.
The cost of the UN-approved annexation to Papuans in pain and suffering: massacres, torture, systemic rape by TNI and Polri, mutilation and dismemberment as a signature of your barbarity. Relentless barbarity causing six decades of physical and cultural genocide, ethnocide, infanticide, and wave after wave of ethnic cleansing.
The cost to Papuans in the theft and plunder of our natural resources: genocide by starvation and famine.
The cost to Papuans from the foreign resource industry plundering our natural resources: the devastation of pristine environments, whole ecosystems poisoned by the resource industry’s chemical toxicity, called tailings, released into rivers thereby destroying whole riverine catchments along with food sources from fishing and farming — catchment rivers and nearby farming lands contaminated by Freeport, and other’s. A failure to apply any international standards for risk management to prevent the associated birth defects
in villages now living in contaminated catchments.
That we would choose to become part of any nation so brutal defies credibility. That the UN approved integration should have been impossible based on the evidence of the ever-increasing numbers of defence and security forces landing in West Papua and undertaking military campaigns that include ever-increasing victims and internally displaced Papuans, the bombing of central highland villages a current example? Such courage! Why are foreign
media not allowed into my people’s homeland?
Secretary-General Guterres, future historians will judge the efficacy of the United Nations. The integrity. West Papua will feature as a part the UN Secretariat’s legacy. To this endeavour, as the leader of Organisasi Papua Merdeka, I ask, and demand that you comply with your obligations under article 85 part 2 and sundry articles of your Charter of United Nations which requires that you inform the Trusteeship Council about your General Assembly resolution 1752, with which you are subjugating our people and homelands of West New Guinea which we call West Papua.
The agreement which your resolution 1752 is authorising, begins with the words “The Republic of Indonesia and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, having in mind the interests and welfare of the people of the territory of West New Guinea (West Irian)”
Your agreement is clearly a trusteeship agreement written according to your rules of Chapter XII of your Charter of the United Nations.
The West Papuan people have always opposed your use of United Nations military to make our people’s human rights subject to the whim of your two administrators, UNTEA and from 1st May 1963 the Republic of Indonesia that is your current administrator.
We refer to your organisation’s last official record about West Papua which still suffers your ongoing unjust administration managed by UNTEA and Indonesia:
Because you also used article 81 and Chapter XII of your Charter to seize control of our homelands when you created your General Assembly resolution 1752, the Netherlands was excused by article 73(e), “to transmit regularly to the Secretary-General for information purposes, subject to such limitation as security and constitutional considerations may require, statistical and other information of a technical nature relating to economic, social, and educational conditions in the territories for which they are respectively responsible other than those territories to which Chapters XII and XIII apply”, from transmitting further reports about our people and the extrajudicial killings that your new administrators began using to silence our demands for our liberty and independence.
We therefore demand your Trusteeship Council begin its unfinished duty of preparing your United Nations reports as articles 85 part 2, 87 and 88 of your Charter requires.
West Papua is entitled to independence, and article 76 requires you assist. It is illegal for Indonesia to invade us and to impede our independence, and to subsequently subject us to six decades of every classification for crimes against humanity listed by the International Criminal Court.
We know this trusteeship agreement was first proposed by the American lawyer John Henderson in 1959, and was discussed with Indonesian officials in 1961 six months before the death of your Dag Hammarskjöld. We think it is shameful that you then elected Indonesia’s friend U Thant as Secretary-General, and we demand that you permit the Secretariat to perform its proper duty of revealing your current annexation of West Papua (Resolution 1752) to your Trusteeship Council.
I look forward to your reply.
Yours sincerely,
Jeffrey P Bomanak
Chairman-Commander OPM
Markas Victoria, May 1, 2024
The TPNPB News-Per 2 Mei 2024
Shared
by: Sebby Sambom
(Jubir TPNPB)
TPNPB
Region VIII Intan Jaya Forces Succeeded In Shooting 4 Indonesian Military Members And Burned One Primary School Building On May 1, 2024
The Management of the Komnas Central Headquarters of TPNPB has received official reports from the Commander of the Defense Regional Command VIII Intan Jaya
Brigadier General Undius Kogeya and his Forces that they have fired at the TNI/Polri Patrol Car And successfully shot 4 members of the Indonesian terrorist Army, And also successfully built the building of elementary school
because of the School this school building is used by the Indonesian military and police, and also members of the TNI who are teachers in the school.
Please
follow the report of TPNPB region VIII Intan Jaya below!
