JSMP News

Press release: CIIR condemns militia group in Papua

8 12 2003

The Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR) has condemned activities in the Indonesian province of Papua by former East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres.

According to reports from the region, Guterres has asked the Papuan chief of police for permission to organise a militia group and is targeting Timika, home to the Freeport Copper Mine and a politically-sensitive part of the province.

The militia group, called Front Pembela Merah Putih (Red and White Defenders), is recruiting refugees from Maluku, Timor and Sulawesi, according to Papuan human rights organisation Elsham.

Timika's residents fear Guterres's arrival in their district will trigger an upsurge in violent conflict. While he was leader of a militia group called Aitarak in East Timor in 1999, Guterres was responsible for death threats and incitements to kill.

There is concern that Guterres might be granted permission too easily to start the militia in Papua. Chief of police Utomo - who has asked local police to find out what Guterres is doing and has not yet approved his activities - is about to be replaced.

Crimes against humanityUtomo's replacement is Timbul Silaen, indicted in East Timor for crimes
against humanity committed while he was chief of police there in 1999. Yet last August, Silaen was acquitted in Jakarta of gross human rights violations by a deeply flawed ad hoc court process.

The same court in Jakarta sentenced Guterres last November to 10 years' imprisonment for crimes against humanity committed in East Timor before and during the 30 August referendum in 1999. But he is free on appeal.

The failure of the Indonesian and international judicial system to prosecute these individuals - despite the United Nation's commission of enquiry's recommendations to set up an international tribunal - has led to a triumph of impunity in Indonesia.

Guterres's arrival in Papua comes at a sensitive time for the province. Led by religious leaders, the Papuan population has been working for peace while resisting an unpopular presidential decree from president Megawati Soekarnoputri that seeks to divide Papua into three.

And implementation of a special autonomy promised by former president Abdurrahman Wahid to the resource-rich province has been resisted by governmental and security forces, who fear a loss of revenue to the private businesses they run that fund their activities.

CIIR joint programme manager for Asia Catherine Scott said: 'Human rights defenders are concerned that factions within Indonesia's security forces may attempt to destabilise Papua and provoke conflict. There is no doubt that Guterres and Silaen contributed to the mayhem and death that occurred in East Timor in 1999 and Papuans are right to be worried by these developments.'

Take actionGuterres and Silaen's crimes are set out in detail on the Masters of Terror
website at http://www.yayasanhak.minihub.org/and on http://www.jsmp.minihub.org
CIIR is encouraging people to write in protest at these developments to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Indonesian Ambassador to the UK:

Mike O'Brien,Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
King Charles Street,
London SW1A 2AH

Ambadassor H E Dr Juwono Sudarsono,
Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia,
38 Grosvenor Square,