Native Struggle Against Uranium Mining

Submitted by FdN on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 17:40

The case of the Topnaar-Nama of Namibia

Around the globe new uranium exploration and mining projects are jeopardizing people and landscapes, including vulnerable deserts, savannahs and rainforests. Especially in the Americas, Africa and Australia various indigenous peoples are already or will become victims of that new uranium rush. Governments and corporations are speculating on high uranium prices. The high deadly and cruel risks for local populations, health and environment are played down or hided.

West Papua Report - January 2010

Submitted by rains on Sun, 01/10/2010 - 13:23

Summary
The police killing of renowned pro-independence leader Kelly Kwalik is reminiscent of the Kopassus murder of Papuan leader Theys Eluay and has prompted calls for an investigation of police conduct. The death of former President Abdurrahman Wahid, whose Presidency was brought to an end by an undemocratic show of force by the military, is widely mourned, especially in West Papua. A formal rendering of the history of Indonesia's annexation of West Papua published by the U. S. State Department is significantly flawed. A Papuan forestry official has warned that Indonesian decentralization/autonomy policies threaten West Papua's forests. A senior Papuan official condemns the Indonesian Government's failure to protect the rights of Papuan women who fall victim to development schemers and their Indonesian military enforcers. West Papua is the epicenter of an HIV/AIDS crisis.

Contents
* Extra-judical Killing of Papuan Patriot Kelly Kwalik
* Former President Abdurahman Wahid, A Friend of Papuans, Couped by The Military, Dies
* U. S. State Department Distorts West Papua's History
* Jakarta's "Autonomy" Policies for West Papua Jeopardizes Papuan Forests
* The Indonesian Government Fails to Protect Papuan Women's Rights
* West Papua Suffers Highest Rate of HIV/AIDS

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Portrait of General Kelly Kwalik, Leader of the TPN/OPM

Submitted by rains on Wed, 12/23/2009 - 13:53

A. Biodata of General Kelly Kwalik

Full Name: Keletus Kelly Kulalok Kwalik

Nickname: Kelly Kwalik (KK)

Place and date of birth: In Lembah Jila, in 1955 (Can’t be sure of the exact date because they were not recorded.)

Tribal background: Tsinga, of the tribe of Amungme, (the clan that owns the mountain region where Freeport Corp. mine is presently located – a mine which is exploiting that area, mining copper, gold and other materials.)

Education: He finished his primary school education in Agimuka, and then continued to junior high school in Kokonau. However, he did not finish this level. In 1973 he continued his education at SGB ( School for training lower level teachers) at the Catholic Organisation for Education and Schooling at Bakti, Waena Jayapura, until 1974. According to the evidence of the Rector who was teaching there at that time, he did not go on to the Higher School for teachers, but in 1975 was sent out to teach at Agimuka.

Status: Married with children.

A. Leader in the struggle for independence:

1975-1979 : Deputy Leader III (Area Military Commander) Nemangkawi, Timika Papua

1980-2007 : Leader KODAP III Nemangkawi, Timika, Papua

2007- : Leader TPN-PB/OPM (National Liberation Army of Papua Barat/ Organisation for the Liberation of Papua)

Free West Papua - Bintang Kajora flag

Act Now- It is a matter of life and death

Submitted by rains on Thu, 12/17/2009 - 13:32

By: Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific at COP 15

December 16, 2009

To many the Pacific is known as “The Liquid Continent!”

Most of the Pacific island states are Small Island Developing States (SIDS) characterized by their smallness, narrow coral- and reef-islands which have very low average elevation above mean sea level. Most of our island countries are especially vulnerable because of their geological formation, and the destructive forces of human induced climate change are already causing havoc in our lives and lands.

The Pacific Indigenous Peoples have considered the developmental impact of not only climate change, but also the flawed solutions being employed to address it. The rush to bio-fuel production will barely dent the developed world's appetite for fossil fuels, but has already made the basic food more expensive in many developing states with contentious implications to food security for our peoples.

“We call for real and genuine solutions to climate change, not false solutions like ocean fertilisation, REDD, biofuels and monocultures for plantations that erode and violate the rights of Indigenous peoples and forest-dependant communities, and destroy biodiversity,” said Fiu Elisara, Samoa.

