VZCZCXRO9100
OO RUEHDT RUEHPB
DE RUEHJA #0121/01 0270943
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 270943Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4378
INFO RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 JAKARTA 000121 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP, EAP/ANP 
NSC FOR D.WALTON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/25/2020 
TAGS: PREL PNAT EAID CACS ID
SUBJECT: PAPUA -- DCM HIGHLIGHTS SECURITY AND COOPERATION 
ON VISIT TO REGION 
 
Classified By: DCM Ted Osius, reasons 1.4 (b+d). 
 
¶1.  (C) SUMMARY:  The DCM highlighted security and 
cooperation in education, the environment and health during a 
January 20-22 visit to Jayapura, the capital of Papua 
Province, and Timika and Tembagapura, towns near U.S. company 
Freeport-McMoRan's Grasberg copper and gold mine.  The DCM 
underscored the importance of security for Freeport given the 
ongoing series of shootings targeted at the company's 
operations.  Police and local government officials outlined 
the steps they were taking to address the situation and 
promised heightened vigilance.  Governor Barnabas Suebu 
outlined key development priorities in the environment, 
health and education and welcomed further cooperation with 
the United States.  Religious, tribal and traditional leaders 
explained that the human rights situation in Papua had 
improved significantly but that violations did still occur. 
END SUMMARY. 
 
SECURITY IS KEY 
 
¶2.  (C) The DCM underscored the importance of security for 
Freeport's operations and the company's American employees in 
meetings with Papua Governor Barnabas Suebu and provincial 
Police Chief (Kapolda) General Bekto Suprapto on January 20. 
Security has been a critical issue since July 17, 2009, when 
unknown assailants began a series of shooting attacks on 
vehicles traveling the road between Timika and Tembagapura. 
The first attack killed on Australian Freeport employee, 
while subsequent attacks have left two others killed and 
nearly thirty injured.   Papuan separatists are widely 
believed to be involved in the attacks and police killed key 
separatist leader Kelly Kwalik in a shootout on December 16. 
An attack on January 23, after the DCM had left Papua, 
injured one American Freeport employee and wounded nine 
Indonesians, both police and company employees.  The January 
23 attack is the first one since Kwalik's death. 
 
¶3.  (C) General Bekto explained that he had overall 
responsibility for security in the area and commanded a 
taskforce that included police and military personnel.  The 
police led the effort while the military played a supporting 
role.  Bekto promised to maintain a vigorous security 
response to the incidents, including heightened efforts to 
patrol the road and search vehicles in the area.  Bekto said 
that he hoped to use high-technology equipment to enhance 
police efforts and was exploring the possibility of placing 
remotely-operated cameras at key locations along the road. 
He also hoped to use digital video conference technology to 
improve command and control between police posts located 
across Papua's vast and rugged terrain.  Governor Suebu 
agreed that security was critical and expressed confidence in 
the police's ability to address the situation. 
 
HIGHLIGHTING COOPERATION IN ENVIRONMENT, HEALTH, AND EDUCATION 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Governor Suebu provided the DCM with an extensive 
overview of the provincial government's development strategy. 
 Suebu explained that the Papua Special Autonomy Law had 
provided the provincial government with a significant portion 
of the revenue generated by the province's natural resource 
exports.  Key to this will be delivering results directly at 
the village level.  As part of this effort, the provincial 
government continued to provide cash grants to villages for 
use on development projects which residents had decided upon. 
 Suebu also explained that combating corruption and 
streamlining the bureaucracy were essential to ensure that 
benefits reached people directly.  The governor thanked the 
DCM for USG assistance for Papua's development. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The DCM reiterated the USG's commitment to helping 
Papua develop and said that the environment was a key area 
for future cooperation.  He noted USAID's recent work 
assisting with a spatial planning project that would help the 
provincial government to manage Papua's forest resources. 
Suebu responded that this project was critical to allowing 
the government to decide which areas of forest would be 
preserved (50 percent), which would be used for carefully 
regulated production (30 percent) and which would be 
converted from production to conservation (20 percent).  The 
DCM said that the USG looked forward to other areas of 
possible environmental cooperation, including a possible 
debt-for-forest swap under the Tropical Forest Conservation 
Act (TFCA).  Suebu welcomed this possibility. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Turning to health, the DCM said that the USG was 
considering how to further support anti-HIV/AIDS efforts in 
Indonesia, and particularly in Papua where the epidemic is 
 
