Vanuatu will host this year's Pacific Island Forum in Port Vila in August. (Photo courtesy of the Government of Vanuatu.)

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Selwyn Manning.

Vanuatu’s Parliament has voted to support West Papua’s indigenous peoples right to self determination, seeking to have its independence noted and observer status granted at the Melanesian Spearhead Group and Pacific Island Forum leaders summit meeting.

Vanuatu’s prime minister has committed himself to tabling the proposal at Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) and Pacific Island Forum (PIF) summits this year.

As host to this year’s PIF leaders summit in Port Vila in August, Vanuatu is in a powerful position – more so than in recent years. It is usual for Papua New Guinea to advance MSG issues inside the PIF-fold, especially while Fiji is estranged from PIF business and meetings. But Vanuatu is seeking an advantage and clearly is positioning as a broker for West Papua independence, recognition of how close culturally West Papua’s peoples are to those of Vanuatu.

The move in Vanuatu’s Parliament was supported this week by both its Prime Minister Eduard Natape and his party and that of the opposition leader Maxime Carlot Korman.

The bipartisan motion was put to Vanuatu’s Parliament after a petition of the people of Vanuatu called for a clear foreign policy on West Papua. The petition was tabled in the Parliament by independent MP for Port Vila, Hon. Ralph Regenvanu.

According to Vanuatu media reports and a statement on the vote (see below), the Wantok Blong Yumi Bill paves the way for developing “specific policies on how to support the independence struggle of West Papua.”

Will Vanuatu persuade Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) statesman, and Prime Minister of PNG, Sir Michael Somare to back a move for West Papua to have observer status? (Photo courtesy of Scoop.co.nz and by Jason Dorday.)

But most significantly, Vanuatu’s Parliament wishes for West Papua’s people to achieve observer status at both the MSG and PIF leaders meetings. The commitment to seek agreement from other MSG and PIF national leaders highlights the silence many nations have observed officially while alleged slaughter and illegal imprisonments have taken place inside West Papua, committed by Jakarta controlled militia, police, and Indonesia’s elite military commandos the Kopassus.

Vanuatu’s move will apply pressure on Papua New Guinea to voice whether or not it will help support West Papuans who seek independence from Indonesian control.

Indonesia is a powerful presence in the Asia Pacific’s western quarter and all countries, including Australia and Timor Leste are reticent to criticise Indonesia’s governing control over West Papua territory, provinces, and resources. The New Zealand Government was asked last week by an NGO to speak out against alleged Indonesia atrocities inside West Papua’s provinces. The control of West Papua is complex, that complexity compounded due to West Papua being mineral-rich, with multi-national and United States mining interests in the territory, and a royalty-rich cash-cow for Jakarta.

Reports suggest members of West Papua’s independence movement risk life imprisonment and death if they publicly speak out against Indonesian control. And Indonesia’s Government in Jakarta has outlawed the West Papuan flag, the Morning Sun, being raised.

Supporters of an independent West Papua risk imprisonment and death simply by raising the Morning Star flag. (Photo, PMC)

Recent reports emerging from sources inside West Papua speak of intensifying violence being used to control the civilian population in West Papua. Accounts have emerged over the last week describing widespread oppression, particularly targeted at those who are travelling, where they are subjected to strict searches at roadblocks and where curfews are being enforced. Shooting, violence, and detainment without trial appears to be going on unabated and largely unreported.

This week, Vanuatu’s Parliament specifically ordered its leaders to:

1. Sponsor and pass a motion in national Parliament officially declaring that Vanuatu’s foreign policy is to support the achievement of the independence of West Papua;

2. Sponsor a resolution at the 2010 Melanesian Spearhead Group’s Leaders Summit that the independence movement in West Papua be given Observer Status at the MSG;

3. Sponsor a resolution at the 2010 Pacific Island Forum Leaders Summit that the independence movement in West Papua be given Observer Status at the Forum;

4. Sponsor resolutions to the Melanesian Spearhead Group’s Leaders Summit, the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Summit and the United Nations calling for fact-finding missions be sent by each of these bodies to West Papua to investigate alleged violations of the human rights of it’s Melanesian populations;

5. Become the official state sponsor of the case of West Papua in the International Court of Justice seeking a judgment on the legality of the 1969 “Act of Free Choice”;

6. Sponsor a resolution in the United Nations to put West Papua back on the United Nations’ list of Non-Self-Governing Territories;

7. Create a West Papua Desk in the Department of Foreign Affairs with a budget sufficient to facilitate the Government’s international advocacy efforts in support of West Papua’s independence;

8. Ratify the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, to provide Vanuatu with an avenue for additional support to the people of West Papua.

