Whilst Indonesia bribes
Fiji and interferes with MSG, Vanuatu fights back JANUARY 11, 2014 http://freewestpapua.org/go/761 As predicted,
Indonesia has once again bribed the leaders of Melanesia in a desperate effort to try
to cover up their ongoing genocide and illegal occupation of West Papua and to
try to stop West Papua joining the very influential regional body, the
Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) which will be an essential and struggle
changing moment when West Papua joins. They have also denied access for the
leaders of the Melanesian countries to visit West Papua but have insisted that
they go to Java and Bali alone. In response the Government of Vanuatu (which
strongly supports West Papua) has issued a strong protest letter to Indonesia
and released a bold press statement confirming that they will refuse to
cooperate with Indonesia if they continue to twist and pull the internal
affairs of Melanesian nations over West Papua. Photo: Prime Minister of
Vanuatu, Moana Carcasses Kalosil shows his full support for a free and
independent West Papua and raises the West Papuan Morning Star Flag Prime
Minister of Vanuatu, Moana Carcasses Kalosil shows his full support for a free
and independent West Papua and raises the West Papuan Morning Star Flag In the
meanwhile, the leader of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), Victor Yeimo
has issued a statement from behind Indonesian prison bars, calling on MSG not
to betray the people of West Papua stating that “if the Melanesian leaders are
more supportive of the Indonesian colonial powers than the people of West Papua
then they have betrayed the people of Melanesia.” Background to the issue West
Papua joining MSG is one of Indonesia’s greatest fears and right now they are
doing all that they can to try and stop any support for West Papua from the
leaders of our brothers and sister Melanesian countries. A starting move of
Indonesia’s was by managing to cheat its way into getting “Observer status” at
MSG. This gives it even more influence with which to interfere with the
internal politics of Melanesia. Last year, an MSG summit was held in Kanaky to
determine whether West Papua would join or not. Though throughout the year,
there was widespread support for West Papua’s joining, Indonesia pulled the
strings at the last moment by sending an enormous delegation to Kanaky, suspected
bribery of the Prime Minister of Fiji and suddenly meeting with the Prime
Minister of Papua New Guinea. As a result, whilst all the other countries voted
in favour of the motion, Papua New Guinea and Fiji did not, thus barring West
Papua from joining MSG in 2013. It was agreed instead at Indonesia’s insistence
that before a decision could be made, a delegation of every country had to
visit Indonesia so that Indonesia could try and prove that the situation in
West Papua was peaceful to avoid any sympathy from fellow Melanesian countries.
Indonesia claimed that “This was not a Melanesian issue but an internal issue
for Indonesia”. It was finally agreed that a delegation from every country
would visit Java at the same time and then visit West Papua at the same time to
discuss with the Indonesian government and to see first-hand what the human
rights situation in West Papua really was. Towards the end of 2013, Indonesia
began inviting not a delegation from MSG to Indonesia as a whole as had been
agreed but instead, extended private invitations to the leaders of the various
Melanesian countries alone who would come to Indonesia to have dinner with the
Indonesian president where he would try and persuade the leaders that such
support for West Papua was not necessary. Indonesia itself has in fact admitted
that this is to try and strengthen ties with MSG over West Papua. Indonesian
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vishnu Ward announced recently “To
strengthen relationships with MSG Indonesia, Indonesian Foreign Minister
invited the MSG to come to Indonesia. To exchange experiences and provide an
opportunity to see and better understand the development in Indonesia,
including Papua and West Papua.” This was by no means the end of such broken
promises. Indonesia has today announced that it will not allow any delegates or
leaders of the countries to visit West Papua as part of the official MSG
agreement last year. The official MSG delegation to West Papua will also not in
fact even be welcomed to meet with any West Papuan civil society groups. This
is obviously a clear attempt to halt any Melanesian leader seeing first-hand
what is really happening on the ground inside West Papua and to try to prevent
the mass protests in support of West Papua joining MSG that would inevitably
happen within West Papua whenever one of the MSG delegations arrived. This
further intervention by the state of Indonesia is in clear violation of the
agreement. The government of Vanuatu, which has been the most spoken of any
world government in supporting West Papua was especially appalled by this
violation and the Deputy Prime Minister, who is also the Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Edward Natapei, announced that Vanuatu has sent an official letter of
protest to the MSG Secretariat of the Indonesian government’s invitation. World
famous West Papuan political prisoner, Filep Karma, (who is in serving a 15
year jail sentence under Indonesian law simply for raising the West Papuan
national flag), calls upon MSG to also visit the West Papuan political
prisoners who are currently scattered in several prisons in Papua. “I ask, in
the MSG leaders later visit to Papua in order to visit the Papuan Political
Prisoners,” said Filep Karma on Thursday (9/1). Another famous West Papuan
political prisoner, Victor Yeimo, who is the Chairman of the West Papua
National Committee (KNPB) asked the Indonesian government to open widely
without isolating the reality of the problem that happened in Papua. He said
that MSG Leaders should be given the freedom to meet with anyone Papuan people
to understand the problems facing Papua issue for integration with Indonesia.
