JAYAPURA (KNPB News / The Age / Pacific Media Watch): Indonesian intelligence agents have allegedly murdered a West Papuan activist, Korea Waker, last week in Timika, West Papua.
Waker's sister, Keteragan Waker, told KNPB News that Waker's body was found last week in a battered condition.
"We are killed at will and carelessly and thoughtlessly by the Indonesia government. This our life. No one knows what happens here. Indonesia kill us every day and no one knows," Waker said.
Another West Papuan independence leader, Martinus Yohame, the West Papua National Committee [KNPB] chairman in Sorong, was reportedly kidnapped by Indonesian Special Forces last week "simply for speaking out against the Indonesian occupation of his country".
Yohame vanished the day after holding a press conference in West Papua where he condemned the Indonesian military occupation.
At the time, the new Indonesian president Joko Widodo was visiting the nearby islands of Raja Ampat.
According to the campaign, Yohame also spoke out against illegal logging by Indonesian companies, theft and damage of ecosystems in West Papua, saying that the natural resources belong to the Papuan people.
"Indonesians from the Human Rights Commission met with him and said they wanted to meet him again the next day. On 20th August, he spoke on the phone with them and left his house.
"He has not been seen since and the KNPB strongly suspects that he was kidnapped by the Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus) because of his strong stance against the Indonesian President who has been trying to promote Raja Ampat to tourists, in an attempt to show the world that 'West Papua is open'," the Free West Papua Campaign said.
Widodo promises Papuan 'focus'
The latest human rights abuses come as Widodo made a "bizarre promise" last weekend to build a new presidential palace on West Papua's Lake Sentani, The Age reported.
The palace will apparently signify that Widodo is going to 'pay more attention' to West Papua, including holding quarterly discussions with West Papuan independence movement leaders.
Widodo said before he was elected that he saw no reason for foreign journalists to be kept out of West Papua.
"Papuan leaders have also told Mr Joko they want a better deal out of the massive, American-owned Freeport gold and copper mine, Indonesia's biggest single taxpayer. They want more money, a headquarters in Jayapura, not in Jakarta, and for long-standing grievances, including killings allegedly relating to the mine's operations, to be investigated," The Age newspaper reported.
However, the leader of the province's Baptist churches, Rev Socratez Yoman, said a solution would only come if the Indonesian military occupation was ended, all political prisoners released, exiles allowed to return home and if migration of Indonesians into the region was stopped.
"We are discussing the future of Papuans on their own land. The reality today is the Papuans have become marginalised economically, educationally, housing … like they became foreigners. This is negative progress," Rev Yoman told The Age.
Protests in support of imprisoned journalists
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