It was not in the headlines, but our neighbourhood has had its own ‘Arab Spring’. The Melanesian people of Indonesian-controlled West Papua, have shown the same determination to pursue non-violent struggle as their counterparts in Egypt and Syria…
Following recent events, Indonesia has sent in yet more police and tried to justify the scandalous actions of its security forces as necessary to deal with “separatism”.
Why has New Zealand made no public statement condemning this latest crackdown? Our Government Superannuation fund and other Crown Financial Institutes invest in Freeport McMoran. Both Government and the Superannuation Fund Board have so far resisted all calls to follow the ethical example of the Norwegian Government Pension Fund which divested from Freeport in 2006.
The New Zealand Minister of Defence recently talked about increasing our defence ties with Indonesia by extending the training we currently offer to Indonesian officers and hosting some ‘higher level’ visits of Indonesian personnel. We also have an NZAID training programme for the mainly migrant West Papua police. We promote community policing’ a non-confrontational model that is about as far from current Papuan police practice as it is possible to imagine!
The buzz word is “engagement” – if we talk nicely the military and police will learn not to open fire on unarmed civilians and Freeport will improve its human rights and environmental standards. Instead we should go with the tide of history, and start listening to West Papuan leaders who want us to support their call for peaceful dialogue.
Read the full article on the New Zealand Herald here.
Papua Post reblogged this on Papua Press Agency.