GRIFFITH JOURNAL
OF LAW & HUMAN DIGNITY
Editor-in-Chief Kelli Lemass Managing Editors Jessica Armao Daniel Marcantelli IT Administrator & Editor Troy Maloney Editors Ryan Anderson Adele Anthony Mark Brady Tasnova Chowdhury Brianna Edwards Simone Gray Michelle Gunawan Consulting & Executive Editor Dr Allan Ardill Volume 1.
2013 Mignote Hannaford Beau Hanson Jonathan Kwok Felicia Lal Michelle St.
Ange Josephine Vernon Danielle Warren Published in September 2013.
Gold Coast.
Australia by the Griffith Journal of Law & Human Dignity ISSN: 2203-3114
CONTENTS
DR JIM ELMSLIE AND DR
CAMELLIA WEBB-GANNON
A SLOW-MOTION GENOCIDE: INDONESIAN RULE IN WEST PAPUA
COLLEEN DAVIS
MERCIFUL ACTS AND CRUEL OMISSIONS
TRACEY SPICER
RIGHT TO DIE: THE CORNERSTONE OF A DIGNIFIED SOCIETY
DR PAUL WILLIS
POPULATION: THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM FOR LAWYERS
DANIELA GUITART.
CATHERINE PICKERING.
JASON BYRNE AND DR CHARLES
LAWSON
FARMERSAo RIGHTS IN AUSTRALIA: COMMUNITY GARDENS MAY BE A WAY IN WHICH A DEVELOPED COUNTRY COMPLIES WITH ITS INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS
SAM KOIM
TURNING THE TIDE: CORRUPTION AND MONEY LAUNDERING IN
PNG
DR JILL GUTHRIE.
DR MICHAEL
LEVY & DR CRESSIDA FFORDE
INVESTMENT IN PRISONS: AN INVESTMENT IN SOCIAL
EXCLUSION?
Linking the Theories of Justice Reinvestment and Social
Inclusion to Examine AustraliaAos Propensity to Incarcerate A SLOW-MOTION GENOCIDE: INDONESIAN RULE IN WEST PAPUA
DR JIM ELMSLIE AND DR CAMELLIA WEBB-GANNON O
This paper examines and extends the debate on genocide in West Papua.
Referring to the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, examples of genocidal acts are listed: killings, causing serious bodily and mental harm, the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to cause the destruction of a group, and the forcible removal of children to another Whereas previous examinations of the issue have failed to prove intent on the part of the Indonesian Government Ae a necessary prerequisite under the Convention Ae this article finds that such intent exists.
The authors show that West Papua has suffered a military occupation since 1962-63 under which the West Papuan people have been treated as the enemy by the Indonesian armed forces.
Explicit and implicit government policy has been consistently directed towards countering and eliminating Papuan attempts to create an independent state for their nation or enjoy political freedom on a par with other Indonesians.
In this tightly controlled situation genocidal acts have been undertaken as government policy, effectively thwarting the Papuan nationalists in the era when information emerging from the province.
could be tightly In this internet age, however, this is no longer possible, as evidence of both genocidal acts and government AointentAo is emerging.
This augurs poorly for Indonesia and the region as the little known, but deeply entrenched, conflict in West Papua seeps into global consciousness as a Aoslow-motionAo Pacific genocide.
Jim Elmslie is a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Sydney University and founding co-convener of CPACAoS West Papua Project.
His doctorate from Sydney University.
Irian Jaya Under the Gun: Indonesian economic development versus West Papuan nationalism, was published by the University of Hawaii Press.
Camellia Webb-Gannon is a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney.
She is the coordinator of the CentreAos West Papua Project, and completed a PhD titled Birds of a Feather: Conflict and Unity within West PapuaAos Independence Movement
A SLOW-MOTION GENOCIDE: INDONESIAN RULE IN WEST PAPUA
CONTENTS
VOL 1.
INTRODUCTION.
i THE AoGROUPAo AND AoACTAo ELEMENTS.
WEST PAPUAN CLAIMS OF GENOCIDE.
A Are West Papuans a GroupAo?.
B Killings.
C Serious Bodily and Mental Harm.
D Inflicting Life Conditions Calculated To Bring About Physical Destruction.
E Forcibly Transferring Children of the Group to Another Group 152 INTENT ELEMENT.
A The Nature of Indonesian Rule Since 1962.
B The Trends Underway in West Papua.
CONCLUSION.
I INTRODUCTION
This paper argues that genocide is taking place in Indonesian-controlled West Papua, the western half of the island of New Guinea.
Using the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (AoGenocide ConventionA.
as the basic analytical template, the conflict is examined to argue that the West Papuan people constitute a AogroupAo under the Genocide Convention who have suffered most of the specific AoactsAo that constitute genocide.
These claims have been made before, particularly in a Yale University report from 2004, 1 which we refer to in some detail.
The difficulty in the case of West Papua is to establish that genocidal actions have been committed 1 Elizabeth Brundige.
Winter King.
Priyneha Vahali.
Stephen Vladeck and Xiang Yuan.
Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua: Application of the Law of Genocide to the History of Indonesian Rule (Paper.
Allard KLowenstein International Human Rights Clinic Yale Law School.
April 2.
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intentionally by the Indonesian Government, with the aim of destroying Aoin whole or in partAo the West Papuans as a distinct racial and ethnic group.
We claim that Indonesian rule constitutes a military occupation, established in 1962-63, with strict control over the population by a hierarchical and repressive command structure, enjoying impunity for its many and entrenched human rights violations.
