PAPUA -- DCM HIGHLIGHTS SECURITY AND COOPERATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 000121 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP, EAP/ANP NSC FOR D.WALTON E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/25/2020 TAGS: PREL PNAT EAID CACS ID SUBJECT: PAPUA -- DCM HIGHLIGHTS SECURITY AND COOPERATION ON VISIT TO REGION Classified By: DCM Ted Osius, reasons 1.4 (b+d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: The DCM highlighted security and cooperation in education, the environment and health during a January 20-22 visit to Jayapura, the capital of Papua Province, and Timika and Tembagapura, towns near U.S. company Freeport-McMoRan's Grasberg copper and gold mine. The DCM underscored the importance of security for Freeport given the ongoing series of shootings targeted at the company's operations. Police and local government officials outlined the steps they were taking to address the situation and promised heightened vigilance. Governor Barnabas Suebu outlined key development priorities in the environment, health and education and welcomed further cooperation with the United States. Religious, tribal and traditional leaders explained that the human rights situation in Papua had improved significantly but that violations did still occur. END SUMMARY. SECURITY IS KEY ¶2. (C) The DCM underscored the importance of security for Freeport's operations and the company's American employees in meetings with Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu and provincial Police Chief (Kapolda) General Bekto Suprapto on January 20. Security has been a critical issue since July 17, 2009, when unknown assailants began a series of shooting attacks on vehicles traveling the road between Timika and Tembagapura. The first attack killed on Australian Freeport employee, while subsequent attacks have left two others killed and nearly thirty injured. Papuan separatists are widely believed to be involved in the attacks and police killed key separatist leader Kelly Kwalik in a shootout on December 16. An attack on January 23, after the DCM had left Papua, injured one American Freeport employee and wounded nine Indonesians, both police and company employees. The January 23 attack is the first one since Kwalik's death. ¶3. (C) General Bekto explained that he had overall responsibility for security in the area and commanded a taskforce that included police and military personnel. The police led the effort while the military played a supporting role. Bekto promised to maintain a vigorous security response to the incidents, including heightened efforts to patrol the road and search vehicles in the area. Bekto said that he hoped to use high-technology equipment to enhance police efforts and was exploring the possibility of placing remotely-operated cameras at key locations along the road. He also hoped to use digital video conference technology to improve command and control between police posts located across Papua's vast and rugged terrain. Governor Suebu agreed that security was critical and expressed confidence in the police's ability to address the situation. HIGHLIGHTING COOPERATION IN ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH, AND EDUCATION ¶4. (SBU) Governor Suebu provided the DCM with an extensive overview of the provincial government's development strategy. Suebu explained that the Papua Special Autonomy Law had provided the provincial government with a significant portion of the revenue generated by the province's natural resource exports. Key to this will be delivering results directly at the village level. As part of this effort, the provincial government continued to provide cash grants to villages for use on development projects which residents had decided upon. Suebu also explained that combating corruption and streamlining the bureaucracy were essential to ensure that benefits reached people directly. The governor thanked the DCM for USG assistance for Papua's development. ¶5. (SBU) The DCM reiterated the USG's commitment to helping Papua develop and said that the environment was a key area for future cooperation. He noted USAID's recent work assisting with a spatial planning project that would help the provincial government to manage Papua's forest resources. Suebu responded that this project was critical to allowing the government to decide which areas of forest would be preserved (50 percent),which would be used for carefully regulated production (30 percent) and which would be converted from production to conservation (20 percent). The DCM said that the USG looked forward to other areas of possible environmental cooperation, including a possible debt-for-forest swap under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act (TFCA). Suebu welcomed this possibility. ¶6. (SBU) Turning to health, the DCM said that the USG was considering how to further support anti-HIV/AIDS efforts in Indonesia, and particularly in Papua where the epidemic is JAKARTA 00000121 002 OF 003 especially acute. Toward this end, the DCM explained, a USG team would visit Indonesia sometime early this year for discussions aimed at finalizing a Partnership Compact under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Discussions with the provincial government would be critical to the Compact's development. Suebu welcomed the team and said the provincial government looked forward to working with us. HIV/AIDS remained a critical are of the provincial government's public health efforts, which included education programs to help prevent new infections and treatment of those already infected. ¶7. (SBU) The DCM explained that the USG was committed to boosting U.S.-Indonesia education cooperation as part of our developing Comprehensive Partnership. Given Papua's educational needs, we hope to make Papua a central part of that effort. Suebu welcomed further cooperation in education. He explained that the provincial government had launched a program to support one thousand Papuan students to complete PhDs over the next 15-20 years. Some of these students, he hoped, would pursue their degrees in U.S. schools. However, Suebu explained that poor English-language ability hampered Papuan students who wanted to study overseas. He hoped that the USG could help address this area. The DCM welcomed more Papuan students in the United States and said that increasing university partnerships was a good way to facilitate such exchanges. He also reiterated USG support for English-language study and later that day, spoke at the launch of the English Access Microscholarship Program. This program, a result of an Embassy-Freeport public-private partnership, helps 14-18 year old students from disadvantaged backgrounds with after-school English programs. PROGRESS ON HUMAN RIGHTS, DIALOGUE ¶8. (SBU) A wide range of civil society actors described a mixed but largely positive picture on human rights. Fr. Neles Tebay, the Vicar General of Jayapura's Catholic Diocese, told the DCM that the military and police committed far fewer human rights violations than in the past. Those incidents that did occur resulted from poorly trained and undisciplined personnel rather than an explicit policy to crack down on perceived Papuan separatism. Despite this, Tebay expressed concern regarding what most Papuans believe to be an increase in the number of military personnel in the province. (Note: Some of these personnel are part of the effort to enhance security around Freeport's operations.) He also said that security officials did not regularly provide information about punishment of military and police personnel who had committed violations. ¶9. (SBU) Police Chief Bekto acknowledged past human rights abuses and outlined steps he was taking towards continued reform and accountability. He criticized the "ethnocentric" views of some Jakarta officials in dealing with Papua issues. Instead, the police had to do their job with an understanding of the Papuan perspective. Key elements of this approach include working with tribal leaders in resolving conflicts and recognizing traditional Papuan customary law. Bekto explained that the Indonesian National Police (INP) had adopted standardized procedures that were consistent with internationally recognized standards. As an example, he showed the DCM a copy of an INP handbook that outlined procedures for the use of force. ¶10. (SBU) The DCM noted the importance of transparency and urged Bekto to publicize the results of police investigations into alleged abuses. For example, he noted that many Papuans had questioned the circumstances of Kelly Kwalik's death. Because the police had not put forward their version of events, rumors continued to circulate, including claims that Kwalik was unarmed or had been shot in the back. Referring to the INP handbook on the use of force, Bekto explained that INP personnel had followed proper procedures in attempting to arrest Kwalik. He said police fired only when they believed their lives to have been in danger. He noted that none of the other people arrested at the time of Kwalik's death had been injured because none of them were armed and did not represent a threat to the police. ¶11. (SBU) Key traditional and tribal leaders--a group often sympathetic to the separatist cause--told the DCM that they also saw some improvement in Papua. They said that U.S. and other foreign training for the INP had helped bring about these improvements. They encouraged the DCM to continue USG training for the police, including for the INP's Mobile Brigade (BRIMOB). They also noted positively that the JAKARTA 00000121 003 OF 003 government-linked Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) was organizing a Papua-Jakarta dialogue to address a range of outstanding issues, including the history of Papuan political grievances against the central government. HUME