RI repeats same old song on Papua

RI repeats same old song on Papua

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta

In its response to new questions over the legitimacy of
Indonesia's sovereignty over Papua, it seems the government has
learned little from the loss of East Timor in 1999.

Members of the House of Representatives repeated on Monday the
remarks of a foreign ministry official that Papua was an
inseparable part of Indonesia and that the United Nations-
sponsored referendum in the province in 1964 was final and no
outside power could change it.

"We will continue to take the UN endorsement (of the
referendum) as our reference. If there is a declassified document
stating otherwise, I think it is an internal problem of the
U.S.," said legislator Djoko Susilo, a member of House Commission
I for foreign affairs.

Djoko also questioned the motives behind the release of a
declassified U.S. government document indicating that Washington
in 1964 considered the referendum in Papua a sham, accusing the
U.S. of trying to create instability in the country.

He said the UN-sanctioned self-determination vote in Papua in
1964 was valid. "Why has the U.S. never questioned Israel's
presence in Palestine?" he asked.

A newly declassified U.S. document shows that Washington
dismissed the 1964 referendum, which involved tribal and
community leaders handpicked by Jakarta, as a sham from the very
beginning. Those Papuans allowed to take part in the referendum
chose to join Indonesia, ending Dutch rule of the territory.

"We should avoid the temptation to apply today's standards to
situations from the past. This most recent disclosure does not
change our sovereignty over Papua," Ministry of Foreign Affairs
spokesman Marty Natalegawa said on Sunday.

Indonesia lost East Timor after occupying it for almost 22
years, mainly because it failed to win the hearts and minds of
the people there. Although the UN never recognized Indonesia's
sovereignty over the territory, many observers believe East Timor
would not have voted for independence if Jakarta had approached
the East Timorese with a velvet glove instead of an iron fist.

Similarly, separatist rumblings continue to grow in Papua in
response to human rights abuses and the failure of Jakarta to
give the province a larger share of the revenue from its natural
resources.

However, a legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI-P), R.K. Sembiring Meliala, said it was
unreasonable for the U.S. government to release such a
controversial document while still formally recognizing
Indonesia's sovereignty over Papua.

Sembiring, who served as the chief of Papua's Trikora Military
Command from 1982 to 1985, also said: "The UN-sponsored vote took
place fairly and democratically."

Separately, historian Asvi Warman Adam of the Indonesian
Institute of Sciences said the declassified document could be
used as an instrument to "rewrite" history without affecting
Indonesia's sovereignty over Papua.

Indonesian scholars can use the declassified document as a
source of information in their studies while still rejecting the
substance of the document, he said.

He said scholars should study why the U.S. dismissed the vote
as a sham.