Sun, Apr 16, 2006 page4

• Papuan refugees highlight struggle for independence

  • NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE
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  From one of the most remote places on earth, Herman Wanggai stepped into a motorized outrigger last November and pushed off for a calculated and clandestine journey.

  Along with one of his twin two-year-old sons and more than 30 other people, he set off from the northern coast of Papua, the Indonesian province once called Irian Jaya, on New Guinea. After six weeks, under a blistering equatorial sun and with Pacific waves sloshing on board, they made it thousands of kilometers to Merauke, on the southern shore. There, they picked up his wife and other son and set out once again, in the dead of night, with little food and no compass.

  Four days later, on Jan. 13, the group hit a reef on the northwest coast of Cape York peninsula, clambered ashore, and found that they had miraculously reached their destination, Australia, where a new drama began.

  Asylum

  Several weeks later, Australia granted Wanggai, 32, and all his passengers, save one, political asylum. The decision set off a diplomatic firestorm that has brought the issue of Papuan independence to international attention, which is just what Wanggai and his wife, Ferra Kambu, wanted.

  In response, Indonesia recalled its ambassador and politicians have called for trade sanctions.

  For Indonesia, the issue is serious. The country has already faced two secessionist wars in recent years, in Aceh and East Timor. The latter succeeded in breaking away.

  Indonesian leaders do not want to repeat the episode with Papua, which holds the biggest source of income for the government: the world's richest gold reserve.

  As conflicts on Papua have flared more and more churches and human rights groups in Australia, the US and Europe have lined up behind the cause of Papuan independence.

  Though Australia does not support independence, the decision to grant asylum meant that authorities had concluded the Papuans faced a "well-founded fear of persecution" if they were returned to Indonesia.

  In an effort to soothe relations with Indonesia, the government announced on April 13 that from now on Papuan refugees would be deported to places like the desolate island of Nauru while asylum claims were processed, which can take years.

  The Indonesian government does not permit journalists to visit Papua without special permission, which is rarely granted. Even diplomats are closely watched when they visit the province, a European ambassador said recently.

  Without access to Papua, it is almost impossible to assess the human rights situation. The Indonesian police and military deny there are any abuses; Papuan refugees speak of systematic persecution.

  The US does not support independence, either. But in its annual country-by-country human rights report, released last month, the State Department cited incidents in which Indonesian soldiers had beaten, tortured and killed suspected promoters of independence.

  In one case, the report said, soldiers tortured a suspected secessionist "by slashing his face and body with a knife and razor and then pouring petrol over his head and setting his hair on fire."

  The report also noted that the Indonesian government had made only "limited progress in establishing accountability" for past human rights abuses.

  It was because of persecution for their support of independence, Wanggai said, that he had risked all and braved what his wife described as waves "as high as mountains."

  They also wanted to make a point, they said: That Papua, a wild, mountainous and heavily forested land, rich in natural resources, does not rightfully belong to Indonesia.

  Papua's population of some 2.5 million people are mostly Melanesian and Christian. Most Indonesians are Javanese and Muslim.

  "We are activists," said Wanggai, who has worked for independence for more than a decade. He has been jailed twice, once for two years for flying the West Papuan independence flag.

  Kambu, 36, described the independence cause as a "nonviolent struggle."

  Most of the others who fled with the couple were also active in the independence movement.

  For Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is highly regarded by the US and Australian governments for bringing stability to Indonesia, Papua is a critical test.

  On the one hand, he faces rising protests in Papua by an alienated and increasingly organized independence movement that is drawing greater international support.

  Autonomy

  On the other, he must satisfy strident nationalists at home, including senior military commanders who are angry over a deal he made with secessionists in Aceh Province that brought peace but gave the Acehnese considerable autonomy.

  The commanders, who hold great sway in Indonesia, will not give the president much room to maneuver on the Papuan issue, and some even favor a military solution.

  The refugees in Wanggai's party, who attended St. Andrew's Anglican Church here on Palm Sunday, said they had talked with their relatives in Papua and had been told that the Indonesian police had been questioning the relatives to determine exactly who fled and why.

  The "why" is clear to the refugees and those who support them, including Peter Woods, the pastor of St. Andrew's, who was a missionary in Papua from 1978 to 1983. "The Papuans are treated as slaves of the Javanese," he said.

  As the refugees and other worshippers walked out of St. Andrew's, they passed a bulletin board with a poster on it that read, "West Papua: An Issue Whose Time Has Come."
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