Media release- West Papuan Solidarity Groups meet in Sydney
2 March 2011
West Papuan solidarity groups met in Sydney on the 26 February to discuss issues of concern in relation to West Papua
including the deteriorating human rights situation.
National Conference of Solidarity groups- Sydney 26 February 2011
"West Papua[1] an issue whose time has come".
Self-determination.
The delegates reaffirmed the right of the West Papuan people to self-determination, in accord with the demands of the
West Papuan people themselves.
Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG)
It was noted that the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) is to allow Indonesia and Timor Leste to attend as observers at
the MSG leaders summit in Suva on the 31March.
We call on the MSG to rescind the offer of observer status to Indonesia and instead to offer observer status to those
representatives of the Melanesian people of West Papua involved in the independence struggle, a precedent previously
being given by the MSG to colonised peoples of the Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS) of Kanky
(New Caledonia).
Pacific Islands Forum
The 42nd Meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum will be held in New Zealand in September 2011. This year is the 40th
anniversary of the Forum and it is now time to bring the Melanesian people of West Papua back into the Pacific
community. (A West Papuan representative attended the first SPC Conference and West Papuans continued to participate in
the SPC meetings until the Dutch ceded their authority to the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) in
1962.) In recent years the PIF has expanded the various categories for those who can attend as observers, New Caledonia
and French Polynesia, previously Forum Observers, were granted Associate Membership in 2006. Current Forum Observers
include Tokelau (2005), Wallis and Futuna (2006), the Commonwealth (2006), the United Nations (2006) and the Asian
Development Bank (2006), with Timor Leste as Special Observer (2002).
Why not West Papua?
We believe the Pacific Islands Forum countries must engage with Indonesia over the issue of West Papua and the Forum
should be vigorous in condemning the human rights abuses that are ongoing in West Papua
The Indonesian security forces
It is in the interest of the military to provoke and prolong conflict in West Papua in order to prove that they are
needed to maintain law and order and control so called separatists groups. In fact the main aim of the military in
Indonesia appears to be revenue raising. The Indonesian military receive approximately 30% of their budget from the
government and must raise the rest themselves. Much of this is done through illegal means such as illegal logging,
mining and offering to provide so called security to international companies such as the Freeport copper and gold mine.
With Indonesian law requiring the military to divest such business activities, shell companies are now being used by the
military to continue the same operations.
In December cables released by WikiLeaks in relation to West Papua confirmed what NGOs have been telling their
governments for years, that it is the Indonesian military that are one of the main problems in West Papua. The cables
revealed that US diplomats blame the government in Jakarta for unrest in West Papua due to neglect, corruption and human
rights abuses. That Indonesian military commanders have been accused of illegal logging operations and drug smuggling
from West Papua into Papua New Guinea
We call on the Australian Government to re- think its policy of ties with the Indonesian military until such time that
Indonesian military personnel involved in past human rights abuses are brought to justice and the culture of the
Indonesian military becomes of an acceptable standard to both the Australian people and Australian military. In the
short term we urge the Government to put a moratorium on the training, funding and any ties between the Australian
military, Detachment 88 and the special forces unit Kopassus, until a full inquiry is held into the activities of these
units in relation to human rights abuses in the archipelago.
The Threat to West Papua’s forests
West Papua contains some of the last great tracts of undisturbed rain forest in the Asia-Pacific region. Natural forest
cover is still approximately 70% of the territory however, there is no doubt that the rich, bio-diverse forests of West
Papua are coming under major threat as the Indonesian government looks to replace the exhausted forests resources in
Sumatra and Kalimantan. The main threats include logging (both legal and illegal), oil palm plantations, proposed food
estates, pulp and paper industry although transmigration sites and mining areas have also impacted on the forests of
West Papua. West Papuas forests are not only important for the West Papuan people who should own them but also to the
global community. There is no doubt the importance of forests to protect against climate change and the global community
should be doing all it can to protect West Papuas forests and to ensure that it is the people of West Papua that benefit
from proposed REDD schemes.
ENDS