Victor said recently on behalf of his organisation “We welcome and look forward
to welcoming MSG Leaders in Papua,” Following the recent huge rise in support
for West Papua in both the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) and in the
Melanesian public, the Indonesian government has given the Chairman of MSG
500,000 dollars. This is a very symbolic figure, Indonesia has paid Fiji about
1 dollar to try and forget the brutal murder of each of the 500,000 Melanesian
West Papuans the Indonesian government has murdered during their 50 year
illegal occupation of West Papua. That is the value of a Papuan life in the
eyes of the Indonesian government. One dollar per person. The Indonesian
government steals about 1.82 million dollars a day from Melanesia through the
Freeport gold mine alone. Fiji government officially ignores West Papua after
accepting the money The current Chairman of MSG is the Prime Minister of Fiji, Frank
Bainimarama, who is regarded by many people as a military dictator. He has had
a much closer relationship with Indonesia than any other Melanesian head of
state and he has been effectively bribed by Indonesia several times previously
to keep out support for West Papua. Bainimarama received the money on behalf of
the Melanesian Spearhead Group from the Indonesian government’s Secretary of
Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Lt Gen Langgeng
Sulistiyonho (who is also a general in the Indonesian military) in Suva, Fiji
on Wednesday 8th January. On the same day, Langgeng Sulistiyono announced that
“With regards to the issue of West Papua — it is part of our issue, so we have
to tackle it by ourself because it is part of our sovereignty,” Bainimarama
also admitted that the money given was a way to “further strengthen relations
with Indonesia”. If Indonesia is doing this because it cares about Melanesia,
why has it waited until now to make a donation? And why does it chose Fiji to give
it to as opposed to say Vanuatu? Only a day later, the Fijian Defence Minister,
Joketani Cokanasiga, after being silent on the issue for so long, suddenly
announced that said “he would leave the matter of West Papua to the Indonesian
Government to deal with.” “Our policy is never to interfere with other people’s
internal affairs,” he said. “I believe there is a delegation from MSG going up
to see West Papua — we maintain our very strong stand that if anything should
happen, it should emanate from Indonesia rather than us going outside and
getting them.” To support West Papua, Government of Vanuatu refuses to
cooperate with Indonesia However, there is also very good and positive news to
come from this week as well. Unlike the Fijian government, which has accepted
all of Indonesia’s terms over West Papua, including bribery and said that it
will ignore the plight of the West Papuan people so that it maintains good
relations with Indonesia, the government of the Republic of Vanuatu yesterday
announced that they would not participate in the MSG Ministerial Fact Finding
mission to West Papua which was scheduled to be held from 11-15th January 2014
and therefore would not willingly cooperate with the Indonesian government over
this West Papua issue as they are so obviously pulling every string of
Melanesian politics to try and stop support for West Papua. Vanuatu announced
yesterday in an official press statement “The Vanuatu Government believes that
while the visit is carefully designed to “promote Economic ties and development
cooperation” between Indonesia and the MSG countries, it should be structured
to meet the purpose for which the MSG leaders had agreed to in Noumea during
the Summit.” They added “There are also concerns about Human rights abuses in
the West Papua and while this visit is not to investigate allegations against
human rights abuse, meeting with the people is absolutely necessary as it has
the potential to bridge any information gap between the Governing authorities
and those that are being governed. The Vanuatu Prime Minister, Hon Moana
Carcasses Kalosil had written an urgent letter to the Chairperson of the MSG,
Mr. Victor Tutugoro raising the concerns of his Government that the important
