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Showing posts with label Colonization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colonization. Show all posts
Wednesday, 7 October 2015
Green Left Weekly Activist Calendar - 15-10-07
Monday, 6 July 2015
Ballarat Friends of West Papua meet Thursday 9 July 6pm - Ballarat Trades Hall
West Papua is little more than a good swim away from northern Australia.
It is the scene of a prolonged struggle for independence by its indigenous inhabitants.
It is the scene of ethnic cleansing by the colonizing, power Indonesia.
It is the scene of abhorrent practices by international mining corporations.
Please help in building friendships with the West Papuan people
Ballarat Friends of West Papua
Next meeting - Thursday 9th July at 6pm - Ballarat Trades Hall.
All welcome and encouraged to attend.
Posted by Ballarat Trades Hall on Sunday, 5 July 2015
Thursday, 26 January 2012
SURVIVAL DAY: Things to do, places to go
Canberra
Rally: Stand up & be counted on Sovereignty Day.
Invitation to the 40th anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy.
Melbourne
Festival: Share the Spirit Festival 2012. Celebrating Survival Day.
Indigenous music, dance and culture as part of Melbourne’s official Survival Day celebrations. 1-7pm.
Treasury Gardens.
Festival: 2012 Belgrave Survival Day.
This event acknowledges the indigenous perspective on the 230 years of European occupation of Australia, and celebrates the survival of the oldest living culture on the globe through live music, storytelling, traditional dance and craft.
Speakers will include
- Elder Aunty Dot Peters from Healesville,
- Gary Presland and Rodney Augustine from the Save the Kimberley campaign.
- Yung Warriors and Lou Bennett;
- traditional stories by Gnarnayarrahe Waitairie and the Jindi Worobak Dance Troupe;
- Wurundjeri elders will be undertaking a smoking ceremony.
12 noon-4pm. Borthwick Park (next to the Belgrave Pool), Benson St, Belgrave.
Friday, 11 November 2011
The Spirit of the Anzacs versus The Spirit of ANZUS: Remembrance Day thoughts
THE SPIRIT OF THE ANZACS
-versus-
THE SPIRIT OF ANZUS
As I write, we are remembering the fallen of Australia as part of Remembrance Day 2011 - the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh year of the 21st century. We particularly remember the signing of the armistice to end The Great War of 1914-1918.
This far on from the outpouring of national grief following the end of the First World War, there are mixed feelings and many war dead to uphold in our national memory not the least the latest deaths/assassinations of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.
Wars - and our gladness to participate in them - are still with us. We have not yet learned the ways of peace and how to beat our swords into ploughshares. We proclaim our great alliance with the USA. This has meant a great deal to Australia and Australians but it has also meant that we have embarked on American adventures which are not of our making or our decision. Vietnam was distasteful and ill-judged and the readiness to join the USA in Afghanistan is similarly qualified.
In Australia, to change our constitution it takes a double majority to vote yes to a question in a referendum. A double majority means a majority of people in a majority of states. A double majority is not an easy thing to obtain. However, my view is that - if there was a vote to-day for Australia to become the 51st state of the United States of America - it would be overwhelmingly successful. America is not only the dominant party under the ANZUS Treaty, It dominates popular culture. The Australian language has changed because of the dominance of American news, views and culture. Some children speak with a slight American accent. The owner of most Australian newspapers and media is a man born and bred Australian but who forsook his country for US citizenship - Rupert Murdoch. Most of his children were raised in New York and speak with an American accent ... even Lachlan who now resides back in Australia.
Australia has been colonized by the USA. It succumbed when it needed help in World War II, sought assistance from the USA, and General Douglas MacArthur arrived with American forces who were described as overpaid, overdressed, and over here. Now another step in the colonization process seems set to take place. President Obama is expected next week in Australia for a long-awaited and twice-postponed visit. It is reported that he will announce that the US will begin rotating marines through an Australian base in Darwin in a permanent new military presence, intensifying the alliance in a sign of heightened concern about China.
Further reading:
Not just waving poppies, drowning thought
Gillard finds a friend in Obama
5 Lessons of U.S. Plan for a permanent military presence in Australia
Paul Keating's Speech at the funeral of The Unknown Soldier , 11 November 1993
Not just waving poppies, drowning thought
Gillard finds a friend in Obama
5 Lessons of U.S. Plan for a permanent military presence in Australia
Paul Keating's Speech at the funeral of The Unknown Soldier , 11 November 1993
The last call of the bugle - the long road to Kapyong
Photos from Ringwood Remembrance Day Service 2011
Photos from Ringwood Remembrance Day Service 2011
From @CairnsOneDay
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Indonesia shoots down - once again - West Papua's independence movement
Violent Tactics Backfire In Papua
The tough response of the Indonesian armed forces to the Third Papuan People's congress has strengthened calls for freedom. NM's West Papua correspondent Alex Rayfield reviews the fallout
If the Indonesian police and military thought shooting live ammunition into a mass gathering of unarmed Papuanswould somehow dampen dissent and endear them to Jakarta West Papua and igniting international support outside.