Its express purpose is to counter West PapuansAo desire for independence and to preserve the Ayterritorial integrityAy of Indonesia.
Actions carried out by the military and police are the result of explicit government policies aimed at countering West Papuan AuseparatismAy.
3 The goal is to destroy that part of the West Papuan AugroupAy who are proindependence: a very substantial part of the West Papuan population.
While the popular understanding of genocide is that they occur on a large scale in a short period of time, there are also Auslow- motion genocidesAy.
Such is the case of West Papua, where intentional killings and other acts in violation of the Genocide Convention have been committed regularly by Indonesian military and police forces since 1962.
aggregate many tens, if not hundreds of thousands of West Papuan people have been killed under Indonesian rule as the direct result of explicit government policies.
In the past the Indonesian Government could block the flow of information out of West Papua and deny the scale and nature of their occupation, whereas this is much more difficult in the age of internet communications.
The Papuan people have also become much more adept at organising themselves and in liaising with a growing network of international supporters.
While other countries, with the notable exception of Vanuatu, choose to pursue close ties with Indonesia over their obligations under the Genocide Convention to prevent genocide, civil society groups in many countries are now demanding accountability.
The case of East Timor shows that government policies ultimately reflect popular sentiment and public sympathy in Australia and elsewhere.
4 That sentiment is starting to grow and 2 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, opened for signature 9 December 1948, .
ntered into force 12 January 1.
3 AoSeparatismAo is the term that the Indonesian government uses to stigmatise West Papua independence It has a meaning loosely analogous to AotraitorAo and makes those thus designated legitimate targets for the depredations of the Indonesian armed forces.
4 Following a referendum in East Timor on 30 August, 1999 demonstrating overwhelming support amongst the Timorese for independence from Indonesia, pro-Indonesian militias set out on a violent rampage, razing much of East Timor with no intervention from the Indonesian army or state.
Under the A SLOW-MOTION GENOCIDE: INDONESIAN RULE IN WEST PAPUA VOL 1.
embrace the West Papuan cause.
The claims of genocide being made by West Papuan leaders are being heard and believed.
This presents a considerable challenge for Indonesia, in particular, and the Pacific region generally.
II WEST PAPUAN CLAIMS OF GENOCIDE
A near-ubiquitous cry for help from West Papuan political, civil society, and religious leaders in the decades since IndonesiaAos takeover of West Papua asserts that Papuans are suffering genocide.
Recently deceased West Papuan leader.
Clemens Runawery, has famously labelled the demographic crisis of AumissingAy Papuans and a continuing settler flood into West Papua a Aoslow-motion genocideAo.
5 Spokesperson for the influential independence activist group.
Komite Nasional Papua Barat (KNPB, or West Papua National Committe.
Victor Yeimo, describes the conflict in West Papua as a national emergency constituting genocide.
He declares:
We donAot have to think .
emergency is like a bomb .
like war.
Systematically, we haveAan emergency.
People from outside they come and they have places .
n our societ.
, and we are dying.
Genocide .
still happening in West Papua.
And we are saying that it is an emergency for us.
Political leader.
Benny Wenda, a West Papuan refugee living in Oxford.
England, argues that there is a Aosilent genocideAo taking place in West Papua as the killing of thousands of West Papuans by Indonesian state actors is committed with impunity.
7 Student leader.
Selpius Bobii, currently imprisoned in West Papua for his independence-related activism, describes the processes leading to the Aoannihilation of indigenous PapuansAo as genocidal in a 2013 opinion piece.
8 Head of the Baptist Church in West Papua.
Reverend Socratez Sofyan Yoman, argues that military operations, stigmatisation and racism weight of pressure from an outraged Australian public.
Australia led a United Nations peacekeeping mission into East Timor, despite previous Australian official assurances that it respected IndonesiaAos territorial integrity over East Timor.
5 See Jim Elmslie.
AoNot Just Another DisasterAo .
97(Jul-Sep.
Inside Indonesia <http://w.
org/weekly-articles/not-just-another-disaster>.
6 Interview with Victor Yeimo (Skype interview from Sydney to Jayapura.
West Papua, 1 May 2.
7 Leah Hyslop.
AoBenny Wenda: AuThereAos a Silent Genocide Going on in West PapuaAyAo.
The Telegraph .
, 28 November 2011 <http://w.
uk/expat/expatlife/8920491/Benny-Wenda-Theres-asilent-genocide-going-on-in-West-Papua.
8 Selpius A Bobii.
AoAnnihilation of West Papuans: A Challenge and a HopeAo.
Scoop Independent News .
26 March 2013 < http://w.
nz/stories/HL1303/S00152/annihilation-of-indigenouswest-papuans-challenge-and-hope.
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affecting West Papuans, the spread of HIV, 9 and the systematic populating of West Papua with Indonesian migrants now a majority all together constitute genocide.
Founder of the West Papuan Kingmi .
ndigenous Protestan.
Benny Giay, has The word AogenocideAo is usually defined by institutions and powerful states that are perpetrators of violence.
West Papuans have the right to define this word for ourselves.
We have experienced a genocide during the last 40 years of Indonesian rule.
In 2011, a Aotheological declarationAo was issued by several Papuan church denominations The discourse of genocide has long been voiced by so many observers who are deeply concerned over the very existence of Papuans.
The term genocide perhaps does not meet the criteria set forth by the UN, or other nations, or by Indonesia.
