In the preoccupation of Australia’s LNP leaders with far-off diplomatic challenges, local regional issues of human rights problems in West Papua are well off the local political radar. Should Australia have a more empathic interest in the welfare of the ethnically diverse population of 3.6 million in West Papua? By Denis Bright.
The 2016 Free West Papua Campaign seeks to rekindle interest in the status of West Papua. This resource rich territory covering almost 420,540 square kilometres was transferred to Indonesia after negotiation of the New York Agreement in 1962.
The Australian government seems to be deaf to the ongoing human rights problems in West Papua. Perhaps some advocacy is occurring through private diplomatic challenges.
Public conscious raising on such controversial issues is left to non-goverrnment organizations such as the Free West Papua Campaign, Amnesty International and progressive church groups like the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CJPC) in Brisbane.
The Free Papua Movement is helping to raise awareness of human rights problems in West Papua through musical events internationally and in Australia.
Rockin for West Papua is a worldwide music collaboration where musicians are performing in cities around the world this October to help bring West Papua to a global audience.
Launched in Australia earlier in 2016 so far there are gigs booked in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Darwin, Hobart, Perth, Byron Bay, Gold Coast, Lismore & Newcastle, Edinburgh UK, plus other musicians from UK, South Africa, New Zealand, the Pacific, and Europe joining us.
“We stand for Peace, Freedom and Self Determination in West Papua. We believe that music can rise above tyranny, we believe that we can fight with music as our weapon, and we believe we can use it to unite, to mobilise and resist oppression” (Ronny Kareni).
Support for West Papuan Resistance
The United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) was recently formed as an umbrella coalition for West Papuan resistance both in West Papua and in supporting neighbouring countries, including Australia in 2014.
While repression of the ULMWP in West Papua itself by the Indonesian military, police and private security firms has intensified since the formation of this umbrella resistance organization. More emphasis has been placed on support groups operating in adjacent countries.
The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) draws its support from the governments of PNG, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Kanak Opposition parties in New Caledonia. The nucleus of MSG was established in 1986 and maintains an administrative office in Vanuatu.
Since 2015, ULMWP has observer status at MSG Forums which are held in safe-havens away from Indonesian security controls. The new links had consequences for the ULMWP support base in West Papua as reported from the Stateless Nations Support Group:
West Papua’s bid for entry into the MSG saw a violent crackdown by the Indonesian army. On May 28, 2015 up to 82 West Papuans were jailed and tortured for their public support of MSG membership. More were fired on and beat with gun butts. The week before another 84 were arrested for the same reasons.
The Melanesian Spearhead Group was founded in 1986 to promote and strengthen trade, promote Melanesian cultures, further the economic growth of its members, sustainable development, good governance, and security. The Free West Papua movement believes that joining the MSG “Will have potentially emancipatory consequences for West Papuans, and could threaten Indonesia’s historic claim over the territory.” (Nationalia).
Human rights concerns about the situation in West Papua have added traction when they are raised in the UN General Assembly:
Pacific island countries have criticised Indonesia’s human rights record in its Papua and West Papua provinces, using speeches at the United Nations General Assembly to call for self-determination in the region.
The comments earned a strong response from Indonesia’s delegation, which said the criticism was politically motivated and designed to draw attention away from problems in their own countries.
Delegations from Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Tonga all expressed concern over the provinces, which are located on the western half of New Guinea island and are home to a mostly Melanesian population.
Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said alleged human rights violations in the Indonesian provinces were linked to the push for independence.
“Human rights violations in West Papua and the pursuit for self-determination of West Papua are two sides of the same coin,” he said. (ABC News Online 26 September 2016).
Occasional reports trickle of West Papua on the manner in which multinational mining companies in West Papua are complicit in both human rights abuses and environmental damage through their relationship with the regional administration of the Indonesian Government. The operations of the Arizona based Freeport mining operations have been a focus of criticism for the past 50 years of mining operations in West Papua:
“Freeport needs a lot of government security support to operate,” says Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher with Human Rights Watch.
“In remote areas like Papua, this means less monitoring and more potential rights abuses taking place in their mining operations.”
In fact, national police and military are in charge of ‘maintaining order’ so that copper and gold can be safely extracted, and tax revenues can flow into Jakarta.
Freeport’s massive Grasberg mine – one of the largest open-pit mines in the world, with a minority stake held by global mining giant Rio Tinto – is essentially closed off to outside access. (Papua New Guinea Mine Watch).
Officially the problems of human rights in West Papua is still in the too hard-basket. A now ageing Current Issues Parliamentary Brief invites caution in the handling of such sensitive issues in the interests of stability of relations between Australia and Indonesia.
Thus there aren’t really any choices for Australia either. While not wanting to exacerbate the very difficult situation that the Indonesian Government is in, Australia could quietly acknowledge its history and, indeed, seek to use it to convince Jakarta that it has a contribution to make. Australian decision-makers need to put an enormous effort into convincing Indonesia of its commitment to Indonesian sovereignty and to its stability. Recognising that so much of Indonesian stability generally could hinge on economic progress, this could include a major diplomatic effort to generate practical support for Indonesia as it seeks to meet the demands, in particular, of its Papuan, Moluccan and Acehese constituents. (Current Issues Brief 2000 Is West Papua another Timor?).
From an Indonesian perspective, the human rights and welfare of West Papuans is an internal matter which is being addressed through the Papuan People’s Assembly and the implementation of the Special Autonomy Law No.21/2001.
This progress has been evaluated in a Master’s level thesis by Muhammad Halmin of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. The thesis has been updated to an e.book in 2012.
Muhammad Halmin acknowledges some progress in the Indonesian management of its West Papuan Province with the following caveat:
The Indonesian government’s policy toward West Papua, which relies primarily on a heavy-handed security approach, is clearly one of the main sources of the West Papuans’ growing resentment. It is simply astonishing that, after more than three decades of integration into the Republic of Indonesia, the same problems and grievances as in the beginning continue to hamper the lives of West Papuans.
Criticism of Indonesia has been taking up by delegates from Australia’s Pacific neighbours in the UN General Assembly.
Pacific island countries have criticised Indonesia’s human rights record in its Papua and West Papua provinces, using speeches at the United Nations General Assembly to call for self-determination in the region.
The comments earned a strong response from Indonesia’s delegation, which said the criticism was politically motivated and designed to draw attention away from problems in their own countries.
Delegations from Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Tonga all expressed concern over the provinces, which are located on the western half of New Guinea island and are home to a mostly Melanesian population. (ABC News Online 26 September 2016).
The Australian Government seems to be out of step with regional opinion on the issue of human rights in West Papua. After a meeting with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, the Australian foreign minister the Hon Julie Bishop supported the continuation of Indonesian policies in West Papua as a largely domestic matter for Indonesia:
“Australia restated, as we have done on many occasions publicly and privately, our unconditional support and respect for Indonesia’s sovereignty in this regard,” she said. (ABC News Online 21 December 2015).
Pragmatic media communication games in the management of human rights issues in neighbouring countries reflect the LNP’s selective filtering out of human rights issues which might weaken strategic ties with Indonesia and continued co-operation with the implementation of the Pacific Solution for asylum-seekers to Australia.
Even for a future Labor Government, West Papua remains an ongoing agony for Australian policy-makers to strike the right balance between across the spectrum between permanent Indonesian occupation, greater regional autonomy with human rights safeguards and complete independence.
