an inter press service feature
by guido de bruin
the hague, oct 1 (ips) -- inaria kaisiepo (21) was born in the
netherlands, but as a papuan she feels she has a mission to
fulfill on behalf of her suffering brethren in indonesian-occupied
west papua.
the grand-daughter of a well-known activist for papua self-
determination who fled former dutch new guinea in 1962, she feels
that ''using my right to speak out'' is her duty towards her
people ''whose rights have been taken from them''.
in a demonstration held last thursday by representatives from
dutch papuan organisations, some 150 west papuans vented their
anger and frustration with decades of international neglect.
similar demonstrations were held in london, paris, madrid, sydney
and davao in the philippines. some 40,000 petitions were handed in
at u.n. offices and indonesian embassies worldwide.
these call on the u.n. to send observers to west papua -- now the
indonesian province of irian jaya -- to investigate alleged human
rights abuses by the indonesian authorities, forced migration and
exploitation by mining and oil companies.
thirty years ago on thursday, under the new york agreement
between holland and indonesia, the netherlands transferred the
administration of its last colonial possession in the indonesian
archipelago to the united nations, which in turn handed it over to
the indonesian government in 1963.
indonesia failed to implement the self-determination provision in
the agreement, orchestrating a so-called people's consultation in
1969 which produced a claimed consensus that west papua should
remain within indonesia. this was severely criticised at the time
by special u.n. representative ortiz sanz.
under indonesian occupation, 900,000 papuans currently living in
west papua are being driven from their lands by the 700,000
javanese settled under the indonesian transmigration programme,
and by indonesian and western mining, timber and oil companies
eager to exploit the island's rich natural resources.
kaisiepo estimates that some 10,000 papuas have fled to
neighbouring papua new guinea while according to a recent amnesty
international report, several activists for papuan self-
determination have been shot, imprisoned or tortured. (more/ips)
west papua: papuans demonstrate for self-determination(2-e)
west papua: papuans demonstrate (2)
kaisiepo said scope for political protest under the umbrella of
the organisation for a free papua (opm) is very limited, prompting
some in the isolated interior to take up bows and arrows in an
unequal struggle against indonesia's modern military.
in the words of anthropologist jan nederveen pieterse, the
papuans have always been ''victims of 'development''' -- whether
at the hands of colonists, of national indonesian development, or
of multinational mining and logging interests.
kaisiepo and her fellow-activists want the u.n. to take action
and, even after 30 years, to insist on implementation of the self-
determination provision. by publicising their cause and lobbying
the u.n. working group on indigenous populations they hope to
muster international support.
but nederveen pieterse attributed the flagging international
interest in west papua -- as opposed to the massive outcry over
indonesian repression in east timor -- to the image popularised by
former dutch colonists, who portrayed papuans as a stone age
people engaging in cannibalism and head hunting.
nederveen pieterse believes the image is still pervasive, if
nowadays used in a slightly less negative sense, exchanging the
old ''savage brute'' for the ''noble savage''.
nederveen pieterse said that even nowadays dutch media reports
from the region still focus on weird cultural practices rather
than on the current political struggle. ''as long as this kind of
stone age tale persists, papuans still have more chance of ending
up on the cartoon pages than on the political pages,'' he added.
kaisiepo suspects that another factor is dutch unwillingness to
be become aware, both of this and of the way they left the papuans
to fend for themselves. ''in the netherlands, the papuan issue has
been hushed up,'' she said.
but she is confident that international pressure will ultimately
bring freedom to west papua, though the 35 organisations
representing the 1,000 dutch papuans need to undertake more
concerted action than they have so far.
kaisiepo thinks young papuans have to take over from the older
generation, because the latter has spent more time fighting among
itself than campaigning for the papuan cause. for them, she says,
freedom has become a mere ''far-away dream''.
thursday's demonstration in the hague coincided with another in
amsterdam commemorating the military coup of october 1, 1965,
which brought president suharto's repressive regime to power. the
bloody consequences of that coup are still being felt today by
minorities and critics of the indonesian government.
(end/ips/hr/gdb/dn/92)