Repression - CathNews New Zealand

Eight seminarians arrested in West Papua

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 18:03:13 +0000

Police in West Papua arrested eight seminarians, six Franciscans and two Augustinians, who were participating in a peaceful rally in front of Abepura's Good Shepherd Catholic Church on 8 October.

They were released after being held and interrogated for 90 minutes.

The demonstrators were calling on Indonesian President Joko Widodo to investigate the unresolved December 2014 killings of four student protesters.

Armed police broke up the demonstration and detained several people, including the seminarians.

"They, carrying weapons, got off their truck and seized all [belongings] such as posters that we brought," Yulianus Freddy Pawika, a Franciscan seminarian, told ucanews.com.

For the people at the protest the police actions indicate a larger problem.

"It shows that those fighting for human rights have become targets of violence committed by the police," said Peneas Lokbere, coordinator of the advocacy group Solidarity for the Victims of Human Rights Violations in Papua, which organized the Oct. 8 protest.

Father Neles Tebay, a priest who coordinates the Papuan Peace Network advocacy group, also questioned the police actions.

"Every peaceful protest is faced with a military approach," he said. "How can it be?"

In September, Bishop John Philip Saklil of Timika decried military and police aggression in Papua.

He highlighted five specific acts of violence, including an Aug. 28 case in which two soldiers were accused of firing on a graduation party in a church, killing two people.

Source

Eight seminarians arrested in West Papua

Indonesian security forces detain scores ahead of demonstration

admin — Thu, 02 May 2013 19:30:45 +0000

Indonesian police and army units have conducted heavily armed security sweeps across Jayapura ahead of planned mass demonstrations by civil society organizations, including the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Indonesia's annexation of West Papua.

The raids began at 3am local time on April 30, after the new Papuan Governor Lukas Enembe endorsed a decision by Chief of the (Indonesian) Papua Police, the Australian-trained former head of the notorious counter-terror unit Detachment 88, Inspector General Tito Karnavian, to criminalise all public gatherings for May 1. Karnavian made a statement saying that he will not tolerate dissent to be publicly expressed on May 1.

Police announced to Jayapura residents and rally organisers, that if demonstrations occured, they would first attempt to use persuasion to disperse the approach of rally participants, and if rally participants ignored persuasion, then they would use force and "destroy" any gatherings.

On May 1 both the Papuan Regional Police (Polda) and Indonesian Military (TNI) Command XVII/Cenderawasih were reportedly at full strength to "secure" actions that commemorate the annexation

Some of the rallies, in Jayapura and Sorong, were forcibly broken up by police.

Arnold Belau, a journalist from suarapapua.com reported that dozens of police (Polri) and military (TNI) trucks were driving through the streets of Jayapura. A number of trucks were parked in places that have been sites of regular protest action by Papuans in the past.

The police arrested six people in Ibdi village in Biak regency for commemorating the day as Papua's annexation by Indonesia and raising the Morning Star flag.

"The six people were arrested because they were flying the banned flag," Papua Police chief spokesman Sr. Comr. I Gede Sumerta Jaya said in Jayapura.

In Sorong one soldier was injured when security officers tried to break up a crowd commemorating the annexation. The Jakarta Post reported that he crowd refused to disperse and instead attacked security personnel using sharp weapons.

On May 1, 1963, United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) transferred administration of the Dutch colony of Netherlands New Guinea to Indonesia.

Source

Indonesian security forces detain scores ahead of demonstration

McCully will talk to Fiji about video

admin — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 18:30:20 +0000

Prime Minister John Key has expressed alarm over a video showing two men being beaten by Fiji police.

Key said the New Zealand government was taking reports of the attack seriously.

"And we expect the Fijian authorities to deal with them appropriately and hold those people who have undertaken those beatings to account," Key said.

"It's the sort of thing we worry an awful lot about," he said, adding that Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully would be raising the attack with his counterpart, Inoke Kubuabola.

On Tuesday the New Zealand Parliament will vote on a cross-party motion calling on Fiji to uphold United Nations conventions against torture and human rights.

The resolution will formally condemn the violence and call on Fiji's military government to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman, Phil Goff, is introducing the motion to parliament.

Fiji's interim Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama has come out in strong support for the police involved in the beating shown on the video.

Speaking to the website Fijivillage, he said the escaped prisoners had terrorised Fiji before being caught.

"At the end of the day, I will stick by my men, by the police officers or anyone else that might be named in this investigation," he told Fijivillage.

Source

McCully will talk to Fiji about video

Exploited Fijian women work 7 days a week for NZ$40

admin — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 05:25:56 +0000

A Wellington business woman is in court on a charge that she exploited Fijian women who say that she treated them as slaves.

Two Fijian women have described how for months they worked seven-day weeks for $40 (US$30) in the home of the Wellington businesswoman who is charged with exploiting them.

