Rabu, 30 Desember 2009 | 03:11 WIB, ELSAM.or.id
Kontroversi keputusan Jaksa Agung yang melarang peredaran dan penggandaan lima judul buku terus bergulir. Pelarangan itu juga ditindaklanjuti dengan instruksi Jaksa Agung pada tanggal yang sama, 22 Desember 2009, untuk menyita buku itu.
Jelas langkah Jaksa Agung itu menuai kecaman. Lembaga Studi dan Advokasi Masyarakat (Elsam) menyatakan, langkah Kejaksaan Agung itu adalah tindakan yang tidak demokratis. Langkah itu juga merupakan pelanggaran serius terhadap instrumen hak asasi manusia yang dibentuk dan berlaku di Indonesia.
Elsam mendesak agar keputusan dan instruksi Jaksa Agung itu dicabut. Kejagung juga diminta menghentikan tindakan yang dapat menghalangi, membatasi, atau mengekang kebebasan berekspresi dan menyatakan pendapat setiap orang. Hal itu termasuk memulihkan peredaran buku dan barang cetakan lainnya yang sebelumnya dilarang beredar.
Koordinator Unit Pengembangan Sumber Daya HAM Elsam Wahyu Wagiman, Senin (28/12), menyampaikan, Kejagung tidak pernah menyebutkan bagian mana dalam buku yang dilarang itu mengganggu ketertiban umum.
Rencananya, Selasa kemarin sejumlah pihak yang menentang larangan peredaran buku akan bertemu guna membahas sejumlah hal untuk menyikapi langkah Kejaksaan itu. ”Bisa jadi kami akan menyampaikan somasi kepada Kejaksaan untuk menarik lagi keputusan yang berkaitan dengan pelarangan buku dan barang cetakan,” kata Wahyu.
Kejagung dalam siaran pers yang ditandatangani Kepala Pusat Penerangan Hukum Didiek Darmanto menyebutkan, buku itu dilarang beredar karena isinya dapat mengganggu ketertiban umum.
Menurut Didiek, masyarakat yang menyimpan, memiliki, dan memperdagangkan barang cetakan yang dilarang diminta menyerahkan pada kejaksaan tinggi dan kejaksaan negeri. Buku yang beredar akan disita. Jika aturan itu dilanggar, dapat dikenai hukuman sesuai dengan Pasal 1 Ayat (3) Undang-Undang Nomor 4/Pnps/1963 tentang Pengamanan terhadap Barang- barang Cetakan.
Ketua Dewan Pembina Institut Sejarah Sosial Indonesia (ISSI) Hilmar Farid justru bertanya, ”Kalau berpikir dan keinginan mencari ilmu di Indonesia jadi tindak pidana, ini jadi akhir peradaban. Coba tanyakan kepada Jaksa Agung, apakah dia ingin ke arah itu?”
Farid mempertanyakan, apakah Jaksa Agung memahami konsekuensi pelarangan buku itu. ”Jangan-jangan, itu pikiran dan prosedur birokratis. Apakah Jaksa Agung sadar implikasinya? Ini seperti mengakhiri kebudayaan,” katanya.
ISSI bersama Hasta Mitra menerbitkan buku Dalih Pembunuhan Massal Gerakan 30 September dan Kudeta Soeharto yang ditulis John Roosa. Buku setebal 390 halaman itu diterjemahkan Hersri Setiawan.
Mengenai buku itu, Farid menyatakan belum menerima pemberitahuan dari Kejaksaan. Bahkan, saat buku itu diteliti Bidang Intelijen Kejagung dalam clearing house, penerbit juga tak dimintai keterangan.
Padahal, Pasal 28F Undang- Undang Dasar 1945 menyebutkan, Setiap orang berhak untuk berkomunikasi dan memperoleh informasi untuk mengembangkan pribadi dan lingkungan sosialnya, serta berhak untuk mencari, memperoleh, memiliki, menyimpan, mengolah, dan menyampaikan informasi dengan menggunakan segala jenis saluran yang tersedia.
Apakah perlu menutup salah satu saluran informasi, seperti melarang peredaran buku? (idr)
http://cetak.kompas.com/read/xml/2009/12/30/03112879/Dilarang.Beredar..Disita.Pula
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Pembredelan Buku Oleh Kejaksaan Agung : Pelanggaran dan Pengekangan Terhadap Hak Atas Informasi dan Berekspresi
Siaran Pers
No. 10/DP/12/ELSAM/2009
Keluarnya keputusan ini memperpanjang daftar keprihatian publik atas komitmen institusi kejaksaan dalam penghormatan dan penegakan hak asasi manusia. Masih segar dalam ingatan publik terhadap mandegnya upaya penuntutan keadilan atas pelanggaran-pelanggaran ham melalui mekanisme pengadilan ham seperti kasus Wasior Wamena, penghilangan paksa, dan berbagai kasus lain. Kini Kejaksaan Agung kembali menunjukkan tindakannya yang tidak menghormati dan melindungi hak asasi manusia, khususnya hak atas informasi dan berekspresi. Tindakan banal Kejaksaan Agung ini ditunjukkan dengan melakukan bredel (pelarangan peredaran) terhadap sejumlah buku yang dianggap mengganggu dan membahayakan ketertiban umum masyarakat banyak.
Seperti sering terjadi sebelumnya, penghujung tahun 2009 kembali ditutup dengan serangkaian kebijakan publik yang mengancam pemajuan dan penegakan hak asasi manusia. Pada hari rabu 23/12/2009, Kejaksaan Agung kembali mengeluarkan kebijakan publik yang mengancam pemajuan dan perlindungan hak asasi manusia, dengan melakukan pelarangan terhadap sejumlah publikasi, beberapa diantaranya merupakan buku yang secara publik diakui memiliki bobot akademis dan disusun berdasarkan penelitian yang dapat dipertanggungjawabkan secara ilmiah. Pelarangan ini diikuti dengan menghilangnya buku “Membongkar Gurita Cikeas” karya George Junus Aditjondro dari toko-toko buku di sejumlah kota besar di Indonesia. Peredarannya ditarik pemilik toko karena khawatir dengan isi buku yang mengisahkan mengenai gurita bisnis empat yayasan SBY yang selama ini menjadi mesin uang dan penarik suara bagi SBY dan Partai Demokrat, di antaranya Yayasan Puri Cikeas, Yayasan Majelis Dzikir Nurussalam SBY, Yayasan Kepedulian Kesetiakawanan Sosial, Yayasan Mutumanikam Nusantara. Praktik seperti ini persis seperti zaman orde baru ketika Soeharto berkuasa.
Keluarnya keputusan ini memperpanjang daftar keprihatian publik atas komitmen institusi kejaksaan dalam penghormatan dan penegakan hak asasi manusia. Masih segar dalam ingatan publik terhadap mandegnya upaya penuntutan keadilan atas pelanggaran-pelanggaran ham melalui mekanisme pengadilan ham seperti kasus Wasior Wamena, penghilangan paksa, dan berbagai kasus lain. Kini Kejaksaan Agung kembali menunjukkan tindakannya yang tidak menghormati dan melindungi hak asasi manusia, khususnya hak atas informasi dan berekspresi. Tindakan banal Kejaksaan Agung ini ditunjukkan dengan melakukan bredel (pelarangan peredaran) terhadap sejumlah buku yang dianggap mengganggu dan membahayakan ketertiban umum masyarakat banyak. Buku-buku yang dilarang peredarannya secara nasional tersebut antara lain :
1. Dalih Pembunuhan Massal Gerakan 30 September dan Kudeta Soeharto karangan John Rosa;
2. Suara Gereja Bagi Umat Tertindas: Penderitaan, Tetesan Darah dan Cucuran Air Mata Umat Tuhan di Papua Barat Harus Diakhiri, karya Cocratez Sofyan Yoman;
3. Lekra Tak Membakar Buku: Suara Senyap Lembar Kebudayaan Harian Rakjat 1950-1965, karangan Rhoma Dwi Aria Yuliantri dan Muhidin M Dahlan;
4. Enam Jalan Menuju Tuhan, karya Darmawan MM, dan
5. Mengungkap Misteri Keberagaman Agama, karangan Drs H Syahrudin Ahmad.
Pelarangan peredaran buku-buku yang didasarkan pada kewenangan Kejaksaan Agung dalam bidang ketertiban dan ketenteraman umum, khususnya untuk melakukan pengawasan peredaran barang cetakan, sebagaimana diatur dalam Pasal 30 ayat 3 huruf c UU No. 16 tahun 2004 tentang Kejaksaan Republik Indonesia jo Pasal 1 UU No. 4/pnps/1963 tentang Pengamanan terhadap Barang-Barang Cetakan yang Isinya dapat Mengganggu Ketertiban Umum.
Namun, pelarangan peredaran buku-buku tersebut tidak disertai dengan alasan dan bukti-bukti yang kuat mengenai ”sejauh mana mengganggu dan membahayakannya buku-buku tersebut jika diketahui oleh masyarakat banyak”. Sehingga, patut diduga bahwa alasan pelarangan buku-buku tersebut hanya didasarkan pada kecurigaan bahwa buku-buku tersebut mengandung muatan isu-isu yang berkaitan komunisme, marxisme dan SARA. Kejaksaan Agung juga tidak menelaah dan mendiskusikan lebih lanjut dengan pihak-pihak terkait (penulis, penerbit, akademisi, dan masyarakat sipil) mengenai muatan materi dan dampak yang akan timbul dari diterbitkannya buku-buku tersebut.
Selain itu, sebagai negara pihak dari Konvensi Internasional hak sipil dan Politik, yang telah diratifikasi melalui UU no 12/2005, Indonesia terikat pada standar hak asasi manusia yang berlaku secara universal dalam melakukan pembatasan atas penikmatan hak, khususnya terkait dengan hak kebebasan berekspresi dan menyatakan pendapat sebagaimana dimuat dalam komentar Umum no 10 Kovenan Internasional Hak sipil dan Politik yang telah diadopsi PBB sejak tahun 1983 dan lebih lanjut diatur melalui Prinsip-prinsip Siracusa yang diadopsi pada tahun 1984. Berdasarkan prinsip ini, penghormatan atas hak asasi manusia justru seharusnya menjadi salah satu elemen dasar yang tercakup dalam pengertian “kepentingan umum”. Dengan demikian tindakan pembreidelan ini justru menunjukkan kontradiksi atas pemahaman kepentingan umum yang semestinya.
Lembaga Studi dan Advokasi Masyarakat (ELSAM) berpendapat bahwa breidel merupakan suatu tindakan yang banal tidak demokratis yang merusak upaya-upaya baik yang telah dilakukan bangsa Indonesia dalam upayanya untuk memajukan, menghormati dan melindungi hak asasi manusia dan mewujudkan tatanan demokrasi yang diamanatkan dalam reformasi. Disamping itu, breidel juga merupakan bentuk pelanggaran serius terhadap instrumen-instrumen hak asasi manusia yang secara yuridis telah dibentuk dan berlaku di wilayah Indonesia, antara lain UUD 1945, UU No. 39 tahun 1999 tentang hak asasi manusia dan UU No 12 tahun 2005 tentang Ratifikasi Kovenan Hak-hak Sipil dan Politik serta TAP MPR No. XVII tentang Hak Asasi Manusia.
Pasal 28 F UUD 1945 jo Pasal 14 UU No. 39 tahun 1999 secara jelas menyatakan bahwa “setiap orang berhak untuk berkomunikasi dan memperoleh informasi untuk mengembangkan pribadi dan lingkungan sosialnya, serta berhak untuk mencari, memperoleh, memiliki, menyimpan, mengolah, dan menyampaikan informasi dengan menggunakan segala jenis saluran yang tersedia”.
Demikian juga dengan Kovenan Hak-hak Sipil dan Politik yang menyatakan bahwa “setiap orang akan berhak mempunyai dan menyatakan pendapat tanpa diganggu, termasuk kebebasan mencari, menerima dan memberikan informasi dan segala macam gagasan tanpa memperhatikan batas, baik secara lisan maupun tulisan atau tercetak, dalam bentuk seni, atau melalui sarana lain menurut pilihannya sendiri”. Terhadap hak-hak ini tidak diperkenankan adanya pengecualian atau pembatasan apapun oleh Negara.
Dengan demikian, adanya pelarangan peredaran terhadap buku-buku, merupakan pelanggaran serius terhadap hukum dan konstitusi yang menjadi dasar dalam upaya penghormatan dan perlindungan terhadap hak-hak kebebasan dasar manusia untuk mengembangkan diri dan lingkungan sosialnya.
Oleh karenanya, Lembaga Studi dan Advokasi Masyarakat (ELSAM) mendesak Kejaksaan Agung untuk mencabut surat keputusan Jaksa Agung tentang pelarangan peredaran secara nasional buku-buku dan barang cetakan lainnya seperti yang dilansir pada 23 Desember 2009.
ELSAM juga mendesak Kejaksaan Agung untuk menghentikan tindakan-tindakan yang dapat menghalangi, membatasi ataupun mengekang kebebasan berekspresi daan menyatakan pendapat setiap orang, serta memulihkan peredaran buku-buku dan barang cetakan lainnya yang sebelumnya telah dilarang peredarannya. Sehingga, ke depan Indonesiaakan semakin maju dalam proses pemajuan dan perlindungan hak asasi manusia.
Jakarta, 26 Desember 2009
Lembaga Studi dan Advokasi Masyarakat
Indri D. Saptaningrum
Deputi Direktur Program
Contact person :
Indri D. Saptaningrum 0813 803 05728
Wahyu Wagiman 0813 112 28246
No. 10/DP/12/ELSAM/2009
Pembredelan Buku Oleh Kejaksaan Agung : Pelanggaran dan Pengekangan Terhadap Hak Atas Informasi dan Berekspresi
Keluarnya keputusan ini memperpanjang daftar keprihatian publik atas komitmen institusi kejaksaan dalam penghormatan dan penegakan hak asasi manusia. Masih segar dalam ingatan publik terhadap mandegnya upaya penuntutan keadilan atas pelanggaran-pelanggaran ham melalui mekanisme pengadilan ham seperti kasus Wasior Wamena, penghilangan paksa, dan berbagai kasus lain. Kini Kejaksaan Agung kembali menunjukkan tindakannya yang tidak menghormati dan melindungi hak asasi manusia, khususnya hak atas informasi dan berekspresi. Tindakan banal Kejaksaan Agung ini ditunjukkan dengan melakukan bredel (pelarangan peredaran) terhadap sejumlah buku yang dianggap mengganggu dan membahayakan ketertiban umum masyarakat banyak.
Seperti sering terjadi sebelumnya, penghujung tahun 2009 kembali ditutup dengan serangkaian kebijakan publik yang mengancam pemajuan dan penegakan hak asasi manusia. Pada hari rabu 23/12/2009, Kejaksaan Agung kembali mengeluarkan kebijakan publik yang mengancam pemajuan dan perlindungan hak asasi manusia, dengan melakukan pelarangan terhadap sejumlah publikasi, beberapa diantaranya merupakan buku yang secara publik diakui memiliki bobot akademis dan disusun berdasarkan penelitian yang dapat dipertanggungjawabkan secara ilmiah. Pelarangan ini diikuti dengan menghilangnya buku “Membongkar Gurita Cikeas” karya George Junus Aditjondro dari toko-toko buku di sejumlah kota besar di Indonesia. Peredarannya ditarik pemilik toko karena khawatir dengan isi buku yang mengisahkan mengenai gurita bisnis empat yayasan SBY yang selama ini menjadi mesin uang dan penarik suara bagi SBY dan Partai Demokrat, di antaranya Yayasan Puri Cikeas, Yayasan Majelis Dzikir Nurussalam SBY, Yayasan Kepedulian Kesetiakawanan Sosial, Yayasan Mutumanikam Nusantara. Praktik seperti ini persis seperti zaman orde baru ketika Soeharto berkuasa.
Keluarnya keputusan ini memperpanjang daftar keprihatian publik atas komitmen institusi kejaksaan dalam penghormatan dan penegakan hak asasi manusia. Masih segar dalam ingatan publik terhadap mandegnya upaya penuntutan keadilan atas pelanggaran-pelanggaran ham melalui mekanisme pengadilan ham seperti kasus Wasior Wamena, penghilangan paksa, dan berbagai kasus lain. Kini Kejaksaan Agung kembali menunjukkan tindakannya yang tidak menghormati dan melindungi hak asasi manusia, khususnya hak atas informasi dan berekspresi. Tindakan banal Kejaksaan Agung ini ditunjukkan dengan melakukan bredel (pelarangan peredaran) terhadap sejumlah buku yang dianggap mengganggu dan membahayakan ketertiban umum masyarakat banyak. Buku-buku yang dilarang peredarannya secara nasional tersebut antara lain :
1. Dalih Pembunuhan Massal Gerakan 30 September dan Kudeta Soeharto karangan John Rosa;
2. Suara Gereja Bagi Umat Tertindas: Penderitaan, Tetesan Darah dan Cucuran Air Mata Umat Tuhan di Papua Barat Harus Diakhiri, karya Cocratez Sofyan Yoman;
3. Lekra Tak Membakar Buku: Suara Senyap Lembar Kebudayaan Harian Rakjat 1950-1965, karangan Rhoma Dwi Aria Yuliantri dan Muhidin M Dahlan;
4. Enam Jalan Menuju Tuhan, karya Darmawan MM, dan
5. Mengungkap Misteri Keberagaman Agama, karangan Drs H Syahrudin Ahmad.
Pelarangan peredaran buku-buku yang didasarkan pada kewenangan Kejaksaan Agung dalam bidang ketertiban dan ketenteraman umum, khususnya untuk melakukan pengawasan peredaran barang cetakan, sebagaimana diatur dalam Pasal 30 ayat 3 huruf c UU No. 16 tahun 2004 tentang Kejaksaan Republik Indonesia jo Pasal 1 UU No. 4/pnps/1963 tentang Pengamanan terhadap Barang-Barang Cetakan yang Isinya dapat Mengganggu Ketertiban Umum.