TPNPB-OPM
West
Papua National Liberation Army-Independent Papua Organization Kodap VIII
Intanjaya Brigadier Undius Kogoya is responsible for the death of 4 TNI-POLRI
members and one empty rear car.
The firing incident happened at 12:05 pm Enarotali district bibida village this
thing started terrorist members of ARMY-POLRI entered without permission until
we shoot for that we hope we can not blame Enarotali people, also we are ready
to conduct operation in Enarotali, deiyai, dogiyai and Nabire district where
these 4 districts become TPNPB-OPM operation area And this we convey because
Prabowo Subianto and the Indonesian military chief have agreed to talk law
enforcement, then before sending the terrorist army TNI-Polri prepare the
coffin of your member and then send, so I also ask TPNPB who are in these 4
regions immediately unite and take command to conduct operations against
TNI-Polri terrorists
Until
Papua gets independent TPNPB is still on standby 1. More information will
follow.
More
info on the VIII Intanjaya kodap army that was commanded by Keny Tipagau and
aprianus bagubau managed to burn down a school and a house where the sales
place belonged to TNI-Polri in pogapa at 08:10 am.
It
was done because the kiosks belong to TNI-Polri also, And Keny Tipagau asked
civilians to immediately vacate pogapa village homeyo sub-district.
More
reports on the Enarotali situation will follow.
In
Charge: Brigadier Undius Kogoya
and
the leaders in Paniai and Ilaga.
Thus
the press release of the TPNPB Komnas Central Headquarters Management, And
forwarded to all parties by Jubir Komnas TPNPB Sebby Sambom.
And
thank you for good cooperation.
---------------------------------------
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
West Papua accusations fly at Australia, US
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/515772/west-papua-accusations-fly-at-australia-us
Monday, April 22, 2024
New dawn in fight against OPM in Papua
https://en.antaranews.com/news/311397/new-dawn-in-fight-against-opm-in-papua
"I will take firm action against what the OPM has done. There can be no country within a country," he stated, marking the start of a new chapter in the crackdown on the OPM.
The government's decision on April 5 to reuse the term OPM for armed separatists in Papua—previously called the Armed Criminal Group (KKB)--highlighted the gravity of eradicating this group.
The TNI has adopted a zero-tolerance approach towards OPM's actions, targeting civilians and personnel from the TNI and National Police (Polri).
General Agus also revealed that at various places, OPM members had also raped several teachers and health workers in rural areas.
Since then, the TNI and Polri, who are members of the Cartenz Peace Task Force, have begun their operation to hunt down the rebels.
On March 11, the Cartenz Peace Task Force succeeded in seizing two active OPM members–Afrika Heluka and Toni Wetapo a.k.a. Toni Giban— in Yahukimo District, Papua Mountain Province. The task force also managed to arrest six OPM members at the location.
The task force then escalated its action and operations when one of the members of TNI, Military District Commander (Danramil) of Aradide, Second Lieutenant Oktovianus Sogalrey, died in an OPM attack.
One of the OPM members recorded the act of abuse against Sogalrey, and the video was also circulated on social media.
The Panai OPM group is suspected of being the mastermind behind this brutal action. Since then, the TNI and Polri have stepped up their hunt for the OPM group.
"The OPM has done a serious violation of human rights,” Head of the TNI Information Center, Major General Nugraha Gumilar, stressed.
Minister of Political, Legal, and Security Affairs, Hadi Tjahjanto, also saw this problem as being serious.
Hence, he summoned the TNI commander and Polri chief to discuss strategies against the OPM.
To this end, it becomes crucial for the TNI and Polri to increase the intensity of their handling efforts against the OPM.
In addition, improving strategies to strengthen the protection of civilians in Papua must become a priority.
However, all of this will be futile unless coordination between the TNI and Polri is strengthened and prioritized.
"TNI-Polri synergy has become a mandatory requirement in Papua because the OPM has declared open war," said Ngasiman Djoyonegoro, an intelligence, defense, and security analyst.
Bolstering coordination can be realized by strengthening the main tasks and functions of each institution in dealing with the OPM.
Each institution must have sustainable main tasks and functions to optimally realize the handling of problems from upstream to downstream.
The grouping of main functions and responsibilities is also exemplified by tasking Polri with community security and evacuation, while territorial security and hunting for OPM members can be carried out by the TNI through ground troops.
Apart from that, intelligence, as the main sector for distributing accurate information, must be utilized properly by the state. The TNI can utilize intelligence data to organize strategies for pursuing and ambushing the OPM.
