Truth, West Papua and Indonesia: 2 + 2 really can = 5

In the audience was the Indonesian Ambassador to the US, Sudjadnan Parnohadin-Ingrat, who was previously the Ambassador to Australia. Sudjadnan was the secretary to the Indonesian Task Force during the 1999 United Nations independence ballot in East Timor.

Richardson’s pleas for unquestioning support for Indonesia are essential given the manner in which Indonesian elites such as Sudjadnan make use of the critical silence from Australia.

Questioned by The Washington Diplomat on Indonesian human rights Sudjadnan responded to an estimate that the TNI “… may have killed up to 200,000 Timorese during Indonesian rule”. Sudjadun made no effort to dispute the figure seeing them as mere casualties of a secessionist war. As he said “… If (only) about 200,000 out of 220 million people (wanted to secede) I don’t think this is very serious”.

I believe East Timor under Indonesian rule (1975-1999) is comparable to the Killing Fields of Cambodia. There can be no doubt that intelligent men like Richardson are not ignorant of statistics. After independence in 1999 a UN report concluded “… human rights violations were massive, systematic and widespread … starvation, arbitrary executions, routinely inflicted horrific torture, and the organized sexual enslavement and sexual torture of Timorese women were the hallmarks of the Indonesian authority and 183,000 est. Timorese starved or died of illness as a consequence of TNI-Kopassus actions during Indonesian rule.”

When a powerful man like Richardson holds that nothing should hinder the Indonesian dream, we like Sudjadnan, possess enough understanding of the English language to comprehend the underlining significance i.e. issues like corruption and human rights are mere sideshows.

Richardson’s style of commitment to Indonesia ignores the validity of human rights concerns over the actions of the TNI. Instead of using his speech to separate himself from Sudjadnan’s East Timor 2 + 2 = 5 proposition I believe that, maybe unwittingly, Richardson urges unquestioning and principled support of Jakarta Lobby policies. Many efforts are  now being made to build on his lead.

The present - the Jakarta lobby attacks

Paul Kelly wrote a characteristically expert opinion piece in The Australian (See “A new diplomacy over Papua”, October 7, 2006). Kelly enthusiastically endorsed the Lowy Institute Report, The Pitfalls of Papua, as the virtual final word on the West Papua debate.

The main purpose of the article would appear to have been to discredit grass roots activists and ordinary citizens motivated by the norms of international law, a concern for human rights and the ethical quality of Australian diplomacy.

According to Kelly these are the ignorant people who might be actually moved to feel sympathy for the plight of Papuans suffering Indonesian military oppression. As I read it in Kelly’s assessment they are a clear threat to the unquestioned goal of good relations with Jakarta.

He parrots Rodd McGibbon’s conclusion that genocide cannot be used to describe policies employed by the Indonesians against Papuans.

Despite Kelly’s ringing endorsement of the report it is interesting to note what he failed to analyse. Rodd McGibbon at least concedes that there has been a systematic pattern of human rights violations by Indonesian security forces since the 1960’s.

To place this into perspective Ed McWilliams, a retired US Senior Foreign Service Officer, believes, “… a death toll of 100,000 (in West Papua) is entirely consistent with the savage record of this institution (TNI). The murder rate was augmented in the 1970s by provision of OV-10 Bronco aircraft, which were employed against civilians in both East Timor and West Papua.” Even in the absence of the smoking gun of genocide, the Indonesian human rights record in that province is abysmal.