Port Vila ACP-EU heard that more 1 000 West Papuans killed
West Papuans were never allowed the proper act of self-‐determination guaranteed by the inalienable right to self-‐determination as expressed in UN human rights Covenants and by the 1962 New York Agreement, a treaty between the Netherlands and Indonesia handing provisional administration of the territory from one country to the other.
Indonesia arrived in West Papua in 1963 and immediately began violently suppressing all West Papuan aspirations for independence.West Papuans have suffered horrendously under Indonesian rule, including thirty years under the Suharto dictatorship and now nearly twenty under a more democratic, but ultimately colonial, regime. More than a hundred thousand (and perhaps hundreds of thousands) have died because of Indonesia’s annexation. Human rights violations, amounting to ‘crimes against humanity’, continue with impunity.
Indonesian state authorities, Indonesian settlers and Indonesian (as well as foreign) companies have steadily but surely assumed control over every aspect and arena of West Papuan life. Indonesian claims to have developed West Papua’ ignore the fact that development has primarily benefited Indonesians not Papuans.Ethnically, culturally and politically, West Papua is part of the Melanesian Pacific, not Southeast Asia. Papuans are black-‐skinned Melanesians like the people in neighbouring Papua New Guinea, the Solomons Islands, and Vanuatu.Indonesia and especially its security forces treat West Papuans as sub-‐human because of this racial difference.For decades, the Indonesian government has sent tens of millions of Indonesians from more densely populated regions to its outer, more sparsely populated islands, including West Papua..A parallel voluntary migration continues to this day. In the early 1960s, indigenous Papuans constituted 97% of the population.Today, Papuans are almost a minority in the territory and are already outnumbered in the towns and cities, along the coasts and in the major areas of plantation agriculture. Their culture, the very names of their places, their words and rhythms, the skills, traditions and knowledge that have served for millennia, are being discounted, wiped out, leaving them bewildered and unprepared in an alien world.
Amnesty International has estimated that more than one hundred thousand (or about 10 percent of the population) have been killed by Indonesian security forces. Other estimates of the deaths, are in the several hundred thousands, one quarter or more of the indigenous Papuans.
On-‐going violations of the human rights of indigenous West Papuans, including torture, extra-‐judicial execution, forced disappearances and the beating and shooting of peaceful protestors, amounting in some instances to ‘crimes against humanity,’ with estimates ranging up to a half-‐million killings during Indonesia’s 54 year occupation of the territory
A Yale University report is one of several defining Indonesian rule as genocidal.
The worst period of killing occurred during the 1970s and 1980s, at the height of the Suharto military dictatorship, when West Papua was officially a “military operations area.” Although an even greater percentage of East Timorese likely died after Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975, the exterminationist violence employed is the same and Indonesian racist attitudes of superiority towards “subhuman” black Papuans is greater still.
CALL for ACP-EU Resolution on West Papua
· ACP-EU Parliamentarians can voice their concern and they can support Papuan rights, including the right to self-‐determination by rallying to the call from the 8 Pacific Island Countries for justice and respect for the right to self –determination.
· They can get regional and global intergovernmental bodies such the African Union, CARICOM and other regional and sub-regional multilateral bodies to pass resolutions and restrict commercial and other relations with Indonesia.
· As member states of the United Nations ACP –EU countries can insist on an internationally supervised referendum on independence (or at least the re-‐listing of West Papua as a non-‐self-‐governing territory).
· Support with one voice the proposed resolutions in the upcoming Joint ACP-EU parliament meeting in month of October and also the resolution on West Papua to be adopted at ACP Council of Ministers meeting in November 2017
· Call on ACP-EU Parliamentarians to urge their respective governments to address the issue of West Papua at the multilateral level and assist Indonesia to resolve this 54 year crisis.
Even though the delegation of West Papua arrived late today at the ACP-EU 14th regional meeting, ACP member countries have agreed to raise the issue of human rights violation in West Papua. West Papua is not member of ACP but member countries said that West Papua is member of Pacific countries.
Member of Parliament of Santo constituency, Marco Mahe said that the ACP countries have endorsed the issue of violation of human rights in West Papua during their separate meeting this before the official opening of regional meeting of the joint ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.
Mr Mahe said the issue of human rights violation in West Papua cannot be tolerated. He said that Vanuatu delegation at the meeting have agreed that the leader of the opposition Ishmael Kalsakau will stand in front of the assembly on their behave.This morning there was two separate meetings before the official opening by the President of the Republic of Vanuatu, Pastor John Tallis Obed. The ACP separate meeting was chaired by the ACP Parliamentary Assembly and co-President of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly, Ibrahim R.Bundu. West Papua is represented at the meeting by Mote Octavianus.Ibrahim R.Bunda and Marco Mahé
EMTV – rliosi – The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) is considering a full membership application by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua.
