From the Dutch daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad
(Translation Pro Papua)
01 September 2011
The Indonesian province of Papua is swarmed by spies.
The paranoia of the military and rulers in the capital Jakarta about an impending segregation fuels suspicions of Papuans.
Leaked documents of an Indonesian espionage
service confirm: in Jakarta military paranoia
about Papua is the rule. That is why many
spies spy on “separatists”.
From our correspondent Elske Schouten
Jakarta. Activist for an independent Papua Buchtar Tabuni and church leader Socrates Sofyan Yoman probably felt safe when they met on August 17th 2007 in Tabuni’s house. But an Indonesian army informant exactly noticed how Yoman at 2.30 p.m. handed over an envelope with an unknown amount of money to Tabuni.
After that, the men discussed their plans for demonstrations in Jakarta, Bali and Makassar. On August 20th Tabuni was to lead a demonstration himself, for the provincial parliament in Papua. “It shows that they still want to separate from the Indonesian Republic and that they want to make these aspirations known by demonstrations” the informant commented.
It is only one of hundreds of leaked reports from Papua by the intelligence service of Kopassus, the special forces of the Indonesian army, and which this newspaper was able to see. It shows how intensive the army spies upon activists, politicians, church leaders and foreigners in Papua, and reports about their activities in detail.
Buchtar Tabuni was arrested one year after his visit to Yoman was reported, because he organized a demonstration. He was released this month.
Papua is the only region in Indonesia where an armed struggle for independence continues to simmer. Many Papuans feel marginalized by Jakarta, and that is why many support a political separatist movement. But nothing is so sensitive to the army as ‘separatism’, so military and police forces crowd the island in large numbers.
Kopassus recruits all kinds of civilians as spies: taxi drivers, reporters, farmers, liquor sellers, clergymen. Sometimes they act by conviction and sometimes for money. But researcher Muridan Widjojo from the Indonesian Scientific Institute (LIPI), one of the authors of the roadmap to reconciliation in Papua, states that, next to Kopassus, also the central government, the province, the police force and other army departments deploy intelligence services in the region. “Sometimes you would have a meeting with more intelligence officers than attendants” Muridan says.
The leaked document “Anatomy of the Papuan separatists” of which a translation is available on the internet, shows that Kopassus estimates that the size of the armed separatist movement is about 1.130 men, dispersed over a large part of the island, together only holding 131 weapons. The army thinks more dangerous the political separatist movement, estimated to about 17.000 men. They can influence domestic and foreign politics with their propaganda, the army states, aiming to force the Indonesian government to start a referendum about independence.
The problem is that everyone criticizing the government is a separatist according to the army, Muridan says. The same is true for human rights activists or local chiefs.
Foreign human rights organizations criticized the intelligence activities. The Australian West Papua Organization calls on the Australian government to reconsider their cooperation with Kopassus. In the United States, several congressmen that the Obama-government wrongly abolished the embargo on joint trainings with Kopassus last year. Before this the country did not cooperate with these special forces because of the human rights violations in Papua, Aceh and East-Timor.
“The Kopassus-documents reveal the profound military paranoia in Papua” writes vice- chairman Asia Elaine Pearson of Human Rights Watch in a reaction. That the army supposes that monitoring human rights violations is a cover-up for separatism, endangers the life of every activist in Papua, according to her.