mission to West Papua must allow the inclusion of meetings with the indigenous
people of West Papua, in particular the Chiefs and the churches in order to
hear what the people have to say about the authenticity of WPNCL and other
concerns which the West Papuans may have. These are concerns of the leaders at
the summit. Getting views from the Indonesian authorities alone may not be
truly reflective of the concerns which the leaders will want to know before
they could make a final determination on the membership of West Papua into the
MSG. The Vanuatu Government had insisted during the MSG Senior Officials
Meeting and the Foreign Ministers’ meeting that any program of visit to West
Papua must include strong participation of the civil society who are the people
that are most directly affected. “ “It is not an easy decision for the
Government to make at this stage, but it has to be taken in order to uphold the
integrity of the decision of the MSG leaders. What is decided by the MSG
leaders must be respected and all MSG member countries are fully obliged to
ensure that the decision by their leaders is not subordinated by any element.
These are Sovereign decisions of Sovereign States of Melanesia.” This is a
truly brave and fully respected statement which we welcome 100%. The government
of Fiji might have accepted blood money to backstab West Papua, but the
government of Vanuatu shows that they are true children of Melanesia, putting
their fellow Melanesian before their money. Free West Papua Campaign statement
on developments The statements of the Government of Vanuatu over West Papua
have continued to be overwhelmingly positive and right for the people of West
Papua. We fully support such statements and are entirely grateful to the
government for taking such a bold stand for their Melanesian brothers and
sisters in West Papua. In such a way, Vanuatu has proved itself as a true son
of Melanesia. Indonesia’s sinister involvement in the Melanesian Spearhead
Group in such manners as this is a clear attempt by the Indonesian government
to interfere and sabotage our Melanesian nations to stop any support for their
fellow Melanesian people of West Papua including by bribing our own Melanesian
leaders. It is Indonesia, which has no right whatsoever to interfere with our
internal Melanesian affairs such as with our people of West Papua. It is
Melanesia, which has to tackle this issue as it is part of Melanesian
sovereignty, not Indonesia. Since when did Indonesia have any right to bribe
our leaders and tell us which fellow Melanesian wantoks we do have or do not
have the right to support? This is a true disgrace and the government of
Indonesia but also more shockingly to the government of Fiji, especially Mr
Bainimarama and Mr Cokanasiga must be truly ashamed of themselves that they are
selling their own Melanesian people down the river for little more than blood
money. We fully condemn this outrageous and blatantly illegal string pulling by
the Indonesian government in trying to stop the truth coming out about the
genocide and illegal occupation they are still committing inside West Papua
every day. But the Melanesian people rising up to support their family in West
Papua. The Indonesian government cannot stop them. Not with 500,000 dollars.
Not with all the money in the world. This is about more than money. It is about
truth, justice and freedom. History will record those who thought 500,000
dollars would buy silence over the genocide of 500,000 West Papuans. With our
Melanesian brothers and sisters, we will succeed We know that you, the true
brothers and sisters of Melanesia just like Vanuatu and as with all our friends
around the world, will always stand up for your fellow people in West Papua,
and that it is with your support, that West Papua will finally join the
Melanesian Spearhead Group and further to the Pacific Islands Forum and that
ultimately, West Papua will join the world as a member of the United Nations
and at last as another free brother of Melanesia. Help to pave the way for full
freedom for West Papua and so all of Melanesia. Thank you very much for all
your support MELANESIA MUST RISE UP! Papua Merdeka! Free West Papua Campaign
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