BY PIP HINMAN
SYDNEY — The November 10 assassination in Jayapura of West Papuan leader Theys Eluay drew condemnation from a wide range of public figures at a press conference in the NSW Parliament House here on November 15.
Otto Ondawame, a member of the Papua Presidium Council, said that the death of Theys Eluay heightened the need for a peaceful resolution of the West Papuan people's desire for self-determination. He said some 60,000 people marched through Jayapura the day after the well-known leader was found tied up in his car halfway down a ravine.
Ondawame called on the Australian government to sponsor talks between the Indonesian government and West Papuan independence leaders.
"There should also be an open and transparent investigation into the death of Theys Eluay", he said.
John Barr, the Uniting Church area secretary for Indonesia and East Timor, who has recently returned from West Papua, said that there was a fear throughout the community that "an East Timor may happen again in West Papua, and worse".
"There's a culture of militarism which has to be addressed", he said.
David Raper, NSW president of Amnesty International echoed calls for Eluay's killers to be brought to justice, as did Bruce Childs, formerly an ALP senator, while construction union leader Peter McClelland committed his support for an education campaign about West Papua.
Sister Margaret Jennings from the Australia West Papua Association spoke of a recently leaked document from the Indonesian military which described the overt and covert program to undermine the West Papuan people's struggle for independence.
Andrew McNaughton from the Australia East Timor Association warned of a "repeat of East Timor", saying the same Indonesian commanders overseeing the military campaign in East Timor were now in charge in West Papua.
Max Lane, chairperson of Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific, and initiator of the meeting, said that Australian government silence on this assassination and the widespread repression being carried out by the Indonesian armed forces will inevitably lead to the break-up of Indonesia — the very thing the government says it does not support.
"It is already obvious that a majority of the population of West Papua want independence, or at least an act of self-determination. The demonstrations in the last few days also indicate that there's a clear wish for an end to political violence."
Lane called on the Australian government to learn from East Timor and change its policy on West Papua. "If not, the Australian people will force this change, as we did over East Timor."
From Green Left Weekly, November 21, 2001.
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