First the Indonesian military and police denied they shot dead peaceful protesters. But that was too difficult to sustain. New Matilda received text messages as soon as the shooting started which were followed by urgent phone calls. Gunfire could be heard in the background.
When it became clear that covering up the shooting would not wash, the Indonesian Chief of Army in West Papua , Erfi Triassunu, admitted opening fire but claimed his troops only fired warning shots. He insisted no one had been hurt. Some of the international media bought the story. With foreign journalists banned from West Papua , some media outlets went to the police and military for confirmation. This is in spite of the fact that West Papua Media, with their extensive network of citizen journalists and local stringers, broke the story, verified it and began filing reports about what happened within a few hours.
A few hours after the shooting, the Indonesian police in West Papua were telling journalists in Jakarta
Setiawan took this line again on Thursday 20 October. In an interview with Bintang Papua, a local Papuan daily, he outlined how he thought police should respond to a gathering of unarmed Papuans expressing their political opinion: "Whoever supports separatism or subversion activity, I will do the same as yesterday. I’ll finish them."
The language used by Setiawan echoed hard-line nationalists in Jakarta Indonesia
Initially it was reported that police and the military raided the stage after Forkorus Yaboisembut and Edison Waromi (appointed as President and Prime Minister of the Federal State of West Papua respectively) declared independence. We now know that the attack did not happen until well after the three-day gathering had finished.
After the Declaration of Independence was read around 2.00pm local time, the Congress concluded. The leadership — Yaboisembut, Waromi, Dominikus Surabut, Helena Matuan and a few others left the field to rest in the nearby Sang Surya Catholic Friary in the grounds of the Fajar Timur Theological College where the Congress was being held. Those remaining on Taboria oval (Zaccheus Field) danced the Yospan, a traditional Papuan group dance.
The festivities continued for around 60-90 minutes. We don’t know exactly what the police, military and Brimob soldiers were doing between the time the Declaration was read out and the time the shooting started. Presumably they were discussing what to do. Most likely they consulted commanding officers locally and in Jakarta
According to Yan Christian Waranussy, a prominent Papuan human rights lawyer, members of the security forces under the command of Police Chief Imam Setiawan arrested Edison Waromi as he drove out of the Fajar Timur grounds on Yakonde Street
This occurred at around 3.30pm. One of the first killed was 25-year-old Daniel Kadepa, a student at Umel Mandiri Law School
Video footage obtained by EngageMedia and published by New Matilda shows people hiding in nearby buildings just after the police and military opened fire. In the background you can hear shooting. This is not automatic gunfire. They are single shots. Then there is a pause, followed by more shots. It is as if the shooter is walking around picking people off. There is very little background noise. No screaming or yelling, just an eerie silence … and gunshots.
According to Catholic clergy who witnessed the event, the police, Indonesian military and the the paramilitary Mobile Police Brigade continued discharging their weapons for approximately 25 minutes.
Eyewitnesses report that when the shooting started, Yaboisembut and Surabut were talking and relaxing in the Sang Surya Friary, a few metres from the oval. Then bullets smashed through the window. According to statements obtained by New Matilda people immediately hit the ground and began crawling to safety as the police indiscriminately fired live ammunition and canisters of tear gas into the buildings surrounding the oval.
According to statements obtained by New Matilda, police, military and Brimob personnel ransacked student dormitories, clergy residences and offices. One witness reported an Indonesian security officer yelling "Where are those idiot priests? Why do priests hide criminals?"
Those present also reported security personal using combat knives or bayonets and beating people with truncheons and rifles. At least 300 people were arrested and taken away in army and police trucks where they were detained overnight in the tennis courts at the police station.
We now know that three people were shot dead that day. They are Daniel Kapeda, Max Asa Yeuw, and Yakobus Samansabra. Two others, Matias Maidepa and Yacop Sabonsaba, were allegedly found dead behind the military headquarters in Abepura. According to the Indonesian military sources quoted in the local Papuan press, the victims had been stabbed. In addition, members of the Organising Committee of the Third Papuan Congress allege four other people died, all from gunshot wounds, two from Sorong and two from Wamena.
