Secretariat: House of the Customary Council of Papua (DAP), Samping Mess Fakfak, Waena – Jayapura
THANKS TO THEE, OUR LORD
We, the People of West Papua, take this opportunity to welcome the Delegation of the Foreign Ministers’ Mission (FMM) of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) in Jayapura, West Papua.
Articles 20 and 21 of the Final Communique of the Nineteenth MSG Summit stated that the MSG was to send a Ministerial Mission at the FMM level, to be led by Fiji’s Foreign Minister to Jakarta and then to West Papua in 2013, at the invitation of the Government of Indonesia. The Delegation of the Ministerial Mission was mandated to raise the issue of human rights abuses in West Papua. In reality, both the purpose and the timeframe for the planned visit were altered. The Indonesian Government has unilaterally modified the theme of the visit which will now solely focus on economic and development issues.
Taking such one-sided steps, by altering the theme or topic of the visit to West Papua, is a form of inconsistent behavior on the side of the Indonesian Government, which is part of a pattern which that government has followed for the last five decades in the implementation of their policies toward West Papua. The Indonesian Government is deliberately concealing the issue of human rights violations, a matter that is the result of the political conflict between the People of West Papua and the Indonesian Government. In the view of the People of West Papua, the human rights violations are a form of humiliation by the Indonesian Government conducted towards the Melanesians in West Papua. Multiple and countless acts of violence committed by the Indonesian Government include the killing, arrest, detention, torture, rape of women, and have left a deep and severe trauma on the People of West Papua, from 1960 until now. By their very nature, their excessiveness and their number, the human rights violations inflicted on the Melanesian West Papuan people by the Indonesian Government and its security forces fully qualify as crimes against humanity, if not genocide.
For the sake of maintaining the very existence of the West Papuans as Melanesians living in West Papua, we, West Papuans have no other option but to continue to struggle to gain independence and full recognition of our political sovereignty, in accordance with the wishes and desires of the People of West Papua. We sincerely hope that the esteemed members of this delegation will understand that the filing of an application for membership status with the MSG for West Papua represents a crucial step in the struggle to save the Melanesian People of West Papua from the threat of certain extinction in the near future. Applying for membership with the MSG is also a step for the Papuan people towards building relationships with the Melanesian community of States, a community with which we have been disconnected during the last five decades.
The People of West Papua deplore these manoeuvers by the Indonesian Government and the acquiescence by the FMM delegation of these manoeuvers, as they will not be meeting directly with representatives of the West Papuan struggle for independence, the National Liberation Army of West Papua, the Papuan Customary Council, Papuan Political Prisoners, churches and religious organizations, women of Papua, NGOs and victims of human rights violations.
The People of West Papua also deplore the duration of the visit which will last only one day in the city of Jayapura, while we had expected the FMM MSG delegation to visit a number of other cities such as: Arso, Biak, Merauke, Timika, Fakfak, Sorong, Manokwari, Nabire, Enarotali, Wamena, Tiom, and Mulia, so that they could observe firsthand the socio-political dynamics that occur in other parts of West Papua.
We would like to draw the attention of the esteemed delegates of the FMM to the fact that the People of West Papua, in its entirety, firmly rejects all Indonesian economic development policies in West Papua. This is especially true for the Special Autonomy policy (Otsus); the Unit for the Acceleration of Development in Papua and West Papua (UP4B) and the splitting of provinces, cities, regencies and districts into smaller administrative divisions throughout West Papua, because it has been proven that as a direct consequence of these policies, the indigenous Papuans have become marginalized and the resulting mass migration from other parts of Indonesia (in the name of development) has caused the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants to become a minority in West Papua.
In the light of the critical conditions faced by the People of West Papua, we would like to stress the following:
This concludes the official position statement of the People of West Papua which we convey to the kind attention and understanding of the delegates of the Foreign Ministers’ Mission of the Melanesian Spearhead Group.
~ ONE PEOPLE ONE SOUL ~