A petition to the Dutch Parliament to straighten Papuan history
and to address the situation in West Papua
By Leonie Tanggahma*
“A moral debt. Holland has a moral debt towards the people of West Papua for the injustice that had been done to them.” That’s how Mr. Kortenoeven, a Dutch MP, put it, when a petition was handed in to the Permanent Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Dutch House of Representatives (Vaste Commissie voor Buitenlandse Zaken), on Tuesday. The petition was entitled: “Petition for the straightening of the Trikora events of 19 December 1961, and to request the Dutch Parliament to put pressure on the Government of Indonesia to solve the situation in West Papua in a fair and humane way”.
Straightening Papuan history
Many Indonesians believe that 19 December stands for the liberation of the Papuans from the Dutch colonizing forces, however Papuans see it as the day President Soekarno called for a war of aggression, a military conflict that is fought with no other justification than territorial expansion, through colonial conquest. It was a call for an illegal military aggression, an invasion from a country which did not recognize the sovereignty of the people of West Papua, a sovereignty which had just been declared 18 days earlier, on 1 December 1961. The Papuans were not freed, on the contrary, they were annexed, and ever since then, they have been oppressed, tortured, raped, murdered; not only the people of West Papua, but also the land has been abused in the most appalling of ways.
19 December 2011, nationwide action
The petition was part of a nationwide action to straighten Papuan history, to straighten the 19 December 1961, and many organizations in and outside of West Papua took part as they all agreed on the significance of that date, and each organization carried that same message by different means, not forgetting to propose solutions to solve the problem. During a demonstration in Numbay (Jayapura), the Gerakan Rakyat Demokratik Papua (Garda-P) made an appeal to the Government of Indonesia to open itself up to a fair dialogue with the Papuans. Papuan students in Yogyakarta gathered under the Gerakan Rakyat Papua Bersatu (GRPB) demonstrated on the streets as they stated that what happened on 19 December 1961 was nothing else but a call for the annexation of West Papua by Indonesia. At a regional level, the Koalisi Masyarakat Papua Fakfak (KMPFUK) also urged the Indonesian Government engage in a dialogue with West Papua, through representatives that were duly chosen by the people. The churches also successfully brought to the attention of the President of Indonesia, during their meeting with him, that not only 19 December needed to be straightened, but also that a dignified solution needed to be found and implemented in relation to West Papua. As such, the petition to the Dutch Parliament echoed these voices and demands, as it “called on the Dutch Parliament to urge the Dutch Government to help the Indonesian Government and the Papuan people in carrying out a dialogue with properly chosen representatives of the Papuan people, by ensuring that this happens with neutral and fair mediation of a third party, including to discuss aspirations to carry out a referendum on the future of West Papua”.
Dutch Parliament
The intended date to hand over the petition in The Hague had been Monday 19 December 2011, but then, as Mrs. Albayrak, the Chair of the Permanent Committee on Foreign Affairs, explained, not that many parliamentarians would have been able to attend. “Tuesday is Petition Day at the Parliament”, she added. So the date had been postponed to Tuesday 20 December.
As Mrs. Albayrak, MP, took the petition, she emphasized that it was quite a handful of parliamentarians that had come to take part in the occasion; Dutch politics has started to take a keen interest in what is happening in that region. The following parliamentarians took part: 1. Nebahat Albayrak (Labour Party-PvdA), as Chair of the Committee; 2. Wim Kortenoeven (Party for Freedom-PVV); 3. Harry van Bommel (Socialist Party-SP); 4. Frans Timmermans (Labour Party-PvdA); 5. Henk Jan Ormel (Christian Democratic Appeal-CDA); 6. Han ten Broeke (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy-VVD); 7. Joël Voordewind (ChristianUnion-CU); 8. Arjan El Fassed (Green Left-GL). Mr. Kees van der Staaij (Reformed Political Party-SGP) was unfortunately not able to attend, although he is following the matter very closely, as could be seen from this statement on 1 December.
Dutch Parliamentarians keen
It appears Dutch parliamentarians are paving the way in making sure the Dutch Government acts in relation to the situation in West Papua. Mr. Kortenoeven, MP (PVV) seizes every opportunity to ask questions to the Government in relation to the Papuan case. On 16 December he filed a number of questions in relation to the escalating and brutal violence perpetrated by the Indonesian army against the indigenous people of West Papua. It should be noted here that great use is made of the accurate and trustworthy information from the website http://westpapuamedia.info. Two days before that, on 14 December, the House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) approved a motion to prevent the Netherlands from delivering tanks to Indonesia. According to Mr. El Fassed, MP (GL): "We know that the Indonesian military is guilty of human rights abuses in Aceh, East Timor and West Papua recently, it seems clear to me that the Netherlands cannot deliver these tanks to Indonesia."
Need for a coalition of Dutch Papuan organizations
However, according to Mr. Kortenoeven, MP, there is a momentum at the present, a momentum which should not be lost. Papuans need to act, jointly, in order to keep the Parliament and the Dutch Government’s attention on their case. He openly advised the Papuan organizations and the Papuan community in the Netherlands to form a coalition, to join forces and act collectively so as to keep the pressure on Dutch politics. According to him, a strong, united representation in The Netherlands would benefit not only the Dutch Papuan community, but also the Papuans in West Papua.
* The author is part of the Papuan community in the Netherlands. She was also designated as one of the five Papuan negotiators during the July Conference on the Dialogue for Peace which was held in Numbay.
