The Bloodwood Tree

Source: Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights’

Reports today confirm that it was the Indonesian Police who shot the local man Opinus Tabuni yesterday at remote highland city of Wamena in West Papua.

The UN World Indigenous People Day event where the shooting occurred, was attended by 20,000 West Papuan people, who had travelled mostly from the Baliem Valley and neighbouring highland areas.  Many visiting community leaders from other regions of West Papua attended the rally, including the Goldman Peace Prize winner Mama Yosefa Alomang and speakers from Dawan Adat Papua.
 
Reports say at the end of the rally Indonesian Police and other security forces with a water cannon, which had been on standby outside the rally, moved in to disperse the crowd. The four flags had been raised at the end of the ceremony.  These flags were the Indonesian National flag, the United Nations flag, the SOS flag saying Papuan people are in danger and the banned Nationalist symbol the Morning Star Flag.
 
After the flags were raised the Police reportedly moved in and started firing into the surrounding buildings and into the ground in front of the crowd.
 
Opinus Tabuni who had been sitting near the fence of the Santa Thomas Catholic Senior High School (SMU YPPK) was killed with a bullet.  Photos of Opinus Tabuni show bullet puncture wound on his left side.
 
The body of Opinus Tabuni was kept at the Tribal Council Office (Lapago) in Wamena before being transferred to the hospital. A request has been made to the Chief of Police in Papua to view the body.
 
The local police Chief, Lt. Col. Paulus Waterpau, denied in the media that his police officers were involved in killing. Waterpau made the claim that Mr Tabuni ‘might have been accidently killed by protestors’ with spears in the crowd.  An Indonesian military officer Lt. Col. Gandry in Wamena also claimed in the media that military had fired warning shots before the crowd become hostile.  He reported that the dead man could have been shot or killed by an arrow.
 
Paula Makabory from Institute for Papua advocacy & Human Rights said today,  “The Indonesian Police also have the audacity to deny they have killed this man when he was shot in front of everyone.  Indonesian Police and Military have been immune from prosecution in West Papua if they use violence to kill or torture our people .” 
 
Two other men were reported also seriously injured by Indonesian security forces. It was reported that one man who was shot and critically injured. Human Rights workers are searching for this man and it is feared that Indonesian security forces have removed him.
 
Witnesses reported that the other man was severely beaten by police using their rifle butts.  The family of this man report that he is missing.
 
Paula Makabory continued, “This incident is a clear indication that the Indonesian police believe that unfurling the Morning Star flag is enough justification to shoot at people in a peaceful rally.”
 
“This police action could easily have escalated into conflict and lead to deaths of many West Papuan people. There were 20,000 people at the rally many of whom were armed with tradition spears and bows & arrows.   If they had the people reacted forcefully to the Police shooting there would have been a major catastrophe. It is a credit to our people that they continued to react peacefully to such provocation.  The police wanted to trigger a conflict.”
 
After the shooting it is reported that non-Papuans (Indonesian) inhabitants of Wamena and surrounding areas have moved to Police and Military compounds because of the perceived risk of retaliation from local people.
 
There are said to be about 10,000 people from the surrounding mountains still in Wamena today (Sunday).

_____________________________________________________

Please consider writing to Mike Kelly, Stephen Smith or Kevin Rudd on this (addresses from The War Room). It is important that they know we hear about these events and that they matter to the Australian population.

I’ve attached an extract from a press release by the Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights. We need to contact one or more of the Indonesian Embassy ((02) 6250 8600), Member for Eden Monaro Mike Kelly or Foreign Minister Stephen Smith and ask for the release of individuals taken prisoner for the peaceful, democratic demonstration.

_____________________

Reports from Fakfakstate that 6 West Papuans involved in a flag raising ceremony, with the banned Morning Star flag, on early Saturday morning, will be charged under the Indonesian Criminal code for crime of ’subversion’.

