Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization

West Papua: Dialogue in a Harsh Reality  

Mr. Viktor Kaisiëpo, UNPO Member representative of West Papua, gave a presentation at the UNPO Secretariat on 21 June 2007, to brief on recent developments in as well as the historical context of West Papua. 

West Papua is one of UNPO’s founding Members, and denotes the western part of the island of New Guinea, bordering on the Moluccas in the West, Papua New Guinea in the East and Australia in the South. Its population is composed of at least 250 different tribes, most of them Melanesian peoples with their own language and culture. Christianity was introduced in the 19th century. With the immigration of Indonesians, Islam is gaining prevalence.

During his visit, Mr Kaisiëpo outlined the continuous struggle against the Indonesian oppression since the Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM, the Free Papua Movement) proclaimed the independence of West Papua in 1971. He emphasised in particular the way of forwarding the struggle with peaceful means, as an alternative to armed struggle.

“We have declared West Papua “Land of Peace” because we do not use weapons or armed resistance anymore, we took our once armed resistance out of the forest and brought them into the cities to work on advocacy, diplomacy and non-violent action”, Mr Kaisiëpo said.

Mr Kaisiëpo used the opportunity to emphasize that despite the Special Autonomy Law that came into force in 2000, there is still no real autonomy and West Papuans still suffer many forms of discrimination and disadvantages: “It is not just a matter of gaining political independence but also to take control of your own natural resources, that is the only way to obtain means for developing infrastructure and economic progress.”

West Papua is rich in natural resources such as gold, silver, natural gas, copper, timber, etc. These resources are being exploited and ever since Indonesia took over West Papua, its government has been taking full advantage of those resources, while few profits are returned to West Papua. During the last 30 years, vast areas of West Papua have been granted as concessions to multinational, transnational and Indonesian mining, oil and logging companies without consultation with, or approval of, the indigenous peoples who have inherited these lands from their ancestors who held them for 40,000 years.

Mr Kaisiëpo regretted to see how foreign companies make a lot of money at the expense of the local people who hardly get a single per cent of the total generated income. Emphasizing the seriousness of the political struggle for self-determination, Mr Kaisiëpo noted: “We have to understand that the challenge today is no longer the decolonisation process of the past, today our real challenge is globalization.”

While sharing his views on UNPO’s aims and mission, Mr Kaisiëpo warned the unrepresented peoples against any form of despair in their struggle to make their concerns properly addressed by the international community, saying that all the UNPO Members should realise that when they commit to an organisation such as UNPO they are actually committing to themselves: “We did not create UNPO to replace us, an organisation like this will not do the work for you, UNPO is here because many Members do not have the expertise and UNPO is here to assist and provide those elements and skills needed for capacity building.”

Based on the principles of protection of human, economic and cultural rights, Mr Kaisiëpo insisted that Members must determine where they want to be in the upcoming years in order to move forward in the right direction.

“I have committed myself to dialogue even if, as some of my people say, I have to sit with the enemy… we must go beyond the principles and become more pragmatic, this is the only way to build bridges between National States and the unrepresented peoples.”

Mr Kaisiëpo finally expressed his solidarity with the rest of the UNPO fellow Members which are still struggling in different arenas, acknowledging the value UNPO has for its many and diverse Members.

Those attending the presentation found it an invaluable opportunity to collect first hand and valuable information from one of the UNPO founders, learning from the achievements, difficulties and overall experiences of UNPO Member West Papua and its representative in the struggle for freedom and human rights, as well as self-determination related to natural resources and socio-economic development.