WEST PAPUANS OPPRESSED BY U.S. MULTINATIONAL: An Interview with John Rumbiak
John Rumbiak is a supervisor for West Papua Institute for
Human Rights Study and Advocacy (ELSHAM) based in Jayapura,
the capital of West Papua province in Indonesia.
He toured Canada in November 2002 to promote awareness of the oppression
and exploitation of the Papuan people by the U.S. multinational,
Freeport McMoran, and the Indonesian military.
His visit was sponsored by Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS).
5. You were recently in Washington D.C.
The U.S. government is the Indonesian Army's main supporter.
How do you see the U.S.' role?
A. You hit a brick wall in the U.S. when you try to do something about the
environmental and human rights problems that Freeport is creating.
This is because of the company's close ties to the U.S. political establishment.
For many years, Freeport paid Senators from Louisiana to lobby for it;
every year it pays one Senator $6 million for such lobbying.
Freeport gives campaign contributions to both the Democratic and Republican
parties and placed second in total financial contributions from the
U.S. mining industry to U.S. elections during the 1999-2000 election cycle;
the company gave $262,703, only $53 less than the top contributor.
In 1996, OPIC temporarily reinstated Freeport's political risk insurance.
According to a 1997 article in the Austin Chronicle,
then OPIC President Ruth Harkin (married to Senator Tom Harkin,
an Iowa Democrat) stated that she had persuaded
James Robert ("Jim Bob") Moffett,
Freeport's CEO, to give $100,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is an advisor to Freeport.
Just to give you an example of how powerful Freeport is:
A New York Times reporter did a very good article on human rights and Freeport,
and I helped him with it. When the article was going to be published,
Kissinger called the editor and stopped the publication.
Also, the security manager of Freeport in Papua is a
former military attache at the U.S. embassy in Jakarta.
So the U.S. government and Freeport are very close.
The U.S. government protects multinational corporations.
The new advisor to Freeport who replaced Kissinger is a
former U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia, Stapleton Roy.
Another former U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia,
Ed Master, is now the Chair of the U.S.-Indonesia Association based in Washington and funded by Freeport.
[The author adds: James Woolsey, former head of the CIA,
represented Freeport in arbitration proceedings stemming from the OPIC insurance cancellation.]
6. It's no wonder that you cannot get much support in the U.S.
The U.S. government has always been behind the Indonesian army;
it helped the army to kill a million Indonesians in 1965
after Washington encouraged the military coup of the brutal dictator Suharto.
A. Absolutely.
7. How does Washington's so-called War on Terror affect the West Papuan struggle?
A. I think the U.S. really misleads the international community with this war.
The Western media blamed Al Qaeda and radical Indonesian Islamic groups for the
October 12, 2002, bombing in Bali which killed many Australians.
But these radical groups, like the militias that butchered thousands of people in East Timor,
were established by the Indonesian military.
Radical Muslim groups such as the Lashkar-e-Jihad (Army of Struggle)
which now operates in West Papua, were created by the Indonesian army
to carry out the "dirty work"
of killings and kidnappings in order to facilitate the army's control of the country.
The purpose is to keep people terrified and justify military intervention
so that the army looks like the only "stabilizing" force in the country.
So the "War on Terror" is fake.
These Islamic groups are not independent.
When the U.S. government asked the Indonesians for help in their
"War on Terror,"
Jakarta conveniently labelled all groups seeking independence from Indonesia,
"terrorist."
In August 2002,
two American Freeport employees and one Indonesian were killed in Papua
for which the Indonesian military blamed the West Papuan rebels whom they called
"terrorist."
Twelve other people were injured in the same attack.
This happened on a road heavily guarded by the military.
I stated publicly that the military was responsible for this attack, –I have the evidence
The Indonesian army wants to portray West Papuans as terrorists in order
to get military aid from the U.S.
8. East Timor recently achieved independence from Indonesia.
Are you optimistic about the West Papuan peoples'struggle for independence?
A. Yes. We will not accept wider autonomy which is being offered by Jakarta
and supported by the international community.
Forty years of Indonesian dominance is enough.
There is growing international awareness about the Indonesian governments's
suppression of the Papuan people;
recently the Netherlands government has taken up the West Papuan case
by doing a study on the annexation of West Papua by Indonesia.
There is also a growing solidarity movement in the world for West Papua.
Countries like Vanautu have raised the issue of West Papua in the U.N. and
New Zealand has offered to mediate between Papua and Indonesia.
Published in:
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Monitor, May 2003
www.policyalternatives.ca
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