Indonesia currently has associate member status with the MSG and is strongly opposed to West Papua being granted full membership.
It is Indonesia’s view that West Papua already falls under their (Indonesian republic) representation in the MSG.
Foreign Ministers of the MSG member countries met yesterday evening in Port Villa to discuss guidelines which relate to the bid by West Papua for membership in the group.
Solomon Island’s foreign minister, Milner Tozaka, said the MSG leaders in July requested legal clarification on guidelines for membership.
“So that request has been attended to appropriately by the legal people and they have made a recommendation to be used for the foreign ministers to look at and then we will recommend it to the leaders for endorsement,” he explained.
Tozaka confirmed that there won’t be a decision on the Liberation Movement’s application however he did say that they already have observer status.
MSG countries that have shown their support for the Liberation Movements full membership include Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and the FLNKS Kanaks movement.
Papua New Guinea and Fiji, have however leaned towards the Indonesian side on this issue.
Vanuatu’s Prime Minister, Charlot Salwai, said his country’s foreign policy remained firm that Vanuatu is not completely free of colonial bondage until all of Melanesia is free.
There are questions over the effectiveness of a push by Indonesia to have Australia lean on Pacific countries to not talk about West Papua.
Ryamizard Ryacudu Photo: SONNY TUMBELAKA / AFP
Indonesia’s Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu has urged Australia to rebuke Pacific states, in particular Solomon Islands, for raising Papua in global fora.
He urged Canberra to speak to Honiara on the matter because Australia contributes a big aid package in the Solomons.
Pacific leaders at the UN General Assembly expressed concern about human rights abuses in Papua. Top L to R: Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai; Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare; Tonga Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva. Bottom L to R: Nauru President Baron Waqa; Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine; Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga Photo: UN Photo
A Research Fellow at the Australian National University’s State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program, Stewart Firth, said Jakarta has misinterpreted Australia’s relationship with Pacific countries.
“These are sovereign states. And in particular in the case of Solomon Islands, Solomon Islands has a right to do that [speak out about West Papua] as a sovereign country, and Australia’s not in a very good position to tell them differently”, Dr Firth said.
“The one thing that Pacific Island countries really value is their sovereignty.
“Of course there continues to be big bilateral aid, but that doesn’t mean you can then determine a country’s foreign policy,” he said.
Dr Firth said Jakarta’s sensitivity is evident in multiple representations on the matter by government ministers.
“What’s worrying the Indonesians is the way in which this whole question of membership in the MSG has assumed a kind of symbolic political value to West Papuan independence activists,” he said.
“And earlier this year we saw major demonstrations in a number of towns in West Papua, for which people were arrested and so on, because they were demonstrating in favour of West Papuan membership in the MSG.”
Jakarta, Jubi – The Association of Indonesian Muslim Intellectuals (ICMI) condemned the statement by Pacific countries’ leaders for what it called their meddling in Indonesia’s affairs over West Papua.
ICMI Deputy Chairman Priyo Budi Santoso in a press release received in Jakarta on Thursday (29/9/2016) accused those Pacific leaders of intervening concerning West Papua.
“Pacific countries should not intervene the internal affairs of Indonesia with provocative statements that the West Papua should be given their rights for self-determination,” said Priyo.The Prime Minister of Solomon Islands Manasye Sogavere said there have been the human rights violations in West Papua, therefore the people should be given the rights for self-determination through a referendum to decide whether they would stay with the Republic of Indonesia or build their own state.
Priyo asserted that West Papua Province could not be separated from Indonesia. So, if there are problems, the one who should be responsible to resolve it is the Indonesian Government, not other countries.
“So, if there are problems in West Papua, the Indonesian Government has responsibility to resolve it”. According to him, the open statement by the Pacific countries has been disturbed and intervened the internal affairs of Indonesia in the UN forum.
“As the neighbor countries, they shouldn’t do it, because the problems occurred in West Papua is the internal affairs of Indonesia as the sovereign country and the member of the United Nations,” said Priyo.
He urged the Indonesian Government to explicitly condemn the provocative act by Pacific countries against West Papua. In their statement, ICMI is clearly support the Unitary State of the Republic Indonesia or death! and West Papua is part of the Republic Indonesia, therefore it should be kept under the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia. (*/rom)
Indonesia has asked Australia to caution its Pacific Island neighbours against interfering in the West Papua issue and to urge them to withdraw support for West Papuan membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, warning that the issue could pose a “stumbling block” to closer bilateral ties.
Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu told The Australian yesterday he made the request to Australia’s defence and foreign ministers during their annual meeting in Bali last week and “the response has been good. It is unlikely they will refuse”.
“I have told Australia … we should maintain our close relationship and not let issues like this be a stumbling block to our relationship,” he said.
At Friday’s ministerial meeting, Australia and Indonesia also agreed to consider joint patrols of areas of the contested South China Sea and pirate-infested Sulu Sea between Indonesia and The Philippines. That will likely be discussed further when Indonesian President Joko Widodo makes his first official state visit to Australia on Sunday.
General Ryamizard’s decision to publicly raise the West Papua issue appears designed to pressure Canberra into adopting a stronger public defence of Indonesia’s position.
The bid for West Papuan membership of MSG, likely to be decided by year-end, has become a rallying point for the Free West Papua movement, which argues that the territory’s UN-supervised vote to stay with Indonesia in 1968 was secured by cheating and military intimidation.
Indonesia is an MSG associate but is lobbying hard against Papuan admission since the United Liberation Movement of West Papua gained observer status last year.
The group’s chairman, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, champions West Papuan representation. He was one of seven Pacific leaders to speak out against human rights abuses in the Papua provinces and to support self-determination at last month’s UN General Assembly.
After the ministerial meeting on Friday, General Ryamizard said: “I have told Australia we never interfere with the internal affairs of any other country and we will strongly object if other countries do so to us.
“So please tell Solomon Island and those six nations (from the MSG) never to interfere or encourage West Papua to join them.
“Those countries better keep their mouths shut and mind their own business. It is better that (Australia) speaks to them gently. If it was left up to me, I would twist their ears.”
John Blaxland, of ANU”s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, said Canberra would have little choice but to speak to the Solomons (which gets $162 million Australian aid this year) and “remind them of which side their bread is buttered”.
However, the Indonesian minister’s public statements were “extremely unhelpful” because they brought the issue into the open, which was wanted only by pro-independence activists. Dr Blaxland, said it was “completely toxic for Australia”.
“The restoration of the bilateral security relationship is predicated on us being supportive over West Papua and the Indonesians are acutely sensitive to Australia’s role in that.
“We can’t afford for West Papua to sour relations between Australia and Indonesia when there are so many other issues on the agenda dependant on us maintaining an even keel in that relationship,” he added.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop yesterday confirmed West Papua was discussed at last week’s meeting but would not say whether Australia would pass on Indonesia’s message to Pacific Island nations.
Port Vila – DailyPost – Vanuatu Prime Minister has reiterated the government and the country’s stand for the independence of West Papua and New Caledonia, as unchanged.
Prime Minister Salwai, made the statement Tuesday afternoon when he officiated at the opening of a Kanaky-West Papua Exhibition at the National Cultural Centre in Port Vila.
He said despite Vanuatu being supportive of the New Caledonia Government, and that of French Polynesia for them to become members of the Pacific Islands Forum, this does not change the stand of Vanuatu and the people of Vanuatu which remains strong and unchanged for West Papua and New Caledonia and French Polynesia towards self-governing.
The Vanuatu Prime Minister went further to stressed that the exhibition is a self-evidence of the desire for the Melanesian people of Kanaky, West Papua to run their life and freedom
He said emphasized that Vanuatu continues to support their struggle for freedom of the two Melanesian neighbours at regional and international level. Prime Minister Salwai pointed out that the recent call by Vanuatu in support for their freedom was at the United Nations Meeting in New York.
He assured the people of West Papua who organized the exhibition that Vanuatu’s position in support of West Papua becoming member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) remain unchanged.
Prime Minister Salwai, said the MSG Meeting that was supposed to have taken place in Port Vila week before last, will now take place in December of this year, to address the application of West Papua to become member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, MSG.
The Vanuatu West Papua Association is hosting a “Wantok Summit” for Free West Papua Civil Society Organization support group in the Melanesian region of Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Kanaky, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and West Papua at the Vanuatu Christian Council (VCC) office, 8.30 am today.
The Summit is being held in parallel with the MSG Leader’s Summit in Port Vila which the Daily Post understands will take place on the 3rd and 4th of October 2016. The theme for the Melanesian Associations in support for West Papua full membership in the MSG is “Melanesian Solidarity”.
According to the Chairman of the Vanuatu West Papua Association, Pastor Allan Nafuki, the three-day summit will focus on the issues of Defining “Melanesia; its cultures, language heritage, ethnicity, Impact of colonization on Melanesian solidarity, how Melanesian countries are advocating for Melanesian Solidarity, Restoring the Melanesian Solidarity and what can Melanesians do together in this regard and winding up the Summit with a Melanesian Government heads Reconciliation customary ceremony on Saturday to be facilitated by the Vanuatu Malvafumauri National Council of Chiefs.
