PAPUA -- ACTIVISTS TO BE CHARGED FOR FLAG RAISING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 000718 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, EAP/ANP, DRL/AWH NSC FOR E.PHU E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/09/2018 TAGS: PGOV PINS KDEM ID SUBJECT: PAPUA -- ACTIVISTS TO BE CHARGED FOR FLAG RAISING REF: A. JAKARTA 696 ¶B. JAKARTA 561 JAKARTA 00000718 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Pol/C Joseph Legend Novak, reasons 1.4 (b+d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Authorities continue to detain eleven people in connection with the March 13 raising of the separatist Morning Star Flag during a non-violent protest in Manokwari, West Papua. Officials are preparing charges of treason against the detainees and expect to submit the case to prosecutors within two weeks. Papuan leaders have called for the activists to be released right away. The GOI--as was the case recently regarding a life sentence handed down in another incident--takes a negative view of separatist-linked behavior. Mission will continue to monitor these cases and raise them with the GOI. END SUMMARY STILL DETAINED, SOON TO BE CHARGED ¶2. (U) The Indonesian government is pressing charges in another incident involving flag raising. Police in Manokwari, the capital of West Papua province, are still holding eleven of the twelve Papuan activists arrested on March 13 for raising the Morning Star Flag, which the Indonesian government regards as a symbol of Papuan separatism (Ref B). Police have already released one of the individuals arrested with the group, a 16-year old high school student. The police are preparing cases charging the activists with treason under Articles 106 and 110 of the Penal Code. The charges carry a maximum possible sentence of life in prison. ¶3. (C) Jan Warinussy, the human rights activist coordinating the group's defense, told POLOFF that authorities were cooperating with the defense team and that the detainees were well treated. Warinussy said the defense strategy hinged on the claim that the flag raising was a spontaneous outburst rather than part of a premeditated effort to undermine the state of Indonesia. He also said that he expected some of the defendants to act as prosecution witnesses in return for having the charges dropped. In light of the recent life sentence handed down for a flag raising in Ambon, Maluku, Warinussy expected prosecutors to ask for a harsh sentence in this case (Ref A). PAPUANS TORQUED UP ¶4. (C) Papuan leaders have condemned the charges. Agus Alua, Chair of the Papuan People's Council (MRP),called for the charges to be dropped and for the activists to be released. He also attacked government regulation 77/2007 which restricts the use of regional symbols. Alua said the MRP wanted the regulation to be repealed, as it would lead to more such prosecutions. (Note: Regulation 77/2007 allows provincial symbols and flags but stipulates that they cannot resemble the symbols or flags of illegal separatist organizations. The outlawed Free Papua Movement, OPM, commonly uses the Morning Star Flag.) ¶5. (C) The case has also brought to the surface a number of familiar Papuan complaints. For example, Alua charged that the central government drafted the regulation without consulting Papuans. He also claimed that the regulation violated Papua's Special Autonomy Law, which does contain provisions for provincial symbols. MRP Vice Chairman Franz Wospakrik told POLOFF that the issue was a very emotional one for Papuans. In his view, most Papuans regarded the Morning Star Flag as a symbol of cultural identity, not a totem of political independence. WORRYING TREND? ¶6. (C) Had the authorities not acted against the Manokwari flag raisers, their protest would have attracted little attention, even within Papua. The prospect of treason prosecutions for non-violent political activity, however, runs counter to Indonesia's remarkable democratic progress. The GOI's action in this case, combined with the draconian JAKARTA 00000718 002.2 OF 002 life sentence imposed in the Ambon case, possibly presage a worrying trend of increasing intolerance of nonviolent political expression seen as promoting separatism. The ambiguous nature of some symbols as both cultural and political artifacts should counsel restraint, but so far has not. Mission will continue to monitor these cases and raise them with the GOI. HUME