Namun, pelarangan peredaran buku-buku tersebut tidak disertai dengan alasan dan bukti-bukti yang kuat mengenai ”sejauh mana mengganggu dan membahayakannya buku-buku tersebut jika diketahui oleh masyarakat banyak”. Sehingga, patut diduga bahwa alasan pelarangan buku-buku tersebut hanya didasarkan pada kecurigaan bahwa buku-buku tersebut mengandung muatan isu-isu yang berkaitan komunisme, marxisme dan SARA. Kejaksaan Agung juga tidak menelaah dan mendiskusikan lebih lanjut dengan pihak-pihak terkait (penulis, penerbit, akademisi, dan masyarakat sipil) mengenai muatan materi dan dampak yang akan timbul dari diterbitkannya buku-buku tersebut.
Selain itu, sebagai negara pihak dari Konvensi Internasional hak sipil dan Politik, yang telah diratifikasi melalui UU no 12/2005, Indonesia terikat pada standar hak asasi manusia yang berlaku secara universal dalam melakukan pembatasan atas penikmatan hak, khususnya terkait dengan hak kebebasan berekspresi dan menyatakan pendapat sebagaimana dimuat dalam komentar Umum no 10 Kovenan Internasional Hak sipil dan Politik yang telah diadopsi PBB sejak tahun 1983 dan lebih lanjut diatur melalui Prinsip-prinsip Siracusa yang diadopsi pada tahun 1984. Berdasarkan prinsip ini, penghormatan atas hak asasi manusia justru seharusnya menjadi salah satu elemen dasar yang tercakup dalam pengertian “kepentingan umum”. Dengan demikian tindakan pembreidelan ini justru menunjukkan kontradiksi atas pemahaman kepentingan umum yang semestinya.
Lembaga Studi dan Advokasi Masyarakat (ELSAM) berpendapat bahwa breidel merupakan suatu tindakan yang banal tidak demokratis yang merusak upaya-upaya baik yang telah dilakukan bangsa Indonesia dalam upayanya untuk memajukan, menghormati dan melindungi hak asasi manusia dan mewujudkan tatanan demokrasi yang diamanatkan dalam reformasi. Disamping itu, breidel juga merupakan bentuk pelanggaran serius terhadap instrumen-instrumen hak asasi manusia yang secara yuridis telah dibentuk dan berlaku di wilayah Indonesia, antara lain UUD 1945, UU No. 39 tahun 1999 tentang hak asasi manusia dan UU No 12 tahun 2005 tentang Ratifikasi Kovenan Hak-hak Sipil dan Politik serta TAP MPR No. XVII tentang Hak Asasi Manusia.
Pasal 28 F UUD 1945 jo Pasal 14 UU No. 39 tahun 1999 secara jelas menyatakan bahwa “setiap orang berhak untuk berkomunikasi dan memperoleh informasi untuk mengembangkan pribadi dan lingkungan sosialnya, serta berhak untuk mencari, memperoleh, memiliki, menyimpan, mengolah, dan menyampaikan informasi dengan menggunakan segala jenis saluran yang tersedia”.
Demikian juga dengan Kovenan Hak-hak Sipil dan Politik yang menyatakan bahwa “setiap orang akan berhak mempunyai dan menyatakan pendapat tanpa diganggu, termasuk kebebasan mencari, menerima dan memberikan informasi dan segala macam gagasan tanpa memperhatikan batas, baik secara lisan maupun tulisan atau tercetak, dalam bentuk seni, atau melalui sarana lain menurut pilihannya sendiri”. Terhadap hak-hak ini tidak diperkenankan adanya pengecualian atau pembatasan apapun oleh Negara.
Dengan demikian, adanya pelarangan peredaran terhadap buku-buku, merupakan pelanggaran serius terhadap hukum dan konstitusi yang menjadi dasar dalam upaya penghormatan dan perlindungan terhadap hak-hak kebebasan dasar manusia untuk mengembangkan diri dan lingkungan sosialnya.
Oleh karenanya, Lembaga Studi dan Advokasi Masyarakat (ELSAM) mendesak Kejaksaan Agung untuk mencabut surat keputusan Jaksa Agung tentang pelarangan peredaran secara nasional buku-buku dan barang cetakan lainnya seperti yang dilansir pada 23 Desember 2009.
ELSAM juga mendesak Kejaksaan Agung untuk menghentikan tindakan-tindakan yang dapat menghalangi, membatasi ataupun mengekang kebebasan berekspresi daan menyatakan pendapat setiap orang, serta memulihkan peredaran buku-buku dan barang cetakan lainnya yang sebelumnya telah dilarang peredarannya. Sehingga, ke depan Indonesiaakan semakin maju dalam proses pemajuan dan perlindungan hak asasi manusia.
Jakarta, 26 Desember 2009
Lembaga Studi dan Advokasi Masyarakat
Indri D. Saptaningrum
Deputi Direktur Program
Contact person :
Indri D. Saptaningrum 0813 803 05728
Wahyu Wagiman 0813 112 28246
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
The government’s failure to respond quickly to the cholera epidemic caused,many more deaths, and the repression Papuans have suffered for years at the,hands of the Indonesian military has exacerbated the problem
At a time when local law enforcement agencies are being forced to cut
budgets and freeze hiring, cities across Southern California have found a
growing source of income — immigration detention.Roughly two-thirds of the
nation’s immigrant detainees are held in local jails, and the payments to
cities and counties for housing them have increased as the federal
government has cracked down on illegal immigrants with criminal records and
outstanding deportation orders.Washington paid nearly $55.2 million to
house detainees at 13 local jails in California in fiscal year 2008, up
from $52.6 million the previous year. The U.S. is on track to spend $57
million this year. After dumping its untreated wastewater into lake Managua for more than 80
years, the capital of Nicaragua has started to clean up the huge source of
water in this country, where 80 percent of fresh water sources are
polluted. “For 82 years we have turned Central America’s largest lake into
the world’s biggest toilet.We poison it every day with tons of feces and
garbage, and now, at this pace, it will take 50 years or more to salvage.”
However, that new Augusto C. Sandino wastewater treatment plant inaugurated
by President Daniel Ortega on the shores of Lake Managua (also known as
Lake Xolotl?°n, which means “dedicated to the god X??lotl” in the N?°huatl
language) is a huge step towards the aim of cleaning up the country’s water
sources. There is still much to be done; this is just the first step in a
good plan to rescue the country’s water sources. It will take more than 50
years to get to the point where the water can be used for consumption. Despite Indonesia’s West Papua region being home to some of the world’s
largest resource extraction projects, which generate massive wealth for
multinationals and for the government in Jakarta, local indigenous people
still suffer from poor health. Documenting that has not been easy, since
Jakarta has been reluctant to allow outsiders into this remote region. But
recently a few international health NGOs, including Medecins du Monde, have
travelled to West Papua, and their data shows a region where tens of
thousands out of 2.5 million inhabitants are estimated to be infected with
HIV/Aids, and lethal cholera and diarrhoea outbreaks are frequent. The
health problems of West Papuans are often the result of change taking place
too quickly for such a remote people. Papuans are being overtaken by new
development and while the delivery of basic health services lacks support
and funding, they’re falling way behind in health standards. A major 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook the South Pacific nation of Tonga,
prompting a tsunami warning but causing no major damage. The quake was
centred 210 kilometres (130 miles) south-southeast of the Tongan capital
Nuku’alofa. A 5.2-magnitude aftershock was also recorded in the same region
just over two hours after the initial quake. A resident of Nuku’alofa said
there was no sign of significant damage or of a tsunami after the shallow
quake, which struck at a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles). The US Pacific
Tsunami Warning Centre issued a tsunami warning for Tonga, Niue, the
Kermadec Islands, American Samoa and Fiji, but lifted it nearly two hours
after the quake struck. Despite Australia’s best efforts to supply safe-sex aids to AIDS-ravaged
Papua New Guinea, there’s no stopping local creativity in finding unusual
uses for condoms. Local fisherman cut them up for lures, and women find the
lubricant good for their hair and beauty regime. Non-government
organisations and various HIV/AIDS groups know all too well where many of
those Australian-funded rubbers go. As one NGO boss said: “If they’re
fishing, they’re not f**king.” The PNG National AIDS Council Secretariat
was recently described as “rotten to the core” with corruption,
misappropriation and mismanagement amid news that two million condoms had
been left to expire in a Port Moresby warehouse. Two leading networks of environmental and Indigenous Peoples’
Organisations, called on world governments to take immediate action to halt
deforestation and forest degradation. Deforestation rates continue to be
shockingly high in many countries despite increased awareness that forests
– which host more than 70% of terrestrial biodiversity — play a key role
not only in sustaining the livelihoods of more than one billion people but
also in mitigating climate change. The environmental networks called for a
stop to promoting plantations and urged governments to immediately halt the
conversion of forests into biofuel plantations in their countries.
Governments should also recognize urgently Indigenous Peoples’ territories,
promote community-based forest management and restoration, ban illegal
logging and related trade, and implement immediate deforestation moratoria. A U.N. panel will recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve
currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, adding to pressure on
the dollar. the proposal was to create something like the old Ecu, or
European currency unit, that was a hard-traded, weighted basket. The
recommendation would be one of a number delivered to the United Nations by
the U.N. Commission of Experts on International Financial Reform. It is a
good moment to move to a shared reserve currency. Central banks hold their
reserves in a variety of currencies and gold, but the dollar has dominated
as the most convincing store of value — though its rate has wavered in
recent years as the United States ran up huge twin budget and external
deficits. A reef-top cemetery in Solomon Islands has been destroyed in what villagers
say is clear evidence of the effects of climate change. Villagers in Temotu
Province say they have seen the effects in the Reef Islands, a group of 16
small coral islands 80 kilometres from Santa Cruz island, in eastern
Solomon Islands. an entire cemetery at Tuo village, Fenualoa Island, has
been washed away by waves. The villagers say the destruction was carried
out by a rise in sea levels which has happened gradually over the past few
years. Tuo village community leader, Ezekiel Nodua said the only remains of
the graves are broken pieces of cement scattered over a wide area of
off-shore reef. The reef at high tide now becomes submerged by the sea. Mr
Nodua says the people of Tuo village now bury their dead beside their
homes, because they no longer have a community cemetery to bury their dead.
The densely populated islands have been known to be previously subject to
tidal surges caused by cyclones and volcanic activity There is a close correlation between disaster, whether natural or
manufactured, and the philanthropy industry. This implies the existence of
two symbiotic professions. First is conflict entrepreneurship and war
mongering whose business is to ensure continuous presence of warlike
activities and general instability in different places. In part this is
because war is big business and hence the tendency for war and business to
reinforce each other. Second is that of philanthropic entrepreneurs,
including peace activists, who make elaborate plans to raise funds to deal
with expected disasters that can be either natural or man-made. Total lack
of disaster is catastrophic to their interests. Man-made disasters can be
related to the business of war. The link between war and business gave rise
to two complexes that have the military at the centre perpetuating warlike
conditions. Australia has recently seen a surge in asylum seekers arriving on boats. An
Australian navy ship has intercepted a boat carrying nearly 60 suspected
asylum seekers – the fourth such incident in less than two weeks. The boat
was stopped some 420km (265 miles) north of Broome in Western Australia.
Those on board were being sent to an immigration detention centre on
Christmas Island, about 2,575km (1,600 miles) north-west of the mainland.
The nationalities of the suspects were not immediately known. The largest federal contract in the state is with the Los Angeles County
Sheriff’s Department, whose 1,400-bed detention center is dedicated to
housing immigrants either awaiting deportation or fighting their cases in
court. The department received $34.7 million in 2008, up from $32.3 million
the previous year. Some smaller cities have seen their income rise much
faster. Glendale received nearly $260,000 in 2008, triple what it got the
previous year. In Alhambra, last year’s $247,000 was more than double the
previous year’s payments. For some cash-strapped cities, the federal money
has become a critical source of revenue, covering budget shortfalls and
saving positions. The new plant is processing 132,000 cubic metres of wastewater a day, and
will process 180,000 cubic metres a day when it reaches full operating
capacity. The wastewater from 60 chemical companies and Managua’s 1.2
million people has been dumped untreated into the lake from 17 drains since
1927, when the government ordered all sewage to be channeled into the lake
until a new sewer system was built. But the system was not in place until
2007, when 32 kilometres of underground drainage and sewage pipes running
to the treatment plant were completed. It is an old dream of the Nicaraguan
people to salvage the beautiful gifts that God gave this land of lakes and
volcanoes and, thanks to God, the government and friendly countries, we are
giving a start to that dream. Work on the plant began in 1997, with funding
from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the governments of Germany
and other European countries, and the Nicaraguan treasury. The total cost
was 85.5 billion dollars. There were hundreds of new reported cases of AIDS, taking the total
official number to more than 4,000 (50% of Indonesia’s total cases). Some
health agencies estimate that the real number with AIDS has reached 70,000,
or about 2.5% of the population. Diarrhoea killed dozens in rural areas
while in urban centres, such as Jayapura and Manokwari, food poisoning
killed more. Deaths from a cholera epidemic in the Dogiyai and Paniai
districts were about 300 by the end of last year. “We are seeing just the
tip of the iceberg of several health problems, and access to clean water
and education. This cholera bacterium is always there. When people are in a
lower nutritional state, or have another disease like HIV/AIDS, then they
are more vulnerable to this. “All families in my village, someone dies…
every day,” says Ipo Hagwan of Northern Kamuu. “People are very scared. It
has been getting worse and we don’t know how to stop it.” The remoteness of
the region makes it difficult for Jakarta to deal with epidemics. But many
Papuans feel their welfare is just not a concern for Indonesia. “Since this
cholera outbreak hit, Jakarta has done nothing to help these people. Where
are the health services from the government and the World Health
Organisation when people are dying every day?” The centre later said in an updated warning that a tsunami had been
generated that could have been destructive along coastlines of the region
near the earthquake epicentre. In Fiji, the authorities warned people in
coastal areas to move to higher ground and schools along the coast were
closed. Many businesses and government offices stayed closed until after
the warning was lifted. In New Zealand, the Ministry of Civil Defence also
issued a tsunami advisory for all coastal regions soon after the
earthquake. But the tsunami warning was lifted after there were no reports
of any significant rise in sea levels. The warning centre said after
cancelling the tsunami alert that only a minor rise in sea level of around
four centimetres (1.5 inches) was recorded by sea level gauges in the South
Pacific nation of Niue. Nuku’alofa resident Mary Fonua said no significant
damage was apparent after the quake, which lasted for about a minute.
“There was a lot of rattling and shaking. It went on for about 30 seconds
and I went outside and the house was shaking for about another 30 seconds,”
she said. Electricity and phone services were not disrupted. So where do Aussie condoms end up besides going off in storage? Several
fisherman were out on Port Moresby’s harbour to catch what they promised
would be big tuna. “The fish think the condoms are squid,” fisherman Iewana
said. “Us coastal people use it, but it’s more in the north by the New
Guinea islands guys.” Other fishermen had said they would raid any condom
distribution point when the Aussie-funded rubbers bounced into town. Asked
about the raids, one woman said some of the sisterhood had taken to using
the lubricant for their hair and skin and on rashes because they had heard
it had healing properties. Back to the fishing excursion, which cost 100
kina and two tanks of petrol, but delivered precious little in the form of
tuna of any size. “It’s best to fish in the afternoon,” Iewana said. Even
as this condom fishing story seemed to be slipping away, the fisherman
friend wanted even more money. “You must buy petrol for us,” Iewana said as
they puttered back into shore. “But I’ve already bought ample and gave you
some cash,” the visitor retorted, used to the PNG try-on. “Okay,” he said,
miffed at missing an extra hand-out. They both felt a little screwed. The expansion of large-scale monocultures of oil palm, soy and other crops
for agrofuel production has been a key factor in the failure to halt
deforestation. The report also states that “the potential for large-scale
commercial production of cellulosic biofuel will have unprecedented impacts
on the forest sector. If cellulosic biofuel leads to a strongly increased
demand for wood, it will have a dramatic impact on the world’s forests,
especially in regions like Africa and Asia, which are already facing
increased pressure on forests due to the failure to combat illegal logging
and the rapidly rising demand for wood in general. News of the U.N. panel’s recommendation extended dollar losses because it
fed into concerns about the future of the greenback as the main global
reserve currency, raising the chances of central bank sales of dollar
holdings. Speculation that major central banks would begin rebalancing
their FX reserves has risen since the intensification of the dollar’s slide
between 2002 and mid-2008. Russia is also planning to propose the creation
of a new reserve currency, to be issued by international financial
institutions. It has significantly reduced the dollar’s share in its own
reserves in recent years. Another driver for deforestation is illegal logging – 20% of the timber
supply comes from illegal sources. Europe remains one of the main markets
for illegal timber. Strong legislation to halt illegal timber trade and to
decrease Europe’s devastating impact on the world’s forests should be
adopted as a bare minimum – there is no time to lose. Illegal logging could
increase due to the global economic crisis, as it might cause a contraction
of the formal forestry sector. An additional worrying trend is the massive
replacement of forests by large-scale tree plantations in many countries. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that Russia will finance arms
purchases valued at $2.2 billion. This would increase the country’s
defensive capacity with more tanks, missiles and anti-aerial defense
systems. Venezuela will buy 92 T-72S tanks, Smerch missiles with a range of
90 kilometers, and an S-300, Antey-2500 anti-air defense system including
radars and missile ramps with a range of 400 kilometers. The Russian
government approved financing for $2.2 billion for arms spending. The arms
purchases are intended to defend the country’s petroleum and natural gas
reserves and aren’t intended to attack any other country. Since 2006,
Chavez has bought about $4.4 billion in Russian arms to modernize the armed
forces. First is the big country complex of manufacturing weapons that have to be
sold or used somewhere. USA President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned Americans
about the dangers of ‘a military industrial complex,’ as he left office.
