Tuesday, August 22, 2023

1) Senior MSG official calls for sub-region to remain neutral in global power battle

 



2) Letter  from West Papua Action Aotearoa to NZ PM & NZ FM


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https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/496347/senior-msg-official-calls-for-sub-region-to-remain-neutral-in-global-power-battle


1) Senior MSG official calls for sub-region to remain neutral in global power battle
7:18 pm today  

Kelvin Anthony, in Port Vila @kelvinfiji kelvin.anthony@rnz.co.nz 

Melanesian Spearhead Group Secretariat's director general Leonard Louma says the Pacific region continues to be the centre of geopolitical interests by global superpowers.
The 22nd MSG Leaders' Summit is taking place in Port Vila this week - the first full in-person meeting since the covid pandemic.
The prime ministers of Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and the president of the FLNKS of New Caledonia are confirmed to attend the leaders' session on Wednesday.
Louma said the battle for influence "impels the region to take sides, but it does not protect Melanesia and the region".
"There are some who would like us to believe that taking sides in that geopolitical posturing is in our best interest. May I hasten to add, I tend to defer, it is not in our best interest to take sides," Louma said.
The director general also took aim at MSG member countries for not moving with "urgency" on issues that have been on the Leaders' Summit agenda.
"Certain decisions also made by leaders and the foreign ministers of past continue to languish on the shelf and there seems to be no real sign of a desire to implement."

Free trade

Louma said the MSG Free Trade Agreement has "somehow been tethered to other training and commercial arrangements".
"Our enthusiasm to cooperate appears to have waned. We need to rejuvenate this enthusiasm and appetite for industrial cooperation that once was the hallmark of MSG," said.
Vanuatu's Foreign Minister Matai Seremaiah has urged Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea to sign up to the trade agreement which has already been signed by Fiji and Solomon Islands.
Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau told RNZ Pacific he shared the concerns of his deputy on the issue of the free trade agreement.
"Vanuatu must adhere quickly. If you look at the theme of the meeting it's about being relevant and being relevant means that we've got got to participate as a core group so that we can advance all our interests together," he said.
Leonard Louma said the MSG needs to make concessions where it was needed in the interests of MSG cohesion.
"The nuclear testing issue in the Pacific could not have proceeded the way we had proceeded without MSG taking a strong position on it."

Declarations

On Monday, MSG Secretariat officials said there were up to 10 issues on the agenda, including West Papua.
In his opening statement at the Foreign Minister's session on Monday, Seremaiah said there were two key draft declarations that will be put for the leaders' consideration.
The first one will be one climate action and "urging polluters not to discharge the treated water in the Pacific Ocean," he said.
"Until and unless the treated water is incontrovertibly proven to be safe to do so and seriously consider other options."
The second is a declaration on MSG region of peace and neutrality, adding "this declaration is aimed at advancing the implementation of the MSG security initiatives to address national security needs in the MSG region, through the Pacific way, talanoa or tok stori and binded by shared values and adherence to Melanesian vuvale, cultures and traditions."

West Papua

This year's agenda also includes the issue of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua's application to become a full member of the sub-regional body.
The movement is present at the meeting, as well as a big delegation from Indonesia, represented by its vice minister for foreign affairs.
However, neither Seremaiah nor Louma made any mention of West Papua in their opening statements.
West Papua observers and advocates at the meeting say the MSG is like a "custom haus or nakamal" for the Melanesian people.
They say Vanuatu has the opportunity to make this more than a "normal MSG" if it can be the country that gets the MSG Leaders' Summit to agree to make the ULMWP a full member.

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2) Letter  from West Papua Action Aotearoa to NZ PM & NZ FM


West Papua Action Aotearoa

wpa.aotearoa@gmail.com

(maire@pastfinder.co.nz)

18 August 2023

 

Rt Hon Chris Hipkins
Prime Minister
Hon Nanaia Mahuta
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Parliament Buildings 
Wellington
 

 

Kia ora Prime Minister Hipkins and Minister Mahuta,

In November 2022, New Zealand’s representative at the UN Human Rights Council, made a statement to the 41st session of the UN Periodic Review: Indonesia. Included in the recommendations for Indonesia was the statement: New Zealand recommends that Indonesia upholds, respects and promotes its human rights obligations in Papua, including freedom of assembly, speech, expression, the press, and the rights of women and minorities.

