PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS, PEACE AND DEMOCRACY IN INDONESIA

111 Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8HW, UK
Tel +44 (0)20 8771 2904 Fax +44 (0)20 8653 0322
Email tapol@gn.apc.org Website http://www.tapol.org

< PRESS RELEASES

Call to Kofi Annan to review UN betrayal of West Papua

Unresolved status poses investment risk for British shareholders

The following press release was issued by the West Papua Association - UK, of which TAPOL is a member, on 15 March 2002

Embargoed until 21^st March

Press conference: 1 Parliament Street, Room C, 10 am, 21^st March 2002

Convened jointly by the All-Party Parliamentary Human Rights Group (PHRG) and West Papua Association - UK

Chaired by Jeremy Corbyn MP, Vice-Chair PHRG

With Viktor Kaisiepo – European representative West Papuan Presidium

and Carmel Budiardjo – TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign

West Papuan supporters around the world, according to the wishes of the West Papuan people living under Indonesian military occupation, are launching a campaign to secure a review of how the UN failed the West Papuans in the 1969 Act of 'Free' Choice referendum, resulting in West Papua’s incorporation into Indonesia. A formal submission will be made to Kofi Annan in New York on 26 March, based on detailed research of official records which confirms the process was a sham.

A recent statement by the retired UN Under Secretary-General, Chakravarthy Narasimhan, in charge of the UN presence there at the time, condemned what happened as ‘a whitewash’

In 1969, Indonesia conducted what was supposed to have been a referendum ‘in accordance with international practice’, on West Papua’s future status. Instead, 1022 people out of a population of around 800 000 were forced to vote, under intimidation and threats to themselves and their families, for their country to become part of Indonesia. The UN, which was supposed to ‘advise, assist and participate in proceedings’, effectively turned a blind eye to the process.

Since 1969, at least 100 000 West Papuans have been killed or disappeared as a result of the military occupation. President Suharto’s media ban gave the military a free hand to control the resource-rich territory through violence, a situation which recently saw the Papuan leader, Theys Eluay, murdered.

With the UK Government pushing hard for increased investment in Indonesia, with Rio Tinto set to own 40% of West Papua's expanded Freeport copper-and-gold mine, the world’s largest, and with BP set to initiate a huge gas project in the territory, UK boardrooms and shareholders may be forced to take account of people’s rights in relation to investment risk. A meeting in London on BP's West Papua project will coincide with the New York campaign launch on 26 March.

Copies of the submission to Kofi Annan are available on request. Contact: Paul Barber on 01420 80153.

Press archive

top