The Socialist Alliance calls on the federal Coalition government and the ALP opposition to learn the lesson of East Timor in relation to West Papua.
Alliance spokesperson Pip Hinman said: "Last week's arrival on Cape York of 43 West Papuan asylum seekers and the shooting of a young protester in West Papua should set alarm bells ringing in the ALP. Will the people of West Papua have to endure as bloody and painful a struggle as the East Timorese before Labor drops the pro-Jakarta policy on West Papua it now shares with the Howard government?"
The Socialist Alliance is challenging federal Labor to distinguish itself from the inhumane and racist refugee policy of the Howard government and engage positively with the West Papuan people's struggle for self-determination. But Hinman noted that the signs were unpromising. "Instead of standing up for the rights of the West Papuans, the federal opposition, through shadow minister for Overseas Aid and Pacific Island Affairs Bob Sercombe, is simply calling for a joint parliamentary fact-finding trip to West Papua by Indonesian and Australian parliamentarians."
"But what facts does Labor have to find? The Indonesia army and elite have oppressed the people of West Papua just as much as they did the people of East Timor. If Bob Sercombe really lacks facts he could start by reading Dutch historian Dr Peter Drooglever's 2005 report to the Dutch parliament on the incorporation of West Papua into Indonesia."
That report found that:
1. The 1969 "Act of Free Choice", in which 1022 West Papuans out of a population of 800,000 were press-ganged into voting for incorporation into Indonesia, was a total sham.
2. Indonesian police and army presence in West Papua has steadily increased since 1969, in direct contradiction to the proposal of former Indonesian foreign minister Adam Malik, who stated that "the army would first have to be withdrawn before Papuan society would be able to develop".
3. West Papua's abundant natural resources have been ruthlessly exploited for the benefit of the military and the Jakarta elite, leaving the West Papuans as one of the poorest communities in the Indonesian archipelago.
4. Over the decades since 1969, "not a day went by ... when no one died or no one was seriously mistreated". Casualty figures "running into the tens of thousands have been mentioned".
The Socialist Alliance has joined with all those calling for the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers to be flown to the mainland from Christmas Island, released into the community and granted permanent refugee status.
Hinman explained: "On no account should they be returned to West Papua — it's not difficult to imagine what their fate would be at the hands of an Indonesian military that only a fortnight ago deported eight independence fighters from West Papua to Jakarta against their will."
The Socialist Alliance is committed to building the protest movement in support of the asylum seekers and in solidarity with West Papua's struggle for self-determination. According to the alliance, part of that campaign must be to end all Australian aid to the Indonesian military.
"We support the formation of the largest possible coalition of political, human rights, church and community groups to put pressure on the government to allow the refugees to stay, and on the government and the ALP to change their bipartisan line of complicity with Jakarta's policies of repression in West Papua", Hinman said. "The Australian solidarity movement with East Timor was critical in forcing Canberra to change its line of collaboration with Jakarta against the rights of the Timorese. We can and must repeat that effort for the people of West Papua."
Socialist Alliance members around the country are involved in the campaign for freedom and protection of the West Papuan asylum seekers. For more information, contact the SA branch in your city.
From Green Left Weekly, February 1, 2006.
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