United Nations refuses
to accept West Papua independence petition, says it will not ‘do anything
against Indonesia’
International
body’s decolonisation committee said it will only deal with 17 states
identified non-self-governing territories
The UN’s decolonisation
committee will not accept a petition signed by 1.8 million West Papuans calling
for independence, saying West Papua’s cause is outside the committee’s mandate.
In New York on Tuesday, the exiled West Papuan leader Benny Wenda presented
the petition – banned by the Indonesian government, but smuggled across Papua
and reportedly endorsed by 70 per cent of the contested province’s population –
to the UN’s decolonisation committee, known as the C24.
The committee is responsible for monitoring the progress of former colonies
towards independence.
The petition asked the UN to appoint a special representative to
investigate human rights abuses in the province and to “put West Papua back on
the decolonisation committee agenda and ensure their right to
self-determination ... is respected by holding an internationally supervised
vote”.
But on Thursday
the chair of the decolonisation committee, Rafael Ramirez, said no petition on
West Papua could be accepted because the committee’s mandate extended only to
the 17 states identified by the UN as “non-self-governing territories”.
We hand over the bones
of the people of West Papua to the United Nations and the world.
Benny Wenda
“I am the chair of the C24 and the issue of West Papua is not a matter for
the C24. We are just working on the counties that are part of the list of
non-self-governing territories. That list is issued by the general assembly.”
“One of the principles of our movement is to defend the sovereignty and the
full integrity of the territory of our members. We are not going to do anything
against Indonesia as a C24.”
West Papua was previously on the committee’s agenda – when the former Dutch
colony was known as Netherlands New Guinea – but it was removed in 1963 when
the province was annexed by Indonesia.
Ramírez, Venezuela’s representative to the UN, said his office was being
“manipulated” for political purposes. Ramírez did not say the petition had not
been presented to the committee, only that it was not able to accept it.
Asked if he had any communication with Benny Wenda, or the West Papuan
independence movement, Ramirez replied: “As the chairman of the C24, that is
not possible. We [are] supposed to receive just the petitioners that are issued
on the agenda.”
In a statement, Ramírez said he supported Indonesia’s position that West
Papua was an integral part of its territory.
“The special committee on decolonisation has not received nor can receive
any request or document related to the situation of West Papua, territory which
is an integral part of the Republic of Indonesia.”
Indonesia’s representative to the UN, Dian Triansyah Djani, is a vice-chair
of the decolonisation committee.
Spokesman for the
Indonesian embassy in Canberra Sade Bimantara said the provinces of Papua and
West Papua were sovereign parts of Indonesia.
“This fact is indisputable and internationally recognised,” he said.
“In 1969 the United Nations reaffirmed Indonesia’s sovereignty over West
Papua.”
Independence campaigner Wenda, who was granted political asylum in the UK
in 2003, said his people had been denied their fundamental right to
self-determination over decades and that the petition was the true expression
of the Papuan people’s desire for freedom.
“In the West Papuan people’s petition we hand over the bones of the people
of West Papua to the United Nations and the world,” he said.
“After decades of suffering, decades of genocide, decades of occupation, we
open up the voice of the West Papuan people which lives inside this petition.
My people want to be free.”
Indonesian-controlled Papua and West Papua form the western half of the
island of New Guinea. Political control of the region has been contested for
more than half a century and Indonesia has consistently been accused of human
rights violations and violent suppression of the region’s independence
movement.
The indigenous Melanesian are ethnically distinct from most of the rest of
Indonesia and more closely linked to the people of Papua New Guinea, the
Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia.
Formerly the Netherlands New Guinea, Papua was retained by the Dutch after
Indonesian independence in 1945 but the province was annexed by Jakarta in
1963.
Indonesia formalised its control over West Papua in 1969 when its military
hand-picked 1,026 of West Papua’s population and forced them into voting in
favour of Indonesian annexation under a UN-supervised, but undemocratic,
process known as the Act of Free Choice.
A 2004 report by the International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School
said: “Indonesian military leaders began making public threats against Papuan
leaders ... vowing to shoot them on the spot if they did not vote for
Indonesian control.”
Known as Irian Jaya until 2000, it has been split into two provinces, Papua
and West Papua, since 2003. They have semi-autonomous status.
Many Papuans regard the Indonesian takeover as an illegal annexation and
the OPM (Free Papua Movement) has led a low-level insurgency for decades. That
insurgency has long been cited as the reason for significant military
involvement in Papua.
With the heightened police and military presence, there have been reports
of security force abuses including extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary
detention, excessive use of force and mistreatment of peaceful protesters.
Dozens of Papuans remain behind bars for peaceful demonstration or expressing
solidarity with the independence movement.
There is little independent scrutiny of the situation in West Papua, as
human rights organisations and journalists are restricted from visiting
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