But, from our own view as victims, genocide is indeed taking place through the conditioning staged by Jakarta in the forms of ideology and development policies that are against the indigenous Papuans.
We contend, however, that IndonesiaAos actions in West Papua do meet the criteria set forth by the United Nations under the Genocide Convention.
There is ample evidence both that acts of genocide have been committed and that the requisite intent has been present on the part of the Indonesian authorities, as we now delineate.
9 HIV is often viewed as part of a genocidal strategy by West Papuans due to the governmentAos apparent lack of will to curb infection rates in the province which are 40 times the Indonesian national average rate .
ee Susan Rees and Derrick Silove.
AoSpeaking Out About Human Rights and Health in West PapuaAo .
The Lancet 637.
10 Socratez Sofyan Yoman.
AoSystematic Genocide of the Indigenous People of West Papua Under Special AutonomyAo (Press Release, 6 April 2.
<http://w.
org/artman/publish/printer_2183.
11 Eben Kirksey.
Freedom in Entangled Worlds: West Papua and the Architecture of Global Power (Duke University Press, 2.
12 West Papua Media Alerts.
AoPapuan Churches: Declaration of the Failure of the Indonesian Government in Governing and Developing the Indigenous Peoples of PapuaAo (Press Release, 1 March 2.
<http://westpapuamedia.
info/2011/03/01/papuan-churches-declaration-regarding-failure-of-theindonesian-government-in-governing-and-developing-the-indigenous-peoples-of-papua/>.
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i THE AoGROUPAo AND AoACTAo ELEMENTS VOL 1.
The Genocide Convention is the product of a sustained campaign by lawyer, 13 Raphael Lemkin, and views genocide from a legal standpoint.
It states that the crime of genocide is comprised of any of the following acts committed with the:
Ao[I]ntent to destroy, in whole or in part a national, ethnical, racial or religious group:
Killing members of the group.
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group.
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another groupAo.
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.
West Papuans have established themselves as a distinct national group which distinguishes itself from Indonesians along national, ethnic and religious lines.
Many West Papuans have also organised themselves politically, although attempts to wipe out groups that are purely political .
reason Indonesian authorities might give to justify their actions in West Papu.
are not considered genocidal under the Genocide Convention.
Nevertheless, what is ethnic, national and political amongst West Papuan independence seekers is often inseparable at the heart of West Papuan political identity is a sense of ethnic and national uniqueness.
As other reports and sources have documented comprehensively, as will be described momentarily, at least four of the five acts specified under the Genocide Convention have been committed against West Papuans.
We will briefly outline the instances in which the various criteria of genocide have been met.
A Are West Papuans a AoGroupAo? The Dutch administered the island of New Guinea from the 141st meridian westward over a time period spanning 1872 to 1962, toward the end of which they prepared the West Papuan population for independent nation-statehood.
Through nationalised 13 At the time of writing Indonesia is not a party to this Convention, although Australia has ratified it.
14 Genocide Convention art 2.
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education, the selection of national symbols including the cherished Morning Star flag, 15 and a national anthem, and through the establishment of a parliamentary body.
West Papuans, at least at an elite level, anticipated in 1961 that they would soon be a selfgoverning people.
However, with the violent takeover by Indonesia in 1962-63, this expectation was quashed.
Under an agreement concocted by the Dutch.
Americans and Indonesians, but not the West Papuans, an AoAct of Free ChoiceAo referendum was supervised by the United Nations The referendum was to decide whether West Papua joined Indonesia or became Less than one per cent of the West Papuan population was selected by the Indonesian Government to represent the entire people and was coerced to vote for the official integration of West Papua into Indonesia.
Since that time, a West Papuan resistance movement has campaigned for political independence using a variety of Indigenous West Papuans are ethnically Melanesian and most identify with the Christian faith, both identifiers which distinguish them from Asian, predominantly Muslim.
Indonesians.
It is sufficiently evident then that West Papuans constitute a AygroupAy for the purposes of applying the Genocide Convention, which covers groups that identify along national, ethnical, racial or religious lines.
We now turn to an examination of those acts committed in West Papua that, together with proof of intent, constitute the crime of genocide under the Genocide Convention.
B Killings Contemporary estimates state that up to 500 000 West Papuans have been killed as a result of Indonesian occupation.
16 While many of these deaths have been the indirect .
lthough not necessarily unintende.
consequence of Indonesian military and government policies and practices, many have also simply been murders in the form of massacres, assassinations and killing rampages.
Examples abound.
For instance, 15 The maximum penalty issued to an indigenous West Papuan for displaying the Morning Star flag is 15 yearsAo imprisonment, a sentence given to West Papuan Filep Karma in 2004.
Amnesty International.
Submission to the United Nations Human Rights Committee, 108th Session of the Human Rights Committee, 8 Ae 26 July 2013, 12.
Amnesty International considers Karma a AupriorityAy prisoner of conscience.
16 Jennifer Robinson.
AoUNAos Chequered Record in West PapuaAo Al Jazeera .
, 21 March, 2012 <https://w.
org/nations-a-states/emerging-states--claims-to-autonomy-andindependence/west-papua/51421-uns-chequered-record-in-west-papua.
html?itemid=id#707>.
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throughout 1977, the Indonesian military strafed and bombed the highlands Akimuga people, ostensibly in retaliation for flag raisings and an attack on a pipeline and other infrastructure at the Freeport McMoRan gold and copper mine by local people, many of whom were victims of the mining operation.
Reports emerged that thousands were killed or forced from their homes and left to starve.