However, the strengthening of quality human resources must be carried out to realize such things, not just in terms of intelligence but also physical strengthening, considering the difficult terrain in Papua.
With mastery over the terrain and precise tactics, he believes the TNI would be able to complete its tasks in the field.
Political support
Apart from physical enforcement efforts, all actions taken by the TNI and Polri must be based on the instructions of the president as supreme commander.
Hence, a strong political decision is needed to serve as a basis for law enforcers to eradicate the OPM.
"As long as there are no changes in state policies and decisions, the TNI's military operations other than war (OMSP) in Papua will still remain the same," said Khairul Fahmi, military observer and co-founder of the Institute for Security and Strategic Studies (ISESS).
The executive and legislative parties must also agree to seriously eradicate OPM.
This similarity of opinion between the government and the legislature can later result in a political decision in the House of Representatives (DPR) that will become the basis for taking firm action.
With this political foundation, the TNI and Polri can freely carry out their duties without having to be bogged down by accusations of human rights violations.
This political support also seems to have been extended by the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR). Its chairman, Bambang Soesatyo, expressed his full support for the TNI's efforts to take firm action against the OPM.
The state must prioritize the security and safety of the Papuan people. Any group that threatens the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia or the safety of society must be opposed.
"The authorities need to take firm action to show that the country will not lose to separatist groups whose scale is smaller than the TNI and Polri," Bambang emphasized.
His statement was a green light for legislative members to support eradicating the OPM.
Human rights’ point of view
The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) also condemned OPM's acts of violence against women and children, as well as the death of Danramil Oktovianus Sogalrey.
Any form of violence against officials and civil society must be thoroughly and transparently investigated.
Komnas HAM also recorded several cases of violence that occurred in Papua from March to April.
Chairman of Komnas HAM, Atnike Nova Sigiro, detailed violent incidents that occurred in March, including a firefight between security officers and an armed civilian group in Intan Jaya and the shooting of two TNI soldiers allegedly carried out by an armed group in Puncak Jaya.
On April 5, two women became victims of sexual violence and abuse by a group of people in Nabire Sub-district.
Despite OPM's brutal actions against officers and civilians, Komnas HAM still urges the government to prioritize a measured approach to dealing with the group.
This measured approach aims to overcome the excessive use of violent force by the state.
According to Sigiro, undue use of violence also raises the vulnerability of human rights violations. This is prone to new conflicts in which the resolution will take longer.
For this reason, Komnas HAM prefers another approach to resolving the OPM conflict, namely the provision of equitable infrastructure by the government for the Papuan people.
The government must provide health services, education, and local economic development. Thus, disparities in economy, health, and education between Papuan people and residents in other regions can be reduced.
Related news: Komnas HAM pushed government to strengthen ecosystem of peace in Papua
Related news: Govt urged to take firmer actions against Papuan rebels: MPR
Translator: Walda Marison, Resinta Sulistiyandari
Editor: Anton Santoso
-------------------------
Sunday, April 21, 2024
1) Australian author leads silence protest over ‘blood debt’ owed to Papuans
An Australian author and advocate, Jim Aubrey, today led a national symbolic one minute’s silence to mark the “blood debt” owed to Papuan allies during the Second World War indigenous resistance against the invading Japanese forces.
“A promise to most people is a promise,” Aubrey said in his open letter marking the debt protest — “unless that promise is made by the Australian government.”
After the successes of Australian and US troops against the Japanese in New Guinea, the Allies continued the advance through what was then Dutch New Guinea then on to the Philippines.
The first landing was at Hollandia (now Jayapura) in April 1944, which involved the Australian navy and air force.
Aubrey said in his letter:
“The Australian government’s WWII remembrance oath to Papuan and Timorese allies by the RAAF in flyers dropped over East Timor and the island of New Guinea — ‘FRIENDS, WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU!’ — is in reality one of history’s most heinous bastard acts in war
and diplomacy.
“Betrayal is the reality of this blood debt and includes consecutive Australian governments’ treachery and culpability as a criminal accomplice and accessory to six decades of the Indonesian government’s crimes against humanity.
“Barbarity that shames us! Genocide, ethnocide, infanticide, and relentless ethnic cleansing.
Aubrey, spokesperson for Genocide Rebellion and the Free West Papua International Coalition, said that he and supporters were commemorating the Second World War “Papuan sacrifice for us” — Australian and American servicemen and women — four days before ANZAC Day without inviting Prime Minister Anthony Albanese or any government minister [and] without inviting US President Biden.
