Mana Party Hone Harawira is trying to initiate mediation between the Indonesian Government and the indigenous people of West Papua by the UN (NZPA pic)
Mana Party leader Hone Harawira took the opportunity to talk about the indigenous affairs of Indonesia with foreign delegates at the Pacific Islands Forum in Auckland yesterday.
Mr Harawira called for the United Nations to support peace talks between the indigenous people of the Indonesian province of West Papua and the Indonesian Government.
One of the delegates he spoke to at the Forum was United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Harawira says he “took the opportunity with both hands”.
Mr Harawira released this press statement this morning:
It’s not often that you get to meet somebody as important as Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations so Hone Harawira, MANA leader and MP for Tai Tokerau, took the opportunity with both hands.
“Welcome to Aotearoa, Mr Secretary General,” said Mr Harawira. “Can I please ask that you support peaceful dialogue between the Indigenous People of West Papua and Indonesia, to put an end to the killings there and to find a strategy to get Indonesia out of a land that isn’t theirs.”
Harawira met the UN Secretary General at the formal welcome for all the leaders attending the Pacific Forum, which was held yesterday at The Cloud down on the Auckland waterfront.
“Pity I didn’t have some information packs to hand out because they were all there,” said Harawira, “but I did manage to speak to a number of the leaders about West Papua and I think some of them quietly agreed with the suggestion that Indonesia quit West Papua as soon as possible.”
Back in the early 1960s when the former Dutch New Guinea was being prepared for independence, Indonesia waged a bloody campaign to invade and occupy the territory, with the support of the US. That occupation was ended when the UN approved West Papua being incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, following a rigged referendum of only 1,000 hand-picked West Papuans.
“The people of West Papua have been fighting for their independence ever since” said Harawira, “and New Zealand has had a role in that war - training the Indonesian military and police in return for favourable trade deals with the Indonesian government.”
“New Zealand has the opportunity to put that distasteful period in the past,” said Harawira, “by supporting two simple requests of the people of West Papua – a fact-finding mission to clarify the situation in West Papua, and peaceful dialogue between the Indigenous people of West Papua and the Indonesian government.”
“To do any less would be to sanction our support for the brutal military occupation of West Papua and to ignore the killings of an indigenous people who lack the capacity to defend themselves.”
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I generally have little to no time for Mr. Harawira but I do applaud his effort to try and bring attention to what is happening in West Papua. I hope it leads to these leaders and their peoples looking at what has happened, why it came about, and what continues to happen in that region. How can we stand by and let these people and culture be exterminated? Something has to be done. As to Mr. Mayham's comment above. While state sovereignty is an accepted international norm it should not be enforced or used as an excuse to not interfere when tens of thousands have been murdered since Indonesia's forced annexation of West Papua. They did the same to East Timor and we are finally putting that right. How about we do the same for West Papua?!
Excellent publicity for out MANA Movement...Good on you Hone! But wheres the PM? YAY HONE!
Mr Harawari mind your own country, you don't know anything about Papua or Indonesia. You just see it far away because you know it from one side not in both side of the story what is going on in Papua...So Mr. Harwari if you want to interfere with another country problem you just had violating Indonesia sovereignty...
Pitty he is more concerned with what is happening in another country he has never been to then the deline of his own race. 16 percent of the population, 70 percent of the prison population, half the kids in care. Come on John Hatfield.
It´s good to see that Mr. Harawira and many more activist are doing a good job in making the situation in West Papua known. How long will the powes that be continue to look the other way?
More than 40 years of unpunished murder, rape, torture and exploitation finally must come to an end.