CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY: INDONESIA’S HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF WEST PAPUA

U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C.
September 11, 1998

Congressman Eni Faleomavaega
American Samoa’s Delegate in the U.S. House of Representatives.

September 11, 1998

Mr. Speaker, once again I would like to call the attention of my colleagues to an on-going struggle presently being waged many miles away in the Pacific by the people of West Papua, or Irian Jaya as it is known by the Indonesia Government. In July, the attention of the world was focused, however briefly, on the immense tragedy caused by the Tsunami which devastated the coastal villages of Papua New Guinea.

In the western half of the same island, some miles away, agonies of another sort were being experienced by the people of West Papua. It is not my intent, Mr. Speaker, to detract in any way from the horror and the misery inflicted on the people of Papua New Guinea by the disaster which wiped out their coastal villages. Rather, my concern is that in the midst of the devastation wrought by nature we should not forget the devastation wrought by our fellow human beings.

We can only respond after the fact to the devastation brought by a Tsunami. We have the opportunity to respond with more immediacy to the devastation which is caused by our fellow human beings.

Mr. Speaker, I have spoken on previous occasions about the history of the people of West Papua and about their struggle for independence from Indonesia. On July 3rd, Indonesian Armed Forces fired on pro-independence demonstrators at a university in Jayapura, the capital of West Papua. On July 6, more than 1,000 people were wounded and at least three people were killed when Indonesian Armed Forces fired on a crowd of pro-independence demonstrators on the island of Biak. Both of these demonstrations were peaceful, Mr. Speaker.

They expressed the desire of the people of West Papua for a just resolution to the matter of their political status. Human Rights Watch has called for a full investigation into the shootings in Biak, where 140 citizens have been detained by the government and where there are reports that wounded detainees are being denied medical care and that their families are not being allowed to visit them.

Since 1962, the people of West Papua have been under the occupying rule of Indonesia. Over the last three decades the use of excessive and lethal force has been a feature of the Indonesian Armed Forces’ response to both peaceful and armed opposition. The recent events in West Papua have only served to underscore the brutality with which the aspirations of the West Papuan people are being suppressed by the new regime which took power after the resignation of President Suharto.

Mr. Speaker, the recent violence by the Indonesian government against the people of West Papua is part and parcel of a long history of Jakarta’s oppression. Papuan people are not Indonesian, they are Melanesian. Their country is not naturally a part of Indonesia, which is more than 2,300 miles away –across the ocean, with many island nations in between. West Papuan languages, religions, history, identity, and customs are their own, and bear no relation to those of Indonesia.

These two nations were cobbled together in 1969 to serve the foreign policy interests of the United States and its ally Indonesia. Indonesia took West Papua in 1963, suppressing the West Papua people’s dreams of freedom and self-determination. There was no natural reason for this union and so it should come as no surprise that it is unraveling.

Since Indonesia took over West Papua, the native Melanesian people have suffered under one of the most repressive and unjust systems of colonial occupation in the twentieth century. The Indonesian military has waged an ongoing war against the “Free Papua Movement” (OPM) and their supporters since the 1960s. The civilian populace that has objected to Indonesia’s plans for development in West Papua has suffered similar oppression. The thousands of killings associated with the expansion of the Freeport copper and gold mines in West Papua are testimony to the brutality of the Jakarta central government.

Incredible as it may seem, Mr. Speaker, estimates are that between 100,000 to 300,000 indigenous West Papuans have been killed or have simply vanished from the face of the earth during the years of Indonesian occupation. And this pattern of annihilation is being continued by the regime of Mr. Habibie despite initial promises of reform.

The current government of Indonesia continues to choose a policy of repression, a policy which disregards the rights of the indigenous which is of great concern to me. The recent shooting over the pro-independence demonstrations in Jayapura and on the island of Biak, the violent responses which we have seen to pro-independence demonstrations in towns and cities all across West Papua indicate that this new regime is prepared to continue the repression of the past.

One half of Papua New Guinea is still reeling from the worst natural disaster to hit the island in recent memory. Whole villages and the lives of the people in them have been completely obliterated, wiped off the face of the earth. In the other half of the same island, the people of West Papua are suffering another form of devastation. Their identity as a people is being obliterated by a brutal regime thousands of miles away.

I would hope that all my colleagues would join me in urging the Indonesian government to cease these violations of human rights and instead take immediate steps to review the political status of West Papua. The new regime in Indonesia has an opportunity to correct the mistakes of the past, not repeat them. It seems to me that we have an obligation to lend our support to this effort, and I urge my colleagues to protest in the strongest possible terms these continuing violations of basic human rights by the new government of Indonesia.

http://archives.pireport.org/archive/1998/september/09%2D21%2D15.htm