These reports follow earlier information that 35 local West Papuan, including ex-political prisoners, were involved in a flag raising ceremony outside the “Act of Free Choice” building (Fakfak Archives office) on 4.30 am Saturday morning 19 July 2008.

Local Human Rights workers reported that Indonesian Police in Fakfak arrested 46 local West Papuan people, which included some people not involved in the ceremony. (Also see attached IPAHR Human Rights Alert 19 July 2008. Also Jakarta Post Sunday 20 July 2008 reported 41 arrests of ex political prisoners in the incident.)

Human Rights workers report that the Indonesian Police appear to have had prior knowledge of the ceremony and attacked the demonstrators beating them, kicking them with boots and torturing the demonstrators. The men in the group were then stripped to their underwear before being taken to the Police compound. Two women were included in those arrested.

The names of those now charged with Subversion ‘Makar’ under section 110 of Criminal Code and detained by Indonesian Police are:

1/ Simon Tuturop, 58 years;

2/ Tadeus Weripang, 52 years;

3/ Viktor Tuturop, 42 years;

4/ Tomas Nimbitkendik, 19 years;

5/ Benedidiktus Turuop, 35 years;

6/ Teles Piahar, 20 years.

Three men, Walter Wareopor 60 years, Daniel Nimbitkendik 14 years and Simon Hindom 50 years, who had bush knives/machetes in their possession were charged under Emergency Regulation Section 12.

It was reported that the other 37 detainees would be sent home after meeting with and being briefed by the Fakfak Regent, Dr Wahidin Puarada.

A little while ago I wrote to The Member for Eden Monaro Dr Mike Kelly asking for some information on how the Australian Government was dealing with Global Oil Depletion. Dr Kelly responded with a copy of a speech by Mr Martin Ferguson, Energy & Resources Minister. While I don’t have an electronic copy to post here, I have put together a brief ethical analysis of the approaches outlined in the speech. There are a couple of issues of serious concern that the Christian community really needs to look into and get vocal about, I’ve attached 2 points from the conclusion of the report that describe these. For the full analysis, go to: The Response of the Australian Government to the current oil crisis - Ethical Analysis.

Please take a minute to think this through. I will be sending this back to Dr Kelly to ensure that I have not misunderstood anything and to ask for a response. If I had to put what’s happening in a nutshell, I’d say that we’ve been caught out by at least a decade of inaction on renewable energy, fortified by greed and vested interests dressed up as common sense or in the worst instances, given religious justification. We are now approaching a crisis and our seemingly desperate response is to revert to primal instincts and take what we can from others to postpone our own fall. Once again, I am reminded that we have been warned long ago, and that our Christianity is about to be sorely tested. Will we quietly allow the poor to be robbed for the sake of our own comfort?

“The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” 1 Peter 4:7-8

________________________________________________________

Last Monday the Indonesian government issued a joint ministerial decree banning followers of Jamaah Ahmadiyah Indonesia (JAI) from carrying out religious activities. This was a strong action for a government that so widely promotes it’s religious tolerance credentials, but many Muslim organisations believe that it falls short of the mark and ask that the religion be completely disbanded and it’s teachings outlawed.

The issue is a complicated one because it comes down to the whole question of right and wrong. Is there such a thing? In western nations we outlaw certain religions or sects if they contravene certain socially accepted norms. If a new religion promoted violence, polygamy, suppressing the poor or child abuse we would be outraged and demand exactly what the Indonesian Muslim population have - that this “cult” be outlawed. These moral views seem self-evident to us and many in the west can’t understand why anyone would think differently, but what we fail to realise is that the “self evident” morals we profess are largely inherited Christian morals that many other religions don’t share. Whether we are Christians or not, we in the west look at so much of the world through Christian lenses that affect our concepts of justice and what is right. Many of us may not realise that the whole issue of religious freedom is, although common to some other religions, very much a Biblical one based on the teaching that God allows us freedom to choose or reject Him without any compulsion. At no time in the ministry of Jesus did he even attempt to “sell” his way of thinking, he simply presented his teaching in black and white and allowed others to choose without strings attached. He readily healed those with no faith (eg John 5:13), giving practical or moral warnings but exerting no influence to make these into followers.

