Papua: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

Jakarta/Brussels, 5 September 2006: Correcting false assumptions about Papua and the Papuan independence movement can lead to better policies on the part of Indonesia and the international community.

Papua: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions,* the latest briefing from the International Crisis Group, examines what lies behind some of the most commonly held assumptions. Abroad, Papua is pictured by many as a place where the Indonesian army perpetrates genocide against a defenceless people struggling for freedom. Inside Indonesia, Papua is often portrayed as the target of machinations by Western interests, bent on bringing about an East Timor-style international intervention that would further divide and weaken the Indonesian nation. Neither portrayal is accurate.

“Both external and internal misconceptions of Papua are difficult to dislodge because they contain kernels of truth”, says Francesca Lawe-Davies, Crisis Group South East Asia analyst. “Papua is not a happy place, but neither is it a killing field”.

Among the issues examined are:

• Governance – Implicit in the image of Papua as a place of persecution and oppression is the idea that non-Papuan Indonesians are in control. In fact, governors and district heads are all indigenous Papuans, with significant political and fiscal authority. But this has not eased corruption or improved local government.

• Military expansion – rumours that the Indonesian military is about to double its forces in Papua or that soldiers withdrawn from Aceh have been systematically rotated there are untrue, but the number of troops has risen in the last two years.

• Human rights violations – Allegations of genocide by security forces are not well-founded, but a past pattern of grave human rights violations and a current one of chronic low-level abuse and extortion are facts. Improving the financial and human rights accountability of the military and transferring security to locally-recruited police could help.

“The most useful assistance the international community can provide to Papua is development aid to strengthen local institutions and deliver basic services”, says Sidney Jones, South East Asia Project Director. Facilitating wide-ranging consultations to evaluate and revise the 2001 autonomy package would also help. Many of the distortions about Papua could be addressed by lifting restrictions on foreign journalists.