Politics
A Glimpse of Life In West Papua
’We have no free choice in our own land’
“Where I live, we are going through deep, deep suffering. People don’t realise this. Our people cannot bear it any longer. But there is nothing we can do. They have total control over our lives. There is no freedom to do whatever we want to do,” a West Papuan participant told a two-week Diplomacy Training Programme on Human Rights held at Port Moresby.
Rode Wanimbo attended the programme as a member and spokesperson of the Solidarity of West Papua Women. She was commenting on life in the western most province of Indonesia, which shares a common border with Papua New Guinea. “Everything we did was under the watchful eyes and at the approval of the Indonesian army. We have no free choice in our own land. The Indonesian army has absolute control over us. In fact, our lifestyle is based on the way we are controlled,” Wanimbo told Papua New Guinea’s The Independent newspaper during an interview.
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She spoke at length about the gross human rights abuses in the province. Though she did not discuss political issues during the interview, one of the latest human rights abuses was the murder of West Papua independence leader, Theys Eluay, by Indonesian special forces members last year.
According to Indonesian authorities, the seven members of the Kopassus force would be tried for crimes ranging from manslaughter to murder. The alleged “suppressive” tactics by the Indonesians saw the birth of Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM) or Free Papua Movement in 1970 - a separatist group which took up arms against the Indonesian government. They pursued a low-level guerrilla warfare that simmered for decades. More than 10,000 people have died in the warfare since the mid-1970s. Latest skirmishes between Indonesian forces and the OPM rebels were reported in December as well as last month.
Several people were injured in the shootouts between both sides with OPM rebels reportedly using the Papua New Guinea side of the border as protection. Papua New Guinea has beefed up its police and army presence on the border.
OPM commanders use violence while other West Papuan leaders are seeking recognition through the diplomatic process. But Papua New Guinea continues to regard West Papua as part of Indonesia, and so as Australia, the United States, and many other countries. Indonesia, however, is aware that there are many West Papuan sympathisers in Western nations and is conscious of their influence in light of recent border clashes.
Indonesia’s chief security minister warned Western nations in a media report in January to stop allowing separatists from West Papua to seek support, even borrowing a phrase from United States President George W Bush to emphasise his point.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s comments could signal a fresh crackdown against the pro-independence movement in West Papua. Yudhoyono said he was aware of “political elements” from West Papua going to many countries to get support, including the United States, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Since the world recognised Indonesia’s sovereignty over West Papua, these people should not be allowed to seek fertile ground for their activities, he said.
“We will ask that no room be provided in those countries for raising the seedlings of separatist movements,” Yudhoyono told a news conference in Jakarta to mark the year-end. If President Bush says the enemy of the United States is terrorism and countries that harbour terrorism, by the same token, Indonesia must say our enemy is separatism and countries which protect separatism in Indonesia.”
Yudhoyono said Jakarta would approach various nations using “rational” diplomacy over West Papua. He did not say what he meant by allowing separatists to seek fertile ground abroad, although pro-independence West Papuan leaders travel to the West to try and raise support for their cause or attend conferences.
Despite the stand by Indonesia, the value of relationships established between West Papuan leaders and other leaders over the years, especially in the South Pacific region, are more than just relationships. This was highlighted in a report prepared for the Australian Council for Overseas Aid (AFOA) in 2001. The report was updated in 2002. The report placed into perspective the relationship between West Papuan and Pacific leaders over the years. The report said there are many people in the Pacific that for historical and cultural reasons, view West Papua as part of Melanesia and the wider Pacific region.
AFOA is the coordinating body for some 100 Australian non-government organisations in Australia and administers a Code of Conduct committing members to high standards of integrity and accountability. The report said: “Under Dutch administration, West Papuans were active in regional Pacific meetings and participated in the founding of key regional bodies, before Indonesia’s take-over in the 1960s severed links with other island peoples.”
It said in 1950, Pacific Islands delegates came together in Suva, Fiji, for the first South Pacific Conference. West Papuan leaders Marcus Kaisiepo and Nicolas Jouwe from the colony of Dutch New Guinea joined fellow Pacific Islands delegates at this important regional meeting of the newly formed South Pacific Commission.
“In the 1960s, West Papuans were studying at the Fiji School of Medicine and the Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji. Pacific churches worked together to found the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) after the Malua Conference of Churches and Missions in Samoa in 1961.
“At this founding meeting, a church delegation came from Dutch New Guinea, with Reverend Kabel and Reverend Maloali of the Evangelical Christian Church joining fellow Christians from around the region to establish the regional ecumenical body,” the report said.
It said West Papuan exiles have played a vital role in Papua New Guinea - in government, the media, civil society organisations, University of Papua New Guinea and the education department - since they left their homeland in the late 1960s.
“Some Pacific Islands governments are providing increased support for West Papua’s quest for independence. At the September 2000 United Nations Millennium Summit in New York, leaders from Nauru, Vanuatu and Tuvalu raised the West Papuan issue - the first countries to declare support for West Papuan independence at the United Nations.
“Four West Papuan leaders were given official delegate status at the 31st Pacific Islands Forum in October 2000 as members of the Nauru delegation. At the Kiribati Forum, Vanuatu, Nauru and other countries supported the push for human rights in the troubled country, while they deferred to Australian and Papua New Guinea sensitivities by acknowledging Indonesia’s political sovereignty.
The Forum governments issued an unprecedented statement calling for peaceful dialogue on the future of West Papuan people and an end to human rights abuses. West Papuan Presidium member Franzalbert Joku welcomed the statement: “After four decades, we are back in our natural habitat, the South Pacific.” West Papua remained on the agenda of the 2001 Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru even though West Papuan representatives were refused visas to lobby delegates at the meeting.
But West Papuan leaders welcomed the Forum’s April 2001 decision to accept Indonesia as a post-Forum ‘dialogue partner’, as they seek international support for a peaceful dialogue with the Indonesian government. The report said: “For more than 20 years, Australia was one of the few countries to give de jure recognition to Indonesian sovereignty over Timor Lorosa’e. But it only changed its policies after the massacres committed by military-backed militias.
“West Papua could become a central issue for AusAID and ACFOA in the coming years, with the danger that a foreign policy and humanitarian disaster will be played out in the same manner and scale as in East Timor,” the report said.
