A new Amnesty International report sheds light on the abuses and murder of West Papuans by the Indonesian police and military. The report documented 69 cases of extrajudicial killing between 2010 and 2018, in which 95 people were murdered.
The cases in the Amnesty report range from military personnel disrupting social events and killing attendees to the targeting of striking workers and pro-independence activists. 
The majority of murders have not been investigated, the culprits either getting away with a slap on the wrist or avoiding punishment altogether. In 82 percent of cases documented in the report, no-one has been held accountable.
West Papuans have struggled for self-determination for more than 50 years. They have faced extraordinary violence from the Indonesian state, which suppresses West Papuan national and cultural rights to entrench and maintain Indonesian nationalism. 
Sydney University researchers John Wing and Peter King estimate that at least 100,000 have been killed in the last half century.
The 2015 Indonesian Defence White Paper claimed that “separatism both advocated through armed or political movement” is one of main threats to the country’s sovereignty. So displays of national symbols, including the Morning Star flag, are illegal. Many killings that take place in West Papua result from police and the army firing directly at people participating in flag raising ceremonies or prayer ceremonies. 
West Papua is rich in minerals and other natural resources such as timber and natural gas. The Indonesian state ensures that maximum profits flow out of West Papua into the pockets of the few at the top.
In no case is this clearer than with the murder of Petrus Ayamiseba and Leo Wandagau in 2011, documented in the Amnesty report. Ayamiseba and Wandagau were employed by the biggest copper and gold mining company in the country. They were shot and killed by Indonesian police during a protest of hundreds of striking workers demanding better wages.

Hamza Culin

Report documents extrajudicial killings of West Papuans

An attempted coup in Turkey has been blocked by mass mobilisations in defence of the elected government. The coup, reportedly organised by army officers loyal to Islamist figure Fethullah Gülen, started around 11pm on 16 July with a swift attempt to take control of Istanbul and the capital, Ankara.
In Istanbul, troops shut down Atatürk airport by turning the region surrounding it into a military zone. Tanks were stationed in front of the main entrances. The army also sent troops into Taksim Square and blocked traffic at the Bosporus bridges connecting the European and Asian sides of the city.
Troops occupied the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), from which the army was able to broadcast a statement giving justifications for the overthrow of the Justice and Development Party (AKP)-led government. These included president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s corruption, the lack of democracy and the government’s inability to defeat terrorism.
At midnight, the Turkish armed forces website claimed that the military had absolute control over the country. TRT and all other Turkish TV channels were promptly taken off air. The impression that the coup leaders were firmly in control was reinforced by the fact that troops were engaged in a hunt for Erdoğan and were besieging the AKP headquarters.
However, Erdoğan managed to conduct an interview via Face Time with CNN Türk. He called for the people to take to the streets to defend the government and Turkish democracy – a very ironic request, given Erdoğan’s history of quelling anti-government protests.
Nonetheless, in a matter of minutes, people started congregating in Taksim Square. The military was put on the back foot as soldiers seemed reluctant to shoot at protesters. Gunshots were fired in the air in a fruitless attempt to disperse the growing crowds. Similar crowds were gathering in squares and streets across the country. Within an hour, tens of thousands were rallying in Istanbul, Ankara and Gaziantep.
The protesters resisting the coup in Istanbul had their first victory at Atatürk airport, where, after a few hours of tense confrontation with the army, they managed to force the troops to withdraw. Similarly, in Taksim Square, the troops were quickly outnumbered by protesters and were forced to flee, in some instances even abandoning their armoured vehicles. In Ankara, the troops did not find it any easier.
The initiatives by citizens to resist the coup made it possible for sections of the state still loyal to the government to go on the offensive. Special forces were sent to arrest the troops and officers involved in the coup attempt. Factions within the military that were passive at the beginning began to move into action. Finally, Erdoğan appeared at Atatürk airport to give a victory speech. By around 5:00am, the coup attempt was over.
This recent attempt is only the latest episode of a long history of successful and attempted coups by the Turkish Armed Forces, or sections within it, since 1960. However, this is the first coup attempt against the ruling AKP.
The tens of thousands who mobilised and defeated the military today might have not all been AKP supporters, but they were all against a military dictatorship that would have taken Turkey back to the time when citizens were tried in courts martial for speaking up against the state.
Most people in Turkey do not have favourable memories of the successive military regimes that ruled the country. They were always characterised by brutal repression and rampant corruption.
While Erdoğan and the AKP might have been saved this morning by the Turkish masses, the thing to be celebrated is the heroic fight put up by ordinary people to defend what remains of democracy in Turkey – the same democracy that Erdoğan and the AKP have been undermining since they gained office.

