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Uganda parliament pledges support for West Papua independence
New Vision - April 7, 2017
This is after its leader petitioned parliament and presented heartrending accounts of sufferings under the rule of the island nation.
In a petition presented to the Parliament deputy speaker Jacob Oulanya on Friday, Jacob Rumbiak, the leader of United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) said they want Uganda to influence other countries in the region to support their bid for independence at the United Nations.
He told Saturday Vision that he believes Uganda's strength at African Union (AU) can galvanize the African vote in New York and help them clinch independence by 2019. Saturday Vision has learnt that besides Parliament, the group also wants to meet President Yoweri Museveni over their bid.
Formerly under Dutch rule, West Papua is fighting to shake off the firm rule of Indonesia, under which it was placed courtesy of a UN – backed treaty in 1969. The island maintains that Indonesia's rule over it is illegal because the UN-sanctioned ballot – 'the Act of Free Choice', which legitimized West Papua as a province of Indonesia in 1969, was fraudulent. Under the act, 1000 people, who were chosen to vote on behalf of the island, were coerced by Indonesian military to vote against the independence bid.
With a land size of 162, 371 square miles, West Papua is nearly twice the size of Uganda. However, Uganda boasts of a population eight times bigger and has better human development indicators than the island's four million people according to online sources.
Rumbiak blames the above on an orchestrated genocide and the brutal rule they have suffered under Indonesia since 1969. He claimed there is a systemic agenda by Indonesia – a Muslim dominated country – to destroy their way of life, and exterminate the Papuans, a black people of African descent. – See more at:
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