AWPA Calls Australia Govt to Monitor Papua Tension


AWPA Calls Australia Govt to Monitor Papua Tension
Theindonesiatoday.com - The Australian West Papua Association (AWPA), an activist association of Papua in Sydney, Australia in its letter to the Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Ruud, asks Indonesian security forces to stay in their barracks on December 1st celebration of West Papua.

AWPA uses the name “West Papua” to refer to the whole of the western half of the Island of New Guinea which now divided into two provinces (Papua province and West Papua province) by Indonesian Government.

“Because of the dangerously deteriorating situation in West Papua we are asking the Foreign Minister to use his good offices with the Indonesian Government asking that it controls its security forces in West Papua, urging that the security forces should be kept in their barracks during any West Papuan celebrations on the 1st December as a way of avoiding possible bloodshed,” said AWPA in its press statement Monday (Nov 28).

AWPA also urges Kevin Ruud to ask the Indonesian Government to allow full and free access of journalists to Papua and to send Australian embassy staff to monitor and observe events on December 1.

AWPA, in its early letter to Kevin Ruud on November 26, also urges the Australian Government to hold an inquiry into how Australian Government’s aid and training to the Indonesian military impacts on the lives of the West Papuan people and in the short term, AWPA also urge the Australian Government to immediately halt any aid or training to any military unit found to have committed human rights abuses in West Papua.

AWPA also pointed to one of the most famous West Papuan political prisoners, Filep Karma, who was arrested on the 1st December 2004 for being part of a rally where the Morning Star flag was raised. In May 2005, a court sentenced Filep Karma to 15 years jail on charges of treason against the state. Amnesty International considers Filep Karma to be a prisoner of conscience who has been detained solely for the peaceful exercise of his right to freedom of expression. (haryanto@theindonesiatoday.com)

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