His country was and is the world’s leading industrial power and weapons
producer. Second is the small country complex, having intricate weapons
buying arrangements. For small countries that do not have industries let
alone manufacture weapons, the concept is that of the military-business
complex in which those with access to strings of power determine the
stationing or removal of officers who influence military procurement. The
result is skewed purchases that might be irrelevant to actual defence and
national well being, but which make the well-connected very comfortable.
Consequently, they are often caught flatfooted when real disaster strikes.
The two complexes are intertwined in that the military industrial complex
needs the military business complex. Players in each complex tend to be
interested in ensuring “demand” for the weapons it deals with. Those in
charge, at either end, have to make money. The consequence can be man-made
disaster to humans and the environment. The misery of the victims, whether
due to natural or man-made disasters, is opportunity to the big
philanthropy industry. The symbiosis between producers and absorbers of
weapons is replayed in the philanthropy arena. The immigration agency is inundated with detainees, if there were 100 more
beds, they’d be filled. Immigrant detainees stay in the local jails
anywhere from a few hours to many months. At most jails, they are not
separated from the rest of the population. Immigrant rights advocates have
raised concerns about local jails not following federal detention standards
and not segregating detainees from people suspected of committing crimes.
Immigration detention is civil, not criminal. If you are holding them in
the same place, that distinction is meaningless. Even though the cities may
benefit financially, the savings do not get passed along to taxpayers.
We’re still paying for it. It’s still a waste of resources to detain people
who do not need to be detained. More than 120,000 users of the sewage system are now connected to the
treatment plant, which will begin to ease pollution of the 1,040 square
kilometre lake which is located in western Nicaragua, near the Pacific
coast. Another sewage network will be built, to hook up the districts of
Ticuantepe and Veracruz, as well as outlying areas to the south of the
capital, with the new treatment plant. In 1969, the dictatorship of General
Anastasio Somoza (1967-1979) declared the western shore of the lake, where
20 different Managua neighbourhoods were located, as uninhabitable due to
the health risks. The clean-up process is on the right track. By treating
the water bacteriologically, the main factors that produce bad smells and
colours, from sewage, are eliminated, and at least the landscape changes
and the lake will recover its normal colour, little by little. The government’s failure to respond quickly to the cholera epidemic caused
many more deaths, and the repression Papuans have suffered for years at the
hands of the Indonesian military has exacerbated the problem. Papua has
been troubled by a low-level separatist insurgency since the 1960s.
Journalists need special permission to enter the area, and human rights
groups have accused the military of abuses. Many tribal people in the area
affected by the cholera outbreak believe they have fallen ill because
Indonesian soldiers have poisoned them, and they are suspicious of any
medical treatment. The living conditions of West Papuans can be primitive:
they rarely boil water and their wells can become cesspits. Papuans observe
traditional customs such as washing dead bodies and keeping them above
ground for days before burial. Diseases such as cholera can spread quickly.
“In our village we share a pit for a toilet,” says Sabar Ingiwaii from
Mimika. “And next to it is a pit for washing. We wash from the earth, like
our ancestors always did.” It’s not only disease contaminating the waters.
The Freeport mine in Timika is the world’s largest gold and copper mine and
has dumped an estimated 7bn tonnes of tailings and waste into surrounding
rivers. It is surprising there had not been more damage in Tonga from the quake.
The critical point in earthquakes is buildings, so where there are not many
high rise buildings you don’t expect much damage or injuries. But 200
kilometres is very close for that type of magnitude and that kind of
shallow depth. She added a tsunami warning would be expected for such a
large earthquake. With a magnitude of nearly eight and very shallow, you
would send out a warning. Several earthquakes have been felt in Tonga
recently and an undersea volcano has been erupting off the coast of the
main island Tongatapu, although it was not considered to be a threat to
people in the area. The quake occurred near fault lines in the Pacific
“Ring of Fire” where continental plates in the earth’s crust collide and
earthquakes and volcanic activity are common. An undersea earthquake off
Sumatra, Indonesia, in December 2004 set off a tsunami that killed more
than 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean. In the South Pacific, at least
52 people were killed by a tsunami in the Solomon Islands in April 2007
after a 8.0 magnitude earthquake. Plantations are not forests. All over the world, plantations destroy the
lands and livelihoods of local communities and Indigenous Peoples, as well
as biodiversity and water resources. They also store far less carbon than
natural forests. As they provide very little employment for rural people,
tree plantations are also a major cause of rural depopulation and a further
shifting agricultural frontier, thus causing the destruction of forests
elsewhere. By actively promoting monoculture tree plantations, they are
partly responsible for this global trend of replacing biologically diverse
forests with straight rows of usually non-native trees. The United States was concerned that holding the reserve currency made it
impossible to run policy, while the rest of world was also unhappy with the
generally declining dollar. There is a moment that can be grasped for
change. Today the Americans complain that when the world wants to save, it
means a deficit. A shared (reserve) would reduce the possibility of global
imbalances. The panel had been looking at using something like an expanded
Special Drawing Right, originally created by the International Monetary
Fund in 1969 but now used mainly as an accounting unit within similar
organizations. The SDR and the old Ecu are essentially combinations of
currencies, weighted to a constituent’s economic clout, which can be valued
against other currencies and indeed against those inside the basket. Less cocaine-laden airplanes are reaching Africa since Venezuela installed
radars covering the Atlantic coast and its southern border. Drug flights to
West African countries such as Guinea Bissau became more common in 2007 and
2008, as traffickers took advantage of weak air control systems in
Venezuela. The government has taken actions and the effectiveness of those
actions can be seen because cocaine trafficking from Venezuela to Africa
has dropped. Flights of Colombian-made drugs through OPEC nation Venezuela
on capacity lost when tension between Washington and President Hugo Chavez
led to the removal of three U.S-owned radars a few years ago. Venezuela,
which has thousands of miles of coastline and a rugged and porous border
with Colombia, the world’s top cocaine producer, ended cooperation with the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 2005 after accusing it of spying. There were two main reasons why policymakers might consider such a move,
one being the current desire for a change from the dollar. The other
reason, was the success of the euro, which incorporated a number of
currencies but roughly speaking held on to the stability of the old German
deutschemark compared with, say, the Greek drachma. The dollar will give
way to the Chinese yuan as a global reserve currency within decades. A
shared reserve currency might negate this move, but he believed that China
would still like to take on the role. A land dispute is believed to have sparked tribal violence that has left
three people dead and hundreds homeless in Papua New Guinea. Among the dead
is a disabled man who was burnt alive in a house near the town of Wau in
Morobe province. Several people were also treated for shotgun wounds after
hundreds of armed men from the Watut tribe raided villages inhabited by the
Biangai people on Friday. A long-running dispute over ownership of a parcel
of gold-bearing land is the cause of the violence. There’s about more than
50 houses have been burnt – even business, people lost business like stores
and coffee. Everything got burnt down. The national government has provided
money for temporary housing and to maintain a large police presence in the
area. Several of the foreign nationals housed in Santa Ana said they believed
they should be let out on bond rather than incarcerated while fighting
their immigration cases, especially if they had no criminal records or had
already served their time. Victor Hidalgo, 36, finished a five-year
sentence in state prison on a drug charge before being transferred into
immigration custody. Hidalgo, who is from Nicaragua, said he and others
have jobs, families and homes here and are not a danger to society. “We’re
not national security risks,” he said. The jails that house detainees for
more than 72 hours — including in Santa Ana and Lancaster — are subject
to “stringent detention standards” and undergo inspection by a contracted
company. Other jails are inspected regularly by the immigration agency. The
federal contracts with local jails began about a decade ago but have
expanded over the last few years. The federal government operates some of
its own detention centers and contracts with private companies to run
others but relies heavily on the local jails. The cost varies from around
$80 to just over $100 per detainee per day, generally less expensive than
the cost of housing detainees at federal immigration facilities. But here in the Pacific coastal region there are five large lagoons and two
lakes, and with the exception of Asososca lagoon, which provides the
capital with water, the rest are unprotected and exposed to pollution. 80
percent of the country’s water sources are polluted to some degree. That
includes the Xilo?°, Nejapa, Tiscapa, Venecia and Apoyo lagoons and the
large Managua and Cocibolca lakes. In 2006, the Latin American Water
Tribunal, found Nicaragua guilty of neglecting and deteriorating its water
resources, mainly for allowing the mining industry to pollute the San Juan
river, which runs out of lake Cocibolca and into the Caribbean sea. The
Ortega administration has plans to bolster the tourism potential of lake
Managua. Last year, the national port authority opened two ports on the
lake, and now offers scenic boat rides. More than 50 prisoners have escaped from a Papua New Guinea jail after
wardens failed to show up for work and police were busy guarding a rugby
league match. Most of the 54 inmates are still at large after fleeing from
Bomana Correctional Institution near Port Moresby the day by making a hole
in a steel fence around their cell block. “We’ve got about 50 still on the
run,” the official said, adding four had been recaptured. The breakout was
not discovered for “some hours” because many wardens, who are involved in a
pay dispute, had not appeared for work at the prison, which houses some 600
to 700 inmates. The match had left officers unable to respond quickly. “We
were tied up at a security operation at the rugby league ground, and could
not do much,” Yakasa said. The prison official was unable to say what
offences the escapees had been charged with, but said that 22 had been
convicted. Coastal villages in Alaska (USA) are reeling from the erosion caused by
unprecedented warming trends due to climate change. One of the most
impacted areas is Shishmaref, a traditional Inupiat village in the Bering
Straits with a population of just over 600 people. The village is located
on Sarichef Island, a barrier island in the Chukchi Sea. In the past, sea
ice would form in the fall, creating a blockade of ice along the shore
which acted as a protective barrier against sea storms. This protective sea
ice, which used to be in place by October or November, no longer forms
solidly. Its absence allows powerful waves to undercut the banks that are
already weakened by an increased melting of permafrost. The later freezing
of the sea ice is an indication of warmer temperatures in the ocean. Local
people say that the Chukchi Sea doesn’t freeze right or fast anymore… We
go out a couple of miles, and you have this creamy and dark-looking ice,
which is very thin and unstable. In the medium term, the Construction Ministry foresees the creation of a
coastal road, which would link the country’s Pacific coastal departments
(provinces) and serve as a scenic drive along the shores of Lake Managua.
With development aid from Spain, the La Chureca municipal garbage dump will
be converted into a plant for the treatment and recycling of the solid
waste that has gone into the dump along the edge of the lake for over 30
years. In 2007, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources
launched a national reforestation campaign that includes the rivers and
basins around the lake‚ a measure that is essential to improving the
ability of the lake’s water sources to capture water. The treatment plant
has begun to operate, it hopes to eliminate 170 swamps that form every year
in areas around the lake and that are a source not only of bad odours but
of illnesses like malaria and dengue fever, and of flies, which increase
the incidence of diarrhea among children. The project to clean up lake
Managua is one step more towards compliance with the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). Nicaragua will have to provide clean water and sanitation to
at least 2.5 million of its 5.8 million people by 2015, to meet the
drinking water target, one of the eight MDGs adopted by the international
community in 2000. The MDGs include a 50 percent reduction in poverty and
hunger; universal primary education; reduction of child mortality by
two-thirds; cutbacks in maternal mortality by three-quarters; the promotion
of gender equality; ensuring environmental sustainability; the reversal of
the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; and a global
partnership for development between the rich and poor. U.S. accuses high level former officials in the Chavez government as being
involved in drug trafficking with Colombia’s FARC guerrillas. Venezuela
bought 10 radars from China and installed six of them last year. It is also
buying Chinese K-8 light attack planes to be used to pursue flights. They
replace a purchase of Brazilian Super Tucanos blocked by a U.S. arms
embargo. The United States says Venezuela let 300 tonnes of cocaine through
the country in 2008. Chavez blames the multi-billion dollar industry on
U.S. consumption. If you do the math, you can’t say 200 tonnes, or 100 or
500 are coming through here, pointing to a U.S. inter-agency report that
says less than 10 percent of Colombian cocaine headed north leaves via
Venezuela. A 4-year plan is to fight consumption, increase penalties for
traffickers to a maximum 30 years in jail and allow the shooting down of
suspected drugs flights. Tensions have flared between Venezuela and
Colombia over a deal which gives U.S. soldiers access to more Colombian
military bases to fight traffickers and rebels. Hauke Tekiman has lived most of his life in the area where communities are
nourished by fish from the Ajkwa river: “We were never told not to fish
from the river, we never knew that it is poison. And even when we know, we
have to eat fish from the river just to survive. But now some fish are
dying off and people are starting to get sick, too.” The health situation
is a prime example of how Special Autonomy status, which was granted to
Papua by Jakarta in 2001 and is supposed to deliver improvements in basic
living standards for Papuans, hasn’t been properly implemented. Major
development goes on, with massive road projects, oil palm expansion, BP’s
Tangguh Gas project, and the Freeport operations. Indonesian security
forces are massing in Papua. The role of the military, and Indonesia’s
transmigration policies, which has caused an increased Javanisation of
Papua, has been linked to the rising rate in sexually transmitted disease
in the region. HIV/AIDS is threatening the survival of the indigenous
people. Papua’s Provincial Legislative Council has said it wants
preventative measures taken to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, although it
recently shelved a plan requiring AIDS patients deemed to have shown
“aggressively sexual behaviour” to be implanted with microchips so they
could be monitored. Villagers have given pseudonyms as they say they fear
persecution. Pretoria police shot and killed a panga-wielding man who attacked several
homeowners in Rooiwal. Police could not explain why the elderly man went on
the rampage. The attacks ended when police opened fire on the man when he
refused to surrender and started throwing stones at officers trying to
disarm him. The suspect was shot and killed when he refused to surrender. A
inquest docket had been opened. Why did the police kill the man instead of
just injuring him so that they could arrest him? Situations around the world mean that large numbers of displaced persons
are looking for settlement in wealthy, developed nations like Australia and
can be targeted by, and fall prey to, people-smugglers. The Australian
government remains vigilant and committed to protecting Australia’s
borders. Canberra would work closely with neighbouring nations to tackle
people-smuggling. The government has blamed the recent rise in asylum
seekers on the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, along with
the global economic downturn. Australia’s opposition has linked the upsurge
with a relaxation of the country’s immigration policy. The government
scrapped the widely-criticised policy, under which asylum-seekers and their
children were detained for years in special centres in Nauru or Papua New
Guinea, a plan labelled the “Pacific Solution”. Asylum-seekers now arriving
by boat are held on Christmas Island, but their claims must be expedited,
with six-monthly case reviews by an ombudsman now government policy. 40 percent of all the Colombian cocaine that travels to Europe passed
through Venezuela in 2007, but overall traffic has fallen since then
because of a sharp output drop in Colombia. A shift in Colombian coca leaf
production from close to the border to the Pacific coast had also reduced
the amount of traffic through Venezuela. There was a substantive decrease
in the number of shipments passing through Africa headed for Europe last
year. New radars are tracking parts of eastern Venezuela, where planes
including private jets cross to the Atlantic or Caribbean to West Africa,
as well as a southern region close to Colombia and favored by cartels to
land light aircraft. The Chinese equipment cost $260 million and also
replaces two U.S.-made Venezuelan radars that fell into disrepair because
of Washington’s arms embargo against the Chavez government. The embargo
includes spare parts. Washington took its radars away after a short-lived
2002 coup against Chavez that worsened ties. Venezuela cooperated with all
countries except the United States on combating drug trafficking and does
not rule out signing a new deal with Washington. You can’t work with a
colleague who criticizes you every day. The president governs foreign
relations, he decides. Despite the rhetoric, the two countries often
collaborate on interdicting drugs in international waters and Venezuela
extradites captured traffickers wanted in the United States. During a massive storm in 1973, nine metres of land was lost. In 1974, the
village experienced a storm of major proportions and high water partially
flooded the airport, prompting declaration of a national disaster. In 1997,
a severe storm eroded some 45 metres of the north shore, forcing the
relocation of fourteen homes. Five additional homes were relocated in 2002.
The teacher housing is in a precarious location near the bluff. The fear
that the next storm will leave them homeless, convinced long time and
well-liked teachers to leave Shishmaref. This has been a huge loss to the
community. The sewage lagoon, roads, water supply, laundromat, community
store, and fuel tanks are at risk of damage or loss. The main road to the
airport and landfill has been eroded in several places and the road is now
dangerously close to the sea. Yearly storms continue to erode the shoreline
at an average rate of retreat of 1 to 1.5 metres per year. Almost $23
million has been spent to construct seawalls that will provide only
temporary protection to what is left of Shishmaref. A former United States deputy sheriff, featured on the popular television
series America’s Most Wanted, has been captured in Belize and is to be
extradited to face trial for murdering his wife and another man a year ago.
Derrick Yancey was caught over the weekend in a bar in Punta Gorda, the
largest town in southern Belize, just days after the US Department of
State’s Diplomatic Security Service acted on a lead that he was hiding out
in that Caribbean country. Deputy Officer in Charge at the Punta Gorda
Police Station, Inspector Andres Makin, said Yancey was taken into custody
without incident. “We had his photograph in our possession and upon
identifying ourselves, he just handed over himself. There was no resistance
in his arrest,” he said, adding that Yancey was taken to the station in the
area before being transported to Belize City. “I believe that relevant
arrangement is being made for him to transported back to the United States.
He is in custody and a flight away from being taken back to the United
States.” Yancey was an officer with the Sheriff’s Office in Dekalb County,
Georgia when he was charged with murdering his wife Linda Yancey, 44, and
20-year-old labourer Marcial Cax Puluc. He had called into his own
department to report that he had shot and killed Puluc in self defence
after discovering that the young man had robbed, shot and killed his wife.