Sadly, Indonesia is responsible for ongoing and extremely serious human rights abuses in West Papua, and we therefore urge that the New Zealand Government renew its representations by calling on Indonesia to allow the long-delayed visit of the UN Human Rights Commissioner to take place. Please also insist on humanitarian access to the region.

The two case examples we cite here have been well-documented and widely publicised.

1. Each year on 15 August activists mark the anniversary of an ominous date in their history, the 1962 signing of the New York Agreement which effectively sealed West Papua’s fate by paving the way for Indonesia to take over the territory.  This year on 13 August 21 young activists were arrested on as they attempted to distribute leaflets calling for a peaceful demonstration to mark the New York Agreement and the racism troubles that Papuan students suffered in Surabaya, Central Java, in August 2019.

 

On 15 August several peaceful rallies took place.  However, even though the organisers had submitted an official letter announcing their intentions, riot police attacked demonstrators in three locations close to Jayapura.  Water cannon was deployed and up to 20 demonstrators were injured, some with bleeding head wounds.  Freedom of speech and assembly is a fundamental right protected by the United Nations Charter.  The right is being repeatedly abused by the Indonesian Security Forces.

2. We call to your attention the recent shocking report detailing the continuing aggravated attack and serious human rights violations against the Ngalum Kupel people,  who live in the Star Mountains region of West Papua, not far from the border with Papua New Guinea. The Ngalum Kupel villages are close to the Indonesian military base at Kiwirok.  The ‘Report on the continuing aggravated attack serious human rights violations of Ngalum Kupel people’ by Matthew Jamieson  which was produced by the PNG Integral Human Development Trust (PNG Trust) report can be found here:https://www.friendlyjordies.com/post/report-on-the-continuing-aggravated-attack-serious-human-rights-violations-of-ngalum-kupel-people.  There is also an accompanying documentary ‘Paradise Bombed’ made by Australian media outlet ‘Friendly Jordies’, which can be found on the same site. A further report just released by Human Rights Monitor adds additional weight to evidence of grave human rights crimes at Kiwirok. It is titled ‘Destroy them first…discuss Human Rights Later’, an investigation of Indonesian Security Forces Operations in Papua’s Kiwirok under International Law’. https://humanrightsmonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/HRM_Destroy_Them_First_Special_Report_2023.pdf

 

In 2021, apparently in response to an attack on Indonesian government facilities in Kiwirok, the villagers were attacked from the air by rocket fire and bombs dropped from a helicopter and several drones. The punitive raids conducted by Indonesian military forces against several villages destroyed houses, livestock, subsistence gardens, and the destruction of Churches and community facilities.  Investigators have now been able to identify the weapons used in the attacks such as the Thales FZ68 rockets fired from helicopters, likely to be Fennec attack helicopters of Airbus manufacture. Although no direct connection can be made it is worth noting that the New Zealand Government permits the export of mortar fire control equipment to the Indonesian security services. 

 As a result of this deadly attack the whole community of some 2,000 people fled into the forest, and some have since become refugees in Tumolbil, Papua New Guinea.  Across West Papua some 60,000 additional people have also been displaced due to the heightened military operations which have been taking place since 2018.

The PNG Trust report details the testimony of eyewitnesses to the events and examined the physical evidence found in the area: mortar fragments, unexploded mortars, shrapnel, and rocket fragments.  Several civilians were killed in the 2021 attack and tragically the death toll has continued to mount as the displaced people succumb to diseases and malnutrition.  They cannot return home because military operations are ongoing.  The witness testified to 284 deaths from starvation, 15 extra judicial killings and 6 persons killed in the initial aerial attacks.  

Although it is difficult to test the accuracy of these testimonies and the numbers of deaths, clearly widescale death and destruction has taken place and a once self-sufficient community of indigenous people continue to live in fear and great deprivation.  

We appreciate the good efforts that the government is making towards resolving the deeply concerning hostage crisis and working to free pilot Philip Mehrtens.  However, this evidence of escalating state violence against the indigenous Papuan people should not go unaddressed.

In addition to calling for the visit of the Human Rights Commissioner, New Zealand should also advocate for humanitarian access for national and international humanitarian
organisations and government agencies to the Kiwirok District. Humanitarian aid
should be provided
 without involving security force members to ensure that displace persons can
access aid without fearing reprisals.  International journalists should be allowed to access the region. 

 

Ngā mihi,

Catherine Delahunty, Maire Leadbeater and Rev. Brian Turner


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