17 The Baliem River brimmed with In 1996, several international students were taken hostage in the Southern Highlands, the kidnap coordinated by the late OPM (Free Papua Movemen.
Kelly Kwalik, in an attempt to broadcast the West PapuansAo plight to the world.
The Indonesian military seized the opportunity to impersonate International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) workers and commandeered their helicopter which displayed the ICRC logo trusted by the West Papuan highlanders.
When the aircraft came within close range of the Papuans gathered to greet it, 16 people were killed point-blank.
19 Many others died in subsequent military operations in the Mapenduma region.
On Biak Island on 6 July 1998, the Indonesian military opened fire on a crowd of West Papuans, gathered around a water tank in the downtown area, who were praying and singing for independence.
Some 32 people died in the initial assault.
At least 100 people were then forced onto navy vessels and dumped into the ocean, their bodies washing up for days afterwards.
Following a major Papuan political gathering to declare independence on 19 October 2011 in Jayapura, the Indonesian army again began firing upon the remaining crowd with at least six people being killed.
21 Several key West Papuan political figures have also been assassinated by Indonesian police and armed forces, including West Papuan performer, anthropologist and folk hero Arnold Ap in 1984.
the charismatic leader of the Papua Presidium Council.
Theys Eluay, in 2001.
revered OPM leader.
Kelly Kwalik, in 17 Brundige.
King.
Vahali.
Vladeck and Yuan, above n 1, 23.
18 Otto Ondawame.
AoOne People.
One Soul: West Papua Nationalism and the Organisasi Papua MerdekaAo (Crawford, 2.
19 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
AoBlood on the CrossAo.
Four Corners, 12 July 1999 (Mark Davi.
<http://w.
au/4corners/stories/s39706.
20 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
AoThe Biak MassacreAo.
Radio National AoPerspectiveAo, 1 August 2008 (Sue Clar.
<http://w.
au/radionational/programs/perspective/the-biak-massacre/3197192>.
21 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
AoWest Papuans Attacked By Indonesian ArmyAo.
Lateline, 27 October 2011 (Hamish Fitzsimmon.
<http://w.
au/lateline/content/2011/s3350029.
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the deputy chair of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB).
Mako Tabuni, in 2012, and others.
AoMysteriousAo killings of civilians by unknown assailants .
ossibly military or paramilitary officer.
take place on a weekly basis in West Papua, and are rarely 22 It has also become commonplace for West Papuan civilians to be AodisappearedAo by government forces and never seen again.
23 AoKilling members of the groupAo, part .
Article 2 of the Genocide Convention, is a criterion that has certainly been met in West Papua.
C Serious Bodily and Mental Harm The flagrant use of torture on indigenous West Papuans by military personnel came to international attention in 2010 when a YouTube video showed two West Papuan men being tortured.
Between them they had their genitals burnt, were hogtied, kicked in the head, suffocated with a plastic bag and menaced at knifepoint by Indonesian troops.
More videos soon emerged on social media and in the mainstream media of West Papuans being tortured by Indonesian troops.
West Papua specialist Budi Hernawan has documented 431 cases of torture in West Papua from 1963-2010, drawn from 12 public documents and three personal archives.
Hernawan argues that the use of torture in West Papua is intended less as a means of procuring information from victims than as a method of public humiliation and It is a corporeal spectacle with a psychological message to those who witness it to abandon all affiliation with West Papuan nationalism.
26 Rape of West Papuan women by members of the military in West Papua is also commonplace, 22 AoELSHAM Reveals That Acts of Violence Have Increased in West PapuaAo.
Bintang Papua, (Jayapur.
20 December 2012.
23 Brundige.
King.
Vahali.
Vladeck and Yuan, above n 1.
24 Indonesia: Video of the Military Torturing Indigenous Papuans Surfaced .
ploaded to the Asian Human Rights Commission website, 2.
<http://video.
net/>.
25 See for example Asian Human Rights Commission.
AoGuards Torture 20 Prisoners at Abepura Correctional Facility.
PapuaAo (Press Release, 22 February 2.
<http://westpapuamedia.
info/2013/02/26/ahrc-guards-torture-20-prisoners-at-the-abepuracorrectional-facility-papua/>.
26 Budi Hernawan.
AoTorture in Papua: A Spectacle of Dialectics of the Abject and the SovereignAo in Peter King.
Jim Elmslie and Camellia Webb-Gannon .
Comprehending West Papua (Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.
University of Sydney, 2.
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especially in villages situated near military posts along the border with PNG, causing both bodily and mental harm to women, their families and their communities.
Expressing political aspirations for independence or exercising political rights, such as organising demonstrations, has landed many West Papuans in prison.
This is terrifying not only for the prisoners themselves, but for their communities who live in fear of being apprehended for similar reasons or for alleged association with activists.
More than 200 West Papuans are currently political prisoners in West Papua.
28 The Indonesian military also uses psychological warfare techniques to enforce its reign of terror in West Papua.
Sinister SMS messages are sent and telephone calls are placed to activists containing death threats.
Military troops monitor church services and patrol villages throughout West Papua.
Even indigenous social events attract a military presence.
Colonisation of West Papuan minds through the use of terror tactics is a method of ensuring the colonisation of their land.
D Inflicting Life Conditions Calculated To Bring About Physical Destruction A recent report by West Papuan political prisoner.
Selpius Bobii, outlined the conditions leading to what he contends is the gradual Aoannihilation of indigenous West PapuansAo.
