West Papua | 13-02-03

Diplomacy knives West Papua
Conference on West Papua draws Indonesian government's ire.

At the very time the Indonesian government is winding back it’s promise to give West Papua greater control over its destiny, it is also aggressively attempting to silence those who wish to speak about it. NI’s Australasian editor, Chris Richards, reports.

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Bowing to pressure from the Indonesian Embassy in Australia, the RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) University has withdrawn the venue at which the West Papua Futures conference was to be held in Melbourne, Australia on 25 and 26 February. The conference – bringing together human rights activists in West Papua, Australia and the US to discuss West Papua’s claim for self-determination – is jointly organized by New Internationalist magazine in conjunction with RMIT’s Globalism Institute.

The withdrawal came after conference organizers invited the Charge d’Affaires of the Indonesian Embassy in Australia, Imron Cotan, to put forward Indonesia’s position about West Papua at the opening of the conference. Rather than respond to the invitation, the Indonesian Embassy protested directly to the RMIT’s Vice Chancellor. The Executive Assistant to the Vice Chancellor of RMIT, Ian Morgan, explained ‘Indonesia’s not happy with the apparent support that RMIT was giving the West Papuan independence movement. Considering the amount of programs run by RMIT within Indonesia, the Embassy were saying that the issue will make RMIT persona non grata within Indonesia.’

The conference will now be held at Melbourne’s Trades Hall. While the University has distanced itself from the conference, the Globalism Institute remains one of the conference organizers.

The incident provides a clear example of the shift in priorities of Australian Universities: they are now first and foremost businesses concerned about making money rather than centers for academic discourse. It also shows how Indonesian diplomacy is dealing with West Papua’s call for independence by closing off opportunities for the international community to examine what is really happening within Indonesia’s borders.

West Papua shares a lush island with the independent Melanesian state of Papua New Guinea lying across the Torres Strait from Northern Australia. It is a remote and restive eastern territory within the Indonesian empire where the native Melanesian population have always resented and resisted their new colonizers who took over from the Dutch back in 1963. In 1999, 100 West Papuan leaders met with (then) President Habibe in Jakarta and told him that they had had enough: Indonesia must leave. Since then, a Papua Council has been formed to draw together organizations advocating independence through peaceful dialogue with the Indonesians.

In a partial response to the West Papuans, Indonesia enacted legislation to give West Papuan people both more control over their government and substantially greater returns on the taxes and royalties received by Indonesia from the lucrative exploitation of West Papua’s abundant natural resources. It became effective in January 2002. However, the provincial government could not implement the bill, because the central government has yet to approve the establishment of the Papuan People's Assembly (Majelis Rakyat Papua or MRP), a local representative council that would have allowed the West Papuans to have more democratic control over the development of their land. The MRP is included in the Special Autonomy legislation and crucial for the implementation of the law. It was to be the duty of the MRP to issue all the implementing regulations of the bill of the Special Autonomy. So as long as the MRP is not yet established, it is difficult to see how special autonomy can be implemented.

Photo: Chris Richards

On 27 January 2003, President Megawati issued a Presidential Decree (Instruksi Presiden or Inpres) No. 1 / 2003 on the expedition of the implementation of Law No. 45 / 1999 regarding the division of Irian Jaya into three provinces and the establishment of three regencies (Paniai, Mimika and Puncak Jaya) and one municipality (Sorong). The division of the territory will most likely abruptly end the Special Autonomy process and dramatically curtail current promising efforts at creating a just situation for Papuans. Andi Manobi, chairman of Young Papuans in Jakarta, has described President Megawati's instruction as a tragedy for the Papuan people. 'They are treating us as if we were not citizens of the Republic,' he said.

At the same time the Indonesian government is aggressively urging the international community to support its territorial integrity over West Papua. Thus on 29 January 2003, the Indonesia Government threatened to end diplomatic ties with the Republic of Vanuatu if that country continued to support the Free Papua Organization (OPM) in its struggle to separate from Indonesia, Antara reported. ‘Since the Dutch colony era, Indonesia has defended Papua's territory in every way, including war. Now, we are ready for war again to defend Papua,’ Indonesian acting ambassador for Australia, Imron Cotan, is quoted as saying. The Indonesian government has subsequently denied that this was their intention.

On 8 June 2000, top-ranking Indonesian officials from key military and police intelligence agencies and government departments agreed on a strategy to undermine and destroy all pro-independence activities in West Papua. It included diplomatic activity aimed at winning the support of the international community in favor of Indonesia's continued sovereignty over Papua.

At its closest point, West Papua is only 200 kilometers from Australian territory. While the widely accepted death-toll of indigenous people already killed by the Indonesian armed forces is 100,000 people, it is impossible to give a precise figure as so few human rights investigations have taken place inside the territory. West Papua is on our doorstep. The Australian public has a right... some would say even a moral obligation... to be discussing what is happening there. That's one of the reasons why the conference is being held.

It is no co-incidence that the Indonesian government has chosen this time - when the world's attention is focused on Iraq - to wind back the concessions it gave to West Papua under special autonomy legislation. This legislation is the only real concession that the Indonesian government has given the West Papuan people for their call for greater control over their lives and resources. At the same time it winds back these concessions, the Indonesian government is closing off the potential for the outside world to see what is happening inside West Papua. Those close to the action say that working visas to West Papua for Australians sponsored by West Papuan organizations are now likely to be almost impossible to get, and that indigenous West Papuans are highly unlikely to get the necessary authorities to leave Indonesia.

Photo: Chris Richards

The arrest and trial of Lesley McCulloch (whose illuminating writings about the connection between the Indonesian military and transnational corporations has often been used by journalists) has sent a clear signal to Australians who try and by-pass the need to get a valid Indonesian visa: 'If you come to Indonesia on a tourist visa and work, expect to spend a long time in jail.’ (Lesley was arrested in Aceh because she was on a tourist visa after interviewing local people there as part of her on-going academic research. She was subsequently convicted and sentenced to five months in a downtown Indonesian jail. She was released on 9 February).

The Indonesian government is now engaging in aggressive diplomacy to hose down international support and sympathy for West Papua’s claim for self-determination. The Australian government is a key target. The Indonesian government is paranoid about Australia's position. It seems to believe that Australia wants to dismantle the Indonesian republic (the largest Muslim country in the world). It sees Australia's role in East Timor and its support of the US in Iraq as evidence of this. It is calling on Australia to support its stance against West Papuan separatists. The Australian government is in a difficult situation. You only have to look at the Bali bombings to understand why they want a harmonious relationship with Jakarta.

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Indonesia has its eye on what is happening in Melbourne in the last week of February. A concert for West Papua is being held in the same week as the conference. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) has told one of the concert organizers that the Indonesian government has made representations to the Department about the concert, but DFAT would not divulge the nature of these representations. The speakers from outside Australia who are coming to the conference, including West Papuan people, have yet to get visas. The organizers hope that the Australian government doesn't give in to pressure from the Indonesian government and deny visas or grant them for a time after the conference is scheduled to take place. To do so would give tacit approval to the Indonesian government and military to go ahead and do whatever it liked in West Papua, and the human rights abuses that would no doubt follow.

Photo: Paul Kingsnorth

For more information about the West Papua concert: www.morningstarconcert.com

If you're in Australia and would like to reserve a seat for the West Papua Futures concert: please ring Cathy Williams on Tel: 03 9925 2995

See also:

NI 344 West Papua

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