Government accused of hypocrisy over Palestine, West Papua
Soreang Online - July 5, 2012
Bung Wir, Bandung -- Representatives of the Papuan people from the group National Papuan Solidarity (NAPAS) held a
protest action at the Merdeka Building on Jl. Asia-Afrika in the West Java provincial capital of Bandung on Wednesday
July 5.
During the action they said that Indonesian government is creating space and providing a place to resolve the Palestine
problem, meanwhile the conflict in Papua continues to this day and receives no attention.
According to national public relations officer of NAPAS, Frans Tomoki, in the 50 years since West Papua became a part of
the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), carnage, murder and terror has been continuously launched against
the Papuan people, simply in the economic and political interests of liberalism and capitalism that seeks to exploit
Papua's riches.
According to Amnesty International, two million Papuan people have perished at the hands of the Indonesian military, and
efforts at dialogue by Papuan social figures have invariably been rejected by the regime of President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono and Vice President Boediono, on various grounds.
The prolonged conflict that is taking place has resulted in a humanitarian crisis in West Papua. As a result the Papuan
people have remained poor compared with the Indonesian people outside of Papua.
The Indonesian delegation taking part in the International Conference For The Freedom of Al Quds and Palestine, which is
being held in Bandung on July 4-5 and attended by representatives from 135 countries, supported and recommended
Palestinian independence from Israel.
Meanwhile, the West Papuan people's fate has been the same as the Palestinian people, who are oppressed by Israel. The
Papuan people have been oppressed since the New Order regime of former President Suharto until now under the Yudhoyono
regime and the impression is that Papua is being allowed, even being turned into a map of conflict.
"Our struggle is indeed different from the people of Palestine, we are struggling through demonstrations while in
Palestine they struggle by taking up arms", said Tomoki.
Because of this therefore, we are demanding that the participants of the conference seek a resolution to the conflict in
Papua [by calling on] the Indonesian government to withdraw all organic and non-organic troops and the international
community to pay attention to the fate of the Papuan people.
ENDS