Time for West Papua to come in from the cold at the Pacific Islands Forum

The Indonesia Human Rights Committee is urging the New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark to advocate for the people of West Papua at the Pacific Islands Forum when it meets next week. This appeal is backed by other NGOs, including Pax Christi. Peace Movement Aotearoa and Christian World Service.

West Papuan people look to New Zealand to take a stand on their behalf in the light of our close cultural links to the Pacific and past peace initiatives.

IHRC has also written individually to each of the 16 Pacific Island Forum leaders urging that West Papuan representatives be given observer status at the Forum and calling for a human rights fact-finding mission to West Papua.

“It is way past time for West Papua to have a seat at the Forum table. It is great that other new observers are being accepted, such as East Timor, Tokelau and the French territories of New Caledonia and French Polynesia. But why no welcome mat for the West Papuans who are so much in need of regional support and so clearly part of the Pacific in terms of geography, history, culture and ethnicity.”

“Tragically, the Forum representations made about West Papua in 2006 have not been heeded. Repressive tactics continue and people and organisations who actively support human rights or political change are subject to surveillance, threats and harassment by the Indonesian security forces.”

“Access to West Papua is tightly constrained and the few foreign journalists who visit are tightly monitored and constrained by the Security Forces. The Jayapura military commander Col. Burhanuddin Siagian, who has been indicted for crimes against humanity in East Timor, threatens to ‘destroy’ supporters of independence.”

“The granting of observer status would give new visibility to the West Papuan issue and could well pave the way for the Forum to serve as an honest broker or mediator between the West Papuan people and the Indonesian Government.”

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