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West Papua Report - December 2009

Submitted by rains on Thu, 12/03/2009 - 16:02

Summary
Two U.S. Congressman, both sub-committees chairs, have written to President Yudhoyono to urge a dialogue between the Indonesian national government and leaders of West Papua. Among issues the U.S. represented as possible to resolve in such a dialogue were the "demographic shifts leaving many Papuans as minorities in their own land." The Indonesian Government has announced plans to establish a new military command in West Papua. The move, which would significantly increase the military presence in West Papua has drawn opposition from Papuans and beyond. Human rights activists have publicly pressed the Indonesian Government to investigate and prosecute long-standing crimes, notably against Papuans. There is growing public condemnation of the detention and mistreatment of Papuans over their alleged involvement of shooting incidents in the Timika area. As the incidents have continued, it has become self evident that those arrested in July were innocent and that those behind the incidents have demonstrated the firepower, mobility and resources available only to Indonesia's security forces. Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called for the release of Papuans accused of involvement in peaceful flag-raising demonstrations. Convictions of flag-raisers, HRW argues, violates the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which Indonesia ratified in 2006. Media reports are beginning to shed light on the abduction of Papuan children by the Indonesian military. The practice, entailing sending the young Papuans to Java, is reminiscent of military abductions of Timorese children during Indonesia's long, brutal occupation of East Timor. There was late-November reporting of more physical abuse of Papuan detainees. This issue can be found online at http://etan.org/issues/wpapua/0912wpap.htm.

Contents
* U.S. Representatives Faleomavaega and Payne Call for Papuan-Indonesia Dialogue
* Plans to Expand TNI Forces in West Papua Meets Resistance
* Activists Press for Action on Stalled Human Rights Abuse Crimes
* Injustice in Timika
* Human Rights Watch Calls for Release of Papuan Flag-Raisers * Indonesian Military Reported Abducting Papuan Children
* Mistreatment of Papuan Detainees Continued

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high-res satellite images of Freeport mine at Grasberg in West Papua

Submitted by rains on Sun, 11/29/2009 - 11:39

High-Resolution Satellite Observation of Remote Mining Areas Addresses Human Rights and Environmental Protection Issues
There is considerable international concern at the rapid growth of the Freeport mine at Grasberg, operated by Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) in West Papua (Irian Jaya) over failures to address human rights and environmental protection issues. For the Amungme tribe, reduction of the beautiful Mount Grasberg, one of the largest Sudirman range peaks, to a vast hole in the ground, has been devastating. Figure 1 shows the visible spectrum at bottom left.

One benefit of satellite imagery is that it provides immediate access to inaccessible regions for ‘external’ international human rights organizations. Some Amungme and Kamoro tribes were forcefully relocated, with thousands of indigenous people removed from traditional farming and food gathering territory. Moving Amungme tribes to the lowlands brought people without natural malarial immunity into contact with mosquitoes, resulting in higher mortality rates. In April 1995, the Australian Council for Overseas Aid and Jayapura Catholic Church documented that the Indonesian military had killed and tortured dozens suspected of protesting against the mine.

The vast Grasberg copper and gold mine, at over 2.6 million hectares, comprises several climate sensitive ecosystems: alpine meadow, wetland and mangrove forest, and is considered by some to be the worst environmental case of any mining project worldwide. Damage caused by the mine to the environment has impaired the abilities of thousands of Amungme and Komoro, who are traditional owners of mine sites and river areas, to access food and clean water or to sustain cultural practices. The mine dumps an estimated 125,000 tons of industrial waste daily into the Ajikwa River, a sediment load many times that of the original background silt levels. Sediment transport has deoxygenated the Ajikwa River, killing fish and plant life. Tribesmen are not supposed to live within close proximity of the highly-polluted water but in practice may return to traditional areas and livelihoods.

Thousands of tons of waste rock are also dumped in nearby alpine valleys where high rainfall and erosion further lead to fine material moving downstream, releasing poisonous heavy metals like mercury and cadmium into the river, and causing high copper levels, which are toxic to aquatic organisms. River rainforest damage has been drastic; deposition has caused the Ajikwa to change its course and flood hectares of tropical forest and sago trees (a staple food for poor native inhabitants). Nearby alpine glaciers, among the closest to the equator (Lat -17.8) and considered to be sensitive markers of climate change, have exhibited large area loss between 2000 and 2002 (Figure 5). The greatest loss is noted on the eastern flanks facing the mine. Sensitivity of this region to climate change over such a short time interval is disturbing and may reflect wind pattern alterations around the mine due to deforestation. Similar air pattern changes have been reported in Kilimanjaro’s low foothills due to deforestation, but observed changes there may be mining dust deposition modification of nearby glacial albedo, or reflected light.

