PAPUA -- NO EVIDENCE OF MILITARY ATTACK ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 001046 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, EAP/ANP, DRL, DRL/AWH NSC FOR E.PHU E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/28/2018 TAGS: PGOV PINS ID SUBJECT: PAPUA -- NO EVIDENCE OF MILITARY ATTACK ON CIVILIANS REF: JAKARTA 957 JAKARTA 00001046 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Pol/C Joseph Legend Novak, reasons 1.4 (b+d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Overseas NGOs have alleged that there was recently a major incident pitting the Indonesian military against civilians in the Papuan highlands. Human rights groups in Papua have found no evidence of any attack. The bubbling up of such allegations--which is a regular occurrence--highlights the importance of greater access by the GOI to Papua for diplomats, journalists and NGOs. Mission is looking into a report that the GOI may be loosening some of these restrictions. END SUMMARY. A SENSATIONAL REPORT... ¶2. (U) The UK-based Free West Papua Campaign and other Papua activist groups have circulated reports alleging a major Indonesian Military (TNI) attack on Papuan civilians. The report, sourced to the heretofore unknown SPM News agency, claimed that 350 soldiers from the TNI Battalion 756 had killed seven Papuans in Kimbin village, near the central highland town of Wamena on May 23. ¶3. (U) The SPM story also claimed that soldiers had burned houses and churches, killed livestock and destroyed crops in the area. As a result, according to the report, hundreds of residents had fled into the jungle. The report went on to assert that an SPM News crew on the scene had obtained first-hand information about the attack. ...BUT NO EVIDENCE ¶4. (SBU) Human rights activists from the Catholic Diocese of Jayapura's Office for Justice and Peace (SKP) have dismissed the report as untrue. (Note: Based on past performance, SKP--as an organization--is not shy about criticizing the GOI if it thinks there is any evidence of human rights violations.) SKP officials who have visited Kimbin and the surrounding area in the past week report no evidence of any attack. SKP officials also said there was no evidence of military operations in the area around Wamena. (Note: Poloff visited Wamena on May 6 and saw no evidence of military activity in the region. See Reftel.) PUTTING THE ACCENT ON ACCESS ¶5. (C) The situation highlights the gap between overseas Papua activists--many of whom support Papuan independence--and activists within Papua. SKP Director Budi Hernawan told poloff that overseas groups often repeated reports that were patently dubious in order to generate international support for Papuan independence. In any case, reports of human rights incidents in Papua keep cropping up; most of them baseless. ¶6. (C) To help improve the information flow, it is also important that the GOI enhance access to Papua for diplomats, journalists and NGOs. The GOI has made some progress on this front. Mission officers and other Jakarta-based diplomats have experienced no major problems securing GOI permission for recent Papua trips, and several senior United Nations human rights officials have visited the province to investigate torture and the situation for human rights defenders. That said, the requirement for GOI permission--and the whole tiresome process of obtaining it--constitutes a significant barrier in and of itself. Mission has regularly pressed the GOI to provide more access. ¶7. (C) (Note: There may be some movement on this issue, as we learned in a May 29 meeting with Trini Gunarti, Deputy Director for North American Affairs at the Department of Foreign Affairs (DEPLU). Gunarti told Pol/C and poloff that JAKARTA 00001046 002.2 OF 002 DEPLU no longer required that diplomats obtain permission to travel to Papua, only that they inform DEPLU of their plans to do so. She added that diplomats did not need written permission for travel to Papua. We will try to confirm Gunarti's comments with others in the GOI. End note.) HEFFERN