The Allegations on Papua Human Rights Violations Issue Completely False
Indonesia insists it will be very tranparent and entertain any legitimate concerns from the international community over developments in Papua and West Papua provinces, as long as they are not used to fan the flames of separatism. Indonesia had rejected allegations suggesting human rights atrocities continued to occur in the country’s easternmost provinces.
“I told Nauru’s leader that I was fully aware there was a lot of misinformation being peddled by certain parties, as if human rights violations continued to happen in Papua,” said Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi at the end of meetings at the United Nations headquarters.
Indonesia, said Retno, was fully open to discussing the development of both provinces or any concerns of human rights violations. “But I also firmly said, should this issue be raised in support of the Papuan separatist movement, that is where I drew the line. Any form of support for separatism especially coming from a sovereignty state is contrary to the spirit of the UN Charter,” she told The Jakarta Post.
According to Retno, Nauru itself heaped praise for Indonesia’s increased engagement with the small island nations of the South Pasific, underlining its continous respect for Indonesia’s teritorial integrity.
The Marshal Islands, which backed the separatist movement last year, did not raise the Papua issue during a bilateral meeting. The Marshal Islands, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, all of which are members of the Melanesian Spearhead Groups (MSG), offered daming remarks about Indonesia in last year’s UN General Assembly.
In this years, only Vanuatu and Solomon Island has still been asked about the issue of human rights violations in Papua and West Papua at the UN General Assembly in New York. Two countries had called on the UN’s Human Rights Council to formally investigate long-standing allegations of human rights abuses in Papua and West Papua.
Vanuatu Prime Minister Charles Salwai said the people of West Papua must be allowed the right to self-determination, to free themselves of the “yoke of colonialism”.
“The international community has been witnessing a gamut of torture, murder, exploitation, sexual violence and arbitrary detention inflicted on the nationals of West Papua, perpetrated by Indonesia, but the international community has turned a deaf ear to the appeals for help,”Salwai said in the UN general debate.
The Solomons leader, Manaseh Sogavare, said the UN’s sustainable development goal motto of “no one left behind” would be “synonymous to empty promises unless we in the UN take active steps to address the plight of the people of West Papua”.
Meanwhile, an agitative and propaganda of Vanuatu Prime Minister and the Solomon leaders didn’t hear and respected by the member of United States, because the international communities has been understanding that the opinion and propaganda Vanuatu and Solomon leaders are part of interfere and support for separatism, which is contrary to the spirit of the UN charter. Besides that, the provocative statement of Vanuatu and Solomon leaders are shown that they had been made an indecency movement on an international relations habits.
As we known together, Vanuatu and Solomon leaders didn’t never come to West Papua and Papua to see and to be witness how deep Jokowi’s administration intention to build and to spur development in Papua and West Papua through infrastructure development such as Trans Papua road, airport, port, traditional and modern market and also building border area between Indonesia and PNG.
Because of that, Charles Salwai and Manaseh Sogavare had been taken completely false information from separatist movement groups and their allies in Papua and West Papua without check and recheck those informations.
Politically, if Vanuatu and Solomon Island have always been supporting separatist movement in Papua and West Papua, Indonesia government should have taken firmly the foreign policy to Vanuatu and Solomon Islands such as the end of diplomatic relations between Indonesia with two small countries in the South Pasific.
Indonesia has a good principle at the international relationship. Indonesia didn’t make an enemy but Indonesia will be become as a close-friend to countries which have had good intention to Indonesia. If our national interest and our national dignity have been suffered by other “brazen state”, Indonesia will firmly be defended its. Hopefully.
*) Toni Ervianto, Senior observers at Strategic Assessment, Jakarta. He earned his master degree at the University of Indonesia (UI).
