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| Australia West Papua Association |
Press
Release Australia West Papua Association
The
Bintang Kejora flag raising ceremony on Dec. 1 is forbidden nd those involved
will be dealt with seriously, said National Police chief Gen. Sutarman who is
visiting West Papua this week.28 November 2013
Indonesian
Police Chief condemns West Papua flag-raising ceremony
"The
Bintang Kejora flag raising ceremony on Dec. 1 is forbidden nd those involved
will be dealt with seriously," said National Police chief Gen. Sutarman who is
visiting West Papua this week.
Statements
from the national police chief raise great concern for West Papuans that might
taking part in flag raising ceremonies on the 1 December, West Papuas national
flag day:
Joe
Collins of AWPA said the recent crackdown on the KNPB rallies over the last few
days indicate the security forces are taking a hard line approach to peaceful
demonstrations and the situation is not helped by statements from The National
Police chief Gen. Sutarman who said: "that the police would crack down on
groups that intended to separate from the unitary state of Indonesia, including
by strictly enforcing a ban on flying the Morning Star (Bintang Kejora)
separatist flag, which West Papuans often try to raise in a special ceremony
each Dec. 1" He also said he would take firm action against protesters who
resort to anarchy", including those involved in a West Papua National
Committee (KNPB) rally in Jayapura recently, which turned violent and left nine
people injured"
During the
crackdown on the rallies on Tuesday the police claim they seized a number of
weapons including firearms, Molotov cocktails and bows and arrows. The KNPB
claimed they weapons had been planted to frame members of the KNPB.
A KNPB
press release also said Indonesian police had shot dead a number of members of
KNPB. 10 people were injured and up to 28 arrested in the Jayapura rally on
Tuesday and Journalists who were covering the rallies were intimidated by the
police.
At a rally
in Timika it was reported that up to 30 people were arrested by the police and
military.
Joe
Collins said although not yet confirmed it appears our foreign minister is
going to Jakarta in a bid to soothe tensions over the damage caused by the
spying scandal.
Joe
Collins said, "Now is the time for the foreign minister to raise concerns about
the grave human rights abuses that are occurring in West Papua. If Australia
continues to ignore the issue we are going to see a lot more damaging incidents
in our relationship with Jakarta and it will be over West Papua".
ENDS
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