"I was just like a slave to them. I did not feel free at all," one of the women said in a written statement, included in court committal papers obtained by The Dominion Post.

She was told that, if she didn't like her conditions, she could go to work at a strip club.

Her former boss faces 12 charges, including exploiting people not entitled to work in New Zealand by not paying the minimum wage or holiday allowances, providing false information to an immigration officer, and helping or procuring a breach of a visitor's visa.

Exploited Fijian women work 7 days a week for NZ$40

Cuba: New wave of repression

admin — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 19:30:35 +0000

Four days after Pope Benedict left Cuba, 43 dissidents have been detained in Cuba in a new wave of repression.

Former political prisoner Jose Daniel Ferrer and his wife, Belkis Cantillo, a member of the Women in White, were among those arrested.

"We have been able to confirm that 43 dissidents have been detained - 10 women and 33 men - during the wave of repression on Monday in Santiago de Cuba, and all remain under arrest," Elizardo Sanchez of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights said on April 4.

He said that most of them belong to the Patriotic Union of Cuba, a dissident movement that supports a peaceful transition to democracy.

In a statement sent to CNA on April 4, the Patriotic Union of Cuba said the repression began on Monday morning, when ten activists in the town of El Caney "gathered at the home of coordinator Guillermo Cobas to peacefully protest" the incarceration of Andres Carrion Alvares, Rogelio Tabio Lopez and Bismark Mustelier Galan.

Sources

CNA
Image: Bloomberg

Cuba: New wave of repression

Violence at West Papua National Congress

admin — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:30:33 +0000

The leader of Papua's Baptist church says about one-thousand representatives of Papua's 250 tribes were gathered at Cenderawasih University for the third West Papua National Congress.

On Wednesday, the Reverend Socratez Sofyan Yoman says the university was surrounded by about two-and-a-half thousand Indonesian security personnel, both hidden and in cars.

"Round the congress is police and military TNI, they are watching there, they are there. They are put in their cars like the panther, but there's no problem. I think the international community is watching us, we aren't alone."

Reverend Socratez said the delegates want Indonesia, the United Nations and the international community to recognise their political right to self-determination.

However later on Wednesday Indonesian police fired tear gas and warning shots in eastern Papua on Wednesday, breaking up a meeting and detaining 300 people who had declared the province independent, a police spokesman told Reuters.

The detentions of members of the Papua People Congress follows a deadly clash between police and striking workers at Freeport's Grasberg copper and gold mine in the same province.

Source

Violence at West Papua National Congress

33% of world experiences increased restrictions on religion

admin — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 19:34:10 +0000

Restrictions on religion are on the rise according to the new Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life study.

Increased restraints on religious activity were now more noticeable in 23 countries, however restrictions were released in another 12 countries, the study showed.

The study also shows

intolerant countries growing more hostile to religious freedom, and tolerant ones growing more accommodating
more adverse government policies in countries such as France, Egypt, Algeria, Uganda
social hostility grew, in places like China, Nigeria, and Russia
among those nations where government restrictions declined, were: Greece, Togo, Nicaragua, Republic of Macedonia and Guinea-Bissau
it is scarcest in the Middle East and North Africa
Europe, however, has the largest proportion of countries where social hostilities related to religion rose
more than other groups, Muslims and Christians suffered harassment based on their religion
smaller religious groups that suffered disproportionately, the study found, included Jews
representing less than one percent of the world's people, Jews were harassed in 75 countries
North Korea, one of the most repressive regimes, could not be included for lack of reliable data
overall, about 70 percent of the world lives in nations with significant religious repression.

"There seems to be somewhat of a polarization," particularly in countries with constitutional prohibitions against blasphemy, said Brian Grim, the primary researcher of the report. "When you have one set of restrictions in place then it's easier to add on."

The report, took data from 198 countries and territories from 2006 through 2009. About 2.2 billion people live in nations where restrictions on religion have substantially increased the report showed.

Sources

33% of world experiences increased restrictions on religion

Some Pacific Islands fare poorly in Amnesty International report

admin — Mon, 23 May 2011 19:00:12 +0000

Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands have fared poorly in the Amnesty International report on human rights for 2010.

The report claims

Thousands of people in the Pacific are being denied social and economic opportunity
Human rights defenders have been threatened, imprisoned and tortured, and gender based violence is still a major issue in the region.
A report published by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community said that 68 percent of women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 had experienced physical and or sexual violence by their partners or family members.
In Fiji, the interim government's continued crackdown on its critics, and its repressive Public Emergency Regulations, which have just been extended until June.
The Papua New Guinea government has done little to address violence against women and sorcery-related killings.

Source

Radio New Zealand International
Image: Magznetwork

Some Pacific Islands fare poorly in Amnesty International report