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by Airileke Ingram and Jason MacLeod
Melanesian support for a free West Papua has always been high. Travel
throughout Papua New Guinea you will often hear people say that West
Papua and Papua New Guinea is ‘wanpela graun’ – one land – and that West
Papuans on the other side of the border are family and kin. In the
Solomon Islands, Kanaky, Fiji and especially Vanuatu, people will tell
you that “Melanesia is not free until West Papua is free”. This was the
promise that the late Father Walter Lini, Vanuatu’s first prime minister
made. Above: Papua New Guinea National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop with Independence leader, Benny Wenda at the concert for a free West Papua, Jack Pidik Park, Port Moresby 6 March 2013.
Ordinary people in this part of the Pacific are painfully aware that
the West Papuan people continue to live under the gun. It is the
politicians in Melanesia who have been slow to take up the cause.
But that may be changing.
Last Wednesday 6 March 2013, the Right Honorary Powes Parkop, Governor of National Capital District, Papua New Guinea
nailed his colours firmly to the mast. In front of a crowd of 3000
people Governor Parkop insisted that “there is no historical, legal,
religious, or moral justification for Indonesia’s occupation of West
Papua”. Turning to welcome West Papuan independence leader Benny Wenda,
who was in Papua New Guinea as part of a global tour, the Governor told
Wenda that while he was in Papua New Guinea “no one will arrest him, no
one will stop him, and he can feel free to say what he wanted to say.”
These are basic rights denied to West Papuans who continue to be
arrested, tortured and killed simply because of the colour of their
skin. Governor Parkop, who is a member of the International Parliamentarians for West Papua,
which now has representatives in 56 countries, then went on to formerly
launch the free West Papua campaign. He promised to open an office, fly
the Morning Star flag from City Hall and pledged his support for a
Melanesian tour of musicians for a free West Papua.
Governor Parkop is no longer a lone voice in Melanesia calling for change.
Last year Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill broke with
tradition and publicly admonished the Indonesian Government’s response
to ongoing state violence, human rights violations and failure of
governance in West Papua. Moved by 4000 women from the Lutheran Church
O’Neill said he will raise human rights concerns in the troubled
territory with the Indonesian government. Now Governor Parkop wants to
accompany the Prime Minister on his visits to Indonesia “to present his
idea to Indonesia on how to solve West Papuan conflict once and for
all.” Well known PNG commentator Emmanuel Narakobi remarked on his blog
that Parkop’s multi-pronged proposal for how to mobilise public opinion
in PNG around West Papua “is perhaps the first time I’ve heard an actual
plan on how to tackle this issue (of West Papua)”. On talk back radio
Governor Parkop accused Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr of not
taking the issue of West Papua seriously, of “sweeping it under the
carpet.”
In Vanuatu, opposition parties, the Malvatumari National Council of
Chiefs and the Anglican bishop of Vanuatu, Rev. James Ligo are all
urging the current Vanuatu government to change their position on West
Papua. Rev. Ligo was at the recent Pacific Council of Churches in
Honiara, Solomon Islands, which passed a resolution urging the World
Council of Churches to pressure the United Nations to send a monitoring
team to Indonesia’s Papua region. “We know that Vanuatu has taken a
side-step on that (the west Papua issue) and we know that our government
supported Indonesia’s observer status on the MSG, we know that. But
again, we also believe that as churches we have the right to advocate
and continue to remind our countries and our leaders to be concerned
about our West Papuan brothers and sisters who are suffering every day.”
In Kanaky (New Caledonia) and the Solomon Islands West Papua
solidarity groups have been set up. Some local parliamentarians have
joined the ranks of International Parliamentarians for West Papua. In
Fiji church leaders and NGO activists are quietly placing their support
behind the cause even while Frank Bainimarama and Fiji’s military
government open their arms to closer ties with the Indonesian military.
This internationalisation of the West Papua issue is Indonesia’s worst
nightmare; it follows the same trajectory as East Timor.
The West Papuans themselves are also organising, not just inside the
country where moral outrage against ongoing Indonesian state violence
continues to boil, but regionally as well. Prior to Benny Wenda’s visit
to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu based representatives from the West Papua
National Coalition for Independence formerly applied for observer status
at this year’s Melanesian Spearhead Group meeting due to be held in
Noumea, New Caledonia in June, home to another long running Melanesian
self-determination struggle. While in Vanuatu Benny Wenda added his
support to that move, calling on Papuans from different resistance
organisations to back a “shared agenda for freedom”. A decision about
whether West Papua will be granted observer status at this year’ MSG
meeting will be made soon.
In Australia Bob Carr may be trying to pour cold water on growing
public support for a free West Papua but in Melanesia the tide is moving
in the opposite direction.
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