Six people are still in detention charged with rebellion. According to family members they have all been badly beaten. According to Human Rights Watch and KONTRAS Indonesia (the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence) those still in detention are:
• Forkorus Yaboisembut, chairman of the Papua Customary Council, probably the most prominent pro-independence leader in Papua. When New Matilda interviewed him in West Papua in 2010 and again in 2011 he was regularly receiving death threats. A few people had even come forward and told the local press that they were offered new motorbikes and other inducements if they would help orchestrate a fatal "accident".
• Edison Waromi, president of the West Papua National Authority. Edison Waromi’s daughter, Yane, was kidnapped and assaulted by the security forces in 2008.
• Dominikus Surabut, secretary of the Papuan Customary Council in La Pago region.
• Selpius Bobii, a social media activist, who organised the Papuan Congress. He initially eluded the police crackdown, but surrendered to police on October 20, accompanied by his lawyers and a Papuan journalist.
• August M. Sananay of the West Papua National Authority.
• Gat Wanda, a member of PETAPA (Defenders of the Land of Papua
It will take some time before the immediate effect of the repression is made clear, but early signs suggest the use of extreme and deadly violence against nonviolent activists has enlarged the circle of dissent inside West Papua and ignited international support outside.
Certainly Church leaders — both Catholic and Protestant — have expressed their outrage. Neles Tebay, a key Papuan intellectual, defended the role of clergy who provided humanitarian protection for those seeking safety. Tebay, who also gave permission for the Committee to hold the Congress in the Theological College
Tebay has repeated his call "for all people of goodwill to jointly press for dialogue, for the sake of peace in Papua".
Political representatives of the Papuan Provincial Parliament, a group that until now has sided with the government on matters of national security, expressed their dismay. Bintang Papua reported that Yan Mandenas, chairman of the Pikiran Rakyat Group in the Provincial Parliament said "the actions of the security forces in dispersing the Congress exceeded all bounds and … were in violation of the law".
Similar views were expressed by Ruben Magay, chairman of Commission A on Politics and Law of the Provincial Parliament who reportedly urged the chief of police to withdraw his men because the Congress was already over. Magay said that what happened was clearly "a violation" and that "no one was fighting back".
And while a large group of hard-line nationalists in Jakarta applauded or condoned police and military action, Effendy Choirie and Lily Chadidjah Wahid, both members of House of Representatives Commission I on information, defense and foreign affairs in Jakarta, warned the government that the mounting tension could lead to the province’s separation from Indonesia. In a clear rebuke of Papuan Police Chief Imam Setiawan, the two legislators added "that the government should not blame the Free Papua Movement (OPM) for the shooting but rather the security personnel in Papua".
Internationally, things have gotten much worse for Jakarta
United States Congressman Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin condemned the actions of the security forces. So too has Senator Richard Di Natale from the Australian Greens who has urged the Australian Government to suspend military ties with Indonesia New Zealand United States West Papua .
Papuan calls for UN intervention won’t happen, at least not in the foreseeable future. And the movement internally still faces serious challenges. But the Congress, the Declaration of Independence and the subsequent shooting has realigned the political landscape. There are now three main political groups, the Congress, the Papuan Peace Network led by Neles Tebay who is calling for dialogue, and the West Papua National Committee who want the giant US/Australian Freeport Mine closed and a referendum on West Papua ’s political status. At a fundamental level there is not a lot of difference between these positions. They all point to the need for a political solution to the Pacific’s longest running conflict.
The Indonesian political elite and security forces can no longer pretend that the problem in Papua is economic. Papuans want political freedoms. The Congress made that abundantly clear. It opened with raising the banned Morning Star flag and singing the banned West Papuan national anthem, Hai Tanah Ku, and closed with a Declaration of Independence.
And it wasn’t as if the military or police was unaware of this depth of feeling. When an open peace conference organised by the Papua Peace Network was held in Jayapura last July, Erfi Triassunu, the local Army Chief, took the podium. In attendance were 800 respected Papuan civil society leaders. Triassunu tried to get the audience — who were mostly Papuan — to chant "peace!" in response to his "Papua!". But as soon as he called out "Papua!" the crowd responded as one with "Merdeka!" (freedom).
Now the Papuans’ cry for freedom is echoing around the world. And it is the Indonesian police, military and their nationalist political allies in Jakarta
Source from New Matilda: http://newmatilda.com/2011/11/01/violent-tactics-backfire-papua
Further reading:
WikiLeaks reveals how West's complicity in Papuan bloodshed
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