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.