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MEP backs petition on West Papuan independence
News Release from the office of the South-East England's Green MEP Caroline Lucas - October 4, 2005
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 and 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."
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
For more information on the Free West Papua Campaign see http://www.freewestpapua.org/
For further details of the online petition see http://www.petitiononline.com/unreview
For more information please
contact Ben on 01273 671946, 07973 823358 or ben@greenmeps.org.uk
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