Please Sign the Petition to help get justice for West Papua

[Akyeame Kwame]

Meda mo ase for signing on Afrikans! Uhuru!

AK

[Akyeame Kwame]

Papuans Set for Showdown With US Gold Miner

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32350

CORRUPTION-INDONESIA:
Papuans Set for Showdown With US Gold Miner
Kafil Yamin

JAKARTA , Mar 2 (IPS) - After two weeks of protests
and a sustained blockade, the United States miner,
Freeport-McMoran, continues to hang on to the world's
largest gold and copper mine in eastern Papua
province, on the strength of assurances from the
central government.

Residents of Kali Baru and Banti villages have been
blockading the company's mining site in Tembaga Pura
and forced the company to halt operations over the
past week.

Freeport stands accused by the people, the provincial
government of Papua and non-government organisations
(NGOs) of colluding with corrupt military and other
central officials, to fleece the mines and degrade the
environment around the mine located deep in the remote
snow-capped central highlands.

Papua's legislative house and the Papua People's
Assembly have been firm that Freeport must shut down.
''We have asked the central government in Jakarta to
close down Freeport,'' Papua house speaker Komarudin
Watubun told a crowd of 300 demonstrators staging a
rally on Tuesday. ''We want a total closure of the
company.''

Joining the chorus is one of Indonesia's prominent
political leaders, Amien Rais, who said, last week,
that Freeport should be closed down for ''three big
crimes''.

''The first is ecological crime by destroying land and
environment. The Ajkwa river that was once clean and
green has now become a heap of tailing.'' The second,
he said, was ''robbery by channeling concentrates of
gold and copper from Jayawijaya mountain top through a
100 km pipe to the Arafura sea and taken overseas for
decades, unreported.''

Rais said he had reliable data to show that only three
percent of mined concentrates of gold and copper were
accounted for.

''The third is tax crime,'' he said, demanding that
President Yudhoyono review the Freeport contract.
Freeport is already Indonesia's biggest tax-payer.

On Wednesday, the protesters managed to meet James
Moffet, commissioner of Freeport. Negotiations have
continued but tensions have been running so high that
clashes have broken out with Indonesian security
forces who are paid, illegally, by the company.

Meanwhile in Jakarta, NGO activists and the Papua
students have been marching to the Freeport office in
South Jakarta demanding closure of the company and
clashing with police.

Last week, the protesters turned violent and rampaged
through the building destroying furniture and breaking
window panes. The arson stopped only after police
fired warning shots.

Facing frequent protests, including attacks on its
workers, Freeport has sought Indonesian military
protection by paying off high-ranking military
generals and police officers.

An investigation by the London-based NGO, 'Global
Witness' has revealed names of military and police
officers who personally received money from Freeport
in what the company calls 'pay for protection'. Brig
Gen Ramizan Tarigan admitted he received 14,000 US
dollars during 2002.

In April 2002, Freeport gave the then Papua military
chief Maj Gen Mahidin Simbolon 64,000 dollars in what
the company dubbed as 'fund for 2002 military
project'. In December of that year, Simbolon received
another 67,000 dollars for 'humanitarian civic
project', according to Global Witness. Simbolon is now
the inspector general of the Indonesian Army.

In 2003, as the U.S. government imposed stricter
assessment on companies, Freeport switched to paying
police and military units instead of persons. During
that year, the company paid Indonesia's military
police and paramilitary 200,000 dollars.

Freeport has spent at least 20 million dollars from
1998- May 2004 on military and police officers in
Papua, according to the Global Witness investigation.
Several former managers interviewed by Global Witness
said at least 10 million dollars more were paid after
2004.

Freeport is also accused of obscuring its real
revenue, prices of copper and gold and tax fraud. The
government is now setting up a team to assess Freeport
transactions.

Vice President Yusuf Kalla said there is an urgent
need to review the Freeport contract with the
Indonesian government. ''If they (Freeport) are proved
to have scammed taxes, prices and other unfair
dealing, we will certainly impose a legal sanction,''
he told journalists in Jakarta, last week.

The review team will comprise officials from the
ministries of finance and of energy and mining, with
the assistance of several legislators.

But even as the team is in the making, the Indonesian
military and police has sent in more troops to the
company's base in Papua to deal with the people's
blockage.

Last Thursday, Freeport denied it gave dollars to the
Indonesian military officials as suggested by Global
Witness. But the company acknowledged that it has
provided the military guarding the mining site with
logistic assistance. ''We don't bribe. We do give
assistance to the military, not in cash, but in the
form of field equipment such as handy talky, cars,
food,'' said AR Soehoed, a Freeport official.

Soehoed said the company needs to ensure security at
its mining sites and due to challenge in the field,
the military needed good facilities. ''All payments
are transparent and reported to the New York Stock
Exchange,'' he said. ''And assisting security
personnel on duty is just normal. If you give some
food to your starving guard, that is normal, right?''
(END/2006)

[Kweku_Omowale]

ak etu sen? where is the petition for me to sign ak, gimme my regards to ur mestre for me,ok, tell him,i am mandigo at heart and soul! my anceastors come from the big sugar mills of vassouras, interior of rio de janeiro and sapaucaia and i have people in my family,that was born ib bahia

[Ta'Ziyah]

Hotep!