The reasons he compiles, many of which have been validated by various other research projects, arguably constitute deliberate conditions inflicted by the Indonesian Government and/or military on West Papuans to bring about their physical destruction one of the acts specified as genocidal under the Genocide Convention.
Bobii mentions the dozens of military operations conducted in West Papua since IndonesiaAos invasion in 1962, which, apart from directly killing people who came into contact with the operations, have also forced local populations to flee their villages and go into hiding and, ultimately, starve to death.
To quote Bobii:
Military operations during this time have included bombings, shootings, kidnapping, murder, forced disappearances, detention and imprisonment, torture, rape, theft of 27 Wenislaus Fatibun.
AoSepi Maria Tanpa Sang PradaAo on Wenislaus Fatibun.
IndoPress.
com (August 2.
<http://indoprogress.
au/2010/09/sepi-maria-tanpa-sang-prada.
28 Papuans Behind Bars.
Home .
<http://w.
org/>.
29 Jim Elmslie and Camellia Webb-Gannon with Peter King.
Anatomy of an Occupation: The Indonesian Military in West Papua (Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.
University of Sydney, 2.
<http://westpapuamediaalerts.
com/2011/08/anatomy-3.
30 Bobii, above n 7.
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domestic livestock, destruction of crops/vegetable gardens .
hich are peopleAos source of surviva.
, burning of homes to the ground, burning of churches, killing by poisoning of food and water, and others.
There have been killings carried out in sadistic ways such as victims whilst still alive, having their body parts chopped off with a short machete/chopping knife or axe.
or victims being sliced up with razors or knives, then the open flesh being filled with chilli water.
males and females being forced to have sex before their torturers then the male genitals being cut off and the their wives forced to eat them, following which they are both killed.
being killed by being suspended .
trung u.
until being thrown alive into deep chasms where there is no way out.
being placed tied alive into a sack then thrown into the sea or a lake or river.
being buried in the earth alive.
iron bars being heated in a fire then inserted into the anus, the mouth or into the female internally through the genitals.
Bobii also cites a belief commonly held by West Papuans that the introduction of HIV to West Papua is part of a genocidal strategy.
Recent statistics from a Dutch study in West Papua on infant mortality rates are telling of structural discrimination against West Papuans.
Indigenous West Papuans have an infant mortality rate of 18.
4 per cent, whilst the infant mortality rate among the non-indigenous population in Papua is 3.
6 per 32 The study claims that the shocking health conditions faced by West Papuan children constitute a violation by the Indonesian Government of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
E Forcibly Transferring Children of the Group to Another Group A report published in the Sydney Morning Herald in May 2013 by FairfaxAos Indonesia Correspondent.
Michael Bachelard, detailed an organised operation in the trafficking of West Papuan children to hard-line Islamic schools in Jakarta.
33 The children have been taken from vulnerable families in West Papua by agents who either lie to destitute parents about the education their children will receive or who do not gain the consent of the childrenAos parents or guardians.
The childrenAos names are changed, they are forced to imbibe a religion that is not their own, and they are kept under lock and key in harsh Many of the families never hear from their children again.
Whether the 31 Ibid.
32 Stella Peters and Wouter Bronsgeets.
AoExtremely High Infant Mortality in West Papua Result of DiscriminationAo (Press Statement, 12 November 2.
<http://w.
nl/>.
33 Michael Bachelard.
AoTheyAore Taking Our KidsAo.
The Sydney Morning Herald .
, 4 May 2012 <http://w.
au/lifestyle/theyre-taking-our-kids-20130429-2inhf.
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transferring of West Papuan children is part of a current and explicit government scheme could not be confirmed by Bachelard, although he did state that such actions are encouraged by the Religious Affairs Ministry.
In any case, genocidal intent need not be explicit Ae implied intent together with genocidal acts can comprise sufficient evidence of the crime of genocide as will be discussed below.
That such an act is in keeping with longer term Indonesian Government planning is evident in BachelardAos recollection of SuhartoAos 1969 proposal to transfer Ao200 000 children of the Aubackward and primitive Papuans, still living in the stone ageAy to Java for educationAo.
The separation of children from their families has no justification under international law, whether for better education or for Aore-educationAo, as Bachelard points out.
IV INTENT ELEMENT
Several academic articles and reports on the topic of genocide in West Papua have examined the issue of intent, that is, whether there is evidence that acts of killing, acts causing mental and physical harm, conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of West Papuans, and the forcible removing of children have occurred in West Papua and whether there is an ultimate intention to destroy the West Papuan nation in whole or in part.
Proving intent is crucial to establishing that genocide has taken place.
The key sentence in the Genocide Convention in this respect is Ai AoIn the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as suchAo.
Intent therefore is the ingredient that changes the Aofollowing actsAo referred to in the Genocide Convention from being crimes in their own right, to constituting the crime of As signatories of the Genocide Convention have agreed that they will abide by it and not commit genocide, it follows that governments engaged in genocide will seek to deny its existence and suppress or hide evidence to the contrary.
In Genocide in West Papua?, 36 John Wing and Peter King report in graphic detail the multitude of violent acts inflicted on the West Papuan people by the Indonesian security 34 Ibid.
35 Genocide Convention, above n 2.
36 John Wing and Peter King.
Genocide in West Papua? The Role of the Indonesian State Apparatus and a Current Needs Assessment of the West Papuan People (Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.
University of Sydney, 2.
<http://sydney.
au/arts/peace_conflict/docs/WestPapuaGenocideRpt05.