“To have them with us on this special solemn occasion, while honouring the fact that many of us — children and grandchildren – would not be here if it were not for Papuan courage, loyalty, and sacrifice so steadfastly given to our forebears, would be dishonourable.
‘Heartless complicity’
“We condemn outright their heartless complicity and premeditated exploitation of Papuans in their time of peril. A blood debt not honoured by a single Australian government or US administration!
“Lest We Forget . . . six decades of providing the Republic of Indonesia with an environment of impunity for crimes against humanity — 500,000 victims in Western New Guinea, 250,000 in East Timor [now Timor-Leste after the 1999 liberation].
“Future historians will teach their undergraduates that Australian governments did forget! That Australian governments also contravened Commonwealth and State criminal codes by helping the Indonesian government prevent the legal decolonisation of Western New Guinea and achieve their subsequent unlawful annexation; and by concealing and destroying evidence of the 1998 Biak Island Massacre.
“It is not only a matter of honour and truth, it’s personal. I have only just discovered that my father and my uncle were Australian servicemen in the Pacific Theatre campaigns across New Guinea.
“Honourable Australians and Americans, however, only need to know our duty of care and our international obligations cannot be compromised for political and economic plunder. The victims of crimes against humanity deserve the support and the protection they are by law, by right, and decency entitled to.
“Pacific Island nations look to the East for a relationship of integrity in their international affairs. Who can blame them with Australian governments track record of treachery, dishonour, and their demeaning elitism and history in the genocide of indigenous peoples.”
The first attempt to smuggle 145 frilled lizards and 12 pet brown monitor lizards, packed in a package written as "herb", was made on Friday (April 19), while the second effort was made on Saturday, says the South Papua Quarantine Office Head Cahyono in a press statement received here on Saturday.
In the second attempt, the smugglers delivered a package containing 33 frilled lizards by using a Lion Air plane heading to Jakarta, Cahyono added.
The second package, whose cover was written as "skincare box", failed to be delivered to Jakarta after a Lion Air officer was suspicious and initiated to bring it to the airport's quarantine agency to be checked.
Regarding the first package containing 157 live lizards, Cahyono said the delivery could be foiled by AVSEC officer, Muhammad Ridwan, who operates an x-ray machine at the airport's cargo unit.
Ridwan found that the package contained live lizards that are protected and endemic to Merauke, he said while urging locals to participate actively in preserving Merauke's endemic species of flora and fauna.
"I do deplore the smuggling of our endemic animals and plants. We must protect them in their natural habitats," Cahyono added.
The Papua region remains vulnerable to smuggling and illegal trade of wildlife.
On February 28, 2022, for instance, a joint team of personnel from the West Papua Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) and the Agricultural Quarantine Office foiled an attempt to smuggle 59 endemic birds and reptiles.
Among the protected animals that could have been saved included 15 green tree pythons (Morelia viridis), nine green tree monitors (Varanus prasinus), and 14 monitor lizards (Varanus indicus).
Meanwhile, several endemic birds rescued from the smuggling attempt included a hooded butcherbird (Cracticus cassicus) and a green-naped lorikeet (Trichoglossus haematodus).
Those animals that are native to Papua and other Indonesian islands would be smuggled through MV Gunung Dempo which is anchored at the port of Sorong City on Feb 28, 2022, according to the Head of the BKSDA-West Papua Office Budi Mulyanto.
The BKSDA-Papua and West Papua Offices continue to protect the provinces' endemic species from the practices of illegal trade and smuggling.
On December 18, 2021, the Papua BKSDA released four endangered birds into their natural habitat.
The agency had released three lesser birds of paradise (Paradisaea minor) and one magnificent riflebird (Ptiloris magnificus) into the Nyei Toro forest of Ravenirara Sub district in Papua District.
Related news: Papua Police arrest two PNG citizens for allegedly smuggling marijuana
Translator: Evarukdijati, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Bayu Prasetyo
Elisa Sekenyap, Jayapura – The Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) says it deplores the recent sadistic torture of indigenous peoples of Melanesia in West Papua committed by the Indonesian government through members of the TNI (Indonesian military).
"Unfortunately this horrifying incident is only the latest in the six decades of Indonesian oppression of the people of West Papua", PCC General Secretary Reverend James Bhagwan told Suara Papua on Sunday April 14 via email from Suva, Fiji.
The PCC's statement was conveyed in connection with three Papuan civilians who were tortured by TNI officers in Puncak regency, Central Papua province, a video of which spread widely on social media not long ago.
