[asia-apec 1854] Kofi Annan Urged to Examine UN's Misconduct In West Papua

[John M. Miller]

For Immediate Release

Contact: Carmel Budiardjo, (212)447-7292; tapol at gn.apc.org
            Octovianus Mote, (607)257-6157; om26 at cornell.edu


KOFI ANNAN URGED TO EXAMINE UN’S MISCONDUCT IN WEST PAPUA

March 27, 2002 - Human rights activists from around the world, including 
representatives of West Papua’s leading human rights organization, ELSHAM, 
submitted a petition to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan this week urging 
him to conduct an investigation into the United Nations' endorsement of a 
sham referendum held over 30 years ago endorsing Indonesia's take over of 
West Papua. After the so-called "Act of ‘Free’ Choice, the UN General 
Assembly removed West Papua from its agenda, consigning the people of West 
Papua to decades of brutality and mass murder under Indonesian rule.

Military repression in West Papua has intensified in the past year in many 
parts of the territory, culminating last November in the assassination of 
pro-independence leader, Theys Hiyo Eluay. Human rights organizations in 
West Papua are convinced that the assassination was perpetrated by elements 
within the Indonesian military.

Under an agreement brokered by the UN in 1962, the international body 
assumed responsibility for supervising the Act which should have been 
conducted in accordance with international practice, requiring all adults 
to participate. In fact only 1,022 persons, handpicked by the Indonesian 
military, voted without a dissenting voice to accept integration into the 
Indonesian Republic.

West Papua is extremely rich in minerals, which have been exploited for 
four decades by foreign companies, in particular the New Orleans-based 
mining multinational, Freeport-McMoRan, inflicting untold hardship on local 
communities.

Investigations undertaken by researchers in the past two years have 
revealed that the UN mission turned a blind eye to manipulations by the 
Indonesian military to ensure that the vote would secure the territory as 
Indonesia’s 26th province.

The Act, which West Papuans contemptuously call the "Act of NO Choice," 
took place under conditions of violent repression, under the very noses of 
the UN mission. UN documents reveal that the mission stood by as the faked 
vote was held.

In November 2002, the former UN deputy Secretary General, Chakravarthy 
Narasimhan, who was in charge of the UN mission’s work throughout, admitted 
that the Act was a ‘whitewash’.

The petitioners lobbied several important institutions in New York 
concerned with the situation in Indonesia and met representatives of some 
South Pacific missions at the UN.

Carmel Budiardjo of the London-based Indonesia Human Rights Campaign, 
TAPOL, who is currently in New York to present the petition, said: "The UN 
is responsible for a grave betrayal of the West Papuan people’s right to 
self-determination. Its failure to ensure a proper referendum has resulted 
in decades of suffering. The UN should re-open the question and rectify one 
of the worst breaches its commitment and duty to uphold the right of 
peoples to determine their own future."

Issued in New York by the West Papua Association ­ UK, on behalf of the 
International Solidarity Movement for West Papua.

Additional background can be found at 
http://westpapuaaction.buz.org/unreview/index.htm#briefing-document

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