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They do not however make a sustained argument for Indonesian Aointent to destroyAo, and therefore leave open the question of whether the decimation of West PapuaAos population amounts to genocide under the Genocide Convention.
In Tracey Banivanua-MarAos 2008 article.
AoAyA Thousand Miles of Cannibal LandAy:
Imagining Away Genocide in the Re-colonization of West PapuaAo, the author also shies away from making a definitive legal claim about whether genocide has occurred.
While Banivanua-Mar holds that AoColonial genocides are frequently passive in their aggression, and state actions of neglect, omission, silence and inaction accumulate to knowingly inflict destruction on indigenous peoplesAo, 37 she contends that the legal debate is a Aopotentially diversionaryAo one which, she holds, undermines the experiences of the victims of genocide.
The 2004 Yale Law School report.
Indonesian Human Rights Abuses in West Papua:
Application of the Law of Genocide to the History of Indonesian Control, 39 has been the closest inquiry into the issue of genocide in West Papua to date.
As has been indicated above, the report clearly established the West Papuan people as a distinct group under the Genocide Convention.
Furthermore it presented an extensive array of acts that, it said, constituted genocidal behaviour as listed in the Genocide Convention.
However, the report was somewhat inconclusive on AointentAo.
The authors of the Yale report grappled with this and failed to produce a clear answer.
In their conclusion they state:
In the final analysis, whether the sum of acts committed by the Indonesians against the West Papuans rises to the level of genocide turns largely on the question of whether these acts were committed with the requisite mens rea or intent to destroy the West Papuan groupA In the West Papuan case, any such inference necessarily remains tentative given the difficulties in procuring comprehensive qualitative or quantitative data about human rights abuses in West Papua, past and present.
Even given this rather serious caveat the reportAos conclusion went on to find:
37 Tracey Banivanua-Mar.
AoAyOne Thousand Miles of Cannibal LandsAy: Imagining Away Genocide in the Re- Colonization of West PapuaAo .
The Journal of Genocide Research 587.
38 Ibid 586.
39 Brundige.
King.
Vahali.
Vladeck and Yuan, above n 1.
40 Ibid 75.
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However, the historical and contemporary evidence set out above strongly suggests that the Indonesian Government has committed proscribed acts with the intent to destroy the West Papuans as such, in violation of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the customary law prohibition this convention In their report, the authors found that intent might be inferred from the context of the act itself, but qualified that by saying:
In the case of West Papua, inferring intent from the acts seems to be a difficult proposition, because the relevant acts, on their own, do not clearly suggest the kind of systematic campaign that the text of the Genocide Convention explicitly requires.
Perhaps the reportAos most concrete statement is:
Without further research, it may not be possible to determine conclusively whether the acts perpetrated by the Indonesian Government against the West Papuans were committed with the intent to destroy the West Papua group, as such.
We find this unsatisfactory and suggest that these acts have been intentional from the very beginning of Indonesian rule in October 1962-63, up until the present.
We contend that West Papua has been under a form of military occupation since 1962 in which most government acts and policies have been guided by an implicit or explicit aim: to intentionally destroy those West Papuans who have opposed Indonesian rule.
This means that, since even the Indonesian Government acknowledges that large numbers of West Papuans oppose Indonesian control and, in fact, yearn for and promote an independent state, genocidal policies have been pursued in West Papua for over 50 years, with intent.
Genocide has been committed to destroy that AupartAy of the West Papuan AugroupAy or people seeking independence, by any measure a substantial proportion of the West Papuan population.
41 Ibid.
42 Ibid 71.
43 Ibid 74.
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A The Nature of Indonesian Rule Since 1962 As has been written elsewhere a rapid demographic transition has taken place whereby the Melanesians now make up slightly less than half the population from being over 96 per cent as recently as 1971.
44 A new generation of better educated and internet literate independence activists are pushing their dreams for freedom in a way that the Indonesian state finds hard to counter.
The international community is starting to sit up and take notice of the murderous conflict that has gone on unnoticed for far too long.
Talks about negotiations between Jakarta and West Papuan leaders have been quietly, but firmly, shelved by Jakarta over the past couple of years.
So the issue of whether or not genocide has occurred is no moot point: on the contrary it is perhaps the most pressing contemporary issue.
If the Papuans are suffering genocide it is an international obligation of all the signatories of the Genocide Convention to raise this matter in the United Nations.
The United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) took over administrative control of West Papua on 1 October 1962 with a force of 1537 Muslim troops from Pakistan.
45 The 1500-odd Indonesian paratroopers who had already entered AoWest IrianAo as a putative invasion force were allowed to stay and help police the transfer.
In effect Indonesian forces immediately started to take control and establish a military administration, which has continued substantially unchanged to the present day.
The attitude of the Indonesian forces was to treat the West Papuan population as the enemy they had sided with the Dutch against Indonesia.
many Indonesian troops had been captured or killed by Papuans.
The Papuans were also racially different from the Indonesians and that difference is and was exacerbated by the religious divide:
Indonesian Muslims versus Christian West Papuans.
Deep-seated conflicting mindsets persist to this day.
Since 1962 there have been many distinct military operations, as mentioned above, but they have all operated within a broad framework aimed at tightly repressing West PapuansAo political freedom with the explicit goal of thwarting any activities promoting Overlying this policy base has been the various economic and social goals and opportunities that the Indonesian state and actors have pursued throughout their 44 Elmslie, above n 5.
45 Jim Elmslie.
Irian Jaya Under the Gun (University of Hawaii Press, 2.