Figure 4 Central view of the mine (Tambang Terbuka), shows the mine in detail with a land slip prior to 2000. - West Papua 2009

Nyoongar Elders fear quarry work will destroy sacred sites in the Darling Range, Western Australia

Submitted by Spike on Tue, 11/17/2009 - 14:45

A Perth Aboriginal Elder Albert Corunna and other local Nyoongar Elders fear for the destruction of a cultural heritage site complex at Red Hill in the Darling Range, north-east of Perth. Global German-based quarrying giant Hanson Construction Materials Pty Ltd (Heidelberg Cement) has recently lodged a Section 18 application with the Department of Indigenous Affairs to seek approval to destroy the sites.

The site complex includes archaeological and ethnographic sites, including the Red Hill campsite, rockshelters, grinding stones, ochre deposits, petroglyphs, ceremonial sites, Susannah Brook and its tributaries and spiritual Dreaming sites. At the centre is the Guardian Ancestral Owl Stone Boyay Gogomat which is about 20 metres high and made up of three large balancing stones in the shape of an owl.

This area is also home to rare and significant plants and animals, such as carpet snakes, eagles and chuditch. The water of the brook is the purest water flowing into the Swan River.

In an interview with the West Australian newspaper (Friday October 30, 2009) Mr Albert Corunna called on the Indigenous Affairs Minister Dr Kim Hames to reject the application.

‘We don’t want to take the risk with this ancient stone because it’s so vital to our existence in this world, to our identity, to our Aboriginal culture and we want it there,” Mr Corunna said. “I think it’s in the public interest that this stays because the wider community will also benefit from this.”

sacred ancestral Owl stone in the direct pathway of quarry works

Let the bird of paradise go free

Submitted by rains on Thu, 11/12/2009 - 11:39

The theft of West Papua's mineral wealth must end. The province's courageous resistance movement deserves nothing less

When General Suharto, the west's man, seized power in Indonesia in the mid-1960s, he offered "a gleam of light in Asia", rejoiced Time magazine. That he had killed up to a million "communists" was of no account in the acquisition of what Richard Nixon called "the richest hoard of natural resources, the greatest prize in South-east Asia".

In November 1967, the booty was handed out at an extraordinary conference in a lakeside hotel in Geneva. The participants included the most powerful capitalists in the world, the likes of David Rockefeller, and senior executives of the major oil companies and banks, General Motors, British American Tobacco, Imperial Chemical Industries, American Express, Siemens, Goodyear, US Steel. The president of Time Incorporated, James Linen, opened the proceedings with this prophetic description of globalisation: "We are trying to create a new climate in which private enterprise and developing countries work together for the greater profit of the free world. The world of international enterprise is more than governments . . . It is a seamless web, which has been shaping the global environment at revolutionary speed."

INTERNATIONAL PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR WEST PAPUA – PNG CHAPTER LAUNCHED

Submitted by FdN on Wed, 11/11/2009 - 18:14

ATTENTION ALL MEDIA ORGANISATIONS

In light of the Launching of the International Parliamentarians for West Papua in London on 15th October 2008, of which I am a founding member, I am pleased to announce the launching of the International Parliamentarians for West Papua – “The PNG Chapter” on Saturday 07th of November 2009 at the University of Papua New Guinea Botanical Garden. The International Parliamentarians for West Papua is a concern international Parliamentarian group of legislators who simply want the people of West Papua to exercise the fundamental right to self determination just like all other people of the world because that right belongs to the people of the world.

International Parliamentarians for West Papua - Launch in PNG (photo 2)

New WP film: "Strange Birds in Paradise" will be screened in Amsterdam at IDFA

Submitted by FdN on Wed, 11/11/2009 - 10:32

"Strange Birds in Paradise – A West Papuan Story"

The screening times are official for the 22nd International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam, IDFA:

Tuschinski 5 Mon 23 November 2009 at 18:00 (6 pm) - World Premiere
Tuschinski 2 Wed 25 November 2009 at 11:15 (11:15 am)
Munt 12 Fri 27 November 2009 at 21:30 (9:30 pm)

There is a section of the film based on Arnold Ap and his son Oridek will play two songs live with some West Papuan friends after the premiere screening. The film is eligible for an audience award, so if you like the film please vote before you leave the cinema.

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