The issue with JAI (not be confused with Jemaah Islamiyah or JI) is not actions, but theology. JAI followers believe amongst other things, that Jesus returned to earth in spirit in the 14th Islamic century (western 19th century) as Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. This directly contradicts the accepted Muslim view of Jesus, but more importantly, allows that Muhammed was not the final prophet in the sense that mainstream Islam understands the Koran (Sura 33:40) to teach. To outsiders this may seem like a small matter, but to Islam the matter of false teaching or apostacy by other professing Muslims is a capital offence. The Koran states:

“Why are ye two parties on the subject of the hypocrites, when God has cast them off for their doings? Desire ye to guide those whom God hath led astray? But for him whom God leadeth astray, thou shalt by no means find a pathway. They desire that ye should be infidels as they are infidels, and that ye should be alike. Take therefore none of them for friends, till they have fled their homes for the cause of God. If they turn back, then sieze them, and slay them wherever ye find them; but take none of them as friends or helpers, except those who shall seek an asylum among your allies, and those who come over to you - their hearts forbidding them to make war on you, or to make war on their own people.” Sura 4:91

The decision of the Indonesian Government to censor JAI has received widespread condemnation as an infringement of religious freedom, however we need to recognise that were they not to censor JAI they would have been contravening this basic teaching of mainstream Islam. Far from being a simple matter, the Indonesian government is actually faced with a decision of which religion to censor! In fact, since the majority of Indonesians practice forms of mainstream Islam, censoring JAI may actually be the democratic pathway! Does anyone out there have any wisdom to shed on this?

A couple of weeks ago I was walking in the evening as a storm came over. It wasn’t quite dark, there was still just enough light to see the grassland moving in the wind from the storm. The grass is above my knees and silver at this time of year, and the smell of rain came in waves across the hillside. It was gentle and easy to miss, but when I took the time to be silent and listen, the world was transformed for a few minutes.

After a time when there was only the whisper in the grass to be heard, the whole hillside was lit brilliantly with lightning and the following thunder felt like it was coming up to me through the earth.

My friend Rod Mason is a Bemeringal Storyteller, one of the few keepers of the old knowledge from the Monaro and surrounding mountains. The Ngarigo word for our open grasslands here is Nullaga - “the free country”. On either side was important men’s & women’s country, but Nullaga belonged to no one. I used to look at the hill where I walk and only see the weeds that had been allowed to infest some pretty nice native grassland. After spending enough evenings walking there however, it now towers over me and invites me to come and explore the hidden saddles, find the animal paths and sit in the silence to listen to the voice of God.

As I lay in the grass on the ridgeline last night, the strangely mild wind that comes ahead of snow brought the whispering back to the grass. If I am prepared to be honest, it’s difficult to believe in a God that lives in formality, suits & ties when all of his expressions are so wild. It’s also not possible to consider my deepest questions and believe any longer that God is too remote to relate. Whether it’s the grass by moonlight or Black Cockatoos wheeling and crying as a snow-bearing gale roars up a mountainside through the Ash, when I chance on one of those corners of the world where the wildness walks and I glimpse part of the face of my God, I want to go deeper somehow. I think the best words for it here come from the man who knows all about glimpses of another world, C.S.Lewis:

“In one way of course, God has given us the Morning Star already: you can go and enjoy the gift on many fine mornings if you get up early enough. What more, you may ask, do we want? Ah, but we want so much more - something the books on aesthetics take little notice of. But the poets and the mythologies know all about it. We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words - to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. That is why we have peopled air and earth and water with gods and goddesses and nymphs and elves - that, though we cannot, yet these projections can enjoy in themselves that beauty, grace, and power of which Nature is the image. That is why the poets tell us such lovely falsehoods. They talk as if the west wind could really sweep into a human soul; but it can’t. They tell us that “beauty born of murmuring sound” will pass into a human face; but it won’t. Or not yet. For if we take the imagery of Scripture seriously, if we believe that God will one day give us the Morning Star and cause us to put on the splendour of the sun, then we may surmise that both the ancient myths and the modern poetry, so false as history, may be very near the truth as prophecy. At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door. We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendours we see. But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so.”

