The efforts by the West Papuan people to garner international support for self-determination have taken a number of leaps forward recently. But despite growing international concern at Indonesia's repressive policies in West Papua — including a ban on raising the Morning Star flag of independence — the two major parties in Australia are primarily concerned about ameliorating relations with Jakarta.
At the October 27-30 Pacific Islands Forum in Kiribati, despite the best efforts of Prime Minister John Howard, the forum leaders expressed "deep concern" over the violence and killings associated with the raising of the Morning Star flag. Because the forum operates on an undemocratic consensus method, Howard managed to insert a cause in the statement of concern reaffirming Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua. Afterwards he said there were "no reasonable grounds" for Jakarta to be upset.
The West Papuan representatives who attended the forum as members of the Nauru delegation were quoted in the October 30 Financial Review as saying they had expected much less. "I was concerned that West Papua was going to be kept off the agenda", said Franzalbert Joko, a former PNG newspaper editor and chief-of-staff to former PNG prime minister Julius Chan.
While the Biketawa Declaration innocuously calls on the Indonesian government and West Papuan independence groups to resolve their differences through dialogue, the fact that the final communique did include mention of the conflict in West Papua indicates that international pressure on Indonesia is growing.
At a June people's congress, 2700 West Papuans rejected Indonesian rule, and on December 1, the pro-independence Papuan Presidium council is expected to report back on the struggle for world recognition of the sovereignty of the West Papuan people.
Sycophantic policy
No-one is really surprised by the Australian government's position, but the Labor Party's decision to echo it has obviously angered some within the party — especially after having been so badly exposed by Labor's sycophantic policy on East Timor.
In August, the ALP National Conference adopted a feel-good policy on West Papua which reads, in part: "Labor hopes that current discussions and negotiations between the Indonesian government and West Papuan leaders will achieve a mutually satisfactory resolution on the status of the Province and thereby reduce the risk of further conflict and violence".
Recently, Laurie Brereton, Labor's foreign affairs spokesperson, vigorously reaffirmed his party's position in response to an initiative from the Australia-West Papua Association and several Victorian union leaders, including ACTU leader Greg Sword, to support a United Nations-sponsored referendum for West Papua.
The memorandum of understanding calls on the United Nations to: investigate the killings in West Papua, review Indonesia's illegitimate claim over the territory; implement a referendum "in order that West Papuans can illustrate their desire to be independent, or to remain an autonomous province of the Indonesian Republic"; and expresses concern that West Papuans are being excluded from the benefits generated by the American-owned Freeport McMoran gold and copper mine. It was signed by the Reverend Dr Martin Luther Wanma and Dr Jacob Rumbiak, along with Leigh Hubbard (Victorian Trades Hall council), Yorrick Piper (Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union), Greg Sword (National Union of Workers), Len Cooper (Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union), Ingrid Stitt (Australian Services Union), Julius Roe (Australian Manufacturing Workers Union), Jill Iliffe (Australian Nurses Federation), Michelle O'Neil (Textiles, Clothing and Footwear Union) and Ann Taylor (Australian Education Union).
Instigator of the memorandum, Louise Burns from the Australia-West Papua Association, told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly she was hoping to contact more unions but ran out of time before the official launch on October 24 in Melbourne.
The next day, Brereton attacked Sword and others for expressing views on West Papua which are "inconsistent with Labor Party policy". He said Sword had not consulted the party and was not speaking in his capacity as ALP president. "However well-intentioned Mr Sword's advocacy of a UN-sponsored referendum, it has not been well thought through and is unlikely to contribute to any lessening of tension in West Papua", he said.
Brereton continued: "Simplistic comparisons between East Timor and West Papua will not assist the resolution of conflict in West Papua. Ill-considered initiatives such as this have the potential to damage Australia's relations with Indonesia under democratically elected President Abdurrahman Wahid."
Judgement call
Brereton's advisor Philip Dorling also told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly that "simple analogies" between East Timor and West Papua "were not helpful". While he admitted that the situation in West Papua was difficult, even "grim", he added, "We're working in the real world". He refused to comment on the difference of opinion within the ALP, saying only that conference delegates had unanimously adopted the new policy.
Dorling admitted that the UN-supervised referendum in 1969, in which around 1000 hand-picked chiefs were allowed to vote, was problematic. But, he said, the way to handle the West Papua issue is "a judgement call".
On the one hand, Labor "supports the right of the people of West Papua to develop their own distinctive culture and institutions". But on the other, Dorling believes that Australia's primary concern has to be about not jeopardising its already extremely strained relations with Indonesia.
There is a large number of transmigrants in West Papua, Dorling said, which means that the situation could be "explosive" and that a pro-independence position would not necessarily get up in any referendum.
Foreign minister Alexander Downer warned last week that any attempt by West Papua to separate from Indonesian would provoke a "blood bath". ASIET national chairperson and Democratic Socialist Party spokesperson on foreign affairs Max Lane told Â鶹´«Ã½ that the Wahid regime and Indonesian army could respond with a blood-bath only if there was international acquiescence to repression of the self-determination movement in West Papua.
"The Australian government should be strongly criticising the restrictions on freedom of speech in West Papua that are embodied in the ban on raising the Morning Star flag. The Australian government should also be seeking a UN review of the 1969 Act of Self-Determination, which the Dutch government is already pursuing", Lane said. "Australia should also push the UN towards a referendum on self-determination. This was what was demanded by the mass assembly of West Papuans at the people's congress earlier this year", he added.
Melbourne Anglican Bishop Hilton Deakin and Pastor Luther Wanma from West Papua on October 20 called for an East Timor-style referendum to stop the violence. According to Deakin: "There will eventually need to be a referendum because a referendum is the normal, universally accepted vehicle for a people expressing their will". Wanma said that offers of autonomy or federation would be refused.
Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown's motion on October 12 supporting the West Papuan's right to raise their flag was blocked by the government and opposition, which argued that the matter "isn't urgent". That week, in one incident, some 30 people were killed by Indonesian police firing on a crowd attempting to raise the flag.
BY PIP HINMAN
[Visit Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor's web site at .]