Sent by Des O’Neill:
The people of West Papua urgently need your help. They are facing genocide at the hands of the Indonesian Military.
The US Government (past and present) is also complicit in this genocide.
The reason is simple – MONEY.
West Papua is resource rich the most noteworthy being the huge Freeport Copper and Gold Mine. Grubs like Henry Kissinger were involved in the 1962 and 1969 UN Act of Free (No) Choice. The reason I believe was so that the US could get its hands on Freeport. Kissinger was Nixon’s and Ford’s National Security Advisor.
Ford and Kissinger returned in the 1990’s to plunder the West Papuan resources as Directors of the Freeport Mine.
Over the past 40 years an estimated 1-2 Million West Papuans have been murdered by the Indonesians. This is mass genocide.
Recently the US Military has indicated that it wishes to resume full military ties with Indonesia. These ties had been previously withdrawn because of Indonesia’s poor human rights record.
An impediment to the restoration of these ties has been the August, 2002 Timika shootings at the Freeport Mine. Two American teachers, and an Indonesian were shot and killed. Several others were wounded.
The wife of one of the murdered American teachers is Patsy Spier. She has lobbied hard over the past three and a half years for justice.
The US FBI became involved in the case. There is overwhelming evidence that the Indonesian Military was involved in the Timika incident in order to extort funds from Freeport. Freeport was coming under pressure under the US corporations disclosure laws to declare its protection payments to the Indonesian Military and Police.
The FBI appears to be willing to go along the scam that the West Papuan OPM (freedom fighters) was responsible. Patsy Spier has become a Patsy in more than name only.
See this web site for full details – be sure to check out the involvement of Henry Kissinger and the CIA in the early years with Freeport.
Des O’Neill Brisbane Australia Webmaster wpngnc.org
See also these details:-
Blood on the Cross – ABC Four Corners Transcript 12 July, 1999 (Updated 1 February 2006)
Blood on the Cross Snapshots – July, 1999.
The WPNGNC has been in contact with Kelly Kwalik, the Supreme Commander of the OPM. We were advised that the OPM was not responsible and played no part, in the August, 2002 Timika shootings at the Freeport Mine. The OPM has been in a state of stand down since the year 2000.
WPNGNC representatives have, since the year 2000, been advising the OPM to leave the Freeport Mine alone, as West Papua does not need another Bouganville mine situation. Recent events may change this view and the WPNGNC’s advice may not be heeded.
This has been the situation even though the Indonesian Military, with the assistance of Freeport facilities, was responsible for the murder of Kelly Kwalik’s entire family in November, 1994. (See Page 8 of Bishop John H Etheridge Report – below).
FREEPORT MINE JUNE-JULY 1994-1995, 5 PEOPLE.
Between June 1994 and February 1995 some clashes took place between the land owners, the ABRI, the Security Personnel of the mine and an OPM unit. The root cause of the altercation is uncertain, but based on the report that landed at the ACFOA [Australian Council of Overseas Aid] the problem arose out of the people grievances towards the destruction of their habitat, their livelihood and constant intimidation by the Security forces, Government as well as the Mine’s. The Indonesian Military and the Mine’s spokesman insisted that the fermenting of these grievances was organized by the OPM unit under the command of Kelly Kwalik. Who started it and how it started is immaterial here, what is of direct relevant in this chapter is that some civilians were murdered collectively and singly. How the actual killing took place was unclear in many of the cases. The report documented 16 men actually murdered and 6 disappeared without trace, but the eyewitness believed the number of civilian victims may be higher. Contrasting this report with reports in the local News Papers Tifa Irian [weekly, week 4 August 1995] and Cendrawasi Pos Thursday 31, August 1995, the Indonesian Military had shifted the blame to OPM for planting the Anti Indonesian sentiment in the minds of the people and that ABRI was only trying to protect the people. [some kind of protection all right, Eds.]
In November 5 members of Kelly Kwalik’s clan were rounded-up by the ABRI and murdered. Their bodies have never been found.
They were arrested on the night of October 6, 1994 and last seen by the wives of Sebastian Kwalik in mid November 1994. When the wives, Nawarkal deik-in and Maria Katagam-in, went to visit their husband they were told that ‘your husband and the army Units are out on operation in Oenomon area, you can go and see, the containers are empty’. The women checked the containers [apparently at Free Port mine standard metal shipping containers are used as detention cells for the West Papuans.]
Kelly Kwalik and the OPM had more than enough reason to attack the Freeport Mine facilities, but the fact is that they were not responsible for the August, 2002 incident. The whole thing was orchestrated by the Indonesian Military, over a dispute with Freeport over protection payments. During the August, 2002 attack several hundred bullets were fired within a kilometer of an Indonesian Military post over a period of about an hour. The OPM, simply, does not have that amount of ammunition to waste.
The whole Timika incident demonstrates the simplistic mind set of the Indonesian Military, in order to extort funds from Freeport. Yet the US FBI is willing to go along, with this whole concoction, for political purposes. There is a strong push, from the US Military, to restore full military ties with Indonesia.
The WPNGNC believes this whole scam will backfire on the US. The events of the 1960’s and 1975 (East Timor) will repeat themselves in a similar format.
The bottom line is that they (US and Indonesia) will simply not get away with this scam, as the world has moved on and become much more discerning and less influenced by the brainwashing of McCarthyism.
These incidents make an absolute mockery of George W Bush’s recent speech “State of the Union Address” about spreading Democracy and Freedom throughout the world.
The Freeport Mine (FCX) has paid in excess of $20M US (between 1998 and 2004 – New York Times) in support of the Indonesian Military. These payments have been in violation of US Corporations Law – See Global Witness Report – “Paying for Protection” – below.
For the most comprehensive web site on West Papua see this web site.
April 2006
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