Bhagwan said that the Indonesian government is a signatory to a number of United Nations conventions, which should guarantee the civil and political rights of its citizens, including West Papuans, regardless of their political ideology or religious beliefs.
"The Indonesian government should also do the same thing under what is called the Special Autonomy Law. However, people who express their rights as indigenous people, express voices that are different from the government, are routinely harassed and tortured brutally", he said.
Bhagwan said it should be noted that Indonesia, which tries to be seen as a respected member of the international community, has been re-elected for another term as a member of the UN Human Rights Council (2024-2026).
"Do countries that supported Indonesia's nomination as members of the UN Human Rights Council say they feel comfortable with these human rights violations?"
"With the end of the meeting of Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) foreign officials and in anticipation of the next meeting of MSG leaders, the question is, how is it that the MSG is able to continue to allow Indonesia, which has policies and practices that demean dignity, weaken and eliminate women's rights, children, Melanesian men and fellow MSG members, remain a member [of the MSG]?"
"Therefore in the name of justice, which is an expression of divine love, and when many of the Pacific peoples are reflecting on the betrayal, arbitrarily arrest, torture, fake trial and execution of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ, we call for the suspension, or even the expulsion of Indonesia from the MSG if they do not agree to facilitate a visit by the UN Human Rights [Commissioner] to West Papua", concluded Bhagwan.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Gereja Pasifik Desak MSG Keluarkan Indonesia Jika Tidak Memfasilitasi Komisi HAM PBB Ke Papua".]
Dani Prabowo, Jakarta – The chairperson of Centra Initiative and Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial) senior researcher, Al Araf, says that the reuse of the term Free Papua Organisation or OPM will not solve the problems or the conflict in Papua.
"In fact, it will tends to have an impact on the stigmatisation of the people in Papua, and the tendency to use an approach of military operations in overcoming [the problems in Papua]", said Araf said when contacted on Tuesday April 16.
As has been reported, the TNI (Indonesian military) is prioritising territorial operations in Papua by inviting all parties to build and bring prosperity to the people of Papua.
The change of nomenclature from the original term Armed Criminal Group (KKB) to OPM, said Araf, tends to prioritise military operations. Araf added that solving the problems in Papua should prioritise a process of dialogue.
"It's time for a resolution of the conflict in Papua to be carried out in a peaceful way. All parties need to refrain themselves and maintain a ceasefire and step forward to the negotiating table", said Araf.
"A humanitarian pause is needed to resolve the Papua conflict to progress towards an equal space for dialogue", he said.
On Wednesday April 10 sub-district military command (Koramil) commander (Danramil) Aradide Infantry Second Lieutenant Oktovianus Sogalrey was shot dead by the West Papua National Liberation Army-Free Papua Movement (TPNPB-OPM) or KKB on the Trans Paniai-Intan Jaya road.
The TPNPB-OPM or KKB have claimed responsibility for the killing. Araf is concerned about an increase in fatalities because of the conflict in Papua.
"This situation should be a sign for the government that the resolution of the Papua conflict needs to use a new approach to resolve it. It's time to abandon the approach of excessive violence in Papua", he said.
Araf said the government sees the Papua issue from a top down perspective and not from a dialogical approach.
"In a conflict area the solution to resolving it should start from an agreement between the parties in the conflict, namely between the government and the Papuan side", said Araf.
Thus, he continued, the solution is a result of an understanding between two parties who are in conflict and there is a good possibility it could go the way of Aceh, referring to the 2005 peace agreement between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the government.
"So far, the approach has been more on the aspect of the economy. While the issue of legal justice for the violence and human rights violations that have occurred has been ignored, and other issues", said Araf.
"So the solution is not comprehensive and not from a mutual agreement, but more top down. So the conflict is never resolved", he said.
Earlier, TNI commander General Agus Subiyanto said that they would no longer refer to armed groups that encourage independence in Papua as KKB.
"Because they themselves call themselves the TPNPB which is the same as the OPM", said Subiyanto during a press conference at the TNI commander's office in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday August 10.
Subiyanto said that the OPM carries out terror and murders Papuan people and members of the TNI and Polri (national police). The OPM also rapes teachers and healthcare workers. Because of this therefore, the TNI will not remain silent.
"I will act firmly against what is being done by the OPM. There is no country within a country", said Subiyanto.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "TNI Kembali Pakai Istilah OPM, Pengamat: Cenderung Pakai Pendekatan Operasi Militer dalam Mengatasinya".]