Hundreds of people have rallied in West Papua, calling on the United Nations to pressure Jakarta into overturning a 1969 referendum that joined the territory to Indonesia.
The demonstrators, rallying during a visit by UN envoy Hina Jilani, claim the referendum was a sham.
Rally organiser, Jek Wanggai, says the UN must accept the Papuan people's aspiration to review the Act of Free Choice, as the referendum was known.
"The United Nations must register Papuan areas as colonised zones and organise an immediate referendum vote," he said.
Papuans have long accused Indonesia's military of violating human rights in the province and complain that the bulk of earnings from its rich natural resources flow to Jakarta.
Radio Australia
Friday, June 8, 2007
West Papua protest for UN visit
About 1,000 Papuans are expected to conduct a peaceful demonstration in Manokwari today to coincide with the visit to Indonesia’s Papua province of a United Nations representative.
The UN Secretary General`s Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs, Hina Jilani, is making an excursion to Papua during her working visit to Indonesia at the government`s invitation.
The purpose of her trip is to observe how human rights are being funded and promoted in Indonesia as well as to study the legal framework to defend human rights.
The Papua Youth and Student organisation, which has planned the demonstration, aims to inform the UN about human rights abuses they continue to suffer.
Its spokesman, Jek Wanggai, says they have three main points to make:
“The people people of West Papua, we want to [have the UN] review the Act of Free Choice in 1969; then the second, we cannot use Special Autonomy again, because it’s not good for our people; and then the third, we want a total referendum [on self-determination] in West Papua.”
Radio NZ
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Abuses continue in West Papua: Amnesty International
This is an excerpt of the Amesty International Annual Report for 2007:
There were reports of extrajudicial executions, torture and ill-treatment, excessive use of force during demonstrations and harassment of human rights defenders.
In at least six incidents civilians were shot at by the security forces.
• In January, a child was shot dead and at least two people were injured after security forces opened fire in the village of Waghete. Accounts of the incident by the police and by victims and witnesses differed widely. Many observers feared that the incident was in reprisal for the high-profile actions of 43 people from the Waghete region who sought asylum in Australia in January.
• In March, five members of the security forces were killed in Abepura after clashes with protesters demanding the closure of the gold and copper mine, PT Freeport. Security forces used tear gas and fired rubber bullets at the crowd. At least six civilians - and possibly many more - were injured, including one passer-by. Twenty-three people were prosecuted in connection with the violence. By the end of 2006, at least 21 men had been sentenced after unfair trials to between four and 15 years' imprisonment. All the detainees were reportedly ill-treated in police detention. Lawyers and human rights defenders involved with the trials were subjected to intimidation and received death threats.
Severe restrictions continued to bar nearly all foreign journalists and NGOs from operating in Papua. Officials claimed that foreign organizations were divisive, although access to Papua was granted to at least one international media team, albeit restricted and closely monitored.
The full summary of Amnesty finding for Indonesia can be found here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)