Sentani, 26/5 (Jubi) – Ten years of the Yudhoyono administration has not brought any changes to Papuans, a seminar was told.
Therefore Papuans must unite to build their region if they want to be involved instead of being the spectators. This is the part of the seminar conclusion on “What President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono Has Done during Two Periods of His Government for the People of Papua” organized by the Association of the Papua’s Central Highland Students. The seminar was held at Romongo Pos 7 Baptism Church in Sentani, Jayapura Regency on Saturday (24/5).
Markus Haluk presented twelve violations including severe torture, arbitrary arrests, shootings and killings, rape, burning and destruction of citizens’ properties, bans on peaceful demonstrations, denial of arrest warrants, detention of Papuan civilians accused of treason, access restrictions to members of Parliament, Congress and Foreign Diplomats, restrictions and warnings against international journalists, local and national media and also the threats against human right defenders.
Arbitrary arrests are the most common rights violation, involving 560 Papuans and 5 foreign citizens.
“The government has failed to develop Papua, therefore Papuans should be aware about who’s their friends and enemies. Do not make enemies partners, it would make us hurt,” Haluk said.
Another speaker in the seminar,Theo Kossay, a lecturer of Fajar Timur Theology School and Papuan Anthropologist, talked about the impact of the splitting of regencies/municipality/province on Papuans. In his paper titled “The Rise of the Regency and Provincial Division Threatens the Extinction of the Indigenous People and the Native Culture of Papua”, he said the Yudhoyono government has produced 84 New Autonomous Regions (DOB), some already established. Another impact from this policy is migrants through transmigration, urbanization or migration who seeking parts in the new extension regions. The extension and migrant would affect to the loss of the human and the cultural identity in Papua.
While Bruder Eddy OFM on his paper titled “The Condition of The Indigenous Papuans Related to the Protection on the Basic Rights during Ten Years of Yudhoyono Leadership (2004-2014)” described the economic, social, cultural, political and security issues in chronological order. He concluded the State’s point of view towards the people of Papua has not been changed from the sixties era, because the stigma, terror, killing, arrest and rape are still exist in the Papuan people’s life.
Fien Yarrangga also said the similar case on her paper “The Gender Enforcement and the Protection and Respect towards the Papuan Women Rights during the Yudhoyono Government”. She said there was not a significant change because the Papuan women traders are still have their own place; besides the stigma about they are parts of the Papua Free Movement.
Meanwhile the Rev. Sofyan Yoman in this occasion emphasized the Papuan students to be more critical in writing, collecting and analyzing data.
“I do not speak about the issues that have been talked the previous speakers that essentially said that Papuans never been independence when the colonialism keep going. We have pushed in our land either by the investors or those who have interest in this land. Therefore we must be aware on this situation and start to arrange our next step. The most important is we should united and collect some data to reveal to the world that along with the Indonesian Government we had no changes,” he said.
The five resource persons agreed that during ten years of the Yudhoyono government, it did not give a significant contribution though there are the Special Autonomy Law, the Development Acceleration Unit of Papua and West Papua (UP4B) and some New Autonomy Region (DOB). This indicates no matter who’s the president, without the alteration of the approach pattern, it wont be change Papua. Through this seminar, the speakers also suggested to the youth and Papuans making documentation on all occasions to support the humanitarian works. ( Jubi / Mecky/rom )