I unhesitantly signed the petition after reading about it!

Peace.

[Jahness]

Please Sign the Petition to help get justice for
West Papua

Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 12:12 AM
Subject: Please Sign the Petition to help get justice for West Papua



Please Sign the Petition Online at
http://www.petitiononline.com/unreview
and forward this email to help get justice for West Papua.

To: United Nations Secretary General
To: Secretary General United Nations
UN Plaza
New York NY 10017, USA

Appalled by the ongoing suffering of the people of West Papua, we join
a growing list of international parliamentarians and non-governmental
organizations, and call on you as United Nations Secretary General to
initiate a review of the UN's conduct in relation to the "Act of 'Free'
Choice" in West Papua, 1968-69.

West Papua has entered its fifth decade of occupation by the Indonesian
military.

Crimes against humanity have been and continue to be perpetrated
against the West Papuan people. An estimated minimum of 100,000 West Papuans have died since Indonesia took over in 1963. There have been systematic violations of the human rights of West Papuans at the hands of the Indonesian regime, including extra-judicial killings, rape, torture,
arbitrary arrest and detention, violations of the rights of freedom of
assembly and freedom of speech, and denial of free access to NGOs,
human rights groups, international observers and the media to freely carry
out their work.

In 1969, instead of a proper independence referendum, 1,022 West
Papuans were rounded up and forced to declare - unanimously and in public -
their "wish" to integrate West Papua into the Republic of Indonesia, then
ruled by the brutal dictator Suharto. The population at the time was
estimated at some 800,000 people, so a fraction of one percent of the people took part.

The Act has been widely dismissed as a farce, yet no action has been
taken to redress the injustice to date.

Former United Nations Under-Secretary General Chakravarthy Narasimhan,
who handled the takeover, has since admitted that the process was a
"whitewash":

"It was just a whitewash. The mood at the United Nations was to get rid
of this problem as quickly as possible. Nobody gave a thought to the fact
that there were a million people there who had their fundamental human
rights trampled. How could anyone have seriously believed that all
voters unanimously decided to join his [Suharto's] regime?. Unanimity like
that is unknown in democracies."

The United Nations had certain responsibilities in relation to the Act,
as specified in the New York Agreement, an international agreement signed
at UN Headquarters by Indonesia and the Netherlands on August 15, 1962.
However there is strong evidence that the UN failed to fulfill its
obligations under the Agreement. A representative of the UK mission to
the UN said in July 1969:

"Our strong impression is that the great majority of United Nations
members want to see this question cleared out of the way with the
minimum of fuss as soon as possible. the Secretariat, whose influence could be important, appear only too anxious to get shot of the problem as
quickly and smoothly as possible."

In the years 1962-69, an estimated 30,000 West Papuans were killed and
an atmosphere of fear and intimidation pervaded the country at the time of
the Act.

Moreover, in the report of the Act by the then UN Secretary-General's
Representative Ortiz Sanz, it was stated that "an act of free choice
has taken place. in accordance with Indonesian practice". The New York
Agreement referred to "in accordance with international practice".
Evidence of what was considered international practice at the time can
be found in UN General Assembly Resolution 1541 (XV) of 1960. This
Resolution states that the integration of one territory with another should result from the "freely expressed wishes of the Territory's peoples acting
with full knowledge of the change in their status, their wishes having been
expressed through informed and democratic processes impartially
conducted and based on universal adult suffrage". This crucial discrepancy was not pointed out to the UN General Assembly, which voted to "take note" of the report of the Act.

Detailed substantiating documentation on the case for a review was
presented to your office on 26 March 2002.

An outline briefing is available at
http://westpapuaaction.buz.org/unreview and more background detail is provided in "The United Nations and the Indonesian Takeover of West
Papua, 1962-1969" by Dr. John Saltford.

De-classified US documents released in 2004 and edited by Brad Simpson
available at http://www.gwu.edu/%7Ensarchiv/NSAEB...B128/index.htm
have further underlined the complicity. The US Embassy in Jakarta for
example told the US State Department in a cable dated July 2, 1969 that
"[private] political views of the UN team are. 95 per cent of the Irianese
support the independence movement and that the Act of Free Choice is a
mockery".

Former Indonesian Ambassador to Australia Sabam Siagian said in March
2004 that the Act of Free Choice in 1969 was never viewed as a truly
democratic exercise.

In December 2004 a British foreign office minister admitted in parliament
that the handpicked representatives were coerced into declaring for
inclusion in Indonesia.

Given the overwhelming evidence, and appalled by the ongoing suffering
of the people of West Papua, we therefore call on you as United Nations
Secretary General to initiate a review of the UN's conduct in relation
to the "Act of 'Free' Choice" in West Papua, 1968-69.

Sincerely,

Sign Here Now and forward this email!
http://www.petitiononlinecom/unreview

West Papua Action
134 Phibsborough Road
Dublin 7
Ireland
http://westpapuaaction.org
+353 (0)1 860 3431
wpaction(a)iol.ie
+++++++++++++++++++++++
for human rights in West Papua
including the right to self-determination

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[NubianSysta]

I'll sign it when I get home. As usual again, they have that site blocked

[Kweku_Omowale]

i doubled signed the petition, people.glad was able to be of some help