West Papua – rest the violence against indigenous women. The second battle begins!

Papua Activist Freedom/photo FWPN

The wits of Melanesian politicians are fashionable, and abuse by politicians must by necessity be selective. This would be correct, but not if the invective and wit is a matter of life and death.
Mako Tabuni(shown in the photo dramatising disent on top of a vehicle at Abepura, 2011), was West Papua’s version of the another Melanesian and witty and iconic Simbu politician and Melanesia’s fearless leader, the late Iambakey Okuk. 

Tabuni became a target of the Indonesian kill squad or DENSUS 88 and was assassinated at the Waena Suburb, Jayapura, in the crackdown by Indonesian authorities for his wit when he dared to command and mobilize popular aspirations by Papuans to be free in a 2011 independence rally in West Papua’s capital, Jayapura.

The slain Papuan and Melanesian independence fighter used great political wit and abuse at the time to dispense his message across, by calculation, the invective a matter of life and death: ‘ In West Papua, the Indonesian flag and constitution has no meaning because there is no land, and its sovereignty does not include West Papua’.

Mako Tabuni knew the cost of such political wit and abuse, which is missing in Melanesia. But, the times are changing. The ‘Greek Tragedy’’(Forbes Magazine, 2011) is still unfolding across the border and is evidence that demands a verdict from Melanesia. Mako Tabuni is gone but he was a sign of the times. In earlier times, Demosthenes said to General Phocian,
”The Athenians will kill you someday when they are in rage”, and Phocian replied,”And when you some day when they are in their senses”. The women are worst shaken both as target and collateral damage of conflict, especially the armed conflict on Australia’s doorstep.

It is the violence against indigenous women in West Papua that is also a sign of the times, and points to how we failed our people across the border. The 2014 Bali Democracy Conference just ended, and PNG Foreign Minister, Rimbink Pato is beaming. Here is the anti – thesis, the other script, and a skeleton in the closet for too long.
The Dutch colonial masters and the US and the mad scramble for economic development in Melanesian West Papua is too costly already.

West Papua — Violence against indigenous women

Across the border in West Papua, where the imaginary land demarcation line cuts straight through the island of New Guinea at 141 degrees Meridian East, the Asian Human Rights Commission in association with the International Center for Transitional Justice reports that violence against indigenous women is a matter of cultural survival.
Fien Jarangga and Galuh Wandita(2011), coordinated the Papuan Women’s Human Rights Network, a newly formed network of Indigenous human rights workers from Papua, Indonesia, and made their findings about violence against indigenous women in West Papua.
In their report to the Asian Human Rights Commission, ‘Enough Already’ in Cultural Survival – Spring 2011, they noted that Papuan women were everyday suffering terrible violence both outside and inside their homes for the past 50 years or so, and for most of that time, they’ve suffered in silence. The AHRC connected with a group of women who launched their own truth commission to give support to the victims and to pressure the government to change its behavior.

This writer has gone over all possible details of the fraud of West Papua in which Papua (the western half of the island of New Guinea) has long been in a state of upheaval.
But, a recap is needed. When Indonesia declared independence from the Netherlands in 1945 and achieved international recognition in 1949, Papua remained under Dutch rule. Indonesia contested this situation, and in 1962 the territory’s administration was transferred to the United Nations.
Part of that agreement called for an “act of free choice”—a territory-wide vote in which citizens could choose independence or becoming part of Indonesia. The vote was supposed to be universal, but in practice an Indonesian general choose 1,025 men to act as representatives of the whole population, and those representatives voted unanimously for the territory to be absorbed by Indonesia.
Papuans who refuse to be Índonesianised’ but be free from Indonesian rule claim that the process was flawed because it did not follow the one-person-one-vote model and was conducted in a context of on-going military operations, and there has been a low-level resistance movement operating in Papua ever since.