Jesus said “The wind blows wherever it chooses. You hear it’s sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”  In a world of people driven by their own needs, what could be less predictable - more wild or more beautiful  than Jesus’ image of someone that lives by love? Someone that has no “sensible” limits but “spends themselves” on behalf of the needy; who returns love for hate, protects the dignity of people trapped in their own failures, cares intimately for the small things, stands up to the powerful on behalf of the oppressed and is motivated by a level of compassion that causes them to feel the suffering of others as if it was their own? Isn’t the longing for this the same wind from God’s country blowing in my face as the one I feel on the mountain?

Every time I hear the Black Cockatoos in the storm or see the day’s last light across Nullaga I am aware that I have just glimpsed a hint of God’s country. It makes me restless and the longing is stirred up that I don’t want to be normal, I want to join with these and be something beyond it all, something beautiful. It still eludes me and I live a normal life of self-preoccupation, but as Lewis put it, I have just experienced “the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited”. If it was only possible to live without numbing this deepest part of my soul.

“The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.” John 1:5

Sent to the editor of the Cooma Express on 9 June, 08

Rough estimates say that a $US1 per barrel increase in the price of oil gives us a 1c increase in petrol costs. That’s pretty significant when you think about how every one was carrying on about the potential 2c per litre change that Fuel Watch could deliver. Just last Friday, oil rose another $11 per barrel - in one day delivering more than 5 times the price rise we could possibly have saved with Fuel Watch!

Most of the public voices are putting the rising prices down to tensions in the Middle East and growth in the Asian economies. These are obviously factors, but the US National Energy Administration knew well enough about them last year when they forecast that as a worst case scenario oil would hit $100 a barrel 22 years from now. What they didn’t factor in were the warnings of the petroleum geologists who had been pointing out for decades that oil wells don’t last forever and that we need to start finding alternatives. The very disturbing reality is that in a report produced for the US government 2 years ago, fully half of the studies by world oil experts concluded that global oil production would begin to decline irreversibly by the year 2010 or sooner. If oil production declines while demand continues to increase, we have massive price hikes that can’t be blamed on the local service station, the Federal Government or even the OPEC oil cartel or Middle Eastern nations. The account is running dry because we kept spending when we needed to start planning ahead.

We are facing a pretty hard reality. The bottom line is that fuel prices and all sorts of other oil-dependent costs such as food, medicine and roads are going to increase globally. This is not a time to ask for tax cuts – we need to take it on the chin and (belatedly) start thinking a bit more responsibly. We need big spending on public transport and research into alternative energy and more economic ways of doing things. Over-indulgence has gotten us here, so above all let’s watch that we don’t respond to rising costs with a renewed burst of selfishness. Fuel needs to be factored into carbon trading; we can’t make the third world pay for our excesses through climate change. They say that when someone is under pressure, who they are inside starts coming out. I’ve got a feeling that pretty soon we’re going to start seeing what sort of people we really are.

The Australian lobby group Getup has launched a campaign targeted at both the Government and opposition, aimed to reduce Australia’s dependence on oil. The campaign is intended to tackle the Peak Oil issue at the same time as reducing greenhouse emissions.

Getup is asking people to write emails, asking for

1. massive federal investment in public transport,
2. laws for dramatically more efficient cars, and
3. an Emissions Trading Scheme which includes transport.