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occupation promoting a demographic transition by the large-scale immigration of non-Papuan settlers.
providing security/extorting revenue through AoguardingAo mining companies such as Freeport, and controlling all aspects of the economy, both legitimate .
or instance the forestry industr.
and illegitimate .
uch as prostitution and selling But the main focus of Indonesian Government policy has been the intentional suppression of Papua pro-independence activities and activists.
This has been a concerted policy.
A vast military and police network, both overt and clandestine, has monitored and controlled most aspects of Papuan life.
This was the subject of a University of Sydney report in 2011.
Anatomy of an Occupation: the Indonesian Military in West Papua, which clearly shows the mechanics of the Indonesian 46 At times this has entailed military campaigns against specific districts in the form of AosweepingAo operations: searching for and killing AoseparatistsAo in remote villages, burning houses, destroying gardens and harassing village people viewed as Aopro-separatistAo.
As most Papuan villagers are pro-independence .
view that even the Indonesian military hol.
, they are regarded by the Indonesian state and armed forces as the AoenemyAo and therefore legitimate targets.
There is continuous surveillance, monitoring and harassment of Papuan activists.
None of the perpetrators of these crimes are dealt with by the judicial system Ae most have enjoyed impunity .
lthough Theys EluayAos killers did face a military court and received light sentence.
This confirms that there is a military occupation under way in West Papua, hence civilian courts have a limited role in political justice.
Soldiers engaged in atrocities and crimes are just doing their duty.
They are not operating as rogue forces but the loyal servants of a military following a clear policy: to crush West Papuan nationalism and resistance.
The policy is evident in select statements issued by Indonesian military and state leaders since the occupation of West Papua.
In the lead-up to the 1969 Act of Free Choice.
Brigadier-General Ali Murtopo, who was in charge of ensuring the Act AosucceededAo, threatened that if Papuans did not vote for integration with Indonesia then their Aoaccursed tonguesAo would be cut out.
Additionally, he told the Papuans that Indonesia was not interested in them, but in their land: if they wanted independence, they had 46 Elmslie and Webb-Gannon with King, above n 25.
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better look for another Pacific island to move to, or even consider the Moon! 47 In 1985.
IndonesiaAos then Transmigration Minister stated the governmentAos intention to destroy ethnic groups and nations within Indonesia:
By way of transmigration, we will try to realise what has been pledged, to integrate all the ethnic groups into one nation, the Indonesian nation A The different ethnic groups will in the long run disappear because of integration A and there will be one kind of man.
Former Indonesian President.
Megawati Sukarnoputri, instructed her armed forces in 2001 in an Army Day speech to Aocarry out your duties and responsibilities in the best possible manner without having to worry about .
ccusations o.
human rights abusesAo.
And when Theys Eluay was murdered by Kopassus soldiers in 2001, his killers were hailed as national AuheroesAy by the army commander-in-chief for upholding the Auterritorial integrityAy of Indonesia.
50 Statements such as these do tend to demonstrate genocidal intent on the part of IndonesiaAos top-tier leaders.
As outlined above, the work of Budi Hernawan reveals the horrific extremes to which the state will go in its repression.
Innocent people are tortured in public not for information, but as an example of state power and control.
That part of the Papuan body politic who harbour a desire for an independent West Papua is attacked as the enemy, yet the feeling is so pervasive that it is evident in most West Papuan people.
Far from being difficult to prove intent, it seems hard to escape that conclusion.
What else could it be? It is not rogue soldiers running amok and acting outside of command It is not a case of settler Papuan conflict: there is in fact very little direct violence perpetrated by settlers on Papuans .
lthough settlers have been killed by Papuan.
This last point is important in two aspects: firstly it shows just how well controlled the general population is.
there is little petty crime and internecine violence as such.
The pervasive nature of the occupation, which includes military and police check points throughout the country and a highly visible armed presence, underscores 47 Carmel Budiardjo and Soei Liong Liem.
West Papua: The Obliteration of a People (TAPOL, 1.
48 Quoted in Letter.
AoOpen Letter to Mr Clausen.
Retiring President of the World Bank, and Mr Conable.
President ElectAo .
The Ecologist 58.
49 Marwaan Macan-Markar.
AoPolitics Indonesia: Activists Hit Megawati on AcehAo.
Inter Press Service .
, 3 January 2002 <http://w.
net/2002/01/politics-indonesia-activists-hit-megawation-aceh/>.
50 Benny Giay.
AoThe Role of the Church in West PapuaAo in Gerrie ter Har and James J Busuttil .
Bridge or Barrier: Religion.
Violence and Visions for Peace (Institute of Social Studies.
Hague.
Netherlands, 2.
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the fact that West Papua is far from out of control, which also indicates that actions undertaken by the security forces are not haphazard or erratic but are planned and The low level of settler-Papuan violence indicates that the dynamic of the genocide taking place in West Papua is completely different to the mass killings that occurred in Australia, with which it is often compared.
While it is true that Australian Aborigines suffered genocidal acts, the perpetrators of these acts were generally white settlers occupying and claiming traditional lands.
Driven by economic motives and inflamed by a fear of Aboriginal retaliation, white settlers ignored government policy and killed large numbers of Aborigines, driving survivors into the AuprotectiveAy sanctuaries of Christian missions, cattle stations and the slum camps of outback towns.
Claims of genocide in Australia have been generally dismissed because there has never been evidence that the killings were part of intentional government policy.
This is not the case in West Papua.
The settlers have not been the ones killing the Papuans.
