[FWPC (UK) comment: Notice the role of Papua Governor Suebu in handing over ancestral Papuan land to the Malaysian oil palm company against the will of the Papuan land owners and also removing the previous West Papuan logs export ban. This is the same Governor Suebu who was named a "Hero of the Environment" by TIME magazine in November 2007.
And notice the role of the Indonesian military and intelligence service (BIN) in making sure that in Indonesia's West Papua colony, Jakarta's interests always come first. This is yet more evidence that Special Autonomy is a sham, instigated by the Indonesians to make it look to the outside world that Papuans have a choice .... just like the Act of NO Choice in 1969.]
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Reported by KPKC GKI di Tanah Papua (The Evangelical Christian Church in the Land of Papua) Synod, Jayapura
The people of Yetti, East Arso District, Kerom Regency - PAPUA have lost their hope in their struggle to reject a Palm Oil Plantation project on their own ancestral land. Barnabas Suebu, governor Papua Province has officially approved PT Rajawali Group company from Malaysia to use 26,000 hectares of the people's land for Palm Oil Plantation field.
On the 18 January 2008, two members from KPKC GKI church Synod visited local GKI branch in Kerom regency to prepare an environmental conservation training in Kerom. During this visit they got information about the plan to open a palm oil plantation field and that the implementation of the plan had nearly become a reality. PT Rajawali Group company had already opened up a field for palm seed production. The forest clearance, however, had not begun yet.
The Papua Provincial government has played a big role in ensuring that the palm oil investors' plan to open a palm oil plantation field in Kerom regency went smoothly. This is proven by the fact that two days before Governor Barnabas Suebu's visit to Kerom regency, his personal staff named Ronald Tapilatu phoned Rev. Pube Manuaron to come to the Governor's house in the State Palace in Dok V Jayapura. Rev. Pube Manuaron who was the chairman of GKI church office in Kerom Regency was invited to the Governor's house to hear explanations about the benefits of palm oil plantation because his church has opposed the government plan.
In the meeting, Dr Agus Sumule (the Governor's personal advisor) explained several benefits of the palm oil plantation such as the following:
1) The people would have lots of money from the land rental payment;
2) They people's capital would be strengthened from the land rental payment;
3) There would be additional benefits from renting the land;
5) Another benefit is that PT Rajawali Group would compensate for the use of water;
6) Local workers would be recruited from the local people.
The meeting was attended by Ronald Tapilatu (an ex-secretary of ELSHAM Papua) and manager of PT Rajawali Group. Rev Pube Manuaron requested that 10 hectares of land that belongs to GKI church in Arso should not be touched by PT Rajawali Group company.
Would the palm oil plantation benefit the native people of Arso? Below are some comments from Father John Jongga, ex-pastor of Waris - Keerom and Frans Jibu from the Indonesian-PNG Border Traditional Foundation, Mrs Sarafina (a women’s leader from Arso) and Stincence Bewangkir who gave testimony about the death of her husband, Marthinus Putui, who was murdered because he refused to allow outsiders to enter his customary (ancestral) land.
Pastor John Jongga: "On the 27 July 2007, the tribal leaders in Arso requested me to tell Governor Barnabas Suebu that the people of Keerom do not approve the plan to use their land as a palm oil plantation field. The people prefer cocoa plantation. However, the Governor has already made a deal with the giant company from Malaysia so he insisted on implementing his plan. I am worried that the people that would be recruited to work for the plantation are not native people from Keerom. The Keerom people will become spectators and the palm oil plantation would hire other workers as has already happened in the palm oil plantation in Arso. I heard that they would get a Chinese plywood company to come here and which would cut down all trees and use them for plywood materials. I have met the Chinese businesmen."
Frans Jibu: “Now the people of the Yetti tribe cannot freely enjoy the richness of their Nature. The government of Papua Province, Keerom regency government, and the Indonesian military came and freely raped our natural wealth from our customary land. Actually, we would like to express our concerns directly to the Governor but Indonesian intelligent agents stopped us and cancelled our plan. Thus, we could not propose our aspirations to the Governor directly when he visited Keerom Regency on the 27 July 2007. Yesterday, we also refused one million hectares of our land to be used for palm oil plantation. But the Indonesian military claimed that they represented us and went to hand over the land to the government. We learned from experience that the Arso palm oil plantation did not give benefits to the native people. In fact, the native people suffered from the plantation. Their land belongs to the outsiders who have divided their lands into lots.
Secondly, the palm oil plantation is not suitable with the local working culture. Local people are hunters and gatherers. We think that cocoa plant is fine, the people could do that.
Thirdly, the land certificate belongs to strangers. Until now we are still confused why the Indonesian military gave our land to PT Rajawali Group company. According to our custom, there needs to be an agreement among clan heads before giving any piece of land to other people; that is our democracy. However, this did not happen. I have seen a game played by the Indonesian military and the government that caused division between people in East Arso and caused the people to hate each other.
