Indonesia needs new ideas to cut Papua unrest: report

Indonesia must come up with fresh ideas to reach a political solution to separatist tendencies in Papua province or risk an escalation of violence, a new report says.

The report from the International Crisis Group, titled Indonesia: Hope and Hard Reality in Papua, states that a recent spate of violence in the resource-rich but under-developed eastern region could worsen if Jakarta continued with its business-as-usual approach.

It said that instead of responding to unrest with more money and troops for the military, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono needed to focus his government's attention on Papua's political and economic development.

"The government of President Yudhoyono, on Papua as on everything else, has been glacially slow to develop a policy that would be different from the default response of throwing cash at the problem and hoping it will go away," said the report.

ICG adviser Sidney Jones said Yudhoyono must "move quickly to set up a long-delayed new Papua unit with a mandate to cover political as well as economic development issues".

"It's not a guarantee that the situation will get better, but without a fresh approach from Jakarta, it will certainly get worse," she said in a statement.

Melanesian rights

The report said a blueprint for a possible way forward was produced at a Papua Peace Conference in early July, including recognition of the indigenous Melanesian majority's socio-cultural rights.

Soldiers found guilty of human rights abuses should be "brought to trial and sentenced in a way that gives Papuans a sense of justice," the ICG said.

"The policy prescription would be to ensure that soldiers or police responsible for gratuitous violence are given sentences commensurate with the crime, instead of slap-on-the-wrist punishments for disciplinary infractions," it said.

Indonesia is often criticised by human rights groups for failing to properly punish military personnel responsible for killings and abuses of civilians in Papua, one of the poorest regions in the vast archipelago.

Three Indonesian soldiers tried over the killing of a Papuan priest were sentenced to up to 15 months in jail for insubordination earlier this month. Activists said they should have been convicted of murder.

In other recent violence, an election dispute and clan feud in remote Puncak district left 19 dead on July 30-31, and unidentified gunmen killed four people including a soldier in an ambush outside Jayapura on August 1.

Separatist rebels killed a soldier in one of two attacks in Puncak Jaya district on August 3 and 4, the ICG said.

Poorly armed rebels, numbering only around 1,000, have been waging a separatist insurgency against Indonesian rule since Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in the 1960s after a vote many Papuans see as a sham.