More information can be found at:

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/FixTransport&id=355

Human Rights Watch reports that President Mugabe and his party the ZANU-PF has set up torture camps across Zimbabwe, targetting opposition activists. According to the report:

“During the day, ZANU-PF and their allies (so-called “war veterans,” youth militias and some armed men in military uniform) gather at these camps to decide on their targets, generally those known or thought to support the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). According to witnesses, the targets are then rounded up and brought to the camps at night, where they are beaten for hours with thick wooden sticks and army batons. Human Rights Watch has interviewed more than 30 people in the last two days who have sustained serious injuries, including broken limbs, as a result of these beatings.”

The BBC also reported that the Mugabe Government has opened “job training centres” which attract youth, then force them into “a horrific training programme that breaks young teenagers down before encouraging them to commit atrocities.” 

Human Rights Watch has called on the African Union to intervene, as the efforts of South African president Thabo Mbeki have proved ineffective.

 What you can do

 The United Nations and the African Union need our government to ask them to intervene. The UN has no power without the support of its member nations, so let’s write and ask our government to speak up. Write to:

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd,

Foreign Minister Steven Smith or

Member for Eden-Monaro & Secretary of Defence Mike Kelly

at PO Box 6022, House of Representatives, Parliament House,

Canberra ACT 2600

Zimbabwe is on a knife’s edge between democracy and chaos. Results still have not been released from the 29 March elections–and each day, more signals emerge that Mugabe will resort to violence and fraud to hold on to power.

Mugabe is unlikely to listen to the world’s outcry–but he might listen to his old friend and powerful neighbour Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa. Click below to add your name to a petition calling for the results to be released, verified, and peacefully honored, and we will do all we can to deliver it to Mbeki–through diplomatic channels, over the radio, and in a public event when Mbeki travels to New York for a United Nations meeting next week.

The more of us sign the petition, the powerful the message that South Africa’s reputation as a world leader is on the line. Click here to add your name, and then forward this email to friends and family:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/democracy_for_zimbabwe/7.php?cl=72961324

South African president Thabo Mbeki said on Monday that “it’s time to wait” on Zimbabwe. But the more time passes, the greater the danger grows that the will of Zimbabwe’s people will be ignored. Avaaz launched this petition earlier in the week to its African members, and thousands signed on; now, we need people around the world to add their voices in solidarity and take the pressure to the next level.

In a crisis like this, a petition is just a small step–but it’s something all of us can do, to raise our voices and call for what’s right. And as history shows, international solidarity can be a powerful thing.

With hope,

Ben, Graziela, Ricken, Galit, Paul, Iain, Pascal, Milena, and Esra’a–the Avaaz.org team

PS: Here’s what to expect this week:

• On Saturday, leaders of the Southern Africa Development Community will gather in Lusaka, Zambia to discuss the crisis. We’re working to buy radio time to reach these regional leaders with Avaaz members’ global message.
• On Monday, the Zimbabwe high court has promised to decide whether to release of the voting results. But a lawyer for the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission said Wednesday that it would be “dangerous” if the court did order the release, raising fears of violence.
• South Africa is chairing the United Nations Security Council this month, and Mbeki will be joined by other world leaders for a special meeting in New York on Wednesday. Expect Zimbabwe to be high on the agenda.

____

ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means “voice” in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Paris, Washington DC, and Geneva.

Don’t forget to check out our Facebook and Myspace pages!

http://paxchristi-oz.blogspot.com/2008/03/indonesian-defence-minister-visits.html

26 March 2008

One teenage student is in hospital in a serious condition after being shot in the stomach when Indonesian security forces went on a shooting rampage against local people in the Paniai Lakes region of West Papua two weeks ago. The human rights violation coincides with the visit of Indonesian Defence Minister Sudarsono who is in Australia to attend the East Asia Dialogue Forum. The report from the remote region of Paniai demonstrates the disastrous role that Indonesian combat troops and paramilitary police are having throughout West Papua.

The shooting rampage by the Indonesian security forces was sparked when local people demonstrated outside a local Police station on the 10^th of March 2008. Indigenous residents of the remote highland town of Enarotali [1], about 120 km inland of the coastal city of Nabire, gathered at the police station after Police beat a local civil servant, Yavet Pigai.

