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

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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