Papuans have been killed by Indonesian soldiers and police following orders.
Their actions and the instructions they have followed have been intentional.
Doubtless some will disagree with this analysis.
They will dispute our characterisation of West Papua as an occupied country.
They will be offended at the use of the term AugenocideAy.
For them West Papua is a restive province, with a low level insurgency carried out by a few poorly armed separatists.
Yet genocide has a clear legal definition in the Genocide Convention.
It constitutes one or more acts described in the Genocide Convention, carried out with intent.
The acts are undeniable.
we have put forward a case that the intent is also undeniable.
The legal responsibility of signatories of the Genocide Convention is explicit Ai Aothe contracting parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punishAo.
51 Signatories such as the United States.
Britain and Australia, are legally duty bound to examine these claims.
Yet their own national interests are served best by ignoring them and continuing to have close trade and strategic partnerships with Indonesia.
This is hardly surprising given the real politik nature of international 51 Genocide Convention, n 2, art 1.
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Yet the trends underway suggest that the situation in West Papua will continue to deteriorate and draw foreign states into its conflict.
In particular.
Australia, a quasi military ally of Indonesia through the 2006 Lombok Treaty .
hich was itself based on suppressing international support for West Papu.
, will find itself in an increasingly awkward position: a self proclaimed promoter of human rights, yet a supporting actor in a military occupation entailing crimes against humanity and genocide.
B The Trends Underway in West Papua The broad picture of West Papua is one where the trends of past decades will continue, but also where recently emerged trends will play an ever-bigger role.
These are likely to exacerbate the conflict and push it further onto the international stage, requiring some delicate diplomatic manoeuvring for IndonesiaAos erstwhile foreign friends and, most particularly, for Indonesia itself.
Long-term trends such as the influx of non-Papuan settlers will continue, further minoritising the Papuans.
However settlers tend to stay in the urban centres and heavily populated coastal regions.
This means that the mountainous interior of the country will remain predominantly Melanesian, while many coastal and urban areas become predominantly populated by Asian.
Muslim non-Papuan settlers.
Combined with the trend of increasing militarisation new military bases and more troops this is a recipe for heightened armed conflict, human rights abuses and continued genocide.
Recent trends include the increasingly strident claims of West Papuan leaders that they are suffering a genocidal occupation, with many demanding independence.
Violent actions taken against these individuals and groups are being recorded and disseminated to an international .
nd nationa.
audience as never before.
Smart phones.
YouTube, and the internet generally, allow information to be easily and extensively broadcast.
Images of West Papuans being tortured receive wide attention.
statements by Papuans are now the Indonesian Government is no longer able to prevent news from leaving West Papua.
As the amount and quality of information emerging from West Papua grows, so too does the size and strength of the international community responding to it.
The International Lawyers West Papua International Parliamentarians for West Papua has greatly bolstered the profile of the conflict, and not A SLOW-MOTION GENOCIDE: INDONESIAN RULE IN WEST PAPUA VOL 1.
just in the Western world.
Pacific nations such as Papua New Guinea and Fiji are joining long-time supporter.
Vanuatu, in having prominent individuals take up the cause of West Papua, and taking it to such regional forums as the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).
Indeed the issue helped bring down the Vanuatu Prime Minister.
Sato Kilman, recently when his government was seen as becoming too close to the Indonesians, including by giving them permanent observer status in the MSG.
This is perhaps the most dramatic impact that the West Papuan issue has had on another countryAos domestic affairs but is likely not the last.
Politics in PNG, which shares an 800-kilometre border with West Papua .
nd therefore Indonesi.
, is sure to become more fraught since this explosive issue has finally emerged onto the domestic stage.
Expatriate West Papuan spokespeople and independence leaders, such as Benny Wenda.
John Otto Ondawame and Rex Rumakiek, are also attracting much more attention and authority, both inside West Papua and internationally, than previously, and they are playing to the now sympathetic ear of the international media.
V CONCLUSION
While the conflict on the ground grows and repression of West Papuan AoseparatismAo increases, the capacity to broadcast news of atrocities, public protests and leadersAo statements increases exponentially.
This means that more attention is going to be focused on what is actually happening in West Papua, and how the conflict might be resolved or mitigated.
The issue of genocide is front and centre in all of this.
If Indonesia has only been able to hold West Papua within the Republic by engaging in genocidal policies, what does that bode for the future? It certainly implies that if Indonesia were to loosen its rule in West Papua there would, indeed, be more widespread calls and demonstrations for independence.
Yet is the international community, given its obligation to prevent genocide, really prepared to ignore the brutality of Indonesian repression in West Papua in return for good relations with Jakarta? Governments may be able to rationalise genocide in such a manner, but the case of East Timor showed that the public ultimately will not.
And is Indonesia really going to allow its international image to be dominated by another bloody occupation, as was the case with East Timor? These are questions that go to the heart of IndonesiaAos self-perception as a country, a nation made up of the disparate parts of the former Dutch East Indies empire.
It is a VOL 1.
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post-colonial dilemma which is bitterly cruel for both the Indonesians and, even more so, the West Papuans.
Indonesia faces the diabolically difficult dilemma to either engage in serious negotiation with the West Papuans to try and devise a form of association that will address West Papuan grievances and aspirations and make them want to stay in the Indonesian Republic, or to lose international support for their claims of sovereignty over West Papua.
There is no argument that justifies genocide not even territorial A SLOW-MOTION GENOCIDE: INDONESIAN RULE IN WEST PAPUA
REFERENCE LIST