But police say ballistic tests show Yancey was responsible for both
murders. He was charged with two counts of murder, and released on
US$150,000 bond while he awaited trial, under the condition that he be
confined to house arrest. But Yancey escaped house arrest from his mother’s
home on the morning of April 4th, 2009. Police say he cut off his
electronic monitoring ankle bracelet before fleeing The United States has charged Bolivia and Venezuela with failing to do
enough to fight the drug trade, but said it would continue aid to the two
countries, both led by critics of U.S. foreign policy. The United States
said Bolivia — the world’s third-largest cocaine producer — Venezuela and
Myanmar had all “failed demonstrably” to meet their counter-narcotics
obligations. The same three countries last year were cited on the list,
which allows the president to cut off U.S. aid other than counter-narcotics
and humanitarian funds. The White House has once again issued a national
interest waiver to continue certain bilateral aid programs in the two South
American countries. In Venezuela, funds will continue to support civil
society programs and small community development programs. In Bolivia, the
waiver will permit continued support for agricultural development, exchange
programs, small enterprise development, and police training programs.
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s President Evo Morales are
persistent critics of U.S. foreign policy in the region, and particularly a
plan by U.S. ally Colombia to give U.S. troops more access to its military
bases for joint operations against drug traffickers and leftist rebels. It
did not give any similar detail for Myanmar. Washington is concerned by
Venezuela’s growing number of arms purchases, saying they could spark a
regional arms race. Along with the three countries identified as the worst
offenders, the U.S. list named 17 others as major production or transit
centers for illegal drugs: Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Brazil, Colombia, the
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos,
Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru. Residents voted to relocate the community. However, numerous problems have
slowed this process, including reluctance of the state and federal
governments to give monetary support for vital infrastructure or to take
the lead in the relocation project. The community learned that the site
chosen for relocation was not suitable due to permafrost issues. So efforts
had to begin anew. The place they now think would be the most suitable is
near Ear Mountain close to the village of Wales. It is possible that a
sustainable community can be created there utilizing geothermal potential
and wind power for energy. However, some people say they will never leave
Sarichef Island. But how will they fare, as no services will be available
once everyone relocates? Scientists have discovered new species of fanged frog, grunting fish and a
giant rat, probably the biggest in the world, in a remote volcanic crater
in Papua New Guinea islands. Researchers have found more than 40 previously
unidentified species in the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi, lying
untouched since 200,000 years. The biologists discovered in the the
three-kilometre wide crater 16 frogs which have never before been recorded
by science, at least three new fish, a new bat and a giant rat. Other
predators included giant monitor lizards and kangaroos which have evolved
to live in trees. New species discovered include a camouflaged gecko, a
fanged frog and a fish called the Henamo grunter, named because it makes
grunting noises from its swim bladder. More than 5,000 miles away from the Tri-Cities is a small village in Kenya,
where young girls are facing genital mutilation and forced marriage. Women
they cannot work, or women cannot do anything without asking a man, and
those are the things we would like to empower women, also to give them the
freedom to do things that they need to do. “Voices of Hope” shows Americans
how they can provide help for the young girls. The organization helps send
the young girls to school in a safe location, far from their village where
they would’ve had to go through the gruesome right of passage. Many of the
girls who have their genitals mutilated suffer from sever bleeding, HIV
from shared knives and even death. We don’t want to change the whole
culture, we just want to remove things that are really not important for
women to go through. Thailand has seen an upswing in violence in its troubled south, where an
insurgency has resulted in close to 4,000 deaths. The attacks seemed to be
slowing down until a massacre at a mosque renewed tensions between ethnic
Thai Buddhists and Malay Muslims. Soldiers in an armored vehicle are
driving up to a military checkpoint on a road lined with barbed wire and
sandbags. They are all on guard, armed with M16 assault rifles and wearing
body armor and helmets. There are an estimated 60,000 security personnel in
southern Thailand’s Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani provinces. They are
struggling to put down daily violence from an insurgency. The ethnic Malay
rebels are seeking some form of independence from the Thai kingdom. A
spokesman for the Thai military’s Internal Security Operations Command,
says the insurgents and their objectives are still a mystery. “What they
want… there are many problems behind the violence – drugs, smuggling,
influential people – the problem of unrest is another one.” A century ago,
this majority ethnic Malay Muslim region was an independent sultanate until
Thailand seized it. The insurgents active in southern Thailand have never
said who they are and what they want. However, they usually kill people
viewed as symbols of the Thai Buddhist state or their collaborators.
Buddhist farmers, teachers, and monks collecting their daily alms require
constant security or they risk being shot and beheaded. Phra Palat Manat, a
Buddhist monk who has lived in Pattani his whole life, says the Buddhist
and Muslim communities used to have friendly relations. But he says when
the violence broke out they became suspicious of each other. “In the past
we depended on each other, helped each other. When Muslims had a wedding
they would invite Buddhists to attend,” he said. “But after the violence,
the visits were few and far between. Sometimes we would attend, but there
was always fear when we went out.”
budgets and freeze hiring, cities across Southern California have found a
growing source of income — immigration detention.Roughly two-thirds of the
nation’s immigrant detainees are held in local jails, and the payments to
cities and counties for housing them have increased as the federal
government has cracked down on illegal immigrants with criminal records and
outstanding deportation orders.Washington paid nearly $55.2 million to
house detainees at 13 local jails in California in fiscal year 2008, up
from $52.6 million the previous year. The U.S. is on track to spend $57
million this year. After dumping its untreated wastewater into lake Managua for more than 80
years, the capital of Nicaragua has started to clean up the huge source of
water in this country, where 80 percent of fresh water sources are
polluted. “For 82 years we have turned Central America’s largest lake into
the world’s biggest toilet.We poison it every day with tons of feces and
garbage, and now, at this pace, it will take 50 years or more to salvage.”
However, that new Augusto C. Sandino wastewater treatment plant inaugurated
by President Daniel Ortega on the shores of Lake Managua (also known as
Lake Xolotl?°n, which means “dedicated to the god X??lotl” in the N?°huatl
language) is a huge step towards the aim of cleaning up the country’s water
sources. There is still much to be done; this is just the first step in a
good plan to rescue the country’s water sources. It will take more than 50
years to get to the point where the water can be used for consumption. Despite Indonesia’s West Papua region being home to some of the world’s
largest resource extraction projects, which generate massive wealth for
multinationals and for the government in Jakarta, local indigenous people
still suffer from poor health. Documenting that has not been easy, since
Jakarta has been reluctant to allow outsiders into this remote region. But
recently a few international health NGOs, including Medecins du Monde, have
travelled to West Papua, and their data shows a region where tens of
thousands out of 2.5 million inhabitants are estimated to be infected with
HIV/Aids, and lethal cholera and diarrhoea outbreaks are frequent. The
health problems of West Papuans are often the result of change taking place
too quickly for such a remote people. Papuans are being overtaken by new
development and while the delivery of basic health services lacks support
and funding, they’re falling way behind in health standards. A major 7.9-magnitude earthquake shook the South Pacific nation of Tonga,
prompting a tsunami warning but causing no major damage. The quake was
centred 210 kilometres (130 miles) south-southeast of the Tongan capital
Nuku’alofa. A 5.2-magnitude aftershock was also recorded in the same region
just over two hours after the initial quake. A resident of Nuku’alofa said
there was no sign of significant damage or of a tsunami after the shallow
quake, which struck at a depth of 10 kilometres (six miles). The US Pacific
Tsunami Warning Centre issued a tsunami warning for Tonga, Niue, the
Kermadec Islands, American Samoa and Fiji, but lifted it nearly two hours
after the quake struck. Despite Australia’s best efforts to supply safe-sex aids to AIDS-ravaged
Papua New Guinea, there’s no stopping local creativity in finding unusual
uses for condoms. Local fisherman cut them up for lures, and women find the
lubricant good for their hair and beauty regime. Non-government
organisations and various HIV/AIDS groups know all too well where many of
those Australian-funded rubbers go. As one NGO boss said: “If they’re
fishing, they’re not f**king.” The PNG National AIDS Council Secretariat
was recently described as “rotten to the core” with corruption,
misappropriation and mismanagement amid news that two million condoms had
been left to expire in a Port Moresby warehouse. Two leading networks of environmental and Indigenous Peoples’
Organisations, called on world governments to take immediate action to halt
deforestation and forest degradation. Deforestation rates continue to be
shockingly high in many countries despite increased awareness that forests
– which host more than 70% of terrestrial biodiversity — play a key role
not only in sustaining the livelihoods of more than one billion people but
also in mitigating climate change. The environmental networks called for a
stop to promoting plantations and urged governments to immediately halt the
conversion of forests into biofuel plantations in their countries.
Governments should also recognize urgently Indigenous Peoples’ territories,
promote community-based forest management and restoration, ban illegal
logging and related trade, and implement immediate deforestation moratoria. A U.N. panel will recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve
currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, adding to pressure on
the dollar. the proposal was to create something like the old Ecu, or
European currency unit, that was a hard-traded, weighted basket. The
recommendation would be one of a number delivered to the United Nations by
the U.N. Commission of Experts on International Financial Reform. It is a
good moment to move to a shared reserve currency. Central banks hold their
reserves in a variety of currencies and gold, but the dollar has dominated
as the most convincing store of value — though its rate has wavered in
recent years as the United States ran up huge twin budget and external
deficits. A reef-top cemetery in Solomon Islands has been destroyed in what villagers
say is clear evidence of the effects of climate change. Villagers in Temotu
Province say they have seen the effects in the Reef Islands, a group of 16
small coral islands 80 kilometres from Santa Cruz island, in eastern
Solomon Islands. an entire cemetery at Tuo village, Fenualoa Island, has
been washed away by waves. The villagers say the destruction was carried
out by a rise in sea levels which has happened gradually over the past few
years. Tuo village community leader, Ezekiel Nodua said the only remains of
the graves are broken pieces of cement scattered over a wide area of
off-shore reef. The reef at high tide now becomes submerged by the sea. Mr
Nodua says the people of Tuo village now bury their dead beside their
homes, because they no longer have a community cemetery to bury their dead.
The densely populated islands have been known to be previously subject to
tidal surges caused by cyclones and volcanic activity There is a close correlation between disaster, whether natural or
manufactured, and the philanthropy industry. This implies the existence of
two symbiotic professions. First is conflict entrepreneurship and war
mongering whose business is to ensure continuous presence of warlike
activities and general instability in different places. In part this is
because war is big business and hence the tendency for war and business to
reinforce each other. Second is that of philanthropic entrepreneurs,
including peace activists, who make elaborate plans to raise funds to deal
with expected disasters that can be either natural or man-made. Total lack
of disaster is catastrophic to their interests. Man-made disasters can be
related to the business of war. The link between war and business gave rise
to two complexes that have the military at the centre perpetuating warlike
conditions. Australia has recently seen a surge in asylum seekers arriving on boats. An
Australian navy ship has intercepted a boat carrying nearly 60 suspected
asylum seekers – the fourth such incident in less than two weeks. The boat
was stopped some 420km (265 miles) north of Broome in Western Australia.
Those on board were being sent to an immigration detention centre on
Christmas Island, about 2,575km (1,600 miles) north-west of the mainland.
The nationalities of the suspects were not immediately known. The largest federal contract in the state is with the Los Angeles County
Sheriff’s Department, whose 1,400-bed detention center is dedicated to
housing immigrants either awaiting deportation or fighting their cases in
court. The department received $34.7 million in 2008, up from $32.3 million
the previous year. Some smaller cities have seen their income rise much
faster. Glendale received nearly $260,000 in 2008, triple what it got the
previous year. In Alhambra, last year’s $247,000 was more than double the
previous year’s payments. For some cash-strapped cities, the federal money
has become a critical source of revenue, covering budget shortfalls and
saving positions. The new plant is processing 132,000 cubic metres of wastewater a day, and
will process 180,000 cubic metres a day when it reaches full operating
capacity. The wastewater from 60 chemical companies and Managua’s 1.2
million people has been dumped untreated into the lake from 17 drains since
1927, when the government ordered all sewage to be channeled into the lake
until a new sewer system was built. But the system was not in place until
2007, when 32 kilometres of underground drainage and sewage pipes running
to the treatment plant were completed. It is an old dream of the Nicaraguan
people to salvage the beautiful gifts that God gave this land of lakes and
volcanoes and, thanks to God, the government and friendly countries, we are
giving a start to that dream. Work on the plant began in 1997, with funding
from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the governments of Germany
and other European countries, and the Nicaraguan treasury. The total cost
was 85.5 billion dollars. There were hundreds of new reported cases of AIDS, taking the total
official number to more than 4,000 (50% of Indonesia’s total cases). Some
health agencies estimate that the real number with AIDS has reached 70,000,
or about 2.5% of the population. Diarrhoea killed dozens in rural areas
while in urban centres, such as Jayapura and Manokwari, food poisoning
killed more. Deaths from a cholera epidemic in the Dogiyai and Paniai
districts were about 300 by the end of last year. “We are seeing just the
tip of the iceberg of several health problems, and access to clean water
and education. This cholera bacterium is always there. When people are in a
lower nutritional state, or have another disease like HIV/AIDS, then they
are more vulnerable to this. “All families in my village, someone dies…
every day,” says Ipo Hagwan of Northern Kamuu. “People are very scared. It
has been getting worse and we don’t know how to stop it.” The remoteness of
the region makes it difficult for Jakarta to deal with epidemics. But many
Papuans feel their welfare is just not a concern for Indonesia. “Since this
cholera outbreak hit, Jakarta has done nothing to help these people. Where
are the health services from the government and the World Health
Organisation when people are dying every day?” The centre later said in an updated warning that a tsunami had been
generated that could have been destructive along coastlines of the region
near the earthquake epicentre. In Fiji, the authorities warned people in
coastal areas to move to higher ground and schools along the coast were
closed. Many businesses and government offices stayed closed until after
the warning was lifted. In New Zealand, the Ministry of Civil Defence also
issued a tsunami advisory for all coastal regions soon after the
earthquake. But the tsunami warning was lifted after there were no reports
of any significant rise in sea levels. The warning centre said after
cancelling the tsunami alert that only a minor rise in sea level of around
four centimetres (1.5 inches) was recorded by sea level gauges in the South
Pacific nation of Niue. Nuku’alofa resident Mary Fonua said no significant
damage was apparent after the quake, which lasted for about a minute.
“There was a lot of rattling and shaking. It went on for about 30 seconds
and I went outside and the house was shaking for about another 30 seconds,”
she said. Electricity and phone services were not disrupted. So where do Aussie condoms end up besides going off in storage? Several
fisherman were out on Port Moresby’s harbour to catch what they promised
would be big tuna. “The fish think the condoms are squid,” fisherman Iewana
said. “Us coastal people use it, but it’s more in the north by the New
Guinea islands guys.” Other fishermen had said they would raid any condom
distribution point when the Aussie-funded rubbers bounced into town. Asked
about the raids, one woman said some of the sisterhood had taken to using
the lubricant for their hair and skin and on rashes because they had heard
it had healing properties. Back to the fishing excursion, which cost 100
kina and two tanks of petrol, but delivered precious little in the form of
tuna of any size. “It’s best to fish in the afternoon,” Iewana said. Even
as this condom fishing story seemed to be slipping away, the fisherman
friend wanted even more money. “You must buy petrol for us,” Iewana said as
they puttered back into shore. “But I’ve already bought ample and gave you
some cash,” the visitor retorted, used to the PNG try-on. “Okay,” he said,
miffed at missing an extra hand-out. They both felt a little screwed. The expansion of large-scale monocultures of oil palm, soy and other crops
for agrofuel production has been a key factor in the failure to halt
deforestation. The report also states that “the potential for large-scale
commercial production of cellulosic biofuel will have unprecedented impacts
on the forest sector. If cellulosic biofuel leads to a strongly increased
demand for wood, it will have a dramatic impact on the world’s forests,
especially in regions like Africa and Asia, which are already facing
increased pressure on forests due to the failure to combat illegal logging
and the rapidly rising demand for wood in general. News of the U.N. panel’s recommendation extended dollar losses because it
fed into concerns about the future of the greenback as the main global
reserve currency, raising the chances of central bank sales of dollar
holdings. Speculation that major central banks would begin rebalancing
their FX reserves has risen since the intensification of the dollar’s slide
between 2002 and mid-2008. Russia is also planning to propose the creation
of a new reserve currency, to be issued by international financial
institutions. It has significantly reduced the dollar’s share in its own
reserves in recent years. Another driver for deforestation is illegal logging – 20% of the timber
supply comes from illegal sources. Europe remains one of the main markets
for illegal timber. Strong legislation to halt illegal timber trade and to
decrease Europe’s devastating impact on the world’s forests should be
adopted as a bare minimum – there is no time to lose. Illegal logging could
increase due to the global economic crisis, as it might cause a contraction
of the formal forestry sector. An additional worrying trend is the massive
replacement of forests by large-scale tree plantations in many countries. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said that Russia will finance arms
purchases valued at $2.2 billion. This would increase the country’s
defensive capacity with more tanks, missiles and anti-aerial defense
systems. Venezuela will buy 92 T-72S tanks, Smerch missiles with a range of
90 kilometers, and an S-300, Antey-2500 anti-air defense system including
radars and missile ramps with a range of 400 kilometers. The Russian
government approved financing for $2.2 billion for arms spending. The arms
purchases are intended to defend the country’s petroleum and natural gas
reserves and aren’t intended to attack any other country. Since 2006,
Chavez has bought about $4.4 billion in Russian arms to modernize the armed
forces. First is the big country complex of manufacturing weapons that have to be
sold or used somewhere. USA President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned Americans
about the dangers of ‘a military industrial complex,’ as he left office.
His country was and is the world’s leading industrial power and weapons
producer. Second is the small country complex, having intricate weapons
buying arrangements. For small countries that do not have industries let
alone manufacture weapons, the concept is that of the military-business
complex in which those with access to strings of power determine the
stationing or removal of officers who influence military procurement. The
result is skewed purchases that might be irrelevant to actual defence and
national well being, but which make the well-connected very comfortable.
Consequently, they are often caught flatfooted when real disaster strikes.
