Free West Papua speech

Michael Freund, coordinator of the Australia West Papua Association (Newcastle), gave the following speech on Friday 1 December 2006 in Newcastle opposite the City Hall

Thank you to everyone for being here on the 1st December to support the West Papuan people in their struggle for independence.

We also sincerely thank Newcastle City Council for agreeing to fly the West Papuan flag this year, as it did in 2005.

The 1st December commemorates the first official raising of the West Papuan Independence Flag (the “Morning Star”) in 1961. It flew alongside the Dutch national flag as the colonists prepared to hand the land back to the local people. This symbolic act also marked the official renaming of the territory from Netherlands New Guinea to West Papua. However, throughout the 1960s, Indonesia claimed West Papua by military force, with significant political support from the US and Australia.

In 1969, Indonesia conducted a sham referendum (the so-called “Act of Free Choice”), where the Indonesian military hand-picked just over 1000 people to represent a population of about 800,000. Under heavy intimidation, threats of violence & bribes they voted unanimously to remain under Indonesian rule.

In the four decades of Indonesian occupation, human rights agencies and churches have documented 100,000s West Papuan deaths caused by Indonesian military forces. Almost all incidents have gone uninvestigated and unpunished by the authorities. Recent comprehensive studies by major universities (Yale, 2004 & Sydney, 2005) have concluded that the evidence strongly suggests the Indonesian Government is committing the Crime of Genocide upon the West Papuan people - primarily to secure their land for huge multinational mining operations & extensive transmigration programmes.

Raising the Morning Star flag has long been considered an “act of treason” by Indonesia. Grossly unjust prison sentences of 15 years & 10 years were given to the two organisers of a peaceful flag-raising ceremony held on 1st December 2004. We in Australia take for granted our democratic freedoms of political expression, such as flying a flag, and so this day is commemorated here and around the world as West Papua’s Flag-Raising Day: a focus for building awareness and support for the West Papuan struggle for freedom and fundamental human rights.

The recent signing of the Australian & Indonesian security treaty reminds us of a similar treaty signed by the Keating government in 1995 when it closed its eyes to human rights abuses in East Timor and other parts of Indonesia. We are deeply concerned that this new agreement will not assist reform of the Indonesian military in any way, and will only lead to more repression of the West Papuan people. The treaty will allow co-ordinated patrolling of the waters between Australia & West Papua, making it virtually impossible for further refugees to reach our shoreline (as with the 43 asylum-seekers earlier this year). For as long as the Howard government continues to respect Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua, they also give their approval of the military occupation and the ongoing human rights abuses.

I would now ask for a minute’s silence in recognition for the 100,000s of West Papuans who have lost their lives over the past 45 years…