The Indonesian military and police forces, ostensibly acting against these rebels, has committed a wide range of human rights abuses, including murder, rape, torture, and kidnapping, often in secret and rarely with any consequences. That behavior came to particular public attention in October 2010, with the circulation of a YouTube video showing three Indonesian soldiers torturing two Papuan men.
The soldiers were tried by a military court, which sentenced them to less than a year in prison for “not following orders” (the Indonesian military code does not recognize torture as a punishable offense). Indonesian military presence remains strong in Papua, and the number of Indonesian settlers from other islands is quickly outgrowing the number of indigenous Papuans.
Papua was granted “special autonomy” status in 2001, with legislation to establish a human rights court and a truth and reconciliation commission “to clarify the history” of Papua. To date, none of these provisions for justice have been established, while atrocities committed against the Indigenous Peoples continue. The following is a chronology of the second battle by Papuan women to get Melanesian leaders and leaders of the free world to give voice to the voiceless of West Papua.

Indigenous Papuan women gather to atrocities committed against the Indigenous Peoples

On May 2009, 19 Indigenous women and 3 men from 11 organizations across Papua met for 4 days to discuss how some of these stories could be collated. With support from the National Women’s Commission and assistance from the International Center for Transitional Justice, a strategy was developed to document the violence through templates, and a plan to find these women, convince them to tell their story, and write those stories down. Working for more than a year, the project was a success, in which stories from 261 Indigenous women survivors of violence were collated to form the database on the status of violence committed against indigenous women of West Papua.

The background to documentation of atrocities committed against the Indigenous women of West Papua Peoples was an arduous experience, and challenging. But, the questions were answered with the successful collection of data that could be pinned down to networking in place for more than a year earlier involving a group of Indigenous Papuan women who gathered to talk about the violence that they experienced. It was their wish to look back to the past, because they knew that there needs to be a reckoning, a way to listen to indigenous women who experienced violence since the conflict started more than 50 years ago.
They wanted to write down, for the first time, women’s stories of rape and abuse that took place during military campaigns in Papua. They also wanted to listen to stories of Indigenous women beaten by their husbands, because they know that the violence in their private lives was also connected to the violence that took place during times of political conflict.
The team worked for more than six months interviewing victims and witnesses, as well as conducting group interviews while making maps and timelines together, to jog each other’s memories. Interviews were analyzed and discussed together by the team, and a report and recommendations were drafted and discussed in workshops held in Jayapura. This participatory approach was used to ensure transfer of knowledge and skills to Indigenous Papuan women involved in this effort.

These are some of the stories that were collected. Case 1: Military operations. ‘’In 1967, military operations were conducted in the town of Biak and began to move to the villages. By 1969, the military operations were strong in my home area, Swaipak, Biak.
I stayed there during military operations known as the Sadar operations. It involved social interaction, called Yospan, which became a threat to parents, because they had to let their young daughters; in fact, some parents pressured their daughters to go to the Yospan rather than be targeted with physical violence or threatened. In the middle of the night the people were woken up, and young girls were made to dance Yospan then have sexual relations. The troops said to the parents and husbands, ‘You must understand.’’” Case 2: Dance party organized by the troops. During a dance party organized by the troops in Jayapura district, around 1989, a fight broke out between some community members. Some soldiers intervened: “The soldiers brought my sister in law and told her to swallow a battery, until she was coughing. They wouldn’t allow us to bring her to the hospital.
The next day, they brought me and to their post. They opened our clothes, and told us to stand in water for hours. Then they made us sleep on the beach for about one hour. We were given no food; we were very hungry. Then they raped me. After that they made us walk to the post naked; at the post a picture was taken of us”.
The spectacle happened in homes as well. Case 3: Stories of violence in the home. “Fighting within families in my neighborhood usually happens after our husbands consume alcohol called CT (a local brand). When we wives are beaten to almost half dead by our drunken husbands, the crazed husbands don’t get arrested or taken away.
Maybe this is also because other than some people who sell CT, there are also policemen who sell and consume (alcohol). So how will the police take care of security?”Case 4: How Indigenous women are susceptible to HIV/AIDS. “I was married when I was 14 years old. When I was in elementary school, in fifth grade, I was forced by my family to enter a traditional marriage with a chief who already had three wives. I tried to resist; I wanted to go to school like my other friends.
But the chief kept pressuring my family, so I had no choice. After a year, the chief brought a new wife from the town and told us this is the fifth wife. Since the fifth wife arrived, our family started getting sick. My husband was sick first, then died, then wife number five, then three, then second, and first. They all died in one year. After being examined (at the hospital), I was told that I had been infected by HIV/AIDS. This is a new illness for us. We were told to take ARV medication regularly”.
90-page report called “Enough Already” on violence against women that took place during 1963-2009.

