Indonesia's new president Prabowo Subianto has revealed plans to pardon as many as 44,000 convicts - about a third of the country's prison population.
It is being cast as a human rights gesture but cgiven Prabowo's own record on human rights, critics believe it may be a tough sell.
The West Papua independence advocates, the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, or ULMWP, said, despite a few West Papua activists set to be freed, it is an attempt by Jakarta to disguise their more aggressive approach in West Papua.
Presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, centre. dances on stage at a gathering with supporters in Jakarta after polls closed in the country’s presidential and legislative elections. Photo: AFP
The ULMWP said thousands of West Papuans right now are being forced to flee into the bush by the sudden arrival of Indonesian soldiers into their villages.
The Gidi Church has said in a statement, "the military is acting with total impunity, murdering innocent children and killing civilians just for having dreadlocks. Women and children are going hungry in the forest."
At the centre of this is Prabowo's push to re-ignite the transmigration of Indonesians into West Papua, which had been a hallmark of the Suharto era.
Catherine Delahunty at Parliament, 5 April 2023. Photo: Johnny Blades / VNP
Don Wiseman spoke with former New Zealand MP, Catherine Delahunty, a long-time advocate for the indigenous people of the region.
Catherine Delahunty: What we know is from a range of sources, and it's very hard to get figures and numbers on these things, but I think we have every reason to be deeply concerned that under this new president, with his track record, things cannot be getting better. And if you look at several issues, including the one that the United Liberation Movement has raised around transmigration resumption, which is incredibly serious, given that the majority of the urban population in West Papua is already basically from Indonesia and not West Papuan. It has huge impacts in the urban areas, but also in rural areas, where the food projects have been undertaken. There are some very serious situations. So, we know that transmigration is being increased. We know that the military recently sent in five battalions to basically police the food projects, which is basically evicting people from their homes and turning their forests into sugar cane and palm oil plantations to benefit Indonesia.
Human rights abuses have increased, and there's no indication, given the people that Prabowo has appointed who have jurisdiction in the Indonesian government, many of them whose track records are also dodgy. It's a very concerning situation. From trying to redeem Suharto's reputation till now, there's a trail of blood which this country, with Papua, there's very little hope now, and I think that's terrible in a human rights sense, but also with all the other issues. It's a very serious situation, which I just wish our government would take seriously and do something, stand up and support our neighbours who are suffering this increased colonization process.
Don Wiseman: Well, the new president has freed several prisoners, hasn't he, and the U L M W P says this is a smoke screen.
CD: I think freeing prisoners at Christmas. It's always good when political prisoners are freed, especially West Papuan, but it's very hard to get too excited, given what's really going on, and given that the public relations associated with freeing prisoners may make him look better, but there is no other reason to feel that they're heading in the right direction under his leadership. The conditions on the ground continue to be dire in terms of both hunger and dislocation of peoples, more than 80,000 people. And again, figures are hard to finalise, you know, in this year and in these recent months, and it's not enough to talk about freeing prisoners at Christmas.
What is needed is to enter dialogue with West Papua and seriously consider their independence, seriously consider a referendum on their self-determination. And I'm not at all surprised things have got worse given who has been elected President of Indonesia. But what really concerns me is the lack of interest from our government and other governments in the region in terms of supporting the cry for freedom that is increasingly being suppressed and abused in West Papua.
