Euro-MP appeals to Annan after Green Party adopts Papua policy
Green Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has joined calls for the UN to hold an
independence referendum in West Papua after the Green Party adopted a policy
motion condemning the UN-sponsored 'sham' Act of Free Choice which led to
West Papua formally joining Indonesia in 1969.
"The so-called Act of Free Choice in West Papua was a sham in which just
1,022 West Papuans hand-picked by the Indonesian military regime were
forced to vote for Indonesia - at a cost of more than 100,000 lives and
ongoing, systematic violations of West Papuans' human rights," said Dr
Lucas.
"The UN must conduct a review of the whole process under which West Papua
was annexed by, and recognised to be a part of, Indonesia - and conduct a
new, genuinely free, independence referendum in the province."
Dr Lucas has joined parliamentarians and campaigners from around the world
in calling on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to review the Act of Free
Choice - known on West Papua as the 'Act of No Choice' - and bring a halt to
human rights violations in West Papua.
Since Indonesia annexed West Papua, at least 100,000 (and as many as
300,000, according to some estimates) indigenous Papuans have been killed by
the Indonesian military, and human rights violations - including torture,
extra-judicial killings, rape, arbitrary arrest and detention and denial of
free assembly and free speech - continue today.
The conflict is intensifying after West Papuans rejected an
Indonesian-drafted 'autonomous' status in August. Indonesian troops have
poured into West Papua leading to a heightened spate of attacks in villages
in recent weeks which have forced 6,000 from their homes.
The Green Party has adopted a new policy condemning the UN's role in the Act
of Free Choice after members of the Oxford-based Free West Papua Campaign
addressed the party's annual conference in Lancaster.
Members of the party's interim policy committee voted overwhelmingly on
Saturday to call for an immediate end to human rights violations in the
province, the withdrawal of the Indonesian military in favour of UN
peacekeepers, and a new referendum on independence, free and open to all
indigenous West Papuans.
Dr Lucas added: "I am delighted the party has decided to campaign for
freedom and peace in West Papua. Their struggle, for independence, free
speech, democracy and control over their cultural and physical resources,
mirrors the Green Party's campaign for peace, social justice and protecting
the environment worldwide."
ENDS
Notes to editors:
1. The policy motion adopted by the Green party reads:
Noting that, on August 12th 2005, West Papuan leaders, supported by a
demonstration of 100,000 West Papuans, rejected Indonesia's imposition of
'Special Autonomy Laws' on the territory as a final solution to the ongoing
struggle for West Papuan independence;
Noting reports, from Amnesty International and West Papuans themselves, of
an escalation of the Indonesian military's violations of West Papuans'
human rights, especially but not exclusively a heightened spate of attacks
on villages which have forced at least 6,000 refugees to flee into the
jungle in recent weeks - many of whom are now dying of starvation and
exposure;
Noting the ongoing build-up of Indonesia's military presence in West Papua,
including the recent deployment of an additional 15,000 Indonesian troops to
the territory;
The Green Party believes:
a.. The West Papuan people were denied their internationally-recognised
right to self-determination by the fraudulent 1969 'Act of Free Choice'
b.. That the West Papuans have a continuing right to self-determination
c.. That the Indonesia must immediately halt all violations of West
Papuans' human rights, and those responsible for violations should be held
accountable in law
d.. That the United Nations must conduct, as soon as possible, a free and
fair referendum on self-determination, involving all West Papua's indigenous
population
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