We, the people who own the land do not accept the government's plan to open the palm plantation field on our land. To me this is identical with an annihilation process. We have made a statement for the Governor that the palm oil plantation is identical with an annihilation process. However, when the Governor came to Arso, we were not given a chance to deliver our aspirations to him because the Indonesian intelligent agents stopped us. I though that both the Governor and the Regent are supposed to be Papuan customary sons so they should have known the procedures of giving out a piece of our land. I do hope that the two leaders must have understood this and are not allowing Indonesian intelligent agents to inform them. We had a traumatic experience with palm oil plantation. There is no benefit to us. The palm oil plantation will only annihilate us. In 20 years time our tribe will be annihilated from our own land.
I have told the TNI [Indonesian military] battalion commander and the Regent of Keerom, Mr Celcius Watae, that if 1 million hectares of our land was forcefully taken by the military and the government, then, I would be the first person to flee as a refugee to Papua New Guinea. I am the son of the great chief of the Arso tribe. My father was the commander in chief before we knew any missionaries. Thus, if I flee, all my people will flee as well. We'd better go out of our land because we cannot bear the sadness and the painful feelings of witnessing our land being handed over by the military to the government of Papua province who later sold it to PT Rajawali Group company. I am not safe myself. I have been chased by Kopassus (Indonesian special force). I always question how long before this suffering and the shadow of fear would go away and that we will have peace so people could go to their gardens or go hunting without fear and often I am pessimistic about that dream of peace.
Mama Sarafina: "Now I experince difficulties in getting clean water. Before it was easy for me to just drink from rivers but now I can't because of the palm oil plantation fertilizers have polluted the rivers. Big shrimps which size the same as sea lobsters are already extinct. Soon our protected forests (buffer zone) between East Arso and neighbouring country Papua New Guinea would be cleared for palm oil plantation. If the buffer zone is cleared, we will fight against it because it is the last resource for us to make gardens, go hunting, get our traditional medicines and have our cultural festivals. Why are thousands hectares of land in Arso left empty and why not use that land for palm oil plantation? What is the government's reason to look for new land? If all forests in Arso are cleared, we certainly will die.
The weekly newspaper Boda Post first edition in March 2008 reported that 26,000 hectares of iron wood forest would be replaced by palm oil. The forest that is provided for palm oil plantation is a primary (virgin) forest that has thousands of iron forests and other types of wood. The tribal chief of Yetti said that the forest that will be turned into the palm oil plantation is their ancestral heritage. However, the law and the competition between central and regional governments have sacrificed the people's forest.
The Marthinus Putui murder testimony
Stince Bewangkir (32), the widow of Marthinus Putui, told how her husband was murdered. It was Wednesday, 19th May [2007?]. Marthinus was ill so he asked to be taken to Abepura hospital. However, the next morning (20th May) Marthinus died suddenly. His body was taken to East Arso. However, when his body was laid into a coffin, his head, face and body were bleeding which showed that he had been tortured.
Stince Bewangkir: “My husband was working with a Chinese man. They did wood processing. Several Indonesian armed soldiers also came and did wood processing in our customary forest but my husband refused to allow them. When two military weapons were seized from the Indonesian military post in Wemby in 2006, one Indonesian soldier gave Rp. 50,000,000 (fifty million Indonesian rupiahs) to five Arso men with a request that they should get the lost weapons and return them to them. However, they did not succeed and they had used all the money. Then, they came to ask my husband to give access for the military to cut wood from East Arso because the military had threatened to shoot them. My husband wanted to save the lives of the five young men so he allowed the military to cut wood from the forest. However, my husband was murdered by village people who had black magic and who had been paid to kill him by the military. After my husband's death, anyone from outside the Yetti tribe could come and occupy our land and our forest freely.
Meanwhile, Governor Barnasbas Suebu in the Cenderawasih Post (18 March 2008) had cancelled the previous ban on exporting Papuan logs out of Papua. It was great news for more than 40 companies who had Hak Pengelolaan Hutan (rights to cut and manage forests). The Governor said, "we had already banned it (exporting logs from Papua) totally, however, in a meeting with the Indonesian President and Vice President, they requested us to remove (the export ban) by giving certain quotas (to logging companies). We also talked about this quota matter and how we manage what quota and which type of woods".
The removal of the Papuan log export ban certainly would give a great opportunity for timber businessmen to strip all the trees in the Papuan forests.
The story of Yetti tribe, East Arso in fighting to protect their land from government's and ivestor's attack was similar a story in a film of Chiko Mendes when helping a tribe in the higland of Brazil whose land was taken away by investors. Perhaps, we need a strong solidarity to fight against governmet's arbitrariness in taking away by force lands from Yetti people.
KPKC Sinode GKI di Tanah Papua
The Evangelical Christian Church in the Land of Papua Synod,
Jayapura, West Papua
Richard Samuelson
Free West Papua Campaign, Oxford, UK.
www.freewestpapua.org
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