JAKARTA 00000121  002 OF 003 
 
 
especially acute.  Toward this end, the DCM explained, a USG 
team would visit Indonesia sometime early this year for 
discussions aimed at finalizing a Partnership Compact under 
the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). 
Discussions with the provincial government would be critical 
to the Compact's development. Suebu welcomed the team and 
said the provincial government looked forward to working with 
us.  HIV/AIDS remained a critical are of the provincial 
government's public health efforts, which included education 
programs to help prevent new infections and treatment of 
those already infected. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The DCM explained that the USG was committed to 
boosting U.S.-Indonesia education cooperation as part of our 
developing Comprehensive Partnership.  Given Papua's 
educational needs, we hope to make Papua a central part of 
that effort.  Suebu welcomed further cooperation in 
education.  He explained that the provincial government had 
launched a program to support one thousand Papuan students to 
complete PhDs over the next 15-20 years.  Some of these 
students, he hoped, would pursue their degrees in U.S. 
schools.  However, Suebu explained that poor English-language 
ability hampered Papuan students who wanted to study 
overseas.  He hoped that the USG could help address this 
area.  The DCM welcomed more Papuan students in the United 
States and said that increasing university partnerships was a 
good way to facilitate such exchanges.  He also reiterated 
USG support for English-language study and later that day, 
spoke at the launch of the English Access Microscholarship 
Program.  This program, a result of an Embassy-Freeport 
public-private partnership, helps 14-18 year old students 
from disadvantaged backgrounds with after-school English 
programs. 
 
PROGRESS ON HUMAN RIGHTS, DIALOGUE 
 
¶8.  (SBU) A wide range of civil society actors described a 
mixed but largely positive picture on human rights.  Fr. 
Neles Tebay, the Vicar General of Jayapura's Catholic 
Diocese, told the DCM that the military and police committed 
far fewer human rights violations than in the past.  Those 
incidents that did occur resulted from poorly trained and 
undisciplined personnel rather than an explicit policy to 
crack down on perceived Papuan separatism.  Despite this, 
Tebay expressed concern regarding what most Papuans believe 
to be an increase in the number of military personnel in the 
province.  (Note:  Some of these personnel are part of the 
effort to enhance security around Freeport's operations.)  He 
also said that security officials did not regularly provide 
information about punishment of military and police personnel 
who had committed violations. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Police Chief Bekto acknowledged past human rights 
abuses and outlined steps he was taking towards continued 
reform and accountability.  He criticized the "ethnocentric" 
views of some Jakarta officials in dealing with Papua issues. 
 Instead, the police had to do their job with an 
understanding of the Papuan perspective.  Key elements of 
this approach include working with tribal leaders in 
resolving conflicts and recognizing traditional Papuan 
customary law.  Bekto explained that the Indonesian National 
Police (INP) had adopted standardized procedures that were 
consistent with internationally recognized standards. As an 
example, he showed the DCM a copy of an INP handbook that 
outlined procedures for the use of force. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) The DCM noted the importance of transparency and 
urged Bekto to publicize the results of police investigations 
into alleged abuses.  For example, he noted that many Papuans 
had questioned the circumstances of Kelly Kwalik's death. 
Because the police had not put forward their version of 
events, rumors continued to circulate, including claims that 
Kwalik was unarmed or had been shot in the back.  Referring 
to the INP handbook on the use of force, Bekto explained that 
INP personnel had followed proper procedures in attempting to 
arrest Kwalik.  He said police fired only when they believed 
their lives to have been in danger.  He noted that none of 
the other people arrested at the time of Kwalik's death had 
been injured because none of them were armed and did not 
represent a threat to the police. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Key traditional and tribal leaders--a group often 
sympathetic to the separatist cause--told the DCM that they 
also saw some improvement in Papua.  They said that U.S. and 
other foreign training for the INP had helped bring about 
these improvements.  They encouraged the DCM to continue USG 
training for the police, including for the INP's Mobile 
Brigade (BRIMOB).  They also noted positively that the 
 
JAKARTA 00000121  003 OF 003 
 
 
government-linked Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) was 
organizing a Papua-Jakarta dialogue to address a range of 
outstanding issues, including the history of Papuan political 
grievances against the central government. 
 
 
HUME