Co-operation against West Papua?

INDONESIA NEEDS THE MILITARY CO-OPERATION of Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand to preserve peace, stability and security in the region. This is an enduring message that was stressed again last week at a function hosted by Indonesian Ambassador to PNG, Bom Soejanto. The function was organised to celebrate the 63rd anniversary of the Indonesian armed forces. Dignitaries from diplomatic corps and senior members of the PNG disciplinary forces were amongst the attendees who gathered at the Ambassador’s residence in Korobosea (Port Moresby). The news article from The National (20/10/08) privileges the relationship between Indonesia and PNG. Ambassador Soejanto reports that Indonesia and PNG enjoy a mutual policy of military co-operation.

Each party has its own defence attache stationed in each other’s capital city. There have been exchange visits by high ranking officers on both sides. There have been bilateral seminars and information sharing though subject matter and expert change. There are also opportunities for PNGDF members to either study or train in Indonesia. The two countries are also co-operating in joint exercises and patrols and joint exercies and patrols and joint border operations due to a defence cooperations agreement drafted three years ago and the draft plan will be finalised soon

Security and internal stability within the region is of paramount importance and it becomes increasingly so when threats from Islamic fundamentalism abound along with the reports of human trafficking and illegal immigration across international borders. However, Indonesia has a particular vested interest in talking about the military co-operation with Papua New Guinea. It is not a mistaken assumption that Indonesia requires the co-operation of PNG in order to maintain its control over West Papua. No doubt part of the co-operation would mean that PNG continues to acknowledge that West Papua is an integral part of Indonesia.

So long as PNG keeps quiet and ignores what Indonesia is doing to West Papua and its indigenous people, that would be seen as part of the deal to co-operate with Indonesia. What Indonesia imposes and executes upon West Papuans is already legitimised under the terms of the agreement and there is no way PNG could speak on behalf of its Melanesian brothers and sisters. In fact it is always a very sad thing to acknowledge that the PNG Government has never showed any moral concern about the plight and struggles of West Papuans. West Papuan resistance to Indonesia’s presence is seen and taken as a threat to the territorial integrity of Indoensia. Under the terms of such mutual co-operation, PNG must support what Indonesia is doing to West Papua and the Melanesians of West Papua.

I wonder what was going on in the hearts and minds of the PNG security personnel who gathered at the Ambassador’s residence to celebrate 63 years of Indonesia’s military anniversary?  Apart from the cocktails and finger-foods, I wonder what was going in the hearts and minds of those PNG State Officials who attended the ceremony? I wonder whether if the important PNG State Officials would be thinking about what the Indonesian military has done to countless number of West Papuans who have been killed, murdered, raped and disappeared mysteriously in the last 40 years of Indonesia’s military presence in West Papua? But its not only West Papuans by the way. This celebration is happening only a few months after we heard of Indonesia’s military incursions into PNG and their abuse against Papua New Guineans who live in border villages.

So are we celebrating and therefore participate by complicity in what Indonesian military has done to the Melanesians of West Papua in the last 40 years? I read the message from the Indonesian Ambassador with a pint of salt. It appears as a political strategy to neutralise any kind of moral sensitivity towards the campaign for a FREE and INDEPENDENT West Papua. By emphasising mutual regard and co-operation, the message causes Papua New Guinea and other countries in the region to disregard what the Indonesian military has done and continues to do to West Papuans. Indonesian military has inflicted the most brutal and unconceivable atrocities against the Melanesians of West Papua. Except for diplomacy and State morality, there is no reason to celebrate 63 years of Indonesia military hostility because 40 of those years has been spent on a cruel policy of decimating and obliterating the Melanesian peoples of West Papua.