West Papua Advocacy Team Open Letter to President Obama

The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

October 3, 2013

Dear President Obama,

On the occasion of your visit to Indonesia for the 2013 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, we write to urge you to highlight the case of West Papua.

This year marks 50 years of Indonesian rule over West Papua, which had previously been a Dutch colony slated for independence. Half a century of Indonesian rule has seen West Papua subjected to crimes against humanity, according to numerous credible human rights reports. Half a century of colonization of one people by the armed forces of another has taken place. Half a century of ongoing conflict has been the result. To resolve the conflict peacefully, international mediation is needed. West Papua was delivered to Indonesian rule as a result of American mediation, which confers upon the United States a special responsibility to act to resolve the current conflict peacefully.
     

Half a century of colonization of one people by the armed forces of another has taken place. Half a century of ongoing conflict has been the result. To resolve the conflict peacefully, international mediation is needed.

Papuans believe that they have been denied their inalienable right to self-determination. Today, recognition of the Papuan right to self-determination is growing globally. The Melanesian Spearhead Group has recognized it, and the Prime Minister of Vanuatu is the most recent leader to call for UN intervention in the form of a UN Special Representative to investigate human rights violations in West Papua and its political status. In this context, he asks, "how can we then ignore hundreds of thousands of West Papuans who have been brutally beaten and murdered?"

Despite this, and despite moves towards greater democracy and respect for human rights within Indonesia, the Indonesian security forces continue to routinely violate human rights in West Papua. Indonesia is closing the territory to outsiders and further militarizing West Papua. The ratio of security forces to population in West Papua is now 97:1, compared to 296:1 in the rest of Indonesia. The Indonesian government has indicated that it does not intend to follow recommendations on West Papua made in the most recent Universal Periodic Review of Indonesia at the UN Human Rights Committee.

The increasing militarization of West Papua indicates that there is no let-up in sight to the half-century of widespread violations of basic human rights in West Papua. If Indonesia is democratizing, the reverse is the case in West Papua. The militarization of West Papua is being further enhanced by US security cooperation policy with Jakarta. This may be an understandable policy in the context of Indonesian politics and anti-terrorism policy, but its effect in West Papua is to encourage the military apparatus of repression, and thus fuel an ongoing conflict. The Indonesian army, 15 years after the end of military rule, continues to resist efforts to depoliticize the security forces and demilitarize politics. Impunity for security forces accused of human rights violations up to and including crimes against humanity remains widespread.
     

The increasing militarization of West Papua indicates that there is no let-up in sight to the half-century of widespread violations of basic human rights in West Papua. If Indonesia is democratizing, the reverse is the case in West Papua.

We therefore recommend that on your trip to Indonesia, you:

    Press for a dialogue between the Indonesian government and West Papuan civil society, with international third-party mediation, along the lines of the successful international medication of the Aceh conflict in 2005. Current policy is not advancing dialogue. Internationally-mediated dialogue is a growing call from civil society voices in both West Papua and Indonesia.
    Halt military assistance to the Indonesian security forces. United States cooperation with the most brutal elements of the security forces encourages the climate of impunity, and United States sale of Apache helicopters increases the repressive capacity of the security forces in West Papua. Cooperation with the Kopassus Special Forces and Detachment 88 of the Indonesian National Police should be suspended pending an improvement of the human rights situation in West Papua and the initiation of dialogue, and the agreement to provide Apache helicopters should be cancelled. Non-military ties should continue to expand but military cooperation be made conditional on respect for human rights in West Papua, as it was with respect to the Timor-Leste situation prior to Timor-Leste's independence.
    Press for open access to West Papua by international observers, NGOs and others, so that the conflict will no longer be hidden.
    Support efforts from within Melanesia to address the root causes of the conflict in West Papua, the denial of self-determination and the persistence of repressive policies by the Indonesian security forces.
    Press President Yudhoyono to order a halt to security forces' violations of the human rights of West Papuan civilians, and hold security personnel accountable for their crimes by laying charges, where evidence merits, in civilian courts.

West Papua Advocacy Team