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