Coup attempt pushed back in Turkey

Oil prices reached a six-year low of US$42.23 a barrel in August.
Plunging prices have created gaping holes in the oil-rich Gulf states’ budgets – this year’s deficits for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are projected to be US$38.6 billion and US$27 billion respectively. This is hardly surprising, given that oil makes up about 80 percent of their exports.
The ruling classes of the Gulf states now are turning to austerity. They are attempting to fill the budget holes through spending cuts and by reducing subsidies. The diesel subsidy has been cut in Kuwait. In the oil-rich emirate of Abu Dhabi, utilities fees have been raised.
More serious attacks on the living standards of the working class are taking place in Oman. Last December, the Omani minister of finance, Darwish Al Balushi, declared , “[T]he salary increases for public servants promoted in 2010 will not be included in the 2015 budget due to the current situation regarding the oil prices”.
There are currently discussions about whether to reduce fuel and water subsidies. Subsidies for staple foods such as rice, flour and sugar, have already been reduced. Most of the food consumed in Oman is imported; many people now are finding it more difficult to buy staple foods.
“There is no positive change in regards to the [food] market prices, and the cost of living is increasing. When prices go up in our markets, they never come down”, said a working class person to the national newspaper, Oman Daily, in September.
The International Monetary Fund for some time has been pressing the country’s rulers to undertake more attacks. Ananthakrishnan Prasad, the IMF’s mission chief to Oman, warned the government in May: “The urgency for implementing fiscal reforms has increased”.
The same valuable advice was being shared with Saudi Arabia. In a 21 October Financial Times article, “Set out spending cuts, IMF tells Saudis”, Masood Ahmed, the IMF’s regional director, was quoted as saying: “There is a desire to start low so you get acceptance of the [sales] tax, but you need financing now”. Ahmed was guiding the Saudi government through implementation of the value-added tax (like the GST in Australia).
Academics and bourgeois economists were also called on to justify spending cuts and blame ordinary people for the state of government finances. Some of them went as far as blaming the Arab Spring for the budgetary problems, because it had made it hard for the poor Arab ruling classes to sustain their national economies while having to provide for all of those hordes of working class people.
Professor Martin Hvidt of Zayed University in Dubai is one who shares this point of view. “It has become quite a bit more expensive to be a state in the region following the Arab uprisings, calculated in the vicinity of 10 to 15 percent more costly following large [government] handouts”, Hvidt told Middle East Eye’s Paul Cochrane in April. “It will be hard to roll that back, but eventually that’s what will need to happen.”
The media in the Gulf states are ramping up the national unity rhetoric. Although nationalism is not new to state-owned TV channels in the Gulf, it has been taken to a whole new level recently. The news has special segments on the economic situation, in which a well-dressed guest economist spends no less than 10 minutes lecturing people on how to be real patriots in these difficult times and to expect to sacrifice for the good of the nation.
This is a textbook way to pass austerity by creating a sense of “we’re all in this together”.
But it is definitely not the case that rich and poor alike share the burden. While working class people are worried about whether they can pay their next electricity bill, the businessmen, sheikhs and monarchs of the Gulf continue enjoying their extravagant lifestyles.
Austerity in the Gulf, like everywhere else, is reserved only for the working class and the poor.

Austerity’s ill wind blows over the Gulf States

Migrant workers are suffering in the countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (CCASG). Despite being essential to Gulf economies, they endure horrible conditions comparable to 19th century slavery.
There are 16 million foreign workers in the CCASG countries – 40 per cent of the total population and more than 60 percent of the workforce. In Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, they are a majority of the total population; in the UAE, they account for more than 80 percent. In Qatar, migrants are 95 percent of the 1.3 million-strong workforce.
The employment of large numbers of foreign workers has been a structural imperative, because the oil-related industries depend on the import of foreign technologies and knowledge and skills lacking in the local population. Foreign workers have become the dominant workforce in many sectors.
Long working hours, unsafe conditions, unpaid wages and passport confiscation are some of the crimes committed against migrant workers across the CCAG countries.
Qatar in particular has a terrible record. While the ruling elite celebrate winning the right to host the FIFA world cup in 2022, workers are forced to work at breakneck speeds to build the infrastructure. They are paying with their lives.
Human rights organisation Pravasi Nepali Co-ordination Committee estimates that 400 Nepalese construction workers have died on building sites since works for the sporting event started. The fact that Nepalese workers are only 20 percent of Qatar's migrant workforce makes this statistic even more disturbing.
While the total number of deaths on construction sites is unknown, the International Trade Union Confederation estimates that 4,000 more workers could die in Qatar even before the World Cup kicks off.
None of this concerns the governments of oil-rich CCASG countries in the slightest. In fact, practices like passport confiscation aren’t punishable. Laws also deny workers the right to form trade unions.
Under the Kafala system, all migrant workers in the CCASG countries are required to have an in-country sponsor, usually their employer, who is responsible for their employment and legal status. Any violation can result in a worker being deported.
But not all foreign nationals in CCASG countries get treated this way. Rich foreign CEOs live in villas and gated communities, while migrant workers are forced to live in overcrowded labour camps. Their passports aren’t confiscated, and they always get paid on time.

Report documents extrajudicial killings of West Papuans

Coup attempt pushed back in Turkey

Austerity’s ill wind blows over the Gulf States

Slavery in the Gulf States

Other Media

Shop

Manage Your Subscription

Contact Us