Stop Sudah English-revised-March2012 - International Center for ...

In particular, women become vulnerable to sexual violence when wives are used as bait to find the
‘OPM’ and when security forces are allowed to organize dance parties where young women, either
voluntarily or by pressure, are present. The absence of sanctions against security forces that commit
violence against women reinforces the cycle of impunity.
2. Discrimination against women in Papuan tradition and culture result in permittiing violence
against women. The indigenous people of Papua have experienced tremendous changes in a relatively
short time resulting in a shift of traditional values, including the pattern of relationships between men
and women. Violence against women is not a concern or an important part in the life of the indigenous
people themselves. There is no denying that the position of indigenous women in traditional institutions
is still unequal, where women do not have the opportunity to engage fully in decision-making about the
most basic issues related to customs, tribes, families, and individuals. When customs do not favor the
victim, cases of violence against women increase. It is possible that Papuan women can find their own
ways to correct the imbalance, but rapid changes in social life where forces outside the community itself
dominate (the central government, enterprise, migration, trade, liquor, localization of prostitution), mean
that women increasingly lose their space, and are increasingly vulnerable to imbalances in Papuan culture
itself.
Discrimination against women in the domestic sphere of Papuan culture continues in society, among
others, in the division of household labor, in the nurture and education of children in the household that
is a burden for women, in ownership and inheritance rights, for example, land and decision-making in
the family. This was also found in tribes that dwell in isolated and remote areas/villages that have no
access to the fulfillment of rights, such as formal and non-formal education, to information and
technology, or to markets although women form the backbone of the economy. In terms of the impact
on their health, women are particularly vulnerable because of cases of polygamy, and prearranged
marriage where women marry men as arranged according to custom. When subjected to violence,
custom does not protect or side with women, thus there are increasing cases of violence against women
and children. Conversely, in the public domain educated women in big cities have broad access to
decent work, although available employment opportunities are still limited.
3. Natural resource conflict, political conflict, and power struggles from the local to national
levels, foster a situation where both state and domestic violence against women is increasing.
Papua that is so rich in natural resources has become an area of struggle for natural resources,
competition for political sovereignty, and the struggle of local, national, multinational, and international
interests. Conflicts grow on top of conflicts, the boundaries of interests increasingly blurred. Demands
of mining company employees regarding their rights are manipulated by others to provoke a situation
that ultimately leads to tribal warfare. In the era of Papua’s Special Autonomy, there is consumerism and
abuse of power by those with access to power and Special Autonomy funds so that violence against
women and children is increasing, including cases of sexual abuse, infidelity, and polygamy. Various
forms of violence against women and children occur in regions where there is mining, oil palm
plantations, exchange of aloe lumber, fish industries, and localization of prostituion and entertainment
industries in the cities. On one hand, new industrial centers, such as fish and timber industries, are a
source of economic development that attract workers from outside that, in turn, are a factor driving the
spread of HIV/AIDS as seen in places such as Merauke, Timika, Merauke, Sorong, Biak, and Nabire. At
the same time, new investors employ more outside workers without efforts to protect the rights of
indigenous people of Papua. In this struggle, indigenous Papua women are increasingly marginalized,
and even become victims of violence in tribal war that then emerges, become vulnerable to HIV/AIDS,
and increasingly experience economic impoverishment, and social and political powerlessness.
4. There is not serious response and political will from the government to resolve the conflict in
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! 52