NZ $6.3m aid plan under fire

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully.

A New Zealand police training project about to start in the troubled Indonesian territory of West Papua this year has been described by Papuans as "the same as sending money to kill us".

Police began training their Indonesian counterparts in 2009 in a pilot scheme.

Last October, Foreign Minister Murray McCully extended the project to a $6.34 million, three-year-long commitment.

"This is an excellent opportunity for New Zealand to contribute to Indonesia's peace and prosperity by improving professional community policing," he said.

But some Papuan lawyers, church leaders, human rights workers and journalists say local police actions have worsened since New Zealand's involvement, with Indonesia using it as a front to appease Western powers.

Interviews were collected over eight days in West Papua in July 2013 by journalist and academic Paul Bensemann. Because the Indonesian province restricts foreign reporters, he posed as a bird-watcher to gain access to 22 Papuan leaders and alleged victims of violence.

Prominent human rights leader Yosepha Alomang said that until 2011 the Indonesian military was responsible for most killings. "Now it is the police doing this. You [New Zealand] send aid money to them. It is the same as sending money to kill us."

Activist Paul Mambrasar said Indonesia was "using double standards in its policing".

The Indonesian Embassy in Wellington described the claims made to Bensemann as "a collection of negative opinions by sources that are mostly unreliable".