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Crisis Group warns against 'radicalization' in Papua and recommends dialogue

 
Year 2009 witnessed an increase of violence by one of the main Papuan pro-independence groups, the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), against the Indonesian government and foreign mining companies · According to International Crisis Group, a road map is needed to foster dialogue as frustrations 'are real'.

Indonesia needs to work on the question of West Papua –the easternmost province of the state– as soon as possible. The territory stretches out the western half of the island of Papua New Guinea and it is home of a strong pro-independence movement. That is the proposal made by International Crisis Group (ICG), an organization with headquarters in Brussels working on conflict prevention. ICG has issued a report called Radicalization and Dialogue in Papua in which the Jakarta government is invited to take note of the increasing pro-independence tension in Papua and reverse a situation seen by most Papuans as unfair.

Crisis Group reports on the “political violence” taking place throughout 2009 and the beginning of 2010, carried out mainly by the West Papua National Committee (Komite Nasional Papua Barat, KNPB), a former pro-independence group working for a sovereign state by peaceful means which has lately resorted to violence due to lack of political and economic progress. The organization has also move closer to the guerrilla group Free Papua Movement (Tentara Pembebasan Nasional/Organisasi Papua Merdeka, TPN/OPM).

TPN/OPM activism has attacked Indonesian paramilitary forces and the US Freeport mining company, which works in a huge open mine at the center of West papua.

ICG analysts have warned Jakarta that it should set up a road map for dialogue. Although the majority of the Papuan population does not back KNPB’s violent means, their grievances are real, they say. A road map has been in fact outlined by a group of Papuan intellectuals and researchers from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia, LIPI) to end the conflict. The report says that “it will require acknowledgment that the solution for Papua is more than just economic development, though that is critically important. It will also need public backing from Indonesia’s president, Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono”.

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