Resolution Adopted On Papua

Australian Labor Party National Conference, Sydney, 2011

More than a decade after the end of the Soeharto regime, the situation in West Papua remains cause for serious concern. The 2001 Special Autonomy provisions have not succeeded in meeting local development and other priorities, regular reports of human rights violations by the Indonesian security continue to be received, access by human rights organizations and the media is restricted, non-violent expressions of local opinion are violently repressed. West Papua is no longer a taboo subject in Indonesia but a mainstream national concern. In October, twenty years after the notorious 1991 Santa Cruz massacre in East Timor, Indonesian security forces accompanied by armoured vehicles broke up the 3rd Papuan People’s Congress that called for independence. Troops fired live rounds killing six people and arrested 300 delegates, 6 of whom have been charged with treason. In moves condemned by the Church as ‘heavy-handed’, police and troops then ransacked several Catholic institutions, including the School of Philosophy and Theology in Abepura, in search of wanted Papuan Congress members.

This Labor Conference

1. Expresses its continuing concern over violent incidents in the Papuan provinces;

2. Welcomes the Indonesian President’s announcement of 9 November 2011 that his government is willing to conduct a dialogue with Papuan Leaders;

3. Calls on the Australian Government to monitor closely the situation in the Papuan provinces including progress on the President’s dialogue process, and for the Australia Embassy to maintain its program of periodic visits;

4. Supports increased access to the Papuan provinces by the media and human rights organizations;

5. Calls for those responsible for human rights violations and for the killings and violence to be tried;

6. Calls for the release of any person arrested solely for the peaceful expression of their political views; and

7. Asks for an independent progress report on the situation in the Papuan provinces to be provided to the next Federal Conference.

ENDS

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