The two complexes are intertwined in that the military industrial complex
needs the military business complex. Players in each complex tend to be
interested in ensuring “demand” for the weapons it deals with. Those in
charge, at either end, have to make money. The consequence can be man-made
disaster to humans and the environment. The misery of the victims, whether
due to natural or man-made disasters, is opportunity to the big
philanthropy industry. The symbiosis between producers and absorbers of
weapons is replayed in the philanthropy arena. The immigration agency is inundated with detainees, if there were 100 more
beds, they’d be filled. Immigrant detainees stay in the local jails
anywhere from a few hours to many months. At most jails, they are not
separated from the rest of the population. Immigrant rights advocates have
raised concerns about local jails not following federal detention standards
and not segregating detainees from people suspected of committing crimes.
Immigration detention is civil, not criminal. If you are holding them in
the same place, that distinction is meaningless. Even though the cities may
benefit financially, the savings do not get passed along to taxpayers.
We’re still paying for it. It’s still a waste of resources to detain people
who do not need to be detained. More than 120,000 users of the sewage system are now connected to the
treatment plant, which will begin to ease pollution of the 1,040 square
kilometre lake which is located in western Nicaragua, near the Pacific
coast. Another sewage network will be built, to hook up the districts of
Ticuantepe and Veracruz, as well as outlying areas to the south of the
capital, with the new treatment plant. In 1969, the dictatorship of General
Anastasio Somoza (1967-1979) declared the western shore of the lake, where
20 different Managua neighbourhoods were located, as uninhabitable due to
the health risks. The clean-up process is on the right track. By treating
the water bacteriologically, the main factors that produce bad smells and
colours, from sewage, are eliminated, and at least the landscape changes
and the lake will recover its normal colour, little by little. The government’s failure to respond quickly to the cholera epidemic caused
many more deaths, and the repression Papuans have suffered for years at the
hands of the Indonesian military has exacerbated the problem. Papua has
been troubled by a low-level separatist insurgency since the 1960s.
Journalists need special permission to enter the area, and human rights
groups have accused the military of abuses. Many tribal people in the area
affected by the cholera outbreak believe they have fallen ill because
Indonesian soldiers have poisoned them, and they are suspicious of any
medical treatment. The living conditions of West Papuans can be primitive:
they rarely boil water and their wells can become cesspits. Papuans observe
traditional customs such as washing dead bodies and keeping them above
ground for days before burial. Diseases such as cholera can spread quickly.
“In our village we share a pit for a toilet,” says Sabar Ingiwaii from
Mimika. “And next to it is a pit for washing. We wash from the earth, like
our ancestors always did.” It’s not only disease contaminating the waters.
The Freeport mine in Timika is the world’s largest gold and copper mine and
has dumped an estimated 7bn tonnes of tailings and waste into surrounding
rivers. It is surprising there had not been more damage in Tonga from the quake.
The critical point in earthquakes is buildings, so where there are not many
high rise buildings you don’t expect much damage or injuries. But 200
kilometres is very close for that type of magnitude and that kind of
shallow depth. She added a tsunami warning would be expected for such a
large earthquake. With a magnitude of nearly eight and very shallow, you
would send out a warning. Several earthquakes have been felt in Tonga
recently and an undersea volcano has been erupting off the coast of the
main island Tongatapu, although it was not considered to be a threat to
people in the area. The quake occurred near fault lines in the Pacific
“Ring of Fire” where continental plates in the earth’s crust collide and
earthquakes and volcanic activity are common. An undersea earthquake off
Sumatra, Indonesia, in December 2004 set off a tsunami that killed more
than 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean. In the South Pacific, at least
52 people were killed by a tsunami in the Solomon Islands in April 2007
after a 8.0 magnitude earthquake. Plantations are not forests. All over the world, plantations destroy the
lands and livelihoods of local communities and Indigenous Peoples, as well
as biodiversity and water resources. They also store far less carbon than
natural forests. As they provide very little employment for rural people,
tree plantations are also a major cause of rural depopulation and a further
shifting agricultural frontier, thus causing the destruction of forests
elsewhere. By actively promoting monoculture tree plantations, they are
partly responsible for this global trend of replacing biologically diverse
forests with straight rows of usually non-native trees. The United States was concerned that holding the reserve currency made it
impossible to run policy, while the rest of world was also unhappy with the
generally declining dollar. There is a moment that can be grasped for
change. Today the Americans complain that when the world wants to save, it
means a deficit. A shared (reserve) would reduce the possibility of global
imbalances. The panel had been looking at using something like an expanded
Special Drawing Right, originally created by the International Monetary
Fund in 1969 but now used mainly as an accounting unit within similar
organizations. The SDR and the old Ecu are essentially combinations of
currencies, weighted to a constituent’s economic clout, which can be valued
against other currencies and indeed against those inside the basket. Less cocaine-laden airplanes are reaching Africa since Venezuela installed
radars covering the Atlantic coast and its southern border. Drug flights to
West African countries such as Guinea Bissau became more common in 2007 and
2008, as traffickers took advantage of weak air control systems in
Venezuela. The government has taken actions and the effectiveness of those
actions can be seen because cocaine trafficking from Venezuela to Africa
has dropped. Flights of Colombian-made drugs through OPEC nation Venezuela
on capacity lost when tension between Washington and President Hugo Chavez
led to the removal of three U.S-owned radars a few years ago. Venezuela,
which has thousands of miles of coastline and a rugged and porous border
with Colombia, the world’s top cocaine producer, ended cooperation with the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in 2005 after accusing it of spying. There were two main reasons why policymakers might consider such a move,
one being the current desire for a change from the dollar. The other
reason, was the success of the euro, which incorporated a number of
currencies but roughly speaking held on to the stability of the old German
deutschemark compared with, say, the Greek drachma. The dollar will give
way to the Chinese yuan as a global reserve currency within decades. A
shared reserve currency might negate this move, but he believed that China
would still like to take on the role. A land dispute is believed to have sparked tribal violence that has left
three people dead and hundreds homeless in Papua New Guinea. Among the dead
is a disabled man who was burnt alive in a house near the town of Wau in
Morobe province. Several people were also treated for shotgun wounds after
hundreds of armed men from the Watut tribe raided villages inhabited by the
Biangai people on Friday. A long-running dispute over ownership of a parcel
of gold-bearing land is the cause of the violence. There’s about more than
50 houses have been burnt – even business, people lost business like stores
and coffee. Everything got burnt down. The national government has provided
money for temporary housing and to maintain a large police presence in the
area. Several of the foreign nationals housed in Santa Ana said they believed
they should be let out on bond rather than incarcerated while fighting
their immigration cases, especially if they had no criminal records or had
already served their time. Victor Hidalgo, 36, finished a five-year
sentence in state prison on a drug charge before being transferred into
immigration custody. Hidalgo, who is from Nicaragua, said he and others
have jobs, families and homes here and are not a danger to society. “We’re
not national security risks,” he said. The jails that house detainees for
more than 72 hours — including in Santa Ana and Lancaster — are subject
to “stringent detention standards” and undergo inspection by a contracted
company. Other jails are inspected regularly by the immigration agency. The
federal contracts with local jails began about a decade ago but have
expanded over the last few years. The federal government operates some of
its own detention centers and contracts with private companies to run
others but relies heavily on the local jails. The cost varies from around
$80 to just over $100 per detainee per day, generally less expensive than
the cost of housing detainees at federal immigration facilities. But here in the Pacific coastal region there are five large lagoons and two
lakes, and with the exception of Asososca lagoon, which provides the
capital with water, the rest are unprotected and exposed to pollution. 80
percent of the country’s water sources are polluted to some degree. That
includes the Xilo?°, Nejapa, Tiscapa, Venecia and Apoyo lagoons and the
large Managua and Cocibolca lakes. In 2006, the Latin American Water
Tribunal, found Nicaragua guilty of neglecting and deteriorating its water
resources, mainly for allowing the mining industry to pollute the San Juan
river, which runs out of lake Cocibolca and into the Caribbean sea. The
Ortega administration has plans to bolster the tourism potential of lake
Managua. Last year, the national port authority opened two ports on the
lake, and now offers scenic boat rides. More than 50 prisoners have escaped from a Papua New Guinea jail after
wardens failed to show up for work and police were busy guarding a rugby
league match. Most of the 54 inmates are still at large after fleeing from
Bomana Correctional Institution near Port Moresby the day by making a hole
in a steel fence around their cell block. “We’ve got about 50 still on the
run,” the official said, adding four had been recaptured. The breakout was
not discovered for “some hours” because many wardens, who are involved in a
pay dispute, had not appeared for work at the prison, which houses some 600
to 700 inmates. The match had left officers unable to respond quickly. “We
were tied up at a security operation at the rugby league ground, and could
not do much,” Yakasa said. The prison official was unable to say what
offences the escapees had been charged with, but said that 22 had been
convicted. Coastal villages in Alaska (USA) are reeling from the erosion caused by
unprecedented warming trends due to climate change. One of the most
impacted areas is Shishmaref, a traditional Inupiat village in the Bering
Straits with a population of just over 600 people. The village is located
on Sarichef Island, a barrier island in the Chukchi Sea. In the past, sea
ice would form in the fall, creating a blockade of ice along the shore
which acted as a protective barrier against sea storms. This protective sea
ice, which used to be in place by October or November, no longer forms
solidly. Its absence allows powerful waves to undercut the banks that are
already weakened by an increased melting of permafrost. The later freezing
of the sea ice is an indication of warmer temperatures in the ocean. Local
people say that the Chukchi Sea doesn’t freeze right or fast anymore… We
go out a couple of miles, and you have this creamy and dark-looking ice,
which is very thin and unstable. In the medium term, the Construction Ministry foresees the creation of a
coastal road, which would link the country’s Pacific coastal departments
(provinces) and serve as a scenic drive along the shores of Lake Managua.
With development aid from Spain, the La Chureca municipal garbage dump will
be converted into a plant for the treatment and recycling of the solid
waste that has gone into the dump along the edge of the lake for over 30
years. In 2007, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources
launched a national reforestation campaign that includes the rivers and
basins around the lake‚ a measure that is essential to improving the
ability of the lake’s water sources to capture water. The treatment plant
has begun to operate, it hopes to eliminate 170 swamps that form every year
in areas around the lake and that are a source not only of bad odours but
of illnesses like malaria and dengue fever, and of flies, which increase
the incidence of diarrhea among children. The project to clean up lake
Managua is one step more towards compliance with the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). Nicaragua will have to provide clean water and sanitation to
at least 2.5 million of its 5.8 million people by 2015, to meet the
drinking water target, one of the eight MDGs adopted by the international
community in 2000. The MDGs include a 50 percent reduction in poverty and
hunger; universal primary education; reduction of child mortality by
two-thirds; cutbacks in maternal mortality by three-quarters; the promotion
of gender equality; ensuring environmental sustainability; the reversal of
the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; and a global
partnership for development between the rich and poor. U.S. accuses high level former officials in the Chavez government as being
involved in drug trafficking with Colombia’s FARC guerrillas. Venezuela
bought 10 radars from China and installed six of them last year. It is also
buying Chinese K-8 light attack planes to be used to pursue flights. They
replace a purchase of Brazilian Super Tucanos blocked by a U.S. arms
embargo. The United States says Venezuela let 300 tonnes of cocaine through
the country in 2008. Chavez blames the multi-billion dollar industry on
U.S. consumption. If you do the math, you can’t say 200 tonnes, or 100 or
500 are coming through here, pointing to a U.S. inter-agency report that
says less than 10 percent of Colombian cocaine headed north leaves via
Venezuela. A 4-year plan is to fight consumption, increase penalties for
traffickers to a maximum 30 years in jail and allow the shooting down of
suspected drugs flights. Tensions have flared between Venezuela and
Colombia over a deal which gives U.S. soldiers access to more Colombian
military bases to fight traffickers and rebels. Hauke Tekiman has lived most of his life in the area where communities are
nourished by fish from the Ajkwa river: “We were never told not to fish
from the river, we never knew that it is poison. And even when we know, we
have to eat fish from the river just to survive. But now some fish are
dying off and people are starting to get sick, too.” The health situation
is a prime example of how Special Autonomy status, which was granted to
Papua by Jakarta in 2001 and is supposed to deliver improvements in basic
living standards for Papuans, hasn’t been properly implemented. Major
development goes on, with massive road projects, oil palm expansion, BP’s
Tangguh Gas project, and the Freeport operations. Indonesian security
forces are massing in Papua. The role of the military, and Indonesia’s
transmigration policies, which has caused an increased Javanisation of
Papua, has been linked to the rising rate in sexually transmitted disease
in the region. HIV/AIDS is threatening the survival of the indigenous
people. Papua’s Provincial Legislative Council has said it wants
preventative measures taken to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, although it
recently shelved a plan requiring AIDS patients deemed to have shown
“aggressively sexual behaviour” to be implanted with microchips so they
could be monitored. Villagers have given pseudonyms as they say they fear
persecution. Pretoria police shot and killed a panga-wielding man who attacked several
homeowners in Rooiwal. Police could not explain why the elderly man went on
the rampage. The attacks ended when police opened fire on the man when he
refused to surrender and started throwing stones at officers trying to
disarm him. The suspect was shot and killed when he refused to surrender. A
inquest docket had been opened. Why did the police kill the man instead of
just injuring him so that they could arrest him? Situations around the world mean that large numbers of displaced persons
are looking for settlement in wealthy, developed nations like Australia and
can be targeted by, and fall prey to, people-smugglers. The Australian
government remains vigilant and committed to protecting Australia’s
borders. Canberra would work closely with neighbouring nations to tackle
people-smuggling. The government has blamed the recent rise in asylum
seekers on the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, along with
the global economic downturn. Australia’s opposition has linked the upsurge
with a relaxation of the country’s immigration policy. The government
scrapped the widely-criticised policy, under which asylum-seekers and their
children were detained for years in special centres in Nauru or Papua New
Guinea, a plan labelled the “Pacific Solution”. Asylum-seekers now arriving
by boat are held on Christmas Island, but their claims must be expedited,
with six-monthly case reviews by an ombudsman now government policy. 40 percent of all the Colombian cocaine that travels to Europe passed
through Venezuela in 2007, but overall traffic has fallen since then
because of a sharp output drop in Colombia. A shift in Colombian coca leaf
production from close to the border to the Pacific coast had also reduced
the amount of traffic through Venezuela. There was a substantive decrease
in the number of shipments passing through Africa headed for Europe last
year. New radars are tracking parts of eastern Venezuela, where planes
including private jets cross to the Atlantic or Caribbean to West Africa,
as well as a southern region close to Colombia and favored by cartels to
land light aircraft. The Chinese equipment cost $260 million and also
replaces two U.S.-made Venezuelan radars that fell into disrepair because
of Washington’s arms embargo against the Chavez government. The embargo
includes spare parts. Washington took its radars away after a short-lived
2002 coup against Chavez that worsened ties. Venezuela cooperated with all
countries except the United States on combating drug trafficking and does
not rule out signing a new deal with Washington. You can’t work with a
colleague who criticizes you every day. The president governs foreign
relations, he decides. Despite the rhetoric, the two countries often
collaborate on interdicting drugs in international waters and Venezuela
extradites captured traffickers wanted in the United States. During a massive storm in 1973, nine metres of land was lost. In 1974, the
village experienced a storm of major proportions and high water partially
flooded the airport, prompting declaration of a national disaster. In 1997,
a severe storm eroded some 45 metres of the north shore, forcing the
relocation of fourteen homes. Five additional homes were relocated in 2002.
The teacher housing is in a precarious location near the bluff. The fear
that the next storm will leave them homeless, convinced long time and
well-liked teachers to leave Shishmaref. This has been a huge loss to the
community. The sewage lagoon, roads, water supply, laundromat, community
store, and fuel tanks are at risk of damage or loss. The main road to the
airport and landfill has been eroded in several places and the road is now
dangerously close to the sea. Yearly storms continue to erode the shoreline
at an average rate of retreat of 1 to 1.5 metres per year. Almost $23
million has been spent to construct seawalls that will provide only
temporary protection to what is left of Shishmaref. A former United States deputy sheriff, featured on the popular television
series America’s Most Wanted, has been captured in Belize and is to be
extradited to face trial for murdering his wife and another man a year ago.
Derrick Yancey was caught over the weekend in a bar in Punta Gorda, the
largest town in southern Belize, just days after the US Department of
State’s Diplomatic Security Service acted on a lead that he was hiding out
in that Caribbean country. Deputy Officer in Charge at the Punta Gorda
Police Station, Inspector Andres Makin, said Yancey was taken into custody
without incident. “We had his photograph in our possession and upon
identifying ourselves, he just handed over himself. There was no resistance
in his arrest,” he said, adding that Yancey was taken to the station in the
area before being transported to Belize City. “I believe that relevant
arrangement is being made for him to transported back to the United States.
He is in custody and a flight away from being taken back to the United
States.” Yancey was an officer with the Sheriff’s Office in Dekalb County,
Georgia when he was charged with murdering his wife Linda Yancey, 44, and
20-year-old labourer Marcial Cax Puluc. He had called into his own
department to report that he had shot and killed Puluc in self defence
after discovering that the young man had robbed, shot and killed his wife.
But police say ballistic tests show Yancey was responsible for both
murders. He was charged with two counts of murder, and released on
US$150,000 bond while he awaited trial, under the condition that he be
confined to house arrest. But Yancey escaped house arrest from his mother’s
home on the morning of April 4th, 2009. Police say he cut off his
electronic monitoring ankle bracelet before fleeing The United States has charged Bolivia and Venezuela with failing to do
enough to fight the drug trade, but said it would continue aid to the two
countries, both led by critics of U.S. foreign policy. The United States
said Bolivia — the world’s third-largest cocaine producer — Venezuela and
Myanmar had all “failed demonstrably” to meet their counter-narcotics
obligations. The same three countries last year were cited on the list,
which allows the president to cut off U.S. aid other than counter-narcotics
and humanitarian funds. The White House has once again issued a national
interest waiver to continue certain bilateral aid programs in the two South
American countries. In Venezuela, funds will continue to support civil
society programs and small community development programs. In Bolivia, the
waiver will permit continued support for agricultural development, exchange
programs, small enterprise development, and police training programs.
Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s President Evo Morales are
persistent critics of U.S. foreign policy in the region, and particularly a
plan by U.S. ally Colombia to give U.S. troops more access to its military
bases for joint operations against drug traffickers and leftist rebels. It
did not give any similar detail for Myanmar. Washington is concerned by
Venezuela’s growing number of arms purchases, saying they could spark a
regional arms race. Along with the three countries identified as the worst
offenders, the U.S. list named 17 others as major production or transit
centers for illegal drugs: Afghanistan, the Bahamas, Brazil, Colombia, the
Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Laos,
Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru. Residents voted to relocate the community. However, numerous problems have
slowed this process, including reluctance of the state and federal
governments to give monetary support for vital infrastructure or to take
the lead in the relocation project. The community learned that the site
chosen for relocation was not suitable due to permafrost issues. So efforts
had to begin anew. The place they now think would be the most suitable is
near Ear Mountain close to the village of Wales. It is possible that a
sustainable community can be created there utilizing geothermal potential
and wind power for energy. However, some people say they will never leave
Sarichef Island. But how will they fare, as no services will be available
once everyone relocates? Scientists have discovered new species of fanged frog, grunting fish and a
giant rat, probably the biggest in the world, in a remote volcanic crater
in Papua New Guinea islands. Researchers have found more than 40 previously
unidentified species in the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi, lying
untouched since 200,000 years. The biologists discovered in the the
three-kilometre wide crater 16 frogs which have never before been recorded
by science, at least three new fish, a new bat and a giant rat. Other
predators included giant monitor lizards and kangaroos which have evolved
to live in trees. New species discovered include a camouflaged gecko, a
fanged frog and a fish called the Henamo grunter, named because it makes
grunting noises from its swim bladder. More than 5,000 miles away from the Tri-Cities is a small village in Kenya,
where young girls are facing genital mutilation and forced marriage. Women
they cannot work, or women cannot do anything without asking a man, and
those are the things we would like to empower women, also to give them the
freedom to do things that they need to do. “Voices of Hope” shows Americans
how they can provide help for the young girls. The organization helps send
the young girls to school in a safe location, far from their village where
they would’ve had to go through the gruesome right of passage. Many of the
girls who have their genitals mutilated suffer from sever bleeding, HIV
from shared knives and even death. We don’t want to change the whole
culture, we just want to remove things that are really not important for
women to go through. Thailand has seen an upswing in violence in its troubled south, where an
insurgency has resulted in close to 4,000 deaths. The attacks seemed to be
slowing down until a massacre at a mosque renewed tensions between ethnic
Thai Buddhists and Malay Muslims. Soldiers in an armored vehicle are
driving up to a military checkpoint on a road lined with barbed wire and
sandbags. They are all on guard, armed with M16 assault rifles and wearing
body armor and helmets. There are an estimated 60,000 security personnel in
southern Thailand’s Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani provinces. They are
struggling to put down daily violence from an insurgency. The ethnic Malay
rebels are seeking some form of independence from the Thai kingdom. A
spokesman for the Thai military’s Internal Security Operations Command,
says the insurgents and their objectives are still a mystery. “What they
want… there are many problems behind the violence – drugs, smuggling,
influential people – the problem of unrest is another one.” A century ago,
this majority ethnic Malay Muslim region was an independent sultanate until
Thailand seized it. The insurgents active in southern Thailand have never
said who they are and what they want. However, they usually kill people
viewed as symbols of the Thai Buddhist state or their collaborators.
Buddhist farmers, teachers, and monks collecting their daily alms require
constant security or they risk being shot and beheaded. Phra Palat Manat, a
Buddhist monk who has lived in Pattani his whole life, says the Buddhist
and Muslim communities used to have friendly relations. But he says when
the violence broke out they became suspicious of each other. “In the past
we depended on each other, helped each other. When Muslims had a wedding
they would invite Buddhists to attend,” he said. “But after the violence,
the visits were few and far between. Sometimes we would attend, but there
was always fear when we went out.”
Sunday, October 4, 2009
West Papua hit by 6.1-magnitude quake
Posted Sun Oct 4, 2009 3:32pm AEDT
The quake struck 123 kilometres north-west of the West Papua capital of Manokwari. (file photo) (Reuters: Pichi Chuang) A 6.1-magnitude earthquake rocked Indonesia on Sunday, centred in the far east of the country about 3,500 kilometres from the Sumatra quake disaster zone, seismologists said. The quake in West Papua province struck at 10:36am Jakarta time at a depth of 56 kilometres, 123 kilometres north-west of the West Papua capital of Manokwari, the country's geophysics agency said. Last Wednesday, a powerful 7.6-magnitude quake rocked Sumatra island in the west of the country, burying thousands and devastating the city of Padang and surrounding villages. Indonesian geophysics agency technical head Suharjono said there were no immediate reports of injuries in West Papua. He also said the latest quake was not linked to Wednesday's quake. "The earthquake in Papua has nothing to do with that in Sumatra. The tectonic plates in both incidents are different," he said. - AFP
The quake struck 123 kilometres north-west of the West Papua capital of Manokwari. (file photo) (Reuters: Pichi Chuang) A 6.1-magnitude earthquake rocked Indonesia on Sunday, centred in the far east of the country about 3,500 kilometres from the Sumatra quake disaster zone, seismologists said. The quake in West Papua province struck at 10:36am Jakarta time at a depth of 56 kilometres, 123 kilometres north-west of the West Papua capital of Manokwari, the country's geophysics agency said. Last Wednesday, a powerful 7.6-magnitude quake rocked Sumatra island in the west of the country, burying thousands and devastating the city of Padang and surrounding villages. Indonesian geophysics agency technical head Suharjono said there were no immediate reports of injuries in West Papua. He also said the latest quake was not linked to Wednesday's quake. "The earthquake in Papua has nothing to do with that in Sumatra. The tectonic plates in both incidents are different," he said. - AFP
A 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesia on Sunday, centred in eastern West Papua province, about 3500km from the Sumatra quake disaster zone, seismologists said.
The quake in West Papua province struck at 10:36am Jakarta time at a depth of 56km, 123km northwest of the West Papua capital of Manokwari, the country's geophysics agency said. Last Wednesday, a powerful 7.6-magnitude quake rocked Sumatra island in the west of the country, burying thousands and devastating the city of Padang and surrounding villages. Indonesian geophysics agency technical head Suharjono said there were no immediate reports of injuries in West Papua. "The earthquake in Papua has nothing to do with that in Sumatra. The tectonic plates in both incidents are different," he said.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Editorial: When the Nature Speaks, Feb 7, 2004, 13:36
| Editorial: When the Nature Speaks By CEB WPNews Chief Editor Feb 7, 2004, 13:36 |
We then end up by categorising disasters that this planet's face into two: one is human-made and the other is natural. Which actions should be "natural" and which ones are human-made? Or should we see the disasters differently? Aren't these disasters created by us human beings? Should we, because we are "superior" beings, then blame the nature that brings disaster? Or natural disaster is just something that is not categorised based on cause-and-effect interpretation? Should we say that there is a difference between human-made and natural disasters? Are we not part of the nature, or the nature ourselves? Who is making the differences? and Why? What is real is that in fact we started perceiving ourselves as separate from the "nature" since we invented machines and began to destroy the earth. That is why we call disasters caused by human activities as human-made ones and those beyond human-interventions are referred to as natural. This is the outcome of our perception and consequently we begin and accustomed to separate ourselves from the nature. Yes, we are not part of or one of the natures, are we? Who is making us un-natural? This question should be questioned again by human beings. Does the Nature Speak?
This question raises another question: "Do the humans, as part of the natural beings, speak?" If so, then, the answer is of course, "Yes!" What should be questioned is, "Do the other beings speak?" Everybody will say, "Yes, they do!" All will say, "Yes, they do, but they do so in varieties of languages. Bu commonly, some speak in words, others in signs. What we need to ask is not "Does the nature speak?", but rather "Can we understand what the nature says?" or "Why can't we understand the nature?" If humans do speak, if nature does speak, then what is wrong here is "Why can't we understand each other?" or "Why can human beings as the 'superior beings' not understand the language of the 'inferior beings'? Again, we come back to the original comments; "Humans have separated ourselves from the nature!" As a consequence of this separation, we now speak our own language, behave in our own ways, act for our own interests, based on our own rights. For the sake of human rights, we have sacrificed the rights of other beings. For the sake of our "development", "modernisation", and "progress" we have violated the rights of other beings, who are supposed to share this planet, equally in our rights. For the sake of these activities, we further sacrificed our own human rights. Wars in varieties of forms are basically started from the violations of the rights of the nature and followed by the violations of the our human rights. In other words, those who successfully violated the rights of the natural beings are in fact those who also successfully violated the rights of humans. One plus one is two, and that is how the violations work. Recent Proofs in West Papua that the Nature Does Speak
We have so many examples in this planet to proof that the nature does speak. But perhaps it is too difficult for us humans to grasp and explain. We only, therefore, need to learn some lessons from some proofs in West Papua, to give a glimpse to the reality that nature does speak. Sometime ago, we were surprised when five top-level government officials in Papua Province (Military and Police Commanders, Chair of the Indonesian Parliament for Papua Province, and Head of Papua Court and another important person in the province), died in a plane-crash. As far as any human beings here know, with all the skills and modern knowledge, unfortunately, no one ever be able explained why and how it happened. Another example was the "natural disaster" in Manokwari (2001) and Biak (1998). In both incidents, hundreds of people died, and hundreds of others were hospitalised. While the estimation of the economic lost is surprising. One was called Elnino and the other was earthquake. Last year, we have also heard another natural disaster at the Freeport Mining Area. We were told some people died due to another natural disaster. The Freeport Mining operations were suspended for weeks, and even months. Is this particular incident really a natural one? Typical human nature, blaming others and other beings is one of the human natures that no one should love to own it. Headline news on the Indonesian media today is about yet another natural disaster in Nabire, near the neck of New Guinea Island. The office of meteorology and geophysics in Papua Province gave its explanation of territorial lines potential for earthquake in the Province. Did the office predict the possibility of the earthquake? No, and never, nowhere whatsoever. Why? Meteorologists have the answer. My answer is, "Of course, they do not understand the language of the nature. They can only explain the phenomenon and possibilities, but not the exact ones. They even cannot explain the entire phenomenon. Even though we are humans, the "superior beings", we have limitations, because we are just natural beings. Will we understand the language of the nature? Or does anybody understand it at all?
The answer is simple, "We must understand it!" If not, we are going to kill ourselves. Human beings are reporting news on suicidal acts in the world, as if they are not doing the same as we are all doing as human race. We think we are "superior", and therefore we are closer to the image of God, the Creator. But in fact, we are not that superior in the way as we perceive. We are in fact, I am afraid, creators of all disasters to this planet. But we must remember that, this planet does not only own us human beings. Or that we are not the only beings that own this planet. Likewise, we are not the only ones that have rights above the others' rights. Therefore, those other beings that share this planet are not just sitting and watching the madness we are bringing to this planet. They are not 'inferior" as we think. They are in fact, equal to us, and in some ways superior. One simple reason is that we cannot understand their language, even though they do understand ours. We do know from the nature that it does understand our language? It does not have verbal languages as that of ours, but it has the basic and natural languages, i.e., the language of signals. Floods, famines, earthquakes, Elninos, plane-crashes, forest fires, climate change and global warming are samples for us. Yes, there are human beings on this planet, who do understand the language of the nature. They are the ones who live with and as part of the nature. They are natural beings themselves. They are not part this proudly-proclaimed developed, modernised, civilised and advanced societies. But they are part of that simple, basic, and natural lifestyle, whom the developed people call primitive, cannibals, underdeveloped, and so on. But one thing is for sure, if we are still in this planet, if we are the owner of and owned by this same planet earth, then we are supposed to accept this absolute reality that all beings are 'beings', with the same and equal rights to inhibit and enjoy this planet. We all should speak to and understand each other. And more importantly, we human beings, as "superior" beings are supposed to understand and speak to others beings in the way we govern our countries, the way we develop our communities, the way we manage our world and its resources, and the way we live in it. We should, as "superior" beings, be able to become the examples for other beings. But the reality is that in fact we have failed. Yes, we definitely did. This is really why this planet is speaking again and again in varieties languages; in different places, and at different times, telling us to be natural and humane, i.e., to be ourselves. The reason is obvious, because "When the nature Speaks!" no one will be able to answer. We are in fact unable to understand, let alone respond to it. Yes, when the Nature Speaks, hardly no one will be able to understand it nor will be able to respond. And no one will be able to argue with it. Not anyone from the superpower states of the USA and Britain, not from Saddam Hussein, neither from Osama bin Laden. Yes, when the nature speaks, no one has the language to understand, and reply. All human beings are in fact accepting these as realities, as natural disasters. That is the point where human beings are just human beings. Not more than that. When the nature speaks, surely human-race is bound to respond, not by modern technology, not by human inventions, not by verbal languages, but in the language of the nature, i.e., signs. We need to change our perceptions about this planet and all beings. We need to re-start to position ourselves in this planet. We need to see ourselves as the "real" us, not "us" as we want or as what we dream of. And we need to do so by our actions (signs), not in our debates, lectures, preaching or dreams. Enough signs in West Papua have spoken to us that we Papuans need to re-position ourselves; in the way we see ourselves and the way we behave, as part of and as the nature itself. We need to forget the rhetoric of development, modernisation, progress, civilisation and globalisation. It is shameful to be proud of such suicidal acts. It is embarrassing to claim that doing the business of managing ourselves and our worlds in the Western way is a good example, and therefore it is our way forward. And, it is more then shameful to say that we Papuans want to be alike and behave like those killers of this planet with all its inhabitants. Because when the nature Speaks, we become Nothing, and Nobody! What we do is we die, don't we?
© Copyright 2003-2004 by watchPAPUA
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
HIV/AIDS cases 'soar in Indonesian province'
JAKARTA (AFP) — The number of HIV/AIDS cases in Indonesia's South Sulawesi province has more than doubled since 2006 due to an increase in intravenous drug use, a health ministry official said Thursday. The provincial health office recorded 1,260 HIV/AIDS cases in 2006-2007 compared to 583 from 1996-2005, local official Raden Muliati told AFP.
"The increase during the last few years is due to the rising level of drug use in the province," she said, adding that some 70 percent of cases were contracted through the use of dirty needles. Indonesia has the fastest-growing HIV/AIDS infection rate in Southeast Asia, according to the United Nations. Indonesia had recorded a total of 11,868 cases of AIDS as of March this year, compared to 6,987 in 2006 or an increase of 69.8 percent in just two years, health ministry figures show. One of the worst-hit regions of the country is the eastern province of Papua, where 1,553 cases of AIDS had been recorded by the end of 2007.
"The increase during the last few years is due to the rising level of drug use in the province," she said, adding that some 70 percent of cases were contracted through the use of dirty needles. Indonesia has the fastest-growing HIV/AIDS infection rate in Southeast Asia, according to the United Nations. Indonesia had recorded a total of 11,868 cases of AIDS as of March this year, compared to 6,987 in 2006 or an increase of 69.8 percent in just two years, health ministry figures show. One of the worst-hit regions of the country is the eastern province of Papua, where 1,553 cases of AIDS had been recorded by the end of 2007.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Aksi Damai solidaritas HAM dan Demokrasi Masyarakat Sipil Papua
Menuntut segera bebaskan Buchtar Tabuni dan Sebby Sambom dari Tahanan Reskrim Polda Papua Rebuplik Indonesia,demi martabat Hukum dan HAM di Papua.Aksi damai ini pun terkabung dalam solidaritas HAM dan Demokrasi Masyarakat Sipil Papua, dari berbagai elemen perjuangan pembebasan Rakyat Bangsa Papua Barat.Dan telah berhasil lonsmarsh dari Taman Imbi ke kantor DPRP Propinsi Papua untuk menyampaikan aspirasi kepada pemerintah dan Polda Papua , agar segera bertangunjawab atas penahanan Buchtar Tabuni,Sebby Sambom dam mempercepat proses Hukum, karena waktu penahanan Buchtar Tabuni, Sebby Sambom dan rekan-rekanya,suda melewati sesuai aturan hukum yang berlaku.kami sampaikan kepda seluruh komponen Rakyat Banngsa Papua Barat dan Masyarakat Internasional, Nasional agar segera Advokasi terhadap situasi yang sedang berlangsung ahir-ahir ini. Salam pembebasan By Nery sambbom activis
OPM warned that deadline has passed
Puncak Jaya, 31 January 2009 The chief of police of Papua said that the three-week ultimatum for the return of four weapons along with ammuniation has now expired, adding that the police would continue to use the 'persuasive' approach towards religious, leaders, youth leaders and village chiefs for the return of the weapons. The police chief in Puncak Jaya said he was awaiting further developments from the police chief about what should happen next. There was still no sign of any developments. According to their observations, OPM/TPN units were moving all the time which made it difficult to track them down. Taking other measures mught have serious consequences for other people. He claimed that the situation in Tingginambut where the weapons were seized was 'calm and conducive'.
