Congressman Eni Faleomavaega
(D-American Samoa), Ranking Member of the House
International Relations Subcommittee on Asia and the
Pacific, and Congressman Donald Payne (D-New Jersey),
Ranking Member of the House International Relations
Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights & International
Operations, announced today that they have called upon the
African nations to request a review of the United Nation’s
actions in West Papua.
The Congressmen’s request
comes in response to a petition letter they sent to UN
Secretary General Kofi Annan on March 14, 2005 in which they
requested his support in conducting a review of the 1969 Act
of No Choice in which 1,025 Papuan elders were coerced and
manipulated into voting unanimously on behalf of 80,000
Papuans to become a part of Indonesia rather than an
independent nation. Although the UN sanctioned the 1969 Act
of No Choice, the Act is generally regarded in the
international community as a fraudulent tactic that was used
by former President Suharto and his military regime to claim
control of West Papua, a territory rich in natural resources
including gold, silver, copper, oil and gas. In fact,
recently declassified US documents show that the Indonesia
government knew that allowing an open referendum would lead
to West Papuan independence.
In a letter dated September
26, 2005, the Secretary General informed Congressman
Faleomavaega and Congressman Payne that he would consider a
review of the 1969 Act and the UN’s conduct in West Papua if
the General Assembly called for it. Should the Assembly
decide to revisit this issue, Secretary General Annan has
assured that he will do his utmost to implement the
Assembly’s mandate.
For this reason, Congressman
Faleomavaega and Congressman Payne have called upon the
Ambassadors representing the African nations before the UN
to initiate a call for a General Assembly review.
Historically, the African nations raised objections to the
1969 Act of No Choice. Bolivian Ambassador Ortiz-Sans, who
monitored the vote on behalf of the United Nations, also
noted that the referendum had occurred in the absence of
political freedoms guaranteed by the 1962 New York Agreement
brokered by the United States that set the framework for
Dutch withdrawal from West Papua.
Ambassador Otiz-Sanz issued
the following statement in his report:
“I regret to have to express
my reservation regarding the implementation of Article XXII
of the (New York) Agreement relating to ‘the rights,
including the rights of free speech, freedom of movement and
of assembly of the inhabitants of the area.’ In spite of my
constant efforts, this important provision was not fully
implemented and the (Indonesian) Administration exercised at
all times a tight political control over the population.”
In spite of the Ambassador’s
report, testimonials from the press, the opposition of
fifteen countries and the cries for help from the Papuans
themselves, the UN sanctioned Indonesia’s act and, on
September 10, 1969, West Papua became a providence of
brutal, Indonesian rule. Since Indonesia seized control of
West Papua, the native Papuans have suffered blatant human
rights abuses, including extrajudicial execution, torture,
sexual violence and mutilation as well as, according to
Afrim Djonbalic’s 1998 statement to the UN, “environmental
degradation, natural resource exploitation, and commercial
dominance of immigrant communities.” This exploitation of
resources includes reserves of gold, copper, nickel, oil and
gas which have been valued at over $54 billion. Local labor
has been used in the extraction of these resources with
little or no compensation to Papuans.
A recent study by the
Lowenstein Human Rights Clinic at Yale University states:
“The historical and
contemporary evidence strongly suggests that the Indonesian
government has committed proscribed acts with the intent to
destroy the West Papuans as such in violation of the 1948
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide and the customary international law prohibition
this Convention embodies.”
In view of this study, it
should be noted that native West Papua New Guineans differ
linguistically and racially from the majority of
Indonesians. The Papuans are Melanesian and believed to be
of African descent while the majority of Indonesians are of
Javanese descent. Studies like the aforementioned show that
there is a strong indication that the Indonesians are
committing genocide against the West Papuans through
oppression and acts of violence and these acts of genocide
may be race-based.
For this and other reasons,
Archbishop Desmond Tutu and 174 parliamentarians and 80
nongovernmental agencies from around the world have written
to Secretary General Kofi Annan asking that a review be
initiated. In turn, Faleomavaega and Congressman Payne have
called upon the African nations to call for a General
Assembly review. Additionally, the Congressmen included
historic language in the U.S. Foreign Relations
Authorization bill for FY 2006 and 2007 which requires the
U.S. State Department to submit to Congress a report
analyzing the 1969 Act.
The language also requires the
State Department to submit a report detailing implementation
of special autonomy for Papua and Aceh. Such reports shall
include (a) an assessment of the extent to which each
province has enjoyed an increase in revenue allocations and
decision making authority; (b) a description of access by
international press and non-governmental organizations to
each province; (c) an assessment of the role played by local
civil society in governance and decision making; (d) a
description of force levels and conduct of Indonesian
security forces in each province; and (e) a description of
United States efforts to promote respect for human rights in
each province.
The U.S. House of
Representatives passed this legislation on July 20, 2005.
As this matter is now pending between the House and Senate,
Congressman Faleomavaega and Congressman Payne are
determined to keep Indonesia under the spotlight until
exploitation, violence and racism in West Papua is brought
to an end. |