PORT VILA (Vanuatu Daily Post/ Asia Pacific Report/ Pacific Media Watch): West Papuan leaders, through the Vanuatu Free West Papua Association in Port Vila, have rejected the Indonesian government’s statement criticising the Prime Minister of the Solomons, Manasseh Sogavare, as a “blunt lie”.
According to a news article, by Vanuatu Daily Post reporter Len Garae, Jakarta released a statement through Antara news agency, which said it was not true what Prime Minister Sogovare claimed as the Indonesian government being interested to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group for its own interests, “rather than seeking to be involved in dialogue about serious human rights abuses in West Papua”.
Indonesia’s Director-General for Asia Pacific and Africa, Desra Percaya responded to Sogavare’s statement by stressing that as the world’s third biggest democracy, Indonesia, considered respect for human rights to be an important principle.
In contrast, on May 21, West Papua’s social media network sent the Vanuatu Daily Post shocking pictures of a Christian church burning in Lany Jaya Regency, Wamena, in Highlands of West Papua.
“If the pictures are not examples of human rights abuses allegedly by Indonesian security forces against West Papuans to worship in their churches, then a totally new phrase has to be invented to define the burning of these places of worship,” the article reads.
Meaningful change
Ironically, The Jakarta Post published an article last week titled ‘Match words with Papua abuses’ which discussed the lack of “meaningful change” by Indonesian President Joko Widodo in addressing West Papua’s human rights abuses.
The article said: “Jokowi’s December 2014 pledge to thoroughly investigate and punish security forces implicated in the death of five peaceful protesters in the Papuan town of Enarotali that month has remained unfulfilled.
"And the Indonesian bureaucracy continues to obstruct international media from freely reporting in Papua despite the President’s May 2015 declaration to lift the decades-old restrictions.”
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