Some prominent Melanesian figures behind the support for West Papua full MSG membership include; Benny Wendy, Spokesman for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, Damson Faisi, Chairman of the Solomon Islands in Solidarity for West Papua, Joko Peter Kassey, of the Free West Papua –PNG Chapter and West Papua Refugee Relief Association, Inco, as others from Fiji and Papua New Guinea were expected to be in Port Vila for the summit.
Without commenting further, the Chairman of the Vanuatu West Papua Association Pastor Allan Nafuki, said a press communiqué will be issued at the end of the summit on the resolutions.
he United Nations General Assembly Hall where leaders convene every September to discuss UN Agendas in the world.
By PM Press, Prime Minister Hon Manasseh Sogavare has reiterated Solomon Islands call on the United Nations for the recognition of Taiwan and expressed concern about the human rights violations in West Papua when he addressed the 71st United Nations General Assembly yesterday, Friday 23rd September.
Solomon Islands commits a section in its annual address to the United Nations General Assembly to call on the UN for the recognition of Taiwan and when reiterating that call yesterday, the Prime Minister said, “Solomon Islands recognises the fundamental right of Taiwan’s 23 million people to participate meaningfully in the United Nations specialised bodies.”
However, the Prime Minister said Solomon Islands finds Taiwan’s limited and restricted participation with the World Health Organisation regrettable, especially at a time when the spread of infectious diseases is impacting children and needs everyone to assist.
He said similarly, Taiwan remains unjustly on the fringes of the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s decision-making process despite managing more than a million flights or 58 million passengers through ‘Taipei Flight Information Region.’
“We (therefore) call for Taiwan’s open and free access to all WHO meetings and also call for Taiwan’s predictable and certain participation in ICAO gatherings.
“There has always been two political systems along the Taiwan Strait and the reality is the world works with one and turns a blind eye to the other.”
He said the implementation of the (UN) 2030 Agenda calls for all hands on deck and therefore the UN must put the interest of humanity first and work with all including Taiwan.
On the issue of human rights violations in West Papua, the Prime Minister said Solomon Islands is gravely concerned about the human rights violations against Melanesians in that region.
And he added that the human rights violations and the pursuit for self-determination of West Papua are two sides of the same coin.
“Many reports on the human rights violations in West Papua emphasise the inherent corroboration between the rights to self-determination that results in direct violations of human rights by Indonesia in its attempts to smother any form of opposition.”
The Prime Minister said, “The principle of sovereignty is paramount to any institution whose core rationale is the respect for sovereignty. If the justification of sovereignty rests on a series of decisions that are questionable, then there is a case to challenge the legality of the argument of sovereignty.”
He added that, “As the chair of the Melanesian Spearhead Group that also includes Indonesia as an associate member and the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) as an Observer, Solomon Islands affirms the need for constructive engagement with Indonesia and looks forward in cooperating with Indonesia to address the violations of human rights in West Papua.
The Prime Minister also took the opportunity to reaffirm Solomon Islands support for the unalienable right of the people of the Territory of French Polynesia pursuant to annual resolutions of the UNGA beginning in 2013.
He said Solomon Islands continues to request the Administering power to work and cooperate with the UN Special Committee on the question of French Polynesia and C24 (UN Committee on Decolonisation).
The Prime Minister also made mentioned the question of New Caledonia on the United Nations Agenda.
He said the Melanesian Spearhead Group continues this issue and wished the people of New Caledonia all the best as they prepare to decide on their political future in 2018.
Vanuatu’s deputy prime minister says the strong support for West Papuans among the people of Melanesia should eventually translate to a co-ordinated regional response.
Joe Natuman admits there are differences of approach on Papua among member governments of the Melanesian Spearhead Group about the bid for full membership by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua. Ousted Vanuatu Prime Minister Joe Natuman
Deputy Prime Minster Joe Natuman. Photo: RNZI / Kim Baker-Wilson
Mr Natuman said there’s been a lot of lobbying of members by Indonesia’s government, with announcements of assistance to regional governments.
But he said people in Melanesia are firmly in support for helping Papua.
“The population in Melanesia, so far they have been very vocal. Before it was only Vanuatu, but now Solomons, PNG and Fiji. The Churches are involved, the chiefs are involved, the general populace are involved. And I sure that eventually they’ll force their attitude regarding human rights, and self-determination and independence in West Papua.”
Mr Natuman conceded that the MSG has been a bit compromised due to is budgetary shortfalls, forcing it seek more funding for its operations but he doesn’t think Indonesia’s promises of help are genuine.
EMTV 
