Campaigns for Papua: Myriad concerns, issues

Neles Tebay, The Jakarta Post, Pontifical University of Urbaniana, Rome

It is important to launch a diplomatic approach to the governments of the foreign countries for defending the territorial integrity of Indonesia, including Papua.

However, the Indonesian government should not underestimate the Papua campaign launched by either national or international organizations in foreign countries.

Before facing the challenge raised by the organizations, the government needs to be informed of their concern and campaign regarding Papua.

The total number of the organizations is gradually increasing every year in many countries. Their campaign for Papua is picking up momentum with annual meetings now being held.

These organizations have different concerns regarding Papua. Some of them clearly support the exercise of the right to self- determination in Papua.

Some others are more concerned with human rights issues. For them, human rights regardless of religion, race, culture, and political aspiration, should be respected by all. And the government is determined to defend and promote human rights.

So when human rights are violated in Papua, even with the reason of maintaining the territorial integrity of Indonesia or to crack down on a separatist movement, they will raise their voice of protest. They will condemn perpetrators, and lobby their own government to put more pressure on Jakarta. This is not identical with supporting advocators of independence for Papua.

Some other organizations are more interested in peace. They want to see all people, including the Papuans, live in peace. Therefore anything potentially threatening peace is rejected strongly.

They also search the root causes of the Papua case and urge the Indonesian government to settle them peacefully. They know that true peace not only means the absence of conflict and war, and that it can reached only by peaceful dialog with respect for human rights. Many of them do not really care if Papua becomes an independent state or remains under Indonesian rule. As long as there is no lasting peace, then they raise their voice for the sake of peace in Papua.

Some organizations are more interested in environmental issues. So if there is environmental destruction in Papua, they will not keep silent.

Each organization has its own network with other organizations either within their own countries or in other countries.

Consequently, the news about violations in Papua is distributed quickly through Internet. By so doing many more organizations come to know about the Papua case. It is not surprising, then, if many more organizations are getting involved for the sake of peace, justice and human dignity in Papua.

Despite their different concerns, they are united in one conviction that human rights violation is not an internal affair of a particular country and cannot be justified for any political interest.

They also study the link between human rights violations, peace, environmental destruction, human life and dignity.

The joint statement issued at the third International Solidarity meeting on West Papua held in London, in October 2002, manifests the accommodation of the different concerns.

The meeting in which more than 20 organizations from 15 countries participated, confirmed their "full support for the exercise of self-determination by the people of West Papua, a right belonging to all peoples in the world."

They also called on the Indonesian government "to enter into a process of peaceful dialog with the West Papua leadership, including the Papuan Presidium Council, and mediated by a third neutral party."

The meeting called on the international community and the Indonesian government "to support the proposal of the Papuans to declare West Papua a Zone of Peace."

For the sake of peace, the organizations urged "the Indonesian Government to withdraw the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) and Mobile Police Force (Brimob) from the territory of West Papua."

They called on all member states of the United Nations "to request UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to review the UN's conduct in relation to the discredited "Act of Free Choice" in 1968-1969, which was part of a fraudulent attempt to legitimize West Papua's take-over by Indonesia."

They were "deeply concerned at the further deterioration of the human rights situation in West Papua. Leading human rights activists have received death threats following their efforts to investigate the killing in August 2002 of three employees of the Freeport mining company, and their discovery of evidence which suggests members of the Indonesian army were involved."

The meeting stressed "the urgent need for UN human rights monitors to visit West Papua and called for an independent team of experts to investigate the assassination last November of Theys Eluay, the chairman of the Papuan Presidium Council."

They called on the international community "to press the Indonesian government to prevent the violation of the human rights of West Papuans, including their economic, social and cultural rights, by transnational companies including Freeport McMoran, Rio Tinto and BP and by the Indonesian system of granting logging concessions on indigenous customary lands."

Many more organizations will join and unite efforts to campaign for Papua, when they know that the human rights violations in the past are not addressed, that human dignity is disrespected, and that people in Papua are not experiencing lasting peace, and that environmental destruction continues.

In the fourth International Solidarity meeting for West Papua in 2003 that will be held in a Pacific country, they will evaluate their work and determine a new campaign agenda for West Papua.

The Indonesian government cannot do much to stop such campaigns for Papua unless their recommendations are addressed.

It is also true that these organizations do not represent their respective governments. However, it does not mean that they cannot influence their governments.

One thing is sure that due to their campaign, many more people and organizations, perhaps the governments too, in foreign countries are and will be getting to know about the Papua conflict.

It is a challenge for the Indonesian government to peacefully solve the Papua conflict by addressing the real problems and its root causes through a genuine dialog with the Papuans, while avoiding violence in Papua.