Appalled by the ongoing suffering of the people of West Papua under the Yudhoyono administration and the increased military and militia occupation of West Papua, we join our voices to those of the Irish Parliament and US Congress in support of the human rights of the West Papuan people. Aware that over ten thousand people withstood intimidation by the Indonesian authorities on 13th August 2005 to peacefully returned the 'Special Autonomy' to a government controlled from Java, an island in Asia; we call upon all members of the United Nations to urgently rise this issue in the General Assembly, and to support any efforts to allow NGOs and the media to have free and open access to the region and for the Indonesian government to now honor the promises of allowing the people decide their own sovereignty which Indonesia made on 1st February 1962 and in the New York Agreement of August that year.

Background in accordance with 'Findings' published in Section 1115 of the US Congress 2006 Foreign Relations Authorization Bill H.R. 2601 :

Western New Guinea (or West Papua), is a resource-rich province whose indigenous inhabitants are predominantly Melanesian, was formerly a colony of the Netherlands. While Indonesia has claimed Papua as part of its territory since its independence in the late 1940s, Papua remained under Dutch administrative control until 1962.

After Indonesian Foreign Minister Subandrio on 31st Jan. 1962 pledged Indonesia would honor all Dutch aims for Papuan independence and guaranteed the people would be allowed to decide their own sovereignty after ten or fifteen years by which time Indonesia would have proven its intentions. The United States, fearing that Indonesia would honor its threat of adopting communism and nationalizing foreign businesses if the world community did not submit to its demands for possession of West Papua. The United States did coerce the Netherlands into secret negotiations without Papuan consent or knowledge.

On August 15, 1962, Indonesia and the Netherlands signed an agreement at the United Nations in New York (commonly referred to as the `New York Agreement') which transferred administration of Papua first to a United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA), and then to Indonesia in 1963, pending an `act of free choice . . . to permit the inhabitants to decide whether they wish to remain with Indonesia'.

In the New York Agreement, Indonesia formally recognized `the eligibility of all adults [in Papua] . . . to participate in [an] act of self-determination to be carried out in accordance with international practice', and pledged `to give the people of the territory the opportunity to exercise freedom of choice . . . before the end of 1969'. And that the process would be conducted one year after the UN representative arrived in the disputed territory to conduct his duties.

In July and August 1969, Indonesia conducted an `Act of Free Choice', in which 1,025 selected Papuan elders voted unanimously to join Indonesia, in circumstances that were subject to both overt and covert forms of manipulation. That the Indonesian decision to hold this Act six weeks earlier than specified in the New York Agreement resulted in it coinciding with the world media preoccupation with the Apollo moon mission and walk.

In the intervening years, indigenous Papuans have suffered extensive human rights abuses, natural resource exploitation, environmental degradation, and commercial dominance by immigrant communities, and some individuals and groups estimate that more than 100,000 Papuans have been killed during Indonesian rule, primarily during the Sukarno and Suharto administrations.

While the United States supports the integrity of any legitimate Indonesian territories, Indonesia's historical reliance on force for the maintenance of control has been counterproductive, and long-standing abuses by security forces have galvanized independence sentiments among many Papuans.

While the Indonesian parliament passed a Special Autonomy Law for Papua in October 2001 that was intended to allocate greater revenue and decision making authority to the Papuan provincial government, the promise of special autonomy has not been effectively realized and has been undermined in its implementation, such as by conflicting legal directives further subdividing the province in apparent contravention of the law and without the consent of appropriate provincial authorities.

Rather than demilitarizing its approach, Brig. Gen. Hotmagaradja Pandjaitan on 18th March 2005 stated Indonesia was deploying 15,000 troops from Kostrad, and "The first 5,000 troops will be recruited from Makassar in South Sulawesi. They will be deployed in Sorong, Papua. To bring the number up to a total of 15,000, we will also recruit troops from military commands (Kodam) nationwide". That increased military operations in the central highlands since the fall of 2004 have displaced thousands of civilians into very vulnerable circumstances, contributing further to mistrust of the central government by many indigenous Papuans.

According to the 2004 Annual Country Report on Human Rights Practices of the Department of State, in Indonesia `security force members murdered, tortured, raped, beat, and arbitrarily detained civilians and members of separatist movements' and `police frequently and arbitrarily detained persons without warrants, charges, or court proceedings' in Papua.

Please act immediately on behalf of the people of West Papua. The reputation and the future of the United Nations stands on its moral credibility defined succinctly by Vaclav Havel- “no decent person can stand by and watch the systematic state-directed murder of other people”.

Yours sincerely

Source: Acheh Papua Maluku Human Rights Online