Makeshift constructions near Theys' grave removed
Cenderawasih Pos, 2 February, 2009 A number of makeshift constructions (which are being called tenda or tents) have been destroyed in the vicinity of the grave of Theys Hijo Eluay by the police on the orders of the bupati (district chief). The action was undertaken under guard of a heavy police presence and troops of Brimob, the elite police corps. [These 'tenda' consist of a roof of made of bamboo, perhaps two metres by three metres in size, held up by four poles, each one with several people inside.] Theys Eluay, the head of the Papuan Presidium Council was assassinated in November 2001. He was the revered leader of the Papuan people whose loss is still mourned by Papuans. The police claim that they were forced to destroy the constructions after appeals to the people inside failed to do so themselves. The authorities say that they had shown tolerance in waiting for their voluntary removal following a meeting between Muspida (army, police and administration leaders) and heads of local tribal people. After the deadline passed, they were destroyed, while some people who were present at the site protested at the police presence. Before the destructions took place, there was a discussion between Viktor Yeimo, coordinator of the occupation of the Theys grave, and district chief, Chris Tokoro Yeimo suggested that the two tenda behind the grave should be left in place, and they themselves would help to destroy the other ones. However, after prayers were said together and the Papuans shouted 'Long Live the Papuan People!' the tenda were forcibly destroyed, the bamboo constructions were thrown onto a garbage truck. The proposal for talks between the government and the chairman of the Adat Council (DAP), as well as Boy Eluay, the son of Theys was ignored. The district chief claimed that the constructions were being destroyed in the interests of cleanliness. After the removal, all those Papuans still present were told to return to their homes, and were warned that their identities.would be checked. As the constructions were being destroyed, a bow and arrow was found among the wreckage. Forkorus Yaboissembut, chairman of DAP, condemned the actions of the authorities, saying that the land around the grave of Theys had been handed over to the local chieftains (ondoafi/ondofolo) for traditional ownership around the grave.. 'The land belongs to the Papuan traditional prople. It is not owned by Boy Eluay or by the ondofolo but by Papuan traditional people, and should never be disturbed,' he said. 'If the reason is to keep the area clean, there are other ways to do this. The matter should be properly discussed by all those concerned, to find a solution together.' He suggested that the local administration could provide funds to supply a special field with a guard post.' 'I want to make it clear that we Papuan people have strong objections to the destruction of these tenda.This will only make people here very angry indeed because they built them on their own land, not on anyone else's land,' he said.
DAP launches new book
Dewan Adat Papua has launched new book called '|Understanding the Rights of the Indigenous People of Papua'. The 74-page book is jointly published by Yayasan Anak Dusun Papua and ICCO in The Netherlands. DAP chairman Forkorus Yaboisemut said the decision to publish the book was prompted by deep concern at the destruction of the social structure and administration of the indigenous people of Papua as a result of the oppression and the denial of the basic rights of the people by the authorities. Papuan people's experiences has shown that development in the Land of Papua has destroy the traditional administration of the people and has destroyed their traditional rights to the land as well as their access to their natural resouces. Expressing deep concern and sadness, he said that the basic resources for traditional living had been overturned, resulting in their marginalisation and impoverishment and turning them into nothing more than spectators of what is happening in their own land. He said that at a Grand Conference of the indigenous people held in 2008, A Manifesto of the Rights of the Indigenous People of Papua had been drawn up. The Papuan people's struggle was being waged to free them from injustice, dispersal and oppression, and was a part of the struggle of indigenous people throughout the world. He then referred to the adoption by the UN on 23 September 2007 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP). The new book would provide the guidelines and references for the indigenous people of Papua to understand their basic rights. If this struggle leads to their being arrested and imprisoned. he would speak out against this. What the Papuan people were doing these days was not to bring about disintegration or subversion but a struggle to ensure that the rights of the Papuan people are respected. It was wrong for people engaged in this struggle to be punished,such as what has happened to Buchtar Tabuni and his colleagues. They were not criminal and had not harmed anyone, so why had they been arrested. They had been beaten up on two occasions, once while in police custody and then while in prison. He called on the chief-of-police to take note of this. When people are struggling for their rights, they should not be arrested, he said.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Letters from Tokyo - Indonesia and Islamic Terrorism
Asia-Pacific
By Lee Jay Walker
Tokyo Correspondent An Islamic school in Indonesia
The government of Indonesia faces many internal problems because of the geographical reality of this nation and ethnic and religious tension does engulf Indonesia from time to time. However, what is worrying is the possible collusion between radical Sunni Islamists and the security services of Indonesia. Therefore, is collusion happening in places like Sulawesi and West Papua (Irian Jaya) or is it a long-term goal of containing Christians and ethnic minorities? If we turn the clock back to 2001 and focus on events in that year, then it is clear that either collusion was happening or events happened because it was a direct policy of the government of Indonesia? This applies to Laskar Jihad because this brutal Sunni Islamic terrorist organization sent even more fighters to central Sulawesi in order to persecute Christians. Laskar Jihad, like other past or current Islamic terrorist organizations, is brutal, barbaric, and cowardly. Laskar Jihad, just like other radical Sunni Islamic terrorist organizations, believe that it is their Koran-Hadith inspired duty to kill innocents and to install fear. Therefore, the region of Sulawesi was a paradise for them to cause mayhem and to create a major gulf between both communities. Given this, events spiralled out of control and inter-religious clashes erupted because these outsiders to Sulawesi desired to kill in the name of Islam. However, much more disturbing is the role of the government of Indonesia or elements within the security services and military. After all, Laskar Jihad was given a free reign to enter the region and this radical Sunni Islamic terrorist network was not removed from this delicate region. Therefore, surely collusion was taking place, if so, then how can religious or ethnic minorities feel secure in Indonesia? After all, it is noticeable that in Sulawesi and West Papua that Islamists and the government of Indonesia do have vested interests which overlap. Also the situation in East Timor in the past mirrored covert operations based on systematic terror and fear. Yet East Timor belonged to the “old world” of nationalism and preserving the nation state of Indonesia. However, just like the Palestinian situation, it became clear that Islamic terrorism and militant organizations were on the rise. The secular nature of Palestinian resistance now lies in tatters because Hamas and others now have a clear Islamic agenda, therefore, Sulawesi and West Papua are seeing a “new world” whereby Islamists have an ideological motive in spreading hate and dhimmitude. Zachary Abuza, the author of Militant Islam in Southeast Asia, Crucible of Terror, states “The government never prevented the Laskar Jihad militia from coming, nor did it try to expel them. Muslim paramilitaries were reportedly armed with machine guns (including M-16s) and rocket-propelled grenades, forcing thousands of Christians to flee.” This raises serious issues because it appears that the government of Indonesia and various radical Islamic organizations do share a common ground. Of course, many Indonesian political leaders do not share the same theme but important elites within powerful institutions do share similar concerns, albeit from different perspectives. Zachary Abuza comments that “First, Jafar Umar Thalib and the Laskar Jihad have considerable political support. Vice President Hamzah Haz has been a staunch defender of the organization and helped get Thalib acquitted in January 2003.” Zachary Abuza also states that “…while the military has at times had to employ force against the Laskar Jihad, the reality is that the two organizations have the same goal in preventing secessionist movements from succeeding, as happened with East Timor.” However, the Indonesian government will clampdown when vested interests are threatened and this applies to Islamic terrorist attacks in Bali or against hotels, and other economic based attacks. Also, it appears that the government will take action against international Islamic jihadists rather than home-grown Islamists. Once more, Zachary Abuza comments that “Until the Bali bombing, Indonesia took few constructive measures in the war on terrorism. The Singaporean, Malaysian, Philippine, and U.S. governments all expressed utter frustration with the Indonesian government, and despite many appeals, the Indonesians did not arrest any Indonesian suspects wanted abroad.” Therefore, just like the government of Pakistan which manipulated radical Sunni Islamists to cause mayhem in Afghanistan and Kashmir; the government of Indonesia had similar vested interests when it applied to domestic issues. However, the Pakistan government can no longer control elements within Pakistan because Islamists have been emboldened and they desire to enforce Islamic Sharia law and dhimmitude throughout the nation. Indonesia does not face this problem because the centre is much stronger but it is a dangerous game to play and it is clear that religious minorities and secularists in Indonesia are worried about this. Also, Islamists will have ample opportunities to stir mayhem because various parts of Indonesia remain tense and another major incident could easily ignite tensions. The people of West Papua may also witness Islamization because of increasing Muslim migration and Islamic organizations which have a shared agenda with the government of Indonesia. In an article published by Asia News in 2006 it stated that “Islamic extremist groups are entering West Papuan territory, with the consent of elements of the Indonesian army, to set up bases there.” Therefore, this part of Indonesia faces severe problems and Islamic radicals and government agencies have similar objectives. Given this, many Papuans are worried about religious persecution and state-sanctioned persecution.
Therefore, Christian areas of Indonesia face a frontal attack against them and this applies to Javanization, Islamization, direct government policies, and the threat of Islamic terrorism in sensitive parts of Indonesia is always possible. This policy does not apply to the whole of Indonesia and it must be mentioned that this nation is very complex because Christians have much greater freedom in Indonesia than in the majority of mainly Muslim nations. Yet for Christians in sensitive areas of national interest or in areas of distinct divisions, then the situation is very different. Despite this, it is clear that the implementation of Islamic Sharia law is a worry for all religious minorities, moderate Muslims and secularists. Therefore, radical Islamic organizations must not be given a free reign because if this happens, then the only victory will be for the dark forces of humanity and this means radical Sunni Islam and the implementation of Sharia Islamic law. It is now vital that pressure is put on all nations which are colluding with radical Islamic terrorist organizations or with radical Islamic educational institutions because this is where the brainwashing begins. Therefore, more pressure must be put on Indonesia to clampdown against radical Islamic institutions and to stop the manipulation of these networks when it comes to secessionist problems within Indonesia.
By Lee Jay Walker
Tokyo Correspondent An Islamic school in Indonesia
The government of Indonesia faces many internal problems because of the geographical reality of this nation and ethnic and religious tension does engulf Indonesia from time to time. However, what is worrying is the possible collusion between radical Sunni Islamists and the security services of Indonesia. Therefore, is collusion happening in places like Sulawesi and West Papua (Irian Jaya) or is it a long-term goal of containing Christians and ethnic minorities? If we turn the clock back to 2001 and focus on events in that year, then it is clear that either collusion was happening or events happened because it was a direct policy of the government of Indonesia? This applies to Laskar Jihad because this brutal Sunni Islamic terrorist organization sent even more fighters to central Sulawesi in order to persecute Christians. Laskar Jihad, like other past or current Islamic terrorist organizations, is brutal, barbaric, and cowardly. Laskar Jihad, just like other radical Sunni Islamic terrorist organizations, believe that it is their Koran-Hadith inspired duty to kill innocents and to install fear. Therefore, the region of Sulawesi was a paradise for them to cause mayhem and to create a major gulf between both communities. Given this, events spiralled out of control and inter-religious clashes erupted because these outsiders to Sulawesi desired to kill in the name of Islam. However, much more disturbing is the role of the government of Indonesia or elements within the security services and military. After all, Laskar Jihad was given a free reign to enter the region and this radical Sunni Islamic terrorist network was not removed from this delicate region. Therefore, surely collusion was taking place, if so, then how can religious or ethnic minorities feel secure in Indonesia? After all, it is noticeable that in Sulawesi and West Papua that Islamists and the government of Indonesia do have vested interests which overlap. Also the situation in East Timor in the past mirrored covert operations based on systematic terror and fear. Yet East Timor belonged to the “old world” of nationalism and preserving the nation state of Indonesia. However, just like the Palestinian situation, it became clear that Islamic terrorism and militant organizations were on the rise. The secular nature of Palestinian resistance now lies in tatters because Hamas and others now have a clear Islamic agenda, therefore, Sulawesi and West Papua are seeing a “new world” whereby Islamists have an ideological motive in spreading hate and dhimmitude. Zachary Abuza, the author of Militant Islam in Southeast Asia, Crucible of Terror, states “The government never prevented the Laskar Jihad militia from coming, nor did it try to expel them. Muslim paramilitaries were reportedly armed with machine guns (including M-16s) and rocket-propelled grenades, forcing thousands of Christians to flee.” This raises serious issues because it appears that the government of Indonesia and various radical Islamic organizations do share a common ground. Of course, many Indonesian political leaders do not share the same theme but important elites within powerful institutions do share similar concerns, albeit from different perspectives. Zachary Abuza comments that “First, Jafar Umar Thalib and the Laskar Jihad have considerable political support. Vice President Hamzah Haz has been a staunch defender of the organization and helped get Thalib acquitted in January 2003.” Zachary Abuza also states that “…while the military has at times had to employ force against the Laskar Jihad, the reality is that the two organizations have the same goal in preventing secessionist movements from succeeding, as happened with East Timor.” However, the Indonesian government will clampdown when vested interests are threatened and this applies to Islamic terrorist attacks in Bali or against hotels, and other economic based attacks. Also, it appears that the government will take action against international Islamic jihadists rather than home-grown Islamists. Once more, Zachary Abuza comments that “Until the Bali bombing, Indonesia took few constructive measures in the war on terrorism. The Singaporean, Malaysian, Philippine, and U.S. governments all expressed utter frustration with the Indonesian government, and despite many appeals, the Indonesians did not arrest any Indonesian suspects wanted abroad.” Therefore, just like the government of Pakistan which manipulated radical Sunni Islamists to cause mayhem in Afghanistan and Kashmir; the government of Indonesia had similar vested interests when it applied to domestic issues. However, the Pakistan government can no longer control elements within Pakistan because Islamists have been emboldened and they desire to enforce Islamic Sharia law and dhimmitude throughout the nation. Indonesia does not face this problem because the centre is much stronger but it is a dangerous game to play and it is clear that religious minorities and secularists in Indonesia are worried about this. Also, Islamists will have ample opportunities to stir mayhem because various parts of Indonesia remain tense and another major incident could easily ignite tensions. The people of West Papua may also witness Islamization because of increasing Muslim migration and Islamic organizations which have a shared agenda with the government of Indonesia. In an article published by Asia News in 2006 it stated that “Islamic extremist groups are entering West Papuan territory, with the consent of elements of the Indonesian army, to set up bases there.” Therefore, this part of Indonesia faces severe problems and Islamic radicals and government agencies have similar objectives. Given this, many Papuans are worried about religious persecution and state-sanctioned persecution. Therefore, Christian areas of Indonesia face a frontal attack against them and this applies to Javanization, Islamization, direct government policies, and the threat of Islamic terrorism in sensitive parts of Indonesia is always possible. This policy does not apply to the whole of Indonesia and it must be mentioned that this nation is very complex because Christians have much greater freedom in Indonesia than in the majority of mainly Muslim nations. Yet for Christians in sensitive areas of national interest or in areas of distinct divisions, then the situation is very different. Despite this, it is clear that the implementation of Islamic Sharia law is a worry for all religious minorities, moderate Muslims and secularists. Therefore, radical Islamic organizations must not be given a free reign because if this happens, then the only victory will be for the dark forces of humanity and this means radical Sunni Islam and the implementation of Sharia Islamic law. It is now vital that pressure is put on all nations which are colluding with radical Islamic terrorist organizations or with radical Islamic educational institutions because this is where the brainwashing begins. Therefore, more pressure must be put on Indonesia to clampdown against radical Islamic institutions and to stop the manipulation of these networks when it comes to secessionist problems within Indonesia.
Genocide and demographic transformation in Papua - A response to Jim Elmslie and Stuart Upton, Richard Chauvel
Stripped of the obvious differences in rhetorical tone and values, the articles by Jim Elmslie and Stuart Upton have much in common. They both agree that:
Papua has experienced a large scale demographic transformation since 1963
the modern economy is dominated by Indonesian settlers and Papuans are marginalised
Papuans suffer disadvantage in education, employment and health
there have been significant human rights abuses by the Indonesian security forces One of the useful contributions that both articles make is that they place Papua in a broader regional context. In comparing the markedly different rates of population growth in Indonesian Papua and Papua New Guinea, Jim Elmslie asserts that the two are ‘comparable Melanesian societies’. Looking west to the rest of the archipelago, Stuart Upton argues that population change in Papua looks like ‘the normal pattern of inter-island migration rather than genocide’.
Comparing Papua and PNG Had Jim Elmslie’s comparison been related to New Guinea prior to intensive Dutch, British/Australian and German intervention in the last decades of the nineteenth century, it would have been more convincing than it is today. However, over the last one hundred years, the heterogeneous Melanesian societies in the two halves of the island of New Guinea have come into contact and interacted with the world beyond New Guinea through very different colonial and post-colonial governance structures. This has made them very different places. In the case of PNG, Australian colonial rule and, since 1975, an indigenous Papuan political elite have been the mediating agencies. PNG was the sole Australian colony. The western half of the island was colonised by the Dutch as part of the Netherlands East Indies. Prior to the Pacific War, it was ruled through various administrative structures based in the neighbouring Maluku Islands. In the Australian territories, Australian administrators interacted directly with all levels and regions of PNG society. On the other side of the island, particularly before the Pacific War, there were more east Indonesian officials, police, teachers and missionaries than there were Dutch. The missionary education, the Christianity and the dialects of Malay that developed in Papua were those of the east Indonesian teachers and missionaries. Papuan contact with Indonesians in Papua and with Indonesian society outside Papua has intensified greatly since 1963. I am not suggesting, however, that the different patterns of change in the two halves of the island over the past century or so explain the difference in population growth rates. The poorer levels of health care in Indonesian Papua, especially in the highlands and remote and still predominantly Papuan regions compared to the ‘failed state’ the other side of the border is one factor that helps explain the differences in population growth. The most obvious difference generated by the divergent patterns of change is that PNG has remained a predominantly Melanesian society, while the western half of the island has become more ‘Indonesian’ through education, language and religious change as well as a demographic transformation. With these great changes, Indonesian Papua and PNG now have much less in common than before colonisation.
Comparing Papua and East Indonesia Stuart Upton notes, correctly, that the percentage of migrants in East Kalimantan is in fact higher than in Papua. Yet, there has not been any independence movement in East Kalimantan and migration is not discussed in terms of genocide. This broader context of inter-island migration in Indonesia helps us to understand what makes Papua different. There are strongly divergent patterns of inter-island migration across the Indonesian archipelago. East Kalimantan and Papua are examples of frontier economy regions that have attracted large numbers of economic migrants. Maluku and the islands east of Bali have not had the same pulling power. South Sulawesi has experienced significant emigration to Papua and East Kalimantan, among other regions. There are a number of factors that help explain how demographic change has evoked a political, cultural and economic response in Papua that has not occurred in East Kalimantan. The Papuan discourse on demographic change is the product of an elite that has held positions in government, universities, the churches, NGOs and Papuan nationalist organisations since the last years of the Dutch administration. The governors and deputy governors of both Papuan provinces and all the district heads are now Papuans. The same positions in East Kalimantan are mostly held by politicians of South Sulawesi, Javanese or Banjarese background. The governor elected last year in East Kalimantan is the first indigenous politician to hold that position, and the heads of two indigenous-majority districts, Kutai Barat and Malinau, are Dayak politicians. Other important officeholders are mostly migrants or their descendants. In contrast to the Papuans, the indigenous peoples of East Kalimantan are poorly represented in the democratic structures of post-Suharto Indonesia. Another factor is the history of migration. The coastal areas of East Kalimantan were integrated in the trading and religious network of Malay-Muslim sultanates of the western archipelago prior to the region’s incorporation into the Netherlands East Indies. The populations of these sultanates in coastal East Kalimantan were cosmopolitan. The development of the oil industry around Balikpapan from the 1920s attracted economic migrants from outside East Kalimantan.
