[Onthebarricades] WEST PAPUA: Protests as UN envoy visits

[Andy]

http://www.radioaus tralia.net. au/news/stories/ s1946578. htm

Last Updated 08/06/2007, 17:46:39

Hundreds of people have rallied in West Papua, calling on the United
Nations to pressure Jakarta into overturning a 1969 referendum that
joined the territory to Indonesia.

The demonstrators, rallying during a visit by UN envoy Hina Jilani,
claim the referendum was a sham.

Rally organiser, Jek Wanggai, says the UN must accept the Papuan
people's aspiration to review the Act of Free Choice, as the
referendum was known.

"The United Nations must register Papuan areas as colonised zones and
organise an immediate referendum vote," he said.

Papuans have long accused Indonesia's military of violating human
rights in the province and complain that the bulk of earnings from its
rich natural resources flow to Jakarta.

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Papuans plan demonstration to coincide with UN envoy's Indonesia trip
Posted at 02:07 on 08 June, 2007 UTC

About 1,000 Papuans are expected to conduct a peaceful demonstration in Manokwari today to coincide with the visit to Indonesia's Papua province of a United Nations representative.

The UN Secretary General`s Special Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs, Hina Jilani, is making an excursion to Papua during her working visit to Indonesia at the government`s invitation.

The purpose of her trip is to observe how human rights are being funded and promoted in Indonesia as well as to study the legal framework to defend human rights.

The Papua Youth and Student organisation, which has planned the demonstration, aims to inform the UN about human rights abuses they continue to suffer.

Its spokesman, Jek Wanggai, says they have three main points to make:

  "The people people of West Papua, we want to [have the UN] review the Act of Free Choice in 1969; then the second, we cannot use Special Autonomy again, because it's not good for our people; and then the third, we want a total referendum [on self-determination] in West Papua."

  Jek Wanggai
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