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Former UK foreign office minister recognises West Papuans ‘inalienable right to self-determination’
Free West Papua Campaign (UK) - December 8, 2008
Oxford, England – The worldwide campaign for justice and freedom for Indonesian-occupied West Papua received a strong boost today with news that a former U.K. Government Minister who handled Britain’s relations with Indonesia, the Right Honourable John Battle M.P., has put his name to the West Papua Declaration (see text below) launched by International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP) in London last week, recognising the West Papuan people’s “inalienable right to self-determination” and calling on the United Nations “to put in place arrangements for the free exercise of that right”.
In November 2000, during his time as Foreign Office Minister, Mr Battle made a powerful speech entitled “The relationship between the UK and Indonesia”, in which, with specific reference to West Papua, he said:
“In West Papua there are real issues and grievances to be addressed. Tensions there between centre and periphery are not unique but have been magnified and intensified. We look to the Indonesian government to do that constructively and peacefully. As history has shown, the least effective approach in the long run is heavy-handed treatment by the security forces.”Richard Samuelson, Free West Papua Campaign (UK)“We do make human rights an integral feature of our overall approach in international affairs in Indonesia. We will stress that international help would be put in jeopardy internationally and elsewhere if there is any repetition of the sort of state-sponsored terrorism that we saw last year [1999] in East Timor.”
The West Papua Declaration
London, 1st December 2008
WE the undersigned recognise the inalienable right of the indigenous people of West Papua to self-determination, which was violated in the 1969 “Act of Free Choice”, AND call upon our governments through the United Nations to put in place arrangements for the free exercise of that right SO that the indigenous people of West Papua can decide democratically their own future in accordance with international standards of human rights, the principles of international law and the Charter of the United Nations.
International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP)
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