Nusa Dua, Bali. Despite calls by prominent rights groups, the 19th Asean summit and the sixth East Asian Summit will not discuss the conflict in Papua because it is an Indonesian internal problem, a minister said on Wednesday.
“The problems in Papua are domestic in nature and they have nothing to do with Indonesia’s participation in Asean cooperation,” Djoko Suyanto, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, told state news agency Antara after presiding over the Sixth Meeting of the Asean Political-Security Community Council.
“Whatever happens in Papua is Indonesia’s problem and will be solved internally.”
Human rights group Amnesty International has urged the Australian and American governments to discuss Papua during the East Asian Summit. US President Barack Obama and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard are expected to attend the summit and meet with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
“The Asean meeting is very important for the international community, including the US and Australian governments, to pressure Indonesia to overcome the human-rights violations in Papua,” Josef Benedict, an Amnesty International spokesman, was quoted by Australia’s The Age daily as saying on Tuesday.
New York-based Human Rights Watch also urged an immediate investigation into the violence in Papua.
“The Obama administration’s deepening relationship with Indonesia means being frank about Indonesia’s serious human rights challenges,” Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement sent to the Jakarta Globe. “Indonesian government indifference to mob violence against religious groups and brutality by soldiers against peaceful protesters are good places to start.”
The activists were referring to the recent spate of violence in the restive Papua region, including a violent dispersal of the pro-independence Papuan People’s Congress in Jayapura on Oct. 19 that left six people dead and dozens injured.
The West Papua Advocacy Team and East Timor and Indonesia Action Network, Australia-based groups that support Papuan activists, have also sent an open letter to Obama to “consider the challenges and opportunities posed by the US-Indonesia relationship more realistically than you have up to now.”
“In the past, US restrictions and conditions on security assistance have resulted in real rights improvements in Indonesia. Your administration should learn from this history,” the letter said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was set to arrive in Bali together with Obama, said in Hawaii last week that Washington had “very directly raised our concerns about the violence and the abuse of human rights [in Papua].”