Australia, 28 June 2005
Bismillaahirrahmaanirrahiim.
Assalamu'alaikum wr
wbr.
34TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
PROCLAMATION OF WEST PAPUAN INDEPENDENCE
Acheh Papua Maluku Human Rights
Online
AUSTRALIA.
1ST
JULY 2005, 34TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PROCLAMATION OF WEST PAPUAN
INDEPENDENCE
Urgent
appeal: Ref: UAWP17/ 05. 27 June 2005.
34th
Anniversary of the Proclamation of West Papuan Independence.
Mr KOFI ANNAN
Secretary
General of the United Nations
ecu@un.org
Dear
Mr Kofi Annan
After
the fraudulent so-called Act of Free Choice in 1969, West Papuan leaders, rejecting
the result of the Act of Free Choice, established the Free Papua Movement (OPM)
to resist Indonesian colonial rule.
As
a powerful sign of resistance, on 1st July 1971 Mr. Hendrik Jacob Prai and Zeth
Roemkorem were ordered by the leaders of the Free Papua Movement (OPM),
Nicholas Jowei and Frans Kaisepo, to raise the West Papua flag in a small
village called Waris. On that day 34 years ago, the West Papuan people
proclaimed to the world that they would continue to fight for freedom. Now in
2005, the Papuan resistance lives on in the hearts of a new generation of
Papuan men and women proud to be Papuans and confident that their legitimate
right to self-determination will be acknowledged and upheld.
In
support of the commemoration of the 34th anniversary of the
proclamation of West Papuan right to independence, I call on the United Nations
-to
take immediate action to Review the Act of Free Choice 1969
-to
take immediate action to send a UN Peace Keeping Force before the end of this
year to prevent more bloodshed.
-to
put pressure on the Indonesian Government to withdraw all its military forces
from West Papua before the end of 2005.
-to
immediately appoint a neutral third country to mediate between the West Papua
National People's Coalition for Independence and the Indonesian Government at
the negotiation table to find a peaceful and just resolution to the West Papua
issue.
Yours
sincerely
Acheh
Papua Maluku Human Rights Online
ahro@iprimus.com.au
Australia
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Background
West
Papua is situated on the same island as Papua New Guinea and the indigenous
people, like those of Papua New Guinea, are Melanesian.
Indonesia
has occupied West Papua since the 1969 "Act of Free Choice" in which
1,022 electors, handpicked by Indonesia from a population of around 1,000,000,
declared their vote publicly.
In
1962 the colonial ruler of the western half of the island of New Guinea was the
Netherlands and they were preparing the people there for independence. But JF Kennedy wrote to the Dutch Prime
Minister warning him that if he gave the islanders freedom instead of handing
them over to Indonesia "the entire free world position in Asia would be
seriously damaged": the Indonesian Government would "succumb to
communism if it were not appeased. Kennedy's CIA adviser referred to the land
as "a few thousand miles of cannibal land".
To
avoid too much publicity Kennedy proposed that the Indonesians be allowed to
control West Papua for "a specified period", after which the Papuan
people would be "granted the right of self-determination".
An
agreement was drawn up stating that the UN would supervise a referendum in
which "all adult Papuans have the right to participate."
It
was clear that "85 - 90% would choose a Free Papua. So the US told the UN that the result had to
be rigged and the UN prepared to obey:
instead of all Papuans 1022 men were selected by Indonesian soldiers,
taught the words "I want Indonesia" then lined up at gunpoint. One man who refused to say the words was
shot and the others were threatened. A
unanimous vote for Indonesian rule was provided.
Since
then the armed forces have bombed, napalmed and strafed villages and tortured
and murdered their people. It has been
suggested that 100,000 Papuans have been killed and that Indonesia is
committing genocide against them.
Forced
assimilation and mass immigration are intended, according to a former governor
of West Papua to "give birth to a new generation of people without curly hair……….."
Indonesia
is now recognised as the sovereign government of West Papua by the UK, the UN
and other nations.
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Received
from: SIRA Presidium
sira_jaringan2000@yahoo.com
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