Green MP Keith Locke returns with Papuan plea
Title -- 4702 PAPUA: Green MP Keith Locke returns with Papuan plea
Date -- 14 April 2005
Byline -- None
Origin -- Pacific Media Watch
Source -- Scoop 12/4/05
Copyright - Scoop
Status -- Unabridged
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LOCKE RETURNS FROM WEST PAPUA WITH REQUEST
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0504/S00249.htm
WELLINGTON (Scoop/Pacific Media Watch): Green MP Keith Locke returned today from a three-day trip to West Papua conveying a request from Papuan leaders that New Zealand champion their
cause at the Pacific Islands Forum.
"I received a clear message that West Papua's 'special autonomy' is not
helping the people or protecting them from the Indonesian military," said
Locke, Green Party foreign affairs spokesperson. "The people's desire
for independence from Indonesia is as strong as ever.
"The Papuan Parliamentarians I met are frustrated that four years of
'special autonomy' has produced so little for their people. They welcome
President Yudhoyono's recent initiative that an indigenous Papuan People's
Council be part of the provincial structure, but are concerned that it
could end up being a toothless advisory body.
"The political strings are still being pulled in Jakarta, and Papuans who
challenge that are suffering at the hands of the military. I saw real fear
when I visited the highland town of Wamena. 'Special autonomy' has not
stopped the military killing, arresting and harassing people there.
"The military are no longer confronting an armed rebellion. The leaders of
the Papuan Presidium Council, the main representative body of the Papuan
people, assured me that they are pursuing a peaceful path towards
independence."
Papuan leaders asked Locke if New Zealand could put their issue back on
the agendas of the Pacific Island Forum and the United Nations.
"The hopes for 'special autonomy' expressed in the Forum communiqué two
years ago have not been realised, and Pacific leaders need to return to
the issue when they meet in Port Moresby later this year.
"We also need to take up the West Papuan cause at the United Nations,
which bears a moral responsibility for overseeing the forced incorporation
of the territory into Indonesia in the 1960s. Papuans want the UN to
review the bogus 1969 'Act of Free Choice' and set in train a new process
of self-determination for the West Papuan people."
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