Thursday, April 22, 2021

1) West Papua’s Korowai people want to mine natural resources themselves


2) ‘Gagged’ West Papuan envoy to raise self-determination issue again at UN
3) West Papua needs your support

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1) West Papua’s Korowai people want to mine natural resources themselves

 News Desk April 22, 2021 8:27 pm





Illustration of health crisis of Korowai people where an evangelist Jimmy Weyato is preparing a coffin - Jubi/Agus Pabika

Jayapura, Jubi – The Korowai indigenous people have expressed their wishes to get local mining permits so that they can manage and control the natural resources on their land.

 

Head of Sinar Kasih Cooperative Daum Subumto of Kawe Village, Awimbon District, who represents the Korowai, said during a meeting with lawmaker John Gobai of Papua’s Regional Legislative Council that the land of Korowai was one of the regions in Papua that had the potential for gold, yet the people could not benefit from it as they had no mining permits.

With the mining potential in the area, Subumto hoped, the area would be designated as a local mining area. “We hope that by obtaining local mining permits through our cooperative, we can be the master of the mines in our own land,” he said on Wednesday, April 21, 2021.

Gobai, meanwhile, said that his party had been pushing for local mining permits in areas with natural resources all across Papua.

 

“The Korowai People in Pegunungan Bintang Regency are fighting for their territory which has mining potential. We definitely support that,” Gobai said.

 

Thousands of alleged illegal miners once caused a stir among native Korowais in 2018, as most of the miners were believed to be “newcomers” with no permits.

 

In larger areas of Papua and West Papua, gold mines, especially the Grasberg mine – one of the biggest gold mines and third largest copper mine in the world – has been a source of wealth for its owners, but local communities say it has brought poverty, disease, oppression, and environmental degradation since the mining giant PT Freeport McMoran began its operations in 1973.

 

Reporter: Arjuna Pademme
Editor: Edho Sinaga

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2) ‘Gagged’ West Papuan envoy to raise self-determination issue again at UN

By  - 
  

West Papuan envoy John Anari in New York ... "moral and legal obligation" for the UN over West Papua. Image: John Anari FB



Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

A West Papuan envoy who was gagged while addressing the United Nations Permanent  Forum on Indigenous Issues two years ago is due to speak again today.

For six years, John Anari, leader of the West Papua Liberation Organisation (WPLO) and an “ambassador” of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), has been appealing to the forum to push for the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian region to be put back on the UN Trusteeship Council.

He is speaking for the two groups combined as the West Papua Indigenous Organisation (WPIO), or Organisasi Pribumi Papua Barat.



“I believe West Papua has been a UN Trust Territory since 1962 when the
General Assembly authorised [the] United Nations and Indonesia’s administration of West Papua,” he is expected to say in his short decaration.

“I believe there is a moral and legal obligation for news of the authorisation, General Assembly resolution 1752 (XVII), to be placed on the agenda of the United Nations Trusteeship Council so that the Council can then ask the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its advisory opinion on the proper status of West Papua in relation to the Charter of the United Nations.

Letter-to-UN-John-Anari-West-Papua-220421.png



“To restore United Nations awareness of the sovereign and human rights of our people, for
six years I have been asking this Permanent Forum [UNPFII] to advise the Economic and Social Council that it can and should place the missing agenda item on the agenda of the Trusteeship Council.


“Not only has this forum failed to relay our request, two years ago the moderator attempted to stop my reiteration of our request. This year I am also petitioning the Secretary-General to put news of the United Nations subjugation of West Papua on the agenda of the Trusteeship Council.

“If this forum will not relay our request, I ask you to explain to the international news media why this forum has not told the Economic and Social Council about General Assembly resolution 1752 under which West Papua is still suffering foreign administration and looting.”

The petition has been presented to the 

Secretary-General, António Guterres.

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3) West Papua needs your support
Stephen Langford Sydney April 22, 2021
GLW Issue 1305 Australia





The struggle for self-determination in West Papua attracted some 40 people to Hotel Harry on April 20 to hear from Dr Cammi Webb-Gannon from Wollongong University and Dr Emma Kluge from the University of Sydney. The Politics in the Pub meeting was chaired by Stuart Rees.

Kluge began with an account of West Papuans being killed by Indonesian soldiers. She said the brutality against West Papuans had been continuing for more than 60 years as the Indonesian state claimed West Papua from the fading Dutch empire.

Kluge said she had been radicalised by the West Papuan struggle.

Webb-Gannon described how the West Papuan resistance built itself from a small group of OPM fighters to a society-wide, non-violent civil resistance. She said the resistance has unified behind the demand for an independently-conducted referendum on independence. 

In answer to a question about what could be done to help, Joe Collins from the Australia-West Papua Association encouraged people to attend protests and write to federal MPs to remind them of the strong popular support for justice for West Papua.

[Stephen Langford, Order of Timor, is a member of the Politics in the Pub committee.]



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