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Letter to Amanda Vanstone on West Papuan asylum seekers

Australia West Papua Association (Sydney) - January 25, 2006

Senator the Hon Amanda Vanstone
Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs
Suite MF 40 Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600

25 January 2006

Dear Senator Vanstone,

We are writing to you concerning the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers who reached the mainland at Mapoon in Cape York on Wednesday the 18 January 2006, and have since been sent to the detention centre on Christmas Island.

We believe they are genuine asylum seekers fleeing Indonesian oppression.

Two recent reports aptly describes what has been occurring in West Papua since the Indonesian takeover and explain the reasons the asylum seekers have fled to Australia.

The report "Genocide in West Papua? The role of the Indonesian Security Apparatus" was released last year and is based on a two-year study by a team of researchers at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) and Papuan church and human rights investigators. Researcher John Wing, coordinator of the West Papua Project at CPACS, travelled to West Papua several times to document the human rights abuses.

The report concludes that Indonesia's security forces act with impunity and are the main source of instability in the territory. It concludes the survival of the Indigenous people of West Papua is under serious threat and calls on Indonesia to cancel the current massive military (TNI) build up in Papua which is aimed at confronting calls for autonomy from Jakarta.

The other report prepared for the Indonesia Human Rights Network by the Allard K. Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic Yale Law School titled "Indonesian Human Rights abuses in West Papua: Application of the Law of Genocide to the History of Indonesian Control" was released in 2004.

The report concludes that,

"Since the so-called Act of Free Choice, the West Papuan people have suffered persistent and horrible abuses at the hands of the Indonesian government. The Indonesian military and security forces have engaged in widespread violence and extrajudicial killings in West Papua. They have subjected Papuan men and women to acts of torture, disappearance, rape, and sexual violence, thus causing serious bodily and mental harm.

Systematic resource exploitation, the destruction of Papuan resources and crops, compulsory (and often uncompensated) labor, transmigration schemes, and forced relocation have caused pervasive environmental harm to the region, undermined traditional subsistence practices, and led to widespread disease, malnutrition, and death among West Papuans".

Another incident which shows the harsh rule from Jakarta is the sentencing of Filep Karma, a former civil servant, and Yusak Pakage, a student, to 15 and 10 years respectively in May of last year. Their crime? Simply raising the West Papuan National Flag, The Morning Star.

There is increased tension in West Papua with more troops being sent to the province apparently as they are been withdrawn from Aceh.

We believe the West Papuans to be genuine asylum seekers and urge you to return them to the mainland to be released into metropolitan communities where their applications can be processed quickly and where they will have access to translators and medical assistance. We are concerned that their health could have been effected not only by their traumatic journey to Australia but also by the fear generated by Indonesian oppression and possible perception that their isolation on Christmas island is due to the Australian government's desire to placate Indonesia.

We note Australia and Indonesia are signing a defence treaty and urge that the asylum seekers be assessed solely on their claims to be genuine asylum seekers and not on any foreign policy decisions to do with the new treaty with Indonesia.

Yours sincerely
Joe Collins, AWPA (Sydney)

Australia West Papua Association (Sydney)
PO Box 28, Spit Junction
Sydney, Australia 2088
Ph/fax 61.2.99601698
Email: bunyip@bigpond.net.au

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