Will West Papua be raised at Conference?

Australia West Papua Association  (Sydney)

Media release  19 February 2009

Will West Papua be raised at the Australia-Indonesia Conference ?

The Prime Minister Kevin Rudd opened a conference in Sydney on Thursday the 19 February.   The conference is on Bilateral Relations  titled “Australia and Indonesia: Partners in a New Era”. 

The Conference is to include sessions on:  Common challenges as democracies - Dynamics and opportunities in a new political era

Economic development, business and investment

Environment - Challenges and opportunities to work together

People and perceptions - Strengthening the social fabric

Where to from here?

The obvious omission is Human Rights.

Joe Collins of AWPA said,  “ there have been a large number of bilateral visits since the present government came to power and these visits and conferences present an opportunity for a chance to discuss  the human rights situation in West Papua.

West Papua is one of our nearest neighbours. It is the one issue that could cause major friction between Australia and Indonesia and in its own interest, Australia should be addressing the question of how to solve the many issues of concern in the territory. It is in the interests of the Australian Government to have a stable region to our north but the policies of the Indonesian Government, compounded by the actions of the Indonesian security forces in West Papua will lead to the very instability the Australian Government is trying to avoid. 

Although Jakarta has made great progress towards democracy in recent years, unfortunately this has not translated  to an improvement in the human rights situation in West Papua. As recently as 8 January 2009, 11 West Papuan men were sentenced to three or three and a half years jail by the district court in Manokwari , having been found guilty of subversion.  The men were arrested in March 2008 simply because they took part in  demonstrations where the West Papuan national flag was displayed.
 
And the Jakarta Post (19 Feb). reported that “Around 300 supporters of a Papuan student activist facing trial for treason staged a rally at Jayapura District Court on Wednesday. They demanded the court free Buchtar Tabuni, 29, deputy secretary of the Central Mountain Papua Indonesia Students Alliance (AMPTPI) of all charges”.

Joe Collins said “West Papua is an issue that is not going away and  the Australian Government needs to dialogue with Jakarta over the human rights situation in West Papua and not simply hope that by ignoring what is going that the issue will disappear. This conference is a great opportunity to discuss the human rights situation and a good start would be for the Australian Government to urge the Indonesian government to release all West Papuan political prisoners.
Delegates to attend the conference include

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith

Indonesian Foreign Minister Dr Hassan Wirajuda

Australian Minister for Trade Simon Crean

Indonesian Minister for Trade Dr Mari Pangestu

Australian Minister for Climate Change and Water Penny Wong.

Indonesian Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar, and

Australian Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance Bob McMullan.

 ends

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