The Centre for Climate Crime and Justice at Queen Mary University of London hosted a Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) on State and Environmental Violence in West Papua from June 27th to 29th.
This Tribunal brought global attention to the need to protect this crucial rainforest by exploring the deep connection between democracy, state violence, and environmental sustainability in West Papua.
The Indictment can be found here: https://ccccjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Indictment.pdf
The PPT panel of judges comprises: Teresa Almeida Cravo (Portugal) Donna Andrews (South Africa) Daniel Feierstein (Argentina) Marina Forti (Italy) Larry Lohmann (UK) Nello Rossi (Italy) and Solomon Yeo (Solomon Islands).
The Merdeka West Papua Support Network, as a network of support groups, individuals and advocates, highlights the urgent need for International response and attention to support the aspiration for self-determination of West Papuans.
The ample and undeniable evidence from the grounds lays down the serious crime committed to the detriment of West Papuan Indigenous Peoples and the land. Similarly, the hand of the United States, Australia and rich imperialist countries is stained with Papuan bloods as they abet the militarization, arms supply, resource exploitation and ethnocide in West Papua.
Read on the following excerpt of articles, blog and reflections about the recently concluded PPT. Click the title to read the full contents.
Samira Homerang Saunders, Research Assistant at the Centre for Climate Crime and Justice
“What has happened in these regions cannot be constrained by the term “environmental degradation.” In the view of many Papuan witnesses to this Tribunal, there is no sense in which the “environmental degradation” that they describe can be disaggregated from a project tending toward the obliteration of a people, or what was called by more than one witness a “slow genocide.”
It is not that the poisoning of lands, waters, plant life and human bodies testified to by the witnesses is “accompanied by” racism, that the racism experienced every day by Papuans is a mere “instrument of control and manipulation of nature,” or that industrial extraction of the type currently being experienced by Papuans could conceivably be “consented to” by them some day or be made “noncolonialist.”
Rather, the deforestation and extraction is itself racism. It is itself, despite the assertions of the Indonesian state, the very apotheosis of a colonial project that has been hundreds of years in the making.” [an excerpt from the preliminary judgment gives some indication of what the verdict]
David Whyte is Director of the Centre for Climate Crime and Justice
The source of the ongoing conflict in West Papua can be traced back to the forcible transfer of the region from the former colonial power, the Netherlands, to Indonesia in the mid sixties. The legitimacy of the democratic process underpinning the transfer – often referred to as the ‘gunpoint referendum’ – has never been accepted by Papuans, many of whom claim the right to self-determination.
And so we now find West Papua the site of a seemingly never-ending conflict in which the claim to self-determination of Papuans is inseparable from their claim to ancestral land, and from their opposition to predatory development for profit.
The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal is an international ‘opinion tribunal’ that assembles panels of judges to rule on any serious crime committed to the detriment of peoples and minorities. The Tribunal’s origins are in the Russell Tribunals on Vietnam (1966-67) and on the dictatorships in Latin America (1973-76); it was created as a permanent institution devoted to exposing serious crimes that the international community has not adequately responded to.
Ben Wray, Freelance journalist based in the Basque Country, Spain and co-author of ‘Scotland After Britain’ (Verso, 2022)
Indonesia, of course, has powerful allies in defending the status quo in West Papua. First, there is the global corporate giants like BP and Unilever, which have an interest in ‘maintaining order’ in West Papua to maximise their profits. Second, western states, especially the United States, for whom Indonesia is a key Asian geopolitical ally in their attempts to constrain the rise of China. The US, UK and Australia also benefit when their respective corporations maintain their grip on West Papuan resources. This is where the economics and geopolitics of modern-day imperialism conjoin.
But while the West Papuan independence struggle may have the forces of imperialism and global capitalism ranged against it, they have in recent years shown themselves increasingly capable in resisting Indonesian control, including through armed resistance. In the case of nearby East Timor, which became independent from Indonesia in 1999, it was the intensity of the resistance in East Timor itself which eventually brought Indonesia to the negotiating table, agreeing to give up their colonial possession in a UN-brokered agreement.
Amnesty International
The tribunal is a great start to paving the way to justice in Papua and we hope that it serves as an opportunity for the international community to stand in solidarity with the people of Papua, to acknowledge their suffering and to support their fight for human rights.
The Indonesian authorities have continuously failed to end the conflict that keeps claiming more civilian lives in the region. It is therefore essential for authorities to evaluate its military operations and business activities by corporate actors to ensure the recovery and the protection of human rights in Papua.
This arduous path of justice for Papuans must end. It is high time for the international community to call on the Indonesian authorities to end the long-established violence.
Steve Rushton for Bella Caledonia, activist and writer, especially interested in movements building ground-up power and intersectional justice
Palm oil plantations are rapidly expanding in the area of Maybrat, north-west West Papua. Here Indonesian authorities have cleared people, including to displacement camps, under the auspices of fighting separatists and counter-terrorism. In reality, palm oil firms have accelerated their takeover of lands near the deserted villages. This violence in particular threatens women and children, who make up the majority of those forced to become refugees in their own country. Palm oil in West Papua also drives child labour.
Many international corporations profit from this systemic violence, including British firms, alongside Indonesian corporations. One such British firm is Jardine Matheson and Niche Jungle, London-based asset managers, according to research by Professor David Whyte. He is also the co-director of the Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice at Queen Mary University, one of the event’s sponsors.
The oil company BP and its Liquified Natural Gas facility at Tangguh shows again how capitalism and state violence are interlinked. Professor Whyte told the tribunal as part of the prosecution team: “BP has its own security force, but also makes payments for military and police protection… One investigation by New Matilda found that the private company which manages BP’s local security force is ‘run by retired Indonesian army and police’ and that this led to ‘targeting peaceful social movements in Bintuni Bay’.”
International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL)
The Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self Determination and Liberation, as one of the movements endorsing the Permanent Peoples Tribunal Session on Environmental Destruction and State Repression in West Papua on June 27 to 29, welcomes the success of the recently concluded Tribunal.
The Tribunal brought the needed global attention to raise the fight of Indigenous Peoples holding the Indonesian State and the imperialist powers enabling the occupation of West Papuan lands, the violation of their right to self-determination, the plunder of their natural resources and the crimes against the people and the planet.
We commend the brave witnesses, panel of experts, and the organizations that have contributed to the successful holding of this Tribunal.
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