T

he government must first withdraw its military and police personnel from Papua if it really wants peace talks to start, says the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

Komnas HAM deputy chairman Joseph Stanley Adi Prasetyo said that a troop withdrawal from Papua would be an “important step” to initiating peace talks between the government and local Papuans, arguing that military activities in Papua and West Papua had prevented dialogue from occurring in the conflict-riddled region.

“Before any dialogue [in Papua] can take place, the government must withdraw its troops,” Stanley said on Friday.

“By [withdrawing the troops], the government would make room for peace talks to occur. Besides, it could show the Papuans that the government was really serious about establishing dialogue with them,” he added.

Stanley said the “excessive numbers” of personnel deployed by the National Police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) had exacerbated problems in Papua, arguing that the so-called joint operations between the police and the military only prevented productive peace talks from occurring.

“Local-level leaders of the Free Papua Movement [OPM] have shown their willingness to compromise and start peace talks with the government many times,” Stanley said. “But [when they found out] the TNI and the police had continued shooting and committing human rights abuses against Papuans, [the OPM leaders] became angry again.”

Poengky Indarti, the executive director of human rights watchdog Imparsial, also questioned the government’s militant approach in Papua, pointing to the fact that the OPM was not as dangerous as other separatist movements the TNI had dealt with in the past such as the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Aceh.

“Truthfully speaking, [the OPM] is not as strong as the GAM in Aceh. [The OPM] lacks coordination among its leaders and its grassroots members. Besides, the OPM is not supported with ‘sophisticated’ firearms as the GAM was.”

Poengky argued that deploying TNI and police personnel to Papua might be related to the “business” of guarding the site belonging to US-based mining giant Freeport.

“Since [Freeport’s] security responsibilities were officially transferred from the TNI to the police in 2004, there has been infighting over that ‘business’ between the TNI and the police.”

Despite President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s pledge to not implement a militant approach to conflicts and separatist movements in Papua, the government has been notorious for using repressive and militant approaches in dealing with Papua and the OPM.

Three Papuans were found dead following the third Papuan People’s Congress in Abepura, Papua, after fully-armed police and TNI forces broke up the congress. The three bodies had been mutilated with severe stab wounds.

According to Imparsial, there are around 14,800 military personnel and 10,000 police officers deployed in Papua, a figure that many consider to be “excessive”, as Papua’s total population stands at only 3 million people, about 1 percent of Indonesia’s total population.

On Oct. 26, OPM international spokesman John Otto Ondawane warned against deployment of additional police or military officers to Papua, as it could “create devastating effects on civilian lives”.

Leaders of the West Papua people called on the government to withdraw security forces from the region, he said. (sat)