This paper examines and extends the debate on genocide in West Papua. Referring to the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, examples of genocidal acts are listed: killings, causing serious bodily and mental harm, the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to cause the destruction of a group, and the forcible removal of children to another group.
Whereas previous examinations of the issue have failed to prove intent on the part of the Indonesian Government – a necessary pre- requisite under the Convention – this article finds that such intent exists.
The authors show that West Papua has suffered a military occupation since 1962-63 under which the West Papuan people have been treated as the enemy by the Indonesian armed forces. Explicit and implicit government policy has been consistently directed towards countering and eliminating Papuan attempts to create an independent state for their nation or enjoy political freedom on a par with other Indonesians.
In this tightly-controlled situation genocidal acts have been undertaken as government policy, effectively thwarting the Papuan nationalists in the era when information emerging from the province(s) could be tightly controlled. In this internet age, however, this is no longer possible, as evidence of both genocidal acts and government ‘intent’ is emerging.
This augurs poorly for Indonesia and the region as the little known, but deeply entrenched, conflict in West Papua seeps into global consciousness as a ‘slow-motion’ Pacific genocide.
The full paper:
http://griffithlawjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/glj_elmslie_webb-gannon.pdf.
• The Australian: Crossbench support for West Papuans CROSSBENCH politicians are demanding that the Abbott government back the calls of three West Papuan activists who in the early hours of yesterday morning scaled the wall of the Australian consulate in Bali — and left soon afterwards in controversial circumstances. They had quit the consulate by 8am, defusing a potentially awkward distraction for Tony Abbott who is attending the APEC summit in Bali today. But independent senator Nick Xenophon said the students were forced to leave after being warned by a consular official that the Indonesian police would otherwise be called to arrest and remove them. The student activists, Rofinus Yanggam, Markus Jerewon, and Yuvensius Goo, called for at least 55 political prisoners in the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua to be freed and that international journalists should be allowed to report there without restrictions. Mr Yanggam said before scaling the wall: “I want to see West Papuans treated like Balinese. I don’t want to see West Papua always kept closed from international visitors.” etc