Local human rights workers at the scene report that the police were supported by Indonesian military forces from the Koramil (district headquarters) and Tim Khusus (Army Special Services). These military forces were described as combat troops from outside the province.

Police and Military personnel are reported to have opened fire on the group. Local sources said the military and Brimob (Police Mobile Brigade) continued shooting for two hours. One report said hundreds of troops were involved and that local people, some of who had been wounded had fled into the forests.

“Our sources described the incident as a terrifying experience for local people. It was clearly an action to intimidate local people and show that the Indonesian police and military were the authority in the region” said Matthew Jamieson on behalf of the Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights (IPAHR).

A total of 9 local people were reportedly wounded.   The names of two young men were given to IPAHR by these local sources, both of whom were described as students. Mangki Pigai (aged 18 years) was taken to hospital in a serious condition after a bullet lodged in his stomach.   Another student, John Pigome (aged 20 years) was beaten by Police and sustained serious head injuries consistent with being beaten with a gun.

The incident was sparked after Mr. Yavet Pigai, the civil servant, was knocked off his motorbike by an excavator working on road works near a village called Mogokobitadimi.[2]   At the time of the incident Mr Pagai, who works for the District Government of Paniai was travelling to a meeting at the local government office in the town of Madi.

Mr. Yavet Pigai was then beaten by police on the road and taken to the police station at Enarotali where he was beaten again. Mr. Pigai sustained injuries to his face and back.

Police and Army personnel had been supervising the work of a road building contractor. The incident is believed to be related to local opposition to road building business in the Paniai region, which are supported by the security forces.

It was reported by Human Rights sources that Paniai’s head of the regional administration Mr. Naftali Yogi told a press conference that the police and army “must apology to the local people and reflect on what they have done”. Mr. Yogi said that, “the police and army should take full of the responsibility on the incident because the case was a simple one but the security forces took a very serious action on trying to kill innocent people there”.

In a report tabled at the most recent session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (2008), the Catholic Office of Justice and Peace in Jayapura (SKP) reported 242 documented individual cases of torture and ill treatment by the security forces in West Papua since 1998.

In the course of their human rights investigations SKP found that most of the human rights violations were committed by the police or military were outside of police or military custody.

SKP said that most documented cases were not prosecuted. The only case of torture that was brought to trial was after the Abepura case in 2000 in which the two (Brimob) police officers who charged were acquitted.

Finally, SKP found that the use of torture and cruel and degrading treatment by the security forces towards the Indigenous population was both widespread and formed a culture of violence and racism embedded within the security forces.

Matthew Jamieson, spokesperson for Institute for Papuan Advocacy and Human Rights stated today that, “the shooting in Paniai follows the common pattern of indiscriminate violence against indigenous West Papuans. There is virtual legal impunity from prosecution for police and military forces involved in Human Rights abuses. Indonesian forces are stationed throughout West Papua, right down to the village level. The policy of stationing large numbers of combat troops and paramilitary police in every region is proving calamitous for indigenous West Papuans.”

“There are reports of both police and military at all levels of the command chain being involved legal and illegal business activities. In the Paniai Lakes region this includes road building and construction industries, logging, illegal wildlife rackets and goldmining. These business operations give the security forces a vested interest in generating conflict in order to justify their continued presence in the troubled territory.”

“The presence of senior commanding officers in West Papua, such as Burhanuddin Siagian, who have been indicted for ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ in East Timor, reinforces the culture of violence and impunity within the Indonesian security forces. “

Reports of police and military violence in Enarotali come in the wake of widespread nonviolent demonstrations in Jayapura, Manokwari, Serui and Sorong protesting the Indonesian government’s decision to ban the Morning Star flag. Several West Papuan leaders arrested in these demonstrations are in custody facing charges of rebellion and subversion.

For further Information contact: 

Matthew Jamieson + 61(0)418291998

Institute for Papuan Advocacy & Human Rights

PO Box 1805, Byron Bay NSW 2481 Australia