‘Doorstops’ at the Pacific Forum – why no tough questions on West Papua?

Bodies of civilians being evacuated after an attack by an armed group
at Nogolaid Village, Kenyam District, Nduga Regency, Papua,
last Saturday. IMAGE: Jubi

By DAVID ROBIE

A LIVELY 43sec video clip surfaced during last week’s Pacific Islands Forum in the Fiji capital of Suva — the first live leaders’ forum in three years since Tuvalu, due to the covid pandemic.

Posted on Twitter by Guardian Australia’s Pacific Project editor Kate Lyons it showed the doorstopping of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare by a melee of mainly Australian journalists.

An aloof Sogavare was being tracked over questions about security and China’s possible military designs for the Melanesian nation.

• READ MORE: The full 2022 Pacific Islands Forum communique
• Australia and New Zealand’s ‘deafening silence’ on Pacific democracy and human right
• Advocacy group condemns failure to address West Papua at Pacific Forum
• Media freedom defenders criticise China, other Pacific info ‘threats’
• Yamin Kogoya: Fatal disconnect between Jakarta and West Papua
• ‘Talanoa journalism’ in the Pacific
• PIF and West Papua – a timeline

 

A doorstop on security and China greets Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh
Sogavare (in blue shirt) at the Pacific islands Forum in Suva last week.
IMAGE: Twitter screenshot @MsKateLyons

 
But Lyons made a comment directed more at questioning journalists themselves about their newsgathering style:

“Australian media attempt to get a response from PM Sogavare, who has refused to answer questions from international media since the signing of the China security deal, on his way to a bilateral with PM Albanese. He stayed smilingly silent.”

Open season again for Indonesian military trolls and ‘fake news’ campaign on West Papua

Censured or punished? Conflicting reports about the alleged punishment of the two
Indonesian Air Force military policemen who stomped on the head
of young Papuan Steven Yadohamang at Merauke last week. IMAGE: Yumi Toktok Stret

 
By DAVID ROBIE in Asia Pacific Report

IT IS open season again for Indonesian trolls targeting Asia Pacific Report and other media with fake news and disinformation dispatches in a crude attempt to gloss over human rights violations.

Just three months ago I wrote about this issue in my “Dear editor” article exposing the disinformation campaign. There was silence for a while but now the fake letters to the editor – and other media outlets — have started again in earnest.

The latest four lengthy letters emailed to APR canvas the following topics — Jakarta’s controversial special autonomy status revised law for Papua, a brutal assault by Indonesian Air Force military policemen on a deaf Papuan man, and a shooting incident allegedly committed by pro-independence rebels – and they appear to have been written from a stock template.

• READ MORE: Outrage over Indonesian officers for stomping on disabled Papuan teen’s head
• ULMWP calls for suspension of Indonesia from UN rights council over assault on deaf Papuan
• Indonesian military duo to be punished for attack on deaf Papuan
• Other West Papua human rights reports

And they all purport to have been written by “Papuan students” or “Papuans”. Are they their real names, and do they even exist?

Outrage over Indonesian officers for stomping on disabled Papuan teen’s head

Two Indonesian Air Force military policemen stomping on the head of a deaf
Papuan teenager, Steven Yadohamang, in the Merauke region on 26 July 2021.
IMAGE: Screenshot from video

By YAMIN KOGOYA

Shocking video footage showing a brutal and inhumane assault on a deaf Papuan teenager named Steven Yadohamang has emerged from the Merauke region of Papua and sparked outrage.

This assault occurred on Monday, July 26, 2021, around Jalan Raya Mandala, Merauke (Jubi, July 27).

The video shows an altercation between the 18-year-old and a food stall owner. Two security men from the Air Force Military Police (Polisi Militer Angkatan Udara, or POMAU) intervened in the argument.

• READ MORE: Indonesian military duo to be punished for attack on deaf Papuan
• Other articles about West Papua by Yamin Kogoya
• More West Papua coverage

One of the officers grabbed the young man and pulled him from the food stall. The victim was slammed to the pavement and then stomped on by the Air Force officers.

The two men, Serda Dimas and Prada Vian, trampled on Yadohamang’s head and twisted his arms after knocking him to the ground. The young man was seen screaming in pain, but the two men continued to step on his head and body while the officers casually spoke on the phone.