Sir Michael Somare ... Will Papua New Guineans remember him as the man who helped them pull up their canoe? Photo: Pacific Scoop

Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – By Ben Bohane in Port Vila

Papua New Guinea’s power struggle appears locked in political combat, with an old Sepik strongman trying to claw back power from a new generation Highlander who made a pre-emptive raid on parliamentary numbers to secure the riches of electoral incumbency.

In classic Melanesian fashion, both are upping the ante with payback moves that are starting to spiral dangerously. Politics in Papua New Guinea does not always follow the niceties of process and protocol. Power is rarely given – it is taken.

A circuit breaker is required but who can do it? PNG has no Council of Chiefs, or a President, or a high profile religious leader. Read more »

West Papuan leader Forkorus Yoboisembut at the opening of the "treason" trial in Jayapura on Monday. Photo: SE Asia Times

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By a special correspondent in Jayapura

Five West Papuan leaders who campaigned for independence at a peaceful Papuan People’s Congress last October and have been charged with treason by Indonesian authorities have denied the accusations in a joint statement.

They have also rejected the legality of the treason trial or any similar proceedings.

The five include Forkorus Yaboisembut, who was declared “President of the Federal State of West Papua” at the rally on the outskirts of Jayapura on October 19, when Indonesian security forces opened fire on the crowd, killing up to six people.  Edison G. Waromi, named “Prime Minister” is also among the group. Read more »

The "president" of West Papua, Forkorus Yaboisembut, at Jayapura District Court yesterday. He and four other Papuan prio-independence activists have been charged with treason for raising an outlawed Papuan flag and declaring the region independent. Photo: Jakarta Globe / Antara

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By a special correspondent in Jayapura

An Indonesian court has indicted five Papuan activists for treason for raising an outlawed Papuan flag and declaring the region independent, reports Agence France-Presse.

The men, who led a peaceful pro-independence Papuan People’s Congress celebration attended by 5000 indigenous Papuans on October 19, face life in prison if found guilty.

“The defendants jointly tried to commit treason with the intention of allowing the country or part of the country to fall into the hands of the enemy,” Judge Jack L. Oktovianus at the Jayapura district court said. Read more »

West Papuan freedom fighters and singers dream of independence from Indonesia. Photo: Dominic Brown TG

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By a special correspondent in Jakarta

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has reprimanded non-government organisations that often criticise how the Indonesian Military (TNI) handles security in West Papua, saying that they imply that the law should not be enforced in the country’s easternmost island.

“Papua is part of Indonesia. It doesn’t make sense that NGOs say something that implies that we can’t enforce the law in Papua,” he said at the TNI and National Police leaders meeting in Jakarta.

The President said the military presence in Papua was not without reason. Read more »

A scene from a notorious video of Indonesian military torturing a Papuan.Photo: Survival International

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By the PMC news desk

An English-language Indonesian newspaper is making a better job of reporting the alleged genocide and human rights violations in West Papua than two leading Australian and New Zealand dailies, says a new report.

Journalist Nigel Moffiet, reporting on his findings from a content analysis of leading dailies in all three countries, said that the Jakarta Post was “more consistent” than both the New Zealand Herald and the Sydney Morning Herald in reporting “human rights abuses” in the Indonesian-ruled region.

He also reported in a research article that if had not been for opinion pieces by Auckland-based Indonesia Human Rights Committee spokesperson Maire Leadbeater, the NZ Herald would have have had “next to no content at all” on the controversial issue. Read more »

Indonesian police in West Papua. Photo: Ravespot

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By a special correspondent in Jakarta

A survey jointly conducted by two Indonesian non-government organisations – the Partnership for Governance Reform (Kemitraan) and the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) – has found that torture is a common practice among members of the National Police in West Papua and has become the chief means for extracting information from suspects.

The survey, conducted from October to December last year, also confirmed the finding from last year’s survey, also by Kemitraan, that the National Police are the most violent legal enforcement institution.

“The survey shows that police officers are most prone to violence compared to other law enforcers in Papua. And this also applies to other regions in the country, as most of them continue to use torture to enforce the law,” said Laode M. Syarif, who chairs the security and justice governance division at the Kemitraan. Read more »

Forkorus Yoboisembut (right, wearing the Morning Star tie) ... 56 days in police custody until charged. Photo: PMC archive

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Bintang Papua in Jayapura

After spending 56 days in  police custody,  Forkorus Yaboisembut along with four others, has finally been charged with treason. He is now being held in Abepura Prison.

The charge was strongly rejected by lawyer Gustav Kawar, one of their legal team. They say that police interrogators insisted that the five men be charged even though  the police would need first to consider the incident in which they were involved right from the start.

Before the three-day peaceful Papuan Peace Congress was held on October 17-19 which ended in a brutal clampdown on the rally for self-determination, the committee sent a letter of notification  to the police  requesting  permission for the congress to be held. Read more »

Pro-independence Papuan protester daubed with the banned Morning Star flag colours. Photo: Cuny.edu

Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – By Catherine Wilson

The Indonesian government’s offer of development for West Papua, following the crackdown by security forces on a pro-independence meeting in Jayapura in October, is unlikely to succeed in the absence of political dialogue and calls for self-determination are expected to continue.

For half a century, the indigenous population of the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua in western New Guinea, who are ethnically and culturally related to Melanesians of the neighbouring Pacific Islands, have campaigned for the self-government first initiated as Dutch colonial rule ended in the early 1960s.

The First Papuan People’s Congress in 1961 was part of decolonisation but thwarted by incorporation of the territory into Indonesia after the United Nations-supervised “Act of Free Choice” on the political future of West Papua in 1969 was apparently manipulated to guarantee a majority vote for integration. Read more »

Video of Herman Wainggai interview from Movements.Org

Pacific Scoop:
Backgrounder – By Matt Mulberry

The players
Herman Wainggai is a West Papuan educator and organiser who has dedicated his life to his homeland’s self determination movement.

In January 2006 Herman was granted political asylum in Australia after he and 42 other West Papuans escaped the island, crossing the Arafura Sea in a traditional double-outrigger canoe.

Since then he’s been able to take on a new role as an advocate for West Papuan liberation by raising international awareness of the struggle. Read more »

Indonesia Human Rights Committee spokesperson Maire Leadbeater raises the banned Morning Star flag in Auckland in solidarity with West Papuan independence. Photo: Scoop / IHRC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Alex Rayfield of New Matilda

The raising of the banned Morning Star flag across West Papua last week on December 1 made two things abundantly clear – political defiance in West Papua is growing and the Indonesian government is losing control.

Despite fears that they would be shot if they raised the flag, the Morning Star was raised in Jayapura, Sentani, Manokwari, Sorong, Merauke, Timika, Puncak Jaya, Paniai, Genyem, Wamena and inside Indonesia in Jogjakarta and Jakarta.

In many places, the security forces allowed the protests to continue — video footage shows Indonesian police driving as crowds of protesters wave the flag and shout “freedom” — but in Timika the Indonesian military did open fire on unarmed crowds. Read more »