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 »

For years the Kachin Independence Army controlled Burma’s northern hills, which they call their ethnic homeland. Now the Burmese Army has pushed into the region. Photo: NYTimes

Pacific Scoop:
Video – By Edward Wong and Johan M. Kessler of the New York Times

Even as the Burmese government initiates political reforms in much of the country, it has intensified an ethnic civil war in the resource-rich hills of northern Myanmar, a conflict that at once threatens its warming trend with the United States and could alienate Chinese officials concerned about stability on the border.

This month hundreds of mortar rounds fired by the Burmese military landed within miles of this town near the mountainous Chinese border.

International human rights groups and soldiers and officials of the Kachin ethnic group say that Burmese soldiers have burned and looted homes, planted mines, forcibly recruited villagers as porters and guides, and raped, tortured and executed civilians. Read more »

Freed: Min Ko Naing (left), a leader of Burma's 88 Generation students, sitting together with a political prisoner. The 88 Generation Students group took its name from the 1988 uprising, when troops opened fire on mass student demonstrations in Rangoon, leading to the deaths of thousands of people. Photo: Burma Campaign

Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – By Simon Scott and Naing Ko Ko

For a long time, it was easy for us to hold an opinion on Burma. It fitted neatly into the classic dichotomy of good and evil. The regime – made up of cruel, despotic military generals – was bad, and Aung San Suu Kyi and the huddled masses of Burmese people she led were good.

The country seemed like an iron-clad monolith to the durability of repression – a case study in how totalitarianism and suffering could continue despite the odds.

When Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in late 2010 there was much cause for celebration, yet we remained sceptical. 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 »

About 650 Indonesian troops from Battalion 142 are being deployed from Palembang to Paniai in West Papua. They are pictured boarding their troop ship last week. Photo: West Papua Media

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Alex Rayfield

Human rights defenders in West Papua have accused the Australian government and an Australian-owned mining company, Paniai Gold, of being involved in ongoing repressive military operations in West Papua.

Ferry Marisan has alleged that the Australian-trained Indonesian counter-terrorism unit Detachment 88 (also known as Densus 88 or D88), is involved in ongoing military operations in Paniai.

Marisan, director of Elsham Papua – the Institute for the Study and Advocacy of Human Rights in West Papua, claimed the  joint police and military D88 unit has been embedded in the Second “Coconut” (Kelapa Dua) paramilitary Police Force (Brimob) sent from West Java for military operations against suspected members of the West Papua Liberation Army (or TPN), based at Eduda, Paniai. 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 »

Fiji regime's Attorney-General Aiyaz-Sayed-Khaiyum ... warned trade unionists. Photo: Jet

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Shireen Lata in Suva and PMC news desk

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has been warned to stay away from Fiji – and then a delegation of unionists was today sent packing when it arrived.

Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum had earlier said the unionists would be deported if they tried to defy the government’s stand and enter Fiji.

ACTU president Helen Kelly and the delegation were barred entry because the regime claimed their fact-finding mission into allegations of repression against unionists would be “biased”. Read more »