(PINA/IFEX) – On 26 November 2001, PINA Nius Online reported that the Jayapura offices of the Irian Jaya (West Papua) chapter of Indonesia’s Independent Journalists Alliance were attacked by an unknown person or group on 25 November. “The attackers smashed the office’s ten glass windows with stones,” Chapter Chairperson Fritz Ramandey was quoted as saying. […]
(PINA/IFEX) – On 26 November 2001, PINA Nius Online reported that the Jayapura offices of the Irian Jaya (West Papua) chapter of Indonesia’s Independent Journalists Alliance were attacked by an unknown person or group on 25 November. “The attackers smashed the office’s ten glass windows with stones,” Chapter Chairperson Fritz Ramandey was quoted as saying.
PINA Nius Online said journalists in Jayapura, the provincial capital, have recently been prominently reporting on the killing of West Papuan pro-independence leader Theys Eluay and investigating the mystery surrounding the murder.
PINA Nius Online said Ramandey has called on local citizens to protect journalists and their organisations from all forms of intimidation because they work to promote democracy and justice in the province. The Independent Journalists Alliance has played a leading role in promoting and defending media freedom throughout Indonesia, PINA Nius Online said, including in provinces where independence movements are battling Indonesian security forces.
Background Information
Resource-rich West Papua, which borders the independent Pacific Islands nation of Papua New Guinea, is ruled by Indonesia as its province of Irian Jaya. Demands for independence have been mounting in West Papua. Human rights activists accuse Indonesian security forces of human rights abuses and say thousands of people have died in years of fighting.
Indonesia’s parliament recently passed legislation that would allow greater local autonomy, a large share of the revenue from local resources and changing the name of the province to Papua. However, pro-independence activists, such as Eluay, as well as militants fighting a jungle war against the Indonesian security forces, have rejected the proposals.
The territory was formerly a Dutch colony. In the 1960s, the Indonesians, who had won their own independence from Dutch colonial rule, began fighting to take control of West Papua from the Dutch. The province was officially taken over by the Indonesians following a controversial 1969 referendum. This came after the Dutch were pressured by the United States of America not to fight the Indonesian takeover attempt. Pro-independence West Papuans call the referendum a sham and say only a small number of men who were intimidated by the Indonesian military were allowed to take part.
Indonesian governments have since encouraged the transmigration east of mainly Muslim Asian migrants from the country’s crowded main islands to West Papua. West Papuans are Christians and mainly Melanesians, like the people of neighbouring Papua New Guinea.