Representatives from the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation, Dr. John Otto Ondawame (Vice Chairman) and Mr. Andy Ayamiseba (Vanuatu Mission) both formerly thanked the Parliament and people of Vanuatu for the support.

Selwyn Manning is co-editor of Scoop Media (www.scoop.co.nz) and acting editor of Pacific Scoop. He is completing a Master of Communication Studies degree at AUT University in Auckland.

Background: West Papua National Coalition for Liberation statement.

A Motion on Foreign Policy regarding West Papua had been passed in the Vanuatu Parliament.

Yesterday, on 19th of June 2010, during the Parliament Extra ordinary sitting, the head of the Government, Hon. Prime Minister, Eduard Natape MP, and the leader of the Opposition Hon. Maxime Carlot Korman MP jointly sponsor a Motion in Parliament to declare Vanuatu’s Foreign policy regarding West Papua. It was passed with bipartisan support to become a Bill of Parliament. The initial move was made by Independent Member for Port Vila, Hon. Ralph Regenvanu MP. During the 31st of May ordinary session Hon. Regenvanu tabled a Petition on behalf of the People of Vanuatu [Petition of the People of Vanuatu] calling for clear foreign policy on West Papua. This is a significant development and indeed a historic one. This “Wantok blong yumi” Bill will allow the government to develop specific policies on how to support the independence struggle of West Papua. The following proposals from the Peoples’ Petition could become policy instruments of the Bill:

1. Sponsor and pass a motion in national Parliament officially declaring that Vanuatu’s foreign policy is to support the achievement of the independence of West Papua;

2. Sponsor a resolution at the 2010 Melanesian Spearhead Group’s Leaders Summit that the independence movement in West Papua be given Observer Status at the MSG;

3. Sponsor a resolution at the 2010 Pacific Island Forum Leaders Summit that the independence movement in West Papua be given Observer Status at the Forum;

4. Sponsor resolutions to the Melanesian Spearhead Group’s Leaders Summit, the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Summit and the United Nations calling for fact-finding missions be sent by each of these bodies to West Papua to investigate alleged violations of the human rights of it’s Melanesian populations;

5. Become the official state sponsor of the case of West Papua in the International Court of Justice seeking a judgment on the legality of the 1969 “Act of Free Choice”;

6. Sponsor a resolution in the United Nations to put West Papua back on the United Nations’ list of Non-Self-Governing Territories;

7. Create a West Papua Desk in the Department of Foreign Affairs with a budget sufficient to facilitate the Government’s international advocacy efforts in support of West Papua’s independence;

8. Ratify the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, to provide Vanuatu with an avenue for additional support to the people of West Papua.

In his address, responding to the bipartisan support for the Motion the Prime Minister, Hon. Edward Natape MP promised that he will sponsor the issue of West Papua to MSG and PIF-meetings. He will propose that the independent movement of West Papua be granted Observer Status with these two regional bodies. The Honorable Prime Minister also stated that his government will proceed to apply for West Papua to be relisted with the UN Decolonization Committee in order for the Territory to be given the due process of Decolonization.

Representatives from the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation, Dr. John Otto Ondawame (Vice Chairman) and Mr. Andy Ayamiseba (Vanuatu Mission) were very grateful to the government, the opposition and the people of Vanuatu for this very historic undertaking on the issue calling a clear foreign policy of the Government of Vanuatu in supporting the independence of West Papua. We also express our special thank goes to all members of the Vanuatu Free West Papua Association for their endless support in the past seven years urging the Government of Vanuatu to declare its clear foreign policy on independence of West Papua, which calls were ended with a successful story nduring the Extra Ordinary Parliamentary session on 19th June 2010 in Port Vila.