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Petition to encourage the straightening of the TRIKORA events of 19 December 1961, and to appeal to the Dutch Parliament to urge
the Dutch Government to put pressure on the Government
of Indonesia to address the situation in West Papua
in a fair and humane way.
Considering the historical significance of 19 December 1961, when President Sukarno announced the Tri Komando Rakyat, the People’s Threefold Command, as he called for a total mobilization of the people of Indonesia
1. to defeat the formation of the state of Papua which he believed was a
puppet of Dutch colonial make,
2. to unfurl the Red and White Flag in West Papua which he erroneously
called “West Irian”,
3. to be ready for general mobilisation to defend the independence and
unity of his Country and Nation.
Considering that for many Indonesians this represents the so-called “liberation” of the territory from the Dutch;
Considering that for the majority of Papuans, President Sukarno's speech on 19 December 1961 was nothing more than a call for a war of aggression, a military conflict that is fought with no other justification than territorial expansion, the expansion of Indonesia through colonial conquest.
Considering that for the majority of Papuans, the TRIKORA statement was a call to a military invasion, an illegal military aggression from a country which did not recognize the sovereignty of the people of West Papua, which had just been declared 18 days earlier on 1 December 1961,
Considering that conducting such a war of aggression without the proper authorization of the Security Council, is a crime under customary international law and that it was an unlawful act.
Considering that 19 December 1961 marks the beginning of the TRIKORA campaign which lasted until 15 August 1962, when the so-called New York Agreement was signed between the Indonesians and the Dutch, without the consent or knowledge of the Papuan people.
Considering that the New York Agreement stipulated how the fate and future of this people would be handled, and that subsequent to it, a fraudulent referendum was held which decided the fate of the Papuan people for the next 42 years, with a UN resolution which was adopted on 19 November 1969.
Considering today’s appalling and deteriorating situation of human rights violations perpetrated in total impunity and considering that since the TRIKORA campaign up to today, the Indonesian military has claimed thousands of Papuan lives, most of them innocent civilians,
We, the undersigned organizations,
will do our utmost to support the straightening of our history and to ensure that the next generation of Papuans will be taught history in a sufficiently objective way reflecting the events that really happened, starting today, with the straightening of 19 December 1961.
We call the Members of the Dutch Parliament to realize that on that date, when President Soekarno made his statement regarding the so-called liberation of West Irian, from the hands of the Dutch, it was in fact a call for an invasion, into a territory which had never asked to be occupied by the Indonesian State and its security forces.
We express our utmost concern and condemnation of the current situation in West Papua, in particular the ongoing gross and barbaric human rights violations in the region of Paniai, which are perpetrated by members of the Indonesian army and police, in total impunity.
Thousands of people have reportedly fled in Paniai, as a massive offensive conducted by the combined Police and military forces attacked villages on 13 December, in their attempt to break armed resistance from pro-independence guerrillas. Human rights sources state that up to 16 local people have been shot dead by Indonesian security forces around the jungle post of Markas Eduda. During this brutal operation 26 villages have been razed, and over 10,000 people have fled to other more safe places.
Before this, the army had raided villages and intimidated inhabitants in their search for rebels, more than 500 have fled their villages . One of the victims who suffered malnourishment and heavy diarrhea, because her parents were on the run, Otolince Degei, aged 2, passed away on Friday 9 December in Enarotali, Paniai. How many more children will die because of the presence of the joint military and police forces and their brutal and barbaric activities in the area?
We request the Dutch Parliament to urge the Dutch Government to put pressure on the Government of Indonesia to stop sending troops to the region, including the deployment of 650 troops to the region of Merauke which will be guarding the border with Papuan New Guinea. There are good reasons to fear that such a massive deployment will only lead to further human right violations, further fear among the local population and more civilian casualties.
We request the Dutch Parliament to urge the Dutch Government to put pressure on the Government of Indonesia to release all political prisoners and to recognize them as such, contrary to the utterances of Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Djoko Suyanto, who stated that there are no political prisoners in Papua . This is in contradiction with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s opinion that the Government of Indonesia is in violation of international law by detaining Filep Karma.
We request the Dutch Parliament to urge the Dutch Government to put pressure on the Government of Indonesia to immediately release the human rights advocate and to make a public commitment that there will be no further arrests of individuals purely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression, opinion, belief or association.
We request the Dutch Parliament to urge the Dutch Government to put pressure on the Government of Indonesia to stop the human rights abuses and to allow access to international observers (NGOs, international media, as well as foreign government officials and humanitarian help), and to address the situation in West Papua which is taking disturbing and alarming proportions by the day.
We make an appeal to the Dutch Parliament to urge the Dutch Government to put pressure on the Government of Indonesia to respect the rights of the Papuans, so that no so-called solution is imposed on the people of West Papua, who have already rejected the Special Autonomy Law and the UP4B,
We request the Dutch Parliament to urge the Dutch Government to assist the Indonesian Government and the Papuan people, in carrying out a dialogue with properly chosen representatives of the Papuan people, by ensuring that this happens with neutral and fair mediation of a third party, including to discuss aspirations to carry out a referendum on the future of Papua.
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Papuan organizations:
Vereniging Papua Vrouwen in Nederland (PVN), Nederland
Gereja Kristen Injili di Tanah Papua (Jayapura)
KPKC Sinode GKI di Tanah Papua (Jayapura)
Solidarity groups:
Stichting Pro Papua, Nederland
Sydney Australia West Papua Association (AWPA, Sydney)
Pantau Foundation (Jakarta)
Sahabat Perempuan dan Anak (Jakarta)
West Papua Advocacy Team/WPAT (New York)
West Papua Action Network (New York)