In Papua, Indonesian immigration is understood to be a consequence of the territory’s incorporation into Indonesia: a very different situation from East Kalimantan or other high immigration provinces In Papua, with the exception of the relatively small number of strategically placed east Indonesian servants of the Dutch administration, mass migration of Indonesians to Papua started with the advent of Indonesian rule in 1963. The older members of the Papuan elite can remember meeting their first Indonesian. Benny Giay, in his biography of the Rev Herman Saud, records that Saud and his fellow secondary school students in the Birds Head region (from Manokwari west to Sorong) had not met an Indonesian prior to 1963. Saud recalled that they did not know what to expect of Indonesians and their culture. Herman Saud became the head of the Papua’s largest protestant church and witnessed from the Synod Office the transformation of Jayapura, where the office was located, into an Indonesian city. In 2005, towards the end of his period as head of the Church, Saud raised his concerns about the ongoing arrival of Indonesian economic migrants with the provincial parliament, asking rhetorically if migrant labour was the only way to develop Papua. In short, Indonesian immigration in Papua is understood to be a consequence of the territory’s incorporation into Indonesia. Given that in the eyes of many Papuans their incorporation into Indonesia occurred without their participation or agreement, the Indonesian migration that followed is likewise highly contested. That’s a very different situation from East Kalimantan or other high immigration provinces. Stuart Upton has identified, correctly, that the administrative separation of Papua from the rest of Indonesia from 1942 until 1962 was a reason for weaker commitment to the Indonesian nation state in Papua. The isolation of Papua before the Pacific War, its relatively recent incorporation into the Netherlands East Indies and its separation afterwards meant that there was little Papuan participation in the ‘making’ of Indonesia through involvement in nationalist organisations, the struggle for independence and the nation-building policies of the Sukarno years. With respect to the latter, Papuans were the object rather than the subject. Not only did many in the Papuan elite find the idea of an independent nation more attractive than incorporation in Indonesia, but during the last years of the Dutch administration they had been the beneficiaries of Dutch policies of ‘Papuanisation’ of the bureaucracy. As Stuart Upton notes, many of the early Indonesian migrants were those who assumed senior government positions, taking over not only positions previously held by the Dutch, but also those occupied by Papuans. It is worth noting that the Papuan nationalist constructions of their identity, in terms of differences in physical appearance between themselves and Indonesians and as responses to the racist Indonesian stereotyping of Papuans, were first developed in the 1950s and early 1960s – well before the onset of large scale migration. The reference points in these constructions were the east Indonesian servants of the Dutch administration, who occupied the bureaucratic positions to which the Papuan graduates of vocational training colleges and missionary schools aspired.
Beyond the figures Jim Elmslie and Stuart Upton use an analysis of census data to debate whether genocide has occurred in Papua. This is not how Papuans discuss genocide and Indonesian migration. The Papuan discourse, amongst intellectuals and politicians and more broadly in society, is based on collective subjective experience. As Budi Hernawan and Theo van den Broek in their discussion of ‘Memoria passionis’ (memory of suffering) noted, if you visit remote parts of Papua you can easily hear stories of suffering from ordinary people: ‘Our father was killed in that river. On the side of the mountain there used to be villages, which were destroyed by ABRI [The Indonesian Military]’.
Accusations of genocide are often directly linked to demands for independence Accusations of genocide against the Indonesian military and government retain their currency in popular discourse and as political slogans. Demonstrators in Jayapura at the time of the legislative elections earlier this year held banners demanding: ‘Immediately withdraw organic and non-organic military units from West Papua…Stop genocide against Melanesians in West Papua’. Accusations of genocide are often directly linked to demands for independence. For example, one participant in the mass consultation (Mubes) of Papuan nationalists in February 2000 suggested: ‘In ten years time Papuans will all be killed by the Indonesian military; better that we become independent now.’ Papuan discussions of genocide might focus on the presence and human rights abuses of the Indonesian military as well as the intentions of the Indonesian government, but also encompass a broad range of issues including dispossession, marginalisation and various forms of disadvantage that demographic change and the pattern of economic development have brought for many Papuans. Some Papuan discussions of the spread of transmission of HIV/AIDS and the role of the Indonesian authorities therein are conspiratorial. Stuart Upton is not the first person to suggest that the racist language in which some Papuans discuss their own identity, Indonesian migration and accusations of genocide has been repudiated by the international community given that its continued use is counter-productive. That well-educated and worldly-wise Papuan leaders continue to use such language is a measure of their concern about the threats posed to their society and culture as well as an expression of their alienation from and distrust of the Indonesian government. For these reasons I agree with Jim Elmslie that West Papuan opinions and experiences deserve to be taken seriously. Putting a figure on the loss of life is problematic, however. Elmslie cites a death toll of 100,000. That a figure is routinely quoted, as this one has been, does not make it any more or less accurate. The core problem, as Elmslie concedes, is that the research has not been done and, in current political circumstances, is unlikely to be done. Tapol’s West Papua: The Obliteration of a People, a booklet published in 1983 stated that ‘Estimates of the numbers killed or who have died as a result of Indonesian repression, suppression or neglect range from 100,000 to 150,000 since 1963.’ The range of estimates of lives lost has not changed much over more than two decades, despite the conduct of numerous military operations.
Elmslie cites a death toll of 100,000. That a figure is routinely quoted does not make it any more or less accurate The Human Rights Watch Report, Out of Sight: Endemic Abuse and Impunity in Papua’s Central Highlands (July 2007) illustrates some of the difficulties faced when investigating violence and human rights abuses in one of the most tightly controlled and conflict-ridden regions in Papua. Working without the cooperation of the Indonesian authorities, the researchers found that the Indonesian security forces ‘…continue to engage in largely indiscriminate village “sweeping” operations in pursuit of suspected militants, using excessive, often brutal, and at times lethal force against civilians’. This indiscriminate abuse by the security forces of Indonesian citizens and their livelihoods suggests that the civilian and military leaders in Jakarta have limited capacity to control the conduct of their troops operating in Papua. The security forces’ behaviour serves to further alienate both the communities directly affected and Papuan society as a whole. However, this carefully documented Human Rights Watch report does not provide evidence that there has been systematic killing of large numbers of Papuans. Rather it provides insights into how systemic violence pervades relations between the security forces and Papuan communities. We should respect Papuans’ discussions of the demographic transformation of their society and endeavour to understand the experience they are describing. However, I suspect that the use of the term genocide obstructs our comprehension of the endemic nature of state violence against Indonesian citizens in Papua and makes the necessary institutional reform and cultural transformation of the Indonesian security forces more difficult. ii Richard Chauvel (richard.chauvel@vu.edu.au) teaches at Victoria University.
Papua has experienced a large scale demographic transformation since 1963
the modern economy is dominated by Indonesian settlers and Papuans are marginalised
Papuans suffer disadvantage in education, employment and health
there have been significant human rights abuses by the Indonesian security forces One of the useful contributions that both articles make is that they place Papua in a broader regional context. In comparing the markedly different rates of population growth in Indonesian Papua and Papua New Guinea, Jim Elmslie asserts that the two are ‘comparable Melanesian societies’. Looking west to the rest of the archipelago, Stuart Upton argues that population change in Papua looks like ‘the normal pattern of inter-island migration rather than genocide’.
Comparing Papua and PNG Had Jim Elmslie’s comparison been related to New Guinea prior to intensive Dutch, British/Australian and German intervention in the last decades of the nineteenth century, it would have been more convincing than it is today. However, over the last one hundred years, the heterogeneous Melanesian societies in the two halves of the island of New Guinea have come into contact and interacted with the world beyond New Guinea through very different colonial and post-colonial governance structures. This has made them very different places. In the case of PNG, Australian colonial rule and, since 1975, an indigenous Papuan political elite have been the mediating agencies. PNG was the sole Australian colony. The western half of the island was colonised by the Dutch as part of the Netherlands East Indies. Prior to the Pacific War, it was ruled through various administrative structures based in the neighbouring Maluku Islands. In the Australian territories, Australian administrators interacted directly with all levels and regions of PNG society. On the other side of the island, particularly before the Pacific War, there were more east Indonesian officials, police, teachers and missionaries than there were Dutch. The missionary education, the Christianity and the dialects of Malay that developed in Papua were those of the east Indonesian teachers and missionaries. Papuan contact with Indonesians in Papua and with Indonesian society outside Papua has intensified greatly since 1963. I am not suggesting, however, that the different patterns of change in the two halves of the island over the past century or so explain the difference in population growth rates. The poorer levels of health care in Indonesian Papua, especially in the highlands and remote and still predominantly Papuan regions compared to the ‘failed state’ the other side of the border is one factor that helps explain the differences in population growth. The most obvious difference generated by the divergent patterns of change is that PNG has remained a predominantly Melanesian society, while the western half of the island has become more ‘Indonesian’ through education, language and religious change as well as a demographic transformation. With these great changes, Indonesian Papua and PNG now have much less in common than before colonisation.
Comparing Papua and East Indonesia Stuart Upton notes, correctly, that the percentage of migrants in East Kalimantan is in fact higher than in Papua. Yet, there has not been any independence movement in East Kalimantan and migration is not discussed in terms of genocide. This broader context of inter-island migration in Indonesia helps us to understand what makes Papua different. There are strongly divergent patterns of inter-island migration across the Indonesian archipelago. East Kalimantan and Papua are examples of frontier economy regions that have attracted large numbers of economic migrants. Maluku and the islands east of Bali have not had the same pulling power. South Sulawesi has experienced significant emigration to Papua and East Kalimantan, among other regions. There are a number of factors that help explain how demographic change has evoked a political, cultural and economic response in Papua that has not occurred in East Kalimantan. The Papuan discourse on demographic change is the product of an elite that has held positions in government, universities, the churches, NGOs and Papuan nationalist organisations since the last years of the Dutch administration. The governors and deputy governors of both Papuan provinces and all the district heads are now Papuans. The same positions in East Kalimantan are mostly held by politicians of South Sulawesi, Javanese or Banjarese background. The governor elected last year in East Kalimantan is the first indigenous politician to hold that position, and the heads of two indigenous-majority districts, Kutai Barat and Malinau, are Dayak politicians. Other important officeholders are mostly migrants or their descendants. In contrast to the Papuans, the indigenous peoples of East Kalimantan are poorly represented in the democratic structures of post-Suharto Indonesia. Another factor is the history of migration. The coastal areas of East Kalimantan were integrated in the trading and religious network of Malay-Muslim sultanates of the western archipelago prior to the region’s incorporation into the Netherlands East Indies. The populations of these sultanates in coastal East Kalimantan were cosmopolitan. The development of the oil industry around Balikpapan from the 1920s attracted economic migrants from outside East Kalimantan.
In Papua, Indonesian immigration is understood to be a consequence of the territory’s incorporation into Indonesia: a very different situation from East Kalimantan or other high immigration provinces In Papua, with the exception of the relatively small number of strategically placed east Indonesian servants of the Dutch administration, mass migration of Indonesians to Papua started with the advent of Indonesian rule in 1963. The older members of the Papuan elite can remember meeting their first Indonesian. Benny Giay, in his biography of the Rev Herman Saud, records that Saud and his fellow secondary school students in the Birds Head region (from Manokwari west to Sorong) had not met an Indonesian prior to 1963. Saud recalled that they did not know what to expect of Indonesians and their culture. Herman Saud became the head of the Papua’s largest protestant church and witnessed from the Synod Office the transformation of Jayapura, where the office was located, into an Indonesian city. In 2005, towards the end of his period as head of the Church, Saud raised his concerns about the ongoing arrival of Indonesian economic migrants with the provincial parliament, asking rhetorically if migrant labour was the only way to develop Papua. In short, Indonesian immigration in Papua is understood to be a consequence of the territory’s incorporation into Indonesia. Given that in the eyes of many Papuans their incorporation into Indonesia occurred without their participation or agreement, the Indonesian migration that followed is likewise highly contested. That’s a very different situation from East Kalimantan or other high immigration provinces. Stuart Upton has identified, correctly, that the administrative separation of Papua from the rest of Indonesia from 1942 until 1962 was a reason for weaker commitment to the Indonesian nation state in Papua. The isolation of Papua before the Pacific War, its relatively recent incorporation into the Netherlands East Indies and its separation afterwards meant that there was little Papuan participation in the ‘making’ of Indonesia through involvement in nationalist organisations, the struggle for independence and the nation-building policies of the Sukarno years. With respect to the latter, Papuans were the object rather than the subject. Not only did many in the Papuan elite find the idea of an independent nation more attractive than incorporation in Indonesia, but during the last years of the Dutch administration they had been the beneficiaries of Dutch policies of ‘Papuanisation’ of the bureaucracy. As Stuart Upton notes, many of the early Indonesian migrants were those who assumed senior government positions, taking over not only positions previously held by the Dutch, but also those occupied by Papuans. It is worth noting that the Papuan nationalist constructions of their identity, in terms of differences in physical appearance between themselves and Indonesians and as responses to the racist Indonesian stereotyping of Papuans, were first developed in the 1950s and early 1960s – well before the onset of large scale migration. The reference points in these constructions were the east Indonesian servants of the Dutch administration, who occupied the bureaucratic positions to which the Papuan graduates of vocational training colleges and missionary schools aspired.
Beyond the figures Jim Elmslie and Stuart Upton use an analysis of census data to debate whether genocide has occurred in Papua. This is not how Papuans discuss genocide and Indonesian migration. The Papuan discourse, amongst intellectuals and politicians and more broadly in society, is based on collective subjective experience. As Budi Hernawan and Theo van den Broek in their discussion of ‘Memoria passionis’ (memory of suffering) noted, if you visit remote parts of Papua you can easily hear stories of suffering from ordinary people: ‘Our father was killed in that river. On the side of the mountain there used to be villages, which were destroyed by ABRI [The Indonesian Military]’.
Accusations of genocide are often directly linked to demands for independence Accusations of genocide against the Indonesian military and government retain their currency in popular discourse and as political slogans. Demonstrators in Jayapura at the time of the legislative elections earlier this year held banners demanding: ‘Immediately withdraw organic and non-organic military units from West Papua…Stop genocide against Melanesians in West Papua’. Accusations of genocide are often directly linked to demands for independence. For example, one participant in the mass consultation (Mubes) of Papuan nationalists in February 2000 suggested: ‘In ten years time Papuans will all be killed by the Indonesian military; better that we become independent now.’ Papuan discussions of genocide might focus on the presence and human rights abuses of the Indonesian military as well as the intentions of the Indonesian government, but also encompass a broad range of issues including dispossession, marginalisation and various forms of disadvantage that demographic change and the pattern of economic development have brought for many Papuans. Some Papuan discussions of the spread of transmission of HIV/AIDS and the role of the Indonesian authorities therein are conspiratorial. Stuart Upton is not the first person to suggest that the racist language in which some Papuans discuss their own identity, Indonesian migration and accusations of genocide has been repudiated by the international community given that its continued use is counter-productive. That well-educated and worldly-wise Papuan leaders continue to use such language is a measure of their concern about the threats posed to their society and culture as well as an expression of their alienation from and distrust of the Indonesian government. For these reasons I agree with Jim Elmslie that West Papuan opinions and experiences deserve to be taken seriously. Putting a figure on the loss of life is problematic, however. Elmslie cites a death toll of 100,000. That a figure is routinely quoted, as this one has been, does not make it any more or less accurate. The core problem, as Elmslie concedes, is that the research has not been done and, in current political circumstances, is unlikely to be done. Tapol’s West Papua: The Obliteration of a People, a booklet published in 1983 stated that ‘Estimates of the numbers killed or who have died as a result of Indonesian repression, suppression or neglect range from 100,000 to 150,000 since 1963.’ The range of estimates of lives lost has not changed much over more than two decades, despite the conduct of numerous military operations.
Elmslie cites a death toll of 100,000. That a figure is routinely quoted does not make it any more or less accurate The Human Rights Watch Report, Out of Sight: Endemic Abuse and Impunity in Papua’s Central Highlands (July 2007) illustrates some of the difficulties faced when investigating violence and human rights abuses in one of the most tightly controlled and conflict-ridden regions in Papua. Working without the cooperation of the Indonesian authorities, the researchers found that the Indonesian security forces ‘…continue to engage in largely indiscriminate village “sweeping” operations in pursuit of suspected militants, using excessive, often brutal, and at times lethal force against civilians’. This indiscriminate abuse by the security forces of Indonesian citizens and their livelihoods suggests that the civilian and military leaders in Jakarta have limited capacity to control the conduct of their troops operating in Papua. The security forces’ behaviour serves to further alienate both the communities directly affected and Papuan society as a whole. However, this carefully documented Human Rights Watch report does not provide evidence that there has been systematic killing of large numbers of Papuans. Rather it provides insights into how systemic violence pervades relations between the security forces and Papuan communities. We should respect Papuans’ discussions of the demographic transformation of their society and endeavour to understand the experience they are describing. However, I suspect that the use of the term genocide obstructs our comprehension of the endemic nature of state violence against Indonesian citizens in Papua and makes the necessary institutional reform and cultural transformation of the Indonesian security forces more difficult. ii Richard Chauvel (richard.chauvel@vu.edu.au) teaches at Victoria University.
Inside Indonesia 97: Jul-Sep 2009
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