With support from the National Women’s Commission and assistance from the International Center for Transitional Justice, a strategy was developed to document violence against indigenous women of West Papua. It culminated in a 90-page report called “Enough Already” on violence against women that took place during 1963-2009.
Moreover, the templates, a plan to find these women, convince them to tell their story, and write those stories down paved the way for violence against indigenous women that took place during 1963-2009 to be stopped. It took more than a year, but the project was a success, in which stories from 261 Indigenous women survivors of violence were collated to form the database on the status of violence committed against indigenous women of West Papua.
In April 19, 2010, the report was presented to the Papuan Indigenous People’s Council, an official body established by the Special Autonomy law for Papua to protect Indigenous People’s rights, and to the National Women’s Commission. The Special Autonomy law was passed in 2001, and it includes the establishment of a truth commission and a court to try human rights violations. But until now, none of these has been established. Many other parts of the Special Autonomy law have also not been implemented.
The report’s main findings and recommendations, which the National Women’s Commission with the assistance from the International Center for Transitional Justice used to form the basis of a strategy to stop violence against the indigenous women of West Papua from 1963-2009 under the military occupation have been brought to the attention of the government of Indonesia.

While the chances of attracting the attention of the government of Indonesia to the issue of violence against indigenous women of West Papua may be hoped for, the reality is poles apart. For instance, the Special Autonomy law was passed in 2001, and includes the establishment of a truth commission and a court to try human rights violations. But until now, none of these has been established.
Many other parts of the Special Autonomy law have also not been implemented. Nonetheless, the report is a strong statement by women of West Papua on violence against the indigenous women of West Papua from 1963-2009 under the military occupation which have never been brought to the attention of the government of Indonesia, and importantly addressed by the Indonesian state which has a duty under the social contract to protect its citizens from the threat of physical violence and exploitation.
The report documents more than 135 cases of state violence against women and 113 cases of violence in the family, using as guide the definitions in the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women.
It probed or state and domestic violence to reflect what had been experienced by the indigenous women who made up the population of the survey. The conclusions were clear. Among the conclusions was that Indigenous women experience violence in the context of the political conflict in Papua, where they are displaced during military action, often becoming victims of rape, abuse, and other human rights violations.
Another conclusion was that at the same time, Indigenous women are reporting high rates of domestic violence perpetrated by their husbands or partners, while receiving little protection from police or state agencies. Ironically, the influx of funds as part of the special autonomy package granted to Papua since 2001 seems to have increased the level of alcohol consumption, unprotected sex, and incidents of domestic violence. Similarly, special autonomy has not become a deterrent to human rights violations.
Cases of rape by the military have continued to take place after reformation (1998) and special autonomy (2001). In fact, it has been found that there were cases where women victims of human rights violations later become victims of domestic violence due to the stigma they experience as victims.

The crimes by the military and police that were documented included killings and disappearances (8 cases), attempted killings and shootings (5), illegal detention (18), assault (21), torture (9), sexual torture (6), rape (52), attempted rape (2), sexual slavery (5), sexual exploitation (9), forced contraception or abortion (4), and displacement (24). But the population of the survey conducted over the one and a half years would be higher than just the stories collated for and among the women who gave testimony.

All things said and done, the chances of attracting the attention of the government of Indonesia to the issue of violence against indigenous women of West Papua may be hoped for, but the reality is poles apart. In 2013 in Lae, Lutheran Mothers of PNG found occasion and spoke to Prime Minister, Peter Oneill, about their anguish on the plight of West Papuan mothers. He shared the pain but is looking for politically correct language to tell Indonesia to stop it.
The late Mako Tabuni, West Papua’s version of the late witty and iconic Simbu politician and Melanesia’s fearless leader, Iambakey Okuk, both shared the ideal to aggressively mobilize popular aspirations by Papuans to be free in the 21st Century, a patrol into yesterday. Our people must survive somehow under the occupation industry with Indonesian authorities killing them in their rage and when they are in their senses too.
The Islamic state is here. For West Papua, Papua New Guinea, and Melanesia, the second battle begins in the last unknown. West Papua is the last bastion of the free world. Indonesia, stop the killing, and decolonize!

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