Alexander Flor

I was a leader of the Human Rights Organisation “Watch Indonesia” for 30 years. In that function I was also a board member of the Papua Network for five to six years. So, the work I was doing was on human rights, environment and democracy in Indonesia and my activities with West-Papua only came in 1996, when a member of our organisation was abducted by the OPM. Indonesian militia under the command of Prabowo, was in ordered to have negotiations. At the end the negotiations failed and the whole thing escalated and some members of the Indonesian research committee were killed. From that moment on we put a close eye on West-Papua. We had only been active in Indonesia and East-Timor before. As far as possible at that time also with Aceh but the information channel there was extremely bad. Then we began working with West-Papua and we saw the whole problem of Papua not so much at the end of the Papuans but more from the end of human rights Indonesia. I was a Co-founder of the West-Papua network, that was in 1997/1998 and I was a member of the board for the last five or six years.

Definitely not! Papua is a blind-eye on the world map. Some people do know about the atrocities there but they won't do anything about it. None of the heavy leads will do anything or are hiding behind international organisations like UNDP. Germany for example contributes some effort and money to Papua but not on their own, they take part in the UN by UNDP and other organizations. Many other countries have business contracts or economic interests, especially in the mining area, like Australia, Britain, USA. All of them have assets in Papua and they don’t want to risk these assets. Germany is now in a favourable position because they do not have any economic interests in Wes-Papua, they could speak up but they still don’t want to risk their good connections with the Indonesian Government and want to secure other projects like Siemens in East Java. The situation in West-Paua is very clear, they were integrated into the Republic of Indonesia in the 1960s which was a failed decision by the United Nations, but it was a decision. Which is very different than East-Timor, because Papua was officially integrated into Indonesia by a so called referendum, which was not really a referendum. 1025 people were allowed to vote, it was decision making by some people who were prepared by the Indonesian government and so on. It should not have been accepted by the international world, but it was. And this is the big difference to East Timor, because it was never accepted, never acknowledged as part of Indonesia. So now the Papuans ask that this decision should not be acknowledged any longer. That means, the United Nations must recall the decision form the 60s and its impossible to me, that the United Nations will ever do that. It will question the whole system of the already very weak status of the United Nations. So I do not believe, this is the possible way to solve the problem but I do not know any other way.

No. No, clearly not. Most Indonesians they have no knowledge and no connection to Papua, they have never been there. In difference to other Provinces in Indonesia, Papua is actually not a transit area. Certain areas in Indonesia are transit routes to other provinces for businesses and so on, Papua is definitely not. So nobody who does not intend to go to Papua, will go to Papua. So they know nothing. They only know the things that they are being told by the government and the government sees everything from the viewpoint of Jakarta.

It might be comparable to some small islands like Mentawai and Molukku. But with other areas in Indonesia it is hardly comparable. Of course some people compare it with former East Timor which was for many years occupied by Indonesia. But all of these areas, whether they are conflict areas or not, they are quite different to Papua.
Every powerful country has a special environment, has special circumstances and must be seen as a single case and not as just another part.

The problem is we don’t see a future for a separate Papua but we also don’t see a future for Papua as part of Indonesia. So what's left? We don’t know. The government, especially under it's current president Joko Widodo, tends to see a solution in the same way as every western politician would see it. Economy and infrastructure. Apparently Joko Widodo has done quite a lot in economic terms and hopes to satisfy the Papuan people with these means. It will not happen. Of course they need better teachers, better police, better hospital, better streets, well better infrastructure. But none of those things will improve the situation that they are living in. They feel like they are living under oppression and as long as that doesn't change, the mind of the people will not change. It's even worse when we see that some of these measures are done by the military. It's not a "normal" company that will improve the streets in West-Papua, it will be done under military command and surveillance. So for ordinary people its clear, the military is building streets here. If you look for civil companies, you will not find any that are not under the protection of the Indonesian military. They will need better infrastructure, but they will not be satisfied with streets, schools or hospitals that are build by the army. There is a lot of distrust, not only towards the military but also towards civil people. The so called immigrants from Java. The Indonesians that came in for business, for some jobs in the administration, they were absolutely separated from the indigenous population of Papua. So of course there is discrimination from the Indonesian side. While the feeling from Papuan people is that the others are rich, arrogant and better off and are only looking for their own profit. And it is true. Any shopping center in Jayapura is owned and managed by Indonesians. The Papuan mothers are sitting outside the building, trying to sell some food that they grow in their gardens. But it's not so interesting for the people. That is the reality that they experience: we are outside, they are inside. They are buying gold rings, everything you need or don’t need and we can not even sell our foods.
What might gain more importance in the future, is religion. Because most of the newcomers are Muslim and the others are Christian or Animist. Some hard core Muslims in Java who are already involved in other conflicts, like in West Kalimantan, are forcing muslim troops and forces to be more active in Papua. West Papua has a long tradition of inner society conflicts, they know how to handle conflicts like that. What they don’t need are new conflicts between Christians and Muslims. Its not so very clear, why there must be conflict between the two religions, when both of them were not common in West-Papua 100 years ago. It is not their tradition.