By Linda Kaucher
The news that the Australian Defence Force (ADF) will use $10 million from AusAID for a famine relief program in West Papua (Irian Jaya) is welcome. Such an effort has been needed for many months. Ninety defence personnel, three Blackhawk helicopters and a Caribou aircraft began the program on April 25.
However, there remain questions about the nature and benefits of this aid program, negotiated between defence minister Ian McLachlan and Indonesian defence minister General Wiranto.
Why is this relief program occurring at the end of a year-long drought, after the rains have come? Obviously, there are still people in need, and food aid will discourage people from using the sweet potato crop before it is properly grown. But why, when groups such as the Australia-West Papua Association (AWPA) have been calling for aid since the middle of last year, has there been such a long delay?
Last November, a defence spokesperson admitted that Australian army helicopters and aircraft were available if the Indonesian government asked for aid. Since then, many people have died from malnutrition-related diseases, while Jakarta has failed to declare the province a disaster area.
According to ABC radio news on December 14, the Indonesian government promised to send 23 small aircraft to the region to deliver food to remote villages. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, these aircraft never materialised.
To try to precipitate some action, AWPA in December told ABC news that by not offering help the Australian government was abetting genocide. It has taken four more months for the ADF to help.
The aid effort will be a joint operation with the Indonesian armed forces, ABRI. This cooperation has been criticised by AWPA and the Catholic relief organisation, Caritas. The ICRC and mission groups report that ABRI continues to terrorise people, forcing them to flee into the forests. This has prevented people from tending their food gardens and accessing water sources, worsening the impact of the drought.
According to sources in West Papua, food aid has been denied to villages that ABRI suspects support the Free Papua Movement (OPM). ABRI has entered villages and commandeered available food.
The ADF will supply engineers to build airfields in remote, inaccessible areas of the highlands. According to AusAID, this is at the suggestion of Mission Aviation Services, which serves the church missions. Remoteness and difficulty of access are the main defences that the indigenous people of the highlands have against ABRI.
In January, Australia gave another $2 million to an ICRC relief appeal. At the same time, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade also announced an economic aid package to Indonesia which included assistance in designing a "regional development strategy" for Irian Jaya.
Indigenous Melanesian people suffer heavy discrimination in the province. On top of human rights abuses by the military, they receive little education and few opportunities to participate in development.
The transmigration program, which shifts people to West Papua from overcrowded Java, is swamping the Melanesian population. Indonesia is suppressing the indigenous culture and schooling is done only in Indonesian.
After the Dutch colonialists placed West Papua under the auspices of the United Nations, the UN handed it over to Indonesia. When the so-called "Act of Free Choice" vote was held in 1969, only about 1000 West Papuans were allowed to participate. Unlike in the case of East Timor, the UN officially recognises the occupation of West Papua.
A disorganised and fragmented OPM has existed since 1969, but the priority for most West Papuans is just to survive under the occupation regime. Expressions of support for independence are extremely dangerous. Raising the West Papuan flag or singing the anthem, for instance, can result in a long jail sentence.
Under these circumstances, Australia's involvement and cooperation with ABRI needs to be defined and assessed.
As ADF personnel will not be free to report what they see and hear, it is essential that they are accompanied by civilian observers who are independent of AusAID and the ADF and who can analyse whether the money AusAID is providing is really benefiting the people.
[Linda Kaucher is active in the AWPA.]